at his best was
computed at 8 cwt. 14 lbs. The cow only lived five or six years. She
gave little milk, but the quality was rich. She was crossed by a country
bull, but her progeny very closely resembled herself, being entirely
white, excepting the ears, which were brown, and the legs, which were
mottled." These facts speak for themselves.

Culley, in giving their distinguishing characteristics, says: "Their
colour is invariably of a creamy white; muzzle black; the whole of the
inside of the ear, and about one third of the outside, from the tips
downwards, red; horns white, with black tips, very fine, and bent
upwards; some of the bulls have a thin upright mane, about an inch and a
half, or two inches long."

That their colour is invariably white is simply owing to the care that
is taken to destroy all the calves that are born of a different
description. It is pretty well known to the farmers about Chillingham
(although pains are taken to conceal the fact,) that the wild cows in
the park not unfrequently drop calves variously spotted. With respect to
the redness of the ears, this is by no means an invariable character,
many young ones having been produced without that distinctive mark; and
Bewick records, that about twenty years before he wrote, there existed a
few in the herd with _black_ ears, but they were destroyed. So far from
the character here given of the horns being confined to those white
cattle, it is precisely the description of the horns of the Kyloe oxen,
or black cattle. The investiture of some of the bulls with a mane is
equally gratuitous; Cole, who was park-keeper for more than forty years,
and of course had ample means of observation, distinctly informed me
that they had no mane, but only some curly hair, about the neck, which
is likewise an attribute of the Kyloe Oxen.

Culley goes on to say: "From the nature of their pasture, and the
frequent agitation they are put into by the curiosity of strangers, it
is scarce to be expected that they should get very fat; yet the six
years old oxen are generally very good beef, from whence it may be
fairly supposed, that in proper situations they would feed well."

It would naturally be inferred from this, that the park in which they
are kept is visited by strangers every day, who are allowed to drive
them about, and disturb them in their feeding and ruminating, as boys
hunt geese or donkeys on a common. This, however, is so far from being
the case, that it f