BRITISH PARK-CATTLE 
89 
been acquired by the Chillingham cattle, as gaur, 
according to Mr. Sanderson,^ after feeding till about 
nine o'clock in the morning "then rest, lying down 
in bamboo-cover or light forest until the afternoon, 
when they rise to graze and drink." Later on (p. 246) 
he adds that almost the only difference between the 
habits of gaur and those of elephants is that while 
" the former timidly confine themselves to the forest, 
the elephants roam in herds or singly far out into 
open and partly-populated country." Such forest- 
dwelling habits were probably common to the 
aurochs, to which the gaur approximates in general 
colour, although Professor Hughes ^ has denied that 
park-cattle can be derived from an ancestor which 
dwelt in forests. " Cattle," he writes, " only seek 
woods for shelter, and dense and extensive woods 
would not facilitate but arrest the migration of 
animals that usually feed in the open plains." This 
obviously applies only to park-cattle and the ordinary 
domesticated breeds, whose habits have varied to 
some extent from those of their wild ancestors. 
In this place it may be mentioned that the normal 
period of gestation in domesticated cows is nine 
months, or the same as in the aurochs ; and that 
breeding commences when the animals are two years 
old. In the Channel Islands and shorthorn breeds, 
as well as that of Shetland, maturity occurs, however, 
at an earlier period ; while in the larger German 
breeds gestation is stated to be longer than in the 
smaller kinds.^ With rare exceptions, only one 
calf is produced at a birth ; and according to Thomas 
^ op. cit. p. 245. 2 Qp^ p_ 20. 
^ Darwin, Aitiinah and Plants tender Dof/iestication, vol. i. p. 90, 
1885. 
