76 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BREED. 



sion sale at Fyvie in 1881. Mr Auld's 270-guinea cow 

 [Pride of Aberdeen 9th 3253] is also a good deal of the 

 same stamp." 



Formerly, both in Angus and Aberdeen, the breed em- 

 braced a variety of colours as well as difference in size. 

 Black, with some white spots on the underline, was the 

 prevailing colour. Some were brindled — dark-red and 

 black stripes alternately ; others were red ; others brown ; 

 and a few what Youatt called " silver-coloured yellow." 

 But since systematic improvement was commenced in 

 thorough earnest, all shades of colour excepting black 

 have been at a discount, — indeed almost entirely " dis- 

 honoured." Now the cry is, " black and all black." It 

 is not easy, however, to wholly obliterate features that 

 have at any time been characteristic of a race of stock ; 

 and even in the " best regulated families " a " reversion " 

 to one or other of these unpopular shades of colour stiU 

 occasionally displays itself. A shade of brown is not 

 rejected, and not a few of the best -looking and most 

 highly priced animals of recent years have had some 

 white about the underline, chiefly around the udder. Eed 

 or brindled, however, are wholly inadmissible ; and when 

 animals of these shades do appear, they are not bred from. 

 In most herds one or two red calves have appeared, but 

 a brindled calf is now rarely dropped. But while these 

 colours are unpopular, it should be remembered that they 

 do not denote impurity. They simply indicate that an 

 ancient cliaracteristic of the breed, which modern fancy 

 has doomed to extinction, has in the mysterious workings 

 of nature been able to temporarily reassert itself. 



And here it may be well to draw a distinction between 

 those occasional unwelcome cases of " harking back " to 

 discounted colours, and another deviation from the rule 

 which now and again appears in some strains in the form 

 of " scurs." These " scurs " are small, rounded pieces of 

 horn, without horn-cores, and attached loosely to the head. 



