234 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



work — " Wild Traits in Tame Animals,"' by Dr. Louis Robinson — 

 the statement that the " wild white cattle " are direct descendants 

 of the Urus or Bos jji'imigenius, I took the liberty of asking the 

 author what proof he had that such was the case. I now take 

 the further liberty of quoting some parts of his exceedingly cour- 

 teous and interesting reply : — 



Dr. Robinson says — "I am afraid I can only refer you to the 

 statements made by Darwin, Nilsson, Riitimeyer, and Boyd 

 Dawkins. Your conjecture interests me very much, especially as 

 I have long had doubts as to whether ' wild ' white cattle of 

 Chillingham and elsewhere are the descendants of any truly wild 

 breed. One scarcely ever finds wild animals outside the Arctic 

 Zone of a white colour, and I think it is extremely probable that 

 human selection long ages ago accounts for their colour. You 

 will find some very interesting notes on the subject in Darwin's 

 ' Animals and Plants under Domestication,' page 84. After 

 reading a great deal of the literature published on the subject, I 

 have come to the conclusion that practically all the views put 

 forward as to the descent of various strains of modern cattle from 

 this and that wild ancestor are not much more than guesses. 

 I think we may be fairly sure of this, that in a country as 

 settled and civilised as Britain was at the time of the Roman 

 invasion there were few, if any. truly wild cattle. One finds that 

 in all parts of the world where men have horses — and also among 

 the savasfes of South Africa — the cattle have been brought under 

 human control. This seems rather to support your view that the 

 cattle of Chillingham are feral and not truly wild." 



Our common cattle, Ijos taurus, is no doubt a mixed product of 

 extremely numerous and very diverse factors, developed in 

 widely separated regions. This animal when wild was probably 

 hunted by man, but, tamed, it has accompanied him in all his 

 wanderings. Its geological history in Britain, according to Owen, 

 is first a large species of ox, Bos antiquus, followed by a somewhat 

 smaller but still stupendous wild ox, Bos primigenius, succeeded 

 in turn bv an abori spinal British ox of much smaller stature with 

 short horns, Bos longifrons. This, says Owen, was probably the 

 source of the domesticated cattle of the Celtic race before the 

 Roman invasion. Cassar tells us that Britain was well peopled, 

 and that they possessed numerous large herds of domesticated 



