ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY. 
285 
faces, and exceedingly small short-horn cores, curving abruptly inwards, 
somewhat like the Alderneys of the present day. I have not found a 
head of what might be considered a hull of this race, hut one of the 
best of the cow’s heads presents the following measurement:—Seven¬ 
teen inches in length of face, six across the forehead, and eleven from tip 
to tip of horn-core. This beautiful race was abundant in former times; 
hut I am not aware of its having had a representative in Ireland for the 
last hundred years at least. An intermixture of this race with the 
broad-faced straight-horned would give, in my opinion, a breed with 
which even the most fastidious of our cattle-fanciers could not find 
fault. 
These two cuts afford good illustrations of this race :—- 
The last is the Maol, or hornless, 
which differs so little from its living 
representative of the present day that 
it is unnecessary to describe it. From 
the five specimens placed before the 
Academy, it is evident that it was 
much smaller than the modem breed. 
One head differs from another only in 
, o the amount of the occipital projection. 
The average length of the face is about 
seventeen inches, and eight across the 
orbits. 
As the nomenclature of the naturalist will not assist me in the clas¬ 
sification of those different breeds, I must call them by their Irish terms 
of Dron-adharcach, the straight-horned; Crom-adharcach , the stooped or 
curved horned (hence the words 1 crommie’ and 1 crumpled horn’ applied 
to those cattle both in England and Ireland); Gearr-adharcacJi, the short¬ 
horned; and Maol, the hornless. Thus far, you see, I have only been able 
to identify two of our ancient stock in modern times with the ancient 
remains. But now comes the question with which I set out,—Erom 
whence came the original short-horns; were they indigenous in Eng¬ 
land, or introduced prior to the days of Colling, and other great breeders 
of that class ? That they existed in Holland, in great numbers, long before 
they became fashionable in England, can be proved from Dutch pictures 
antecedent to the days of Cuyp or Paul Potter. But, centuries prior to 
the date of these Elemish paintings or English cattle-breeders, we pos¬ 
sessed in Ireland quantities of these much coveted and highly prized breeds 
of long and short-h orned cattle, while no other country in Europe has 
published any account of such animals existing in times contemporaneous 
VOL. v.— proc. soc. 2 p 
