208 



The Living Animals of the World 



I'hoto In/ II'. ]'. D'uuin] 



KXGLISH PARK BULL. 

 The simiLuity in sliiqic t.. tlio Ijrst-lned modem shurtlioin; 



Ui'-l/uitUFurk. 



BRITISH PARK-CATTLE, AKD 

 THE AUROCHS. 



The so-called "Wild Cattle" found in 

 the parks of Cliillingliam and Chartley, as 

 well as in Lord Leigh's park at Lyme, and 

 in that of the Duke of Hamilton at Cadzow 

 Castle, Scotland, are probably not the 

 descendants of an indigenous wild race. It 

 is not without reluctance that the belief in 

 their wild descent has been abandoned. But 

 the evidence seems fairly conclusive as to 

 the antiquity of tliese white cattle, regarded 

 as a primitive breed, and of the milikelihood 

 of their being survivors of a truh'' wild stock. 

 They are almost identical in many points 

 with the best breeds of modern cattle, and 

 probably represent the finest type possessed 

 bv the ancient inhabitants of these islands. 

 But tliey are far smaller than the original 

 Wild ()x, or Auudcns, the ancestor of our 

 domestic breeds. The skulls of these large 

 wild oxen, which still survived in the Black Forest in Ccesar's time, ha\'e been dug up in 

 many parts of England, especially in the Thames Valley, and may be seen at the Natural 

 History ^Museum. The remains of the extinct wild ox, the Bos torus of the Romans, show 

 that, if not so large as an elephant, as Ctesar heard, its size was gigantic, reckoned by any 

 modern cattle standard whatever. It proliably stood 6 feet high at the shoulder, and there 

 is every reason to believe that it was the progenitor of the modern race of domestic cattle 

 in Europe. It seems certain that the Chartley Park herd did once run wild in 2seedwood 

 Forest; but so do the Italian l.iuffaloes in the IMaremma, and the Spanish bulls on the plains 

 of Andalusia. Those at Chartley have been kept in the park, which is very wild and remote, so 

 long that they ha\e gradually lost 

 many of the attriljutes of domestica- 

 tion. This is even more marked in 

 the case of Lord Tankerville's white 

 cattle at Chillinghaiii. An oljservant 

 visitor to Cliillingliam lately noted 

 that the hulls fight for the possession 

 of the cows, and that (jne is occasion- 

 ally killed in these combats. The 

 cows still " stampede " with their 

 calves when alarmed, and hide them 

 for a week or ten days after they are 

 born. The horns of the Cliillingliam 

 cattle turn up; those of the bulls of 

 the Chartley herd are straight or 

 slightly inclined downwards. Cross- 

 breds between the Chartley cattle and 

 some other herds of rejiuted ancient 



descent may generally be seen at the j. .../m.,. ,. ,,, [R.ycnfs Park 



Zoological Gardens. They remain calf of enolish pahk-cattli^, 



remarkably true to type. Though the stock is very old and inteed, the white purk-cattlo are still (aiiiy prolific. 



