212 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



THE MAMMALIAN FAUNA OF CHESHIRE. 



By T. A. Coward and Charles Oldham. 



(Continued from p. 176.) 



Order Ungulata. — Family Bovid^:. 

 Bos taurus, L ; Wild White Cattle. — A domesticated herd of 

 the old British Wild White Cattle is still kept at Somerford Park, 

 near Congleton, the seat of Sir Charles W. Shakerley, Bart. 

 Accounts of this herd are given in Storer's * Wild White Cattle,' 

 in Harting's 'Extinct British Animals,' 1880, and in the Report 

 of the Manchester Meeting of the British Association in 1887 

 (pp. 135-145), from which sources much of our information has 

 been derived. The cattle cannot be traced here for more than 

 two hundred years, and were probably brought in the seventeenth 

 century from Middleton Park, Lancashire, though it is possible 

 that they may have been at Somerford since the park was 

 originally enclosed. In June, 1887, the herd consisted of thirty 

 animals, which had increased to forty on July 28th, 1894, the date 

 of our last visit, when the numbers were made up as follows: — 

 1 bull, calved in June, 1891 ; 14 cows ; 15 head of young stock, 

 including 3 bulls ; J calves. The bull is a short-legged, mas- 

 sively built animal, with a very broad, thick-set head and heavy 

 fore quarters. The hind quarters, as in the other herds of park 

 cattle, are lighter than in the ordinary domestic breeds. He has 

 hardly as much black as is usual in this herd. The poll is white, 

 and there are no black hairs in the tail-tassel nor on the fetlocks. 

 There are a few underlying blue spots on the shoulders and flanks, 

 and some scattered black hairs on the sides of the face. The ears 

 are black inside, and for about half their length from the distal 

 end outside ; the muzzle, hoofs, and eye-rims are also black. 

 The roof of the mouth and upper surface of the tongue are black ; 

 the under-surface of the tongue flesh-coloured. A calf of the 

 Chillingham herd, which Oldham examined in May, 1891, had the 

 tongue similarly coloured. In December, 1887, the two oldest 

 bulls at Somerford had black polls, and a good deal of black about 

 the fore legs and shoulders. The cows vary much. Some are 

 quite white, even to the ears, while others are flecked and spotted 

 with black in varying degrees. In December, 1887, there was 

 one old cow, a blue roan in colour ; and others were so profusely 



