I have alluded to the cattle in Chillingham Park, which, according to
Rutimeyer, have been very little changed from the Bos primigenius type.
This park is so ancient that it is referred to in a record of the year
1220. The cattle in their instincts and habits are truly wild. They are
white, with the inside of the ears reddish-brown, eyes rimmed with black,
muzzles brown, hoofs black, and horns white tipped with black. Within a
period of thirty-three years about a dozen calves were born with "brown and
blue spots upon the cheeks or necks; but these, together with any defective
animals, were always destroyed." According to Bewick, about the year 1770
some calves appeared with black ears; but these were also destroyed by the
keeper, and black ears have not since reappeared. The wild white cattle in
the Duke of Hamilton's park, where I have heard of the birth of a black
calf, are said by Lord Tankerville to be inferior to those at Chillingham.
The cattle kept until the year 1780 by the Duke of Queensberry, but now
extinct, had their ears, muzzle, and orbits of the eyes black. Those which
have existed from time immemorial at Chartley, closely resemble the cattle
at Chillingham, but are larger, "with some small difference in the colour
of the ears." "They frequently tend to become entirely black; and a
singular superstition prevails in the vicinity that, when a black calf is
born, some calamity impends over the noble house of Ferrers. All the black
calves are destroyed." The cattle at Burton Constable in Yorkshire, now
extinct, had ears, muzzle, and the tip of the tail black. Those at
Gisburne, also in Yorkshire, are said by Bewick to have been sometimes
without dark muzzles, with the inside alone of the ears brown; and they are
elsewhere said to have been low in stature and hornless. (3/51. I am much
indebted to the present Earl of Tankerville for information about his wild
cattle; and for the skull which was sent to Prof. Rutimeyer. The fullest
account of the Chillingham cattle is given by Mr. Hindmarsh, together with
a letter by the late Lord Tankerville, in 'Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.'
volume 2 1839 page 274. See Bewick 'Quadrupeds' 2nd edition 1791 page 35
note. With respect to those of the Duke of Queensberry see Pennant 'Tour in
Scotland' page 109. For those of Chartley, see Low 'Domesticated Animals of
Britain' 1845 page 238. For those of Gisburne see Bewick 'Quadrupeds' and
'Encyclop. of Rural Sports' page 101.)
The several above-specified differences in the park-cattle, slight though
they be, are worth recording, as they show that animals living nearly in a
state of nature, and exposed to nearly uniform conditions, if not allowed
to roam freely and to cross with other herds, do not keep as uniform as
truly wild animals. For the preservation of a uniform character, even
within the same park, a certain degree of selection--that is, the
destruction of the dark-coloured calves--is apparently necessary.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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