CHAP. i. KERRY AND DEXTER CATTLE. 73 



possesses a light, deer-like head and horn, light limbs, with shoulders, 

 ribs, and hips well set, thin skin, straight back, light well-set tail 

 with long brush, and black as the predominant colour. The Dexter 

 (figs. 27 and 28), as has been intimated, takes very much of the 

 character of a diminutive Shorthorn, with short strong legs, square 

 body, flat back, thick shoulder, short neck, and well-set head and 

 horns." 



In former editions of this work it was remarked: " The Kerry breed 

 of Irish cattle is the favourite, and is no less remarkable for its 

 diminutive size than for the quantity of milk which it yields. There 

 is little doubt but that the Kerry breed is closely allied to the Bretonne 

 cow, as it closely resembles it in many points. The milk yielded by a 



Fig. 25. Kerry Bull, " Paddy Blake." 



Winner of the Gold Medal presented by Her Majesty the Queen, for the best animal in 

 the Kerry classes, at the Jubilee Show of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, 

 Windsor, 1889. Exhibited by the Earl of Clonmell, of Bishop's Court, Straffan, Co. Kildare. 

 Breeder unknown. 



pure-bred Kerry is not only large in quantity, but very rich in quality. 

 The Kerry fattens readily, and the meat is of good flavour and of fine 

 grain. The colour varies ; in some it is black, in others red and 

 brindled, and in many mottled in these colours ; the first named, 

 viz., black, is regarded as the true colour. The hair of the bull, 

 when kept in his native mountains, is long and coarse, but when 

 he is fed in the lowland districts, and on nutritious food, it becomes 

 short and fine. The head ' is small and fine, with a clear bright eye, 

 neck fine, horns short and turned upwards.' Sometimes the horns are 

 not ' cocked ' alike, there being a kind of twist in the ' cock,' and 

 some look upon this as one sure mark of a true Kerry. In general they 

 are light in the hind-quarters, but high boned, and wide over the 

 hips." 



