HAMILTON BREED OF WILD CATTLE. 201 



then turn round in a body to smell him. In these 

 gambols they invariably affect circles ; and when they 

 do make an attack which is seldom the case 

 should they miss the object of their aim, they never 

 return upon it, but run straight forward, without 

 ever venturing to look back. The only method of 

 slaughtering these animals is by shooting at them. 

 When the keepers approach them for this purpose, 

 they seem perfectly aware of their danger, and al- 

 ways gallop away with great speed in a dense mass, 

 preserving a profound silence, and generally keeping 

 by the sides of the fields and fences. The cows 

 which have young, in the mean time, forsake the flock 

 and repair to the places where their calves are con- 

 cealed, where, with flaming eyeballs and palpitating 

 hearts, they seem resolved to maintain their ground 

 at all hazards. The shooters always take care to 

 avoid these retreats. When the object of pursuit is 

 one of the older bulls of the flock, the shooting of 

 it is a very hazardous employment. Some of these 

 have been known to receive as many as eleven bul- 

 lets, without one of them piercing their skulls. When 

 fretted in this manner, they often become furious, 

 and, owing to their great swiftness and prodigious 

 strength, they are then regarded as objects of no or- 

 dinary dread. 



" The White Urus, or Hamilton breed of wild 

 cattle, differs in many respects from any other known 

 breed. As compared with those kept at Chilling- 

 ham Park, Northumberland, by Lord Tankerville> 



