430 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
of its former aspect and condition, when a great portion of the 
county was either clothed with forest, or presented an interminable 
tract of wild and mountainous fell or rolling moorland, the reader 
is enabled to realise the changes which have taken place (through 
increased cultivation, the extension of railroads, and the springing 
up of.manufacturing towns), not only in the outward appearance 
of many portions of the county, but also in the number and 
variety of the wild creatures inhabiting it, whose existence has 
been more or less affected by man’s interference with their natural 
haunts. 
A general summary of the Vertebrate Fauna of Yorkshire 
and of the British Isles shows that of 717 species recognised as 
British, 518 have been identified as occurring in Yorkshire and 
upon its coast, the majority of absentees consisting of about 
seventy of the rarer birds, twenty of the fresh-water, and eighty 
of the marine fishes. Extended observation and inquiry will no 
doubt tend to reduce the number of these absentees, and so 
render the proportion of Yorkshire Vertebrata, as compared with 
the total number of British species, much larger than has at 
present been ascertained. 
Considering the present restricted range of the Wild Cat in 
Scotland, we were not prepared to learn that it was to be found 
in Yorkshire so late as 1840. Mr. Roebuck informs us that 
in the winter of that year the last Yorkshire specimen was trapped 
by Mr. John Harrison on his farm at Murton, near Hawnby. 
Other testimony confirms the opinion that the Hambleton Hills 
were the Wild Cat’s latest haunt. There is no proof that it 
ever inhabited the Fells of the north-west, though in all proba- 
bility it once existed there. The evidence of its former existence 
in South Yorkshire is confined to entries in the churchwardens’ 
accounts at Ecclesfield of sums paid in 1589 and 1626 for the 
destruction of “‘ wylde catts ;” and to a legend of doubtful origin 
of an encounter—fatal to both—between a Wild Cat and a man 
of the family of Cresacre at Barnborough. 
The Marten, which was formerly abundant and generally 
distributed, is now extremely scarce in Yorkshire, and restricted 
to one or two localities. 
The Badger has become very local, and much reduced in 
numbers; while the Polecat is said to be fast becoming extinct. 
The smaller mammalia seem to fare better, and it is satisfactory 
