4 
THE OX. 
THE WILD OR WHITE FOREST BREED. 
by some individuals perfectly pure, as a part of their regular farm-stock. Until a period comparatively recent, they were very 
numerous ; and persons are yet living in the county of Pembroke, who remember when they were driven in droves to the pastures 
of the Severn, and the neighbouring markets. Their whole essential characters are the same as those at Chillingham and Chart- 
ley Park, and elsewhere. Their horns are white, tipped with black, and extended and turned upwards in the manner distinctive 
of the wild breed. The inside of the ears and the muzzle are black, and their feet are black to the fetlock joint. Their skin is 
unctuous, and of a deep-toned yellow colour. Individuals of this race are sometimes born entirely black, and then they are not to 
be distinguished from the other cattle of the mountains. 
That the same race is to be found on the Continent of Europe, cannot be doubted ; and we should probably have had accounts 
of it either in a wild or reclaimed state, had naturalists been aware of its distinguishing characters. In the defiles of the Pyrenees, 
cattle, altogether wild, have been observed by English sportsmen, marked in the same manner as the cattle of the parks, and in 
no respect to be distinguished from them. 
The peculiar colour and marking which this race assumes and retains, has been supposed by some to indicate a very perma¬ 
nent variety, or even species. But colour, as is well known to naturalists, is of all the external characters of animals the least to 
be regarded a s indicative of permanent distinctions ; and in the case of these oxen, it has been seen that the character itself is not 
constant. It may seem remarkable, that these animals, in their wild state, should be all white, with coloured muzzles and ears ; 
but this is not more remarkable than that all Boars in the wild state should be brown, or all Turkeys in the wild state black, 
with white tips to their wings. The colour we may suppose is that which the animals tended to assume in a wooded country in 
the climate of Albion. Under other conditions of temperature and food, the colour of the same variety might become black, with 
a peculiar marking equally constant. An ancient writer, speaking of Uri in the woods of Poland, describes them as black, with a 
white streak along the chine. The European cattle, which have become nearly wild in the Pampas of South America, have as- 
sumedauniform marking of black and brown, from which they scarce ever deviate. In the North Highlands of Scotland the pre¬ 
vailing colour of the cattle is black : but sometimes individuals are born white, with coloured ears and muzzle, so nearly re¬ 
sembling the wild cattle of the parks, that they would be mistaken for them. 
The habits of the wild race have been supposed to present an impassable distinction between it and the tatfie ; but this diffe¬ 
rence assuredly does not constitute a distinction of species. It is known that the instincts and habits of animals are suited to the 
condition in which they are placed, and change with that condition. The Wild Hog, a bold and powerful creature in his state of 
liberty, is no sooner submitted to domestication, than his habits adapt themselves to his new condition, and he communicates to his 
offspring all the habits which fit them for a state of slavery. So it could be shown is it with other animals subjected to domestica¬ 
tion. The Wild Oxen of the parks, breeding solely with one another, and living, in so far as their confined condition will allow, in\ 
the natural state, retain the habits and instincts proper to them in that condition, and communicate these to their young. Hence 
the young calvescouch themselves on the ground, and tremble when approached, but these characters disappear in the next gene¬ 
ration when the animals are domesticated : hence the mothers conceal their calves, and return to suckle them at stated times, but 
the same thing has been observed in the case of cows of the Scotch mountains when left in a state of liberty. All the habits of 
these animals, in short, including that of goring to death their wounded companions, are those of the wild state, and disappear 
when they are reclaimed. 
Thus we have all the evidence which the question admits of, that no real distinction exists between the Wild Oxen of the 
parks, and those which have for ages been subjected to domestication ; and that the origin of the Domestic Ox must be sought for 
not in extinct species, but in a race yet existing. 
The figure, Plate I., represents a Cow of the White Forest Breed, as preserved in the domestic state, and similar to many 
yet existing in Wales. In a subsequent number, an example, through the kind permission of the Eaul of Tankerville, will 
be given of a Bull of the Wild Oxen of the Parks. 
