REMNANT OF A NEARLY EXTINCT BREED 
Because of their unusual jaws, Darwin says, the fiata cattle could not pasture successfully when 
food was scarce, and therefore were crowded out by other types. 
The breed is supposed 
to have arisen among the Indians, but the production of high-grade Herefords and other 
improved breeds in Uruguay nowadays makes such an animal as the fiata no longer profit- 
able, and it appears to have become almost extinct. 
first cross between the filata and a 
common cow, for the peculiarities of the 
head are certainly much less than 
Darwin’s description would lead one to 
expect: 
The difficulty which has been en- 
countered in finding any trace of these 
cattle at the present time indicates that 
the race has become practically extinct. 
Judging from the appearance of the 
cows, it could never have been very 
valuable, and the introduction of the 
best European breeds, particularly the 
Hereford, into Uruguay in recent years 
has raised the standard of live stock so 
much that, presumably, it is no longer 
profitable to keep fiata cattle. Add to 
this the possibility that the physical 
peculiarities of the breed have con- 
tributed to their disappearance, as 
Darwin describes, and it will readily 
(Fig. 6.) 
be understood that their numbers might 
' diminish greatly in the course of half 
a century. 
Live-stock breeding has now reached 
such a high point in Uruguay that it is 
not probable that any one hereafter 
will care to breed such cattle as these for 
commercial purposes. In order to pre- 
vent the entire disappearance of an 
interesting variation, it would be worth 
while for some zoological garden to 
secure specimens of the fiata. Full- 
blood specimens, if they can be secured, 
would be of much value to geneticists, 
and ought to be fully as interesting to 
the public as the common stock-in- 
trade which every zoological garden in 
the world keeps on hand, with pathetic 
fidelity to traditions, and which every 
frequenter of such institutions has seen 
at frequent intervals throughout his life. 
265 
