268 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 
says that black cattle means any bovine cattle reared for slaughter 
in distinction from dairy cattle; and in the ‘ Encyclopzedia 
Londinensis ” (1810) I find it stated that—‘ Cattle are distin- 
guished into large or black cattle and into small cattle; of the 
former are horses, bulls, oxen, cows, calves, and heifers; amongst 
the latter are rams, ewes, sheep, lambs, goats, kids, &c.” The 
same work says of ‘‘horned cattle” that—‘ The original appella- 
tion appears to have been that of black cattle, from whence was 
understood ox, bull, or cow; and the reason assigned is because 
formerly these animals were all entirely black in every part of 
this island ; and that the mixture of other colours has been wholly 
fortuitous, and introduced by bringing cattle across the channel 
from the opposite shores.” The Saxon word meat [cattle] implies 
horned and black. It is said to be closely related to the Friesic 
ned, nat, which means particularly horned cattle ; to the Danish 
nod, or black cattle; and to the Swedish ndé, which also means 
black cattle. It is curious, if white was the colour of our 
indigenous cattle, that no word survives in our farm vocabulary 
which would point them out as clearly as black cattle are 
indicated.1 Such a wide meaning to black cattle, I think, sup- 
ports my conjecture, and I think further indicates that while 
cattle used to be compared with them, oxen was a great factor in 
the economy of our forefathers; in fact, absence of oxen is a sign 
of enclosures and a change to farmers from peasant-proprietors. 
The villein had his own “catel,” and preferred them to horses, as 
they were ‘“‘mannes” meat when dead, while the horse was 
carrion. But these animals would be inferior in size to the white 
cattle, and these, we learn, were preserved in parks attached to 


1In the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1756 we read of ‘‘a fair for the sale 
of black cattle once a fortnight.” Before 1805, when Shorthorns began. to 
be kept south of the Tweed, Scotch cattle were black. The Shetland 
cattle were uniformly black and diminutive in size. Then the Orkney 
cattle were of the same colour, but larger and coarser. Like these 
were the North Highlanders, the native breed of Sutherland, Ross, and 
Inverness. Next came the small breed of ‘‘ Skibos,” like the Kerries, the 
large-horned Aberdeen cattle, the small-horned or Brae cattle, and the 
Falkland or Fife breed. Of the polled types, there were the Angus 
Doddies, intermediate between the Buchan Doddies and polled Galloways. 
These breeds were all black in colour, and practically covered the 
country. 
