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Show 82 CATTLE. CIIAP. III. 1 t · ttl of Norwtty which httve a high protuberttnce par lnt olf tl1lebmtoun ttmtbceabn~e of tho h;rns. As Profo. sor Owen believes on t 10 s ru o ween <''' . z .-r. 't · that tho Scotch lligbland cattle arc dOf;cenclecl from hls B. ong1:Jrons, 1 ~s worth notice that a capable judge 46 has romn.rkod thn.t ho saw no cn.ttle m Norwn.y like the lligblancl breed, but thn.t they more nen.rly resembled the DevonshiJ:e breed. lienee we sec that throe forms or species of Bos, originally inhabitants of Europe, have been domesticated; bu~ the~e is no improbability in this fact, for the gonus.Bos reacl1ly ywlds to domestication. Besirlos these tm·ee spemes and tho zebu, the yak, the gayal, and the arni 47 (not to mention tho buffalo or genus Bubalus) have been domesticated; making altoget~er seven species of Bos. The zebu and the throe European speCies arc now extinct in a wild state, for the cattle of the B. primigenius type in the British parks can hardly be considered as trnly wild. Although certain races of cattle, domesticated at a very ancient period in Europe, are the descendants of the three above-named fossil species, yet it does not follow that they were here first domesticated. Those who place much reliance on philology argue that our cattle were imported from the East.48 But as races of men invading any country would probably give their own names to the breeds of cattle which they might there find domesticated, the argument seems inconclusive. There is indirect evidence that our cattle are the descendants of species which originally inhabited a temperate or cold climate, but not a land long covered with snow ; for our cattle, as we have seen in the chapter on Horses, apparently have not the instinct of scraping away the snow to get at the herbage beneath. No one could behold the magnificent wild bulls on the bleak Falkland Islands in the southern hemisphere, and doubt about the climate being admirably suited to them. Azara bas remarked that in the temperate regions of La Plata the cows conceive when two years old, whilst in the much hotter country of Paraguay they do not conceive till three years old; "from which fact," as he adds, " one may conclude that cattle do not succeed so well in warm countries." 49 The above-named three fossil forms of Bos have been ranked 46 Laing's ''four in Norway,' p. 110. 47 Isid. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, 'Hist. Nat. Gen.,' tom. iii. p. 96. 4S Idem, tom. iii. pp. 82, 91. 49 'QuadrupCdcs du Paraguay,' tom. ii. p. 360. CHAP. III. CROSSED SPECIES FERTILE. 83 by nearly all palreontologists as distinct species ; and it would not be reasonable to change their denomination simply because they are now found to be the parents of several domesticated races. But what is of most importance for us, as showing that t~ey deserve to be ranked as species, is that they co-existed in d~ff~rent P,~rts. of Euro~e during the same period, and yet kept distmct. lben· domesticated descendants, on the other hand, if not separated, cross with tho utmost freedom and become commingled. The several European breeds have so often been cros~~d, both intentionally and unintentionally, that, if any stenhty ensued from such unions, it would certainly have been detected. As zebus inhabit a distant and much hotter region, and as they differ in so many characters from our European cattle, I have taken pains to ascertain whether the two forms are fertile when crossed. The late Lord Powis imported some zebus and crossed the~ with common cattle in Shropshire; and I was assured by his steward that the cross-bred animals were perfectly f~rtile ':ith both parent-stocks. l\Ir. Blyth inf~ rms me that m India hybrids, with various proportions of mther blood~ are quit~ f~rtile; and this can hardly fail to be known, for m some distncts bo the two species are allowed to breed freely together. Most of the cattle which were first introduced into Tasmania were humped, so that at one time thousands of crossed animals existed there; and Mr. B. O'N eile Wilson, M.A., writes to me from Tasmania that he has never heard of any sterility having been observed. He himself formerly possessed a herd of such crossed cattle and all were per~ectly fertile; so much so, that he cannot r~membor even ? smgle cow failing to calve. These several facts afford an Important confirmation of the Pallasian doctrine that the descendants of species which when first domesticated would if crossed probably have been in some degree sterile become perfectly fertile after a long course of domesticatio~. In a future chapter we shall see that this doctrine throws much lio-ht on the difficult subject of Hybridism. b I have alluded to the cattle in Ohillingham Park which according t.o ~iit~meyer, have been very little chang~d fro~ the Bas pnmzgemus type. This park is so ancient that it is iO Walther, 'Dns Rindvieh,' 1817, s. 30. G 2 |