Page:The Evolution of British Cattle.djvu/135

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BLENDING AND SORTING
123

and Durham. By uniting with these cattle the Dutch Shorthorns absorbed the white colour of the Roman cattle and along with it the roan, which is a hybrid between the Dutch and Roman colours. About the same time the Shorthorns also absorbed the blood of some of the native black cattle, but the black colour at any rate was soon bred out, while, even to the present day, the blood of Anglo-Saxon red cattle has been frequently absorbed, the colour in this case to be retained.

Having been originally of several types, as Culley told us, and having absorbed this strange blood in England, the Shorthorns also required a Bakewell; and him they found in Charles Colling, who had been a pupil with the great master himself. The following diagrammatic pedigree of Charles Colling's great bull Comet will show how closely he followed Bakewell.

Here, again, we have a breeder who, like Bakewell, started with the best stock he could find, and, by inbreeding, eliminated the chances of uncertainty in their progeny; and