46 EVOLUTION OF BRITISH CATTLE 



such as being hornless, etc., have appeared 

 suddenly from what we may call a spontaneous 

 variation," ^ and " No one can give any explana- 

 tion — although no doubt there must be a cause — 

 of the loss of horns, any more than of the loss 

 of hair, both losses strongly tending to be in- 

 herited. It is, I think, possible that the loss 

 of horns has occurred often since cattle were 

 domesticated, though I can call to mind only a 

 case in Paraguay about a century ago."^ 



But neither theory will bear much inquiry, 

 for each presumes a phenomenon which has not 

 been seen within what might be called bovine 

 historical time to have been of frequent and 

 widespread occurrence in the earlier days of 

 legend and myth. It is true that many cattle 

 now hornless — and sheep, too, for that matter — 

 are descended from ancestors that were horned ; 

 but in those cases the horns were removed by 

 crossing with hornless breeds. 



Whence, then, came our hornless cattle .f* 

 That question can only be answered after some 

 consideration of their history and distribution. 

 At the present time there are only three breeds 

 of hornless cattle in Britain ; but in the eighteenth 

 century there were hornless breeds in eight or 

 ten places round the coasts of England and 



' "Animals and Plants under Domestication," 1868, vol, i. p. 92. 

 ' Letter to Messrs. Macdonald and Sinclair, published in their 

 " History of Polled Aberdeen or Angus Cattle," 1882, p. 12. 



