294 ‘ COMMON OX. 
proach much nearer, probably within thirty yards, 
when they make another stand, and again gallop 
off. This they do several times, shortening their 
distance, and advancing nearer, till they come 
within a few yards, when most people think it 
prudent to leave them, not choosing to provoke 
them further, as it is probable that in a few turns 
more they wt>uld make an attack. 
The mode of killing them was perhaps the only 
modern remains of the grandeur of ancient hunting. 
On notice being given that a wild bull would be 
Icilled on a certain day, the inhabitants of the 
neighbourhood assembled, sometimes to the num- 
ber of a hundred horsemen, and four or five hun- 
dred foct, all armed with guns, or other weapons. 
Those 01 foot stood upon the walls, or got into 
trees, wlile the horsemen . rode off a bull from the 
rest of he herd, until he stood at bay, when they 
dismouited and fired. At some of these huntings 
twenty tr thirty shots have been fired before the 
animal was subdued. On such occasions the 
bleeding victim grew desperately furious, from 
the smarting of his wounds, and the shouts of 
savage j)y echoing from every side. But from the 
number )f accidents which happened, this dange- 
rous mote has been little practised of late years, the 
park-keeper alone generally killing them with a 
rifie-gui at one shot. 
When the cows calve, they hide their young for 
a week >r ten days, in some sequestered retreat, 
and go to suckle them two or three times a day. 
If any pesons come near the calves, these clap their 
heads cloe to the ground, ancf lie like a hare in form, 
to hide hemselves. This seems a proof of their 
native wldness, and it is corroborated by the fol- 
lowing crcumstance that happened to Dr. Fuller, 
the author of the History of Berwick, who found a 
hidden cilf two days old, very lean and weak. On 
