244 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



occasional appearance of dark - coloured calves it is 

 improbable that the aboriginal ancestor was white. 

 Darwin observes (A?iimals and Plants ancle)' Domes- 

 tication, vol. i., p. 88 of 2nd edition) that " it is 

 curious what a strong, though not invariable, 

 tendency there is in wild or escaped cattle to become 

 white with coloured ears, under widely different 

 conditions of life " ; and, following Riitimeyer, is of 

 opinion that our park cattle belong to the pi'imi- 

 genins type. The late Edward Blyth, stated by the 

 editor of the Zoologist (1878) to have been one of 

 the ablest of modern zoologists, saw the head of 

 the Chilli ngham bull shot by the Prince of Wales 

 in 1872, and he thus wrote : " I was surprised at its 

 small size, and also with its identity in every 

 essential particular with the Highland ' Runt,' which 

 I was not prepared to expect from the published 

 descriptions. That it is a form of typical or unim- 

 proved Bos Taunts, unmodified by the modern cattle- 

 breeder's skill, seems to me to constitute its chief 

 claim to the attention of zoologists. . . . That it 

 has any peculiar claim to be descended from Bos 

 primigenius I fail to perceive, and should rather 

 point to domesticated Bos longifrons as its immediate 

 ancestor." And so doctors differ. 



I am sorry that I have not been able to fix 

 everything down with certainty. I think, however, 

 that it may be taken as established that these white 

 cattle have been about Cadzow from very remote 

 times with an occasional break and reintroduction ; 

 that they are a fancy breed artificially preserved in 

 a half -wild state; that they are descendants of a 

 formerly domesticated race ; that there have been 

 from time to time infusions of fresh blood into the 

 herd ; and that their so-called wild habits are mainly 

 the result of their treatment for centuries. 



