6 EVOLUTION OF BRITISH CATTLE 



while the horsemen rode off the bull from the 

 rest of the herd till he stood at bay, when a 

 marksman dismounted and shot. At some of 

 these huntings twenty or thirty shots have been 

 fired before he was subdued. On such occasions 

 the bleeding victim grew desperately furious, 

 from the smarting of his wounds and the shouts 

 of savage joy that were echoing from every side. 

 But from the number of accidents that happened, 

 this dangerous mode has been little practised of 

 late years, the park-keeper alone generally 

 shooting them with a rifled gun at one shot. 



" When the cows calve, they hide their calves 

 for a week or ten days in some sequestered 

 situation, and go and suckle them two or three 

 times a day. If any persons come near the 

 calves, they clap their heads close to the ground 

 and lie like an hare in form, to hide themselves ; 

 this is a proof of their native wildness, and is 

 corroborated by the following circumstance that 

 happened to the writer of this narrative, who 

 found an hidden calf, two days old, very lean 

 and very weak. On stroking its head it got up, 

 pawed two or three times like an old bull, stepped 

 back a few steps, and bolted at his legs with all 

 its force ; it then began to paw again, stepped 

 back, and bolted as before, but, knowing its 

 intent, and stepping aside, it missed him, fell, 

 and was so very weak that it could not rise, 

 tho' it made several efforts : but it had done 



