120 The Field Naturalist 's Quarterly May 



inquiries in two admirable papers, 1 with a very complete 

 bibliography of the subject. In supporting the opinion that 

 these cattle are descended from a domestic breed he sums up 

 the evidence as follows : — 



i st. They are of the same species as domestic cattle, and breed 

 readily with them. 



2nd. They go with their young precisely the same time. 



3rd. Their bones are fine, while those of the Urus, their supposed 

 ancestors, are coarser even than those of the Bison. 



4th. They calve at all seasons. 



5th. Instead of being wild, the difficulty in the case of wild park 

 cattle is not so much to tame them as to keep them wild. 



And further, after commenting on the remains of extinct 

 species of cattle and Italian cattle, he draws the following 

 conclusions : — 



1. The ox, common and universal throughout Britain, and we 

 may add Ireland, at the time of the Roman conquest, was the Celtic 

 Shorthorn, the Bos longifrons of Owen. 



2. The animal was small and dark-coloured, and such we find to 

 be the existing type of animals in the regions to which the Celts 

 were ultimately driven and confined. 



3. At the time of the Roman conquest the Gigantic Ox, Bos 

 primtgenius, was extinct in Britain, while the Celts had domesticated 

 the Bos longifrons — the Celtic Shorthorn. 



4. This animal was utilised and consumed both by the Celts and 

 Romans. 



5. The Romans, for draught and ploughing, preferred dark- 

 coloured oxen. For religious rites and ceremonies, public and priv- 

 ate, white oxen were necessary. 



6. These white oxen were to be found in various provinces and 

 colonies of ancient Rome as domesticated breeds, and the descend- 

 ants of these cattle are to be found within the same areas to-day 

 practically unchanged, as we find when we compare them with the 

 representations of their ancestors in wall-paintings, sculptures, coins, 

 and gems. 



7. That such cattle, carrying with them the prestige of sacrificial 

 animals, admired, selected, and preserved, were brought into Britain, 

 we know from the Roman middens. Their size and the lyre-shaped 

 form of their horns when compared with the native Celtic Shorthorn 

 admit of no mistake. 



1 " White Cattle, an Inquiry into their Origin and History." Trans, of Natural 

 Hist. Soc. of Glasgow, 1897-99. 



