438 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



the particular pages to which they refer. This is so evident, that 

 we wonder it did not strike the author as it strikes the critic. 



It does not come within our province to examine the chapters 

 on Danish and Roman remains, folk-lore, local legends, the origin 

 of names, local customs, and so forth, with which the volume is 

 interspersed, and we must confine our attention to the pages 

 which deal with the fauna of the district explored. 



Chapter XVI. is devoted to an account of the Fomud, which 

 the author tells us is a local name for the Marten (Martes 

 si/lvatica), an animal which he saw alive in the summer of 1870, 

 at High Ash-Head Moor, 1200 feet above the sea-level. The 

 Fomud, or Fomard, he tells us, is not to be confounded with the 

 Foumart, or Foulmart, which is the Polecat, but is derived " from 

 O.N. Foa, a fox, and Mordr, Dan. Maa/rd, a marten = the Fox- 

 marten — as we say the Marten-cat" (p. 133). 



He adds: — "While Fomard is thus quite a different name 

 from Foulmart, this latter is equally an independent name, and 

 is simply the A.S. words Ful, foul, and meerd, or mea/rd, a Marten, 

 Weasel, Stoat, &c. the generic name. This I gather from the 

 old spelling of Foul without the o, as in King's ' Vale Royal,' 

 1656, p. 18, and the lines cited by Brockett from ' The Cherry 

 and Sloe.' " 



From the mention of one specimen only, we may infer that 

 the Marten is a rare animal in Nidderdale, although it is still 

 occasionally to be met with in other parts of Yorkshire. Messrs. 

 Clarke and Roebuck, in their 'Handbook of Yorkshire Verte- 

 brates,' 1881, give the following instances of its recent occur- 

 rence : — " One, Lees Head, near Whitby, fifteen or twenty years 

 ago ; another in 1877 ; Cannon Hall Park, Barnsley, about 1878 ; 

 and Buckden, Wharfedale, winter of 1880" (p. 6). 



Chapters XVII. to XXII. are devoted to an account of the 

 Birds of Nidderdale, and herein will be found some interesting 

 remarks on the haunts and habits of species observed by the 

 author, as well as on the derivation of some of the provincial 

 names noted by him. 



In the absence of any recent record of the Golden Eagle in 

 the district, the names Arna Nab (O.N. arna, gen. plur. of dm, 

 an Eagle, and Dan. nceb, projecting point of a hill, i. e. Eagle's 

 point), Arncliff and Arngill indicate that it formerly bred on these 

 hills. Buzzards are occasionally seen on the moors, and the 



