Bos primigenius in Britain: or, why do fairy cows have red ears?

Folklore, April, 2002 by Jessica Hemming

[6] The Chillingham Wild Cattle Association has also established a small breeding group at an undisclosed location in Scotland in order to protect the population should a disaster strike the main herd. In the intervening period between presenting a preliminary version of this paper at a conference in 1997 and publication, the occurrence of an extremely serious national epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease has proved the wisdom of this course of action.

[7] Incidentally, this entry has been persistently misquoted by various authors as "my lord's 16 white wild beasts." The Chillingham Wild Cattle Association's own records list sixteen "beasts" and twelve steers for 1692, which is not quite what the steward's book actually states.

[8] I should note that whatever the problems with the origin account, the warden is obviously very well informed about the present nature and behaviour of the animals in his care.

[9] Constitutiones de Foresta, XXVII: "qualia sunt bubali, vaccae et similia" (Ancient Laws and Institutes of England 1, 194).

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