NortJieni News. 



and with horns and skulls of endless \'ariety between the two 

 extremes ; still, on the whole, one would have no difficulty in 

 deciding that the prevailing type was longifvons, but with horns 

 like Cadzow cattle, due to an admixture of Long-horn blood. 



There is strong presumptive evidence that all the earlier 

 breeds of short-horns are mainly descendants of longifvons, 

 and that the long-horned breeds are descendants of primi- 

 genius, though the latter only indirectly, by the introduction 

 of some long-horned oxen from the continent. That is to say. 

 Bos primigenius was never domesticated in England ; it only 

 existed here as a wild animal, and was exterminated before the 

 Christian era. 



It is practically certain that at the period of the Roman 

 invasion, the British had only one domestic ox — Bos longi- 

 fvons. The Romans had a domesticated long-horn ox, larger 

 than lojigifvons, but smaller than pvimigenius. Of this breed 

 they had dark-coloured beasts, used for draught, and white 

 oxen, used for sacrifices to their gods ; upon these last they 

 placed a high value. 



Professor Boyd Dawkins is of opinion that the domesticated 

 long-horned oxen were introduced to Britain not by the Romans, 

 but by the Northmen, and this view is supported by the fact 

 that at Uriconium all the remains of oxen belong to the short- 

 horned longifvons. The exact period of their introduction is 

 of little moment. One thing is certain, that until the long- 

 horned domestic ox was introduced from Europe, there was only 

 one breed of domestic ox in this country, the short-horned 

 longifvons, which at that time was almost certainly dark- 

 coloured. 



How either of these races of domesticated oxen originated is , 

 not known, but the Celtic short-horn is found associated every- 

 where with remains of Neolithic man, so was evidently domesti- 

 cated long ages ago. It was probably a stunted race of B. 

 pvimigenius which, being first dwarfed by unfavourable environ- 

 ment, was more easily subjugated by man, and readily sub- 

 mitted to domestication. 



(To be continued). 

 



Beverley is to have its local museum. 



In discussing the origin of the name of ' the plainest of animals, with 

 a skin that doesn't fit,' a visitor to a museum was heard to explain that it 

 is ' Rhind, 'cos he 'as a rhind ; os, 'cos he is a 'oss, in a way ; and serious, 

 'cos he's mentioned in the Bible.' 



Naturalist, 



