FROM AN OLD MAGAZINE 349 



back. Possibly we have a different " strain " of lions 

 nowadays. 



" The rest of the mammals of England " (remarks 

 Adams) "are nearly the same with those of other countries, 

 as asses, mules, deer, hares, rabbits, weazels, newts, 

 otters, badgers, hedgehogs, pole-cats, mice, moles, etc." 



If the eighteenth - century naturalist included the 

 newt amongst the British mammals, why should the frog, 

 toad, and ground-lizard have been left out in the cold ? 



" England abounds in different sorts of wildfowl, as 

 bustards, wild geese, brent geese, wild ducks, widgeons, 

 teels, pheasants, plovers, partridges, woodcocks, quails, 

 snipes, landrails, wood-pigeons, hawks, buzzards, kites, 

 owls, ravens, herons, crows, rooks, jackdaws, magpies, 

 jays, thrushes, blackbirds, nightingales, goldfinches, bull- 

 finches, larks, linnets, and a prodigious variety of small 

 birds, amongst which the wheatear, a bird peculiar to 

 England, the flesh of which is by many preferred to that 

 of the ortolan, and is reckoned a great delicacy." [So 

 probably was the flesh of such wildfowl as the hawk, 

 buzzard, kite, owl, raven, etc.] 



From the above paragraph it would seem that the 

 bustard, quail, and wheatear were plentiful enough in 

 England at the end of the eighteenth century ; but why 

 the wheatear, which is a migratory bird, should have 

 been peculiar to England in those days any more than 

 it is to-day is difficult to understand. Adams, however, 



