1 8 Oxen 



ture and direction of the horns between the aurochs on the one hand, 

 and the Celtic short-horn and park-cattle on the other. When, however, 

 we admit — as we must — that both the two latter (in common with other 

 European cattle) are the ultimate, if not the proximate, descendants of the 

 former, this is really begging the whole question. Apart from this, every 

 breeder knows how easily the form of the horns of cattle is altered ; and 

 the more upward direction of the horns of the Chillingham Park cattle, 

 as compared with those of the aurochs, is quite what might be expected to 

 occur when the massive horns of the original wild race became lightened 

 by partial or complete domestication. 



That a certain similarity in the direction of their cranial appendages 

 is sufficient to indicate that the Chillingham cattle are wholly derived 

 from an Italian breed introduced into Britain by the Roman invaders, does 

 not appear a warrantable supposition, although it is quite possible that 

 some Italian cattle may have been imported to improve the original British 

 breed. In Scotland and the north of England there is not the decisive 

 evidence that the aurochs was exterminated at such an early date as in the 

 south, and it has yet to be demonstrated that the park-breeds are not the 

 immediate descendants of a partially domesticated race of the former. 

 With regard to the Celtic short-horn, all the available evidence points to 

 the conclusion that it belongs to a thoroughly domesticated race derived 

 trom the wild aurochs at a very remote epoch. Indeed, the occurrence of 

 remains of an apparently similar breed in the prehistoric lake-dwellings of 

 Switzerland suggests that the breed may have been established prior to the 

 separation of Britain from the Continent. 



2. The Narbada Ox — Bos namadicus (Ext/'m-/) 



Bos namadicus. Falconer, Cat. Foss. Vert. As. Soc. Bengal, p. 232 (1859), 

 Pa/. Mem. vol. i. p. 280, pi. xxii. (1868) ; Lydekker, Pa/, hni. {Mem. Geo/. 



