70 



Scientific Procfedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



and loins remarkably broad ; and being of greater weight in seemingly less 

 compass than any beasts I ever saw ; whether, from being without horns, &c." 

 This quotation indicates that dun is dominant to black ; but, while the indi- 

 cation is apparently sustained by column 15, it is opposed by column 5, which 

 suggests rather that either black or dun is a hybrid, one of the other. We 

 shall find what they are later. 



Apart from previous knowledge, the columns themselves carry some 

 suggestions. Column 10 suggests that, contrary to previous knowledge, 

 brindle is an intermediate hybrid between black and red, and this suggestion 

 is partially confirmed by columns 3 and 7 ; while columu 13 suggests that 

 yellow is an intermediate hybrid between red and dun : a suggestion which 

 is partially confirmed by columns 8 and 14, but opposed by column 9. To 

 test these suggestions, we shall examine first the entries in the last three 

 volumes of the " Herd Book " (xiii., xiv., and xv.), which are presumably 

 more accurate than those in volume ii. 



Table II. — Matings in volumes xiii., xiv., and xv. 



Unfortunately this table is only a little more conclusive than the former, 

 and the paucity of blacks makes it less so with regard to that colour and its 

 connexions. That yellow is the hybrid of red and dun is insisted upon more 

 strongly than before, however. Columns 13, 14, 8, and 9 all confirm the 

 suggestion, with some discrepancies. The question may be cleared up by 

 reference to the Kiunaird entries made in all the volumes from iii. to xv. In 

 the Kiunaird herd, yellows were a feature, and the records were kept with 

 great care. If yellow be an intermediate hybrid between red and dun, 

 then yellow by yellow should give reds and duns in equal numbers and 

 yellows as many as both, while yellow by red should give equal numbers 

 of reds and yellows, and yellow by dun equal numbers of yellows and 

 duns. 



