42 



T. V. KOBERTS TEEEESTRIAL 



grandeur. The fact that our Transatlantic cousins should take 

 pains to prevent the extinction of even the grizzly bear, is a 

 circumstance which should, I think, have some influence in 

 checking the too indiscriminate slaughter which prevails in our 

 own country. Epping Forest and Wimbledon Common are districts 

 on a very diminutive scale somewhat analogous to Yellowstone 

 Park, as in each of them all the wild denizens are carefully 

 protected. 



Besides the interest that is now felt in natural history, popular 

 knowledge on the subject has, thanks in a great measure to our 

 admirable periodical literature, vastly increased. It would, I 

 imagine, be difficult now to find anyone whose knowledge resembles 

 that of an old Scotch judge, who had to try a case which turned 

 on the escape of a squirrel. " Did ye clip its wings ? " he asked of 

 the prosecutor. "My lord," said the astonished witness, "it is a 

 quadruped." " Quadruped here, quadruped there," said the judge, 

 " if ye had a' clippit its wings it couldna' ha' flaun away. I maun 

 decide agin ye." 



Before proceeding to deal with British quadrupeds existing at 

 the present day, I may perhaps be permitted to allude veiy briefly 

 to those animals which, once common, have become extinct within 

 historic times, A most interesting paper on this subject was read 

 before this Society in 1879, by Mr. J. E, Harting, and it is from 

 that paper and from a book subsequently published by him (being 

 in fact an extension of the paper) that my information on the sub- 

 ject is derived. I am indebted to our President for my knowledge 

 of Mr. Harting' s work. The animals which he enumerates as 

 having formerly abounded in this country and as having become 

 extinct within historic times are : — The bear, the beaver, the rein- 

 deer, the wild boar, the wolf, and the wild white cattle. 



Mr. Harting gives a most graphic account of the appearance of 

 the countiy in ancient times, when vast portions were covered by 

 dense forests, affording cover and shelter for animals of every de- 

 scription, — when the traveller was in danger from bears and packs 

 of wolves ever ready to attack the unwary or the solitary, if passing 

 near their strongholds. The time when the bear and reindeer be- 

 came extinct is not known, but it must have been at a very early 

 period. The beaver, as might naturally be supposed, lingered 

 much longer, and there are places both in Wales and Scotland 

 which to this day commemorate the fact that it once flourished in 

 the locality. The wild boar appears to have become extinct about 

 the time of Charles the Second. Wolves lingered long in Ireland 

 and Scotland, and the last of which any account exists appears to 

 have been killed in the former country about the year 1770. The 

 wild white cattle have long been extinct in an absolutely wild 

 state, but, as is well known, still exist in several parks, retaining 

 their special characteristics. The most celebrated are those at 

 Chillingham in Northumberland, the seat of the Earl of Tanker- 

 ville. A splendid stuffed specimen of a Chillingham bull is to be 

 seen in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington. 



