Anecdotes of the Habits and Instinct of AnimalsLee, R., Mrs.
General
Anecdotes of the Habits and Instinct of Animals
Lee, R., Mrs.
Animal behavior -- Juvenile literature
The Aurochs is the European Bison, and is one of the largest and noblest
of the genus. He stands six feet high at the shoulders, has two sorts of
hair, one short, soft, and woolly, and the other long, rough, and
covering the upper part and sides of the head; the chest, neck and
shoulders, forming an enormous mane, sometimes a foot long. The tongue,
lips and palate have a bluish tint, the eyes are small, and piercing; an
odour resembling both musk and violets exudes from the skin, especially
that part which covers the convex forehead, and which may be smelt at a
distance of a hundred yards. Their flesh is much esteemed, they live in
thickets near swamps, come out at night to eat the bark of young trees,
lichens, and young shoots, carry their head low, are never completely
tamed, detest the common bull, and their only attachment to human beings
is bestowed on their keepers. They are now rare. A few are found in
Lithuanian Poland; but they used to inhabit all the European forests.
The American Bison, now familiarly called a Buffalo, exists in vast
herds in the prairies of the New World. A _mob_ of them, as a herd is
called, is irresistible; destroys everything over which it passes;
numbers hundreds of thousands, and rushes like a cataract over the
plains, with a noise resembling that of thunder. They are very dangerous
animals to attack, hence the sport they afford is more exciting. For
graphic pictures of it, I would advise my readers to peruse the pages of
Mr. Catlin. They delight in salt springs and morasses; the bulls
sometimes fight furiously with each other; their greatest enemy is the
grizzly bear, who frequently brings them down; and they have no antipathy
to the common ox, like their European brethren. Mr. Bryan shot one; and
the bullet passed completely through him, almost cutting his heart in
two, and yet he ran half a mile before he fell.
The Musk Oxen live in the high latitudes of North America, are very
small, but look larger than they are, from the quantity of long, woolly
hair with which they are covered, and which often reaches the ground.
Their flesh smells strongly of musk; and they are easily irritated. Some
stockings made from their long fleece, have been said to equal those
manufactured with silk.
The Chillingham Park Cattle are very handsome, being white with red
ears, and black muzzle; their horns are also white with black tips, and
greatly resemble our Devonshire breed, which is thought to approach
nearer than any other to the Welsh wild cattle of ancient times. They
are fleet, bold, and active, hide their calves for the first week after
they are born, and are at all times dangerous to approach.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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