Of insects, the ruminating tribe is still larger: the mole, the cricket, the wasp, the drone, the bee, the grasshopper, and the beetle. All these animals either actually chew the cud, or seem at least to ruminate. They have the stomach composed of muscular fibres, by means whereof the food is ground up and down, in the same manner as in those which are particularly distinguished by the appellation of ruminants.

But not these alone; men themselves have been often known to ruminate, and some even with pleasure. The accounts of these calamities, for such ĺ must consider them, incident to our fellow-creatures, are not very pleasant to read; yet I must transcribe a short one, as given us by Slare, in the Philosophical Transactions, as it may in some measure show the satisfaction which the lower tribes of animals enjoy while they ruminate. The man in question was a citizen of Bristol, of about twenty years of age, and, what seemed more extraordinary still, of a ruminating family, for his father was frequently subject to the same infirmity-or amusement, as he himself perhaps would call it. This young man usually began to chew his meat over again within about a quarter of an hour after eating. His ruminating after a full meal generally lasted about an hour and a half; nor could he sleep until this task was performed. The victuals, upon the return, tasted even more pleasantly than at first; and returned as if they had been beaten up in a mortar. If he ate a variety of things, that which he ate first came up again first; and if this return was interrupted for any time, it produced sickness and disorder, and he was never well till it returned. Instances of this kind, however, are rare and accidental; and it is happy for mankind that they are so. Of all other animals, we spend the least time in eating; this is one of the great distinctions between us and the brute creation; and eating is a pleasure of so low a kind, that none but such as are nearly allied to the quadruped desire its prolongation.

CHAP. VI.

OF QUADRUPEDS OF THE COW KIND.*

Of all ruminant animals, those of the Cow kind deserve the first rank, both for their size, their beauty, and their services. The horse is more properly an animal belonging to the rich; the sheep chiefly thrives in a flock, and requires attendance; but the cow is more especially the poor man's pride, his riches, and his support. The climate and pasture of Great Britain is excellently adapted to this animal's moderate nature; and the verdure and the fertility of our plains are perfectly suited to the manner of its feeding; for wanting the upper fore teeth, it loves to graze in a high, rich pasture. Our pastures supply them with abundance, and they in

return enrich the pasture; for, of all animals, the cow seems to give back more than it takes from the soil. The horse and the sheep are known, in course of years, to impoverish the ground: the land where they have fed becomes weedy, and the vegetables coarse and unpalatable; on the contrary, the pasture where the cow has been bred acquires a finer, softer surface, and becomes

The animals of this kind have the horns hollow, smooth, turned outwards and forwards, in a semi-circular form; in the lower

jaw there are eight front teeth, but non in the upper, and there are no tusks in either.

every year more beautiful and even. The reason is, that the horse being fur nished with fore teeth in the upper jaw, nips the grass closely; and, therefore, only chooses that which is the most delicate and tender; the sheep also, though with respect to its teeth, formed like the cow, only bites the most succulent parts of the herbage. These animals, therefore, leave all the high weeds standing; and while they cut the finer grass too closely, suffer the ranker herbage to vegetate and overrun the pasture. But it is otherwise with the cow; as its teeth cannot come so close to the ground as those of the horse, nor so readily as those of the sheep, which are less, it is obliged to feed upon the tallest vegetables that offer: thus it eats them all down, and, in time levels the surface of the pasture.

As we have indisputably the best breed of horned cattle of any in Europe, so it was not without the same assiduity that we came to excel in these, as in our horses. The breed of cows has been entirely improved by a foreign mixture, properly adapted to supply the imperfections of our own. Such as are purely British, are far inferior in size to those on many parts of the continent; but those which we have thus improved, by far excel all others. Our Lincolnshire kind derive their size from the Holstein breed; and the large, hornless cattle that are bred in some parts of England came originally from Poland.* We

were once famous for a wild breed of these animals; but these have long since been worn out; and, perhaps, no kingdom in Europe can furnish so few wild animals of all kinds as our own.* Cultivation and agriculture are sure to banish these, wherever they are found; and every addition a country receives from art, drives away those animals that are only fitted for a state of nature.† Of all quadrupeds, the cow seems most liable to alteration from its pasture.

In the different parts of our own country, we easily perceive the great varieties produced among these animals, by the richness or poverty of the soil. In some they grow to a great bulk; and I have seen an ox sixteen hands high, which is taller than the general run of our horses. In others, they appear as diminutive, being not so large as an ass. The breed of the Isle of Man, and most parts of Scotland, is much less in general than in England or Ireland: they are differently shaped also, the dewlap being much smaller, and, as the expression is, the beast has more of the ewe neck. This, till some years ago, was considered in cattle as a deformity; and the cow was chosen, according to Virgil's direction, with a large dewlap: however, at present it is the universal opinion, that the cow wants in udder what it has in neck, and the larger the dewlap, the smaller is the quantity of its milk. Our graziers now, therefore, endeavour to mix the two breeds; the large Holstein with the small northern; and from both results that fine milch breed, which excels the cattle of any other part of the world.

This difference, arising from pasture, is more observable in other countries than in our own. The cow kind is to be found in almost every part of the world, large in proportion to the richness of the pasture; and small, as the animal is stinted in its food. Thus Africa is remarkable for the largest and the smallest cattle of this kind; as is also India, Poland, Switzerland, and several other parts of Europe. Among the Eluth Tartars, where the pastures are remarkably rich and nourishing, the cow becomes so large, that he must be a tall man who can reach the tip of its shoulder. On the contrary, in France, where the

* VARIOUS SPECIES.-The breeds of the Kisguise and Calmuck Tartars, those of Podolia and the Ukraine, of European Turkey, of Hungary, and of the Roman states, are among the largest known. They are nearly all distinguishable by ample horns spreading sideways.

ITALY.-That in the Papal dominions is not found represented on the ancient basreliefs of Rome, but was introduced most probably by the Goths, or at the same time with the buffalo. Italy possesses another race, presumed to have existed in Pagan

times, valued for its fine form and white colour. Tuscany produces this race, and droves of them were transplanted to Cuba, and imported into Jamaica.

EGYPT.-Ancient Egypt nourished a large white breed, which, however, is not the most common upon the monuments of that country, where the cattle are usually represented with large irregular marks of black or brown upon a white ground.

ABYSSINIA. In this country there is also a large white breed, but the greater number are variously coloured.

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.-The Hottentots and Caffres rear a fine race, likewise marked with large brown or black clouds: some are of extraordinary size, with the horns directed forward and upwards. It is from these that their war oxen are chosen; they ride them on all occasions, being quick, persevering, extremely docile, and governed by the voice or a whistle of the owners with surprising intelligence. They thrive most in saline pastures, and the kind of food which they procure in these, may cause the peculiarly

fetid smell of their breath, noticed by Mr. Barrow. The long horns of some of this breed, are twisted into spiral curves, said to be affected by a hot iron.

DENMARK.-In this country a breed of large stature is reared, which most likely produced the tall Dutch race, "of which we have seen one," says Mr. Griffith, "weighing a thousand pounds;" from this race sprang the Holstein, which was the parent of the old unimproved English breeds; the Vandals or Goths may have conducted it into

breeds of Salamanca, and transported from SPAIN, and left its traces in the large thence to South America, furnished the root of the fine races which cover the Pampas, near Buenos Ayres, and in Cuba; while the large English supplied that of the United States.

Breeds with small and middle sized horns exist in the Crimea, in a great part of Germany, Sweden, France, England, &c.; and the polled races, or hornless cattle, originally as it would appear, a German breed, according to the passage from Tacitus,“Ne armentis quidem honor aut gloria frontis," have spread to Iceland and Norway, where they are often fed on dried fish.

The following, derived from the several before noted races, is a brief account of the principal BRITISH BREEDS :

1. The Long-horned or Lancaster breed, distinguished by long horns and thick, firm hides; long, close hair; large hoofs, and depth of the fore quarter, gives in proportion, less milk but more cream. They are of various colours, but in general with a white streak along the spine, and a white spot inside of the houghs.