Lancaster Standard and County Advertiser. — 1902-08-29 (Lancaster, Lancashire, England)

ABORIGINAL CATTLE.  It would probably be a dttticult task to enumerate exhaustively the various breeds of cattle in tireat Blitain, or those at least which have a claim to be considered separate varieties. We know that there are about a score which are sufficiently well recognised to possess a breed register, but there are others which have only local repute, and, nevertheless, possess all the distinctive charact,ristice of separate breed,. But whatever the numbers now existing in these islands may he, it is gemrally agreed that they all originally sprang horn v..m.0 ancestors—that there was, in fact, an ab. original breed. But there agreement ends, and diverse views have been entertained by competent authorities as to the type of cattle which, within historical times, prevailed in this country. . . .  Ist to, ii his "Origin of Species," remarking upon the quickness with which new breeds of cattle, sheep, aud other animals, and varieties of flowers, take the place ot older and inferior kinds, observes that "In Yorkshire it is historically known that the ancient black cattle were displaced by the Low:holes, and that these 'were swept away by the Shorthorns ae if by some murderous pestilence.'" What were the., "ancient black cattle" thus alluded to? So far as we remember, Darwin himself does not express any opinion elsewhere on the vexed question of the aboriginal breed of the British Isles, although in the passage above quoted he appeals to infer that it is a matter of historical certainty that they were black. The idea most commonly prevalent, perhaps, is that the Chillingham breed of wild cattle are descended from the ancient breed of Great Britain, which in eiseential characteristics they faithfully represent. Low, who held very decided opinions on the point, describes them as having been preosived without admixtme, and to have "remained neatest in their characters to the aboriginal race," which he considers to have been the Urns, which Mao a denizen of the ancient forests of Europe. Ile describes , the Chilliugham cattle as follows: "The eyelashes and tips of the horns are black, the muzzle is brown, the inside and a portion of the external part of the ears are reddish-brown, and all the rest of the animal is white," and he goes on to comment on the evidences of their wildness, and the fact that they do not appear to have been subject to domestication. Ile cites historians of the sixteenth century , to show that wild white oxen were found in the forests of different parte of the country, the description of which answers veiy much to that of the Chillinghani breed. He does not seem to mention ate fact that white cattle appear to have existed in Britain in the time of the Druids, who woe wont to offer "two milkwhite bulls" as a sacrifice at tunee of festival. But, in fact, as Low admits, the evidence of colour is very unreliable. There is a constant tendency to revert to black even among the herds which have been kept for generations white. At Chillingham all calve. which deviate from the marking of tM lir parents are destroyed. In the herd of wild white cattle which was kept at Chartley Park it is stated that they trequentily 'tended to because entirely black, and that there was a local superstition that the birth of a black calf signified an impending calamity to the family of Lord Ferrer., who owned the herd. But it is cleat that if these herds have been kept white by the Intervention of man they affoid no evidence of their original colour, and the tact that after long centuries of breeding only front white parraits a tendency to black still persists, serves rather to weaken the contention that they represent an abOriginal breed or white cattle.