36 WILD WHITE CATTLE 



most characteristic descendants of the forest breed, 1 though 

 they differ only in minor points of detail from those in 

 Hamilton Park. Storer expresses the strong opinion that 

 these cattle were not so persistently in-and-in bred for 

 hundreds of years as is usually supposed ; but that until not 

 very long ago fresh blood was brought from other herds, and 

 that in this way their existence has been prolonged. Dr 

 Ramage, in Drumlanrig and the Douglases (1876), quite 

 unintentionally confirms this view by stating "there is a 

 tradition that about 100 years ago the whole stock " (meaning 

 the Drumlanrig herd of white cattle) " was sold and driven 

 off to Chillingham." Hindmarsh gives the date as 1780, but 

 does not record their destination. One of the visible 

 indications of the close-breeding which has nevertheless taken 

 place in this herd is the presence in certain animals of a 

 " washed out " appearance, and of a rash or scurf on the skin. 

 A tendency to barrenness points to the same cause. The 

 annual increase of the breed is about one in five, but the rate 

 is low, partly owing to the trampling of a good many young 

 calves by the herd stampeding on the slightest provocation. 

 It has recently been noticed that some cows live to a great 

 age, one which died in December 1891 being eighteen years 

 old ; although the average age of the wild cattle generally 

 is less than of those under domestication. At one period the 

 bulls possessed a mane which developed with maturity but 

 decreased with old age. It has been noticed that the 

 tendency to show black or blue spots on the skin, especially 

 about the neck and head (to a greater degree in the other 

 three herds than among the Chillingham cattle), increases 

 with age. 2 There is also less tendency to produce black or 

 other off-coloured calves. The skins are thin, another result 

 of close in-breeding, and under the white hair they are white 

 in colour, and thus differ in a most important characteristic 

 from the dark-skinned and white-haired animals belonging to 



1 Riitimeyer in Domestic Cattle of the Ancients^ says of the Chillingham 

 breed (after examining the bones from the Swiss lake dwellings, and 

 comparing them with the skeletons of cattle of the present day), it is " the 

 purest type that he has found of the original Bos." 



2 A possible parallel to this is to be noticed in the dark spots which 

 develop on the ears of Border Leicester ewes as they grow old. But it 

 may be that, owing to the hair becoming thinner, black spots on the hide 

 appear or show more distinctly. 



