THE POLLED AEEEDEEN OR MGFS 

 BEEED OF CATTLE 



CHAPTER I. 



ORIGIN OF DOMESTIC CATTLE. 



Disagreement as to origin of domestic cattle — The ox in prehistoric times 

 — The Bos urus — The Bos longifrons — Domestic cattle descended from 

 one or the other, or from both — Opinion of various naturalists : Riiti- 

 meyer, Cuvier, Bell, Boyd Dawkins, Darwin, Storer, Owen, Dr John 

 Alexander Smith — Are the wrus and the longifrons really distinct 

 species? — Practical value of the discussion — Probability of domestic 

 cattle coming from "one common source" — Low on variations in 

 cattle. 



It is probable that complete agreement may never be 

 arrived at in regard to the origin of the domesticated races 

 of British cattle. There has been much discussion as to 

 ■whether they ought to be looked upon as the conglomerate 

 produce of two or more distinctly different species of the 

 genus Bos, or as the variegated offshoots of one great 

 parent stem. The subject, like most other questions re- 

 ceding far into the mists of prehistoric times, would seem 

 to be almost hopelessly entangled in the meshes of scien- 

 tific and theoretical speculation. 



The combined researches of the geologist and the archae- 

 ologist have proved that the genus Bos — the generic appel- 



