NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 73 



happily occurred to him that by the publication, in book-form, 

 of the most material facts collected during this laborious 

 research, he might place on record much that would be worth 

 preserving, and much probably that could never again be 

 collected once the documents in question were returned to their 

 respective owners. As a result, we have in this volume a most 

 interesting account of the ancient Forest of Essex, which was 

 once so large as to cover the greater part of the county, but 

 which has gradually been reduced to its present dimensions, — 

 the fragment now known as Epping Forest. The full-page 

 maps which are given, dated respectively 1225, 1292, 1301, 1641, 

 and 1774, enable the reader to trace the successive alterations 

 which were made in the forest bounderies. 



As a lawyer, Mr. Fisher has naturally most to say on the 

 forest-laws and their administration, and, incidentally, on 

 ancient customs connected therewith. These do not here 

 concern us so much as the remarks which follow on the ferce 

 natures of the forest, past and present, the Wolf, the Boar, 

 the Wild-deer (and the hounds that were used for hunting them), 

 the Wild Cat, Marten, and Eoe ; the series of Goshawks and 

 Sparrowhawks. On these and kindred topics Mr. Fisher dis- 

 courses with the spirit of a naturalist, in which capacity he is 

 no stranger to the readers of ' The Zoologist ' ; for do we not 

 remember his 'Account of the Birds found in Norfolk,' written 

 in conjunction with Mr. Gurney, and published many years ago 

 in the pages of this Journal ? It is pleasant now to find that, 

 although the severer study of the law has so long occupied his 

 close attention, it has not extinguished, but only interrupted, 

 the prosecution of a taste for Natural History. His chapter 

 on the Wild Animals of the Forest of Essex is both long 

 (pp. 186 — 229) and interesting. The title is a little misleading, 

 for he calls it " The Wild Deer " ; and we are so accustomed 

 to the use of the word "deer" in its restricted sense applying 

 to the Cervidce, that not until reading the chapter do we discover 

 that Mr. Fisher employs it in its original and more extended 

 sense applying to any wild animal. In this sense we have the 

 Anglo-Saxon cleor, Dutch clier, Danish dxjr, Swedish djur, and 

 German thier or tier. 



Considering the former extent of this great forest, and the 

 statements made by Fitzstephen in regard to the wild animals 



ZOOLOGIST. FEB. 1888. 9 



