Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/303

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BRITISH WHITE WILD CATTLE.
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down rather lower behind the fore-legs ; narrow bands of white round legs just above the knees and by, or rather below, the hocks. She has a fine glossy, smooth coat. Horns much the same shape, and put on at the same angle, as the horn-cores of Bos primigenius, with black tips. Nose black ; udder white. The end of her tail just reaches the ground, Two heifers, not quite full grown— one out of each of the existing cows; both, I believe, by the Chartley bull. One of them— I imagine the black cow's calf— has the nose black and a little black on fore-fetlocks, and black ears. The other has flesh-coloured nose with black smutting, and rusty black or reddish inside of ears. These five last-mentioned are on the moor, which is said to be about seven miles in circumference. I found them feeding near the lower edge, where the grass was very rough, with rushes. At the farm they have a yearling heifer by the Chartley bull out of a common cow, which was, according to the farm-boy, a roan. The heifer is exactly like the wild breed— black nose and ears, &c. — except that the proportionate size of her fore and hind quarters seem more equalized, as in a tame animal. Also a very small heifer, about the same age as the last, or even possibly older, given by Mr. D. Assheton Smith, who I understand has a herd of white cattle in his park (Bala, North Wales), and one man believed that he had procured them from Scotland* This heifer has a dull, almost lead-coloured nose, and long rough coat, with pink insides to the ears — an ugly, stunted-looking little thing. These two are both, I fear, going to be added to the herd, — and are, indeed, reckoned with it now, as I was told it consisted of eight head,— which seems a very great pity. A garden man told me that about thirty years ago the herd numbered as many as thirty -four.

Chillingham. — Visitors to Chillingham Castle, Northumber- land (the seat of the Earl of Tankerville), are requested not to go into the park unless with the park-keeper, and as the cattle are shy here (far more so than even the red deer), the park-keeper, Mickie only takes one so as to get a distant view, in order not to frighten them ; for, as he says, they can take plenty of exercise for them- selves, without being made to gallop for every visitor that comes to see them. Hence, although I had excellent distant views on July 4th and 5th, I was unable to inspect this herd closely. The


If so, can they be from one of the four herds, now extinct, mentioned in Bell's 'British Quadrupeds,' 2nd edit., p. 370, as having formerly existed in Scotland?