146 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



Against both views there are several eousiderations, viz.: — 



(ffi) It is unlikely that precisely the same variation — or reversion — should 

 have occurred in at least a dozen separate districts in the British Islands. 



{b) It is likely that, if it occurred so frequently in Britain, it should 

 also have occurred with similar frequency on the neighbouring continent, 

 especially in the Low Countries, where the cattle are closely allied to those in 

 Britain. 



(c) It is unlikely that a phenomenon believed to have occurred so 

 frequently in times gone by should now be unheard of. A hornless calf 

 from pure-bred parents of any horned breed is never seen. Many are got 

 by the crossing of horned witli hornless cattle ; and, because of the hornless 

 condition being dominant to the liorned, it is a very simple matter to make a 

 horned breed hornless by persistent selection of the hornless descendants of 

 such a cross for breeding purposes. A homed breed has hornless calves in 

 no other wa3^ it would be very difficult indeed to prove that the niata 

 cattle referred to by Darwin and the hornless breeds in some countries 

 alleged to be descended from pure-bred horned ancestors have been abso- 

 lutely free from a hornless cross. 



It is the purpose of tliis paper to show that the existing and extinct 

 British breeds of hornless cattle may all be traced back to a Scandinavian 

 origin. 



Breeds of hornless cattle are reported to have existed in the eighteenth 

 century in the following centres : — Suffolk, Yorkshire, Forfarshire, Aberdeen- 

 shire, Sutherland, Skye, Galloway, Somerset, Devon, and parts of Ireland. 

 A few hornless cattle were reported in other districts; but tlie smallness 

 of their numbers suggests that they were migrants from the above-named 

 centres. 



Of the herds of so-called " wild " white cattle at least seven were 

 hornless at one time or another — viz. : at Oadzow in Lanarkshire, Ardrossan 

 in Ayrshire, Middleton and Whalley in Lancashire, Somerford in Cheshire, 

 WoUaton in Nottingham, and Gisburne in Yorkshire. 



Leaving aside the " wild " herds, which will receive separate consideration 

 later, it will be noticed that the districts in which hornless cattle were recorded 

 are all maritime and situated directly upon the Norsemen's tracks — circum- 

 stances which at once suggest that these hornless cattle are of Scandinavian 

 origin. 



To make this theory good, it will Ijave to be shown — 



(1) That these hornless breeds were originally of similar character, and 

 therefore presumably of common origin. 



