62 THE DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS 



point to the comparison, for there can be no doubt that he 

 refers to the Kyloes of the sixteenth century : 



In the mountanis of Aargyl, in Rosse lykwyse, and sindrie vthiris places, 

 ar fed ky, nocht tame, as in vthiris partes, hot lyke wylde hartes, wandiring 

 out of ordour, and quhilkes, throuch a certane wyldnes of nature, flie the 

 cumpanie, or syght of men: as may be seine in winter, how deip saeuir be 

 the snawe, how lang saevir the frost ly, how scharpe or calde how evir it 

 be thay nevir thair heid sett- vnder the ruffe of ony hous. Thair fleshe of a 

 meruellous sueitnes, of a woundirful tendirnes, and excellent diligatnes of 

 taste, far deceiues the opiniounis of men, that nevir tasted thame. 



But how great have been the changes in most other 

 breeds. The Giant Urus, six feet high at the shoulder, has 

 been reduced to the much smaller proportions of the modern 

 Shorthorn and Aberdeen-Angus (Fig. 14, p. 63). His long 

 graceful limbs, which gave him a speed surpassing that of 

 most of the animals of the prehistoric forests, have, at the 

 demand of the market, become reduced and embedded in 

 an over-developed body in which have been lost the supple 

 lines of the wild ancestor. 



In colour no less than in form, man's selection has 

 worked great changes. In place of the uniform dark reds, 

 browns or blacks of the primitive races, modern breeds 

 range through white and shades of yellow, red, brown, red 

 and black, black and white, to unbroken black. Even such a 

 strange freak of colouring as a broad white band like a white 

 sheet tied round the animal's black body, has become per- 

 petuated in the definite race of "belted" or "sheeted" 

 Galloways. It is surprising in how short a period such 

 colour changes may take place under man's guidance. At 

 the beginning of last century, the Aberdeen- Angus breed 

 contained individuals of the most div erse colours, brindled, 

 red and black, black and white, red, brown and yellow. Yet 

 to-day the only recognized colour of pedigreed stock is black. 



Horns, too, have been modified through man's selection. 

 Not only are their sizes and shapes more varied, but in 

 Aberdeen-Angus and Galloways, they have actually been 

 bred out of existence. That the polled or hornless condition 

 did not originate in recent times is shown by a polled skull 

 identified by Professor Ewart from the Roman Camp at 

 Newstead; and it is said that the first historical reference 

 to polled cattle was made in the ninth century when King 

 Kenneth MacAlpine (A.D. 844-860) in promulgating the laws 



