EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 
INTRODUCTION. 
THE interest which attaches to the history of 
extinct British animals can only be equalled by the 
regret which must be felt, by all true naturalists, at 
their disappearance beyond recall from our fauna. 
It is a curious reflection at the present day, as we 
pass over some of the wilder parts of the country, 
that at one time these same moors and woods and 
glens, which we now traverse so securely, were 
infested to such an extent with ferocious animals, 
that a journey of any length was, on this account, 
attended with considerable danger. Packs of 
wolves, which usually issued forth at night to 
ravage the herdsman’s flocks, were ever ready to 
attack the solitary herdsman, or unwary traveller on 
foot, who might venture to pass within reach of their 
hiding-places. In the oak woods and amongst the 
reed-beds which fringed the meres, wild-boars 
lurked while munching their store of acorns, or 
wallowing, as is their wont, in lacustrine mire, while 
they searched for the palatable roots of aquatic 
B 
