100 THE OX AND ITS KINDRED 
In connection with the former prevalence of a 
dun colour in the polled Sussex, Professor James 
Wilson ^ has brought together a considerable amount 
of evidence to show that dun and silver-grey were 
at one time common in the old Aberdeen breed, 
and also occurred, although to a less degree, in 
the other polled breeds. Of the British polled 
breeds collectively he writes that, in addition to being 
hornless — 
"They were either light dun or yellow or dun, 
which showed that their more remote ancestors had 
been light dun, yellow having been got by crossing 
with red cattle, and dun by crossing with black. 
"They were small, puny, short-legged, sickle- 
hocked, narrow-chinned, thin-fleshed, long-headed 
cattle, which were usually esteemed for the dairy. 
Those in Yorkshire and Ireland were the only 
exceptions ; but the cattle in both those districts 
had long been crossed by larger and fleshier breeds 
of cattle. 
" And from these circumstances, as well as from 
the fact that they differed entirely in the first two (that 
is, characters, in the absence of horns and in colour), 
if not also in the third, from other British cattle, we 
can scarcely conclude otherwise than that they were 
all of the same race." 
After mentioning that in the British Isles polled 
cattle were chiefly a coast type, it is added that the 
Shetland and Orkney cattle, which are admittedly 
of Scandinavian origin, were formerly to a great 
extent polled and dun ; and since cattle of the same 
type are common in Scandinavia, where they are 
well represented by the indigenous fell breed {fjdlL 
^ Scientijic Proceedings R. Dublin Soc^ vol. xii. p. 149, 1909. 
