266 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



portance is, that there has been tried the important 

 experiment, with regard to colour, which naturalists 

 complain has not been tried at Chillingham, Hamilton, 

 or Chartley. With regard to the two former, Professor 

 Low says: — "One circumstance, common to both" 

 (Chillingham and Hamilton) "the herds of wild oxen 

 referred to, is the tendency of the young to deviate from 

 the ' marking,' as it is termed, of the parents : that is, to 

 become altogether black or altogether white, or to have 

 black ears in place of red ears, and so on. These 

 animals are destroyed, and, therefore, the interesting 

 part of the experiment is interrupted of showing what 

 characters they would assume were they to be left in 

 the natural state." And with regard to the Chartley 

 cattle he says: — "All the black calves are destroyed; 

 and thus, as in other cases, we are unable to know what 

 ultimate character of colour the race would assume." 



Mr. Darwin forms a very similar opinion. He 

 admits indeed that our park cattle, " not allowed to 

 roam freely and to cross with other herds," are more 

 subject to variations than " truly wild animals." He 

 admits also the " tendency in wild or escaped cattle to 

 become white, with coloured ears." But he comes to 

 the conclusion that to preserve uniformity, " even within 

 the same park, a certain degree of selection — that is, the 

 destruction of the dark-coloured calves — is apparently 

 necessary ; " and even that, from their occasional ap- 

 pearance, "it is extremely doubtful whether the 

 original Bos primigenius was white." 



Whether this tendency to a certain amount of black 

 arises from a disposition to variation, induced by a sort 

 of semi-domestication, or from reversion to a remote 

 ancestor, or from both, it is impossible to say. It may 



