458 



NA TV RE 



[March i6, 1893 



existing, would no doubt throw much light on more than 

 fifty years of Cumbrian Natural History ; but most likely 

 everything of value in the latter was communicated to 

 Bell or Yarrell, with whom its author was in frequent 

 correspondence, and during his later years he led a life 

 of seclusion. The elder Gough was an extraordinary 

 instance of a naturalist successfully pursuing his 

 vocation under a grave difficulty, for the like 

 of which we can only call to mind Huber and 

 M. Van Wickevoort-Crommelin, since at an early age 

 he became blind from small-pox, and if he was thereby 

 disabled from advancing investigation according to his 

 bent, it did not hinder him from training his son to follow 

 his footsteps and indoctrinating him with so wide an 

 attachment to science that he became an intimate friend 

 and correspondent of Sedgwick the geologist and of 

 Cornelius Nicholson the antiquary, establishing with the 

 latter's aid the Kendal Literary and Scientific Institution. 

 The pious duty of celebrating his predecessors' obsequies 

 being performed, Mr. Macpherson next turns to other 

 extinct mammals of Lakeland, and his researches re- 

 specting the Wolf (an entire skeleton of which, found in 

 a cave by Mr. John Beecham, is preserved in the 

 museum at Kendal) and the Wild Boar have been re- 

 warded by the discovery of documentary evidence not 

 without interest, even if it does not add much that is of 

 value to our information concerning these ancient beasts. 

 We have too some facts in relation to the Red Deer and 

 the Wild Ox, though more is said of them, and some of 

 it is of importance, in the body of the work (pp. 50-76), 

 and we do not see why the former at least of them should 

 be called extinct, seeing that though greatly restricted in 

 range it still exists in freedom, while the latter, whose 

 right German name Mr. Macpherson persistently curtails, 

 misspelling it " Auroch " for Aurochs, was undoubtedly 

 the ancestor of the white breed, of which the last herd in 

 the district, having been emparked at Thornthwaite near 

 Haweswater, was removed in or soon after 1630 to 

 Naworth, and by 1675 had ceased to exist. A chapter 

 devoted to " The Destruction of Wild Animals " will 

 be instructive reading to many people. It contains 

 what will be a revelation to those who can appreciate 

 the facts of " how not to do it. " Our excellent forefathers 

 (and many of their descendants are not much wiser) 

 knew very little of the way in which wild beasts could be 

 extirpated, and consequently the warfare against them 

 lasted for centuries. Some few, still accounted enemies 

 of the human race, yet defy their persecutors ; but the 

 greater number have perished, and in the present depleted 

 state of the Mammalian Fauna of the British Islands, it 

 would be inexpedient to point out how the extinction, at 

 least in parts, of some two or three species might be ac- 

 complished in perhaps twice as many years. The average 

 gamekeeper (fortunately or not) has very little knowledge 

 of zoology, and the average master even less. On this par- 

 ticular we have no wish to enlighten either, so we shall 

 preserve a silence that all animals' friends will admit to 

 be golden. But we must always remember that by far the 

 most destructive four-footed " vermin " of our day is re- 

 ligiously and rigorously preserved by a general senti- 

 ment, so much stronger than any law, in a way that would 

 have caused to wonder those who "kenned John Peel" 

 and his forefathers. In favour of Mr Macpherson'snext 

 NO. 1 220, VOL. 47] 



treatise on the Variation of colour in Animals not much is- 

 to be said, and this capitulujn will disappoint most who 

 consult it, while we take leave to observe that though 

 many authorities are cited from the Carlisle Patriot of 

 these times to Dr.Caius of 1 570, that learned man assuredly 

 never wrote a book with a title so tautological as " De 

 rariorum animalium et avium stirpibus" which must 

 have been taken (p. Ixxvi, note) at second hand from one 

 of the popular writers, who imagine that birds are not 

 animals and do not know the technical meaning of 

 stirpes. Albinescent specimens if not albinos have, it is well 

 known, a great charm for some collectors — why, scarcely 

 any reasonable being can say — and it is of them that our 

 author chiefly discourses (using too a word — "leucot- 

 ism " — quite unfamiliar, but apparently meaning the same 

 as the recognised "albinism ") though so far as we know 

 little scientific interest attaches to them ; but we do not 

 quite see the point of his remarks (p. Ixxviii) on " the 

 tendency in the direction of variation " of the Lakeland 

 Viper. He only mentions two examples, and what are 

 they among so many? Nevertheless the one figured is 

 strange-looking enough, and it would have been satis- 

 factory to be assured that there can be no mistake in the 

 determination of the species. The succeeding chapter is 

 devoted to Hybrid Birds ; but here again we find not 

 much of interest in a general way on that little-known 

 and extremely interesting, not to say important, subject. 

 Mr. Macpherson has been so fortunate as to see more 

 than one wild hybrid between the two British species of 

 Sparrow {Passer domesticus and P. montanus) and con- 

 sidering that these are species in what some would call 

 the " physiological " sense — the sexes being outwardly 

 alike in the latter and wholly different in the former — 

 the question deserved further attention than is bestowed 

 upon it (pp. Ixxx — Ixxxi). 



More instructive is what follows on "Bird Fowling "^ 

 (as the author redundantly terms it) or rather we should 

 say more instructive it might be. There is mention (p. 

 Ixxxviii) of the netting of Razorbills and Guillemots on 

 the rocks of St. Bees', taken, we are told, from the 

 "Sandford MS. p. 18," but where this manuscript is to be 

 seen or of what age it may be we are not told, and the 

 language of the passage quoted only shows that it is not 

 exactly of yesterday. Now the netting of AlcidcE is not, 

 so far as we are aware, known to have been practised 

 elsewhere in Britain, and Mr. Macpherson says the custom 

 is obsolete in Cumberland, probably from there not being 

 birds enough left to make its continuance worth the while 

 of the" Hivites," for it maybe accepted as a universal rule 

 that the taking of birds at their breeding haunts year after 

 year, unless under such conditions as St. Kilda presents, 

 must end in their diminution and may easily be carried 

 on to their extinction. 



For the rest of the Prolegomena there is no need to say 

 anything, and we willingly pass over the useless repre- 

 sentation (p. xcvi) of the Polish Swan's trachea, though 

 we congratulate Mr. Macpherson on being able to figure 

 (p. ciii) the foot of a real Westmorland Sea-Eagle, not a 

 mere "marauder from over the border" — as most of 

 the examples killed in England are — but a mournful relic 

 for all that. 



Into the details of Lakeland species we shall not at- 

 tempt to enter. To criticise that portion of the volume 



