24 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 



time.* Sir William Wilde asserts that he discovered 

 an Irish name for the Bear in an old glossary in the 

 library of Trinity College, Dublin ; and it is remark- 

 able that the name to which he refers, " maghgham- 

 hainn" (corrupted into " math-ghamhainn," which, 

 as already explained, conveys a different signification), 

 is identical with the Gaelic name for the animal still 

 preserved in traditions of the Highlands. 



When the Bear became extinct in Britain is un- 

 certain. Prof. Boyd Dawkins thinks it must have 

 been extirpated probably before the tenth century, t 

 The story quoted by Pennant { from a history of the 

 Gordon family, § to the effect that in 1057 a Gordon, 

 in reward for his valour in killing a fierce Bear, was 

 directed by the king to carry three Bears' heads . on 

 his banner, is altogether a fallacy. Reference to a 

 copy of the original Latin MS. from which the 

 translation quoted by Pennant was made (preserved 

 in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh) shows that the 

 animal killed was a Boar, " immanem aprum." More- 

 over, the arms of the Gordons happen to be Boars', 

 not Bears' heads. The difference of one letter only 

 in the name might easily account for a mistake 

 which has been since blindly copied by many writers. 

 As our ancestors, says Jamieson, called the boar 

 bare, by a curious inversion the bear is universally 

 denominated by the vulgar a boar. 



* " Nat. Hist. Ireland," vol. iv. p. 33. 

 f " Cave Hunting," p. 75. 

 X "British Zoology," vol. i. p. 91 (ed. 1812). 



§ " The History of the Ancient, Noble, and Illustrious Family of ' 

 Gordon." By William Gordon, of Old Aberdeen. 2 vols., Bdinb., 1726. 



