220 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 
White Cattle: An Inquiry into their Origin and History. 
By R. Hepcer WALLACE. 
[Read 2€th April, 1898.] 
Tus subject naturally divides itself into two parts—first, the 
origin of the race or breed ; and secondly, the history of the herds, 
past and present. I confine my attention in this paper to the 
origin of this breed. 
Part [a. 
This is not the first occasion on which the subject of white and 
so-called wild cattle has been brought before the Society. Exactly 
ten years ago Mr. Robert Turner read a paper on “The Cadzow 
Herd of White Cattle” (Zransactions, Vol. II., N.S., pp. 222-244), 
and previously, in 1880, Mr, Edward R. Alston also touched upon 
the subject in his article on ‘“‘Mammalia” in The Fauna of Scotland, 
published under the auspices of this Society. The origin of our 
common herds of cattle is a question of interest to the agriculturist 
and naturalist, and it is from the point of view of its being a 
debatable question in agricultural natural history or zoology 
that I approach the subject. 
‘I would first direct attention to the views expressed by Messrs. 
Alston and Turner in the papers already referred to. A 
commonly accepted view regarding white cattle is, that they are 
the true descendants, in an unbroken line, of the aboriginal cattle 
that existed in Britain in prehistoric times, commonly known as 
Urus, Forest Cattle, Park Cattle, Wild White Cattle, and distinctly 
as Bos primigenius, Bojanus[P]l. 1V.]., Mr. Alston says, “to me the 
evidence appears overwhelmingly to prove that the modern Park 
Cattle are not wild survivors of the Urus, but are the descendants 
of a race which had escaped from domestication, and had lived a 
feral life until they were enclosed in the parks and chases of the 
