AMBIGUOUS DESCRIPTIONS OF CATTLE. 31 



to Ochterlony, were kept two hundred years ago by the 

 " Earles of Strathmore, Southesk, Panmure, and Edzell, 

 Pourie, Balnamoone," may have been " polled or dodded." 

 The first printed reference we have found to polled cattle 

 in Angus occurs in the Old Statistical Account of the par- 

 ish of Bendochy, near Coupar- Angus, and on the border of 

 Forfarshire. The Piev. James Playfair, the writer of the 

 account of this parish, dated 1797, says : " There are 1229 

 horned-cattle, of all ages and sexes, in the parish. I have 

 no other name to them ; but many of them are dodded, 

 wanting horns." These two sentences are exceedingly in- 

 teresting and suggestive. In early times, the word cattle 

 included both the ox and the horse ; and it would seem 

 that, to distinguish the former from the latter, the terms 

 " black cattle " and " horned cattle " had been commonly em- 

 ployed. It is evident, from Mr Playfair's remarks, that even 

 so late as the end of last century, the term " horned cattle " 

 had not been limited to its literal meaning, but had com- 

 prehended all varieties of the ox. There is little doubt 

 that, had he not been of a more discriminating turn of 

 mind than many early writers on agricultural matters, 

 and in particular than most of his brethren who contri- 

 buted to Sir John Sinclair's ' Statistical Account of Scot- 

 land,' in fact, had he not been a skilful naturalist, as well 

 as a minister of the Church, he would have left us with- 

 out the simple but significant explanation that, although 

 he had no other name but "horned cattle" to give the 

 cattle of Beudochy, yet " many of them are dodded, want- 

 ing horns." In all probability, the loose application of 

 such distinctions as black and horned, just indicated, is 

 largely to blame for the puzzling ambiguity which many 

 of the early writers have thrown around most of the vari- 

 eties of cattle they pretended to describe. The statement of 

 Mr Playfair, however, in conjunction with the quotations 

 produced from Mr Lyell's pamphlet, would seem to be 

 sufficient to justify the belief that, during the closing de- 



