Re: Res: Res: [tied] Reindeer domestication : two origins

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...> wrote:

>
> At 2:40:10 PM on Thursday, December 18, 2008, Andrew
> Jarrette wrote:
>
> > As an aside, what _does_ one call the singular of "cattle"
> > in English?
>
> 'Cow' is pretty standard U.S. usage. 'A head of cattle' is
> correct, if a bit clumsy.
>
> > One can't say "a cattle", nor "an ox" because that's a
> > castrated male, isn't it,
>
> Not necessarily; the term is also correctly applied to any
> large bovine animal, and I've seen it used as a singular of
> 'cattle'.
>
> > and "a neat" is too archaic and refers only to draught
> > animals I think,
>
> No, it's simply 'a bovine animal'.
>
> Brian
>

So what's pretty standard British usage? (I'm guessing you're British,
from what and how you write) Would you say "I see an ox by the road"?
Or "I see a head of cattle by the road"?