SHORTER ARTICLES AND CORRESPONDENCE 



THE ENDEMIC MAMMALS OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS 

 When, in 1891, I was collecting information to be used by 

 Dr. A. R. "Wallace in preparing the second edition of his "Island 

 Life," I found much skepticism among naturalists concerning 

 the alleged endemic or precinctive elements of the British fauna. 

 Dr. Wallace was able to give lists of supposed precinctive species 

 and varieties belonging to several groups, but for the mammals 

 he was obliged to state, "it is the opinion of the best authorities 

 that we possess neither a distinct species nor distinguishable 

 variety." -We little imagined that about twenty years later the 

 British Museum would issue a work describing ten species and 

 twenty subspecies of mammals peculiar to the British Islands; 

 twenty-one of these being actually undescribed at the time I 

 made my enquiries, and the rest then reposing quietly in the 

 synonymy. Still less did we imagine that such a revision, when 

 made, would be the work of an American, coming over from the 

 United States National Museum to show Europeans the neglected 

 wonders of their own fauna ! The Catalogue of the Mammals of 

 Western Europe, by Mr. G. S. Miller, published last year by the 

 British Museum, is certainly one of the most remarkable zoolog- 

 ical works ever produced, and is well worthy of the attention of 

 all naturalists, whether specially interested in the Mammalia 

 or not. While so many students of genetics are giving us the 

 results of their experiments in breeding mammals, it is worth 

 while to turn also to the results of nature's long-time breeding 

 experiments, so clearly set forth by Mr. Miller in the volume cited. 

 What, after all, is the connection between the phenomena seen by 

 the breeder and the facts of mammalian evolution? Do species 

 and subspecies differ by "units," and do the variations observed 

 in captivity correspond in any way to the recorded specific and 

 subspecific differences? 



A complete analysis of Mr. Miller's volume can not be made at 

 the present time, but I have extracted the list, given below, of 

 the forms supposed to be confined to the British Islands, giving 

 their distribution and principal distinctive characters. I have 

 added to Mr. Miller's list three quite recently described animals. 

 On examining the list, it appears that a few of the species must 

 belong to the older fauna of the country, not wholly exterminated 

 b y the glacial ice and periods of partial submergence. Such are 

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