Wild Cattle 109 



the Kilkenny cats, for they fight all the year round, 

 kneeling on their fore-legs and throwing the turf over 

 their heads when they challenge. To say that they 

 deliberately kill off the wounded, weak, or ailing is as 

 untrue of them as it is of other wild beasts. But a 

 bull must always be able to keep his head with his 

 horns. When they are roaming or feeding, apparently 

 out of mere devilment one gives another a prod or a 

 push whenever he has the opportunity. Thus a weak 

 bull or heifer, being unable to offer a strong defence, 

 is not by any constructive design, but by a series of 

 accidents, gored and butted to death. In captivity 

 they are as difficult to tame as house mice, even the 

 half and the quarter breeds retaining much of the 

 ancient combativeness. It is very seldom that either 

 on account of sickness or for breeding and crossing 

 purposes there are not one or two in the paddock ; 

 and these the visitor may examine. 



To get close to the herd is impossible. Their 

 scent is so good that a cow has been known to follow 

 a man's track like a bloodhound, and their ears are 

 correspondingly acute. You can only get near enough 

 to bring them in range of a good glass, and even then 

 every head will be turned towards you, and the flap- 

 ping ears will show how little is needed to give the 

 alarm. But it is not necessary for them either to see 

 or hear. If the deer, of which there is a herd of about 

 seven hundred in the park, are alarmed, and fly in the 

 direction of the cattle, the latter also are almost certain 



