arrival upon the scene we have been unable to fix, produced brindles with both races—dark brindles with the black natives and light brindles with the Scandinavians. Here again, there being no deception, or, at any rate, only a slight one, for dark brindle is sometimes very nearly black, we can understand how, when black became the favoured colour, the brindles and their blackish-brown parent would gradually disappear.
But other races intervened—the Anglo-Saxon red race—whether openly and frankly in earlier days, or, disguised in their partial progeny the Longhorn, early in the eighteenth century; the Longhorns themselves, with their white finch-backs and white underline; and lastly, the Dutch flecked race, first in the guise of Fifeshire cattle,[1] and, later on, as Shorthorns. And these races left their marks, some to be eliminated easily, others with difficulty. When red cattle were bred with blackish-browns and light duns, they produced brindles and yellows, and these, being unwelcome, were bred out quickly; but, when bred with black cattle, they produced black masqueraders. We can thus understand why an occasional red calf turns up. Masqueraders are difficult to deal with, and, when two of them meet, there is one chance in
- ↑ There is a probability that these cattle may have absorbed Dutch blood direct from Holland before the Shorthorn invasion.
