Bibliographical Notices. 299 
cluded in the English fauna, eight are exclusively met with in a do- 
mesticated state, viz. the Horse, Ass, Hog, Dog, domestic Cat, Sheep, 
Goat, and Fallow Deer; and into most lists, in this category only is 
the Ox entitled to admission..... Our catalogue contains 59 species, 
50 of which are wild. Our northern latitude impoverishes our fauna 
in Bats, or we might show a still greater comparative richness. That 
the fauna of our district is naturally rich, and has been well worked 
out, the following figures will show :— 
Wild Species. Total Species. 
PABriigh tauna eo. SL kAhe ee 67 75 
Shropshire... fe sues awk ee sa02 126 35 
Scanmordshire<).*0 ffs 8 6 eee Doe 29 37 
North Kent (Greenwich Club).... 30 39 
ROGEM Wallets RS! eer ne eS 8 39 48 
Northumberland and Durham .... 50 59.” 
In their observations on the species, the authors give some interest- 
ing remarks on the Chillingham cattle, the Otter, and the Badger. 
They differ from Professor Owen in their views on the descent of the 
first of these animals, claiming for its ancestors the wild cattle that 
roamed the hills of Northumberland when “the beaver built its dams 
on our rivers, and the bear and wolf preyed upon the roe-deer in our 
forests.” Prof. Owen’s opinion is that the Chillingham cattle, with 
all our larger domesticated breeds, were introduced, in a tame state, 
by the Romans. ‘‘The Roman cattle, from whence he derives the 
Chillingham race, are, he says, descendants of the Indian Brahmin 
cattle (Bos Indicus, Linn.), which were procured by the Romans 
from the Greeks, by the Greeks from the Egyptians, and by these 
from India, probably through the intervention of the Syrians or 
Persians.” ‘The Highland Kyloes and the Welsh Runts, he con- 
siders, are more probably the descendants of the cattle possessed by 
the Britons at the time of the Roman invasion, inhabiting as they 
still do the mountain fastnesses to which the Celtic population re- 
tired ; and these were, he thinks, the descendants of a wild British 
race, probably identical with the Bos longifrons, whose remains occur 
in the New Pliocene strata, in the brick-earth deposits, drift- gravels, 
and bone-caves.” Messrs. Mennell & Perkins discuss this question 
at some length; and we certainly think that they bring forward 
more and stronger reasons for differing from Professor Owen’s views 
than for agreeing with them. 
Respecting the Otter, the authors observe, ‘Our district at the 
present day may, we think, very properly be designated the head- 
quarters of this fine animal. It is abundant in all the rivers and 
larger streams, and even the smaller burns can often testify to its 
predatory visits. Increasing population, combined with bitter en- 
mity to this terrible foe of the finny tribe, has almost exterminated 
the Otter in many parts of the country where it was formerly abun- 
dant, and caused it to retire to wilder, more remote, and less fre- 
quented districts. In haunts like these, and especially in North 
Northumberland, the Otter exists m, comparatively speaking, un- 
