54 THE OX AND ITS KINDRED 
From the reddish yellow (sienna) colour of the 
picture on the Ebstorf map, Dr. Mertens has 
suggested that there may have been a red race of 
the aurochs in Germany; but, as stated above. Dr. 
Hilzheimer regards the colouring of the picture as 
untrustworthy. Dr. Mertens ^ has also described a 
fragment of skin with the hair attached on an 
aurochs' skull in the museum at Magdeburg, obtained 
at Shonebeck, as showing long reddish hairs at the 
back of the base of the horns, and of shorter whitish 
ones in front. And from this he infers that the 
general colour of the animal was red, perhaps with 
patches of a paler tint, although this is doubtful, as 
light hairs are often found at the base of the horns in 
ruminants which are otherwise red or dark-coloured. 
Dr. Mertens regarded this as further evidence in favour 
of the existence of a red aurochs in Germany; but if 
the colour in the Ebstorf map be untrustworthy, the 
value of the evidence of the Schonebeck skull is con- 
siderably discounted. Still, there is no reason why 
there should not have been local races of the aurochs ; 
and Caesar's statement that the Hercynian aurochs was 
similar in colour to " our cattle " [itostrce boves) may 
possibly be an indication that the former was a red 
and not a black animal. 
Be this as it may, the possibility of the existence 
of a red as well as a black race of the aurochs is 
countenanced by the case of the existing bantin of 
the Malay countries, in the typical Javan race of 
which, as mentioned above, the old bulls, apart from a 
white rump-patch and legs, are black, while younger 
bulls and cows at all ages are red. In Burma, 
however, there is a pale-coloured race {B. sondaicus 
1 op, cit. p. 94 . 
