254 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN 



pursue such studies after me, the library of Burton 

 Constable being at present a sealed book. This is the 

 only case in which I have been refused information. We 

 must therefore depend upon Bewick's brief account of 

 this herd, which is as follows : — 



" Those at Burton Constable, in the county of York, 

 were all destroyed by a distemper a few years since. 

 They varied slightly from those at Chillingham, having 

 black ears and muzzles, and the tips of their tails of the 

 same colour. They were also much larger, many of 

 them weighing sixty stone ; probably owing to the 

 richness of the pasturage in Holderness, but generally 

 attributed to the difference of kind between those with 

 black and with red ears, the former of which they 

 studiously endeavoured to preserve." 



Bewick was probably right in supposing that the 

 richness of the pasturage in Holderness had much to do 

 with increasing the size of the Burton Constable cattle. 

 Undoubtedly it would have that effect, if they enjoyed 

 it for only a few generations ; much more would this be 

 the case if, as is likely, they had depastured there for a 

 great length of time. Yet this may not have been the 

 only cause ; for many other circumstances tend to pro- 

 duce some variation, especially when a herd has been 

 confined for centuries in a particular park : two of the 

 stronger of these being selection and close inter-breeding, 

 or the absence of them. Like Bewick, I cannot attach 

 much influence to their having black ears rather than 

 red. With some exceptions, the tendency to produce 

 ears of either colour indifferently has appeared in most 

 of the park breeds, and generally the prevalence of 

 one colour or the other has been obtained by selec- 

 tion ; and Bewick's words certainly imply that here the 



