WILD WHITE CATTLE. 369 



admitted, but their claim to be regarded as unsubdued 

 descendants of the once mighty Urus is still a matter 

 of dispute. Space fails us here to enter fully into the 

 question, and we must contine our remarks to a short 

 abstract of the arguments which have been put forward. 

 According to Prof. Nilsson, Prof. Riitimeyer, and 

 others of our best authorities on this family, the domestic 

 Oxen of Europe are derived from three or four distinct 

 races, known to geologists under the names of Bos primi- 

 genius, B. longifrons, B. frontosus, and B. trocJioceros. From 

 the first of these, which was undoubtedly the Urus of 

 Caesar and other ancient writers, the large long-horned 

 Cattle of Northern Europe and of the Mediterranean 

 countries appear to have descended, and of these the 

 British Wild Cattle approach most closely to the original 

 type, especially in their flat forehead, level occipital ridge, 

 and the peculiar curves of their lyrate horns. But it is 

 more doubtful whether they have always remained in a 

 wild state, or are the representatives of domestic Cattle 

 run wild, which have reverted in some degree to the 

 characters of their progenitors. Several facts appear to 

 be in favour of the latter supposition. Wild Cattle are 

 certainly mentioned by various ancient writers as inhabit- 

 ing the forests of Britain, as in the forest-code of King 

 Canute (1017-36), andby Fitz-Stephen [circa 1174). They 

 are also spoken of by Boethius (1526), Leslie (1575), and 

 other Scottish writers, but only as having previously 

 existed in a free state, and as being already confined to a 

 few parks and chases. But it seems at least possible that 

 these mediaeval " Tauri sylvestres " may have been de- 

 scended from escaped Cattle, like the wild herds of South 

 America and Australia, and surely more frequent mention 

 would have been made of them had they resembled the 

 large Urus of antiquity. The colour of the Wild Cattle 



3 15 



