A STRANGE STORY OF A AYRSHIRE COWS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2570, 29 December 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

A STRANGE STORY OF A AYRSHIRE COWS.

M« Andrew La.no, referring; to the story of two elephants who assisted a wounded comrade, gives a curious contradictory instance, sent him by a correspondent, in which animals behave "more like Christians," as Bill Sikes would have said. "In a field close by the writer's house were grazing recently a dairy of fifty cows of the well-known Ayrshire

breed. These cows lire, as :i rule, per feetly quiet and steiitlo. One any, however, not long' ago, as the cows were entering the field after the morning milking, in pushing through the rather narrow (,'«te one of them accidentally struck the cow in i'rout of her a very severe How on the flunk, and from the wound made by the horn the blood literally poured. The poor injured animal bellowed loudly with the pain, and all at once the whole of the unwounded animals seemed to go perfectly mad. They rushed upon the wounded cow, and in a very few minutes literally gored her to death. When the writer saw the carcase of the unfortunate beast, there was hardly an inch of the hide that was not perforated by the horns of the assailants. When the deed was accomplished, the cows subsided iuto their usual gentle and quiet condition, and have never shown the

smallest sign of ferocity since. The writer cannot pretend to account for this incident; lie merely states the fact, which is known to many witnesses, and which is surely ratlier an uncommon oc-