140 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



in colour from the dark, semi-wild Highland cattle 

 which. Leslie, much more fully than Sibbald, describes ; 

 and he also speaks of the two species as occupying in 

 his day quite different localities. 



On the whole, therefore, it seems certain from the 

 evidence of both history and tradition, that when the 

 great Caledonian Wood was at its best, then the grand 

 Caledonian wild bull was most flourishing and abundant ; 

 but when it declined the forest bull declined with it, so 

 that historians who lived from 300 to 400 years since 

 were only able to testify how much more prevalent it 

 had been in former days, how rare it had then become, 

 and how nearly it had arrived at that total extinction 

 which soon followed. It was the history of a grand 

 and ancient race dying out, as did subsequently Scot- 

 land's noble aboriginal bird, the capercailzie, from the 

 loss of those primaeval forests which had anciently given 

 food and protection to them both. Far, far in the 

 depths of a remote antiquity, if history and tradition 

 are to be believed, its first origin must be looked for, 

 since, 400 years ago, it was a mere relic of the past ; and 

 it seems pretty certain that even in the time of Robert 

 Bruce, 550 years since, its range had become much 

 circumscribed. It had for ages filled the place assigned 

 it, and its work was done. We have the concluding 

 chapter only of the history of an ancient species — so, at 

 least, all the evidence we can obtain testifies. That 

 testimony carries us back to, and perhaps much beyond, 

 the time when the learned Vice-President * of the 

 Society of Antiquaries of Scotland thinks the Urus 

 may perhaps be considered to have still existed there — 

 namely, from the sixth to the ninth century. The two 

 * Dr. T. A. Smith. 



