508 Wild Cattle of Great Britain. 
the Hamilton Urus as having a body dun white, with black points, 
and the cows as seldom having horns. Sir John Orde says that they 
were anciently “all polled.” Youatt speaks of them as being polled, 
beginning his account of The Polled Cattle with a description of 
them.. Mr, MacGillivray, in his Essay on the Present State of the 
Outer Hebrides, says: “ A whitish dun color is also pretty fre- 
quently seen, not unlike that of the original wild cattle of Scot- 
Jand, both the horned breeds at Chillingham, and the polled one at 
Hamilton, and it is remarked that in all their traditions or fables 
of what are called fairy cattle this is the color ascribed to these 
animals.” At the sale of the late Dr. Knox’s collections a polled 
skull of the Hamilton wild ox was purchased by the late Professor 
Goodsir. It was labelled by him Urus scoticus, and added to the 
Anatomical Museum of the University of Edinburgh. Some oxen 
from this herd were exhibited not many years ago at one of the 
shows of the Highland Society, and were similarly described. In 
Milne-Edward’s Zoology, 1863, Figure 256, the “Head of young 
Scotch bull, Urus scoticus, or wild ox of Caledon, Cadzow,” is 
polled. (See Figure 2.) The skull is labelled “ White Ox of 
Scotland.” From this testimony it is pretty clear that the Hamil- 
ton herd was originally polled. So late as 1852, W. C. L. Martin, 
in his book on Cattle, says the Hamilton’s “are larger and more 
robust than the Chillingham. . . . The cows, and also the bulls, 
are generally polled or hornless.” And in 1862 Charles Steven- 
son wrote: “In the herd of wild cattle in Hamilton Park polled 
bull and heifer calves frequently appear. Latterly no bulls are 
kept which have not the short white horn tipped with black ; but 
there are a few cows and heifers polled. It may be mentioned 
that this breed was originally both polled and horned and that both 
types reappear, notwithstanding the care taken to breed them of a 
uniform type as to horns and color.” Thus is shown the gradual 
change from polled to horned. The reason given of their having 
become horned is stated by Sir John Orde, Kilmory, Argyllshire, "a 
have been from a Highland bull having accidentally got within 
the park. Some horned calves were produced, and by subsequent 
selection the herd had got horns generally, the horned character 
being preferred—likely from the fondness for the grandly-horned 
Highland cattle, which make such a picturesque feature of the 
Highland glens and straths. But their horns are “short,” a 
“long.” These celebrated polled cattle, variously known as the — 
