332 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



follow, either that the tradition is incorrect, or that they 

 had become hornless. In other respects they seem to 

 have differed little from the Caledonian wild cattle, ex- 

 cept, perhaps, in one thing : that they seem to have been 

 smaller than other known examples, owing, no doubt, 

 to the extremely artificial manner in which they were 

 confined, in fields enclosed by stone walls, and without 

 natural shelter, the only protection they seem to have 

 had being some sheds. Being also only few in number 

 for many years — only from ten to twelve — they would in 

 the course of years be necessarily deteriorated by very 

 close inter-breeding, and this was probably the cause of 

 their final extinction ; but to the last they were very 

 shy and wild. They are best described by Mr. George 

 Robertson, author of several works on agriculture, who 

 came from Granton, near Edinburgh, to be factor to 

 Lord Eglinton about 1814 or 1815, and remained with 

 him two years. In his " Description of Cunningham 

 and Ayrshire," published in 1820, he says : — 



"Nothing uncommon in the usual cattle of the 

 country ; but there is (or lately was) a singular species 

 of cattle, remarkably different from the ordinary breed 

 of the country, to be seen in Lord Eglinton's park of 

 Ardrossan. They are altogether wild, the breed never 

 having been within a house or under the hands of man. 

 They are pure white, with the exception of the muzzle 

 and the inside of the ears, which are black. They have 

 no horns. In this respect they differ from the singular 

 breed of wild cattle belonging to Lord Tankerville at 

 Chillingham, in Northumberland, which have horns. 

 Though very shy, they are not so remarkably fierce as 

 Lord Tankerville's ; the reason of which may be, perhaps, 

 that they graze in open pastures unscreened by wood, 



