NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 927 
British Animals extinct within Historic Times : with some Account 
of British Wild White Cattle. By James Epmunp Hartine, 
F.L.S. With illustrations by Joseph Wolf and others. 
London: Tribner & Co. 1880. 
Ir is a question which possesses most interest for naturalists, 
a study of the present or of the past ? There is an indescribable 
charm in the exploration of pathless woods and lonely fens, 
of rugged mountain sides and smooth sandy shores, and in the 
contemplation of the varied forms of animal life to be met 
with in all these situations. On the other hand, there is a 
strange fascination in examining the relics of a bygone age, 
whether in the shape of exhumed remains of extinct animals, or 
ancient documents which tell of the former aspect and condition 
of the country ; of the wild creatures which once inhabited it ; 
and of the men who spent their lives in hunting them. 
Certain it is that by a study of the past we are helped to an 
understanding of the present, and that study ought no more 
to be neglected in zoology than in the kindred sciences of geology 
and botany. 
In the book before us an attempt is made to bridge over the 
eulf between past and present, and to supply a missing chapter 
in the history of British animals. 
Five-and-thirty years ago Professor Owen, in his ‘ History of 
British Fossil Mammals and Birds,’ made us acquainted with 
some strange forms of animal life whose existence on British 
soil in prehistoric times is incontestably proved by the discovery 
of their remains in various parts of the country: such, for 
example, as the Elephant, Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, Hyena, 
Cave Bear, and many others which can only be designated by the 
scientific names under which they have been described. 
In Bell’s ‘ British Quadrupeds,’ of which a second edition 
was published in 1874, we have a history of such species as are 
still existing at the present time, and between these two works 
the volume before us aims at being the connecting link. It deals 
only with those animals which have become extinct in Britain 
within a period of which history takes cognisance. These are 
the Bear, the Beaver, the Reindeer, the Wild Boar, and the 
Wolf; and, by way of connecting the past still more closely with 
