SOUTHERN EUROPEAN MAMMALIA. cmw 



Spain and Southern France, but there is no evidence of the presence of the urus or of the 

 bison. The fallowdeer was introduced at a very early time, and became wild, if it were 

 not, indeed, living in a wild state during the historic period. The latter opinion seems 

 to me to be the most probable, since the animal is now wild in Spain and Sardinia. The 

 highest and most inaccessible mountains also of Sardinia and Corsica are inhabited by 

 the Ovis musmon. In the days of Varro 1 the wealthy Romans were in the habit of 

 keeping in their parks animals in a semi-wild state, and he mentions the marmot, the 

 alpine hare, and the rabbit, as being worth preserving, and he says that the preserves 

 should be surrounded by a wall, so that neither wild cats nor wolves should be able to 

 harry the game. 



Greece, Turkey, and Southern Russia. 



The fauna of Greece, Thrace, and Southern Scythia is far richer than that of 

 Italy during the historic period. In the days of Herodotus the lion sought its prey 

 in the mountains of Thrace, and before his time there is evidence, as Sir George 

 Cornwall Lewis remarks, that it inhabited the Peloponnesus. In Aristotle's time the 

 mountains and obscure region to the north of Greece and Macedonia supported both the 

 urus and the bison. The former of these animals was apparently only known to the 

 Greeks by the large horns and the hides, which they received in barter from the tribes 

 who inhabited that district. The bison was, however, well known, and was even used as 

 an illustration by the poet Sophocles in his famous chorus in ' Antigone:' — " By craft he 

 (man) overreacheth the wild beast upon the mountain, and putteth to his yoke the long- 

 maned steed, and the strength of the great bison." 



As late as the days of Pausanias Peonian bulls were exhibited in the circus at Rome ; 

 and bisons are " mentioned by Dio as included in the great spectacle of Severus ; and 

 Martial even speaks of bisons being harnessed to Celtic cars on a similar occasion." 

 These animals must either have been obtained from the forests of Thrace or from those 

 of Gaul or Germany, since the means of transit to Rome from those points would be 

 easier than any others. 2 



The bear and the wild boar have also left traces of their presence in the Peloponnese in 

 the legends. The accomplished general, statesman, and writer, Xenophon, 3 in his treatise 

 on hunting, mentions the lynx, panther, bear, and lion, as inhabiting Southern Thrace as 

 well as a district in Asia Minor. And this isolated notice of the existence of the panther 

 in Europe has been very generally considered to apply, not to Thrace, but to Asia Minor. 

 It seems, however, to me to apply as well to the one as to the other, for although the 



1 'De Re Rustica,' 3, 12. 



2 ' Notes and Queries,' Second Series, No. 9, p. 4. 



3 'Treatise on Hunting,' cap. xxi, 1. 



