EDITORIAL GLEANINGS. 41 



3. Balanoptera physalus (Linnaeus). 



The Common Finback or Rorqual. 



4. Balanoptera musculus (Linnaeus). 



The Blue Whale. 



5. Balanoptera borealis, Lesson. 



Rudolphi's Rorqual. 



6. Balanoptera acuto-rostrata, Lacepede. 



The Little Piked Whale, or Least Rorqual. 



7. Megaptera longimana (Rudolphi). 



The Humpback. 



Mr. R. Hedger Wallace has contributed a timely, lengthy, and well 

 illustrated paper on " White Cattle : an Inquiry into their Origin and 

 History," to the last part of the Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc. of Glasgow. These 

 modern Park White Cattle are often described as descendants of Bos primi- 

 genius, and this opinion appears to be solely due to Prof. Rutiraeyer ; Mr. 

 Wallace's contention, however, is that " they are simply the descendants of 

 Roman cattle imported into the country during the Roman occupation." 

 The evidence for this view is very amply given, and total agreement is pro- 

 nounced with the conclusions of Prof. T. McKenny Hughes that we may 

 take it as pretty well established that " the Urus characterizes the Neolithic 

 age, having first appeared in Palaeolithic times with the Bison, and having 

 become extinct in Britain long before the Roman occupation. The Celtic 

 Shorthorn appeared with the Urus in Neolithic times, lived down and 

 through the Roman occupation, and thus may be regarded as the character- 

 istic Ox of the Bronze age. The Romans improved the Celtic Shorthorn 

 by crossing it with cattle imported from Italy ; the form of the Roman Ox, 

 as inferred from contemporary art, being exactly what was required to pro- 

 duce the modification observed in the latter Romanized breed. The charac- 

 teristics of the Urus nowhere appear among the Romano-British cattle. 



The Kerry Cattle are the most typical examples in the British Isles of 

 the Celtic Shorthorn, while the Chillingham Cattle are the nearest repre- 

 sentation of the breed introduced by the Romans. 



The Highland and Welsh Cattle are derived largely from the Celtic 

 Shorthorn, with more or less mixture of the Roman breed. All the above 

 are whole-coloured or shaded. 



The Longhorns, which appear nowhere with Romano-British or early 

 mediaeval remains, are the offspring of the large breeds imported from 

 Holstein and the Low Countries in later mediaeval times. All these, and 

 the stock crossed with them, are apt to be parti-coloured or sheeted. 



The Mediaeval Shorthorn, as found in the ditches, &c, of the eleventh, 

 twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, is a reversion to the numerically predomi- 



