204 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 



James Malone, telling her how his brother came 

 home one night on horseback pursued by a pack of 

 Wolves, who overtook him, and continued leaping on 

 to the hind quarters of his horse till he reached his 

 own door, crying out, ' Oh ! James, James ! my horse 

 is ate with the Wolves.' " 



The precise date of this occurrence cannot now be 

 fixed ; but it seems plain that Wolves existed in 

 Kildare during the first quarter of the eighteenth 

 century, and perhaps as late as 1721. 



To sum up. So far as can be now ascertained, it 

 appears that the Wolf became extinct in England 

 during the reign of Henry YII. ; that it survived in 

 Scotland until 1 743 ; and that the last of these animals 

 was killed in Ireland, according to Richardson, in 

 1770, or, according to Sir James Emerson Tennent, 

 subsequently to 1766. 



In the foregoing observations, no reference has 

 been made to " Were-wolves," nor has any matter 

 been introduced touching the fabulous or superstitious 

 aspect of the Wolfs history in the British Islands, 

 All such allusions have been purposely avoided, in 

 order to confine the subject within reasonable limits. 



Before concluding, however, we may perhaps be 

 excused for citing so respectable an authority as Sir 

 Thomas Browne, who, in his "Enquiries into Yulgar 

 and Common Errors," has alluded to the popular 

 notion that Wolves cannot live in England. 



In vol. iii. p. 344, of his " Works " (Wilkin's 

 edition), he says : — " Thus because there are no 

 Wolves in England, nor have been observed for divers 



