360 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



of the climate.* Be this as it may, it is somewhat 

 singular that of the known herds of polled white 

 cattle, all appear to have passed through circumstances 

 favourable to the development and maintenance of 

 peculiar variations. Most at least of the other herds 

 could not have had so good a chance of semi-domesti- 

 cation. 



There is another very curious thing which may he 

 observed. In each variety there were some herds which 

 had black, some which had red ears ; and it seems as if, 

 both in the horned and hornless varieties, the black- 

 eared were the larger and stronger cattle, though the 

 red-eared were the more slender and elegant. Nay, it 

 appears as if the finest and largest of all these wild 

 cattle were those which had black tips to their tails 

 also. None of them seem to have attained the size and 

 grandeur of the black-eared and black-tailed herds of 

 Wollaton and Burton Constable. 



But perhaps the most important result we obtain 

 from considering the present state of the wild herds, 

 and one which should weigh heavily upon our minds 

 as Short-horn breeders, is the conclusion it strongly 

 points to on the subject which Mr. Darwin, as a 

 heading to his splendid chapter thereupon, f entitles — 

 " The Good Effects of Crossing, and the Evil Effects of 



* Herod., lib. iv., chap xxix. 



f "Animals and Plants," vol. ii., chap, xvii., pp. 114 and 119. [Any 

 inconsistency which some may find between this citation from Mr. 

 Darwin, and the views expressed in the chapters on the Chillingham 

 cattle, is more apparent than real. The author in those chapters — written 

 at a later date than this — saw reasons for questioning Mr. Darwin's con- 

 clusions on the particular point of the natural relative infecundity of the 

 Chillingham cattle ; but he adopts there, as here, Mr. Darwin's general 

 conclusions, and attributes in both places the preservation of existing herds 

 to timely crosses. — Ed.] 



