310 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



" There was a great difference in the coats of 

 different animals in the herd. Some of the younger 

 cows and two-year-old heifers, which are the produce 

 of the slaughtered bull (which is said to have been out 

 of an original cow, in calf at the time of the plague), 

 have shaggy coats of long hair, especially about the neck 

 and chine. These, too, have the black colour of the ears, 

 muzzles, and circles round the eyes more conspicuously 

 developed. Not one had a black tip to its tail; nor 

 could it be ascertained that any such occurrence had 

 ever been noticed, nor that a calf with horns had ever 

 appeared. Some, but not all, of the cows showed a 

 yellowness of the skin round the setting on of the 

 tail; and one or two had black spots on the bare 

 places adjoining thereto; while all the truest bred 

 had black hoofs. One of the maiden heifers had 

 black spots (about as big as a penny) in large numbers 

 on her neck, and on her sides as far as the foremost 

 ribs; and all these young members of the herd had 

 black ears, muzzles, and eyes, the pupil of the latter 

 beino- also black. This was not the case to the same 

 extent among the cows ; two of these had white 

 ears, and more than two had no circles at all round 

 the eyes ; one or two had black tips to the teats, the 

 rest of the udder being white. Those which seemed 

 to have acquired a cross with the Norfolk or Suffolk 

 polled race had the udder more largely developed, but 

 were narrower framed, and shorter too. Those which 

 had the most characteristic markings had smaller udders 

 and less apparent tendency to prolonged milking. It 

 has been said that previously to the rinderpest the 

 cream given was higher-coloured and richer. Yellow- 

 skinned cows generally do yield high-coloured cream ; 



