RKYIKW—BRF.KDS OF DOMFSriC aXF'MALS. 757 
smaller breeds of Wales or Scotland, to those of Durham and of 
Hereford, with the intermediate classes, still suited to their respect¬ 
ive localities, the Galloways, the Angus, and the beautiful Devons. 
But there is also another spirit at w'ork—not only the power of 
nutrition, but that of hereditary predisposition, so as to produce va¬ 
rieties of almost every kind of form and property and quality, and 
the character of the breed permanently stamped upon it, after a few 
generations. Hence arose the noblest of our breeds—the noblest 
of the breeds of cattle which the world contains. But we must 
leave this fascinating subject, and enter more into a dry detail of 
facts. The first portrait which is given in the present number is 
that of a cow of the Zetland breed, or natives of the Zetland Islands. 
They are small, fatten quickly on better than their native pasture, 
and their flesh is then excellent. Their milk is good, and yielded 
in a fair quantity. 
Next comes the Kerry or poor-man’s cow. She is a native of 
the mountainous county of Kerry—hardy, and capable of subsist¬ 
ing on the most scanty fare, yet capable of accumulating fat to an 
extraordinary degree, and in the most valuable parts. The pecu¬ 
liar value of the Kerry breed, however, is the quantity of excellent 
milk which they yield wdien compared with the smallness of their 
size and the scantiness of their fare. 
Mr. Low too truly complains that “ this fine little breed has 
been greatly neglected—scarcely any means have been used to pro¬ 
duce a progressive development of form by supplying proper nou¬ 
rishment to the parents or their young, and no general care has been 
bestowed on the purity of the stock. In almost every part of Ire¬ 
land the breed has been crossed with long-horns. A great proportion 
of the cows known by the name of Kerries are the result of crosses 
of this kind. They have deviated in a greater or less degree from 
the native type, and almost always for the worse.” The plate of 
one from the stock of the late Bishop of Killaloe is a splendid ex¬ 
ception to this censure; and the Kerry cows—proper care being 
taken in the selection of the stock—may be advantageously crossed 
with the short-horns now established in every part of Ireland 
The artist quickly returns to the Scottish cattle, and gives an 
admirable portrait of one of Mr. Watson’s breed. The writer of 
this hasty sketch was at the cattle show at Kelso, some years ago, 
and there saw, for the first time, some of the pride of the Angus 
cattle, as improved by Mr. Watson. He would have gone as far 
again for such another treat. 
The Angus cattle constitute an intermediate breed between the 
races of the mountains and those of the richer plains. They origin¬ 
ally descended from the Galloways, and there is still a considerable 
resemblance between the breeds; but they arc less compact in form 
than the Galloways, and have not the depth of rib so characteristic 
VOL. XIII. 5 IT 
