agent to the Duke of Hamilton, the following account of the wild cattle kept
in the Duke's park in Lanarkshire, which is about 200 acres in extent. The
number of cattle varies from sixty-five to eighty; and the number annually
killed (I presume by all causes) is from eight to ten; so that the annual rate
of increase can hardly be more than one in six. Now in South America, where
the herds are half-wild, and therefore offer a nearly fair standard of
comparison, according to Azara the natural increase of the cattle on an
estancia is from one-third to one-fourth of the total number, or one in
between three and four and this, no doubt, applies exclusively to adult
animals fit for consumption. Hence the half-wild British cattle which have
long interbred within the limits of the same herd are relatively far less
fertile. Although in an unenclosed country like Paraguay there must be some
crossing between the different herds, yet even there the inhabitants believe
that the occasional introduction of animals from distant localities is
necessary to prevent "degeneration in size and diminution of fertility."
(17/10. Azara 'Quadrupedes du Paraguay' tome 2 pages 354, 368.) The decrease
in size from ancient times in the Chillingham and Hamilton cattle must have
been prodigious, for Professor Rutimeyer has shown that they are almost
certainly the descendants of the gigantic Bos primigenius. No doubt this
decrease in size may be largely attributed to less favourable conditions of
life; yet animals roaming over large parks, and fed during severe winters, can
hardly be considered as placed under very unfavourable conditions.

With SHEEP there has often been long-continued interbreeding within the limits
of the same flock; but whether the nearest relations have been matched so
frequently as in the case of Shorthorn cattle, I do not know. The Messrs.
Brown during fifty years have never infused fresh blood into their excellent
flock of Leicesters. Since 1810 Mr. Barford has acted on the same principle
with the Foscote flock. He asserts that half a century of experience has
convinced him that when two nearly related animals are quite sound in