Chapter Eighteen. The Ox Tribe - Book of zoology for boys by Mayne Reid
Our common domestic cattle furnish the type on which this family is founded; and it is well-known that of this type there are many varieties in different countries. Even in our own, so many are there, that a mere list of their names would fill one of our pages. We shall refrain therefore from giving any description of the different varieties—simply remarking that they are all supposed to spring from one original. This is, to say the least, a very doubtful hypothesis, since cattle have been found domesticated in many countries, and the period of their first introduction to the society of man is altogether unknown. It is far more likely that different species have furnished the varieties now known as domestic cattle.
We shall proceed to describe the other bovine animals—which, although of the same family, are beyond doubt of a distinct species from the common cattle.
The Zebu is one of the most remarkable. Its home is India and the adjacent regions; where it branches off into almost as many varieties as there are breeds of our own oxen. These varieties have different names; and they differ in size, shape, and other particulars; but the hump and long hanging dewlap render the zebu easily recognisable.
In India they are sometimes employed as beasts of the saddle and draught; and their flesh is also eaten, though with the exception of the hump (which is esteemed a great delicacy) it is not equal to English beef. Among the Hindus the zebus are regarded as sanctified creatures; and to slaughter them is deemed sin. For all that, these fanatics do not hesitate to work them—sometimes hard enough. There are some zebus, however, that are considered more holy than common. These may be seen wandering idly about the villages, fed from the hands of the people; and if neglected in this regard, they walk uninvited into the rice enclosures, and help themselves!
The zebus are usually of an ashy-grey colour, though many are white; and their size varies from that of an ordinary calf, to the stature of a full-grown bull.
There is a variety of the zebu—or perhaps a distinct species—known as the Dante. It is an African animal—that is, Egypt is the country where it is chiefly found. Very little knowledge of it exists among naturalists. It is distinguished from the Indian zebu by having a smaller hump upon the withers and a narrower face; and it is supposed to be the animal represented on the ancient Egyptian tombs.
We next come to the kind of oxen termed Buffaloes; and of these there are several species.
First, there is the Indian buffalo; and it may here be remarked, that when the word buffalo is used, an animal with a huge hump upon its shoulders is usually understood. This is an error, arising, no doubt, from the fact that the bison of America, which has a hump, is generally called a buffalo. But the Indian buffalo has no such protuberance; nor yet the African species. The Indian animal is found both in a domesticated and wild state; but both are clearly of the same species. The wild one is called the Arna, and the tame one Bhainsa, in the language of the natives. The former is of much greater size than the latter—standing, when full-grown, as high as the tallest man! So strong are these animals, that an arna bull has been known to butt down a good-sized elephant with a single stroke of his horns!
It is the Indian buffalo that is found in Italy—where it has been introduced, and is used for draught; its great strength giving it the advantage over horses, especially on the deep miry roads that exist in some parts of the peninsula.
The Manilla buffalo is a smaller variety or species of the arna, inhabiting, as its name imports, the Philippine Islands.
The African buffalo, sometimes known as the Kaffir buffalo, is another of these great oxen, and not the least celebrated of the tribe. It is an inhabitant of Africa, and is found chiefly in the southern half of that continent, from the Cape of Good Hope northwards. It is an animal of vast size and strength; often waging war with the lion, and frequently with man himself. In these encounters the buffalo is but too successful; and it is asserted among the natives of South Africa, that there are more deaths among them, caused by buffalo bulls, than by all the other wild beasts of the country. Like his Indian congener, the shock from the massive horns of an African buffalo is almost irresistible; and both the lion and elephant at times succumb to it.
There is a smaller African species about which less is known. This is the Zamouse or Bush cow, which differs from the true buffalo in having a flatter forehead, and being altogether without the dewlap.
We now come to the American buffalo, or Bison, as it should be called. This is indigenous to North America; and its present range is confined to the great prairies that extend eastward from the foot of the Rocky Mountains. It was formerly found much farther to the east—in fact, to the Atlantic coast; but its limits are now far beyond the meridian of the Mississippi. Hunters (both red and white) have driven it across the Rocky Mountains; and of late years it has been met with in the territory of the Upper Columbia. Its habits are too well-known to call for a description here, and its shaggy coat, with the deformity of its huge shoulder-hump, are familiar to every eye. With one exception, it is the only species of the ox tribe indigenous to America—and it may be added, to North America—since no native bovine animal is known to exist in the southern half of the Transatlantic continent.
The European buffalo—or as it is sometimes called Lithuanian buffalo—bears a considerable resemblance to that of the prairies. In size it is perhaps superior; but the two are much alike in general appearance—especially in their massive form, and the long brown hair, of woolly texture, so thickly set upon their necks and shoulders.
The European buffalo is nearly extinct, and exists only in some of the forests of Lithuanian Poland, where it is rather half-wild than wild; that is, it freely roams the forests, but only as the deer in our own extensive parks, or the white cattle, known as the wild Scotch oxen—in other words, it has an owner.
A very remarkable species is the Yäk, or Grunting Ox. This is found only in the high, cold countries that lie to the north of the Himalayan Mountains—in Thibet and Tartary. There is only one species, but this is both wild and tame—the wild sort being the larger and more formidable animal. The domestic variety is used by the people of Thibet for carrying burdens; and both its milk and flesh are in great demand in these cold countries of poverty and hunger.
The yäks dislike the warmth of summer; and during that season seek to hide themselves in the shade, or under water, in which they swim well. Their grunt exactly resembles that of a hog. The calves are covered with rough black hair like a curly-haired dog; but, when three months old, they obtain the long hair that distinguishes the full-grown animal, and which hangs so low as to give it the appearance of being without legs! They willingly live with common cattle, and will breed with them; but the wild yäk bull is an exceedingly fierce and dangerous animal. The tail of the grunting ox is very full, or bushy; and although the hair of the body is usually black, that upon the tail is universally of a pure white. This hair, when dyed red, is used by the Chinese to form the tufts worn in the caps of the mandarins. It is the chowry or fly-brush of India.
Like other domesticated cattle, the yäk is found of different breeds—known by the names of Noble yäk, Plough yäk, etcetera.
Next in succession comes the Musk Ox of America, which, from its long hanging hair, and also from many of its habits, bears a good deal of resemblance to the grunting ox. The musk ox is a native of North America; and there his range is confined to the most remote regions of the Hudson’s Bay territory. He is met with in the inhospitable track known as the Barren Grounds—and also along the coasts and islands of the Arctic Ocean—but nowhere so far south as the boundary of the United States or the Great Lakes. But for the land expeditions of several Arctic explorers, the existence of the musk ox would hardly have been known; and, as it is, his habits are but little understood. He is not of large size—being between the stature of an ox and a sheep—and in general appearance he resembles the latter more than the former; hence, among naturalists, he is styled the Sheep ox (ovibos). He and the Bison, as already remarked, are the only indigenous oxen of America.
To return to Asia. In its south-eastern parts—the Indies—we find several other species of the ox tribe. There is the Gayal or Jungly-gau, which inhabits the eastern parts of Bengal, especially the mountains that separate this province from Arracan. Of this there is a tame and wild species—the latter an inhabitant of forests, living rather upon the shoots of trees than upon grass. It is a large animal, more like the common ox than any of the buffaloes; and it is also less fierce in its disposition than the latter.
Next to the gayal is the Gam—also a forest-dwelling ox, of large size; and, like the other, browsing upon the leaves and twigs of trees.
The gam inhabits several forest-covered mountains in Central India, where it is only found wild. Attempts have been made to domesticate it, but without success—since it is both a shy and fierce animal; so much so that even the calves will not live in captivity!
Another Indian ox is the Takin, which inhabits the country of the Kamptis, in the eastern ranges of the Himalayas, and about which there is a dispute among naturalists, as to whether it is an ox!
We conclude our sketch with the Anoa, which belongs to Celebes—a small species bearing some resemblance to the antelopes; and the Banting or Sumatran Ox, a native of Java, Borneo, and also, as its second name denotes, of the Island of Sumatra.