298 Colour and Markings in Pedigree Hereford Cattle 



roans, — " greys " or de§p roans, entirely red cattle, and many with blue 

 mottled and ticked faces (10). Many of the "red with white face" 

 variety were much whiter than we should like in these days, the white 

 extending right along their backs, and being splashed upon sides and 

 flanks. Some- of these cattle had large patches of red round the eyes 

 and across the face. The four principal types are illustrated by pictures 

 of four celebrated bulls in the first volume of Eyton's Herd Book (pub. 

 1846). The statement that the majority of the Herefordshire cattle 

 belonged to the "red with white" face variety is borne out by an ex- 

 amination of the first two vols, of the herd book, which contain the 

 pedigrees of 551' bulls, whose markings are also recorded in 326 cases. 

 They were 191 "red with white face," 98 "mottle-face," 30 "grey," 

 and 7 " light grey." The red with white face class had a majority of 56 

 over all other types combined. Twelve years later, out of 235 bulls 

 (registered in Part 1, vol. II of the Herd Book, 1853) only two were 

 recorded as " greys," the rest being " red with white face." By 1877 

 the breed was so uniform in appearance that the cattle were no longer 

 described when registered in the herd book. 



All this goes to show that a heavy fleshed breed of cattle (of which 

 the oxen fattened readily when their days at the yoke were finished) 

 was found in Herefordshire early in the 17th century, and that by the 

 middle of the 18th century the conspicuous "red with white face" type 

 was well-established, though the varieties, grey, mottle-face, etc., 

 were equally accepted as good Herefords, but, fashion setting in favour 

 of the red, these varieties were ultimately weeded out, so that the 

 word Hereford came to signify a red beast with a white face. But the 

 interesting question is how did the well-known white face arise, for it is 

 riot only such a marked character but is nearly always dominant even in 

 crosses with distinct species like the bison (12, p. 533). Early writers 

 refer to whole red gattle like the Devons (5 and 8), and the appearance 

 of the white face is variously attributed to the introduction from Flanders 

 of white-faced cattle towards the latter part of the 17th century (10, 

 p. 11), to crosses with the old white Welsh cattle (10, p. 19), to the 

 use of white-marked bulls from the north (10, p. 27), and to the sudden 

 appearance of a white-faced calf in a herd of dark cattle. This case 

 rests upon the authority of the Mr Tully who was a famous breeder in 

 the early part of the 19th century. He says " About the middle of the 

 last century, the cowman came to the house announcing as a remarkable 

 fact that the favourite cow had produced a white-faced bull-calf. This 

 had never been known to have occurred before ; and as a curiosity it 



