396 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



pleasantly written style much that will interest intending visitors, 

 be they naturalists, archaeologists, or collectors of folk-lore. 

 Those who already possess Wise's ' History of the New Forest/ 

 which has gone through several editions, are not likely to find in 

 the present volume much that will be new to them ; and this is 

 especially the case with the chapters which treat of the beasts, 

 birds, insects, and plants to be met with in the Forest area, 

 although here and there we find some remarks which bring the 

 history of a particular species down to a later date than that 

 referred to by Mr. Wise. 



On the subject of deer a great deal more might have been 

 written, and under this heading the author might have consulted 

 with advantage what has been published by the Hon. Gerald 

 Lascelles, the deputy surveyor of the Forest. Reference is 

 made, under the head of " Game-preserving," to a gamekeeper 

 named Toomer (p. 260), and we wonder that it did not occur to 

 the authors to mention the curious case of a black pig, which was 

 trained by a forest-keeper of that name to find game like a 

 pointer. Daniel, who has published all the particulars in his 

 ' Rural Sports ' (vol. iii. p. 62), gives a portrait of this remarkable 

 animal, which he says was broken by Richard Toomer to find 

 game, and to back and stand, and was as staunch as any pointer. 

 She daily improved, and in a few weeks would retrieve birds that 

 had run. She stood partridges, black-game, pheasants, snipes, 

 and rabbits in the same day, but was never known to point a 

 hare. She sometimes stood a Jack Snipe when all the pointers 

 had passed it by, and she would back the dogs when they 

 pointed, although they refused to back her until spoken to. 



Writing of the Badger, the authors of * The New Forest ' 

 remark that " in a country that is not very closely preserved, and 

 where such large tracts are covert, it is hard to form any 

 judgment of an animal whose habits are so entirely nocturnal"; 

 and they add that "no one seems to molest them." From this 

 we infer that the authors never read ' The Field,' or they would 

 know something of a Hampshire gentleman who hunts the 

 Badger regularly in the Forest, and keeps a special breed of dogs 

 for the purpose. 



"The martron, or marten cat," we are told (p. 153), "has 

 become extinct. For the rest there is abundance of stoats, 

 weasels, snakes, field-mice, and all manner of vermin, such as 



