ORIGIN OF WRITE IN CATTLE. 17 



domesticated — exposed to many hardships and vicissi- 

 tudes of cold and tempestuous climates, but all hard as 

 iron, vigorous, and — white. 



Some critics may object that the colours of animals 

 are subject to great alterations when they are tamed 

 and subdued by man, and may conclude from analogy 

 that, as in the case of the dog, the cat, the pig, the 

 rabbit, and others, the white cow is the product of 

 domestication. It may indeed be so, but it would be 

 dangerous to assume that the laws which affect certain 

 domestic animals apply with equal force to all ; that the 

 ox, for example, becomes subject to the same modifica- 

 tions of structure and the same variations of colour as 

 the rabbit. And besides, it should be remembered that 

 white, or colours closely approximating thereto, are the 

 natural colours of many wild animals. Mr. Darwin, 

 writing on this particular subject, concludes that facts 

 " show that there is a strong, though not invariable, 

 tendency in wild or escaped cattle, under widely different 

 conditions of life, to become white, with coloured ears ; "* 

 and he enumerates various examples upon which he 

 founds that opinion. If it is a correct one it would 

 seem to follow, that the British wild cattle, now kept in 

 parks, but formerly ranging unconfined over extensive 

 districts, are either the aboriginal descendants of the 

 wild animal, which have never been subdued by man ; or 

 that, once domesticated, they have long since become 

 feral, reverted to the primitive type, and recovered the 

 colour of the original wild ancestor. In either case it 

 would seem that the wild race from which they are 

 derived must have been also white. 



* " Animals and Plants," vol. i., chap, iii., p. 85. 

 C 



