CATTLE IN SCOTLAND 53 



the Uri in the Hercynian Forests " magnitudine paullo 

 infra elefantos " ' in size little less than elephants.' The horn- 

 cores, borne on the massive, flat-fronted skull (Figs. 10 and 

 loo), a third larger than the skulls of domestic cattle, indicate 

 that the horns were of great length, even larger, it is said, 

 than those of the long-horned breed of cattle found in the 

 Campagna of Rome. 



As regards colour, there is little trustworthy evidence, 

 and for want of better we must appeal to an oil painting, 

 supposed to represent the Urus, which was discovered in 

 Germany about a century ago by Major Hamilton Smith : 



We found an old painting on pannel of indifferent merit in the hands 

 of a dealer in Augsburg, which represents the animal, and judging from the 

 style of drawing, etc., may date from the first quarter of the sixteenth 

 century. It is a profile representation of a bull without mane, but rather 

 rugged, with a large head, thick neck, small dewlap entirely sooty black, 

 the chin alone white, and the horns turning forward and then upward like 

 the bull of Romania; pale in colour with black tips. In the comer were 

 remains of armorial bearings, and the word Tkur in golden German 

 characters. We made a sketch of the figure. 



Fig. ii. Urus the native wild ox of Scotland, -fa nat. size. 



The sketch formed the basis of a plate in colour in 

 Griffith's edition of Cuvier's Animal Kingdom, and this is 

 here reproduced (Fig. n). In one. point fossil evidence 

 testifies to the accuracy of the painting, for a horn, found in 

 peat in Pomerania, was pale horn-coloured with a black tip. 

 Probably the Urus was of a dark reddish-brown colour 



