Behind the level of the horns the normal or backward slope proceeds
until the middle of the length of the neck is reached, when it
encounters transversely a sharp upstanding crest and beyond this the
hair is directly reversed from a point over the shoulders, and here
a whorl is found. From this point the stream returns to its ancient
and normal course and so passes to the tail. When the base of the tail
is reached a very significant and apparently whimsical arrangement of
the hair down the centre of the tail is observed. This consists in a
line of stiff hairs which stand up at right angles to the surface of
the tail, and it gradually passes into the normal again when the more
muscular part of the tail is passed. I should add here that the crest
and reversed hair on the back are common to many wild ungulates of
this ruminant group, and a good example of it is seen in an antelope,
Oryx Beisa, which I figured and described in a paper at the Zoological
Society of London.
Arrangements of its hair so audacious as these need explanation, and it
is found in the mode of life of the cow. So large a part of its daily
life is spent in the business of grazing with her muzzle close to the
ground, during which the neck of the animal is constantly stretched
downwards from the back at the level of the shoulders, that the skin,
which is very loose in this and most other portions of its body, is
dragged upon to allow of the extreme flexion of its neck. This traction
is for all this time acting against the normal or backward slope of
the hairs, and has given rise to this victory of a new force through a
thousand generations. It is equally clear that a mechanical explanation
of the line of erect hairs on the first nine or twelve inches of the
tail is forthcoming, for one has only to watch a cow standing on a hot
day, undergoing her torment of flies, to see it writ large. Very strong
little muscles are found at the base of the tail, those along the more
free portion becoming smaller and smaller until they disappear towards
the tip. These give a powerful flicking action to the long heavy tail
and I once made some observations as to this on a number of cows which
were grazing in summer on a comparatively cool wind-swept hillside
in the western end of the Isle of Wight. I watched several cows on
different occasions and found that one would flick her tail 348 times
and another 1082 times per hour. Giving these cows an eight hours’
working day, “working” for their living in grazing and ruminating by
turns, one gains a vivid idea of the number of times per diem these
powerful muscles of the tail contract. If we call it a day of four
hours of grazing and four of ruminating, for the sake of argument, we
get 1392 to 4328 flicks of the tail each day in the time of flies,
leaving out of account the casual flicks in which she would indulge
when flies were not tormenting her. It is hardly necessary to point out
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account