THE WILD CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 145 
of the tail have become black. In Staffordshire, we observe the 
tendency to become entirely black. 
When even selection finds it so difficult to preserve the unifor- 
mity of the same herd for successive years, and fails even more 
glaringly when applied to different herds under varied circum- 
stances, we can hardly be justified in rejecting these white cattle 
as the primitive or foundation stock of existing breeds of that 
county on account of their color alone. 
The wild state seems peculiarly favorable to uniformity of color- 
ing, as the causes which have operated to produce the result on a 
few act likewise upon. all, and are constant in their action. Any 
deviations from the markings appear to become absorbed in the mul- 
titude, so as to have little opportunity for preservation. In civili- 
zation, on the contrary, we have the element of human will, a 
highly complex and variable possession, which interrupts the appar- 
ent harmony of uncultured nature, by rendering new combinations 
possible and probable. That a slight interference with a natural 
state will produce variability of coloring is well shown in an 
‘account of the cattle-of Paraguay by Azara, wherein it is stated 
that the wild cattle are always areddish pard color, and thus differ 
in color from the domesticated breeds.* When it is considered 
how little tameness is, called domestication in these regions, it is 
realized upon what obscure causés the fact of color must depend. 
Even in our most ancient breeds we find variations of color, as in 
the Highland, Galloway and Devon.¢ The strongest single 
argument in favor of these white cattle being the forefathers 
of our present stock, is in the occasional cases of reversion, which 
occur in many of the breeds, and oftener in those whose connec- 
tion with the wild breed seems probable. In the West Highland 
breed, usually black, the white color and the ear markings in many 
cases return.{ In the Ayrshire cow I have record of two cases of 
~ reversion to white with red ears, and I can remark, after a most 
careful examination of Ayrshire cows, that I have never seen white 
ears, or ears the tips of which were other than red, brown or black. 
In shape we have the differences inherent to locality. Mountain 
: breeds are apt to be lighter in their hindquarters than breeds oc- 
~ cupying a plain, as we are told by Low,§ and it is obvious to any 
observer that semi-domesticated breeds are lighter in the flanks 
*Nat. Quadrupeds of P. , Edinb., 1838, 73. 
: erm Animals, 305. 
+ 
