GENERAL INTRODUCTION. H 



lieifers, such as may be seen any da}^ in large numbers 

 at Poltallocb, Arg-yleshire, are crossed with hornless 

 Galloway bulls, the offspring are not only hornless, but 

 sometimes so like Galloways that they are with great 

 difficulty distinguished from pure-bred Galloways. This 

 is again the result of inbreeding ; the older race counts 

 for nothing in the presence of the inbred black Galloways 

 with no pedigree worth mentioning in the presence of the 

 long-horned Highlanders. When two inbred strains are 

 crossed the result is rather curious ; e. g. when white 

 shorthorns and Galloways are crossed the offspring are 

 almost invariably blue greys and hornless : in this case 

 the prepotency of the Galloway, though still predomi- 

 nating, is considerably diminished by the inbreeding of the 

 shorthorn. 



The Iceland skewbald pony, already mentioned, is also 

 a striking instance of inbreeding. She first of all pro- 

 duced a light bay foal to a pony of her own kith and 

 kin, — a pony presumably more inbred than herself. 

 Her next foal was the hybrid '^Heckla,'' a dark dun, 

 indistinctly striped, but without the smallest patch of 

 white anywhere. This summer her foal, to a bay Shet- 

 land pony,"^ is almost the exact image of herself, not 

 only in make and colour, but in the shape and position 

 of the rather peculiarly arranged yellowish-brown patches. 

 Evidence, apparently trustworthy, of the evils of inbreed- 

 ing will be found in Mr. Low's great work on the 

 'Domesticated Animals of Great Britain.' He says a 

 gentleman experimented with foxhounds on a large scale, 

 with the result that through inbreeding 'Hhe race actually 

 became monstrous and perished." The same happened 

 with hogs. After a few generations they became dimin- 

 ished in size, the bristles were changed into hairs, the 

 limbs became short and feeble, the fertility was diminished, 

 and the mothers were unable to nourish their young*. Low 



* To this bay pony three bay mares, had bay foals, and a black mare had 

 a chestnut foal, but a piebald mare had a piebald foal. The Iceland ponies 

 are probably more inbred than the ordinary Shetland ponies, i.e. the ponies 

 not in the Shetland stud-book. 



