THE CADZOW HERD OF WHITE CATTLE. 235 



•even fierce, when they had not room to fly. They 

 were exterminated from economical motives about 

 the year 1760." This is a quiet, careful note. He 

 does not say that they were an untamed native 

 breed, only that they were "mentioned by natural- 

 ists" as such. The next sentence shows that he did 

 not consider them as in any important respect 

 different from other cattle ; and as to their wild 

 habits, he adds: "from their manner of life very shy 

 and even fierce, when they had not room to fly." 

 A resident in the district and interested in these 

 matters, his statement that they had been exter- 

 minated from economical motives about 1760 is, I 

 hold, incontestable, and coincides with Sir Walter 

 Scott's later remarks. 



Heron, in 1793, says: "Here so late as the year 1770 

 were a remnant of those white cattle with black or 

 brown ears or muzzles, which were once common in 

 Scotland. Their shyness and ferocity of temper 

 rendered them troublesome and little useful. They 

 were therefore exterminated in the year above-men- 

 tioned." The date differs here, but Heron was only 

 a passing stranger taking notes, and hence much 

 accuracy in date is hardly to be expected. He 

 agrees with Naismith, however, in saying they were 

 exterminated, and as he fixes a date about twenty 

 years before his visit, there is little room for doubt 

 as to the completeness of this extermination. 



Denholm, who visited Hamilton about the same 

 time as Sir Walter Scott, says : " They had become 

 so fierce that about 1760 they were exterminated." 



Dr. John Walker, professor of Natural History in 

 the University of Edinburgh, wrote his Essays on 

 Natural History and Rural Economy towards the 

 end of the eighteenth century, though they were 

 not published till 1812 after his death. In this book 

 is included his Mammalia Scotica. Under Bos Scoti- 

 cus, he writes : " Pecudes feri, hujus generis, solum 

 adhuc persistunt in sylvis circa Drumlanricum in 

 Nithia, sedem ill. Ducis de Queensberry. Coloris sunt 



