PERTH TO KEIR. 305 



heifers in a troop, among the beech, fern, and hazel 

 of Monachoyle Moor. 



The West Highland calves generally go with their 

 dam six months, and are weaned in the beginning of 

 October. Their owners prefer them to calve in the 

 house, as the calves always bear the hand better. In 

 fact, the calf is so tameless by nature, that even if it 

 is dropped outside, and brought in at the lapse of a 

 day or two, it is for a long time far more difficult to 

 do with. Nearly every cow has a name and knows 

 it, and it was curious to note at the Breadalbane 

 sale how one stopped its wild capers in the ring when 

 the dairymaid was summoned, and adjured it in 

 Gaelic, as "Black Precious/' to desist. The West 

 Highlander's coat is not in its height till October, 

 and hence bulls which you have met in all their glen 

 glory look very different, not to say dejected, in the 

 Highland Society's lists. They require a purple hea- 

 ther back-ground and a leaden October sky. Many 

 breeders dislike too much curl in the coat, and more 

 especially bunchiness at the tail-head. The lighter- 

 coloured ones are sometimes wilder, and the " Ar- 

 gyle black" are generally thought the best and the 

 hardiest, and fetch the highest price Still, forty 

 years ago the celebrated Dunrobin breed were chiefly 

 brindled ; and Lord Breadalbane hung to duns, and 

 bought a bull of that colour, a few years before his 

 death, from Alick Macdonald of Balchillar. 



Red and dun are still the favourite colours for stock- 

 ing the English policies, and therefore they will always 



