258 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



latter, which bears more the character of a mountain race — 

 smaller, very strong, and much more hardy. One point deserves 

 special attention — the prepotency of our present white Hungarian 

 and South Italian cattle are generally acknowledged, and this 

 further points to an ancient breed with a strong prepotency of 

 transmission. It is, no doubt, to this power in the cattle 

 imported by the Ptomans that w^e owe the present markings 

 of our white park cattle. Without selection, and under feral 

 conditions, cattle revert, become whole-coloured, and assume 

 lighter colours only if such be the character of the original stock. 

 Darwin, Sanson, and Feser all agree in saying that yellow or 



Fig. 26. — Picture from Pompeii (from Storer). 



fawn colour is noticeable, and comes out commonlv when there is 

 reason to suspect a commingling of two or more ancient breeds. 

 Before passing away from the white domestic cattle of the 

 Continent, I must refer to the white cattle of Roumania. Here, 

 throughout a country as large as England and half of Scotland 

 together, there is only one breed of cattle — a white race — and these 

 cattle to-day maintain much of the form and stamp of the oxen 

 figured on old Roman frescoes (Fig. 26). Writing about these 

 cattle, in the Live Stock Journal, Mr. William Carnesrie savs : — 

 " White is far and away their predominant colour, although some 

 of them trend towards a dun to brownish hue on their upper and 



