The Colfax chronicle., 1897-10-16
WILD CATTLE IN ENGLAND.
The Breed Preserved In q Few Jeal-
Ously Guarded Herds.


The Breed Preserved In q Few Jeai-
ously Guarded Herds.
There is sofae doubt concerning the
original stock from which the few jeal-
ously preserved herds Of wild cattle are
descended. Some authorities believe
them to have sprung from imported an
imals turned feral, but the weight of
opinion favors the theory that they
are descendants of the magnificent
beast described by Cesar. Whatever
their ancestry, the breed of white cat
tie is of high antiquity. The great
mobiles recognized that the wild OK must
not disappear before the steady in
crease of population and the destruc-
tion of the forests which sheltered him,
and we owe it to their exertions that the
species survives. Considerable tracts
of forest land, with the game they car
ried, were inclosed by royal license,
and special laws were enacted in the
interests Of the animals so preserved
The penalty for poaching in one of
these inclosed parks was three times
as severe or savage as that inflicted
upon the unfortunately killed game in
natural forest. After interviewing
with camera the comparatively pacific
beasts in the cattle sheds at the Zoo"
I am inclined to think that the poachers
in parks which contained wild cattle
must have been few. The man who
with bow or spear, essayed attack
upon a herd of wild cattle in large cap
tivlty would rarely have required from
the hands of his fellow men afterward
more than burial.
There are only seven herds now in ex-
sstence. Thanks to the initiative OF
the British association, a very interest
ing and valuable report on these was
prepared some ten years ago. The old
est herd is that of Chillingham park, in
Northumberland. The park was orig
inally inclosed about 1900, or possibly
earlier. 1t now covers 1,10O acres, ex-
elusive of woodland, and the famous
Chillingham herd numbered in 1886 so
head. Chartley park, near Uttoxeter,
in Staffordshire, was inclosed some
where about the middle of the thir-
teenth century; the last published ac-.
count of the herd it contains appeared
in April, 1895, when the total was 43
head. Cadzow park, Hamilton, N. b.,
occupies portion of the old Caledonian
forest, in which the Bruce is said to
have hunted wild cattle in 1920; there
are no records to show when Cadzow
sisted of 60 head. These three parks
must be regarded as distinct from 9TH
ers, inasmuch as they are the original
areas inclosed as sanctuaries for wild
cattle, or, at least, portions of the orig
inal areas. The Kilmory Enclosure, at
the head of Lochgilphead, was denuded
of the herd il had sheltered for CEN
turies in 1886, when G. W. Duff Asheton
Smith purchased the remaining 32 head
and transferred them to vaynol park,
near Bangor, where he had IA years
previously founded herd with % ami
mails from Kilmory. The Lyme
(Cheshire) herd, established in the
fourteenth century, ceased to exist in
1885, The Someford herd dates back
only couple of hundred years or So
while those at Blickling and Wood
bastick, in Norfolk. are offshoots from
the now extinct Middleton herd. In adj
dition to the herds mentioned, some IL
or 13 others have dwindled to extinc-
ton within the last hundred years.
Although the survivors are descend
ed from the same stock, certain herds
present distinctive characteristics,
which, unfortunately, the owners aim
at preserving. 1t is unfortunate, be-
cause the system of inbreeding with
these small groups of cattle must bring
about depreciation in size and stamina,
and, within measurable distances of
time, result in extinction. The Chill
lingham cattle. for example, have bold
ly up-curving horns, red muzz,es and
are red inside the ears; the Chartley
cattle have spreading horns, and their
muzzles and interior of their ears are
black.
Let it not be supposed that the calves
of wild cattle are always white; mans
agency. artificial selection" has pro-
duced the. ."wild white OK" and the uni
formity Of color is procured by the
slaughter of calves which outrage tra-
clifton by entering the world in coat
other than pure white. The Somerford
herd is an exception; these "wi!d" cat
tie are polled, they are domcsticated
and are not necessarily white, the herd
including animals blotched and fiecked
with black and dbrown.--London Sketch.