The great advantage of the Shorthorn breed is that they, together with a good temper, combine the advantages of great size and aptitude to fatten, rapidly reaching maturity. For dairy purposes they are excelled by the Suffolk Duns and Ayrshire cattle, the latter, with their enormous udders, broad hips, and deep flanks, being the best as milkers. Hereford, North Devon, and Scottish black Shorthorns are inferior to those of the northern counties in their slowness of growth and power of filling out. Those of North Devon are particularly symmetrical in form. The mountain cattle of the western Highlands, otherwise known as the Kyloe breed, are best known from the hardiness of their constitutions, protected as they are by their thick hides and shaggy coats. The Welsh and Shetland cattle resemble them in many respects.
In Hungary, Turkey, and Western Asia there is a breed of large cattle with peculiarly long and slender outward-spreading horns, black-tipped, and greyish throughout the rest of their length.
In India, the Sacred Cattle, or ZEBUS, with convex forehead, short horns, large drooping ears, and a short head, possess a high hump upon the withers, as well as an ample dewlap falling in undulating folds along the whole length of the neck. Their disposition is mild, as is indicated by their expression, and the liberty they are allowed in India is wonderful. They vary greatly in size, some being not bigger than an average month-old calf. The breed has extended in times gone by through Persia into Eastern Africa, where it is found with a narrower and flatter face, at the same time that the hump is smaller.
The introduction of steam, as well as the extension in the employment of the Horse, has almost entirely superseded the use of cattle as beasts of burden or draught in highly civilised nations.
The GOUR, the GAYAL, and the BANTING are three species of wild cattle found in the Oriental world from India to Java, peculiar in possessing a ridge running along the middle of the back, and horns which, after running outwards from the head, are directed upwards and not backwards. Of these the Gour of Central India is the largest, measuring six feet at the withers, having also a convex profile, very high withers, and an arched back, which makes the line from the nose to the root of the tail, along the spine, a fairly continuous curve. Its colour is a deep brown glossy black, excepting a ring of white encircling the base of each hoof, and a white tuft on the forehead. There is not any trace of a dewlap in either sex. The horns are not more than two feet in length, strong, and curved boldly upwards at their tips. The Gour is found abundantly in herds of twenty or so around the tablelands, especially of South Bahar, feeding on the young leaves of the trees and shrubs. It appears to have resisted all attempts at domestication. The Gayal is found in the hill-region east of the Brahmaputra. It is much the size of English cattle. The bull is bold, and the cow easily domesticated. Its home is the deep jungle, where it can obtain the young leaves and shoots of the brushwood. According to Mr. Macrae the following is the method employed by the Kookies of the Chittagong hill-region to catch the animal:—“On discovering a herd of wild Gayals in the jungle, they prepare a number of balls, of the size of a man’s head, composed of a particular kind of earth, salt, and cotton. They then drive their tame Gayals towards the wild ones, when the two herds soon meet and assimilate into one; the males of the one attaching themselves to the females of the other, and vice versâ. The Kookies now scatter their balls over such parts of the jungle as they think the herd most likely to pass, and watch its motions. The Gayals, on meeting these balls as they pass along, are attracted by their appearance and smell, and begin to lick them with their tongues; and relishing the taste of the salt, and the particular earth composing them, they never quit the place until all the balls are consumed. The Kookies, having observed the Gayals to have once tasted their balls, prepare a sufficient supply of them to answer the intended purpose, and as the Gayals lick them up they throw down more; and it is to prevent their being so readily destroyed that the cotton is mixed with the earth and the salt. This process generally goes on for three changes of the moon, or for a month and a half, during which time the tame and the wild Gayals are always together, licking the decoy balls, and the Kookie, after the first day or two of their being so, makes his appearance at such a distance as not to alarm the wild ones. By degrees he approaches nearer and nearer, until at length the sight of him has become so familiar that he can advance to stroke his tame Gayals on the back and neck without frightening the wild ones. He next extends his hand to them, and caresses them also, at the same time giving them plenty of his decoy balls to lick. Thus, in the short space of time mentioned, he is able to drive them, along with the tame ones, to his parrah, or village, without the least exertion of force; and so attached do the Gayals become to the parrah, that when the Kookies migrate from one place to another, they always find it necessary to set fire to the huts they are about to abandon, lest the Gayals should return to them from the new grounds.”
The Gayal carries its nose forwards, as a rule, like a Buffalo. Its ears are longer than those of the Ox. It possesses a dewlap smaller than in the Zebu. The tail is short, not descending below the hock. Its general colour is a varying and generally dark brown, the abdomen and the legs being white in parts. Its cry is a shrill, insignificant lowing. Its horns are conical, turned directly outwards, and a little upwards at their tips, not exceeding one foot and a half in length.
The Banting extends from Cochin China, through the Indo-Malay archipelago, to the islands of Bali and Lombok. Its colour and proportions are almost exactly those of the Gour.
THE BISONS.[24]
Closely related to the Oxen are the Bisons of Europe and of North America, together with the Tibetan Yak. The two species of Bison agree closely with one another in general appearance, the American form being shorter and weaker in the hind-quarters, and a little smaller altogether.
The hair of the head and neck is very abundant and long, forming a mane of very dark colour, at the same time that it nearly conceals the eyes and ears as well as the base of the short conical horns, which are directed outwards and upwards. Under the chin there is a lengthy beard. A line of lengthy hair also extends along the back nearly to the tail, which is itself only covered with short soft hair, except at the end where there is a lengthy tuft. There is a hump developed on the shoulders, at which spot the adult male is nearly six feet in height, the female being smaller.