INTRODUCTION. 



THE object of the present work is the enumeration of the 

 vertebrated animals which are or have been found in 

 Yorkshire, and the careful definition of their faunistic position and 

 geographical distribution within the county, in language as terse 

 and as accurate as it is possible to employ. Such a work has never 

 been undertaken for the county, nor indeed has there been pub- 

 lished a list either of the vertebrata as a whole, or of any of the 

 classes into which the sub-kingdom is divided. In this respect 

 Yorkshire affords a marked contrast with the neighbouring counties 

 of Norfolk and of Northumberland and Durham, whose avifaunas 

 especially have been written and more than once by competent 

 and able ornithologists. 



The number of British vertebrata which have not occurred in 

 Yorkshire being comparatively small, it seemed desirable to make 

 the work not only a county handbook, but a complete nominal 

 catalogue of the British species. Such a catalogue is in itself a 

 desideratum, especially if brought up to the standard of present 

 knowledge, and will be of use both as furnishing a ready means 

 of comparison and as facilitating the registering of additions to 

 the Yorkshire fauna. Careful attention has been paid ^o the 

 classification and nomenclature, both being based upon the works 

 of the most recent and reliable authorities. 



Mammalia. The list of British mammalia here given is 

 substantially that of the second edition of Bell's History of 

 British Quadrupeds (1874), with such slight modifications as to 

 classification and nomenclature as are necessary to bring it down 

 to the present time. The list of Bats is entirely based upon 

 Dr. G. E. Dobson's British Museum Catalogue of Chiroptera, 



