86 CATTLE. 



Chap. III. 



brownish-red. 54 On the Ladrone Islands, in the Pacific Ocean, 

 immense herds of cattle, which were wild in the year 1741, are 

 described as " milk-white, except their ears, which are generally 

 black." 55 The Falkland Islands, situated far south, with all the 

 conditions of life as different as it is possible to conceive from 

 those of the Ladrones, offer a more interesting case. Cattle 

 have run wild there during eighty or ninety years ; and in the 

 southern districts the animals are mostly white, with their feet, 

 or whole heads, or only their ears black ; but my informant, 

 Admiral Sulivan, 56 who long resided on these islands, does not 

 believe that they are ever purely white. So that in these two 

 archipelagos we see that the cattle tend to become white with 

 coloured ears. In other parts of the Falkland Islands other 

 colours prevail : near Port Pleasant brown is the common tint ; 

 round Mount Usborne, about half the animals in some of the 

 herds were lead or mouse-coloured, which elsewhere is an un- 

 usual tint. These latter cattle, though generally inhabiting high 

 land, breed about a month earlier than the other cattle; and 

 this circumstance would aid in keeping them distinct and in 

 perpetuating this peculiar colour. It is worth recalling to mind 

 that blue or lead-coloured marks have occasionally appeared on 

 the white cattle of Chillingham. So plainly different were the 

 colours of the wild herds in different parts of the Falkland 

 Islands, that in hunting them, as Admiral Sulivan informs me, 

 white spots in one district, and dark spots in another district, 

 were always looked out for on the distant hills. In the inter- 

 mediate districts intermediate colours prevailed. Whatever the 

 cause may be, this tendency in the wild cattle of the Falkland 

 Islands, which are all descended from a few brought from La 

 Plata, to break up into herds of three different colours, is an 

 interesting fact. 



Keturning to the several British breeds, the conspicuous 

 difference in general appearance between Short-horns, Long- 

 horns (now rarely seen), Herefords, Highland cattle, Alderneys, 

 &c, must be familiar to every one. A large part of the differ- 



04 Azara, ' Des Quadrupedes du s5 Anson's Voyage. See Kerr and 



Paraguay,' torn. ii. p. 361. Azara quotes Porter's ' Collection,' vol. xii. p. 103. 



Buffon for the feral cattle of Africa. 56 See also Mr. Mackinnon's pamphlet 



For Texas, see ' Times,' Feb. 18th, 1846. on the Falkland Islands, p. 24. 



