BRITISH MAMMALS 



least interesting chapters are those devoted to the fauna, 

 from which the following extract dealing with home 

 mammals is taken : 



" Great Britain has some forty species of land mammals 

 as against Germany's ninety and Scandinavia's sixty, 

 while Ireland has only twenty-two. In Reptiles and 

 Amphibians a small country like Belgium has about 

 twenty-two species, while Great Britain has thirteen, and 

 Ireland only four, of which none are Snakes. This 

 extreme poverty has been accounted for by the 

 destruction caused by the glacial epoch during 

 Pleistocene times, and to some extent by the subsidence 

 and flooding of the country which occurred during 

 this epoch. 



" In the brick-earths and cavern-deposits of Britain, 

 \^hich were probably formed in an inter-glacial period, 

 we find a strange mixture of mammalian remains which 

 do not give any clear evidence as to the nature of the 

 cHmate when they were deposited. Of these animals, 

 the Reindeer, Arctic Fox, and Musk-Ox suggest an 

 Arctic climate, while the Hippopotamus, Sabre-toothed 

 Tiger, Lion, and Hyaena are equally suggestive of a 

 tropical one. The variety of the British fauna at tliis 

 time was further reinforced by the occurrence of Bears, 

 the Glutton, the Woolly Rhinoceros, the Aurochs, Bison, 

 Saiga Antelope, and two species of Elephant {Eicphas 

 pnmigenius), and the Straight-tusked Elephant {E. 

 aiitiquus). 



" The existing mammalian fauna comprises Bats 

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