Wild Cattle of Chillingham Park. 277 



that are sometimes very curious and amusing. They hide their 

 young, feed in the night, basking or sleeping during the day ; they 

 are fierce when pressed, but, generally speaking, very timorous, 

 moving off on the appearance of any one, even at a great distance. 

 Yet this varies very much in different seasons of the year, and accord- 

 ing to the manner in which they are aj^proached. In summer I have 

 been for several weeks at a time without getting a sight of them, 

 they, on the slightest appearance of any one, retiring into a wood, 

 which serves them as a sanctuary. On the other hand, in winter, 

 when coming down for food into the inner park, and being in con- 

 stant contact with people, they willlet you almost come among them, 

 particularly if on horseback. But then they have also a thousand pecu- 

 liarities. They will be feeding sometimes quietly, when if any one 

 appears suddenly near them, particularly coming down the wind, they 

 will be struck with a sudden panic and gallop off, running one over 

 the other, and never stopping till they get into their sanctuary. It 

 is observable of them, as of red deer, that they have a peculiar faculty 

 of taking 9.d vantage of the irregularities of the ground, so that on 

 being disturbed, they may traverse the whole park and yet you 

 hardly get a sight of them. Their usual mode of retreat is, to get 

 up slowly, set off in a walk, then a trot, and seldom begin to gallop 

 till they have put the ground between you and them in the manner 

 that I have described. 



" In form they are beautifully shaped, short legs, straight back, 

 horns of a very fine texture, thin skin, so that some of the bulls ap- 

 pear of a cream -colour, and they have a peculiar cry, more like that 

 of a wild beast than that of ordinary cattle. With all the marks of 

 high breeding, they have also some of its defects : they are bad 

 breeders, and are much subject to the rash, a complaint common to 

 animals bred in and in, which is unquestionably the case with these 

 as long as we have any record of them. 



" When they come down into the lower part of the park, which 

 they do at stated hours, they move like a regiment of cavalry, in 

 single files, the bulls leading the van, as, in retreat, it is the bulls that 

 bring up the rear. 



" Lord Ossulston was witness to a curious way in which they took 

 possession as it were of some new pasture recently laid open to them. 

 It was in the evening about sunset. They began by lining the front 

 of a small wood, which seemed quite alive with them, when all of a 

 sudden they made a dash forward altogether in a line, and charging 

 close by him across the plain, they then spread out, and after a little 

 time began feeding. 



