ots 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, the conspicuous difference in
general appearance between Short-horns, Long-horns (now rarely seen),
Herefords, Highland cattle, Alderneys, &c., must be familiar to every one.
A large part of the {87} difference, 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 the 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 214l., 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 been shown in an interesting manner by Mr.
Simonds,[200] 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 the appearance of the permanent incisors. The period of
gestation, from observations made by Tessier on 1131 cows, varies to the
extent of eighty-one days; and what is more interesting, M. Lefour affirms
"that the period of gestation is longer in the large German cattle than in
the smaller breeds."[201] With respect to the period of conception, it
seems certain that Alderney and Zetland cows often become pregnant earlier
than other breeds.[202] Lastly, as four fully-developed mammae is a generic
character in the genus Bos,[203] it is worth notice that with our domestic
cows the two rudimentary mammae often become fairly well developed and yield
milk.

As numerous breeds are generally found only in long-civilized countries, it
may be well to show