viii INTRODUCTION. 
published in 1878, and the classification of Seals and Cetaceans 
is that of Prof. Flower, as given in Bell’s work, and in Mr. 
Southwell’s recently published ‘Seals and Whales of the British 
Seas’; while papers by Mr. St. George Mivart on the Insecti- 
vora, Mr. E. R. Alston on the Rodentia, and Prof. Flower on the . 
Carnivora, have been consulted as to the arrangement of those 
respective groups. Two species given by Bell are omitted from 
the present list, and one is added. The latter, a bat— Vespertzlio 
dasycneme—is included on the authority of Dr. Dobson’s mono- 
graph. The species omitted are the Beech Marten and the 
Greenland Right-Whale. Mr. E. R. Alston has demonstrated 
that there is but one British species of Marten, the true Beech 
Marten never having occurred (P.Z.S., 1879, p. 468 ; Zool., 1879, 
p- 441). The Greenland Right-Whale (Lalena mysticetus L.) 
has hitherto been included in the British fauna upon evidence so 
unsatisfactory that modern faunists invariably express grave 
doubts as to the validity of its claims. It has therefore been 
deemed the wiser plan to omit it altogether, the strong probability 
being that all Right-Whales killed in British seas have been refer- 
able to B. discayensis, a species whose differentiation as such dates 
subsequently to all the records of British occurrences. 
As to the extinct British mammalia, it having been considered 
desirable to include notices of animals which had ceased to exist 
in Yorkshire within historical periods, the species—five in number 
—of which Mr. J. E. Harting treats in his work on ‘ Extinct 
British Animals,’ have been inserted in the list in their correct 
zoological sequence. ‘Their names, and that of the Great Auk, 
are, however, printed in old English characters, and left un- 
numbered, as not being now entitled to rank as true members of 
the British fauna. 
Birds. — When considering what system of classification 
should be adopted for the arrangement of this class, difficulty was 
experienced in-coming to a decision, and it was only after some 
hesitation that one was finally arrived at. Had Professor 
