156 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Duhlin Society, 



the mainland opposite and on the neighbouring islands. Low writes that 

 the colour of the West Highland cattle " is various, often black, sometimes 

 brown, or a mixture of brown or black, and often mouse- dun ; and 

 Macgillivray, in his " Report on the Present State of the Outer Hebrides," 

 publislied in 1831, writes that " the most common colours are black, red, 

 brown or brandered, that is, a mixture of red and brown in stripes.^ A 

 wliitish dun colour is also pretty frequently seen."- An examination of 

 the " Highland Herd-Book " shows that there is an unusually high proportion 

 of dun-coloured cattle among the early entries from the smaller islands lying 

 to the south of Skye. 



Galloway. — Excepting that tliey have lost more territory to the Shorthorn 

 —to the Ayrshire branch — ^the cattle of the south-eastern counties of 

 Scotland — Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, Wigtown, and Ayr — have run a course 

 closely parallel to that run by the cattle of the north-east. They have been 

 longer hornless, however, by reason of their feeling and responding sooner to 

 the English demand. They were hornless even in OuUey's time, although 

 he notes the presence of scurs — a phenomenon not yet entirely eliminated 

 from hornless breeds — and erroneously calls them horns : " Their most 

 essential difference from every other breed is in having no horns at all ; some 

 few indeed (in every other respect polls) have two little unmeaning horns, 

 from two to four inches long, hanging down loose from tiie same parts 

 that other cattle's horns grow, and are joined to the head by a little loose 

 skin and flesh."' But In the middle of the elghteentli century, according to 

 Youatt, " the greater part of tiie Galloway cattle were horned — they were 

 middle horns ; but some of them were polled."* Half a century ago there 

 were several herds of polled Ayrshires. The Gralloways of to-day are 

 nearly all black, but a few are dun. Youatt wrote that " the prevailing 

 and fashionable colour is black — a few are of a dark brindled brown, and still 

 fewer are speckled with white spots ; and some of them are of a dun or drab 

 colour, perhaps acquired from a cross with the Suffolk breed of cattle."' Here 

 again we have proof of a light dun ancestry. 



Somerset and Devon. — The polled cattle of these counties are long exLlnct 

 and little is known of them. Low writes of "tlie Sheeted Breed of Somerset. 

 It has existed in tlie same parts of England from time immemorial. The 

 red colour of the hair has a slight yellow tinge, and the white colour passes 

 like a sheet over the body. The individuals are sometimes horned, but more 



' " Domesticated Animals," 1845, p. 300. 



' " Prize Essays and Transactions of the Highland Societj' of Scotland," 1831, p. 263. 



' " Observations on Live Stock," second ed., 1794, p. 60. 



* Youatt's "Cattle," p. 164. ^ Ibid., p. 157. 



