Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/257

C A T T L E 245 Egyptians could only do so in sacrificing to their gods. Both Hindus and Jews were forbidden, in their sacred writings, to muzzle it when treading out the corn ; and to destroy it wantonly was considered a public crime among the Romans, punishable with exile. The domestic cattle of Europe, of which there are at least fifteen British, and a considerably larger number of Continental breeds, have been, according to Professors Nilsson and Riitimeyer, who have specially studied this subject, derived from at least three distinct species or races Bos primiyenius, Bos longifrons, and Bos frontosus, The first of these, the Urus, would seem, from its remains, to have been domesticated among the Swiss lake-dwellers, abounding then, and down to historic times, in the wild state, throughout the forests of Europe. C<esar describes it as existing, in his time, in the Hercynian Forest, in size almost as large as an elephant, but with the form and colour of a bull ; and it is mentioned by Heberstein so late as the 16th century as still a favourite beast of chase. The name Urus, applied to it by the Romans, is derived from Ur, a root common to the Indo-European languages, and signify ing original, primitive ; and may be traced in the Thur of Poland, Stier of the Germans, and the Latin Taurus, as also in various names of places, as the Canton of Uri, Thuringian Forest, Turin, and Tours. The Urus was characterized by its flat or slightly concave forehead, its straight occipital ridge, and the peculiar curvature of its horns. Its immense size may be gathered from the fact that a skull in the British Museum, found near Atholl in Perthshire, measures 1 yard in length, while the span of tha horn cores is 3 feet 6 inches. Several breeds of cattle, as the Friesland of the Continent, and the Pembroke of England, are supposed to have sprung from this source ; while the so-called wild cattle of Britain (Bos taiirus, var. Scoticus) make the nearest approach, according to Riitimeyer, of living forms to the Urus. This breed is of a white colour, except the tips of the horns, which are dark, and the ears and muzzle, which are either black or brownish red. Uniformity in colour, however, is secured by the slaughter of all calves which differ from the pure type. British wild cattle now exist only in Cadzow Forest, Chillingham Park, Lyme Park, and Chartley, in all of which they are strictly preserved. The purest bred are those of Chillingham a park which was in existence in the 13th century. These have red ears with brownish muzzle, and show all the characteristics of wild animals. According to Mr Hindmarsh, who obtained his information from the proprietor, " they hide their young, feed in the night, basking or sleeping during the day ; they are fierce when pressed, but, generally speaking, very timorous, moving off on the appearance of any one even at a great distance." The bulls engage in tierce contest for the leadership of the herd, and the wounded are set upon by the others and killed ; thus few bulls attain a great age, and even those, when they grow feeble, are gored to death by their fellows. The white cattle of Cadzow are very similar to those of Chillingham in their habits, but being confined to a narrow area are less wild. They still form a considerable herd, but of late years, it has been stated, they have all become polled It is probable, as Sir Walter Scott used to maintain, that Cadzow and Chillingham are but the extremities of what, in ruder times, was a continuous forest, and that the white cattle are th<3 remnants of those herds of " tauri sylvestres " described by early Scottish writers as abounding in the forests of Caledonia, and to which Scott evidently refers in the following lines : " Mightiest of all the beasts of chase That roam in woody Caledon, Crashing the forest in his race, The mountain bull comes thundering on." It is still a matter of controversy whether these wild cattle are the unsubdued, although degenerate, descendants of the mighty Urus, or merely the offspring of a domestic breed run wild, which have reverted somewhat to the ancient type. Their comparatively small size, and their evident tendency to vary in colour, seem to point out the latter as the more probable view. A breed similar to the Chillingham cattle existed in Wales in the 10th century, being white, with red ears ; and Welsh chroniclers relate how on one occasion a Prince of Wales demanded, as com pensation for certain injuries, 100 white or 150 black cattle, and how also the anger of King John was at one time appeased by a gift of 1400 of the white variety, showing that the latter were numerous, and sufficiently under control to be collected and conveyed from one part of the country to another, also that they were more highly valued than the black cattle, in short, that they existed at that time as a domesticated breed. According to Professor Low (Domesticated Animals of the British It-lands), this Welsh breed existed under domestication, in a com paratively pure state, in Pembrokeshire at the beginning of the present century. As the wild cattle of Britain, are prevented, by rigorous selection, from deviating from their present colour, it is impossible to assert that the ancient Urus was mainly white, although Darwin (Animals and Plants under Domestication) has brought forward some facts to show that domestic cattle run wild seem to have a slight tendency to revert in that direction. Immense herds of wild oxen in the Ladrone Islands are described in Anson s Voyages as " being milk-white, except the ears, which are generally black ; " and in the southern districts of the Falkland Islands, where cattle, introduced from La Plata, have run wild for at least a century, they are " white, with their feet, or whole head, or only their ears, black." Bos lonyifrons, according to Nilsson, existed in the wild state in Sweden ; but Riitimeyer holds that there is not sufficient evidence to prove that it ever existed otherwise than domesticated in Central Europe. It seems to have been the most common race of domestic cattle among the ancient lake-dwellers, and several of the existing Swiss breeds are believed to be derived from it. Remains of the same race are found in Britain associated with those of the elephant and rhinoceros, and there is little doubt that Caesar found large domestic herds of this kind on his arrival in Britain, and that these supplied food to the Roman legions. Professor Owen regards it as the original of our Welsh and Highland cattle. Bos longifrons was smaller than the ordinary breeds now existing, and had short horns. Whether it is to be regarded as originally a wild European species, which Neolithic man succeeded in domesticating, or merely as a domestic race introduced by settlers from the East, as many on philological grounds suppose, it has undoubtedly had a very considerable influence in the formation of our existing breeds. Bos frontosus was somewhat larger than B. longifrons, with which it coexisted in certain districts of Scandinavia. Its remains are found chiefly in the lake-dwellings of the Bronze period, although occurring sparingly in those of earlier date. They have also been found in Irish cran- noges ; and Nilsson regards it as the progenitor of the present mountain cattle of Norway. The breeds and sub-breeds produced from those ancient races are exceedingly numerous. " In Britain," says Youatt, " they are almost as various as the soil of the different districts, or the fancies of the breeders." This variety may in some degree be attributable to their being the descend ants, in all probability, of more than one species, to slight differences in the climate and pasturage of different

districts, or to the sudden appearance of what Darwin has