MAMMALS. 
67 
the Bards). According to Boyd Dawkins, the wild boar was 
extinct in Britain "before the reign of Charles i." — {Cave-lmnt- 
ing, p. 76.) 
For Caithness Mammals, we have the following materials : — 
Prehistoric Remains of Caithness. Samuel Laing, Esq., M.P., F.G.S. 1866. 
In this work Mr. Laing gives a full list of the remains of 
animals found in the Keiss middens, and explains that " there is 
a considerable general resemblance to the fauna of the Danish 
Kjokkenmod dings," and speaks at length of such discrepancies as 
do occur. All his arguments go to prove a previous similarity of 
the ancient faunas of Caithness and Denmark, and since he wrote, 
one of his chief difficulties has disappeared by the discovery of 
bones of the reindeer (see Anderson, infra). The occurrence of the 
bones of the great auk. in Caithness and in Denmark strengthens 
his views. The absence in these brochs and middens of the remains 
of sheep, and the presence of those of the goat, " strengthen the 
inference against the existence of domestic animals." The pre- 
sence, too, in such very small quantities, of the remains of a dog, 
together with the absence of any gnawed bones, likewise makes it 
uncertain that the dog was domesticated, as the size of these few 
bones present in the middens, rather points to their identity with 
the fossil dog of the quaternary period. Mr. Laing says further : 
" Of the Mammalian remains, those of the goat {Capra hircus) 
and ox {Bos longifrons) are most numerous; then pig {Sus scrofa), 
horse (Bquus cahallus, var. fossilis ?), stag (Cervtts elephas) ; and of 
dog (Canis familiar is, or C. familiaris fossilis), and fox {Canis 
vulpes), a single specimen only of each was found." A complete list 
of the animal remains found in Keiss middens is given on pp. 50 et 
seq. ; and Mr. Laing has some interesting remarks upon the rarity 
of the earlier captures by the natives of the wild ox or stag, judging 
from the scarcity of their remains in the kists, as compared with 
an increase " discernible in the upper middens, as if the power 
of capturing wild animals had increased with an imj)rovement 
in the weapons of chase." 
