above stated, of lime and salt, applied especially in damp weather, when these pests are most active. Several gardeners have told me they have experienced very successful results by using ordinary wood-ash, dusted over the infected plant when the dew is on the leaf. In places where the snails come from neighbouring downs or woods a small trench may be dug along the border of the field and filled with soot and lime, or better still, with salt and lime, a precaution which will prevent them reaching the crop; and if the trench be about a foot wide many of the snails and most of the slugs will be killed in it. Much good may also be done by destroying rubbish heaps, and removing stones which protect them from the heat and dryness of the air. Many ova are deposited in heaps of leaf-mould. If these heaps are dressed with quicklime, all the ova will be destroyed, as well as many other vermin certain to be present. Rockeries and ferneries in and near gardens are often centres from which numberless snails proceed. All rough herbage should be cleared off these in the winter, and in the spring a good dressing of soot put over them to kill the vermin that have hybernated there. As a means of attracting these pests there is no better plan than that of putting brewers' grains near the plants that are being attacked; both snails and slugs readily go to this and remain there. These heaps may then be removed and burnt; or quicklime and sulphur mixed together with water may be put over them, and will kill the pests which are feeding there. In this way a garden may soon be cleared of them. During the past spring the South of England has been visited by large numbers of snails and slugs. In many districts it was found almost impossible to keep the hordes of L. agrestis off the early peas and other early garden produce. A certain amount of success attended watering with a small quantity of paraffin in water, and with sprinkling ash soaked in paraffin. Barley-awns soaked in the same I found kept off the slugs to a great extent, the sharp points making progress difficult for them. The abundance of both snails and slugs this spring after the severe winter ought surely to dispel the popular notion that cold weather destroys molluscs and insects. The worst slug attacks have nearly always come after hard winters. No doubt this is largely due to their natural enemies, the Blackbirds and other birds, being killed, and to these "farmers' friends" being unable to attack them when the ground is hard and covered with snow.

THE MAMMALIAN FAUNA OF CHESHIRE.

By T. A. COWARD AND CHARLES OLDHAM.

(Continued from p. 176.)

Order UNGULATA.-Family BOVIDE.

Bos taurus, L; Wild White Cattle.-A domesticated herd of the old British Wild White Cattle is still kept at Somerford Park, near Congleton, the seat of Sir Charles W. Shakerley, Bart. Accounts of this herd are given in Storer's 'Wild White Cattle,' in Harting's 'Extinct British Animals,' 1880, and in the Report of the Manchester Meeting of the British Association in 1887 (pp. 135-145), from which sources much of our information has been derived. The cattle cannot be traced here for more than two hundred years, and were probably brought in the seventeenth century from Middleton Park, Lancashire, though it is possible that they may have been at Somerford since the park was originally enclosed. In June, 1887, the herd consisted of thirty animals, which had increased to forty on July 28th, 1894, the date of our last visit, when the numbers were made up as follows:1 bull, calved in June, 1891; 14 cows; 15 head of young stock, including 3 bulls; 10 calves. The bull is a short-legged, massively built animal, with a very broad, thick-set head and heavy fore quarters. The hind quarters, as in the other herds of park cattle, are lighter than in the ordinary domestic breeds. He has hardly as much black as is usual in this herd. The poll is white, and there are no black hairs in the tail-tassel nor on the fetlocks. There are a few underlying blue spots on the shoulders and flanks, and some scattered black hairs on the sides of the face. The ears are black inside, and for about half their length from the distal end outside; the muzzle, hoofs, and eye-rims are also black. The roof of the mouth and upper surface of the tongue are black; the under-surface of the tongue flesh-coloured. A calf of the Chillingham herd, which Oldham examined in May, 1891, had the tongue similarly coloured. In December, 1887, the two oldest bulls at Somerford had black polls, and a good deal of black about the fore legs and shoulders. The cows vary much. Some are quite white, even to the ears, while others are flecked and spotted with black in varying degrees. In December, 1887, there was one old cow, a blue roan in colour; and others were so profusely

marked with black that at least one-third of their hides was of that colour. One of the young beasts has square-tipped ears, a character which originated from a cross with a bull from the Marchioness of Lothian's herd at Blickling, about the year 1876 or 1877. None of the cattle have red points, and any which are not correctly marked at birth are killed as calves. In December, 1887, one of the calves had chocolate-coloured ears, which were probably inherited from a bull from Mr. A. Cator's herd at Woodbastwick, received in exchange about the year 1879.

Prior to that date red and brown ears were unknown. Black calves are rare. In winter the cattle, especially the bulls, develop long hair on the poll and neck, which divides along the central line, and covers them like a mane. The udders are as large as ordinary domestic cows' and present a striking contrast to those of the Chillingham, Chartley, and Cadzow animals, which, of course, are never milked. The teats are black in some cases, white in others. The herd is a polled one, but one heifer has a pair of well-developed horns, which are black-tipped and upstanding like the Chillingham type. This animal was noticeably wilder and more difficult to approach than the others. The cows are regularly milked, and we can testify to the excellence of the

milk and butter, which have the reputation of being second to none in the county. A yield of twenty-four quarts per diem is not unusual; and one cow is stated, on the authority of Mr. J. Hill, to have yielded the extraordinary quantity of thirty-three quarts per diem, but the drain on her constitution proved fatal in about four months, in spite of everything that could be done in the way of feeding. No steers are raised, all surplus bull-calves being fed for veal. The cattle when fattened for beef weigh up to fifteen scores to the quarter, and the meat is said to be excellent both in quality and flavour. The calves, as we have also observed as Chillingham, Chartley, and Cadzow, are even of a more snowy white than the adults. Though wild at first they soon become tractable, but, if allowed to run in the park soon after birth, they are not easily reclaimed. During winter the cows are housed at night, and supplied with hay, meal, and potatoes; no turnips are given on account of the flavour they impart to the milk. The cattle have the run of about 180 acres of the park, which consists of fine upland turf sloping down to the river Dane. In dry summers, when the river is low, cattle have crossed both ways, but calves of the park cows are kept, if correctly marked, even when the presumptive sire is an ordinary bull. The whole herd will sometimes gallop to a pond in their enclosure, and enter the water till little but their heads remains visible. In concluding our notice of this herd we wish to acknowledge our indebtedness to Sir Charles Shakerley and his agent, Mr. J. Hill, through whose kindness and courtesy we were afforded every facility for examining the cattle, and obtaining the photograph here reproduced.

The cattle which had been kept for centuries in Lord Newton's park at Lyme ceased to exist in 1885. When Coward saw them, in 1884, there were only three animals left, and owing to too close breeding and other causes the herd had been in a declining state for some years prior to that date. An unsuccessful attempt was made to perpetuate the herd by the infusion of new blood in the shape of a bull which was obtained from Chartley about the year 1871. The Lyme cattle, which were larger than those of any of the existing park herds, were white with black muzzles and hoofs, and frequently had some black on the fore legs; the ears were black or red, and occasionally white; the horns yellow tipped with black. In the ferocity of their

disposition and their untamable nature, as well as in many of their habits, these cattle resembled those of the more widely known Chillingham herd. Further and more detailed accounts of the Lyme cattle have been given by Storer (op. cit. pp. 245-253), Mr. A. H. Cocks (Zool. 1878, pp. 277-279), and Chas. Oldham (Zool. 1891, pp. 81-87). The following account is given by Storer (op. cit. p. 111) of a herd which formerly existed at Vale Royal, near Northwich:-" Here was an ancient domesticated herd of white cattle with red ears, which, though now crossed out and extinct, was kept up, partially pure only, in the time of the late Lord [Delamere]. They are supposed to have belonged to the Abbey; and a singular tradition, the truth of which the late Lady Delamere believed she had verified, was prevalent, to the effect that some of Cromwell's troopers drove off most of them, but that one cow, after having been driven with the rest seven or eight miles, escaped from them and returned home. They were white with red ears, and were in all probability derived from North Wales, as from thence the original monks of Vale Royal came."

Family CERVIDE.

Cervus elaphus, L.; Red Deer.-Remains of this species have been found in the bed of the Manchester Ship Canal at Wallasey, Rostherne Mere, and elsewhere, and there is abundant documentary evidence to show that it was formerly common in the Cheshire forests. At the present time herds of Red-deer exist in three parks in the county. In Lord Newton's park at Lyme there are about 170 head of rather small but stoutly-built deer, and there is little doubt that they are the descendants of those originally emparked. The average weight of the stags in this park is 220 lbs., and the hinds 120 lbs. From 80 to 90 head are kept in Lord Egerton's park at Tatton; and about 30 head at Doddington, the seat of Sir Henry Delves Broughton, Bart. (see Whitaker, 'Descriptive List of the Deer Parks and Paddocks of England,' 1892, pp. 28-32). Mr. J. E. Harting writes:

"In your account of the Red-deer which are maintained at the present time in Cheshire parks, I think it would be of interest to refer to a curious custom which was observed in the last century at Lyme. In this park, 1700 acres in extent, the deer in summer time used to be collected in a herd and driven across a pool before the house, in order that while swimming they might be the more