WHITE CATTLE : AN INQUIRY INTO THEIR ORIGIN, ETC. 233 



Shorthorn and hornless cattle domesticated by the aborigines of 

 Britain before the Roman invasion. Had the Bos p7'irnigenius 

 been the source, we might have expected the Highland and 

 Welsh cattle to have retained some of the characteristics of their 

 great progenitors, and to have been distinguished from other 

 domestic breeds bv their suDcrior size and the length of their 

 horns. The Kyloes and the Runts are, on the contrary, remark- 

 able for their small size, and are characterised either by their 

 short horns, as in the Bos longifrons, or by the entire absence 

 of these weapons." 



The third label, headed '• The Typical Oxen — Bos 2'aurus,'' is 

 in the Zoological Galleries, and was written by Mr. Lydekker. 

 It says: — ''The Aurochs, or Urus, the old wild ox of Europe, is 

 now completely extinct as a wild species, although all the 

 European domestic breeds may be regarded as its more or less 

 modified descendants. . . . The half - wild white cattle of 

 Cbillino:ham and some other British Parks have been regarded as 

 the direct descendants of the Aurochs, but it is more probable 

 that they are derived from domesticated animals, possible from 

 the Italian breed introduced bv the Romans into Britain." 



It will be noticed that this differs somewhat from the first 

 label mentioned as in the Geological Galleries, and the matter is 

 put cautiously also, as a mere conjecture. Mr. Lydekker informs 

 me that the authority for the suggestion that the Chillingham 

 cattle were introduced from Italy is Professor T. M 'Kenny 

 Hughes, of Cambridge, whose name I have alreadv mentioned. 



Whether we think these cattle true descendants of the Urus, or 

 simply descendants of a Roman breed, it is too true, as Sir Wm. 

 Flower writes me, that " there is, unfortunately, no authority for 

 any statement about the origin of the white park cattle of 

 England.'"'" Such evidence as can be offered is what can be 

 accepted simply on the grounds of it being reasonable and 

 appealing to our common sense, with the addition, in the case of 

 the Roman cattle theory of the origin of park cattle, of allowing 

 comparisons being made with the skulls and horns of ancient and 

 modern Italian breeds, ancient Celtic Shorthorns in Britain, 

 Romano-British cattle, and mediieval and modern cattle, in support 

 of statements made in support of the theory. 



On this point I may say that, finding in a recently published 



