Page:The Evolution of British Cattle.djvu/67

general colour is yellow, comprehending the brindled, dark red and silver-coloured yellow."^[1] Among Forfarshire horned cattle "the prevailing colour is black, but with more admixture of other tints: some have white spots on the forehead, and white on the flanks and belly. There are more brindled cattle than in Aberdeen; some are dark red, and others of a silver yellow or dun. A few are black with white hairs intermixed; and occasionally a beast is seen that is altogether white, with the exception of a few black hairs about the head."^[2] Youatt makes no kind of reference to the Aberdeenshire polled cattle, but of the horned ones he writes, "The colour is usually black, but sometimes brindled."^[3] Macdonald and Sinclair tell us that "Formerly, both in Angus and Aberdeen, the breed^[4] embraced a variety of colours as well as difference in size. Black, with some white spots on the underline, was the prevailing colour. Some were brindled—dark red and black stripes alternately; others were red; others brown; and a few what Youatt called 'silver-coloured yellow.'"^[5] An early nineteenth-century Banffshire writer tells us that, with the dealers who came to Rathven for cattle, " The favourite colour is pure black. The brindled ranks next in esteem, and the

1. "Cattle," p. 167.
2. Ibid., p. 114.
3. Ibid., p. 106.
4. I.e. the polled breed.
5. "Polled Aberdeen and Angus Cattle," p. 76.