234 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



apparent on the stuffed head of a cow at the Hall ; in 

 that case, however, the black hairs were so very nume- 

 rous — some of them in small bunches, some of them 

 single, others nearly so — that they gave the head quite a 

 grizzled appearance, which must have been very like the 

 "cinder-grey" of some of the darker cattle of the 

 Russian Steppes, or the "flea-bitten grey " of some of 

 the wild cattle in our northern counties. The cow I 

 saw in the herd approximated to the same character, 

 and so did several of those I saw at Somerford. 



Black ears are preferred, and are an object of selec- 

 tion ; yet the colour of the ear varies a good deal in 

 different individuals, being, however, in all more or less 

 black. In some I observed the whole ear black, inside 

 and outside ; in others the inside was black, and the 

 outside merely tipped with that colour. Some of the 

 calves and young heifers had ears apparently altogether 

 white, both inside and out : but this is not really the 

 case ; there are always within the ear some black hairs. 

 It is somewhat singular that these white-eared ones — two 

 or three, perhaps — are all the descendants of one cow, 

 which was pointed out to us. She was one of the finest 

 and largest cows, and her own ears were lighter in 

 colour than those of most of the others, but not as light 

 as those of the calves ; hers were white, tipped with 

 black. I also observed that one of these white-eared 

 calves had principally, if not entirely, white eye-lashes, 

 differing in that respect also from the rest of the herd. 

 In other respects these white-eared calves resembled 

 their relatives. The cows had black teats, but there 

 does not seem to be a disposition in any of them to 

 black upon the tail. 



It struck me that, when compared with most other 



