11 



CHAPTER 11. 



ORIGIN OF POLLED EACES OF CATTLE. 



Speculation as to origin of hornless cattle — Their antiquity — Their dis- 

 tinctiveness — Letter from Darwin on loss of horns — Letter from Dr 

 John Alexander Smith — Professor Low's opinion — Absence of horns 

 — Deviation from original form — Loss of horns before and after 

 domestication — Preserved and fixed by selection in breeding — Ac- 

 quaintance with principles of breeding in early times — Advice of 

 PaUadius, Columella, and Virgil — Distribution of polled cattle — Polled 

 cattle in Austria, South America, Norway, and Iceland — In Cheshire, 

 Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Norfolk, Yorkshire, Devonshire, in 

 England — In Ayrshire, Lanarkshire, and Isle of Skye, in Scotland — 

 In Ireland — Existing polled breeds in United Kingdom — The Gallo- 

 way breed — Norfolk and Suffolk polls. 



Eegaeding the probable derivation of the polled varieties 

 of cattle, there has been considerable speculation. As far 

 as our present knowledge extends, the subject is found to 

 rest mainly on conjecture. By some it has been seriously 

 argued that polled cattle are entitled to be ranked as an 

 original and distinct species. We have even met with 

 the assertion that their polled progenitors first saw the 

 post-diluvian world at the " general dispersion on Mount 

 Ararat " ! Without going either so far back or so high 

 up for their origin, the majority of thoughtful writers who 

 have given attention to the subject are prepared to assign 

 to the principal living varieties or breeds of polled or 

 hornless cattle a separate existence for a long period of 

 time. The idea which finds most favour — and we believe 



