302 MOSTLY MAMMALS 
climate, such as that of the forests in which dwelt the 
wild aurochs. This disposes, once and for all, of a theory 
recently broached that the park cattle are descendants of 
a white sacrificial breed introduced by the Romans. 
A further inference is that the Pembroke cattle are 
themselves the most immediate descendants of the wild 
aurochs (which, as we have already seen, was black) now 
living in the British Islands, or perhaps, indeed, anywhere 
else. That the park cattle have in some cases reverted to 
a semi-wild state, whereas the Pembrokes are thoroughly 
domesticated, has nothing to do with the argument, and 
is merely the result of the force of circumstances. 
To some persons the red ears of the Chillingham and 
some of the old Welsh white cattle may give rise to a 
doubt as to the relationship with the aurochs and Pem- 
broke breed; but it should be borne in mind that red is 
the primitive coloration of all wild cattle, and that, for 
aught we know to the contrary, the calves, or even the 
cows, of the aurochs may have been of this colour, as are 
those of the banting, or wild ox, of Java, of which the 
old bulls are black. The red ears of the Chillingham breed 
are therefore, at most, a reversion to the colour of the 
ancestors of the aurochs. 
From the foregoing statements it is evident that the 
aurochs and the Pembroke and park cattle belong to one 
and the same species, and since the latter do not appear 
specifically separable from the domesticated cattle of Scan- 
dinavia, which probably formed the type of the Bos taurus 
of Linnaeus, it is clear that the aurochs has no right to 
a distinct species name. Instead of Bos primigenius, it 
should be called Bos taurus primigenzus. 
