CATTLE IN SCOTLAND 67 



It is quite clear from these and other contemporaneous 

 descriptions, that however numerous and truly wild the 

 White Cattle may once have been in Scotland, and there 

 is no evidence on these points except the hearsay of the 

 "commoune speiking," they were scarce enough in the six- 

 teenth century, when they were already the guarded inmates 

 of parks. The latter point is emphasized in a document of 

 1570 recording a charge brought against retainers of the 

 Regent Lennox of having 



slain and destroyed the deer in John Fleming's forest of Cumbernauld, 

 and the white kye and bulls of the said forest, to the great destruction of 

 police and hinder of the commonweal; for that kind of kye and bulls has 

 been kept there many years in the said forest, and the like was not main- 

 tained in any other part of the isle of Albion, as is well known. 



During the intervening four centuries the numbers of 

 White Cattle have been increased through careful protection 

 and breeding, until there are now several well-known races, 

 but the early records have some bearing on the controversy 

 as to the origin of the race as a whole. 



It is impossible and would be profitless to enter here 

 into the details of this controversy. It is sufficient to say 

 that it is held on the one hand, that the White Cattle are 

 the direct descendants and representatives of the Wild Urus 

 (Bos taurus primigenius] which inhabited the wilds of Scot- 

 land from prehistoric times till perhaps even the days of the 

 brochs or " Pictish Towers"; and that, on the other hand, 

 such high genealogy is denied them, and they are said to be 

 descendants of a domesticated race of the Urus, .which were 

 preserved on account of their peculiarities of colour, and 

 were allowed the run of the Scottish forests. There is little 

 reliable evidence, as the quotations given above show, that 

 the White Cattle had ever a wide distribution in Scotland, 

 and the early bone deposits are silent as to their presence. 

 Indeed, the evidence, in strong contrast to that regarding 

 the Urus and the Celtic Shorthorn, rather points to their 

 presence only as animals more or less under protection in 

 limited reserves; on the whole, the latter of the two con- 

 trasted views seems to be favoured by the weight of opinion 

 at the present day. 



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