268 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OP GLASGOW. 



savs that black cattle means anv bovine cattle reared for slausrbter 

 in distinction from dairy cattle ; and in the " Encyclopsedia 

 Londinensis " (1810) I find it stated that — "Cattle are distin- 

 guished into large or black cattle and into small cattle; of the- 

 former are horses, bulls, oxen, cows, calves, and heifers ; amongst 

 the latter are rams, ewes, sheep, lambs, goats, kids, (fee." The 

 same work says of "horned cattle" that — "The original appella- 

 tion appears to have been that of black cattle, from whence was 

 understood ox, bull, or cow; and the reason assigned is because 

 formerly these animals were all entirely black in every part of 

 this island ; and that the mixture of other colours has been wholly 

 fortuitous, and introduced bv bringing cattle across the channel 

 from the opposite shores." The Saxon word neat [cattle] implies 

 horned and black. It is said to be closelv related to the Friesic 

 ned, nat, which means particularly horned cattle ; to the Danish 

 nod, or black cattle ; and to the Swedish not, which also means 

 black cattle. It is curious, if white was the colour of our 

 indigenous cattle, that no word survives in our farm vocabulary 

 which would point them out as clearly as black cattle are 

 indicated. '^ Such a wide meaning to black cattle, I think, sup- 

 ports my conjecture, and I think further indicates that while 

 cattle used to be compared with them, oxen was a great factor in 

 the economv of our forefathers ; in fact, absence of oxen is a sign 

 of enclosures and a change to farmers from peasant-proprietors. 

 The villein had his own " catel," and preferred them to horses, as 

 they were "mannes" meat when dead, while the horse was 

 carrion. But these animals would be inferior in size to the white 

 cattle, and these, we learn, were preserved in parks attached to 



1 In the Gentleman's Magazine for 1756 we read of "a fair for the sale 

 of black cattle once a fortnight." Before 1805, when Shorthorns began to 

 be kept south of the Tweed, Scotch cattle were black. The Shetland 

 cattle were uniformly black and diminutive in size. Then the Orkney 

 cattle were of the same colour, but larger and coarser. Like these 

 were the North Highlanders, the native breed of Sutherland, Ross, and 

 Inverness. Next came the small breed of " Skibos," like the Kerries, the 

 large-horned Aberdeen cattle, the small-horned or Brae cattle, and the 

 Falkland or Fife breed. Of the polled types, there were the Angus 

 Doddies, intermediate between the Buchan Doddies and polled Galloways. 

 These breeds were all black in colour, and practically covered the 

 country. 



