524. HISTORY OF 



wherever they are found ; and every additiun a country receives 

 from art drives away those animals that are only fitted for a 

 state of nature. 



Of all quadrupeds the cow seems most liable to alteration 

 from its pasture. In the different parts of our own country we 

 easily perceive the great varieties produced among these animals, 

 by the richness or poverty of the soil. In some they grow to a 

 great bulk ; and I have seen an ox sixteen hands high, which 

 is taller than the general run of our horses. In others they ap- 

 pear as diminutive ; being not so large as an ass. The breed of 

 the Isle of Man, and most parts of Scotland, is much less in gen- 

 eral than in England or Ireland : they are differently shaped 

 also, the dewlap being much smaller, and, as the expression is, the 

 beast has more of the ewe neck. This, till some years ago 



Bide from the tip downwards, red ; the horns are white with black tips of a 

 fine texture, and aa in the fossil skull, bent downwards. Bulls wei^h from 

 tliirty-five to forty-five stone, and cows from twenty-five to thirty-five, four- 

 fi'en pounds to the stone- Before they were kept in parks, they were pro- 

 bably larger and more rugged ; old bulls still acquire a kind of mane about 

 two inches long, and their throat and breast is covered with coarser hair. 

 Those at Burton Constable difiered from the others, they having the ears and 

 tips of the tail black. 



Their manners ditter from domestic oxen, and may be in part those of the 

 ancient urus. Upon perceiving a stranger they gullop wildly in a circle 

 round him, and stop to gaze, tossing their heads, and sliowing signs of deli, 

 ance : they then set off, and gallop a second time round, but in a contracted 

 circle, repeating this circular mode of approaching till they are so near that it 

 beconses prudent to retire from their intended charge. The cow^ conceal their 

 young calves for eight or ten days, going to suckle them twice or three times in 

 a day : if a person comes near the calf, it conceals itself by crouching. One 

 not more than two days old being discovered by Dr Fuller,* was very lean 

 and weak. On his stroking its head, it got up, pawed the ground, bellowed 

 very loud, went back a few steps, and bolted at his legs : it then began to paw 

 ngain, and made another bolt, but missing its aim, fell, and was so weak as 

 not to be able to rise j but by this time, its bellowing had roused the herd, 

 which came instantly to its relief, and made the doctor retire. When one of 

 this breed happens to be wounded, or is enfeebled by age or sickness, the 

 others set upon it and gore it to death. 



These animals were killed to within a few years, by a grand assemblage of 

 horsemen and country people armed with muskets: the former rode one 

 from the herd, and the latter took their st.itions on w.ills or in trees. There 

 was grandeur in the chase, but from the number of accidents which occurred 



• This anecdote is elsewhere ascribed to Mr Bailey of Chillingham. We 

 understand that there is a large breed, not perfectly white, in the Duke ut 

 Ilaiuiltou's park in Scotland. 



