THE NORSE CONTINGENT 



Had this volume been written a year ago, the 

 present and some of the following chapters would 

 have been written with less confidence than now. 

 Their titles might have been the same, but the 

 efforts of the chapters themselves to live up to 

 their titles might have been somewhat laboured. 

 The polled cattle, for instance, would have been 

 traced to the same origin as now, but the con- 

 firmatory evidence afforded by Mendelian re- 

 searches would have been lacking ; and the 

 brindled cattle would have been traced to an 

 origin that would have been entirely wrong. 



It is generally believed that the hornless 

 cattle of the British Islands have originated either 

 in reversions or sports which cropped up here 

 and there throughout the country in times gone 

 by. They are believed to have originated in 

 reversions or sports according as hornlessness 

 or hornedness is held to have been the older 

 condition. Darwin favoured the latter view : 

 "It is probable that some breeds, such as the 

 semi-monstrous niata cattle, and some peculiarities 



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