Photo by W. P. Dando] [Regent's Park.
CALF OF ENGLISH PARK-CATTLE.
Though the stock is very old and inbred, the white park-cattle are still fairly prolific.
BRITISH PARK-CATTLE, AND THE AUROCHS.
The so-called "Wild Cattle" found in the parks of Chillingham and Chartley, as well as in Lord Leigh's park at Lyme, and in that of the Duke of Hamilton at Cadzow Castle, Scotland, are probably not the descendants of an indigenous wild race. It is not without reluctance that the belief in their wild descent has been abandoned. But the evidence seems fairly conclusive as to the antiquity of these white cattle, regarded as a primitive breed, and of the unlikelihood of their being survivors of a truly wild stock. They are almost identical in many points with the best breeds of modern cattle, and probably represent the finest type possessed by the ancient inhabitants of these islands. But they are far smaller than the original Wild Ox, or Aurochs, the ancestor of our domestic breeds. The skulls of these large wild oxen, which still survived in the Black Forest in Cæsar's time, have been dug up in many parts of England, especially in the Thames Valley, and may be seen at the Natural History Museum. The remains of the extinct wild ox, the Bos urus of the Romans, show that, if not so large as an elephant, as Cæsar heard, its size was gigantic, reckoned by any modern cattle standard whatever. It probably stood 6 feet high at the shoulder, and there is every reason to believe that it was the progenitor of the modern race of domestic cattle in Europe. It seems certain that the Chartley Park herd did once run wild in Needwood Forest; but so do the Italian buffaloes in the Maremma, and the Spanish bulls on the plains of Andalusia. Those at Chartley have been kept in the park, which is very wild and remote, so long that they have gradually lost many of the attributes of domestication. This is even more marked in the case of Lord Tankerville's white cattle at Chillingham. An observant visitor to Chillingham lately noted that the bulls fight for the possession of the cows, and that one is occasionally killed in these combats. The cows still "stampede" with their calves when alarmed, and hide them for a week or ten days after they are born. The horns of the Chillingham cattle turn up; those of the bulls of the Chartley herd are straight or slightly inclined downwards. Crossbreds between the Chartley cattle and some other herds of reputed ancient descent may generally be seen at the Zoological Gardens. They remain remarkably true to type.
Photo by J. T. Newman] [Berkhamsted.
JERSEY COW.
The property of Lord Braybrooke. Though small in size, the Jersey cows produce more butter than any English breed.