THE CHANNEL ISLANDS BREEDS. 



tremely fine, yellow at the base, and black towards the point. The 

 iorequarters are slender, the shoulder being almost imperceptible ; 

 the ribs are fairly well sprung, the back straight, and the loins deep, 

 but there is a cavity between the forepart of the udder and the base 

 of the abdomen which breede'rs as a rule would like to fill up with a 

 more extensive milk vessel." 



Sturtevant says : " There is no animal which tells more of high 

 breeding than an Alderney, or rather Jersey-born cow. There is 1 

 refined air and carriage, a certain comely 'presence' which would forbid 

 all thoughts of the butcher, and never carry one's appetite beyond a 

 syllabub of thin bread and butter. Beyond a peculiar wild, wicked 

 eye, there is not much to admire in the head of an Alderney bull, 

 and even the cows lose much of their graceful character when bred 

 away from the Isles." 



Mr. Wilson, who had considerable experience in the breeds of 

 British cattle in 1850, says: "The crumpled-horned or Alderney cattle 

 are constant. y imported to Britain from the Channel Islands, Mormandy, 

 and adjacent parts of the French continent; yet though brought from so 

 many districts are always popularly called Alderneys. They a,re soms- 

 v\ hat extensively diffused in Hampshire, but they exist in other British 

 districts onl> in gentlemen's parks and pleasure grounds, and they 

 seem ill adapted to the climate of Scotland or of the extreme north 

 of England. They are small in size, very ill-shaped, and almost des- 

 titute O'i some of the best points of cattle character ; but their milk 

 is surpassingly rich, and yields more butter in proportion to quantity 

 than that of any other kind of cow ; and partly on this account, partly 

 (for fashion's sake, they are generally esteemed as occupants of fine 

 parks." 



Mr. Parkinson says : " They are of as bad form as can possibly be 

 described ; the bellies of many of them are four-fifths of their weight; 

 the neck is very thin and hollow ; the shoulders stand up, and is the 

 .highest part ; they are hollow and narrow between the shoulders ; 

 the chin is nearly without flesh ; the hocks are narrow and sharp at 

 the ends ; the rump is short ; and they are narrow and light in the 

 brisket" and " when viewed from behind," says another writer, " their 

 body appears like two boards nailed together as thin as a lath." 

 " Their skin is very thin and papery ; their hair is short and smooth ; 

 their cast of countenance is timid ; and their colors, for the most 

 part, a light-brownish-red, mixed sometimes with white, and some- 

 times with white and dun." These remarks, made, as they were, upon 

 the Alderney, or Jersey, of over fifty years, may have been made in 

 all good faith ; but, nevertheless, the Jersey seems to have outlived 

 all huv critics, carrying with her every handicap that Nature could 

 plare on her general appearance when judged by those who are con- 

 stantly in search of cows embracing beauty and quality. 



Mr. Martin, who was one of, the scientific officers of the Zoological 

 Society of London, and whoise elaborate work on the ox was published 

 prior to the great improvement in cattle raising in the Channel Isles, 

 says: ;< Under one head we will range the Normandy, Guernsey, or 

 Alderney cattle, which, though originally from the French Con- 

 tinent, are now naturalised in our land. These cattle prevail in Hamp- 

 shire, espec:clly near the coast ; but inland are crossed with other 

 breeds, and, perhaps, most successfully with the Devons, both as re- 

 spects milking and feeding qualities. The Alderney cattle are angu- 

 lar and akwardly shaped, of small size, thin necked, small boned, with 

 high shoulders, hollow behind, short in the rump, with pendent bellies 

 and a voracious appetite. The cows yield only a small portion of 

 milk, but it is of most extraordinary richness ; and, on this account, 

 they are often kept in the parks ajnd pleasure grounds of the opulent, 

 where, we must confess, they are both useful and even ornamental. 

 Their gentleness, their diminutive size, and even their singular contour. 



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