Page:The Evolution of British Cattle.djvu/138

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126
EVOLUTION OF BRITISH CATTLE

the hornless grew up side by side not only on neighbouring farms but in the same fields, claiming frequently to be children of the same parents. At the same time, there were colours and markings among them not now seen at all: dun, yellow, "what Youatt called 'silver-coloured yellow,'" and white stripes along the back and belly. Many, too, of both kinds were not much more than half the weight of their present-day descendants.

Still further back—say a hundred and fifty years ago—they were all, or nearly all, of this smaller size; but the horned kind were in the majority in the inland parts, while the hornless kind, which were creeping inwards, prevailed near the coasts. Beyond that we have no direct evidence, but tradition says the inland cattle were originally horned and the maritime cattle hornless. So, do we not eventually reach back to the arrival of the long-headed, high-polled, hornless whity-grey or light dun Scandinavian cattle upon the coasts of Scotland, and are we not reminded of the traditional battles between Danes and natives and between the white Danes and the black Danes in the neighbourhoods of Cruden in Aberdeenshire and Lunan Bay in Forfarshire?

The first crosses between the Scandinavian cattle and the black horned natives were dun hornless masqueraders, which, when they were