220 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



White Cattle : An Inquiry into their Orig-in and History. 



By R. Hedger Wallace. 



[Read 26tli April, 1898.] 



This subject naturally divides itself into two parts — first, the 

 origin of the race or breed ; and secondly, the history of the herds, 

 past and present. I confine my attention in this paper to the 

 origin of this breed. 



Part Ia. . 



This is not the first occasion on which the subject of white and 

 so-called wild cattle has been brought before the Society. Exactly 

 ten years ago Mr. E/obert Turner read a paper on "The Cadzow 

 Herd of White Cattle " {Transactions, Yol. II., N.S., pp. 222-244), 

 and previously, in 1880, Mr. Edward H. Alston also touched upon 

 the subject in his article on "Mammalia" in The Fauna of Scotland, 

 published under the auspices of this Society. The origin of our 

 common herds of cattle is a question of interest to the agriculturist 

 and naturalist, and it is from the point of view of its being a 

 debatable question in agricultural natural history or zoology 

 that I approach the subject. 



I would first direct attention to the views expressed by Messrs. 

 Alston and Turner in the papers already referred to. A 

 commonly accepted view regarding white cattle is, that they are 

 the true descendants, in an unbroken line, of the aboriginal cattle 

 that existed in Britain in prehistoric times, commonly known as 

 TJrus, Forest Cattle, Park Cattle^ Wild White Cattle, and distinctly 

 as Bos priinigenius, Bojanus [PL IV.]. Mr. Alston says, "to me the 

 evidence appears overwhelmingly to prove that the modern Park 

 Cattle are not wild survivors of the Urus, but are the descendants 

 of a race which had escaped from domestication, and had lived a 

 feral life until they were enclosed in the parks and chases of the 



