EFFECTS UPON ANIMAL LIFE 329 



taiga, forms a band stretching across the temperate regions 

 of the Old and New World, on the southern border of 

 the barren-lands or tundra. There the creatures of the 

 temperate forest can still be found in natural association. 

 What animals compose the fauna which to-day selects the 

 forest for its home? Most typical of its members are the 

 deer the Red Deer and the Roe, the great Moose or 

 Elk, and the Woodland Reindeer or Caribou. These were 

 once familiar denizens of Scottish woods. Its typical rodents 

 are the Squirrel and Beaver; its beasts of prey the Brown 

 Bear, the Lynx, the Wild Cat, the Wolf, the Fox ; its 

 lesser denizens, the Pine Marten, Polecat, Stoat and Weasel, 

 and the Badger. These too inhabited Scotland. Of the 

 birds of the pine forest, the most characteristic are the Cross- 

 bills, the Grouse and its relatives, the handsome Capercaillie 

 and Black Game, and the Woodpeckers. Jays and Magpies; 

 and these also we know in Scotland. 



The evidences of the present day fauna, and the more 

 significant relics of past life in Scotland, show with no un- 

 certainty that the prehistoric fauna of North Britain was 

 mainly a forest fauna, comparable with that which now dwells 

 in the wild woodlands of northern Europe and America. 



SOME GENERAL EFFECTS OX FAUNA 



On such an assemblage of animals the destruction of the 

 forest must have told with dire effect, ousting it from its 

 natural habitation, limiting its range, and tending always to 

 drive its members to extinction. On general grounds we 

 can safely assume that the numbers of forest seed-eaters 

 amongst birds the Crossbill, the Bullfinch, the Siskin, the 

 Redpoll and other finches as well as of the insectivorous 

 Woodpeckers and Tree Creeper, and their prey the pine- 

 boring Beetles, must have diminished with the fall of the 

 woods. And what of the land-shells, especially the smaller 

 forms, of Helix, Pupa andClausilia, which thrive particularly in 

 wooded districts, and many of which need scarcely be looked 

 for but in forests ? They, too, must have dwindled in numbers. 

 But of these things there is no direct evidence, so I turn to 

 examine a few individual cases the history of which suggests 

 more definitely the influence of disappearing woods. 



