I have often speculated on the probable causes through which each separate district in Great Britain came to possess in former times its own peculiar breed of cattle; and the question is, perhaps, even more perplexing in the case of Southern Africa. We now know that the differences may be in part attributed to descent from distinct species; but this will not suffice. Have the slight differences in climate and in the nature of the pasture, in the different districts of Britain, directly induced corresponding differences in the cattle? We have seen that the semi-wild cattle in the several British parks are not identical in colouring or size, and that some degree of selection has been requisite to keep them true. It is almost certain that abundant food given during many generations directly affects the size of a breed.[[211]] That climate directly affects the thickness of the
skin and the hair is likewise certain: thus Roulin asserts[[212]] that the hides of the feral cattle on the hot Llanos "are always much less heavy than those of the cattle raised on the high platform of Bogota; and that these hides yield in weight and in thickness of hair to those of the cattle which have run wild on the lofty Paramos." The same difference has been observed in the hides of the cattle reared on the bleak Falkland Islands and on the temperate Pampas. Low has remarked[[213]] that the cattle which inhabit the more humid parts of Britain have longer hair and thicker skins than other British cattle; and the hair and horns are so closely related to each other, that, as we shall see in a future chapter, they are apt to vary together; thus climate might indirectly affect, through the skin, the form and size of the horns. When we compare highly improved stall-fed cattle with the wilder breeds, or compare mountain and lowland breeds, we cannot doubt that an active life, leading to the free use of the limbs and lungs, affects the shape and proportions of the whole body. It is probable that some breeds, such as the semi-monstrous niata cattle, and some peculiarities, such as being hornless, &c., have appeared suddenly from what we may call a spontaneous variation; but even in this case a rude kind of selection is necessary, and the animals thus characterized must be at least partially separated from others. This degree of care, however, has sometimes been taken even in little-civilized districts, where we should least have expected it, as in the case of the niata, chivo, and hornless cattle in S. America.
That methodical selection has done wonders within a recent period in modifying our cattle, no one doubts. During the process of methodical selection it has occasionally happened that deviations of structure, more strongly pronounced than mere individual differences, yet by no means deserving to be called monstrosities, have been taken advantage of: thus the famous Long-horn Bull, Shakespeare, though of the pure Canley stock, "scarcely inherited a single point of the long-horned breed, his horns excepted;[[214]] yet in the hands of Mr. Fowler,
this bull greatly improved his race. We have also reason to believe that selection, carried on so far unconsciously that there was at no one time any distinct intention to improve or change the breed, has in the course of time modified most of our cattle; for by this process, aided by more abundant food, all the lowland British breeds have increased greatly in size and in early maturity since the reign of Henry VII.[[215]] It should never be forgotten that many animals have to be annually slaughtered; so that each owner must determine which shall be killed and which preserved for breeding. In every district, as Youatt has remarked, there is a prejudice in favour of the native breed; so that animals possessing qualities, whatever they may be, which are most valued in each district, will be oftenest preserved; and this unmethodical selection assuredly will in the long run affect the character of the whole breed. But it may be asked, can this rude kind of selection have been practised by barbarians such as those of southern Africa? In a future chapter on Selection we shall see that this has certainly occurred to some extent. Therefore, looking to the origin of the many breeds of cattle which formerly inhabited the several districts of Britain, I conclude that, although slight differences in the nature of the climate, food, &c., as well as changed habits of life, aided by correlation of growth, and the occasional appearance from unknown causes of considerable deviations of structure, have all probably played their parts; yet that the occasional preservation in each district of those individual animals which were most valued by each owner has perhaps been even more effective in the production of the several British breeds. As soon as two or more breeds had once been formed in any district, or when new breeds descended from distinct species were introduced, their crossing, especially if aided by some selection, will have multiplied the number and modified the characters of the older breeds.
Sheep.
I shall treat this subject briefly. Most authors look at our domestic sheep as descended from several distinct species; but how many still exist is doubtful. Mr. Blyth believes that there
are in the whole world fourteen species, one of which, the Corsican moufflon, he concludes (as I am informed by him) to be the parent of the smaller, short-tailed breeds, with crescent-shaped horns, such as the old Highland sheep. The larger, long-tailed breeds, having horns with a double flexure, such as the Dorsets, merinos, &c., he believes to be descended from an unknown and extinct species. M. Gervais makes six species of Ovis;[[216]] but concludes that our domestic sheep form a distinct genus, now completely extinct. A German naturalist[[217]] believes that our sheep descend from ten aboriginally distinct species, of which only one is still living in a wild state! Another ingenious observer,[[218]] though not a naturalist, with a bold defiance of everything known on geographical distribution, infers that the sheep of Great Britain alone are the descendants of eleven endemic British forms! Under such a hopeless state of doubt it would be useless for my purpose to give a detailed account of the several breeds; but a few remarks may be added.
Sheep have been domesticated from a very ancient period. Rütimeyer[[219]] found in the Swiss lake-dwellings the remains of a small breed, with thin and tall legs, and with horns like those of a goat: this race differs somewhat from any one now known. Almost every country has its own peculiar breed; and many countries have many breeds differing greatly from each other. One of the most strongly marked races is an Eastern one with a long tail, including, according to Pallas, twenty vertebræ, and so loaded with fat, that, from being esteemed a delicacy, it is sometimes placed on a truck which is dragged about by the living animal. These sheep, though ranked by Fitzinger as a distinct aboriginal form, seem to bear in their drooping ears the stamp of long domestication. This is likewise the case with those sheep which have two great masses of fat on the rump, with the tail in a rudimentary condition. The Angola variety of
the long-tailed race has curious masses of fat on the back of the head and beneath the jaws.[[220]] Mr. Hodgson in an admirable paper[[221]] on the sheep of the Himalaya infers from the distribution of the several races, "that this caudal augmentation in most of its phases is an instance of degeneracy in these pre-eminently Alpine animals." The horns present an endless diversity in character; being, especially in the female sex, not rarely absent, or, on the other hand, amounting to four or even eight in number. The horns, when numerous, arise from a crest on the frontal bone, which is elevated in a peculiar manner. It is remarkable that multiplicity of horns "is generally accompanied by great length and coarseness of the fleece."[[222]] This correlation, however, is not invariable; for I am informed by Mr. D. Forbes, that the Spanish sheep in Chile resemble, in fleece and in all other characters, their parent merino-race, except that instead of a pair they generally bear four horns. The existence of a pair of mammæ is a generic character in the genus Ovis as well as in several allied forms; nevertheless, as Mr. Hodgson has remarked, "this character is not absolutely constant even among the true and proper sheep: for I have more than once met with Cágias (a sub-Himalayan domestic race) possessed of four teats."[[223]] This case is the more remarkable as, when any part or organ is present in reduced number in comparison with the same part in allied groups, it usually is subject to little variation. The presence of interdigital pits has likewise been considered as a generic distinction in sheep; but Isidore Geoffroy[[224]] has shown that these pits or pouches are absent in some breeds.
In sheep there is a strong tendency for characters, which have apparently been acquired under domestication, to become attached either exclusively to the male sex, or to be more highly developed in this than in the other sex. Thus in many breeds the horns are deficient in the ewe, though this likewise occurs occasionally with the female of the wild musmon. In the rams of the Wallachian breed "the horns spring almost perpendicularly