222 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



XXIII. 

 THE CADZOW HERD OF WHITE CATTLE. 



BY ROBERT TURNER. 



[Read 24th April, 1888.] 



Among the living antiquities of Clydesdale, the old 

 oaks and the herd of white cattle associated at 

 Cadzow take the first place. The trees, in massive- 

 ness and stubborn hardihood of aspect, stand grim- 

 set veterans from a wind-and-weather warfare of 

 centuries ; and they have an interest beyond as 

 relics of the primeval forest. The cattle are attrac- 

 tive not only from their habits and curious beauty, 

 but because the herd — amid gathering legend and 

 tradition — appears to have had a browsing hold 

 there, with an occasional break from the Middle 

 Ages at least. Direct descent from the mighty Urus 

 of prehistoric Britain has even been claimed for 

 them, not without some facts in support. 



Interested for many years in the herd and its 

 obscure history, I had the pleasure in September, 

 1886, of conducting an excursion of the Society to 

 the forest, when the members had an opportunity 

 of seeing the cattle and of comparing the Cadzow 

 bulls with the Chillingham one that had lately 

 arrived. I then promised to prepare a paper on the 

 subject of the herd, and now — after a lapse of time 

 longer than I anticipated — I submit to you Avhat I 

 have gathered together. 



This is not the first occasion on which the subject 

 has come before the Society. In 1863, Dr. Dewar 

 exhibited a head of one of them as of the species 

 Urus scoticus, Smith ; and the late Mr. Edward R. 

 Alston, in the Fauna of Scotland, article " Mam- 

 malia," published by the Society in 1880, has a short 

 note bearing on them, to which I shall again refer. 



