From his
account it seems that about eighty or ninety years ago, they were
rare and kept as curiosities at Buenos Ayres. The breed is
universally believed to have originated amongst the Indians
southward of the Plata; and that it was with them the commonest
kind. Even to this day, those reared in the provinces near the
Plata show their less civilised origin, in being fiercer than
common cattle, and in the cow easily deserting her first calf, if
visited too often or molested. It is a singular fact that an almost
similar structure to the abnormal one of the niata breed,
characterises, as I am informed by Dr. Falconer, that great extinct
ruminant of India, the Sivatherium. (8/2. A nearly similar
abnormal, but I do not know whether hereditary, structure has been
observed in the carp, and likewise in the crocodile of the Ganges:
"Histoire des Anomalies" par M. Isid. Geoffroy St. Hilaire tome 1
page 244.) The breed is very TRUE; and a niata bull and cow
invariably produce niata calves. A niata bull with a common cow, or
the reverse cross, produces offspring having an intermediate
character, but with the niata characters strongly displayed:
according to Se¤or Muniz, there is the clearest evidence, contrary
to the common belief of agriculturists in analogous cases, that the
niata cow when crossed with a common bull transmits her
peculiarities more strongly than the niata bull when crossed with a
common cow.
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