28 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF ORE AT BRITAIN. 



perhaps be due to the care of man, as has been the case 

 with this species latterly in the English parks, and with 

 the Bison in Lithuania ; and if so, the preservation of 

 any particular variety would be possible by selection. 

 Many herds of English white cattle produce, occasion- 

 ally, calves either wholly black, or exhibiting a tendency 

 in that direction, and this seems to be a characteristic 

 of the species. Such a variety, once introduced, might 

 easily have been propagated, had it appeared desirable 

 to do so, long since in England, and may have been 

 actually so propagated abroad. If, then, this is a picture 

 of the wild bull at all, my idea is that it represents a 

 particular variety, at a time when the extinction of the 

 wild parent stock was near at hand. As an illustration 

 of form, but not of colour, I give a copy, taken from 

 Griffith's work, of the Augsburg picture. As in- 

 dicative of the original colour of the Bos urus, I think 

 the copy of the Pompeian picture much more to be 

 depended upon. 



This view is to a certain extent confirmed by 

 Professor Low, who, speaking of the English forest 

 breed, says: "Under other conditions of tempera- 

 ture and food, the colour of the same variety might 

 become black, with a peculiar marking equally constant. 

 An ancient writer, speaking of Uri in the woods of 

 Poland, describes them as ' black, with a white streak 

 along the chine.' " Possibly the Augsburg bull was of 

 this variety ; but it is remarkable that it differs much 

 in form and structure, as well as in colour, from any 

 known race of the Urus type. If it is a variety of the 

 Bos urus, I consider it an exception to the rule. I 

 think it quite certain that wherever throughout Europe 

 domestic cattle of the Urus type remain, acknowledged 



