Wilson — Scandinavian Origin of Hornless Cattle of British Isles. 157 



frequently they are hornless.'" The Devonshire hornless breed was found 

 about Barnstaple, at one time a Danish settlement, on the northern coast. 

 Touatt writes that " the DevonsJiire Natts, or polled cattle, now rapidly 

 decreasing in number, possess tlie general figure and most of the good 

 qualities of the horned beasts of that district,'" which were the North 

 Devon breed. Lawrence also calls tliem " the Devon natts, or polled cattle 

 on the coast," and writes, " They were described to me as coloured, middle- 

 sized, thick-set, and apt to make fat, but coarser than the true-bred Devons."^ 

 Tlieir colour is not recorded ; but in a letter on the cattle of South Devon in 

 the "Animals of Agriculture," 1792,* Paul Treby Treby mentions botli yellow 

 and hornless cattle. At the same time he and other writers mention the 

 importation of cattle from Normandy and the Channel Islands ; and it is not 

 altogether impossible that both the yellow colour and the hornlessness may 

 have been introduced by these cattle. A quotation from Treby might be 

 made : — " There are also some of a yellow colour ; these are going out fast, 

 being apt to steed [a provincial word for diarrhoea] : therefore are much less 

 sought after, and sell at a less price . . . The late Lord Boriugdon brouglit 

 into this parish [Plympton St. Mary] a great variety of bulls : some turned 

 out well, others as bad ; nevertheless, with Gruernsey and Jersey cows, and 

 the ugly breed of blacks that (I believe) were here originally, they have 

 contributed to produce the most motley lierd, with and without horns, any 

 country can boast of — I should be ashamed of." 



Ireland. — Ireland has also a hornless breed of cattle — the Maoiles, Moyles, 

 Mulliues, and so on, which, unless some fortuitous change of taste intervene, 

 seems destined to become extinct Only a few beasts are found liere and there 

 in the south-west, the midlands, and in some parts of the north, and there are 

 only one or two small herds of animals picked up by owners wlio wish to keep 

 the breed alive. They are usually full-sized cattle; and Major Fox, of 

 Harmony Hall, near A thlone, who has a herd of them, writes that " the MviUine 

 cattle are never black, always yellow, or what one should call light haij ; but some 

 of my cows are yellow and white-piebald .... I have seen brindled Mullines ; 

 and I had a steel-grey Mulline myself ; but I regarded lier as a hybrid — more 

 of a roan Shorthorn than a Mulline."" Others who have known these horn- 

 less cattle mention red, yellow, dun, and brindle as their common colours. 

 They are generally good milkers, and frequently short-legged and sickle- 

 hocked. Low writes that the polled Irish breed " has existed in Ireland for 

 an unknown period, and appears to have been once widely diffused. It is 



' " Domesticated Animals," p. 350. 2 n Cattle," p. 179. 



3 " General Treatise on Cattle, &c.," 1805, p. 45. * Vol. xvii., p, 304. 



^ In letters to the writer of this paper. 



