THE NORSE CONTINGENT 55 



general colour is yellow, comprehending the 

 brindled, dark red and silver-coloured yellow." l 

 Among Forfarshire horned cattle " the prevailing 

 colour is black, but with more admixture of other 

 tints : some have white spots on the forehead, 

 and white on the flanks and belly. There are 

 more brindled cattle than in Aberdeen ; some are 

 dark red, and others of a silver yellow or dun. 

 A few are black with white hairs intermixed ; 

 and occasionally a beast is seen that is altogether 

 white, with the exception of a few black hairs 

 about the head.' 3 2 Youatt makes no kind of 

 reference to the Aberdeenshire polled cattle, but 

 of the horned ones he writes, " The colour is 

 usually black, but sometimes brindled." 3 Mac- 

 donald and Sinclair tell us that " Formerly, both 

 in Angus and Aberdeen, the breed 4 embraced a 

 variety of colours as well as difference in size. 

 Black, with some white spots on the underline, 

 was the prevailing colour. Some were brindled 

 dark red and black stripes alternately ; others 

 were red ; others brown ; and a few what 

 Youatt called * silver-coloured yellow.'" 5 An 

 early nineteenth-century Banffshire writer tells 

 us that, with the dealers who came to Rathven 

 for cattle, " The favourite colour is pure black. 

 The brindled ranks next in esteem, and the 



1 "Cattle," p. 167. 2 Ibid., p. 114. 



3 Ibid., p. 106. 4 I.e. the polled breed. 



6 " Polled Aberdeen and Angus Cattle," p. 76. 



