246 COMMON BRITISH ANIMALS 



Mr, Millais, quoting Mr. E. R. Alston, says : 



" The evidence appears overwhelmingly to prove 

 that the modern park cattle are not wild survivors 

 of the aurochs or urus, but are the descendants of a 

 race which escaped from domestication, and lived a 

 feral life, until they were enclosed in the Parks and 

 chases of the mediaeval magnates/^ 



Prof. Boyd Dawkins also maintains that our wild 

 white cattle are descended from continental descen- 

 dants of the urus, and that it is exceedingly probable 

 that the domesticated oxen — Bos longifron.s among 

 them, Avhich we may fairly suppose to have been 

 the domestic ox of primitive man in Britain — were 

 originally descended from the urns or some similar 

 ancestor of the two. 



The ancient herds of wild white English cattle are 

 of extreme antiquity, and consequently are highly 

 interesting. Many of them have now died out, but 

 the most famous survivors are the Chillingham, 

 Chartley, and Cadzow herds. These wild cattle are 

 all white, but have only been kept so by artificial 

 means, all the coloured calves being killed. The 

 specimens of the Chartley herd in the Zoological 

 Gardens have produced black calves for years, until 

 the year 1910, when a white calf was born. 



The English wild cattle have an extensive litera- 

 ture devoted to them, telling of their history and 

 habits, and the evidence goes to prove that they 

 were formerly much more numerous, and were 

 systematically hunted. They are referred to in the 

 Welsh laws of Howel Dha and in the forest laws of 

 Canute granted at a Parliament holden at Winchester 



