
WHITE CATTLE: AN INQUIRY INTO THEIR ORIGIN, ETC. 233 
Shorthorn and hornless cattle domesticated by the aborigines of 
Britain before the Roman invasion. Had the Bos primigenius 
been the source, we might have expected the Highland and 
Welsh cattle to have retained some of the characteristics of their 
great progenitors, and to have been distinguished from other 
domestic breeds by their superior size and the length of their 
horns. The Kyloes and the Runts are, on the contrary, remark- 
able for their small size, and are characterised either by their 
short horns, as in the Los longifrons, or by the entire absence 
of these weapons,” 
The third label, headed “The Typical Oxen—Bos 7'awrus,” is 
in the Zoological Galleries, and was written by Mr. Lydekker. 
It says :—‘ The Aurochs, or Urus, the old wild ox of Europe, is 
now completely extinct as a wild species, although all the 
European domestic breeds may be regarded as its more or less 
modified descendants. . . . The half-wild white cattle of 
Chillingham and some other British Parks have been regarded as 
the direct descendants of the Aurochs, but it is more probable 
that they are derived from domesticated animals, possibly from 
the Italian breed introduced by the Romans into Britain.” 
It will be noticed that this differs somewhat from the first 
label mentioned as in the Geological Galleries, and the matter is 
put cautiously also, as a mere conjecture. Mr. Lydekker informs 
me that the authority for the suggestion that the Chillingham 
cattle were introduced from Italy is Professor T. M‘Kenny 
Hughes. of Cambridge, whose name I have already mentioned. 
Whether we think these cattle true descendants of the Urus, or 
simply descendants of a Roman breed, it is too true, as Sir Wm. 
Flower writes me, that “there is, unfortunately, no authority for 
any statement about the origin of the white park cattle of 
England.” Such evidence as can be offered is what can be 
accepted simply on the grounds of it being reasonable and 
appealing to our common sense, with the addition, in the case of 
the Roman cattle theory of the origin of park catile, of allowing 
comparisons being made with the skulls and horns of ancient and 
modern Italian breeds, ancient Celtic Shorthorns in Britain, 
Romano-British cattle, and medizval and modern cattle, in support 
of statements made in support of the theory. 
On this point I may say that, finding in a recently published 
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