76 



THE ZOOLOGIST. 



(Harting, Trans. Essex Nat. Field Club) that there were dark- 

 coloured Fallow-deer in England long before that date, as early, 

 in fact, as 1465. 



The Wild Cat, or " Wood Cat," is mentioned in several of 

 the ancient forest claims and grants. Edward Elrington and 

 John Forest, lords of Theydon Hall, and others, claimed a right 

 to hunt it in 1630 and 1670, though it is possible the animal 

 referred to may have been the Marten, which was recognised as 

 a beast of chase. 



The name Hainhault is said (p. 15) to occur in the records 

 for the first time in 1719-20, and is regarded as a comparatively 

 modern corruption of a word variously written in the 13th and 

 14th centuries as " Hineholt " or " Hyneholt," in the 16th as 

 "Inholt" or "Heinholt," and later as " Henault " or " Heyn- 

 ault." " The same name of ' Hyneholt,' " says Mr. Fisher, 

 " was borne by part of the King's Wood at Colchester, in the 

 14th century; the Anglo-Saxon 'holt,' a wood, evidently forms 

 the last syllable ; of the first I can offer no satisfactory explana- 

 tion " (p. 15). We take it that the first syllable is the Anglo- 

 Saxon " Hean," signifying " high," and that the original spelling 

 must have been " Heanholt." Compare in other counties the 

 names "Heanor" and "Heanwood." 



We have noted very few typographical errors in this work, 

 showing the care with which it has been revised. On page 6, 

 line 5, for brooke we should read brocke, i.e., the Badger, which 

 was vermin in law, though it was reckoned a trespass to dig 

 one out of another man's land without license (p. 187, note). 

 In the footnote on p. 14, for ancijntruum we should read 

 accipitrum "of Sparrowhawks " ; on p. 26, for Manduit read 

 Maudiiit, i.e., the old form of Maudit; and for "blowing the 

 o-echase" (p. 167), the word recheat should be substituted. But 

 slips such as these often escape the most experienced proof- 

 reader, and, as we have said, they are comparatively few in 

 number. 



On the whole Mr. Fisher's work is full of interest, and if not, 

 strictly speaking, a Natural History book, it at all events contains 

 so many allusions to forest animals that our readers may be glad 

 to have their attention directed to it. 



