190 



ON THE TOTAL AND PARTIAL 



destroyed by horsemen, who drove them singly from the herd towards 

 places where musket-men were stationed in readiness to kill them. The 

 prevailing colour of all the wild species was white, and their markings 

 were always alike in different individuals. Some remains of the urus 

 are said to exist at the present day in a reclaimed state at Chillingham 

 Castle, Northumberland ; Gisburne, in Craven, Yorkshire ; Wollaton, 

 Nottinghamshire ; Leine Hall, Cheshire ; Charby, Staffordshire ; and 

 iii Hamilton Palace Park, Scotland. From the non-appearance of the 

 urus in the catalogues of animals now indigenous to foreign lands, it 

 would seem, indeed, that in its wild condition it is not only extinct here, 

 but everywhere. It may be observed, in passing, that our common 

 domesticated animals of the bovine tribe are of much larger stature, 

 and are considered by naturalists to be either entirely of foreign extrac- 

 tion, or an improved produce originally obtained by crossing the wild 

 with the exotic species. 



It is a curious fact that the common ass was once extinct in this 

 country for several years, and that we owe those that are now in use to 

 a second importation from Spain. It is stated to have been " entirely 

 lost among us during the reign of queen Elizabeth." Hollingshed informs 

 us that in his time, " our lande did yeelde no asses." But we are 

 not to suppose that so useful an animal was unknown in these kingdoms 

 before that period, for mention is made of them so early as the time of 

 king Ethelred, about four hundred years preceding ; and again in the 

 reign of Henry III. ; so that it must have been owing to some accident 

 that the race was extinct during the days of Elizabeth. We are not 

 certain of the time it was again introduced, probably in the succeeding 

 reign, when our intercourse with Spain was renewed; in which country 

 this animal was greatly used, and where the species is in great per- 

 fection."* 



The discovery of an otter (Lutra vulgaris) now-a-daysis a very un- 

 common occurrence in this country, though once they were plentiful, 

 and even so in the neighbourhood of the metropolis. Walton, in his 

 " Angler," published nearly two hundred years ago, has introduced an 

 otter-hunter, who repairs for sport to the small streams in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Tottenham, Middlesex. " Hunting the otter was a 

 favourite pastime in Britain; but it has now fallen greatly into disuse ; 

 a few otter-hounds are, however, still to be found. His Grace the 

 Duke of Buccleuch has some braces of them. During Queen Elizabeth's 



British Zoology, vol. i. p. 12. 



