412 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Orde in 1838 purchased a bull, the only survivor of the Duke of 

 Buccleuch's (Dalkeith) section of the old Athol herd. This was 

 used with Kyloe (West Highland) cows, carefully selected. After 

 some few years this bull and Lord Breadalbane's (Taymouth) 

 were exchanged, and the latter was used with good results until 

 1852, when a West Highland bull calf was bought, and this sire 

 was supposed to have much improved the stock. No further 

 crosses were made up to the time Mr. Storer's book was published 

 (1879) ; but since then the present Sir John Orde, in the letter 

 above quoted, says that they had had at various times crosses 

 with ordinary Highland, Ayrshire, and Indian cattle. The first 

 named was the only one found desirable, the produce of some 

 cows recently that proved infertile with the wild bull being very 

 satisfactory in everything except colour. The cattle show traces 

 of their Kyloe extraction. About 200 acres of the park at Vaynol 

 are allotted to the cattle, consisting of old (artificial) pasture, 

 bordering a lake. In the same park are Red- and Fallow-deer, 

 and in the plantations round the park there are a few Roe-deer 

 descended from Scotch and German stock. A Roe doe was seen 

 in August last with two fawns. 



Blickling. — In July last this herd comprised : — Bulls : 1, five 

 years old ; 2, two years old ; 1 calf. Cows : 9 ; 2 yearling heifers ; 

 6 calves. Total, 21. Only the two young bulls and the two 

 heifers were in the park ; the others were kept up. Storer says 

 that these cattle were introduced from Gunton about the begin- 

 ning of the present century, and that they were nearly destroyed 

 a few years since by the rinderpest, which killed off all but three 

 or four ; since then the herd has been somewhat made up, and 

 consequently somewhat altered its characteristics. The cattle 

 here are black-pointed, but the six heifer calves born this year 

 are irregular in their markings. Two have black ears, but no 

 spots ; while one has red ears, and the other has white ears. 

 These cattle, it is said, sometimes have red points ; some- 

 times there is no colour about them at all. They are frequently 

 spotted like flea-bitten Arab horses. All calves with black 

 points are preserved, amounting to about five or six in a 

 year. The herd is low at present — only numbering about twenty 

 altogether, ranging from five years old to calves of this year. 

 There have been a lai-ge proportion of bull calves during the last 

 year or two. The individual animals are finer at the present 



