WHITE CATTLE : AN INQUIRY INTO THEIR ORIGIN, ETC. 241 



of the white park catile show that the Urus {Bos primigenius) 



could not have been their ancestor. First, because the horns 



of our white herds are not all the same : those of the 



Chartley herd, for example, differ very materially from those 



of the Chillingham. Again, the Urus horns are very long 



and curved, first forward and downwards, and only upturned at 



the end. They curved forward in the plane of the animal's back. 



The horns of our white cattle are, like those of Roman oxen, 



ancient and modern, upright and upturned, lying approximately 



in the plane of the occipital region — sometimes called mooney or 



lyre shaped. ^ The two patterns of horns are shown if we hold a 



pitchfork, first horizontally, as if lying on an animal's back — the 



Urus type — and then vertically, as if at the side of the head — the 



white park cattle type. The Urus may have aflfected some of our 



other breeds of cattle, other than the white park cattle, and then 



only at second hand, through importations of long-horned German 



cattle. The larger breeds of cattle begin to appear, in many cases, 



from the Saxon invasion, most probablv because the Saxons im- 



ported oxen from their old homes between the mouth of the 



Rhine and Jutland. Some of our domestic cattle have shown 



the Urus type. For instance, Dickenson, writing in 1852 on the 



"Farming of Cumberland," says : — "Within living memory the 



cattle in Bewcastle, Stapleton, Kirkandrews, Alston, and the 



neighbouring parishes were of the long-horned breed, and chiefly 



of dark colours, such as blacks, browns, and dark reds (the last 



colour most prevalent), with the distinctive white backs." Here 



we have the Urus markings — long horns, dark colour, and white 



back j but I do not know if any one claimed them to be 



indigenous descendants of the Bos primigenius. Now, in Sand- 



^ The Chartley cattle, which are said to have been enclosed 650 years ago 

 from the Forest of Needwood, are essentially Longhorns, and have a very 

 distinct devsdap. A writer in the Field says — " The Chartley type of head 

 varies much from that at Chillingham, and shows a tendency towards the 

 old breed from which Bakewell developed his Longhorns. The Cadzow 

 head is far less distinct than either of these two, more common, with 

 greater affinity to domesticated specimens." The cattle at Lyme Park, 

 Cheshire (Figs. 11 and 12), were more strongly longhorned than the 

 Chartley cattle, and like the ancient spiral-horned Emilian and Umbrian 

 breed. These longhorned white cattle may have a cross of the German 

 Longhorns in them. 



