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Show 86 CATTLE. CIIAP. III. 1u. rowm•s h -red . M On tl1e Ladrone Islands, in the Pacific Ocean, immense herds of cattle, which were wild in the year 1741, are described a "milk-white, except their ear., which are generally blark."~5 The Falkland Islands, situated far south, with all the conditions of life as different as it is po sible to conceive from tho. e of tho Ladronos, offer a more interesting case. Cattle have run wild there during eighty or ninety years; and in tho southern districts the animals are mostly white, with their feet, or whole heads, or only their ears black; Lut my informant, Admiral Sulivan/" who loug resided on these islands, does not believe that they are ever purely white. So that in those two archipelagos we see that the cattle tend to become white with coloured ears. In other parts of tho Falkland Islands other colour prevail : near Port Pleasant brown i the common tint; round l\Iount U sborne, about half the animals in some of tho herds were lead or mouse-coloured, which elsewhere is an unusual tint. These latter cattle, though generally inhaLiting high land, Lreed about a month earlier than the othe1· cattle ; and this circumstance would aiel in keeping them distinct and in perpetuating this peculiar colour. It is worth recalling to mind that blno or lead-coloured marks have occasionally appeared on the white cattle of Chillingham. So plainly different were the colours of the wild herds in different parts of the Falkland Islands, that in hunting them, as Admiral Sulivan informs me, white spots in one district, and dark spots in another district, were always looked out for on the distant hills. In the intermediate districts intermediate colours prevailed. Whatever the cause may be, this tendency in the wild cattle of the Falkland Islands, which are all descended from a few brought from La Plata, to break up into herds of three different colours, is an interesting fact. Returning to the several British breeds, tho conspicuous difference in general appearance between Short-horns, Longhorns (now rarely seen), Herefords, Highland cattle, Alderneys, &c., must be familiar to every one. A largo part of tho differ- 54 Azara, 'Des QuadrupCdes du Parnguay,' tom. ii. p. 0Gl. Azara quotes Bnffon iur the feral cattle of Africa. For Texas, see 'Times,' Feb. 18th, 184G. 55 Anson's Voyage. See. Kerr and Porter's' Collection,' vol. xii. p. 103. 56 See also Mr. M.ackinnon's pamphlet on the Falkland lslr.mds, p. 24. CIIAP. III. THEIR VARIATION. 87 ence, no doubt, may be due to descent from primordially distinct species ; but we may feel sure that there has been in addition a considerable amount of variation. Even during the Neolithic period, the domestic cattle were not actually identical with tl1e aboriginal species. Within recent times most of the breeds have been modified by careful and methodical selection. How strongly the characters thus acquired are inherited, may be inferred from the prices realised by the improved breeds; even at the first sale of Colling's Short-horns, eleven bulls reached an average of 2141., and lately Short-horn bulls have been sold for a thousand guineas, and have been exported to all quarters of the world. Some constitutional differences may be here noticed. The Short-horns arrive at maturity far earlier than the wilder breeds, such as those of Wales or the Highlands. This fact has boon shown in an interesting manner by Mr. Simonds,57 who has given a table of the average period of their dentition, which proves that there is a difference of no less than six months in tho appearance of the permanent incisors. The period of gestation, from observations made by Tessier on 1131 cows, varies to the extent of eighty-one da.ys; and what is more interesting, M. Lefour affirms ''that the period of gestation is longer in the large German cattle than in the smaller br eels." 58 With respect to tho period of conception, it seems certain that Alclerney and Zetland cows often become pregnant earlier than other breeds.59 Lastly, as four fullydeveloped mammre is a generic character in the genus Bos,60 .it is worth notice that with our domestic cows the two rudimentary mammro often become fairly well developed and yield milk. As numerous breeds are generally found only in lonacivilizod countries, it may be well to show that in so;e countries inhabited by barbarous races, who are frequently at war with each other and therefore have little free commu- 5 7 'Tho Age of tho Ox, Sheep, Pig,' &c., by l:>rof. Jam s Simonds, published by order of tho Royal Agricult. Soc. 68 'Ann. Agricult. l!'mnce,' April 1837, .~s quo:cd in 'Tho Veterinary,' vol. xu. p. 72~. I quote Tessier's obser-vations from Youatt on Cattle, p. 527. ~9 'The Veterinary,' vol. viii. p. 681, and vol. x. p. 268. · Low's ' Domcst. Animals of Great Dritnin,' p. 297. Go 1\1r. Ogleby, in 'Proc. Zoolog. Soc.,' 1836, p. 138, and 1840, p. 4, |