214 WILD WHITE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



contrary is indicated by the habits of the yet wilder, 

 although feral, cattle of the Falkland Islands and 

 of the northern island of New Zealand. There many 

 of the bulls, tempted by domestic cows, desert their 

 own herds to follow them, and are lassoed or shot 

 down in consequence. Superior as these wild Chilling- 

 ham cattle were to the ordinary domestic breed, the 

 whole neighbourhood must have abounded with their 

 half-bred descendants, strong resemblances of themselves. 

 Here was, indeed, a grand opportunity for a cross, with 

 little chance of losing the original type if the selection 

 were made carefully — for a half or three-quarters bred 

 wild bull, with abundance of wild character, might have 

 been easily procured ; and I cannot divest myself of the 

 idea that " William Kadyll's white calfe," purchased 

 Dec. 5th, 1689, by William Taylor, Steward of Chilling- 

 ham, was obtained for this purpose. The price, ten 

 shillings, must have been an extremely high one for the 

 time ; for Symson, in his " Large Account of Galloway," 

 quoted by Youatt, and published in 1682, only seven 

 years previously, speaking of the farmers selling their 

 calves, says : — " They think it very ill husbandry to sell 

 that /or a shilling which in time would yeeld pounds." 

 The strong probability is that this " white calfe," pur- 

 chased so dearly, was the daughter of one of the wild 

 bulls to which tame cows were in those days put, and 

 that it is identical with the solitary " guy '.' (heifer) 

 mentioned as being " in the Parke, with my Lorde's 16 

 white wilde beasts," in May, 1692. It would then be 

 about two and a half years old. Three months later, in 

 August of the same year, at just the age one might 

 have supposed, " Y e guy had a calfe," undoubtedly by 

 one of the wild bulls with which she had run ; and she 



