THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE OX. 
187 
French breed. The Norman breed are light red, generally spotted 
with white; and some are yellow or dun: this breed gives the 
character to all the breed of the north of France. 
The differences in the colour of our cattle cannot easily be ex- 
plained in any other way than this : — fancy or judgment has had 
a great deal to do in fixing those particular colours, marks, or 
figures, as indicating some particular character or excellence in 
those different breeds, just in the same manner as the hornless 
breed of Galloway, the polled Angus breed in Scotland, and the 
Suffolk polls in England have been preserved and established. 
With regard to the influence of climate in producing the differ- 
ent varieties in colour, it would appear that cattle in this instance 
differ from many other animals. It is found almost as a general 
rule, that light colours prevail among animals of the polar regions, 
and a swarthy and dusky hue under the tropics and equator. 
The arctic fox, the polar bear, and the snow bunting are striking 
examples of this; but with regard to cattle it is quite the reverse, 
since in the coldest climates black cattle are found to prevail, and 
in the warm latitudes they are generally of a light-red or cream- 
coloured variety. The prevailing colour of Spain, of France, and 
in the neighbouring islands of Guernsey and Jersey, are either 
light-red or cream-coloured, with white marks interspersed. 
Whilst in the north of Scotland, the Hebrides, and the Orkneys, 
the cattle are generally black. 
It sometimes happens that the West Highland black cattle 
produce a white or cream-coloured progeny, with reddish ears 
and muzzles, approaching so closely to the wild white race that 
they might be mistaken for them. This is the consequence of 
the white race having formerly mixed with the aboriginal black 
breed, and the white colour is produced on the principle which 
we have just alluded to, termed by breeders, breeding back. The 
white colour in the short horns was obtained in a similar way ; and 
whenever this colour shews itself, it is accompanied more or less 
with a red tinge on the extremity of the ear, a distinctive cha- 
racter of the white wild race. Again, alluding to the effect of 
climate on the colour of cattle, the breeds of the Kisguise and 
Calmuck Tartars, and those of Podolia and Ukraine, that are 
considered the largest breed of any, and are distinguished by 
ample horns spreading sideways, then forwards and upwards, with 
dark points, — their colour is a blueish ash, passing to black, 
and many are perfectly black, while in Abyssinia, and in North 
and Central Africa, the cattle are nearly white, and of a large 
size. But the rule is by no means constant, although there is 
ample evidence adduced to prove our position : the fact is, the 
different breeds of cattle have been mingled together in almost 
