COLOUR OF THE WILD CATTLE 27 



red-brown calves in white herds many years after animals of 

 dark colours had been shut out from breeding with them 

 probably indicates a connecting link between the more 

 ancient dark and the modern white. The white of the wild 

 cattle has no resemblance to the white of an albino the dark 

 points, which are universal, being incompatible with albinism. 



Storer says : "The universal colour was white, in general 

 pure, approximating, however, in a few instances, to cream- 

 colour, but with certain points otherwise coloured, and these 

 points generally black. The tips of the horns, the muzzle, the 

 circle round the eyes, the hoofs, were in all the herds black ; in 

 some the extremity of the tail (the switch or brush) was of 

 the same colour ; while the ears in all were either black or 

 brownish-red inside, and wholly or partially of the same 

 colour outside the ear also. In most of them the front part 

 of the fetlock, particularly of the forelegs, was marked with 

 black, and in all there were a few black hairs on the legs, a 

 little above the hoof. In all of them, too, there was, I 

 believe, a tendency, more or less slight, to produce small 

 black or bluish-black spots on the neck, and even sometimes 

 on the body (producing a ' flea-bitten ' appearance). All 

 were subject to occasional variations. Individuals were born, 

 though somewhat rarely, with more than the average amount 

 of white on the horns, ears, above the eyes, on the muzzle and 

 hoofs, or on some of these parts ; and in some, black or 

 black-and-white calves now and then appeared ; but these 

 last were always destroyed when young, in order to preserve 

 the original characteristics of the herd." 



The only recorded possible exception is that of the wild 

 herd at Leigh Court in Somerset, near Bristol, which were 

 destroyed in 1806, "because they had become so wild the 

 owner was obliged to have them shot." They were said to 

 be " fawn, tending to yellow ; very red towards the flanks 

 horns tipped with black ; hoofs black ; inside of the ear red." 

 The author of another account was equally persuaded that 

 they were white, while Storer thought probably both accounts 

 were correct, and that "the cattle dated back to monastic 

 times, and varied from a white colour to a light dun the 

 variation being possibly produced by some cross," and if so, 

 the cross might possibly have been from the red breed which 

 originated the Devon cattle of the neighbourhood. 



In his pristine form the Bos taurus, the wild bull of the 

 primeval European forests, approached to the size of an 



