THE BEEF BREEDS OF CATTLE 239 
attention paid to what is now known as the fine points, 
but all of the care was directed to the individual merit. 
Color was a secondary consideration, and, while the great 
majority of the cattle were black, yet many good ones 
were marked with a dun-colored stripe down the back, 
while others were brindled, and still others were black 
and white, and not infrequently calves came of a peculiar 
pale red color caused 
by the absence of the 
black pigment, which 
is a characteristic of 
the breed. It was 
Hugh Watson of 
Keillor who first de- 
termined on the de- 
sirability of a uniform 
color in the breed, and who declared himself for the “‘ Black 
and all black; the Angus Doddie, and no Surrender!” 
Not so much care was exercised then as now in the choice 
of the sires, and in some cases animals were used that had 
rudimentary horns called scurs. These are small horn- 
like excrescences, that are not attached to the skull, and 
have no horn core. This condition is not considered to 
represent any impurity of the blood, but simply is a hark- 
ing back to a time when the progenitors of these cattle 
were horned. Scurs are extremely objectionable from the 
present standpoint, and males so marked are debarred 
from registration. The fashion in color also demands 
that no white should appear above the under-line, but a 
white udder is said to be an indication of a good milch 
cow. The demand for solid black color is carried, perhaps, 
beyond the proper point. There have been a number of 
attempts to get together the red-colored females and to 
Fic. 39. — Aberdeen-Angus cow. 
