4 Scientific Proceedings^ Royal Dublin Society. 



mountainous parts towards the south-west of this county (Cork), the Kerry- 

 breed of cattle is found ; but by frequent crossing with the long-horned, they 

 have produced a small bi-eed which has nearly the same character." 



It is still possible, of course, that Dexter may have bred or owned cattle of 

 Dexter type ; but, if he did so, it is very improbable that they found their way 

 from Tipperary to Kerry, the soui'ce of tlie modern Dexters. In Dexter's 

 times the movement of Kerry cattle was in the opposite direction, and the 

 tendency was to improve the old Irish cattle by crossing them with English 

 breeds: the Longhorns in great numbers with some Herefords and Devons 

 and a fevsr of the breed we now call tlie Shorthorn. It must be remembered 

 also that Dexter was an importer of English sheep — Leicesters — and that, if 

 he became concerned in cattle, it was much more likely to have been in 

 one of the English breeds. 



The arguments against the method attributed to Dexter are still more 

 convincing. He " is said to have produced his curious breed by selection 

 from the best of the mountain cattle of the district. He communicated to it 

 a remarkable roundness of form and shortness of legs."' Tlie original 

 Kerry breed was light in the body and long in the leg — Low's statement is 

 itself evidence of that — but to have brouglit a breed that was light-bodied 

 and long-legged down to another that was stout-bodied and short-legged by 

 simple selection within fifty or even a hundred years is a thing we now 

 know, since the significance of Mendel's discovery has been realized, to be 

 highly improbable, if not altogether impossible. 



Before we can clear up the question we must look into the history and 

 character of the Irish cattle themselves and of the cattle that were imported 

 from time to time. 



The Kenies are all that are now left of the race that at one time inhabited 

 the whole island, but which have been gradually pushed out by imported 

 cattle. The dates of the importations cannot be fixed with accuracy. Among 

 the skulls dug from the Dunshaughlin crannog, the date of which is fixed about 

 the ninth century,' Sir William Wilde identified four different types — viz., a 

 straight- iiorned, a curved-horned, a short-horned, and a hornless. It may 

 be doubted whether Sir William was justified in separating these first 

 two types from one another. It might be maintained that they were only 

 such variations as might be acquired by individuals of a pure-bred race. In 

 any case, the presence of the hornless type suggests that there was already a 

 mixing of breeds in the neighbourhood of Dunshaughlin. If there were 



' Low's Domesticated Animals 0/ the British Isles, 1845. 

 - Proceedings of the Koyal Iiish Academy, vol. vii., p. 58. 



