io8 Summer 



cornfield. Approach it, and its head is at once set 

 for butting, even though the attempt should cause the 

 feeble little creature to stumble and fall on the fern. 

 In their own struggles and they are the most 

 quarrelsome of beasts they display the cunning of 

 our cleverest wild things. A young bull which is 

 getting 1;he worst of an encounter with the tough old 

 king of the herd will fall and sham death exactly as 

 a weasel does when it wants to beguile you into free- 

 ing it from a trap ; but as soon as the conqueror 

 marches off, the other, which very likely has not been 

 hurt at all, will get up and begin grazing. The 

 heifers hide their young in a quiet place, to which at 

 intervals they return for nursing purposes as warily as 

 .a bird to its nest. And the method employed for their 

 capture is precisely analogous to that used for snaring 

 some other wild beasts. It is in winter alone that they 

 show any signs of tameness, but when the frost is hard 

 and the snow lies, and there is no food on the heights, 

 then they become dependent for support on the long 

 cart sent with hay or turnips. This they have learned 

 to follow fearlessly, and it has consequently become 

 the favourite place of ambush when it is desirable to 

 shoot them. For it is hardly necessary to say that 

 their numbers are kept under control. Lord Tanker- 

 ville does not care to see the herd dwindle below sixty 

 or multiply much above severity ; it numbers seventy- 

 three at present. If some limit were not placed to the 

 numbers of bulls, they might re-enact the tragedy of 



