Wilson — Scmidinavian Origin of Hornless Cattle of British Isles. 147 



(2) Tliat their arrival in the British Islands coincided with tliat of the 



Norsemen. 



(3) That cattle of similar character were taken to other parts of Europe 



with which the Norsemen were associated. 



(4) That at least traces of cattle of similar character are to be found in 



Scandinavia. 



Let us begin by collecting the available information as to the first of these 

 considerations : — 



Suffolli. — The Suffolk cattle used to be called "the Suffolk Duns." 

 Their original shade of colour, as may be inferred from a letter from 

 Sir Thomas Beevor in the Bath Society's " Letters and Papers,"' was what 

 is now called light dun among Highland cattle, a kind of steely or slaty 

 wliity-grey : " The cows you saw were bred from the polled or horn-less Suffolk 

 dun-coloured' cows . . . by a Derbyshire black and white bull, given me by 

 my friend Lord Townshend. This mixture produced their uncommon colour 

 of mouse and white " — a colour which is the intermediate hybrid of light dun 

 and black, and whose only source is the crossing of these colours.^ In John 

 Kirby's "Suffolk Traveller," published in 1735, the Suffolk Dun is described 

 as having " a clean throat, with little dewlap, a snake head, thin and short 

 legs, the ribs springing well from the centre of the back, the carcase large, 

 the belly heavy, the back-bone ridged, the chine thin and hollow, the loin 

 narrow, the udder square, large, and loose, and creased when empty, the 

 milk veins remarkably large and rising in knotted puffs ; and this so general, 

 that I scarcely ever saw a famous milker that did not possess this point, a 

 general habit of leanness, hip-bones high and ill covered, and scarcely any 

 part of the carcase so formed and covered as to please an eye that is accus- 

 tomed to fat beasts of the finer breeds."'' Youatt (1834) writes : — " The 

 Suffolk Dun used to be celebrated in almost every part of the kingdom, on 

 account of the extraordinary quantity of milk that she yielded. The dun 

 colour is now, however, . . . rarely seen in Suffolk. . . . The prevailing 

 and the best colours are red, red and white, brindled, and a yellowish cream 

 colour. The bull is valued if he is of a pure and unmingled red colour."' 

 The Suffolk Duns were crossed with other cattle, but chiefly with the Norfolk 



' Vol. iii., second ed., 17S8, page 280. 



' Since the above was written the following statement has heen found in Culley's " Observations 

 upon Live Stock," second ed., 1794, p. 66 : " The Sntfollis are almost all liglit dun.'' 



^ See Eoy. Dublin Soc. Proc, vol. xii.. No. viii., 1909 : " The Colours of Highland Cattle." 

 * Quoted from Youatt'a " Cattle," 1834, p. 174. 

 « Ibid., p. 175. 



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