Wilson — The Colours of Highland Cattle. 67 



lu the maiu, therefore, the colours of Highland cattle trace back to a 

 three-fold origin of black, red, and dun. Other " markings " were introduced 

 at different times, as, for instance, white finch-backs, white faces, and white 

 underlines, like those of the Longhorn and the Hereford ; but, like the 

 whole white colour of the Roman cattle, these have been almost entirely bred 

 out. 



In eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century writings, new colours — 

 perhaps new names — appear ; but, till the middle of the nineteenth century, 

 tlie old black colour held a lead over tlie others, some of which were numerous 

 in one place, some in another. In his " Report on the Present State of the 

 Outer Hebrides,"' Macgillivray says of the cattle of those parts : — " The 

 most common colours are black, red, brown, or brandered, that is a mixture 

 of red and brown in stripes. A whitish dun colour is also pretty 

 frequently seen." A correspondent of Touatt's tells him that the cattle of 

 Ross-shire " are of all colours, but black and brindled predominate";' while 

 of the Forfarshire horned cattle, which may be taken as typical of the North- 

 Eastern counties from which the Highlander has almost entirely receded, 

 Touatt himself writes :— " The prevailing colour is black, but witli more 

 admixture of other tints : some have white spots on tiie forehead, and white 

 on the flanks and belly. There are more brindled cattle tlian in Aberdeen ; 

 some are dark red, and others of a silver yellow or dun. A few are black 

 v^ith white hairs intermixed ; and occasionally a beast is seen tliat is altogether 

 white, with the exception of a few black hairs about the head."^ 



Since those days brown and white have almost completely dropped out; 

 and when the " Highland Herd Book " was established in 1885, there were 

 really only five main colours, viz., black, red, brindled, yellow, and dun. 

 More recently breeders have attempted to distinguish between the different 

 shades of some of these colours by saying " light red," " dark red," " light 

 yellow," " dark yellow," and so on ; but tlie practice is not so general as to 

 be of much avail in sorting out the colours. 



Within the last half century breeders have shown an aversion to blacks 

 and duns and a preference for reds, yellows — oue of the new colours — and 

 brindles, with the result that, while the former colours have gone down in 

 numbers, the latter have gone up. 



The following table shows approximately the relative numbers of calves of 

 the five main colours entered in the second and fifteenth volumes of the 



Prize Essays and Transactions of the Highland Society of Scotland, 1831, p. 263. 

 Youatl's " Cattle," 1834, p. 97. 

 ■ Ibid.,^. 113. 



N 2 



