72 
now existing in Ireland. The four other heads placed beside it are evi- 
dently those of cows of the same breed, but slightly differing one from 
another, probably as the result of domestication. Most of the heads 
found in crannoges have been broken in the centre of the forehead by 
some blunt instrument, and a few were evidently perforated by bronze 
celts, such as those now in the Museum. 
The second breed (for I fear calling it a variety, lest I might offend 
the naturalists) would appear to be the most numerous, and is the curved 
horned. This magnificent head of a bull of this race (in second row) 
is, in point of size, one of the finest specimens of ancient oxen found in 
the British Isles: it is 234 inches long and 8 inches across the fore- 
head, which has been broken in by some blunt instrument, probably in 
slaughtering. The horn-cores are not so large at the base, but more 
than twice as long as those of the straight-horned race; they are curved 
considerably inwards, so that the tips of the horns, when perfect, must 
have approached much nearer than their bases; each horn-core was, when 
perfect, about eleven inches long, measured upon its upper curvature. 
This head, together with most of the others of its class, came from 
Loughgur, county of Limerick. The horns did not spread so wide or 
rise so high as those of the modern Kerry. 
The third set of heads here arranged were undeniably short-horns, 
and of a very peculiar class: they are characterized by long, narrow 
