222 TKANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



that there have been from time to time infusions of fresh blood 

 into the herd, and that their so-called wild habits are mainlv the 

 result of their treatment for centuries." 



Such, then, are the conclusions that have already been placed 

 before the Societv. With the Cadzow herd I shall deal later, 

 when inquiring into the history of various herds of white cattle in 

 Britain. I may here say that Martin, writing in 1852 about " the 

 semi-wild cattle of Chatelherault Park, Lancashire \sic\, belonging 

 to the Duke of Hamilton," says, " these feral cattle are larger and 

 more robust than the Chillingham . . . The cows, and also 

 the bulls, are generally polled or hornless." Thus, 50 years ago, 

 these cattle were re2;arded as feral. Personallv, I hold the same 

 opinion of these white cattle as Messrs. Alston and Turner ; but 

 I go a step further, and I think I will be able to show that these 

 cattle are simply the descendants of Koman cattle imported into 

 the country during the Roman occupation. This is the view held 

 bv Professor Hu2;hes, the Woodwardian Professor of Geolo2:v at 

 Cambridge (Journ. Pvoy. Agric. Soc. England, 1894, Vol. V., 

 3rd Series, Pt. III. — Archseologia, 1894-5, Vol. LV., pp. 

 125-158), and Mr. Lydekker, the well-known authority on 

 Mammalia. I consider thai we can even trace their origin to 

 one or two sources. They come either from white cattle imported 

 for sacrificial purposes, which, being scarce, were much prized and 

 carefully protected (they would be the '•' clean oxen," or oxen 

 chosen for sacrifice, which often had to be entirely free from black 

 spots or even a single black hair) ; or from collections of white 

 calves, which, being dropped by dark-coloured cattle, were re- 

 garded in the P^oman period as a portent of good to the individual 

 or state, as the case might be, and were therefore looked upon as of 

 much value and preserved. They may come simply from the 

 larire whitish domestic cattle, common in the Ptoman oeriod, 

 and preserved in Britain simply because they were large. This 

 large white breed even now exists in Italy, Hungary, and 

 Roumania, and such an animal, when compared with the in- 

 digenous cattle, as represented by the Kerry cattle for example, 

 would no doubt appeal to the business instincts of our cattle- 

 breeding forefathers. 



While placing these points before the Society, I cannot lay 

 claim to originality. Many of them were advanced over fifty years 



