WHITE CATTLE : AN INQUIRY INTO THEIR ORIGIN, ETC. 257 



and are akin to the large svhite oxen, with long horns wide apart, 

 found in Italy south of the Po, also to the cream-coloured ox of 

 Lombardy [PL VI.], and to oxen in Spain and Algiers. In ancient 

 Rhaetia, i.e., modern Grisons, the Tyrol, and northern parts of 

 Lombardy, we tind to-day a tall, slightly-built breed of silver- 

 f^rer horned cattle. From Columella and Plinv we learn that 

 in Venetia and the Alpine districts a small insignificant race 

 of cattle existed that were good milkers. 



In the Austrian-Hungarian Empire there are about 9 distinct 

 races and 22 breeds of cattle at present recognised. About six of 

 them are white or lifjht vellowish-grev. but two of them — the 

 Hungarian and Podolian breeds — are pure representatives of the 

 original type. In colour they are generally white, shading to 

 silver-grey. The ears are dark inside ; muzzle and feet black. 

 The horns of the Hungarian breed are long and wide-spreading, 

 tipped with black, but carried uprightly. In the Podolian breed 

 the horns are black, well turned up, and not extra long. The 

 Transylvanian ox may be noticed, as it also is like the true 

 Hungarian, but has more spreading horns, I have been favoured, 

 through the kindness of the Secretary of the National Agricultural 

 Society of Hungary, with an unique collection of photographs, 

 fourteen in number, showinsj Hungarian white bulls, cows, and 

 working oxen. With reference to these photographs, the 

 Secretarv writes me that all the animals were bred on ranges 

 (Puszta) quite wild, their food being pasture only, except in 

 winter time, when thev get hav. ^ The breeding animals also 

 get some grain. In the opinion of the National Agricultural 

 Societv's Secretarv. this race is verv strong, hardv, and 

 contented, and, to use his own expression, "persistent against 

 all pests." The race is very good for farm- working, and for 

 feeding up for beef, but the cows give little milk. There are two 

 varieties of cattle or lines of breeding. The one is the race or 

 breed of the great plains (Alfold), while the other is that of 

 Transvlvania. The former race is taller, but not so hardv as the 



^ These animals, before being broken in to work, are as wild as our park 

 cattle. They hide their young, fight for leadership, the bulls give battle 

 when surprised, and they cannot be approached by strangers, as they will 

 attack them unless they are accompanied by their own herdman, who, like 

 the cattleman of the West, lives in the saddle. 



