130 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



by independent testimony. So also was that of 

 Boethius. 



The principal points which are supposed to be 

 exaggerated in the above quotation from Boethius are 

 that the Scotch forest bull had a mane " like that of 

 the lion " ("in formam leonis "), and that he would 

 avoid for a length of time whatever had been " toadied 

 by man's hand." 



But the truth of both of these supposed exaggera- 

 tions has been fully proved. The existence of the 

 mane is fully confirmed by Scottish testimony of but 

 a few years subsequently, as will be shortly shown ; 

 while in my account of the Chillingham herd it will be 

 seen, from my own observations, that their descendants 

 have them now, though to a diminished extent, and 

 extending over exactly those parts of the body which 

 the mane of the lion covers. It will be shown there 

 that Sir Edwin Landseer (one of the best of judges) 

 considered this one of their most peculiarly distinctive 

 features, and that when Bewick (one of the most faithful 

 of delineators) engraved, eighty-seven years since, the 

 Chillingham bull, this remarkable feature was much 

 more clearly marked than it is now. As respects their 

 avoidance of whatever had been touched by man, and 

 the keenness of their sense of smell, numerous modern 

 instances bear testimony to the correctness of the state- 

 ment. Even domestic cattle have, as every observing 

 breeder knows, the most highly developed sense of 

 smell ; but in the wild cattle this peculiarity is intensi- 

 fied, and, as in other wild animals, upon the acuteness 

 of this sense, combined with those of seeing and 

 hearing, they principally depend for protection from 

 their foes. Mr. H. H. Dixon, when describing the 



