38 WILD I.IFK IX XK\V ZEALAND. 



CHAPTER VI. 



UNGULATA WILD CATTLE, SHEEP, AND GOATS 



\YILI> CATTLE. 



THK animals which form the group called the Hovidae (from the 

 Latin bos, an ox), including cattle, sheep, goats, and their allies. 

 differ in several respects from Cervidae, or deer. One of tin- most 

 important differences is the structure of the horns. Those of the 

 Bovidae are hollow and permanent, while the antlers of deer un- 

 made of solid bone and are deciduous, being renewed each year. 



The wild cattle of New Zealand are (like the wild pigs) only 

 domesticated animals which have been running in tin fenced country 

 for several generations back. They are not nearly so abundant 

 to-day as they were forty or tifty years ago. In these earlier days 

 most of the cattle on the larger runs to whatever breed they 

 belonged were more or less wild. They became greatly excited 

 when they saw a man on foot, for they were mostly accustomed to 

 men on horseback, to whom they gave only a passing notice. When 

 mobs of such half-wild cattle were to be yarded, cither for brandim: 

 of calves or for drafting, they were handled pretty roughly. On 

 enclosed roads th-y were dangerous, and even in open country the 

 presence of people on foot scared and often scattered them. It is 

 no wonder that when such cattle got into wild country where the\ 

 were undisturbed and never saw human beings they and their 

 progeny quickly became quite wild. When I first came to South- 

 land, about fifty vears ago, we were bothered a -jn.,,1 deal by wild 

 cattle. They found shelter during severe winter weather in the 

 extensive bush count r\ which formed such a feature of Southland 

 in those days, and they used to come into our paddock^ overnight. 

 Fenco and ditcho never troubled them: they hopped over them 



i ih.-v were nonexistent. In the open country it w;is impos- 

 sible to approach them on foot, while even on horseback one had 

 to make a wide . ireiiii to 'jvt within ran ire of them. The gradual 



