10 THE COW 



finding out that Bos taurus was a variable species ; 

 and after that we can leave the matter to the com- 

 parative anatomist. 



In the conformation and the habits of the pres- 

 ent-day cow there are many things we cannot un- 

 derstand unless we suppose them to be reversions 

 to something in the remote ancestry. The expand- 

 ing science of genetics may change our conceptions 

 of some of these matters; yet even genetics is 

 based strongly on the conception of the continuity 

 of heredity. It is pleasant to conjure the past and 

 to try to explain contemporaneous facts on tenden- 

 cies we assume to have been present through the 

 long course of time, unless, indeed, we can dem- 

 onstrate their origin now and then in modem 

 nutrition or other factors. By this practice of ret- 

 rospect we endeavor to reconstruct for ourselves 

 something of the conditions of the earth and of 

 man in vast former time. 



For our purpose let us rest content with the 

 general statement that for unknown centuries 

 and up until early historic times, wild cattle 

 roamed the forests of Central and Northern Europe 

 and the British Isles, presumably entirely undo- 

 mesticated and uncontrolled. Very fortunately, in 

 certain old European parks, a few specimens of 

 these cattle have been preserved so that we may 

 know something of their appearance and habits. 

 Their color markings at least were peculiar. They 

 seem to have been great brutes, typically white in 



