[Illustration: Hungarian Ox, _Bos Taurus_, from a specimen in the British Museum.] MR. SWAINSON'S TRANSCENDENTAL ATTEMPT AT CLASSIFICATION. The following very laboured attempt to arrange the various species of _Genus Bos_ into groups, according to the Quinary or Circular System of M'Leay, is from the pen of Mr. Swainson--the precise and fastidious Swainson--who, from the number and boldness of his hypothetical views in every department of Zoology, may be truly regarded as the beau-ideal of a speculative naturalist--one of those, in short, so well described by Swift, "whose chief art in division hath been to grow fond of some proper mystical number, which their imaginations have rendered sacred to a degree, that they force common reason to find room for it in every part of nature; _reducing_, _including_, and _adjusting_, every _genus_ and _species_ within that compass, by coupling some against their wills, and banishing others at any rate." After describing the various members of the Bovine Family according to the Procrustean method of stretching and chopping, Mr. Swainson continues in his peculiarly dogmatic style "The types of form of the _Genus Bos_, above enumerated, _we shall now demonstrate_ to be a natural group. We have seen that the first represented by the _Bos Scoticus_, or Scotch Wild Ox, is an untameable savage race, which preserves, even in the domestication of a park, all that fierceness which the ancient writers attributed to the Wild Bulls of Britain and of the European Continent. Let those who imagine that the influence of civilization, of care, and of judicious treatment, will alter the natural instincts of animals, look to this as a palpable refutation of their doctrine. Where is that boasted power of man over nature? Where the fruits of long-continued efforts and fostering protection? The _Bos Scoticus_ is as untameable now as it was centuries ago, simply for this reason, that it is in accordance with an unalterable law of nature; a law by which one type in every circular group is to represent the worst passions of mankind--fierceness, or cruelty, or horror. In the _Urus_ we consequently have the type of the wild and untameable _Ferae_ among quadrupeds, the eagles among birds, and the innumerable analogies which all the subordinate groups of these two great divisions present. Following this is the typical Ox--a god among the ancients, and that animal above all others, which, from its vital importance to man, we should naturally expect such a nation as the ancient Egyptians would exalt above all others. It is, in short, the typical perfection of the whole order of Ruminants, and consequently represents the _Quadrumana_ among quadrupeds, and the _Incessores_ among birds. The third type is no less beautiful; but it cannot be illustrated without going into details which it is not our present intention to make public: suffice it, however, to say, that in the prominent hump upon the shoulders we have a