60 Mendelia7i Experiment ivith Cattle 



sense of the colour and of the hornless condition, it is to be noted that 

 red calves are occasionally born from pure bred black parents even in 

 the most carefully selected herds. White markings, beyond those per- 

 mitted by the breed standard also occur at times, more particularly 

 white feet. Horns, or more generally what are called "scurs" — small, 

 firm or loose horny excrescences — were once comparatively common but 

 have now been all but eliminated by selection. 



The general character of West Highland cattle is well known. They 

 carry large spreading horns, a long and shaggy coat, and are of beef type, 

 short of leg and blocky but distinctly narrower in build and less heavily 

 fleshed than the Aberdeen- Angus. They are also characteristically later 

 in reaching maturity and less readily fattened. The colours are many — 

 red, black, yellow, dun and brindled — accurate classification being some- 

 what difficult in a percentage of cases. In the present experiment cattle 

 of only two colours were included — viz. red and dun. 



Four different pedigreed Angus bulls were employed in the experi- 

 ment, and were mated to seven different pure bred West Highland 

 cows. Apart from the latter, two cows, which happened to be available, 

 were included, the result of a cross between the Chartley (a white horned 

 breed, with black " points ") and the West Highland. One female of the 

 Angus X Chartley-Highland cross was retained for breeding. The in- 

 heritance of the individual characters may now be considered. 



(1) Coat and Conformation. 



Unfortunately no data worth presenting were obtained with regard 

 to the inheritance of these characters. Attempts were made during the 

 earlier part of the experiment to reduce the descriptions of the coat to 

 actual measurements of the length and diameter of the hairs. The main 

 difficulty, apart from that of sampling, was that the seasonal differences 

 varied greatly as between different animals — e.g. an animal which had 

 a relatively heavy winter coat might have a relatively light summer 

 coat. Again the hair development is influenced by causes other than 

 heredity, notably by the "condition" or degree of fatness, and pregnancy. 

 The value of these measurements was therefore doubtful, but frequent 

 and regular examination might still have yielded something of interest. 

 The author, however, was able to see the cattle only at rare and irregular 

 intervals during the period of the war, and this line of investigation was 

 of necessity given up. The general impression made by the cattle was 

 that the first hybrid generation was intermediate with regard to coat. 



