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National Geographic : 1925 Dec
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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE Photograph by Smith and Morton A POLLED HEREFORD BULL While it has been commonly accepted that the original wild cow was horned, there have long been well-defined races of hornless or polled cattle. Indeed, certain scientists contend that the polled type is the original Bos taurus. Hornless calves, known as "mooleys" or "muleys," occasionally appear in almost all of the improved horned breeds, and it is not uncommon for these mutations to reproduce their own peculiarity. This polled Hereford bull is a fine example of the hornless type of English "white-face" developed in the United States in recent years by systematic attention to the polled characteristic. There is a recognized ancient relation ship between the Gaur, the great wild ox of Asia, the Yak, such East Indian humped Bibovines as the Gayal and the Banteng, the various buffaloes, the Bison, and our cattle proper. If there be such a thing as a connecting link between the Bisontine and the Taurine (cattle) groups, some authorities maintain that it was probably the East Indian Gayal, or Jun gle Ox, the native habitat of which was the mountain forests east of the Brahma putra. The Gayals were forest rangers, avoid ing the plains and val leys. They browsed off shrubs and tender shoots of trees and grasses. In color they were various shades of brown, with white markings on legs, bel lies, and tips of tails. In size they were not unlike the common ox, and were not only docile under domesti cation, but so fleet of foot that the natives sometimes used them under saddle. The fe males yielded rich milk, and the Hindus would not shed their blood, holding them in the same veneration as the sacred Brahman cow (see Color Plate IV and text, page 640). THE URUS AND THE CELTIC SHORTHORN Aside from the Brahman breed, of re motest Indian origin, it is believed that all present-day types of cattle known in Eu rope and the Americas are descendants of two aboriginal races, one large and commonly known as the Urus, and the other the so- called Celtic Shorthorn. The former ranged throughout western Asia, northern Africa, and practically all of Europe. It is said to have had a hairy coat, varying in color from black and dark brown dur ing the summer months to gray in the winter. It had a white or grayish stripe along the back, and the ancient Teutons knew it as the Aurochs. Caesar in "De Bello Gallico" called the animal the Urus, such as he had known 604
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