Page:The Evolution of British Cattle.djvu/71

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THE NORSE CONTINGENT
59

occurrence than now. MacGillivray, in his "Report on the Present State of the Outer Hebrides," published in 1834, writes that "the common colours are black, red, brown or brandered, that is a mixture of red and brown in stripes—brindled. A whitish dun[1] colour is also pretty frequently seen."[2]

The Galloways.—The history of the Galloways is very similar to that of the Aberdeen-Angus, excepting that they felt and responded sooner to the English demand for hornless cattle. There is no description of the original hornless cattle of Galloway, but the presence of dun among their descendants, even down to the present day, connects them with the other hornless cattle round the British coasts. According to Youatt, the majority of the cattle in Galloway were horned in the middle of the eighteenth century; but in Culley's time the horned ones were extinct: the Galloways' "most essential difference from every other breed is in having no horns at all."[3] In this respect they were at least half a century ahead of the Aberdeen-Angus.

The Devon Natts.—The hornless Devon cattle have been extinct for about a century; and, although there are several references to them, there is no full description. Their territory was

  1. That is apparently what is now called light dun.
  2. "Prize Essays and Transactions of the Highland Society."
  3. "Observations upon Live Stock," second edition, 1794, p. 69.