STO CK-BREEDING 



379 



bred on similar lines showed no special points of interest, except 

 that they differed very much from one another. It is possible 

 that the creamy white colour was a reversion to an ancestral 

 type, such as the Chillingham cattle may represent. It seems 

 more likely that a white bull had figured at no remote period, 

 e.g. in the lineage of the Shorthorn, for white bulls are often 

 used to secure the desired roan colour. It is generally admitted 

 that when there is an occurrence of white colour, either on the 

 body generally or in markings on the face and legs, it is difficult 

 to breed out, often reappearing with extraordinary persistency. 

 The pedigree referred to is as foUows : — 



Horned creamy ^ 

 white heifer 



Sire. Red cross 

 horned bull, 

 with white 

 markings 



/-Sire. Pure Here- 

 ford bull, red 

 with white face 

 and hind legs. 



^Dam. Shorthorn- 

 cross cow, (roan 

 or) red with some 

 white markings, 

 horned 



l^Dam. Pure black 

 polled Aber- 

 deen Angus 

 cow. 



'Sire. Pure 

 Shorthorn 

 bull. 



^Dam. Short- 

 horn-cross 

 cow. 



The following instance may illustrate that, in spite of the 

 popular impression to the contrary, the breeders cannot always 

 have their own way. Variation leads and the breeders follow, 

 not conversely. In Shorthorn cattle the standard colours are 

 red, red-and-white, roan (a close mixture of red and white hairs) 

 and white. The popular colours are red and roan, and breeders 

 try to avoid white, and red-and-white. But these unpopular 

 colours are continually occurring. " If a roan cow is mated 

 with a roan buU year after year and produces several roan or 

 red calves, there is an increasing chance every year that she will 

 produce a calf of one of the unpopular colours." Similarly red 



