CATTLE IN SCOTLAND 



61 



as of the Ayrshires, though in the last case, even in compara- 

 tively recent times, there has been a great admixture of 

 Urus blood through crossing with modern Shorthorn and 

 other races. 



In spite of these complexities of descent, there yet 

 stand out clearly several main lines along which man has 

 influenced the characters of the original races. 



Of all the modern breeds, the Highland cattle, in their 

 build, in the nature and colour of their coat, and in their 



Fig. 13. Highland Kyloes (cow and calf) a primitive domesticated breed 

 ("Mhaldag," First Prize, Highland Show, 1886). 



habits, approach most closely to their wild prototypes. 

 They still retain the hardiness which one would expect in 

 the descendants of a race inured to the climate of Scotland 

 for many thousands of years, and in the very picturesquene-.s 

 of their long shaggy coats and bushy forelocks they suggest 

 the unimproved creatures of the wild. A description by 

 Bishop Leslie, published in 1578, of the "fed" or domesti- 

 cated "ky, nocht tame," which in his day ranged the 

 mountains of Argyll, the very area from which the most 

 characteristic of modern Highlanders are derived, gives 



