40 WILD WHITE CATTLE 



old queys) in June 1892. They are less timid than they were 

 a generation ago, and are not nearly so shy as those at 

 Chillingham ; nevertheless, they cannot safely be driven from 

 one place to another, but have to be trapped within a narrow 

 space shut off by folding gates when they require to be moved. 

 When seriously disturbed they at one time showed nervous 

 excitement by passing faeces of an abnormally liquid 

 character, and, if the cows were suckling calves, by the 

 illness or death of a number of the calves, due to the poisonous 

 milk produced under the influence of fear. 



When the animals are shot, the carcases dress to about 

 the same weight as those at Chillingham, both being smaller 

 than an average specimen of the Ayrshire breed. The 

 smaller-sized cows, killed in their natural condition after 

 breeding, weigh as little as 16 stones. 



In contrasting the two breeds, it is found that the Hamil- 

 ton cattle, as compared with those at Chillingham, stand 

 higher on their legs ; their faces are longer and narrower ; 

 their horns are lower set on the head, and mostly inclined 

 downwards through a part of the length, lessening the space 

 between the ear and the horn ; and the hair on the body of 

 adults is purer white, or less creamy. The jet-black tips of 

 the horns, the dark eyes and black eyelashes, the black 

 tongue, roof of mouth, and muzzle, the surrounding ring of 

 black hair, and the black knee-caps, hoofs, and stockings 

 almost reaching the knee in front, give a more definitely 

 marked appearance to the animals than the less prominent 

 and less varied and extensive red-brown points of the Chilling- 

 ham breed. It is well authenticated that till quite recently 

 (1842) the Hamilton cattle were without horns. Youatt's 

 book on " cattle " refers to them as " The Polled Cattle," and 

 Dr Robert Knox says : 



" They seem to him to bear the strongest resemblance to 

 the Galloway breed, and the cranium of the wild ox of 

 Hamilton differs very much from that of most domestic oxen, 

 particularly in the breadth of the forehead, shortness of the 

 nasal bones, and configuration of the interior of the nostrils. 

 Many of the bulls have horns, whilst others are polled." 

 hunted the wild bull. Its primaeval oak trees, well past maturity, are 

 shrinking, dying, and falling to decay, all the more quickly because of the 

 pollution of the atmosphere with smoke and fumes from chimney stacks 

 of the western Scottish coal and iron district. 



