86 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 



beginning 1st October, 1572, we find under date 

 January, 1573, tins item: 



" To Miles Mosse for a bore which, he is charged to deliver every 

 Christemas as rent rated to the value of vs, for which he paid xxs, 

 and so there was allowed of that vs." 



To judge by the remains of the animal which have 

 been found in various parts of the British Islands, 

 Wild Boars at one time must have completely over- 

 run the country. They were hunted in al^ the great 

 forests, and in ancient surveys they are often men- 



SKULL OF A WILD BOAR. (i NAT. SIZE).* 



tioned amongst the wild animals of the district sur- 

 veyed. 



Thus Erdeswick, who began his survey of Staf- 

 fordshire about 1593, speaking of Chartley, says, 

 " The park is very large, and hath therein red deer, 

 fallow deer, wild beasts (i.e., wild cattle), and swine." 

 In the peat mosses of Northumberland and West- 

 moreland, skulls and bones of the Wild Boar have 



* From a specimen in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. 



