hundred guineas have
lately been more than once paid for a celebrated tup. Colonel Towneley's
Shorthorn bull, Master Butterfly, was, not long since, disposed of to an
Australian buyer for L1,260. At the sale of Mr. Bates's stock in 1850,
a stock of Shorthorns, including calves, brought on the average L116 5s.
per head. At the Earl Ducie's sale in 1852, a three year old
cow--Duchess--realised 700 guineas.

The color of an animal is, to some extent, a criterion of the purity
of its breed. Roan is a favourite hue with the breeders of Shorthorns.
There have been celebrated sires and dams of that breed perfectly white;
but that color, or rather absence of color, is now somewhat unpopular,
partly from the idea that it is a sign of weakness of constitution--a
notion for which there appears to me to be no foundation in fact.
The slightest spot of black, or even a very dark shade, is regarded
to be a blemish of the most serious kind when observed on the pelt
of a Shorthorn. The Herefords are partly white, partly red; the Devon
possesses in general a deep red hue; the Suffolks are usually of a dun
or faint reddish tint; the Ayrshires are commonly spotted white and red;
and the Kerrys are seen in every shade between a jet black and a deep
red. Uniformity in color would be most desirable in the case of each
variety, and this object could easily be attained if breeders devoted
some attention to it.

_The Form of Animals._--The functions of an animal are arranged by
Bichat, an eminent physiologist, into two classes--those relating to
its nutrition, and those exhibited by its muscular and mental systems.
The first class of functions comprise the _vegetative_, or organic life
of the animal, and the second class constitute its _relative_ life.
Adopting this arrangement, we may say, then, that those animals in which
the vegetative life is far more energetic than the relative life are
best suited for the purposes of the feeder. In tigers, wolves, and dogs
the relative life predominates over the vegetative; the muscles are
almost constantly in a high degree of tension, and the processes of
nutrition are in constant requisition to supply the waste of muscle.
On the other hand, in oxen, sheep, and pigs, at least when in a state
of domesticity, the muscles are not highly developed; they do not
largely tax the vegetative processes, and, consequently, the substances
elaborated under the influence of the vegetative life rapidly increase.
The f