68o The Aincrican Xaturalist. [August, 
In the " History of the Red Polled Cattle." Vol. II., 1883, of 
the Red Polled Herd-Book, published at Norwich, England, Mr. 
H. F. p:\ven, the Secretary, says : 
" ' Muley ' catde have been in Virginia for a great many years, 
and their descendants have also been uniformly polled. The use 
of a Red Polled bull has specially brought the young stock to 
the desirable uniformity of color. It would be of value to the 
students of the history of cattle were search to be made respecting 
the introduction of polled stock into America. It is recorded 
that many of the earlier settlers were natives of Norfolk and 
Suffolk villages. May they not have taken over the polled 
cattle which in that day were so numerous in Suffolk and on the 
Norfolk borders?" This passage has been commented on, and 
we leave it here till we deal with the philology of the subject. 
Mr. A. B. Allen, a well-known authority in America, writing 
me on the subject of " Muleys," sa\^s : " I have read your articles 
with much interest, and regret to say I can give you no further 
information on our native muleys otherwise than that I know 
them only as bred from imported P:uropean stock, which has been 
introduced into America from time to time, ever since the settle- 
ment of the country, and is sparsely scattered over it. Polled 
cows have been crossed by all sorts of bulls in this country', but 
no distinct race has been bred from their crosses. They are 
mixed up helter-skelter, like all the rest of the native cattle. In 
native cattle I do not include Shorthorns, Devons, etc. ; although 
bred for generations in our country, we keep them distinct, and 
class each breed by itself" But there have been a few breeders 
scattered about who have made attempts, and successful ones, at 
establishing " native " races of polled cattle from the general 
conglomerate formed previous to the " distinct " breeding period. 
Gen. Ross, of Iowa City, Iowa, also writes : " I have really 
no opinion as to the origin of the native polled or muley cattle 
of the United States. From my early boyhood — over fifty 
years ago — in Illinois, I remember to have seen occasionally a 
polled cow or steer. They were all colors. The cow that was 
the ancestor of my home-bred polls was white. Two crosses 
were made with the Shorthorn, and one with the Devon, by 
