74 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



which inhabited it in the 12th century, we are surprised to learn 

 (p. 189) that there are no entries about the Wolf in any of the 

 records of the forest seen by the author. But that it was once 

 common there is shown by the discovery of its remains during 

 the construction of the reservoirs at Walthamstow ; and there 

 is satisfactory evidence of its presence in the forest and in other 

 parts of the county during the historical period, though none of 

 the time at which it became extinct. 



The Wild Boar, says Mr. Fisher (p. 188), though a beast of 

 the forest, was not usually considered to be a beast of venary. 

 This last is a remarkable distinction. The Fox has in England 

 always been held to be noxious, the Boe of inferior rank, and 

 the Babbit of little consequence ; even the Hare has not always 

 had the position given to it by Coke. But the Wild Boar was in 

 Norman times one of the principal objects of the chase, and 

 Coke says that his flesh is as much venison as that of the Deer. 

 It must, however, be remembered that the laws of Canute refer 

 to and probably embody laws still more ancient than themselves, 

 and made at a time when both the Wolf and the Boar were too 

 common and destructive to be the objects of preservation, or of 

 the special care of the foresters. 



The Bed and Fallow Deer have for many centuries been the 

 only representatives in the Forest of Essex of those larger beasts 

 of chase which were the principal object of the Forest-laws, and 

 of the care of the Forest officers. In the spring of 1884, 

 however, a number of Boe-deer were introduced. These were 

 captured in Dorsetshire, in the woods belonging to Mr. Mansel- 

 Pleydell, of Whatcombe, and Col. Hamboro, of Milton Abbey, 

 and, travelling all night from Dorsetshire into Essex, were 

 liberated the following morning in Epping Forest. An interesting 

 account of their capture and transport was published in ' The 

 Field ' of April 5th, 1884. 



While on the subject of Deer we may note what Mr. Fisher 

 says on the subject of " deer-leaps " (p. 217) : — " The owners of 

 enclosed parks in the Forest also made ' salteries ' or ' deer- 

 leaps ' ; contrivances by which the deer could easily leap into the 

 park over a fence of moderate height, but were prevented from 

 returning by a steep upward slope, and sometimes a ditch, 

 inside the park-wall or fence. Four ' deer-leaps ' in the pale of 

 Wanstead Park, three being against Leyton Walk and the fourth 



