48 
NATURE NOTES 
born in all months of the year, are, from birth, extremely pug- 
nacious, if disturbed ; running at and butting anyone who may 
attempt to interfere with them, and they cannot be tamed 
sufficiently to be trusted. 
Some years ago this herd became greatly reduced in numbers, 
only about a dozen animals then surviving, but owing to the 
care bestowed upon them, the herd at the present time numbers 
fifty-three head, made up as follows: — three old bulls, two 
younger bulls, two bull calves, thirty-five old cows, eight yearling 
cows, and three calves born since last Christmas, and the herd has 
only once exceeded this number (when it reached fifty-six) within 
the memory of man. Some of the older animals are necessarily 
killed off every year, and the only means of doing this is by 
shooting the victims with a rifle. Desperate encounters some- 
times take place between the bulls for the lordship of the herd, 
and some animals get injured in consequence. 
The food of the Chartley herd consists of the very coarsest 
grasses, and in winter of the coarsest hay, rushes, and dried 
bracken, provided for them in open sheds, which afford a 
slight shelter from the cold winds which blow across the open 
park. Some years ago a portion of the park was drained at 
great expense so as to produce a better herbage and finer grass, 
but it was soon found that the richer food did not suit the 
cattle so well, and the land was allowed to revert to its marshy 
nature. The home of these cattle is situated on high ground 
some 300 feet above sea level, and was enclosed about the year 
1200, and forms a portion of Chartley Park, some five miles from 
Uttoxeter, the nearest town. The extent of this wild tract of 
table land is about 1,000 acres, covered with coarse grass, rushes, 
stunted bilberries, and heather, and patches of luxuriant bracken 
fern, with a few clumps of old weather-beaten Scotch firs and 
birch, which afford some shade from the hot summer sun. 
Little rills of pure water course down the little valleys which 
slope downwards from the higher ground, and ponds lie hidden 
here and there, trampled around the edges into deep mire in 
which the cattle delight to stand knee deep in hot weather. 
Among the other denizens of this wild primeval tract are herds 
of red and fallow deer, which live in perfect harmony with the 
lordly cattle ; an occasional fox or badger, which may sometimes 
be seen in the very early morning crossing the park on his return 
from a midnight foray to the thick woods which afford some 
shelter to the park from the northern blast ; multitudes of rabbits 
which jump up at every step, with no doubt a few of their natural 
enemy, the stoat, and voles (both the common vole and red 
bank vole), moles, long-tailed field mice, shrews and their natural 
enemies the weasel and the adder, the latter often to be seen 
sunning itself on the dead fronds of bracken, which its colouring 
frequently so closely resembles as to cause it to be passed by 
unobserved. Of birds, alas, but few beyond the wheatear, 
whinchat, skylark, pipits and an occasional carrion crow, jay, 
