WHITE CATTLE I AN INQUIRY INTO THEIR ORIGIN, ETC. 429 



that if we want to look for the characteristics of the Urus (^Bos 

 primigenius), we must look elsewhere than to the white park 

 cattle which lay claim to be its descendants. 



The source of origin of the present English herds of white cattle 

 is probably Scotland, and, therefore, I think that the history of 

 the Scotch herds should be studied first, and I intend to give it 

 special attention, but here again I must depend upon the work of 

 the historian, archaeologist, and folk-lorist. For instance, to 

 take one example, a number of stones with bulls incised have 

 been found at Burghead, in Elgin. To what do they refer, and 

 have similar stones been found elsewhere 1 The statement has 

 been made that the present herds of white cattle in England are 

 of Scottish origin. Illustrations to bear out such a statement 

 were given in Part 1a, and I would add now the following : — 

 Dr. Chas. Leigh, in his Natural History of Lancashire^ Cheshire, 

 and the Peak of Derbyshire (1700), thus describes the Middleton 

 herd — " In a park near Bury, in Lancashire, are wild cattle 

 belonging to Sir Ralph Ashton of Middleton. These, I presume, 

 were first brought from the high-lands of Scotland. They have 

 no horns, but are like the wild bulls and cows upon the Continent 

 of America." Again, in The Natural History and Antiquities 

 of Northumherland, by John Wallis (1769), it is stated that 

 " In the park of the Right Honourable the Earl of Tanker ville, 

 at Chillingham, there is a species of wild white cattle, of a 

 diminutive size, said to have been first brought from the High- 

 lands of Scotland, but at what particular time cannot be 

 remembered." Further, Leonard Jenyns, in his Manual of 

 British Vertebrate Animals (1835), notes under "Bos" — 

 "a wild breed (Bewick, Quad., p. 38), formerly met with in 

 Scotland, but now extinct, said to have been characterized by 

 their white colour, with the muzzle and ears black." 



The British Museum Natural History authorities do not seem 

 to have accepted the white cattle as indigenous, for in Leach's 

 Systematic Catalogue (1816),^ under the " List of the indigenous 



^ " Systematic Catalogue of the specimens of the indigenous Mammalia 

 and Birds that are preserved in the British Museum, with their localities 

 and authorities, to which is added a list of the described species that are 

 wanting to complete the collection of British Mammalia and Birds." By 

 W. G. Leach. Dated British Museum, Aug. 30th, 1816. 



