300 THE OX. 



ing characters different from those of the parents. An effect 

 of the same kind is seen every day in the case of Dogs. If 

 we breed solely from Greyhounds, Terriers, or Sheep-dogs, 

 we calculate securely on obtaining those varieties respec- 

 tively, with more or less of the virtues of the parents ; but if 

 we produce a mixed race, we can predicate nothing certainly 

 regarding the form and qualities of the mongrel progeny. 



III.THE WEST HIGHLAND BREED. 



The great Primary district of Scotland, usually termed the 

 Highlands, has been occupied, beyond the records of history 

 and tradition, by numerous herds of cattle, which have ac- 

 quired the characters suited to a country of heaths and high 

 mountains. These cattle, although varying in size and 

 aspect with the nature and altitude of the country, present, 

 with few exceptions, such characters in common, as to entitle 

 us to refer them to a common origin. In the Zetland and 

 Orkney Islands, there has existed the peculiar race which 

 has been described ; but in all the Highlands, properly so 

 called, the herds of cattle, however distant in their habitat, 

 constitute a group, connected by affinities which form a breed 

 in the usual sense of the term. They are small in size ; have 

 horns in the male and female, turning more or less upwards 

 at the points ; have short muscular limbs, and are largely 

 covered with hair. Their muzzle is usually black ; they have 

 dewlaps, and on the neck a ridge of coarser hair, forming a 

 mane. Their colour is various, often black, sometimes brown, 

 or a mixture of brown or black, and often mouse- dun. They 

 are hardy beyond all the races of the cattle reared in the 

 British Islands. Their size bears a constant relation to the 

 supplies of natural food. In the Northern and Central High- 

 lands, it often does not exceed that of the calves of a few 

 months old of the larger breeds. Towards Argyleshire, on 

 the south-west, including several of the Hebrides, where the 



