Part 16 (1/2)
In the first instance we may err to the amount of the length of the head; as it is not stated whether the measure was taken when the head was extended in a line with the back, or in a position at right angles with the back, or in any intermediate position.
The following outline will ill.u.s.trate this:--
[Ill.u.s.tration]
It is obvious that the length of a line from the nose to the tail will vary according to the different positions of the head of the animal.
In the second instance (taking it for granted that the measure was taken from the nose), the same difficulty exists with respect to the head, and another difficulty presents itself in our being left to guess the length of the tail, which might be eighteen inches, or it might be four feet.
In the third instance, the same difficulty exists with respect to the head, and the difficulty is further complicated by our being left to guess whether the ROOT or the END of the tail is meant.
In the fourth we are completely ”_at sea_.”
The true value of these characteristic distinctions, definitions, or descriptions, are left to the appreciation of the judicious reader.
Colonel Smith may doubtless be, what he has been styled, ”an indefatigable naturalist,” and ”in general” an exact one; but in this special instance of the _Genus Bos_, his warmest admirers must allow that his accuracy and precision have not kept pace with his industry.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Hungarian Ox, _Bos Taurus_, from a specimen in the British Museum.]
MR. SWAINSON'S TRANSCENDENTAL ATTEMPT AT CLa.s.sIFICATION.
The following very laboured attempt to arrange the various species of _Genus Bos_ into groups, according to the Quinary or Circular System of M'Leay, is from the pen of Mr. Swainson--the precise and fastidious Swainson--who, from the number and boldness of his hypothetical views in every department of Zoology, may be truly regarded as the beau-ideal of a speculative naturalist--one of those, in short, so well described by Swift, ”whose chief art in division hath been to grow fond of some proper mystical number, which their imaginations have rendered sacred to a degree, that they force common reason to find room for it in every part of nature; _reducing_, _including_, and _adjusting_, every _genus_ and _species_ within that compa.s.s, by coupling some against their wills, and banis.h.i.+ng others at any rate.”
After describing the various members of the Bovine Family according to the Procrustean method of stretching and chopping, Mr. Swainson continues in his peculiarly dogmatic style ”The types of form of the _Genus Bos_, above enumerated, _we shall now demonstrate_ to be a natural group. We have seen that the first represented by the _Bos Scoticus_, or Scotch Wild Ox, is an untameable savage race, which preserves, even in the domestication of a park, all that fierceness which the ancient writers attributed to the Wild Bulls of Britain and of the European Continent. Let those who imagine that the influence of civilization, of care, and of judicious treatment, will alter the natural instincts of animals, look to this as a palpable refutation of their doctrine. Where is that boasted power of man over nature? Where the fruits of long-continued efforts and fostering protection? The _Bos Scoticus_ is as untameable now as it was centuries ago, simply for this reason, that it is in accordance with an unalterable law of nature; a law by which one type in every circular group is to represent the worst pa.s.sions of mankind--fierceness, or cruelty, or horror. In the _Urus_ we consequently have the type of the wild and untameable _Ferae_ among quadrupeds, the eagles among birds, and the innumerable a.n.a.logies which all the subordinate groups of these two great divisions present.
Following this is the typical Ox--a G.o.d among the ancients, and that animal above all others, which, from its vital importance to man, we should naturally expect such a nation as the ancient Egyptians would exalt above all others. It is, in short, the typical perfection of the whole order of Ruminants, and consequently represents the _Quadrumana_ among quadrupeds, and the _Incessores_ among birds. The third type is no less beautiful; but it cannot be ill.u.s.trated without going into details which it is not our present intention to make public: suffice it, however, to say, that in the prominent hump upon the shoulders we have a perfect representation of the Camel, one of the most striking types of the order, while it reminds us at the same time of the Buffalo, the genus _Acronatus_ among the large Antelopes, and numerous other representations of the same form. The fourth type is our _Bos Pusio_: here we find the horns, when present, remarkably small, but in many cases absent; and the size is diminutive to an extreme. These also are distinguis.h.i.+ng marks of the groups it is to represent: the _Tenuirostres_ among birds, and the _Glires_, or mice, among quadrupeds, are the smallest of their respective cla.s.ses; and both are typically distinguished by wanting all appendages to the head, either in the form of crests or horns. The fifth type is, perhaps, the most extraordinary of all; it should represent not only the order _Rasores_ among birds, but also the _Camelopardalis_ among ruminating quadrupeds. Hence we find that, in accordance with the first of these a.n.a.logies, it is a peaceful domesticated race, and that it has horns of an unusually large size, even in its own group; while, at the same time, those horns have that peculiar structure which can only be traced in the Camelopardalis; they are covered with skin, which pa.s.ses so imperceptibly to the h.o.r.n.y state, that, as Captain Clapperton observes, ”there is no exact demarcation where the one commences and the other ends.” The five leading types of quadrupeds and birds being now represented, and in precisely the same order, _we demonstrate_ the groups to be natural by the following table:--
GENUS _BOS_--_the Natural Types._
1. _Bos Scoticus._ Fierce, untameable. FERae. RAPTORES.
2. ---- _Taurus._ Pre-eminently typical. PRIMATES. INCESSORES.
{Appendages on the head} 3. ---- _Dermaceros._ {greatly developed } UNGULATA. RASORES.
{Stature remarkably } 4. ---- _Pusio._ {small. } GLIRES. GRALLATORES.
{Fore-part of the shoulders} 5. ---- _Thersites._ {elevated } CETACEA. NATATORES.
In regard to the last type, the a.n.a.logies can only be traced through the animals or types of other groups; but should the habits of _Thersites_ lead it to frequent the water (like the Buffaloes) more than any other species of true oxen--a supposition highly probable--the a.n.a.logy to the _Cetacea_ and the _Natatores_ would be direct. When we find in all the other four types such a surprising representation of the same peculiarities, we are justified in believing that want of information alone prevents this a.n.a.logy from being so complete as the others. These a.n.a.logies, in point of fact, may be traced through the whole of the princ.i.p.al groups in this order, the most important, and the most numerous of ungulated animals.” Our luminous cla.s.sifier then triumphantly winds up:--”_Having now demonstrated_, in one of the very lowest groups of quadrupeds, the validity of those principles of natural cla.s.sification we have so often ill.u.s.trated,” &c.
Let us not be confounded with high-sounding terms; let us rather endeavour to ascertain the meaning of them, if indeed they possess a meaning. Here we have, under the head of ”_Genus_ Bos--the Natural Types”--(see p. 178), certain words arranged in regular columns, which, at a first glance, appear as though they were intended to bear some relation to each other. But let us ask the most ordinary observer, or the most profound observer, or the observer of any grade or shade between these two extremes, what resemblance--what relation--what a.n.a.logy--can be discovered between an ordinary bull (_Taurus_) and a man, a monkey, or a bat (_Primates_); or between Taurus and the _Incessores_ (Perching Birds)? Or between Buffaloes, whose horns are partially covered with skin (_Dermaceros_), and c.o.c.ks and hens (_Rasores_)? Can any one say wherein consists the similarity between a dwarf Zebu and a Mouse, or a Flamingo? Yet this is the material of which the columns are composed.
But one of the most unhappy of Mr. Swainson's speculations is that wherein he represents the _Bos Scoticus_, or wild ox, as the type of ”an _untameable savage_ race, which preserves, even in the domestication of a park, all that fierceness which the ancient writers attributed to the wild bulls of Britain and the European continent. Let those who imagine that the influence of civilization, of care, and of judicious treatment, will alter the natural instinct of animals, look to this as a palpable refutation of their doctrine. [!] Where is that boasted power of man over nature? Where the fruits of long-continued efforts and fostering protection? [!!] The _Bos Scoticus_ is as untameable now as it was centuries ago, simply for this reason, that it is in accordance with an unalterable law of nature; a law by which one type in every group is to represent the worst pa.s.sions of mankind--fierceness, or cruelty, or horror.” [!!!]
Who would for a moment imagine that all this grandiloquence is bestowed upon an animal, which is so far from being fierce and untameable, that young ones, taken and reared with ordinary cattle, become, even in the first generation, as tame as domestic animals? [See account of Chillingham White Cattle, p. 140.]