58 NATURAL HISTORY SKETCHES. 



very unpleasant situation in which I was once placed 

 when going over Sir M. ~W. Ridley's kennels at Blagdon, 

 Northumberland. Of course I was accompanied by old 

 Fenwick Hunnum, the feeder. While we were looking at 

 the bitch pack, a quarrel broke out in the dog-kennel, and 

 the old boy slipped out to quell the riot, quietly observing, 

 as he shut the door behind him, leaving me alone with 

 the bitches " They won't hurt you, I expect." They 

 certainly did not hurt me ; but the way in which they 

 came sniffing round me with their bristles up, one 

 every now and then uttering a low growl, was anything 

 but pleasant; and I was glad enough when the old 

 man came back and exultingly remarked, with a grin 

 on his old foxy face, " I told you they would not hurt 

 you." 



Many of these so-called tame cattle are dangerous, 

 especially the cows, which calve in the forest, plant their 

 calves, and go a little distance off to feed, and old working 

 bullocks: I believe here the bulls are the most harmless. 

 I did not so much mind them in the timber, for a man 

 has a chance of getting behind or up a tree (I was once 

 stuck up a whole night in a honeysuckle). But I always 

 looked out on the plains, and whenever I saw a bullock 

 stand sulking by itself, I always gave it a wide berth ; 

 such a one is generally " a Eoosiau." Of course, with a 

 gun a man has not so much to fear, but a charge of shot 

 will often not stop a rushing bullock. One would not 

 like to shoot a bullock on a run ; but better kill him than 



