BOS PRIMIGENIUS 3 



of British cattle have been struck by the pheno- 

 menon that, while the vast majority have been 

 domesticated for many centuries, there still exists 

 in England and Scotland a small number of 

 herds which, though they have been enclosed in 

 parks and thus far partially tamed, have never 

 yet, to all appearance, been brought under the 

 yoke. 



At the present day these herds are few, but 

 it has been shown that, in former times, such 

 herds existed in certain parts of the country in 

 considerable number. 1 The likeness of these wild 

 cattle to some of our domestic breeds has been 

 frequently commented upon. Some writers have 

 remarked their resemblance to the so-called 

 creamy- white Highlanders, the white cattle of 

 Wales, and the white-coloured Shorthorns ; others 

 have noticed that their horns were like those of 

 the black breeds of Ireland and Wales, and, in 

 less degree, like those of the red-coloured cattle 

 of Devon ; while some have seen in these wild 

 white cattle a strong resemblance, both in size and 

 shape, to the modern Ayrshires. 



These resemblances led many writers to 

 conclude that the wild white cattle, and most of 

 our domestic breeds, are of the self-same race, 

 descended from the same original stock, and 

 that, while in bygone times the ancestors of the 

 domestic ones had been captured and tamed, the 



1 Harting's "Extinct British Animals," 1880. 



