British Mammals 



CHAPTER I 



P REFATOR r 



Some explanation and apology of and for the presentation of 

 this book to the reading public is necessary, seeing that the 

 subject of British Mammalia has been dealt with before in 

 a general sense by such able writers as the late William 

 Macgillivray, the late Professor Thomas Bell, and Mr, Richard 

 Lydekker ; while groups or species of British beasts have been 

 described in detail by Sir William Flower, the late Dr. Dobson, 

 Mr. Oldfield Thomas, Dr. R. F. Scharff, Mr. W. E. de Winton, 

 Professor Boyd Dawkins, Mr. J. E. Harting, Mr. Harvie- 

 Brown, the Rev. H. A. Macpherson, Messrs. W. Thompson 

 (Irish Mammals), Aubyn Trevor-Battye, W. Buckley, John 

 Guille Millais,^ Lionel Adams, G. Barrett Hamilton, F. G. Aflalo, 

 C. J. Cornish, and Dr. A. B. Smith Woodward.' Mr. T. 

 McKenny Hughes in 1896 wrote an admirable treatise on 

 the origin of the breeds of domestic cattle. Mr. F. E. Beddard 



^ The finest draughtsman of British beasts and birds who has yet appeared 

 on the scene. His monographs of the Deer and the Wild Fowl of the British 

 Islands should have been crowned by a British Academy. His study of 

 African Mammals in "A Breath from the Veldt " is unrivalled, and will 

 probably remain so. 



2 Who, together with the late Sir Richard Owen, Professor Boyd 

 Dawkins, and Mr. Richard Lydekker, has done much to describe the ancient 

 mammalian fauna of the two British Islands. 



