106 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



red ears is to be found in the Venedotian code of laws, 

 ascribed to Howel Dha, and which is probably of the 

 tenth or perhaps of the eleventh century, the usage 

 implied by the laws being no doubt much older than the 

 codification. The fine to be paid for injury done to 

 the King of Aberfraw is a hundred cows for each 

 hundred townships, and ' a white bull with red ears to 

 each hundred cows.' In the later Dimetian code the 

 Lord of Dynevwr is to have for the infringement of his 

 prerogative ' as many white cattle with red ears as 

 shall extend in close succession from Argoel to the 

 Palace of Dynevwr, with a bull of the same colour with 

 each score of them.' In the still later Latin trans- 

 lation of the Welsh laws, one hundred white cows with 

 red ears were considered equivalent to a hundred and 

 fifty black cattle. The specification of white with red 

 ears in these passages is considered by Mr. Youatt and 

 Mr. Darwin* to denote merely a difference of colour, and 

 not of breed. From its continual occurrence, however, 

 and from its agreement with the Chillingham ox, there 

 can be little doubt that it denotes a difference of breed ; 

 and this conclusion is rendered almost certain when we 

 consider that the size of the Chillingham ox is about 

 one-third greater than that of the black Welsh and 

 dark- coloured Highland cattle, the ratio between them 

 being the same as that between the hundred white 

 cattle and the hundred and fifty black of the ' Leges 

 Wallise.' "f In this last opinion I entirely concur. 



* Youatt's "Cattle," p. 48; Darwin's "Animals and Plants," vol. ii., 

 chap, xx., p. 209. 



t The above statements have been often made, and the quotations in 

 Latin might be given, as they have been by Dr. Smith, V.P.S.A., Scotland, 

 in their " Transactions," vol. ix., pp. 608, 609 ; but I have preferred to 



