5418 Quadrupeds. 



non-productibility of any hybrid races, — of at least their non-conti- 

 nuity or non-perpetuity as races. 



All admit, however, that, as regards the animals called domestic, 

 there exist anomalies by no means admitting of an explanation, as the 

 production and maintenance of breeds, seemingly at the will of man, 

 and the supposed persistency of these breeds.* My views on all these 

 questions have been long before the public, and I need not, therefore, 

 advert further to them in this short notice, the object of which is to 

 call the attention of naturalists and anatomists to some peculiarities 

 in the skeleton of the head of a breed of oxen supposed to be abori- 

 ginal, or at the least of great antiquity. 



Many years ago I had an opportunity of obtaining a skeleton of the 

 white ox (a young bull) of the breed of cattle preserved by the Duke 

 of Hamilton, in the park of Cadzow, not far from the Clyde. These 

 oxen differ in some respects from those of Tankerville, near Wooler; 

 the latter have horns of some size and red ears ; the former, black 

 ears and muzzle, and very short horns. Both breeds are pre- 

 served by destroying the calves which are spotted, or which show 

 other colours than their parents ; and thus the breed is preserved. 

 "What form it would assume if left to itself is not known, the experi- 

 ment never having been made, so far as I know. 



I find by my notes now before me that I visited both parks (Cad- 

 zow and Tankerville), and also examined a few of the wild cattle, as 

 they are called, which once existed at Drumlanrig, but which, I think, 

 have been now destroyed. Of those of Tankerville and Drumlanrig 

 I could obtain no specimens ; of the breed at Cadzow I procured the 

 skeleton just alluded to and two crania, which I presume also to have 

 belonged to the male. On comparing these crania with the common 

 short-horned bull and with the hornless Galloway breed, I find cer- 

 tain differences, which, if constant and found to prevail extensively in 

 the breed, would be held, I think, by anatomists, to constitute dif- 

 ferences amounting to specific. 



Inches. 

 In two crania of equal length, the length of the whole head in the wild ox was 18^- 

 Ditto, in the domestic ox ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 18^ 



Length of nasal hones in the Urns ... ... ... ... ... ... 5% 



Ditto in the domestic ox 8 



These same bones, the nasal, which differ so much in the various 

 races of men, were further characterized in these breeds of oxen by 



* See ' The Eaees of Men : a Fragment,' by E. Knox. 



