A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



been assigned by Sir Richard Owen 1 to the Ungulate genus Hyraco- 

 therium, but the specimen has unfortunately been lost, so that the de- 

 termination cannot be verified. 



As already mentioned, mammalian remains appear to be very scarce 

 in the gravels of the county. In 1858 however the late Sir J. Prest- 

 wich 2 recorded the occurrence of a molar and tusk of an elephant 

 (probably the mammoth) at Bricket Wood near Watford. And the 

 present writer has been shown antlers of the red deer (Cervus elaphus) 

 from a gravel bed at Haileybury, where other mammalian remains are 

 said to occur. As mentioned in the chapter on the geology of the 

 county, bones of the reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), mammoth (Elepbas 

 primigenius], and woolly rhinoceros (Rhinoceros antiquitatis) have been 

 disinterred from beneath a bed of brickearth at Camp's Hill. Mr. J. V. 

 Elsden 3 also mentions that mammalian bones are occasionally met with 

 in the gravels near Essendon, Hatfield and St. Albans, although it does 

 not appear that the list of species met with has ever been worked out. 



From the Hitchin lake-bed (see chapter on Geology) the following 

 mammals have been recorded by Mr. C. Reid, 4 viz., brown bear (Ursus 

 arctus), 6 Pleistocene horse (Equus caballus fossilis), woolly rhinoceros 

 (Rhinoceros antiquitatis} , 6 Pleistocene hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius 

 major], red deer (Cervus elaphus] and mammoth (Elepbas primigenius) . A 

 few other existing species were subsequently added 8 to this list, which 

 likewise includes several living kinds of fish, such as the perch, pike, 

 roach and tench. 



It may be added that the coprolite-pits in the Cambridge Green- 

 sand at Ashwell have doubtless yielded some of the vertebrate remains 

 so common in those deposits in the adjacent counties, but it does not 

 appear that any record of such has ever been compiled. 



1 front. Watford Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. i. p. 170 (1877). 

 8 Geofogilt, vol. i. p. 241. 



* Trans. Herts Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. i. p. 106 (1881). 



* Proc. Royal Society, vol. Ixi. p. 44 (1897). 



6 In these cases Mr. Reid did not determine the species, which are named on account of the 

 associated forms. 



6 See Reid, Trans. Herts Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. x. p. 14 (1898). 



