THE WILD OX OF EUROPE 301 



and then bend somewhat upwards and inwards, this breed 

 of cattle, which is known to be of great antiquity, resem- 

 bles both the gigantic aurochs and the (by comparison) 

 dwarfed park breeds. Moreover, in both the Pembroke 

 and the park breeds the horns are light-coloured with 

 black tips. 



Important evidence as to the close affinity between these 

 two breeds is furnished by Low, in his " Domesticated 

 Animals of the British Islands." It is there stated that a 

 breed of cattle very similar to that at Chillingham was 

 found in Wales in the tenth century, these cattle being 

 white with red ears. " The individuals of this race yet 

 existing in Wales are found chiefly in the county of 

 Pembroke, where they have been kept by some individuals 

 perfectly pure as a part of their regular farm-stock. Until 

 a period comparatively recent, they were relatively 

 numerous, and persons are yet living who remember when 

 they were driven in droves to the pasturages of the Severn 

 and the neighbouring markets. Their whole essential 

 characters are the same as those (of the cattle) at Chil- 

 lingham and Chartley Park and elsewhere. Their horns 

 are white, tipped with black, and extended and turned 

 upwards in the manner distinctive of the wild breed. 

 The inside of the ears and the muzzle are black, and 

 their feet are black to the fetlock-joint. Their skin is 

 unctuous and of a deep-toned yellow colour. Individuals 

 of the race are sometimes born entirely black, and then 

 they are not to be distinguished from the common cattle 

 of the mountains." 



It is thus evident that the white park cattle are a 

 specialised offshoot from the ancient Pembroke black breed, 

 which, as Low mentions in a later passage, from their 

 soft and well-haired skins, are evidently natives of a humid 



