ON XIBTII CATTLE. 273

23. Some Notes on the Niata Breed of Cattle ( B o s dattrus). By ERNEST GIBSON, F.Z.S.

rRc(Ged M;trol~ 12, 1915 : Bead April 13, 1915.;

(Text-figures 1 & 2 . )

VAILIATION.

WHEN Cha,rles Darwin * published in ‘ The Voyage of H.lb1.S. Beagle,’ more than 80 years a,go, his account of this curious race, he attributed its then rarity and probable extinction to the abnormal formation of the lips, which rendered browsing difficult in times of drought, .i. e. when the pasture became very short. Be that ass i t may, its career would seem to be now nearly ended. Dr. W. J. Holland, in his very interesting book ‘ To the River Plate and Back,’ p. 117 (1912-13), sums up its epitome as follows :-‘; Dr. Bruch, the learned Curator of Zoology at the Museum of La Plata, informs me that the race is either verging upon extinction, or has already become totally extinct. Although it is still reported to survive in the Province of Catamarm, Dr. B ~ d i told me that a German naturalist, who recently visited Argentina for the express pnrpose of studying these creatures, and travelled widely in quest of them, was unable to see or secure a single specimen”?. I have an impression of reding very recently in a director’s report of his visit to one of the .Estancias belonging to his Company in North Partagonix, that he saw quite a number of Niatm cattle ; but it is to be fea.red that what he saw antl what his Company is the proud possessor of, were only some shockingly bad Creole a n i n d s of the old type.

I n the ‘ La Nacion ’ newspaper of 14th May, 1890, 01- nearly a quarter of a century ago, Seiior Ranion Lista (Arge&ne explorer and naturalist) published an open letter, directed to Dr. Francisco P. Moreno, of which the following is a translation :-

‘‘ An Interesting A ~ ~ i n d - T h e actual great Bgricultural Show (Palermo, Buerios Aires) presents much that is admirable in respect of its livestock ; bat with all frankness, I must confess that what has most aroused my curiosity a s a naturalist is i i

little snub-nosed cow, which might well be denominated Cow- dog from its resemblance to a Bull-clog, of which it has the same defiant antl sneering expression, produced by the permanent r.etract.ion of the upper lip, leaving the teeth exposed in a manner similar to that breed of clogs.

* This breed was further discussed hy Darwin (‘Variation of Animals and Plants uiider Domestication,’ i. pp. 109-111, ed. 1906) and by Komanes (‘ 1)aTwin and after Darwin,’ ii. p. 192), who published a figure of t h e skull described by Owen. + The skull fignred by Dr. Holland is nexrlp intermediate in length of j;tw betweeti the skull of ordin cattle and that of the Niata breed figored by Koinanes.

274 YR. ERNEST GIBSON ON

"It is the property of Mr. Ernest Gibson, of Aj6", who intends sending i t to the Zoological Society of London, in whose n:itura,l history museum t exists a skeleton of the sa.me animal, sturlied a,nd described by the celebratecl naturalist Professor Owen.

The hea,d is small and the lower jaw very projecting. In its other characteristics i t preseiits nothing notable beyond a continua.1 restlessness, well in keeping with its wild disposition, and marked contra.st with the plncidity of the large and beautiful European breeds stirrounding it.

" Tlie Cow-dog is perhaps at this chte n.n example of ata>vism, unique in this country, of a breed produced naturdly in the Panipas of Bnenos Aires, and very recently extirpated by the foremost Argentine stockbreeders, who were na.turally a.fraid of the increase in their herds of a race of so little utility and unadapted for the struggle for existence, inasmuch as it was the first to succumb in the great droughts when the abnormal conformation of the jaw-bones handicapped it in grazing on the scanty and shortened pasture.

" I n the time of the tyrant R,osas it was believed that, the 3iata.s constituted an indigenoils race which had nothing to do

"The Aj6 cow is almost, a dwarf.

with the cattle imported fi&m Paraguay by the brothers' Guess in 1558.

"Later on it has been said tha t they originated from an African breed, introduced on both sides of the River Plate. !Phis latt,er supposition has been based upon the existence in Equatorial Africa of bovine animals which resemble, though remotely, the Niata type of the Pa.inpas. Ru t up to date, so fiir as is known, no one has been a.ble to produce any proof in reference to the importation to the Argentine or Uruguay of bulls or cows from that country.

'( I n my opinion, the Niat.a type is nothing more tha.n il variety of the primitive bovine type, introducer1 into the country by the Go6ss brothers, and later on propagated in the Yampean zone comprehended between the Sierra ranges of Tandil and Ventana.

'' On this hypothesis, the question arises a s to the manner in which this strange breed should have evolved itself in a strain so notably distinct fIom the ordinary C,reole class.

'' First, of all, whoever has read the ' Journal of Resea,rches into the Natural History and Geology ' (admirable investigdions of the illustrious Darwin) will recall what he states ,regarding the trantjitory appearance in France of t'he Niata. type of the Plate, which has since been confirmed from other pa.rts of Europe; but it has been described as ho~nless and of a less ;cccentuated prognathism.

* The district of Aj6, pronounced " Ah-h6," lies at the month of the estuary of

f 1 The skeleton is in the Museum of the R. Coll. Surgeons.-EDlroR P. Z. S.] the River Platp, near Cape Pan Antonio.

NI ITA CATTLE. 275

" These data, which nevertheless should be taken with some reserve, lead one to imagine the existence of a possible priniitive I3uropean Nia ta type, the progenitor of that of America ; but perhaps the said instances were in reality only msnal mon- strosities, and in nowise to be confounded with permanent variations of races,"

The head of the individual cow alluded to at the beginning of the foregoing article is figuretl in the acconipanying photograph (text-fig. l) , the skull (text-fig. 2 ) being that of its mother.

Text-fignre 1.

Head of liviiig exninple of Niata COT.

Some time in 1889 I was inforniecl of their existence in the possession of a neighbour (a widow occupying a small piece of land in the township of Aj6), and after a little clifficulty succeeded in buying them; but my agent could learn nothing of their origin. The family-group consisted of three generations-a very old cow, her daughter, and the calf of the latter; the last pre- sented only the usual characteristics of the prevalent Creole breed, and consequently was promptly converted into veal ! Its niother went to the Rural Exhibition in Buenos Ayres the following year, as chronicled by Don Ramon Lista, in conipnny with ~ o i n e fine stock ; arid when the Show WMS closed I trans- ferred it (at Dr. Moreno's reqwst) to the Zoological Park. How long it lived there subsequently I cannot tell ; but I should not

27G MR. ERNEST GIBSON ON

be surprized to learn that the sknll fignred in Dr. Hol1:tnd’s book as existent in the La Plata Museum belongs to the animal in question. The old cow was of a totally different disposition from her daughter, being perfectly tmie and placid. She was kept i n a little lucerne-paddock at the back of my Estancia bnsiness office, and would frequently approach close to, and gaze through, the windows. But I confess that, I never glanced up on feeling the shadow cast on my desk, and m e t the aspect of her extraordinary visage in such close proximity, without experiencing it distinct thrill and sbotk of almost terror. She (lied nlho in dne time of sheer old age whilst 1 was in England, and unfortunately the lower jaw was not retained for me along with the sknll.

Text-figure 2 .

Skull of old Nlata cow.

Dnring some forty years residence in t h e River Plate (mostly in the coiintry districts), it has not been nip good foitune t o gather m y further information regarding the Niata type. Epen before the present improvement on the oiigiiial Creole race had made any way, and when many many thousand head of cattle Iiwd pilsaed under my notice, 1 never ~ R W a single ex:imple on ritliel, maygin of the River Plate. Since 1890 until recently (1914) thk sknll a n d photograph h u n g on the walls of ITJY E<taritiil office in Aj6, and ~eerr freqnently comiriented upon by visitors j hit tbongli mine few of these had heart1 of‘ the breed, their personal knowledge reached no further. The one exception,

NIATA CATTLE. 277

an English frientl, told me tha t as a boy in Uruguay (Depart- ment of Sm Jose), about the year 1870, he well remembers R

little herd of seven or eight Niata cows with their accompanying bull. They belonged to a Uruguayan neighbour, were exceed- ingly tame and (in those clays of no fences) were always tres- passing, i t being his privilege and clelight to chase them back into their own territory. The prevalent coloiir seems to have been dun, with black legs (resembling the Jersey?). An im- pressive characterihtic was the bnllclog-like habit of “ sniffing ” whenever the muzzle was raised from the ground (a habit I also had particularly noted). I n 1880 there Came one 01- two solitary cows, accompnnying bought troops of ordinary cattle ; these had probably been thrown in by the seller for the tlrover’s con- sumption. Subsequently my infornmnt lived thirty years in t>he Argentine (on a central Bnenos Ayrean estancin), but never again met the quaint friends of his youth.

[NoTE.-The skull of the old Niatn cow shown in text-fig. 2 has been prehentecl t o the British Museum (Nat. Hist.) by Mr. Gibbon.-Editor, P. Z. S.]