GENERAL INTRODUCTION. ll 



heifers, such as may be seen any clay in large numbers 

 at Poltallocb, Argyleshire, are crossed with hornless 

 Galloway bulls, the offspring are not only hornless, but 

 sometimes so like Galloways that they are with great 

 difRcnlty distinguished from pure-bred Galloways. This 

 is again the result of inbreeding ; the older race counts 

 for nothing in the presence of the inbred black Galloways 

 with no pedigree worth mentioning in the presence of the 

 long-horned Highlanders. When two inbred strains are 

 crossed the result is rather curious ; e. g. when white 

 shorthorns and Galloways are crossed the offspring are 

 almost invariably blue greys and hornless : in this case 

 the prepotency of the Galloway, though still predomi- 

 nating, is considerably diminished by the inbreeding of the 

 shorthorn. 



The Iceland skewbald pony, already mentioned, is also 

 a striking instance of inbreeding. She first of all pro- 

 duced a light bay foal to a pony of her own kith and 

 kin, — a pony presumably more inbred than herself. 

 Her next foal was the hybrid "Heckla," a dark dun, 

 indistinctly striped, but without the smallest patch of 

 white anywhere. This summer her foal, to a bay Shet- 

 land pony,* is almost the exact image of herself, not 

 only in make and colour, but in the shape and position 

 of the rather peculiarly arranged yellowish-brown patches. 

 Evidence, apparently trustworthy, of the evils of inbreed- 

 ing will be found in Mr. Low's great work on the 

 ' Domesticated Animals of Great Britain.' He says a 

 gentleman experimented with foxhounds on a large scale, 

 with the result that through inbreeding "the race actually 

 became monstrous and perished." The same happened 

 with hogs. After a few generations they became dimin- 

 ished in size, the bristles were changed into hairs, the 

 limbs became short and feeble, the fertility was diminished, 

 and the mothers were unable to nourish their young. Low 



* To this bay pony tliree biiy mares had bay foals, and a black mare had 

 a chestnut foal, but a piebald mare had a piebald foal. Tlie Iceland ponies 

 are probably more inbred than the ordinary Shetland ponies, i.e. the ponies 

 not in the Shetland stud-book. 



