i86 



THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 



by W. P. Dande 



ENGLISH PARK BULL 



The similarity in shape to the best-bred modern shorthorns is obvious 



BRITISH PARK-CATTLE, AND 

 1 HE 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 man}- 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 Caesar'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 urns of the Romans, show 

 that, if not so large as an elephant, as Caesar 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 Ncedwood 

 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 domestica- 

 tion. This is even more marked in 

 the case of Lord Tankervill's white 

 cattle at Chillingham. An observant 

 visitor to Chillingham lately noted 

 that the bulls fight fur the possession 

 of the cows, and that one is occasion- 

 all)- killed in these combats. The 

 cows still "stampede" with their 

 i alves 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 arc straight or 

 slightly inclined downwards. Cross- 

 breds between the Chartley cattle and 

 some Other herds of reputed ancient 

 descent may generally be seen at the 

 London Zoological Gardens. They 

 remain remarkably true to type. 



/'/Jifo by U'. t*. i»jnJo 



CALF OF ENGLISH PARK-CATTI.E 



Though the stock is very old and inbred, the white park-cattle are still fairly prolific 



