
WHITE CATTLE: AN INQUIRY INTO THEIR ORIGIN, ETC. 429 
that if we want to look for the characteristics of the Urus (Bos 
primigenius), we must look elsewhere than to the white park 
cattle which lay claim to be its descendants. 
The source of origin of the present English herds of white cattle 
is probably Scotland, and, therefore, I think that the history of 
the Scotch herds should be studied first, and I intend to give it 
special attention, but here again I must depend upon the work of 
the historian, archeologist, and folk-lorist. For instance, to 
take one example, a number of stones with bulls incised have 
been found at Burghead, in Elgin. To what do they refer, and 
have similar stones been found elsewhere? The statement has 
been made that the present herds of white cattle in England are 
of Scottish origin. Illustrations to bear out such a statement 
were given in Part la, and I would add now the following :— 
Dr. Chas. Leigh, in his Vatwral History of Lancashire, Cheshire, 
and the Peak of Derbyshire (1700), thus describes the Middleton 
herd—“ In a park near Bury, in Lancashire, are wild cattle 
belonging to Sir Ralph Ashton of Middleton. These, I presume, 
were first brought from the high-lands of Scotland. They have 
no horns, but are like the wild bulls and cows upon the Continent 
of America.” Again, in The Natwral History and Antiquities 
of Northumberland, by John Wallis (1769), it is stated that 
“In the park of the Right Honourable the Earl of Tankerville, 
at Chillingham, there is a species of wild white cattle, of a 
diminutive size, said to have been first brought from the High- 
lands of Scotland, but at what particular time cannot be 
remembered.” Further, Leonard Jenyns, in his Manual of 
British Vertebrate Animals (1835), notes under “ Bos ”— 
“a wild breed (Bewick, Quad., p. 38), formerly met with in 
Scotland, but now extinct, said to have been characterized by 
their white colour, with the muzzle and ears black.” 
The British Museum Natural History authorities do not seem 
to have accepted the white cattle as indigenous, for in Leach’s 
Systematic Catalogue (1816),* under the “ List of the indigenous 


1 « Systematic Catalogue of the specimens of the indigenous Mammalia 
and Birds that are preserved in the British Museum, with their localities 
and authorities, to which is added a list of the described species that are 
wanting to complete the collection of British Mammalia and Birds.” By 
W. G. Leach. Dated British Museum, Aug. 30th, 1816, 
