Page:The Evolution of British Cattle.djvu/155

 low grade milkers were masqueraders, then apparently there would only be two grades of cows; but two-thirds or so of one of the grades would be masqueraders. The difficulty again would be to find a bull that was pure high grade. Again there is only one test, the breeding test; and in this case it might be summed up shortly by saying that if a bull is pure high grade, his daughters from both kinds of cows ought all to be high grade milkers.

One other character might be suggested, as an example. It has been found that the short legs of animals of North Devon type are dominant to the long legs of the Kerry. The same seems to be the case among Shorthorns and Aberdeen-Angus. That is, short-legged Shorthorns and Aberdeen-Angus are dominant to long-legged ones. That being so, there occurs in these breeds occasionally a long-legged animal, just as a red animal sometimes appears among Aberdeen-Angus. Bred to a short-legged beast, this animal's progeny will be short-legged, but not pure. It will be a masquerader. If it be a bull and put to short-legged cows, the progeny will also be short-legged, but half their number will be impure. If that bull be followed by another of similar character, a quarter of his progeny from the previous bull's daughters will be long-legged.

These are only two characters that might be