In My Vicarage Garden 



few animals have been lost from the British fauna. 

 It is generally agreed that the great ox or Urus 

 bos primigenius was extinct in Britain before the 

 Christian era, though it was certainly in existence 

 in the Iron age, and probably later ; whether it 

 still exists in our domesticated cattle is a subject 

 upon which naturalists are divided ; but if it does, 

 there can be little doubt that in A.D. 100 the 

 domestic cattle were more like the old Urus than 

 they are now. Caesar described it as still existing 

 in his day in the Hercynian Forest, but whether 

 he had ever seen it himself is not quite clear from 

 his description ; but he tells us it could not be 

 tamed. He says it was as big as an elephant, 

 with the colour and shape of a bull, and he says 

 " Magna vis eorum, et magna velocitas" (B.G. vi. 28), 

 and probably Pliny copied from him, describing 

 them as " excellenti et vi et velocitate uros" (H.N. 

 viii. 15). Altogether he must have been a wild 

 beast that we can well spare from our present 

 fauna. Besides the Urus, three other animals are 

 now missing from our fauna that were in Britain 

 in A.D. 100, the beaver, the bear, and the wolf. 

 The beaver was probably never abundant, and 

 was confined to a very few rivers, but it is certain 

 that it could still be found in some of the Welsh 

 rivers as late as the eighth century or later. 

 British bears are said by Plutarch to have been 

 imported into Rome, and were much admired, 

 but they probably only existed in the northern 

 parts of the country, where they are recorded as 

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