THE MAGAZINE 



OF 



NATURAL HISTORY 



MAY, 1838. 



Art. I. On the Influence of Man in modifying the Zoological Fea- 

 tures of the Globe ; with Statistical Accounts respecting a few of 

 the more important Species. By W. Weissenborn, D. Ph. 



(Continued from Page 128J. 



The Zubr,* (Fy. ZhvbrJ, Bos urus. 

 This interesting animal, of which the former geographical 

 range is rather uncertain, but which, no doubt, anciently 

 inhabited the whole tract between the Baltic and Hacmus, 

 whilst the Black Sea and the steppes of Russia confined it on 

 the east, and the cold hindered it from penetrating farther in 

 a north-easterly direction, its original western limit being as 

 yet not sufficiently established, is now restricted to a single 

 habitat, the wild and swampy forest of Bialowicza, in Lithu- 

 ania, where the legends of the natives place the paradise of 

 the animals, to which, they say, all sick or decrepit individu- 

 als repair, that they may die in peace.f Thither the species 



* I give the preference to this name of the animal, because it is so called 

 in the country where it now exists, and because many of its other synonyms 

 are subject to controversy. 



j It is a curious fact, that so few carcasses of animals which have died a 

 natural death, are found in the woods, &c. ; and a Polish gentleman, with 

 whom I lately conversed, respecting the origin of the above legend, ascrib- 

 ed it to what he considered a general fact, viz. that such carcasses are never 

 met with, wherefore the natives of Lithuania suppose that the sick animals 

 retire to those spots in the forest, which, to this day are quite inaccessible 

 to man. If, however, we consider, that animal substances, exposed to the 

 atmosphere, are speedily decomposed, and that numbers of animals of prey, 

 birds, insects, &c. feed upon them, the scarcity of such carcasses is sufficient- 

 ly explained. From my own experience I can moreover state, that I have 

 found, in my numerous excursions, the bodies of stags, foxes, Sec. the bad 



Vol. II. — No. 17. n. s. x 



