
WHITE CATTLE: AN INQUIRY INTO THEIR ORIGIN, ETC. 247 
breed modified and improved. The horn cores of this new breed 
have a tendency outward and upward, instead of the strong 
forward curve of Bos longifrons. Of this breed, Professor Hughes 
states, all intermediate sizes and shapes are found, from the small 
native to the bigger new improved. And the last is the Roman 
breed, with lyre-shaped horns, and agreeing with the type of 
animal represented on paintings, sculpture, and coins of ancient 
Rome. 
We now turn to Rome to see what was the colour and origin 
of her cattle. Italy, as Beeotia, is probably the country of oxen. 

Fre. 19.—Pugliesi Cattle—Prize Bull. From Days spent on a Doge’s Farm. 
Oxen were in such great demand amongst the Romans that Hesiod 
tells us “before all things we should have a house, a wife, and a 
ploughing ox.” Some classical authors in their description of 
cattle seem to indicate the droop or curvature of horns peculiar to 
the Bos primigenius. Herodotus, describing the cattle of the 
Lotophagi, says, ‘amongst them the kine that feed backwards are 
met with ; they feed backwards for this reason, they have horns 
that are bent forward, therefore they draw back as they feed, 
for they are unable to go forward because their horns would stick ° 
in the ground. They differ from other kine in no other respect 
