RUMINATING ANIMALS.

THE various animals of this kind are entirely confined to grain and herbage for their nourishment and support; it is therefore necessary that they should be enabled to receive a large quantity into the stomach, as well as to retain it a considerable time before it be reduced to proper chyle: for this purpose, their intestines are remarkably long and capacious, and formed into a variety of foldings. They are furnished with no less than four stomachs. The food, after mastication,

is thrown into the first stomach, where it remains for some time; after which it is forced up again into the mouth, and undergoes a second chewing: it is then sent directly into the second stomach, and gradually passes into the third and fourth; from whence it is transmitted through the convolutions of the intestines. By this conformation, ruminating animals are enabled to devour large quantities of vegetable aliment, to retain it long in their bowels, and consequently extract from it a quantity of nutritious matter sufficient for their growth and support.

The great obligations we are under to those of this class, render them objects of the highest importance to us. We are nourished with their milk, we are supported by their flesh, and we are clothed and warmed with their fleeces: their harmlessness and innocence endear them to us, and claim from us that protection which their natures seem to require; and, in return, they supply us with the necessaries and comforts of life.

THE OX KIND.

(Bos Taurus, Lin.-Le Taureau, Buff.)

Or all quadrupeds, the Cow seems most extensively propagated: it is equally capable of enduring the rigours of heat and cold; and is an inhabitant of the frozen, as well as the most scorching climates. Other animals preserve their nature or their form with inflexible perseverance; but these, in every respect, suit themselves to the wants and conveniences of mankind. In no animal is there to be met with a greater variety of kinds; and in none, a more humble and pliant disposition.

The climate and pastures of Great Britain are well adapted to the nature of this animal; and we are indebted to the variety and abundance of our wholesome vegetables, for the number and excellence of our cattle, which range over our hills, and enliven our plains-a source of inexhaustible wealth-the pride and boast of this happy country.

Being destitute of the upper fore teeth, the Cow prefers the high and rich grass in pastures, to the short and more delicate herbage generally selected by the Horse. For this reason, in our English pastures, where the grass is rather high and flourishing, than succulent and nutritious, the Cow thrives admirably; and there is no part of Europe in which this animal grows larger, yields more milk, or fattens sooner.

It has often been remarked, that the Horse and Sheep impoverish the soil on which they graze; whilst the pasture where the Cow is fed, acquires a finer surface, and every year becomes more level and beautiful: the Horse

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selects the grass that is most delicate and tender; and being furnished with fore teeth on each jaw, nips it close, and frequently pulls it up by the roots, thereby preventing its future growth and propagation: the sheep also, though formed like the Cow with respect to its teeth, only bites the most succulent parts of the herbage.

The age of a Cow is known by its horns: at the age of four years, a ring is formed at their roots; and every succeeding year another ring is added. Thus, by allowing three years before their appearance, and then reckoning the number of rings, the creature's age may be exactly known.

The quantity of milk given by Cows is very various : some will yield only about six quarts in one day; while others give from ten to fifteen, and sometimes even twenty. The richness of the pasture contributes not a little to its increase. There have been instances of Cows giving upwards of thirty quarts of milk in one day. In such cases there is a necessity for milking them thrice. From the milk of some Cows, twelve or fourteen pounds of butter are made in a week.

It has been advanced by some naturalists, as a general principle, that neither animals, nor parts of animals, appear to be primarily intended for the use of man, but are only capable of a secondary application to his purposes: yet it must be allowed that, in many instances, what they term the secondary use, is so manifest and important, that it cannot, with propriety, be supposed to be excluded from the original design of the all-wise Creator: and it must be allowed that the Cow, in its faculty of giving, in such abundance and with so much ease, its milk, which forms so rich and nutritive an aliment

for the human species, is a striking example of this subordination to the interests of mankind: for this animal differs, in some parts of its organization, from most others, having a larger and more capacious udder, and longer and thicker teats, than the largest animal we know of: it has likewise four teats, whilst all other animals of the same nature have but two: it also yields the milk freely to the hand, whilst most animals, at least those that do not ruminate in the same manner, refuse it, except their own young, or some adopted animal, be allowed to partake.

The Cow having four teats is a striking peculiarity; the number in all other animals bearing some proportion to the number of young ones they bring forth at a time; as in the Bitch, the Cat, the Sow, &c.

The Cow will yield her milk as freely, and will continue to give it as long, without the aid of the calf, as if it were permitted to suck her constantly. This is not the case with the Ass; which, it is well known, will soon grow dry, if her foal be not permitted to suck part of her milk every day.

Upon the whole, it appears that the property of yielding milk, without the young one, is confined to those kinds of ruminating horned animals which have cloven hoofs, four stomachs, long intestines, are furnished with suet, and have no fore teeth in the upper jaw; that Cows, Sheep, Goats, and Deer, are of this kind, and no other; and that the Cow has this property in a more eminent degree than others, owing to the capaciousness of her udder, and the size and form of her teats.

The Cow goes nine months with young, and seldom produces more than one at a time.

It is a curious fact, that when a Cow happens to bring forth two calves,-one of them a male, the other a female, the former is a perfect animal, but the latter is incapable of propagation, and is well known to farmers under the denomination of a Free Martin. It resembles the Ox, or spayed Heifer, in figure; and is considerably larger than the Cow. It is sometimes preserved by the farmer, for the purpose of yoking with the Oxen, or fattening for the table. Mr Hunter observes, that the flesh of the Free Martin, like that of the Ox, is much finer in the fibre than either the Bull or Cow. It is supposed to exceed that of the Heifer in delicacy of flavour, and bears a higher price at market.

By great industry and attention to their breed, and by judicious mixtures with those of other countries, our horned cattle are universally allowed to be the finest in Europe; although such as are purely British are inferior in size to those on many parts of the continent.