The Hollow'horned Ruminants 219

centage of butter than ordinary cow's milk. So useful is this mud- and water-loving animal in all swampy districts, that wherever rice is cultivated it is almost indispensable. The result is that the Indian buffalo has been transported, probably in comparatively modern this was done is not known; but it istimes, to many distant quarters of the globe. When probable, for instance, that it was not known in Egypt in the days of the Pharaohs, for its form never appears in the paintings and sculptures. Now it is seen very far up the Nile, and plays an important part in Egyptian agriculture; it is also the general beast of burden and for the dairy in the Pontine Marshes of Italy. In Spain it was probably introduced by the Arabs, and is used to cultivate the marshy plains near the mouths of the rivers of Andalusia; it is also in use in the marshes of Hungary, in the Crimea, and across Western Asia to Afghanistan. We have thus the curious fact that a wild animal once confined to the jungles of the Indian Peninsula is now domesticated on two other continents. It has not been

[ Woburn Abbey.

A PAIR OP ANOAS.

The anoa is the smallest and most antelope-like member of the Ox Tribe.

it would be useful in the Mississippi swamps; but theintroduced into America yet, though Chinese have taken it to the Far East, and established it as their favourite beast of burden.

THE TAMARAU AND ANOA.

In the island of Mindoro, in the Philippines, a small black buffalo, with upright, slightly is about 3 feetincurved horns, is found in the dense forests. The height at the shoulder 6 inches; a few irregular marks of white are found on the fore legs, face, and occasionally fear to attack it. Itsthe throat. It is called the TAMARAU by the natives, most of whom habits are said to be much the same as those of the other buffaloes; but it is reputed to fight with the Indian buffaloes which have escaped and become semi-wild in the forests.

In Celebes a still smaller wild forest-buffalo is found, called the ANOA. It is only 3 feet 3 inches high at the shoulder, and has upright, almost straight horns. The general colour is brownish, tinged with yellow, that of the adults being very dark brown or black. Scarcely anything is known of its habits.

22O The Living Animals of the World

THE MUSK-OX.

THE MUSK-OX was formerly found in immense numbers on the barren lands and other regions bordering on the Arctic ice. The hair of this animal reaches almost to the ground, and the horns are it large and massive. At present is only common in the corner of North America north and east of a line drawn from Fort Churchill, on Hudson Bay, to the mouth of the Mackenzie, and on the adjacent islands of the Arctic Sea. In former Arctic expeditions the flesh of the musk-oxen was a great and relive source of food. Now LVlir A some parts of the herds seem to have retired inland, and in the winter to become mainly forest-dwellers; but large numbers seem to endure the coldest parts of the Arctic winter in the open country of the Far North, in the snows of Grinnell Land and of Northern Greenland. The remains of musk-

Photo by Hie Duchess of Bedford] [ Wobwn Abbey. oxen have been found in the river

YOUKG BULL MUSK-OX.

Valley, with The musk-ox is nearly allied to the sheep. It is about the size of Highland cattle, and gravels of the Thames inhabits Arctic America and Northern Greenland. those of the reindeer and other northern species. The musk-ox gallops at a great rate of speed when disturbed in the open, and makes as little of a steep flesh is very tolerable food; but if the mountain-side as does the wild sheep. When fat, the is very unpleasant. The colour of the coat is dark animals grow thin, the taste of musk brown;; it. is now in great demand for sledge-rugs in Canada. This remarkable animal appears to be a form standing apart both from the oxen and the sheep.

IT will be seen from the above accounts of the whole wild bovine race that they all exhibit in a high degree many of the traits which are seen in domesticated animals of the same tribe. The chief differences made by man's selection and breeding affect the form of the body and the development of the udder, otherwise there is no great modification, except the production of the drooping ear in some of the Indian species of domesticated oxen. No wild cattle have the level, flat back and rectangular body which mark all the best shorthorns and other breeds intended for beef. In the Asiatic and Galla humped breeds, the races which first domesticated the original wild species seem to have used the long processes of the vertebrae which cause the back of many wild cattle to form a hump as the basis of a valuable feature, the hump becoming as it were another joint of meat. The development of the udder has for untold centuries been the object of the breeders of cows; consequently we find that in the domesticated races this has become abnormally large. There is at present a very general tendency to get rid of the horns among all breeds of high quality, as these appendages cause much loss by wounds inflicted by cattle upon each other; but even in this respect sentiment rather tends to preserve the horns as an ornament in some of the best milking breeds, such as the Jerseys.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE SHEEP AND GOATS.

THE SHEEP.

found in Northern India east of the Indus, in the Punjab, and in Sind; one inTHE sheep are represented at the present time by several wild species, one of which is

North America; and another in North Africa. The rest inhabit the high ground of Europe and Asia as far south as the Himalaya. These mountains, with the adjacent plateaux of the Pamirs and the great ranges of Central Asia, form the main home of the group. it is difficult to draw aWild sheep are of various types, some so much like the goats that hard-and-fast line between them; while others, especially the Curly-horned Argalis, Bighorns, Oorial, and Kamchatka Wild Sheep, are unmistakably ovine in type. The wild original of the domesticated breeds of sheep is unknown; but the extreme differences between various breeds of tame sheep as, for instance, between the smooth-coated, drooping-eared breed of Nubia and the curly-horned, woolly sheep of Dorsetshire must not be allowed to divert the attention from the considerable likeness of habit which still remains between other breeds and the wild species. Domesticated sheep which live on hills and mountains are still inclined to seek the highest ground at night. The rams fight as the wild rams do, and many of them lessdisplay activity and powers of climbing and of finding a living on barren ground scarcely remarkable than in the wild races. The apparent absence of wool in the latter does not indicate so great a difference as might be thought. The domesticated sheep have been bred by artificial selection for unnumbered ages in order to produce wool. It is said that in some of the wild breeds there is an under-fur which will " felt " like wool. Most of the species are short-tailed animals, but this is not the case with the Barbary wild sheep.

Wild sheep are mainly mountain-living animals or frequenters of high ground. They generally, although not always, frequent less rugged country than that affected by the wild goats, and some are found at quite low levels. The altitude at which other wild sheep are found is, however, very great; on the Pamirs it reaches 20,000 feet. Here the country is quite open.

Photo by G. W. Wilson & Co., Ltd. [Aberdeen.]

YOUNG BARBARY SHEEP.

Note the length of the tail as compared with other wild sheep.

of the World222 The Living Animals

THE EUROPEAN MOUFFLON.

The only wild sheep of Europe is the MOUFFLON, found in the mountains of Corsica and Sardinia. Its height at the shoulder is about 27 inches. In the rams the horns are strong, is close, and in winterand curved into a spiral, forming almost a complete circle. The hair is a bright red-brown on the neck,has a woolly under-fur. In summer and autumn the coat shoulders, and legs; the rump and under-parts are whitish, and the back and flanks marked with a white saddle. In winter the brown becomes darker and the white saddle broader. A rather larger moufflon is found on Mount Elburz in Persia, in Armenia, and in the Taurus Mountains. it has been preserved since the British occupation.A smaller variety exists in Cyprus, where The moufflon is a typical wild sheep. In Sardinia and Corsica are dense scrubby forests of tall heather, some 5 feet high. This maquia is practically impenetrable to hunters. When alarmed, the moufflon dash into it, and are safe. The maquia has preserved two very interesting survivals of antiquity the moufflon, and the Corsican or Sardinian bandit. The Corsican bandit, like the moufflon of the same island, is nearly extinct. In Sardinia both flourish. Many English sportsmen have had their first taste of big-game shooting in the difficult pursuit of the moufflon on the Sardinian mountains. Some declare that the sport is so fascinating that they have it since.seldom found much to equal Mr. S. H. Whitbread, whose notes' in " The Encyclopedia of Sport " are very full on this subject, deems that the best season to stalk moufflon is in October or November. The animals are then less disturbed by shepherds and dogs, and the moufflon are on the move and more easily seen during the day than in summer, when they feed at night and rest or sleep by day.

Sir E. Gr. Loder has a small herd Photo by W. P. Dando] [Regent's Park. of moufflon running wild in his park SIBERIAN ARGALI. of the large wild sheep of Central Asia.at Leonardslee, near Horsham. They one have a specially built " mountain-top " of stone to make a home of, but are free to feed where they like in the park. They produce lambs yearly. It is an interesting sight to see the quick rush of the little flock, when frightened, to their sheltering-place, led by an old white-saddled ram.

THE ARGALIS.

The ARGALIS are the largest of all living wild sheep. Some measure from 3 feet 9 inches to 4 feet at the shoulder. The horns are broad, corrugated, and curling in the male, and in the female short, erect, and curving backwards. The male TIBETAN ARGALI has a ruff on the throat. The usual colour is a stony grey, mingled with white in the summer in the case of the old males. The name is applied collectively to several wild sheep found in Northern and Central Asia. Whether these are only varieties or separate species it is difficult to say; but the following are some of the most marked forms.

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