364 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



that even the semi-wild herds of Paraguay, though not 

 compelled to do so by such stringent inducements as 

 really wild cattle, do nevertheless cross, and that man 

 furthers this process still more by introducing fresh 

 blood, believing that, if crossing is not promoted, " de- 

 generation in size and diminution in fertility " are pro- 

 duced ; and Darwin goes on to prove that the park 

 cattle of this country are, relatively to these cattle, 

 degenerate and less fertile. Their diminution in size 

 from their great ancestor the Bos primi genius or Urus, 

 he also shows ; and elsewhere how they have — probably 

 since the days of Boethius and Leslie — lost one of their 

 finest features, their magnificent manes ; and to this Sir 

 Walter Scott has also alluded. Dr. Leigh's account 

 of the Middleton herd given above tends to confirm, 

 this latter fact, and would lead us to at least suspect 

 that a considerable increase of degeneracy in this par- 

 ticular has occurred during the last century and three- 

 quarters. And this is just what sound induction would 

 lead us to suppose would be the case ; for as during 

 that period the wild herds have become much fewer in 

 number, and very probably the number kept in each 

 park has also been diminished, the opportunities for 

 crossing have been lessened also, the cumulative ill- 

 effects of continual inter-breeding enhanced, and the 

 progress of decay rendered in consequence more rapid. 



And this is so indeed. Even in the early part of 

 this century the wild herds of Great Britain, includ- 

 ing that at Athole which is not noticed by Bewick, 

 were seven in number. I purposely pass over the Mid- 

 dleton, the Burton Constable, and the Drumlanrig herds, 

 which had already ceased to be, and the cause of whose 

 extinction is, in two cases out of three, quite unknown 



