was so very weak that it could
not rise, though it made several efforts. But it had done enough: the
whole herd were alarmed, and, coming to its rescue, obliged him to
retire; for the dams will allow no person to touch their calves without
attacking them with impetuous ferocity."

It seems almost unnecessary to remind the reader that all animals are
naturally wild; and that even those animals that have been the longest
under the dominion of man, are born with a strong tendency to the wild
state, to which they would immediately resort, if left to themselves: it
appears, therefore, rather gratuitous to tell us that the NATURAL
_actions of young animals_ (whose parents have been allowed to run
wild), _are proofs of their native mildness_!

The concluding paragraph requires no observation:--"When a calf is
intended to be castrated, the park-keeper marks the place where it is
hid, and, when the herd are at a distance, takes an assistant with him
on horseback; they tie a handkerchief round the calf s mouth, to prevent
its bellowing, and then perform the operation in the usual way. When any
one happens to be wounded, or is grown weak and feeble through age or
sickness, the rest of the herd set upon it, and gore it to death."

The following engraving exhibits the effects of castration on the
curvature and length of the horns.

[Illustration: 1. Head of the perfect animal. 2, 3. Heads of the
emasculated animal.]

We learn, on the authority of the present Lord Tankerville, that during
the early part of the life-time of his father, the bulls in the herd had
been reduced to three; two of them fought and killed each other, and the
third was discovered to be impotent; so that the means of preserving the
breed depended on the accident of some of the cows producing a bull
calf.

In 1844 I wrote to Mr. Cole, the late park-keeper at Chillingham,
requesting information on the following queries, to which he returned
the answers annexed; and although they are not so explicit as might be
wished, they embody facts both interesting and important.

_List of the Queries with their Answers._

1. How many pairs of ribs are there in the skeleton of the Chillingham
Ox? _Thirteen pairs._

2. How many vertebrae are there (from the skull to the end of the tail)?
_Thirty in the back-bone, twenty in the tail._

3. Will the wild cattle breed with the domestic cattle? _I have had two
calves from a wild bull and common cow._

4. What is the