Delineations of the Ox Tribe:
The Natural History of Bulls, Bisons, and Buffaloes
Delineations of the Ox Tribe: The Natural History of Bulls, Bisons, and Buffaloes – The primary object of the present work, is to give as correct and comprehensive a view of the animals composing the Ox Tribe, as the present state of our knowledge will admit, accompanied by authentic figures of all the known species and the more remarkable varieties.
Although this genus (comprising all those Ruminants called Buffaloes, Bisons, and Oxen generally,) is as distinct and well characterized as any other genus in the animal kingdom, yet the facts which are at present known respecting the various species which compose it, are not sufficiently numerous to enable the naturalist to divide them into sub-genera.
This is abundantly proved by the unsuccessful result of those attempts which have already been made to arrange them into minor groups. Nor can we wonder at this want of success, when we consider that even many of the species usually regarded as distinct are by no means clearly defined.
The second object, therefore, of this treatise, is (by bringing into juxtaposition all the most important facts concerning the various individual specimens which have been described, and by adding several other facts of importance which have not hitherto been noticed,) to enable the naturalist to define, more correctly than has yet been done, the peculiarities of each species.
Ruminantia is the term used by naturalists to designate those mammiferous quadrupeds which chew the cud; or, in other words, which swallow their food, in the first instance, with a very slight mastication, and afterwards regurgitate it, in order that it may undergo a second and more complete mastication: this second operation is called ruminating or chewing the cud. The order of animals which possess this peculiarity, is divided into nine groups or genera, namely:–
CAMELS.
LLAMAS.
MUSKS.
DEER.
GIRAFFES.
ANTELOPES.
GOATSSHEEP.
OXEN
The last-named forms the subject of the following pages, and is called, in zoological language, the _Genus Bos_, in popular language, the OX TRIBE.
One of the most interesting occupations which the wide field of Zoology offers to the naturalist, is the investigation of those remarkable adaptations of organs to functions, and of these again to the necessities and well-being of the entire animal.
Nor does it in the least diminish our interest in the investigation of individual adaptations, or our admiration on becoming acquainted with them, that we know, _à priori_, this universal truth, that all the constituents of every organized body, be that organization what it may, are invariably adapted, in the most perfect manner, to each other, and to the whole.
It is by a knowledge of this exact harmony in the animal economy, that the comparative anatomist can determine, with almost unerring precision, the genus, or even species of an animal, by an examination of any important part of its organization, as the teeth, stomach, bones, or extremities. In some cases, a single bone, or even the fragment of a bone, insufficient to convey an idea of the entire animal to which it belonged.
In illustration of this:–if the viscera of an animal are so organized as only to be fitted for the digestion of recent flesh, we find that the jaws are so contracted as to fit them for devouring prey; the claws for seizing and tearing it to pieces; the teeth for cutting and dividing its flesh; the entire system of the limbs, or organs of motion, for pursuing and overtaking it; and the organs of sense for discovering it at a distance. Moreover, the brain of the animal is also endowed with instincts sufficient for concealing itself, and for laying plans to catch its necessary prey.
Again, we are well aware that all _hoofed_ animals must necessarily be herbivorous, or vegetable feeders, because they are possessed of no means of seizing prey. It is also evident, having no other use for their fore-legs than to support their bodies, that they have no occasion for a shoulder so vigorously organized as that of carnivorous animals; owing to which they have no clavicles, and their shoulder-blades are proportionally narrow.
Having also no occasion to turn their forearms, their radius is joined by ossification to the ulna, or is at least articulated by ginglymus with the humerus. Their food being entirely herbaceous, requires teeth with flat surfaces, on purpose to bruise the seeds and plants on which they feed.
For this purpose, also, these surfaces require to be unequal, and are, consequently, composed of alternate perpendicular layers of enamel and softer bone.
Teeth of this structure necessarily require horizontal motions to enable them to triturate, or grind down the herbaceous food; and accordingly, the condyles of the jaw could not be formed into such confined joints as in the carnivorous animals, but must have a flattened form, correspondent to sockets in the temporal bones.
The depressions, also, of the temporal bones, having smaller muscles to contain, are narrower and not so deep; and so on, throughout the whole organization.
The digestive system of the ruminantia is more complicated in structure than that of any other class of animals; and, owing to this complexity, and the consequent difficulty of investigating it, its nature and functions have been less perfectly understood.
The stomach of the Manilla Buffalo, which will serve as an example of all the other species, is divided into four cavities or ventricles, which are usually (but improperly) considered as four distinct stomachs.
The interior of those cavities present some remarkable differences in point of structure, which, in the present work, can only be alluded to in a very general manner. For a particular account of the internal anatomy of these complicated organs, the reader is referred to the interesting work on ‘Cattle,’ by W. Youatt.
And this is not the end there are 101 Pages of Awesome Reading not just on the Oxen, Cattle and Buffalo as Well!
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