170 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



dreary reaches and wastes of snow, and through the gloom of 

 silent forests, and now had reached the end which gave them 

 rest, food, and security. 



It is hardly worth the time to further consider the illus- 

 trations here brought together, as they are for the greater part 

 not sufficiently circumstantial to furnish a deduction of any real 

 value ; they are rather like straws in the air which indicate the 

 course of the wind, or blaze-marks on the trees that indicate a 

 path to be followed. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Death of Mr. J. H. Gurney.— Just as these pages are going to press, 

 we hear with very great regret of the death of our old friend and valued 

 correspondent, Mr. John Henry Gurney, of Northrepps Hall, Norwich, an 

 excellent naturalist, and contributor to this Journal from its commencement. 

 He died at Northrepps on Sunday, April 20th, having nearly reached his 

 seventy-first year. In our next number we hope to give a short memoir of 

 his life and labours in the cause of Zoology. 



MAMMALIA. 



The Wild Cat in Yorkshire. — The most recent authorities on the 

 subject, — namely, Messrs. Clarke and Roebuck, in their ' Handbook of York- 

 shire Vertebrata'(1881), — writing of the Wild Cat, describe it as " extinct, 

 the Hambledon Hills having been its final refuge in Yorkshire. The last 

 specimen there was trapped by Mr. John Harrison on his farm at Muston, 

 near Hawnby, in the winter about 1840." They add that " there is no 

 proof that it ever inhabited the Fells of the north-west, though in all 

 probability it once existed there. The evidence of its former existence in 

 South Yorkshire is confined to entries in the Churchwardens' accounts at 

 Ecclesfield of sums paid in 1589 and 1626 for the destruction of ' wylde 

 catts,' and to a legend of doubtful origin, of an encounter fatal to both 

 between a wild cat and a man of the family of Cresacre at Barnborough." 

 I have lately come across a detailed account of this encounter, and as it 

 contains a statement which is still capable of being verified, I quote it in 

 full in the hope that it may lead to the publication of further information. 

 In an octavo volume entitled • English Forests and Forest Trees, historical, 

 legendary and descriptive,' without author's name, but published by Ingram, 

 Cooke & Co., London, 1853, the writer remarks (p. 288) :— " The Wild Cat 

 is sometimes taken in traps, and sometimes by shooting j in the latter mode 

 it is dangerous to merely wound them, for they have frequently been known 



