450 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



information, however fragmentary it may be, is of interest and 

 value : — 



" To the Editor of the ' Dumfries and Galloway Courier.' — Sir, — It will 

 perhaps amuse some of your readers to see a short account of the present 

 state of the wild cattle that used to range the Caledonian forests, and the mode 

 of hunting, or rather of shooting them. Those I allude to are in the parks 

 of Ardrossan, Ayrshire, under the protection of the Earl of Eglinton. 

 The original, I am told, were two quey, and one bull, calves, of two months 

 old, brought from Auchencrnive, about twenty years ago, and said to be so 

 vicious that, when tied on the cart, they bit whatever came near them. 

 They seem different from those that were at Drumlanrig, and extirpated 

 for more profitable stock, by William, Duke of Queensberry, about forty 

 years ago, for the Duke's were all horned, with black tips ; whilst those at 

 Ardrossan are all without horns, and seem mucli larger. A cow shot here, 

 some weeks ago, weighed of beef 20 stone 3 lbs. (30 stone 4|- lbs. 

 Dumfries weight), and some bulls weighed 32 stones ; they are well 

 shaped, broad before, and full in the ham, and would in Galloway be called 

 handsome ; they are all white, with brown ears : they herd by themselves, 

 though other black cattle be in the field. When undisturbed I got within 

 a good pistol-shot of them ; then they scampered off at a gallop, but not 

 very far, and stood in seemingly a composed state. They drop their calves 

 at various times of the year, which does not betoken them in the wildest 

 state ; but here they have abundance of good food at all seasons, which 

 may produce this variation from other wild animals. Some weeks ago 

 there were three bulls, eight cows, and three calves. When the calves drop 

 in winter, or early in spring, they sometimes die from the severity of the 

 weather ; and it is observed that during winter they lose flesh more than 

 other cattle in the same fields, with the same advantage of hay. It is 

 thought that the cows have little milk, for they show no udder, and the 

 calves will offer to eat hay at ten days old. Last year three of them died 

 suddenly of an infectious disease thought to be black-leg, though I could 

 not learn that this disorder was at all observed among other cattle in the 

 neighbourhood. Yesterday was fixed for taking two bulls ; seven grej'- 

 hounds were on the ground, but the mode adopted was the old herd, 

 mounted on a hunter, almost his contemporary, pushed into the flock, and 

 separated the intended victim, who galloped off, the herd pursuing, till he 

 got among the gamekeepers, who stood separately at convenient distances ; 

 they fired at him as he came nigh ; he received three shots in the head 

 without bringing him down ; the fourth bullet hit in the centre of his fore- 

 head so effectually that I saw him drop before I heard the report, though I 

 was little more than a gunshot from the place. The second bull was still 

 more difficult to overcome, though only two years old ; he received six shots 

 at distant intervals, leapt through a hole in a wall, which to appearnnce whs 



