WILD WHITE CATTLE. 449 



some of the old people to whom I applied giving it as about 

 a score, while others have put it at nearly twice that figure. 

 John McDiarmid, describing CallyPark (' Sketches from Nature,' 

 1830, p. 353), speaks of " inclosures peopled with numerous 

 flocks of red and fallow deer, and a race of cattle that is nearly 

 extinct— the wild or ancient kine of Scotland— cream all over, 

 save the nose and ears, which, in each specimen, are as black as 

 jet." McDiarmid, in the ' Dumfries Courier,' for September 25th, 

 1883, when describing another visit to Cally,|again alludes to these 

 cattle, stating that they were then in a separate walled enclosure. 

 And in reviewing ' Low's Illustrations of the Breeds of the 

 Domestic Animals of the British Islands,' in the same news- 

 paper, on March 4th, 1840, a writer, who, there is not the 

 least doubt, was McDiarmid himself, says : — " Mr. Murray, of 

 Broughton, has also a few in the magnificent grounds around 

 Cally House, which, judging from recollection, correspond 

 exactly with the plate given. Some years ago, when there was a 

 shortness of grass for the other cattle, a few Ayrshires were 

 placed amongst the wild or white breed ; and when spring 

 came round it was found that the calves of the latter were 

 variously streaked, and as regards colour had lost most of 

 their distinctive qualities. This phenomenon we chanced to wit- 

 ness, and were powerfully reminded by so unlooked for a circum- 

 stance, of the uses to which Jacob, in patriarchal times, turned 

 his peeled wands. Mr. Low himself mentions the dispersal of 

 white cattle at Drumlanrig Castle, and we have often heard that 

 when they became located in the neighbouring country, precisely 

 the same effects were produced." As regards the origin of the 

 Cally herd. Dr. Murray says (* New Statistical Account,' Girthon 

 Parish, 1844, p. 298); — " There is a deer park, nearly a mile 

 square, within less than a mile of Cally, on the south. In 

 addition to herds of deer, it contains a few of the ancient 

 Caledonian breed of cattle, procured from the stock of the Duke 

 of Hamilton." Alexander Mun-ay, of Bi'oughton, the proprietor 

 of Cally, died in 1845, and in the following year most of the deer 

 were sold, the wild cattle being disposed of at same time. What 

 became of them I am unaware in the meantime. 



The following interesting letter, transcribed from an old file of 

 the ' Dumfries Courier,' refers to the Ardrossan herd. So little 

 can now be gleaned respecting these extinct herds that any 



