70 H. Woodward — Man and the Mammoth. 



the Emperor of all the Eussias — once roamed the Prairies of Europe 

 as his congener now does those of America. But he couldn't be 

 tamed and m.ade to plough like B. longifrons and B. taurus, and so 

 the natives killed him off, and he would be soon extinct, like his old 

 rival primigenius, but for the Emperor. 



The wild boar and the wolf were only killed yesterday. The 

 former (Sus scrofa ferox) abounded in Henry II.'s time, whilst the 

 latter (Ganis lupus) survived in Ireland till 1710. Blood-money was 

 put upon his head as upon the tiger in India at the present day. The 

 present foxes are mostly re-introduced, and owe their existence to 

 Protection. The Wild-cat, Badger, Marten, Pole-cat, and even the 

 Otter, are becoming rare as British species. These all owe their 

 extinction to man. The Eed Deer, Eoebuck, and Fallow Deer only 

 exist by means of protective legislation. 



Of birds, the Capercailzie, or " Cock of the Wood," is extinct 

 with us, though still occurring in Norway. The two Bustards (Otis 

 tetrax, the little bustard, Otis tarda, the great bustard), are both ex- 

 terminated. Formerly they could live on the wastes of West Nor- 

 folk and Wiltshire. The great Crested Grebe — Podiceps cristatus, 

 the great Bittern — Botaurus stellaris, and the freckled Heron, Botanrus 

 lentiginosa, once rejoiced in the Fens of Cambridgeshire and Dorset. 

 The fen-lands are gradually becoming drained and cultivated, and 

 these birds are mostly dead. The White Spoon Bill (Platalea 

 ?eMcoro(Zm), the White Stork ( ft'corm'a aZ6a), and the little Glossy 

 Ibis (Falcinella igneus), once were summer visitants of ours, now 

 they come no more. The Herons are fast dying out, and require 

 " Protection " like the Grouse and Partridges. The Golden Eagle 

 and numbers of FalconidcB and lesser birds of prey have also been 

 lost. 



Among the interesting associations of the past, to the Naturalist, 

 will always be counted the Great Auk, once an inhabitant of 

 the Orkneys and the shores of Denmark, found in the Kitchen- 

 Middens of both, and also in the Indian Shell-heaps of New 

 England. The last of his race is believed to have perished so lately 

 as 1846. And no wonder ! for the poor bird could not fly, so the 

 old Danish sailors used to lay a plank from the ship to the shore, 

 and compel their unfoitunate victims to " Walk the plank," " single 

 file," and fall into th^e ship's waist, where they were killed and 

 eaten. One skipper boasted that he had brought off thirty boat- 

 loads in an hour. Once this bird covered the shores of the north — 

 Labrador, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Greenland, Iceland. Now 

 we look in vain for a single one. 



The Dutch sailors were just as merciless to the Dodo in the Mauri- 

 tius, and the Maories to the Dinornis and the Great Eail in New Zea- 

 land, and the people of Madagascar to the Epyornis. 



Changes (insensibly it may be, yet, nevertheless, surely) are going 

 on year by year around us. We see but little in the lifetime of an 

 individual ; but the retrospect of a century shows vast changes in 

 our condition as a race for example. 



Each step in retrogression will appear more and more marked. 



