Part 15 (1/2)

Musk Ox North America.

Zamouse, or Bush Cow Gambia, Sierra Leone.

Banteng Island of Java.

Gyall India.

Gayal India.

Sanga, or Galla Ox Abyssinia.

Zebu--Brahmin Ox Southern Asia, Eastern Africa.

Domestic Ox Generally diffused.

AND MODE OF LIFE.

Mode of Life.

Partial to water and mud, swampy localities.

Semi-aquatic in its habits,--sometimes called the Water Buffalo.

Fond of wallowing in mire, and swims well.

Lives much in the water, and feeds on aquatic plants.

Ranges in mountain forests, and feeds on leaves and buds of trees.

Migratory in its habits--fond of bathing in marshy swamps.

Lives chiefly on the woody banks of rivers--feeds on bark of trees, lichens, and herbaceous plants.

Feeds on the short herbage peculiar to the tops of mountains and bleak plains.

Lives chiefly on rocky mountains.

Delights in the deepest jungles--feeds on leaves and shoots of brushwood.

Lives entirely on woody-mountains--feeds on shoots and shrubs.

Half domesticated.

Domesticated, and artificially fed.

So completely domesticated, as to be subject to an endless variety of diseases, and generally requires medical attendance.

THE INDEFINITE DEFINITIONS OF COL. HAMILTON SMITH.

On commencing this Monograph of the _Genus Bos_, I entertained the confident expectation, that in the voluminous work of Cuvier's 'Animal Kingdom,' translated and enlarged by Griffith and others, I should find all that related to generic and specific distinction so clearly exhibited, and so systematically arranged, that I should have no hesitation in adopting the cla.s.sification there set forth, and no difficulty in determining the place of any new species or variety. With this expectation I diligently studied that portion of Col. H. Smith's volume on the Ruminantia, which treat of the _Genus Bos_, and I here subjoin (verbatim) the generic and subgeneric characters there given of that Genus, by which it will be seen how far they fall short of the clearness and precision which are indispensable to a scientific work.

GENERIC CHARACTERS.

”_Genus BOS._--Skull very strong, dense about the frontals, which are convex, nearly flat, or concave; horns invariably occupying the crest, projecting at first laterally; osseous nucleus throughout porous, even cellular; muzzle _invariably broad_, naked, moist, _black_; ears, _in general_, _middle sized_; body _long_; legs _solid_; stature _large_.”