MAMMALS. 91 



Shrewsbury (vide under Roedeer), and a fragment of a 

 large antler was found 10 feet below the surface in 

 Castle Street, in January, 1883. Most of these are 

 smaller than the Uriconian specimens. Several of them 

 had evidently been used as tools, and two seem to have 

 been sawn off, and might, therefore, be of more modern 

 date than the others. Antlers have also been dug up at 

 Hawkstone, and other places in Shropshire, but there 

 is no evidence to show at what period the animals which 

 bore them lived. In considering the extinct animals of 

 Shropshire it is well to bear in mind that the country 

 was formerly in a very different state to what it is now. 

 The County was covered with an almost unbroken and 

 impenetrable forest and the rivers ran through extensive 

 tracts of marshy ground. Details will be found in the 

 introduction to this volume. This great forest afforded 

 cover for Deer and Wild Hogs up to about the I5th 

 century when it was nearly all cut down. The appearance 

 of the Stag is familiar to all, even to many who have never 

 seen one alive, through its being a favourite subject with 

 such painters as Landseer and Ansdell. Indeed the 

 former has perpetuated on canvas so many phases of 

 its existence, that they almost amount to a history of 

 the noble animal. The combats between rival males 

 for the possession of the hinds ; the gallant defence 

 against the attacking hounds when driven to bay; the 

 steady approach of the deer - stalker, and the wary 

 watchfulness of the little herd on the mountain; the 

 almost pathetic beauty of the full round eyes with large 

 tear furrows ; the timid hinds with their pretty spotted 

 fawns ; the majestic " Monarch of the Glen," proudly 

 rearing his head aloft while his following of gentle hinds 



