424 



Pennant to have infested Scotland up to the yeai- 1057. The 

 beaver, formerly an inhabitant of Wales and Scotland, and in earlier 

 times of vai-ious parts of England, was observed in Wales by 

 Giraldns de Barri in the year 1188. It is not known exactly when 

 the wild boar or wild cattle were extirpated. Some of the latter 

 are still preserved in a semiferal state in a few large parks, as at 

 Chillingham, in Northumberland, where I once saw them myself- 

 The wolf was formerly abundant throughout Great Britain. It has 

 been thought that, " in the wilder parts of England — the feUs of 

 Yorkshire, and the Forest of Dartmoor — wolves still existed in the 

 fifteenth, and perhaps in the sixteenth century, if we are to give 

 any credence to local traditions."* In Scotland they kept then: 

 ground till the year 1680,t and in Ireland they were not exter- 

 pated till the late period of 1710. 



And how is it at the present day 1 The scene is still shifting 

 under our veiy eyes. Other species, though yet living, are gra- 

 dually dying out, or soon would do so, but for the preserving hand 

 of man in a few favoured cases. They are driven from their former 

 haunts, and, where left to themselves, only to be found in wild 

 fastnesses or the thickest forests. The stag, once common every- 

 where in the island, is now confined to the Highlands of Scotland, 

 with the exception of those still to be found on Exmoor, and a few 

 yet remaining in the New Forest and in two or three other places, 

 being strictly preserved. The roe, equally dispersed formerly over 

 the country, now exists in the Highlands only. The wild cat 

 likewise is now rarely found except in extensive woods in the 

 northern counties. The martin, the badger, the otter, and the 

 black rat, are all gi-eatly reduced in numbers ; the first three of 

 these being now hardly ever met with in some parts of the coiiutiy, 

 though more plentiful iu others,— the badger and otter certainly 

 much more frequent about Bath and in the western counties 

 generally than in the eastern, — while the black rat is confined to 

 London and a few other old towns. 



* "Nature," vol. i.,p. 352. 

 t See an interesting Paper on tlie "History of tlie Wolf in Scotland," by 

 Mr. Hardy, in Proceed, of Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, vol. iv., No. 5, 

 p. 26S. — The Author is disposed to think, from existing traditions, " that the 

 final extinction of the wolf must have happened at a period considerably later 

 than has been usually assigned. 



