noticed. The leaves or stalks of vegetables form a kind of food, which, in proportion to its bulk, affords but little support, and requires, therefore, a complicated digestive apparatus and a long chemical process, in order to extract from it the scanty nutriment it contains, and to prepare it for being applied to the uses of the system. This apparatus is usually considered as consisting of four stomachs.

The grass, which is devoured in large quantities by these animals, and which undergoes but little mastication in the mouth, is hastily swallowed, and is received through the esophagus (a) into a capacious reservoir, called the paunch (b). This cavity is lined internally with a thick membrane, beset with numerous flattened papillæ, and is often divided into pouches by transverse contractions. While the food remains in this bag it continues in rather a dry state; but the moisture with which it is surrounded contributes to soften it, and to prepare it for a second mastication, which is effected in the following manner :-Connected with the paunch is another, but much smaller sac, which is considered as the second stomach; and from its internal membrane being thrown into numerous irregular folds, forming the sides of polygonal cells, it has been called the honeycomb stomach (c). A singular connection exists between this stomach and the preceding; for, while the esophagus appears to open naturally into the paunch, there is on each side of its termination a muscular ridge which projects from the orifice of the latter, so that the two together form a channel leading into the second stomach, and thus the food can readily pass from the esophagus into either of these cavities, according as the orifice of the one or the other is open to receive it.

It appears from the observations of Sir E. Home, that liquids drunk by the animal pass at once into the second stomach, the entrance into the first being closed. The food contained in the paunch is transferred, by small portions at a time, into the second, or honeycomb stomach, in which there is always a supply of water for moistening the portion of food introduced into it. It is in this latter stomach, then, that the food is rolled into a ball and thrown up, through the esophagus, into the mouth, where it is again masticated at leisure, and while the animal is reposing; a process which is well known as chewing the cud, or, rumination.

After the mass has been thoroughly ground down by the teeth, it is again swallowed, when it passes along the esophagus into the third stomach (d)-called the manyplies, or psalterium-the orifice of which is brought forward by the muscular bands forming the two ridges already noticed, which are continued from the second stomach, and which, when they contract, effectually prevent any portion of the food from dropping into either of the preceding cavities.

In the ox, this third stomach is described by Sir Everard as having the form of a crescent, and as containing four-and-twenty septa, or broad folds of its inner membrane. These folds are placed parallel to one another, like the leaves of a book, excepting that they are of unequal breadths, and that a narrow fold is placed between each of the broader ones. Whatever is introduced into this cavity must pass between these folds, and describe three-fourths of a circle, before it can arrive at the orifice leading to the fourth stomach (e), which is so near to that of the third, that the distance between them does not exceed three inches.

There is, however, a more direct channel of communication between the esophagus and the fourth stomach, along which milk taken by the calf, and which does not require to be either macerated or ruminated, is conveyed directly from the esophagus to this fourth stomach. For at that period the folds of the stomach are not yet separated; and in these animals rumination does not take place till they begin to eat solid food. It is in this fourth stomach, which is called the red, that the proper digestion of the food is performed, and it is here that the coagulation of the milk takes place; on which account the coats of this stomach are employed in dairies, under the name of rennet, to obtain curd from milk.

A regular gradation in the structure of ruminating stomachs may be traced in the different genera of this family of quadrupeds. In those with horns, as the bullock and the sheep, there are two preparatory stomachs for retaining the food previous to rumination, a third for receiving it after it has undergone this process, and a fourth for effecting its digestion. Ruminants without horns, as the camel, dromedary, and llama, have only one preparatory stomach before rumination, answering the purpose of the two first stomachs of the bullock; a second, which takes no share in digestion, being employed merely as a reservoir of water; a third, exceedingly small, and of which

the office has not been yet ascertained; and a fourth, which both receives and digests the food after rumination. Those herbivorous animals which do not ruminate, as the horse and ass, have only one stomach; but the upper portion of it is lined with cuticle, and appears to perform some preparatory office, which renders the food more easily digestible by the lower portion of the same cavity.

The first division* of the Ungulate or hoofed section of the mammalia is thus characterised by Dr. J. E. Gray :

"Two middle toes, separate; cutting-teeth, eight below; upper jaw, callous; grinders, six in each jaw. Frontal bones produced, generally bearing horns-especially in the males. Gullet with two long pouches just before the stomach, used for holding and soaking the food before it is chewed. Using their head and horns in defence."

This family includes the following tribes :-Bovina, Cervina, Giraffina, Moschina, Camellina.

The tribe Bovina is again divided into the sub-tribes :-Bovec, Ovece, Antilopeæ, Caprea.
The sub-tribe Bovec will first be considered.

WE read in the Mosaic record that "Jabal was the father of such as have cattle," and thus the ox appears at a very early period of man's existence on the globe. But, with this fact, we must rest content. As the circumstances attendant on the primeval domestication of the ox are beyond our knowledge, so is our information as limited with regard to the original source from whence it sprung. We know not whether the various races of domestic cattle which are peculiar to different climates are attributable to the same primitive stock, or the contrary; nor among the various wild oxen now extant are we acquainted with one to which we can refer as the type of any one of the domestic races.

Bovida.

+ Bos taurus. Pliny.-Taurus castratus. Johnston.-Vacca. The Stier and Ochs of German writers; and Boeuf of the French.

Gesner. Bos domesticus and Bos taurus. Linnass