TENDENCY TO BLAGK SPOTS. 197 



least that the disposition to do so is much less than it is 

 in many of the white cattle. But it seems certain from 

 Bewick's account, taken together with the steward's 

 book — both previously quoted — that formerly they had 

 a very strong pre-disposition to have red or black ears 

 indifferently ; and that the uniformly red ear which has 

 of late years prevailed is solely the result of selection, 

 the black-eared ones having been purposely destroyed. 



In examining the horns of several of the Chilling- 

 ham cattle preserved by Mr. Briggs, the taxidermist, at 

 Wooler, I observed on one head — that of a bull — that 

 while one horn was absolutely pure white, without 

 a black stain on it, the fellow horn was very faintfy, 

 almost imperceptibly, tinged with black towards the tip, 

 but nothing like so strongly as in many a high-bred 

 Short-horn. I am informed by Mr. Jacob Wilson that 

 he believes these were the horns of a bull which he 

 knows was shot not long since on account of his horns 

 not being correct in colour. This is a strong proof of a 

 tendency to variation suppressed by selection. 



But the strongest and newest fact which, as I think, 

 I have established, is the tendency which the Chilling- 

 ham cattle have to black or blue spots upon the neck. 

 This seems common to all the white races. Dickinson 

 describes " the Caledonian Forest wild cattle " — by which 

 he means, I presume, those of Athole, Cumbernauld, &c. — 

 as " being a dun, or rather flea-bitten white," and having 

 black muzzles and ear-tips, with spotted legs ; and he 

 says that the Drumlanrig breed " had the same 

 markings." At Chartley, to my own knowledge, the 

 same description holds good ; some there might certainly 

 be called flea-bitten whites. The same tendency exists in 

 the Chillingham herd, though to a less extent than in 



