Page:The Evolution of British Cattle.djvu/61

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THE NORSE CONTINGENT
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broad; and being of greater weight in seemingly less compass than any beasts I ever saw; whether from being without horns, from being constantly kept in shedded yards or houses during the winter, from their nature, or from these causes altogether, they are so tame and docile, that I never knew any mischief done by them to any other animal."[1] It has been shown recently[2] that this mouse-coloured dun is the hybrid between black and light dun, and we may infer, therefore, that the colour of the Suffolk breed was light dun. And this inference is confirmed by a remark in Culley's "Observations on Live Stock" that "the Suffolks are almost all light duns."[3]

By Low's time the Suffolks had extended to "Norfolk, Cambridge, and apart of Essex,"[4] but, by crossing with red Norfolk cattle, many of them had changed their colour to yellow, which is the hybrid between red and light dun, and some, by further crossing, had become red. "The prevailing and the best colours are red, red and white, brindled, and a yellowish cream colour."[5] Eventually the Suffolk and Norfolk breeds amalgamated: the former giving up their colour and the latter their horns.

The Northern or Yorkshire Polls.—Few of

  1. Vol. iii., second edition, 1788, p. 280.
  2. Proceedings of the Royal Dublin Society, vol. xii.. No. 8, "The Colours of Highland Cattle."
  3. Second edition, 1794, p. 66.
  4. "Domesticated Animals," p. 322.
  5. "Youatt," 1834, p. 175.