Or else the tick attacks them, and soon a fine, strong beast becomes
a miserable, shrunken, tottering wreck. Once cattle get really low
in condition they are done for. Sheep can be shifted when their
pasture fails, but you can't shift cattle. They die quicker on the roads
than on the run. The only thing is to watch and pray for rain.
It always comes -- after the cattle are dead.

As for describing the animals themselves, it would take volumes.
Sheep are all alike, but cattle are all different. The drovers on the road
get to know the habits and tendencies of each particular bullock --
the one-eyed bullock that pokes out to the side of the mob,
the inquisitive bullock that is always walking over towards the drover
as if he were going to speak to him, the agitator bullock who is always
trying to get up a stampede and prodding the others with his horns.

In poor Boake's "Where the Dead Men Lie" he says:

Only the hand of Night can free them --
That's when the dead men fly!
Only the frightened cattle see them --
See the dead men go by!
Cloven hoofs beating out one measure,
Bidding the stockman know no leisure --
That's when the dead men take their pleasure!
That's when the dead men fly!

Cattle on a camp see ghosts, sure enough -- else, why is it that,
when hundreds are in camp at night -- some standing, some lying asleep,
all facing different ways -- in an instant, at some invisible
cause of alarm, the whole mob are on their feet and all racing