Nearly every writer on British natural history has given a place to these
interesting animals, and has, in most cases, called them ‘ wild ’ ; assuming that
they were purely wild animals directly descended from the Urus. This, of course,
is a mistake.
There is a strong probability that the ‘ wild ’ cattle and all our domestic cattle
are descended from breeds produced on the Continent, and that these after
centuries of domestication elsewhere were introduced into Britain. As far as we
can guess these breeds originally came from the Urus, but at so remote a date
that the very earliest history and pictures can give no clue.1 Although the Urus
survived until the Bronze Age, there is no evidence to show that it was ever
domesticated by man, but we know that everywhere during the prehistoric age
the Celtic Shorthorn, Bos longifrons, was in general use. This was thought to be
the only Ox in Britain when the Romans arrived, but recently two skulls of Bos
frontosus found in the Thames alluvium at Limehouse and Canning Town, and
now in the collection of Dr. Frank Corner, indicate the presence of a larger species.
From Bos longifrons the small dark breeds of Scotland and Wales are descended,
and it is said to have survived until recently in Cornwall, Cumberland, and
Westmorland (Harting). The remains of Bos longifrons are abundant in English
fens and Scotch ‘ brochs,’ and if the Urus or even the Park White breeds of
to-day had existed until or during the time of the Romans in Britain they would
in all probability have been noticed and described. Such good authorities as
Professors Riitimeyer and Nilsson, Sir Charles Lyell, Professor Boyd Dawkins,2
Charles Darwin, and more recently Mr. Storer, all held the view that our ‘ Wild ’
White cattle were directly descended from the Urus in this country. However,
Sir Richard Owen, Dr. J. A. Smith, and recent writers are of a different opinion.
The most important suggestions about the origin of this . breed have come
from Professor T. M‘Kenny Hughes, E. R. Alston, Richard Lydekker, and
Robert Turner.
Alston says: ‘ The evidence appears overwhelmingly to prove that the modern
Park Cattle are not wild survivors of the Urus, but are the descendants of a
race which had escaped from domestication and had lived a feral life until they
were enclosed in the parks and chases of the mediaeval magnates.’
1 The Babylonians, who lived about two thousand years before the ancient Egyptians, had herds of cattle.
a Professor Boyd Dawkins has altered-his opinion, and his views are practically in accordance with the most recent
authorities. He maintains that our White Cattle are descended from Continental descendants of the Urus, and it is exceedingly
probable that the domesticated Oxen— Bos longifrons among them— were originally descended from Bos primigenius or
some similar ancestor o f the two. With this view I cordially agree.