Hence we see that three forms or species of Bos, originally inhabitants of Europe, have been domesticated; but there is no improbability in this fact, for the genus Bos readily yields to domestication. Besides these three species and the zebu, the yak, the gayal, and the arni[190] (not to mention the buffalo or genus Bubalus) have been domesticated; making altogether seven species of Bos. The zebu and the three European species are now extinct in a wild state, for the cattle of the _B. primigenius_ type in the British parks can hardly be considered as truly wild. Although certain races of cattle, domesticated at a very ancient period in Europe, are the descendants of the three above-named fossil species, yet it does not follow that they were here first domesticated. Those who place much reliance on philology argue that our cattle were imported from the East.[191] But as races of men invading any country would probably give their own names to the breeds of cattle which they might there find domesticated, the argument seems inconclusive. There is indirect evidence that our cattle are the descendants of species which originally inhabited a temperate or cold climate, but not a land long covered with snow; for our cattle, as we have seen in the chapter on Horses, apparently have not the instinct of scraping away the snow to get at the herbage beneath. No one could behold the magnificent wild bulls on the bleak Falkland Islands in the southern hemisphere, and doubt about the climate being admirably suited to them. Azara has remarked that in the temperate regions of La Plata the cows conceive when two years old, whilst in the much hotter country of Paraguay they do not conceive till three years old; "from which fact," as he adds, "one may conclude that cattle do not succeed so well in warm countries."[192]