Ny
SAA
or

ree i fay
Saha t
SMH
ners

 

i
4 pas
pins

 

by ya bee
eyo ee ert
ee

3
fe
rated Lith
oh

ice
bylaprtis

 

Hehe
are
hike hint et
heaven ot

ile aad ote So!

+e
MNT aired
shee 5 ae

Tape
r
ay!

Sere iaa

 

Ad
viene

     
 

wa 7
os
4

‘i
Ar he

as
Pea
Uae rh

aire a erseat
pee

a)

BS

Fst
tics!

  
 

 

CORNELL
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

 

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME
OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT
FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY

HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE

 

 

 

 

 

RETURN TO

ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY

ITHACA, N. Y.

 
Cornell University Library

British mammals; an attempt to describe
THE WOBURN LIBRARY

NATURAL HISTORY

EDITED BY

HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BEDFORD, K.G,

BRITISH MAMMALS
 

RED DEER (Cervus elaphus): August.
RITISH MAMMALS

AN ATTEMPT TO DESCRIBE AND ILLUS-
TRATE THE MAMMALIAN FAUNA OF THE
BRITISH ISLANDS FROM THE COMMENCE-
MENT OF THE PLEISTOCENE PERIOD
DOWN TO THE PRESENT DAY

oy =
x a

«a BY
“a

>
SIR HARRY JOHNSTON, Hon. D.Sc. Cams.

AUTHOR OF “THE UGANDA PROTECTORATE,” ETC.

WITH SIXTEEN COLOURED PLATES FROM
THE AUTHOR’S PAINTINGS, SIXTY-SIX
ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE AUTHOR’S
DRAWINGS AND FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
ON ART PAPER, AND ONE HUNDRED
AND TWENTY ILLUSTRATIONS BY
THE AUTHOR IN THE TEXT

London: HUTCHINSON & CO.

Paternoster Row ee oe 1903

~—
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

THE author of this book desires to express his
acknowledgments for information, photographs, and
specimens to the following persons :—

The Duke of Bedford, K.G., and the Duchess of
Bedford; the Lady Boston, of Hedsor, Bucks;
Captain R. C. Wilson, of Preston Deanery Hall and
Salsey Forest, Northamptonshire; Mr. F. Doggett,
Cambridge; Mr. Oldfield Thomas, F.R.S., British
Museum of Natural History; Dr. Scharff, Natural
History Museum, Dublin; Mr. J. Lewis Bonhote,
of Fen Ditton, Cambridge; Mr. Frank Beddard,
F.R.S., Prosector, Zoological Society; Mr. A. D.
Power; Mr. Ruskin Butterfield; Mr. W. P. Dando,
F.Z.S.; Mr. A. J. Sewell, M.R.V.S. ; and Sir John
Kirk, G.C.M.G.
WoBURN ABBEY.

Ir is not every one who has the taste, capacity, or
leisure for the scientific study of Natural History. But
there are few persons who do not feel that some know-
ledge of the processes and products of Nature increases
the enjoyment of country life. To supply this knowledge
in a form at once easily assimilated and _ scientifically
accurate is the object of the Wosurn Szrizs_ oF
Natura History.

Each subject will be treated by a writer who has
made it his special study. In this volume, therefore,
as in all the succeeding volumes, the writer speaks for
himself, and the Editor has not attempted to impose
his own opinions on those who have been asked to

contribute to the series.

[Seger
CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

PAGE

PREFATORY .  Se~ hs oH RE ce a Ou Oo
CHAPTER II

MAMMALS IN GENERAL; AND THE ORIGIN OF THE BRITISH MAMMALIA , 8

CHAPTER III

ORDER: CETACE#. WHALES AND PORPOISES a ‘ ‘ 3 ; .
CHAPTER IV

ORDER : INSECTIVORA. INSECT-EATING MAMMALS : . ; 53
CHAPTER V

ORDER: CHEIROPTERA, THE BATS. < ‘ ‘ ‘ ' ‘ : . 76
CHAPTER VI

ORDER: C4RNIVORA. THE FLESH-EATING PREDATORY MAMMALS. . II4

CHAPTER VII

carnivora (continued). THE WEASEL FAMILY S 2 of 2 w 136

CHAPTER VIII

caRNIvoRA (continued). CIVETS, MACHAIRODONTS, AND CATS . . - 165
ix
x CONTENTS

CHAPTER Ix

PAGE

carnivora (continued), THE MARINE CARNIVORA eB OS ca “e187
CHAPTER X

ORDER: RODENTIA. RODENTS, OR GNAWING MAMMALS: HARES AND

RABBITS, ww “ys ve oe “el “ee i ae. oe om 209
CHAPTER XI

RODENTIA (continued), SQUIRRELS, BEAVERS, DORMICE, AND RATS .  . 224

CHAPTER XII

ORDER: UNGULATA. HOOFED MAMMALS: ELEPHANTS, RHINOCEROSES,
AND HORSES. z 3 ‘i , ‘ : ‘ * 4 ‘ 258

CHAPTER XIII

uncuLata (continued), ARTIODACTYLA : HIPPOPOTAMUSES, PIGS, AND DEER 280

CHAPTER XIV

uncutata (continued). ARTIODACTYLA: THE BOVINES .

, - 340
CHAPTER XV
ORDER: PRIMATES, LEMURS, MONKEYS, AND MAN «www 365
APPENDIX
LIST OF BRITISH MAMMALIA th) Ge ase olin By oGf8S7a)
10.

II.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

LIST OF

COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS

RED DEER (Cervus elaphus): August .

THE CoMMON RoRQUAL WHALE (Balenoptera musculus) .
THE COMMON MOLE (TZalfa europea).

Foxes (Canis vulpes) .

Tue Last BRITISH WOLF

OTTERS (Lutra vulgaris)

BapDGeERS (Meles taxus).

THE PINE MARTEN (Mustela martes) .

THE WILD Cat (Felis catus)

THE Common SEAL (Phoca vitulina) .

Hares (Lepus europaeus) in an Oatfield: Evening

SQUIRREL (Sczurus vulgaris) robbing Ring Dove’s Nest
(The coat is that of the end of the winter season, say April.)

THE WATER VOLE (Microtus amphibius)
Roz DEER (Cafreolus caprea): September
FALLOW DEER (Cervus dama)

ENGLISH WILD CaTTLE (Bos taurus). Cadzow breed
xi

Frontispiece

Facing page

”

48

60
120
130
140
146
150
182
196
22

228

252
292
308

362
ADDENDA

Since this book was sent to the press, the following additions
to our knowledge of British Mammals have been received :—

An example of the Beluga, or White Whale (De/phinapterus
leucas), was seen by Sir R. LI. Patterson off Scarborough
on August rg9th, 19033; and another recorded occurrence of
Bechstein’s Bat (Myotis bechsteini) has been brought to my
notice by Mr. Ruskin Butterfield, of St. Leonards. This
example of Bechstein’s Bat was caught by Mr. J. G. Millais
in Sussex.

The Musk Ox referred to on p. 347 has since died.
LIST OF
BLACK-AND-WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS

I. Sketch Map showing routes PS followed 2 the Mammalia in their
migrations towards Britain . : :

2. All that remains of the Whale’s Hind Limbs (Balena). From a specimen in
Museum of College of Surgeons : : : 3

Grampus or Killer (Orca gladiator) . . . : . é ‘ .
= : Facing
Common Porpoise (Phocena communis) .

4. Teeth of Porpoise (after Flower). Magnified to twice natural size .
5. The Killer Whale (Orca gladiator) . 2 5 .

6. Head of Black Fish (Globicephalus) . 5

7. Head and Flipper of Risso’s Grampus (Grampus Hes

8

Common Dolphin (Delphinus ii to show eee Note the white iris
of the eye r E 7 : ,

9. Skull of Sperm Whale Chavet aan
10. Head of Bottle-nosed Whale (Ayseroodon rostratus) .

II. Sowerby’s Whale (Mesoplodon bidens). Head and skull, showing single pair
of teeth in lower jaw and remarkable frontal crest of bone

12. Clone limacina. The little Pteropod Mollusc (bright ee in ice on which
the great Whalebone Whales feed. Life size . :

13. Hump-backed Whale (Jegaptera boops)

14. fae rolled up .

: ; : “) Facing
Common Hedgehog (£rznaceus iss 3 ; .

15. Skulls of Insectivores, to show Teeth. 4. Hedgehog (natural oy B. Mole
(natural size); C. Lesser Shrew (23 times natural size) 3 %

16. Hand of Mole

17. Right Foot of Mole . ‘ : ; ‘ . :

18. Plan of the Interior of an ee Molehill . . 5 . 2 3

19. Plan of a more elaborate Mole ‘‘ Fortress (after Mr. Lionel E, Adams)

Common Shrew (Sorex vulgaris)  . 7 a ‘i 2 ‘
20.4 The Lesser Shrew (Sorex minutus) . : . : a . . } Facing
The Water Shrew (Crossopus fodiens) under water . A ‘ é

21. The Water Shrew (Crossopus fodiens) . 7

xiii

PAGE
13
20
24

25
27
29
31

35
37
40

43

45
47

54

56
60
60
65
67

vie)

74
XIV LIST OF BLACK-AND-WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS

AGE

22. Skeleton of a Bat’s Hand = , 4 ‘ ‘ ‘ » 98
23. Ears of Bats, to show Tragus, Absence of Teg and Development of

Antitragus . ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ’ ‘ . 81

Long-eared Bat (Plecotus auritus) é 2)
Common Bat hanging by its Thumbs. : : «| Fete 82

24.
e Common Bat (Pipzstrellus pipistrellus) hanging by it its Fee eet
Bat hanging with folded Wings and Tail * é
25. Bones of a Bat’s Leg and Foot ‘ i 2 3 5 5 5 F . 84

26. Serotine Bat (Vespertilio serotinus): to show (a) shape of ear; (4) naked
three-cornered space on under lip ;. (c) remains of sucker disc on the ball
of thumb ; (@) point of departure of wing membrane from base of toes ;
(e) calcaneum or spur.; (/) post-calcaneal lobule and interfemoral membrane ;

(g) degree to which tail projects beyond the interfemoral membrane. 85
27. Great or Noctule Bat (Prerygistes noctula) . - z ‘ ‘4 . 87
28. Skull of Noctule Bat (13 times natural size) 3 2 : i 88
29. Front of Skull of Noctule Bat, to show separation between incisor teeth and

large canines (3 times natural size). : é F : : . 88
30. Head of Noctule Bat (nearly twice natural size) a ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ . 89
31. Head of Pipistrelle, or Common Bat (Pifistrellus pipistrellus) . i . gt
32. Head and Foot of Daubenton’s Bat . 4 : ‘ : : ‘ : 95
33. Head of Bechstein’s Bat. Nearly twice natural size . . : ; : - 97
34. Head of Common Continental Bat (AZyotis myotis), Natural size . - 99
35. Head of Whiskered Bat. (23 times natural size) . : 2 : . . 101
36. Ear of Notch-eared Bat (Myotis emarginatus). Twice natural size . : - 102

37. Head of Barbastelle Bat (Barbastella barbastellus). Note ear membranes
joining over forehead, groove nme nose, and eyes fairly close together.
Twice natural size . ‘ . : - 5 » 103

38. Nose and Muzzle of Barbastelle Bat a times life Sees i : . : » 103

39. A. Ears of the Long-eared Bat (half again as large as natural size); B&. The
Long-eared Bat (life meh bi ears pressed against the sides and

tragus erect . . . . 7 . . . ‘ + 105
40. Nose and Muzzle of Long- ee “Bat. (3 times natural size) . 3 . 106
The Greater Horseshoe Bat (RAznolophus ferrum-equinum)  . . .
The Common Bat (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) : 5 sere 508
42. Head of Greater Horseshoe Bat (Adnolophus ferrum-equinum), to show
nose leaf. Note also absence of tragus and large development of lobe
of outer margin of ear. Nearly twice natural size : : . » 109

43. Nose Leaf of Greater Horseshoe Bat in Profile (slightly less than natural i 110
44. Nose Leaf of Lesser Horseshoe Bat ae eel Twice natural

size. : é ‘ . «12
45. Jaws of Ofocyon on (to shoe ti sie teil in endo jaw, etc.) . » XIIg

46. Angle of the Lower Jaw in Ofocyon, as compared with the angle of the
Jaw in Canzs cancrivorus (Crab-eating Dog) and in Wolf . : : » IIS
LIST OF BLACK-AND-WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS

47. Examples of Fourth ee Premolar - vee Carnassial me in various
Carnivores . : .
8 The Common Fox (Canis ae : ‘ ; : . : .

4°) The Wolf, European Type (Canis lupus) . : ‘ Haein
British Cave Lion (Felis leo spelea)

49°) British Cave Bear (Ursus speleus) iiias
The Common Otter

5°) The Common Otter (Lutra waleais), meine:
The Pine Marten (Mustela martes)
The Badger (Ales taxus) |

52. The Polecat (Putorius fetidus) . : é : i 5 : . Facing

53. The Common Stoat (Putorius ermineus), Summer coat . . Facing

54. The Weasel (Putorius nivalis) . : ‘ ; . . b . Facing

55. Examples of Upper Canine Tooth in Lion and in two Machairodonts
(natural size) .

56. Gape of Jaws in a British Sabre-toothed « Tiger” iad Sei

The Ferret, domesticated form of Polecat (Putorius fetidus) Faci
57°) The Wild Cat (Felis catus) . . . 2... MOORE

58. Fore Paw and Hind Paw of Common Seal compared with Fore Paw and
Hind Paw of Sea Lion . ;

59. Premolars and Molar, Upper Jaw, of Common Seal

60. The Harp Seal (Phoca grenlandica) . z = : je : :
61. The Gray Seal (Halicherus grypus). Adult and young . . . Facing
62. Head of Hooded Seal (Cystophora) . : ‘ ‘ i x : - .
63. Wild Rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) : : ; : 4 . Facing
64. The Mountain Hare (Lepzs ee Winter coat in Wicklow
Mountains, Ireland . : . : 5 : . Facing

és, The Common Hare (Lefus aes ‘ ‘ - 3 ‘ Satan
The European Beaver (Castor fiber) .

The Squirrel (Scirus vulgaris) .

66. Facing

The Common Dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius)
67. Molar Teeth of Squirrel, Rat, and Water Vole ean for Comparison
(twice natural size)
Long-tailed Field or Wood ens (lies <siincstie
Harvest Mouse (Mus minutus) . , a
ie Bank Vole (Zvotomys sglareolus) .
Black Rat (Mus rattus) . : :

Facing

Brown Rat (Mus decumanus) . < i ‘ 3 “| pein
Short-tailed Field Vole (Aficrotus svete) : , “ : ‘ Ss

yo. Pattern of Enamel and Dentine on Surface of Molar Teeth of African and
Indian Elephants

69.

XV

PAGE
117
120
134
138
144
154
162

171
173

182

190
195
201

204.
207
212

218

220

226

238

242

250

263
xvi LIST OF BLACK-AND-WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE
71. The Mammoth (Elephas primigenius) . ; ‘ ‘ ‘ . Facing 266
72. Prjevalski’s Horse (Zgzzus praevalskit) ‘i 5 ’ $ Facing 274
73. The Evolution of the Horse’s Tail : 5 ‘ : . 275
74. Bones of the Hand or Lower Front Limb in Modern Artiodactyles, to
illustrate Gradual Disappearance of the Side Fingers . : 3 . 281
Wild Sow and Young F : 3 : :
75.4 Irish Pig 5 . 3 F z : A .\ Facing 286
Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) . .
76. Head and Neck of Roebuck, to show White ee on Neck and Black
Mark across Muzzle : 3 5 . 295
77. Examples of Roe Deer’s Antlers, Ancient and Modern 207
78. Fallow Deer (Cervus dame) é ‘ i : 4 Fusing 408
Fallow Deer (Unspotted Form) . :
79. Examples of Fallow Deer’s Antlers : é . 311
80. The Gigantic Irish Deer (Cervus megaceros): Antlers and Skeleton. facing 314
Red Deer: Stag (Cervus elaphus) é 5
81.4 Red Deer: Hind and Fawn : é : i : . | Facing 320
Red Deer: Hinds ‘
82. Gland Tuft on Hind Leg of Red Deer ‘ ¢ z 324
83. Stag in Early March without Antlers (to show Pedicle of Aes f + 325
84. Red Deer’s Antler of Pleistocene Period: ne up at Durham a
Museum) , 3 3 - : 327
85. Example of well-developed Antlers in Stag of Twelve or Thirteen Years Old 328
86. The Progressive Growth of a Red Deer's Antlers (first year hornless) . 330-31
87. Examples of the aes of the “Cup” or Terminal Fork of the Red
Deer’s Antlers ¢ ¥ : ; , : : » 333
88, le Saiga (Saiga tatarica) . ieee aus
The Musk Ox (Ovibos moschatus)
89. Horns of a Ram (Ovzs aries), from Achill Island, off the West Coast of Ireland 349
Highland Sheep (Ovds artes) : ‘ ‘ :
{ss Sheep, St. Kilda (Ovis aries). ‘ : . : é .} Facing 350
Female Corsican Mouflon (Outs mustmon), to show Tail
Horns of Extinct English Bison (Bos préscas)
of Skull of Extinct Aurochs (Bos primigentus) | Facing 356
European Bison (Bos bonaszs) from Lithuania
sa Head of English Wild Bull, Chartley Breed (Bos Sevag } Facing 358
English Wild Cattle: Bull of the Chartley Breed (Bos taurus)
| Eon Wild Cattle: Cow and Calf (Chartley Breed) ‘} Facing 362
Domestic Cattle: Kerry Bull (Bos taurus longifrons)
of Domestic Cattle: Long Horn Bull . } Facing 364

95. Probable Centres of Development and Migration Routes of Primates

369

 
British Mammals

CHAPTER. I

PREFPATORTY

Some explanation and apology of and for the presentation of
this book to the reading public is necessary, seeing that the
subject of British Mammalia has been dealt with before in
a general sense by such able writers as the late William
Macgillivray, the late Professor Thomas Bell, and Mr. Richard
Lydekker ; while groups or species of British beasts have been
described in detail by Sir William Flower, the late Dr. Dobson,
Mr. Oldfield Thomas, Dr. R. F. Scharff, Mr. W. E. de Winton,
Professor Boyd Dawkins, Mr. J. E. Harting, Mr. Harvie-
Brown, the Rev. H. A. Macpherson, Messrs. W. Thompson
(Irish Mammals), Aubyn Trevor-Battye, W. Buckley, John
Guille Millais,’ Lionel Adams, G. Barrett Hamilton, F.G. Aflalo,
C. J. Cornish, and Dr. A. B. Smith Woodward.2?. Mr. T.
McKenny Hughes in 1896 wrote an admirable treatise on
the origin of the breeds of domestic cattle. Mr. F. E. Beddard

1 The finest draughtsman of British beasts and birds who has yet appeared
on the scene. His monographs of the Deer and the Wild Fowl of the British
Islands should have been crowned by a British Academy. His study of
African Mammals in ‘“‘A Breath from the Veldt” is unrivalled, and will
probably remain so.

2 Who, together with the late Sir Richard Owen, Professor Boyd
Dawkins, and Mr. Richard Lydekker, has done much to describe the ancient

mammalian fauna of the two British Islands.
I
2 BRITISH MAMMALS

has dealt with Mammalia generally, his work in the Cambridge
Natural History Series being the latest study of the subject,
and in this book a good deal of incidental information is given
regarding the mammals of the British Islands. The admirable
work published by Dr. J. H. Blasius in 1857 on the mam-
malian fauna of Germany and Central Europe contains much
information on the structure and habits of beasts which also
inhabit Britain; and the great German paleontologist, Dr.
Karl A. von Zittel, in his classical Handbook of Palaeontology,
has incidentally described and illustrated a good many extinct
British mammals. Students who may be attracted to the study
of British mammals are also advised to read the files of such
periodicals as the Zoologist (London) and the Field newspaper,
both of which contain first-hand information of great value
on British Zoology. To all of the above-mentioned writers
and publications the author of this book is greatly indebted
for information, and to these separate works he refers such
of his readers as are desirous of learning something more
about the beasts of their own country, and who might wish
for further detailed information connected with the anatomical
structure or life-habits of the British Mammalia beyond what
can be given within the space of this volume.

To the accumulated and carefully sifted facts recorded by
this formidable array of writers the author has ventured to
add his own observations and theories. Although a good
deal of his time has been spent in Africa, he has nevertheless
from his youth up been a student of the British Mammalia
in all parts of the United Kingdom. His first interest in
British beasts was no doubt prompted by their esthetic aspect,
their beauty of outline or colour; and though he has since
become entangled in the fascinations of comparative anatomy,
the strongest attraction which beasts and birds still possess
for him lies in the part they fill (or should fill) in British
landscapes.

It may be necessary to apologise to the world outside Britain
for any attempt to attach importance to our existing mammalian
PREFATORY 3

fauna. This has become so reduced in numbers, so scarce and
little evident in many of the existing species, that we should
almost appoint an annual national day of humiliation for our
poverty in this respect, a poverty due to the past ravages of
ourselves and our ancestors, and almost unexampled in any other
part of the habitable world, except New Zealand or the Pacific
Archipelagoes.

This book, indeed, had it only dealt with the few well-
known wild beasts still lingering in Great Britain and Ireland,
would not have been worth compiling. But the author has
endeavoured to deal as amply as possible with recently extinct
British mammals ; and to expatiate on the interesting problems
concerning the origin and migration routes of the recent mam-
malian fauna which has inhabited these islands since the close
of the Tertiary Epoch. As one drives through the dreary streets
of Outer London, or gazes on the devastation of the Isle of
Sheppey, the over-building at Bournemouth, the smug villas of
Torquay, the paper mills of the Mendip Hills, the factory
chimneys of Yorkshire, the desolated bogs of Ireland, and the
hideous prosperity of Lanarkshire and Lancashire, it is possible to
derive some consolation by recalling in imagination the African
elephants and the hairy mammoths, the gigantic wild cattle and
clumsy horses, the sabre-toothed “ tigers,” the lions larger than
those now existing, the enormous cave bears, spotted hyznas,
gigantic Irish deer, beavers, wild boars, and wolves which
severally or together made those regions a scene of fascination and
wonder even to Paleolithic and Neolithic man. Like the writers
and statesmen of modern Greece and Spain, the author’s thoughts
as a student of Mammalia are mentally fixed upon the glorious
past, and his survey of the present is a whimpering apology. He
who would fain have described how the sabre-toothed “ tiger”
severed the spinal column of the megaceros deer with its trenchant
tusks ; how man, naked and unashamed, and armed with weapons
which were poor as compared with those of the Congo Pygmy,
matched himself against the mammoth and caught the aurochs in
a pitfall: he, instead, must twitter on the ferocity of the weasel
4 BRITISH MAMMALS

and relate park anecdotes of park-fed beasts. There are lessons,
however (one must humbly admit), to be learnt even from the
nineteen varieties of the wood mouse and the violent amours of
the mole.

But as it is the esthetic aspect of the Mammalia which first
attracted the author of this book, it is that on which he most
wishes to insist in his arguments. If in any way he has brought
home to his readers the importance of Mammalia to the landscape
aspects of Britain, the desirability of preserving and strengthening
the species that remain (not because they are good for food or
sport or unobstructive to the aims of the farmer or the citizen,
but because they are beautiful or stimulating to intellectual
interest), he will not have written in vain. Man does not live
by bread alone. He requires to fill his life with an enjoyment of
beauty, a bracing of the nerves by wholesome danger, a stimula-
tion of the intellect by the mysteries of Creation. If we succeed
in extirpating our wild beasts and birds, or in reducing a few of
them to fattened, pied, frilled monstrosities (an action which will
probably proceed concurrently with the extermination of our
native flora by field clubs, costermongers, and agriculturists), life
in England, Scotland, or Ireland will no longer be worth living,
since man cannot live by bread alone, nor can roast beef and
potatoes wholly atone for the extirpation of the aurochs and
the Osmunda fern. One may admire the pheasant greatly as a
beautiful bird, and blind oneself to all peevish evidence brought
forward to show that it is not indigenous ; but one should admit
that the weasel is quite as beautiful and half again as interesting.
Still more, the polecat ; while the wild cat should be permitted to
make moderate ravages on live-stock, and the damage done be
paid by an interested countryside from out of the rates.

It was distressing to read how, during a yachting cruise
in the summer of 1902, the suite that accompanied very dis-
tinguished persons gleefully took advantage of their proximity
to little-frequented Scotch islands and islets to shoot and leave,
kill uselessly without excuse, quite a large number of the few
seals which still remain in Scottish waters. The otter is being
PREFATORY 5

rapidly extinguished in Wales, Devonshire, and Sussex, by
unreflecting, red-faced, well-meaning, church-going, rate-paying
persons on the plea that it eats salmon or trout.!. Now, what
nonsense this is! No trout that was ever served on a dish is
as good as a fried sole. Salmon is a handsome-looking fish,
so far as fish go, and its flesh, though very provocative of
biliousness, is liked by a large number of people. But salmon
is produced in such enormous abundance in North America
and Norway, and is so very unlikely (owing to its habit of
resorting to the sea) to become exterminated in British waters
by the otter, that it would be a shame if this remarkable
aquatic weasel, so beautiful an object as an adjunct to a
stream landscape, were extirpated, destroyed, or even rendered
wild, to gratify the angler’s craze—a craze nearly as modern
as golf and cricket, but not so picturesque or beneficial to
athletic development. It is necessary to insist, for the future
happiness of the world, on the esthetic value of beasts,
birds, and reptiles. Amphibians and fish are less worthy of
regard, partly from the fact that as they live almost entirely
in the water they play no part in the beauty of landscapes.
As regards all invertebrates, one may disregard, destroy, or
disprotect all except those crustaceans that are good for food.
Butterflies and some beetles are charming in coloration and
outline, but the grandest of butterflies is feeble in esthetic value
compared to a bird, and the grubs of both butterflies and
beetles do unmeasured harm. Fresh-water fish should not be
protected against the ravages of the higher vertebrates: they
must take their chance. As regards sea-fish, many forms are
either beautiful in coloration, imposing in bulk, or fantastic in
shape, and therefore provocative of interest. But as it is a most
exceptional incident in our lives to put on a diver’s dress and

1 Here is an extract from a recent number of the Daily Graphic: “The
Crowhurst Otter Hounds.—The new pack of hounds which have just been
started in East Sussex to hunt the country in the neighbourhood of Hastings
is to be called the Crowhurst Otter Hounds. They propose to begin opera-
tions on the 18th of this month.”
6 BRITISH MAMMALS

descend below the level of the water, we derive but little zsthetic
enjoyment from fish, and though they are estimable as a food
supply, their natural domain is so vast that the only mammal who
can ever bring any species of them near extinction is man himself.

The present writer has little sympathy with those well-
meaning but misdirected persons who, loving the Mammalia, and
feeling starved in their affections as British residents, introduce
into their parks and domains kangaroos, African antelopes,
ostriches, or Indian humped cattle. What they ought to do
(what some great landowners have done) is to reinforce and
protect dwindling British species, and reintroduce those lost
forms which were co-existent with man in prehistoric times, and
which may still be found lingering in holes and corners of
Europe, Asia, and North America. One does not wish to be
unreasonable ; and few would propose the letting loose of lions
in the hope of re-developing a Felis spelea, or the turning out
of Indian elephants to stand the climate as best they might and
gradually recover the shaggy hair and the tusks of the mammoth.
These creatures, and the spotted hyena, leopard, glutton, and
hippopotamus, might prove too antagonistic to human comfort
and prosperity in these crowded islands: we must be content to
keep them in menageries. But there is no reason why we should
not prudently reintroduce the European bison, the musk ox,
the reindeer, the boar; perhaps the bear, the beaver, the saiga
antelope, the lynx, and the wolf. We might use all our efforts
to stimulate the wild white cattle of the northern parks, for-
bidding the destruction of red and black calves, and so hoping
that, in time, they might regain the stature and appearance of
their forefather the aurochs. Horses of the Connemara breed
might be encouraged to run wild in paradises like Achill Island
and the New Forest till they reverted to the appearance of
Prjevalski’s horse. Of course, if these islands are to contain
a population of (say) a hundred millions, it must be at the
expense of destroying all beauty and all specially British charac-
teristics of landscape, fauna, and flora. No doubt, without
detriment to the picturesque, the population of Ireland might
PREFATORY 7

be allowed to rise to fifteen millions, and that of Scotland to
the same figure, with additional increases to the population of
England and Wales, more especially in the existing towns. But
the time must come when we shall have to make up our minds,
as a nation, to increased emigration towards less thickly inhabited
parts of the world, or to the artificial checking of population.
Why should we not copy Japan, where a very large population
apparently can co-exist with a rich fauna and flora, and with
landscapes of superb natural beauty? As regards both animals
and plants in that country, the explanation probably lies in the
fact that the Japanese have no craze for destroying birds and
beasts in the cause of “sport,” and no desire to grub up field
flowers and transplant them to town gardens, Neither have
they developed that worst sign of perverted taste which we
display in mixing our flora and fauna. The Japanese develops
with care the flora that he finds in his own land. He does not
go about planting exotic bushes in his woods and wastes, as we
confuse the aspects of English landscapes by rhododendrons and
araucarias, In like manner the monkey, which has long since
vanished from England, still exists in Japan ; while the Japanese
bird fauna, commemorated by their unapproached art, has added
a notable value to the sum of human happiness.
CHAPTER II

MAMMALS IN GENERAL; AND THE ORJGIN OF
THE BRITISH MAMMALIA

Mammat is the most convenient term in English to apply to
the members of the class Mammalia, the highest development
of living forms on the earth’s surface. The word, of course, is
derived from the Latin mamma, a teat, and embodies the most
obvious distinction between this group and the other vertebrates,
because all the Mammalia nourish their young after birth by a
liquid developed in glands which are provided with a nipple or
teat.1 It must be admitted that at present “mammal” is a
somewhat pedantic designation, and is certainly never used by
the rustic. But it is difficult to see what other term is to be
chosen in preference, if accuracy of speech is desired. ‘Animal”’
applies not only to mammals, but to every other living creature
which is not a vegetable. ‘ Quadruped” is equally foolish,
because reptiles (and in a sense birds) also possess four limbs
which are usually devoted to purposes of locomotion. The old
Anglo-Saxon word deor® (our English word ‘“ deer”) has
become restricted to a small group of ruminants, and no longer
means all the beasts. The English term which comes nearest

1 Except in the group of the Monotremes, where the liquid of the
mammary glands exudes through pores and not through the channel of a
nipple. In all the Mammalia except the Monotremes the milk is a sebaceous
fluid, but in the case of the Monotremes it would seem to be developed from
the sweat.

2 Akin to the German Zhzer, Latin fera, Greek ther.

8
MAMMALS IN GENERAL 9

to mammal in comprehensiveness and accuracy is the word
“beast,” derived through Norman-French from Latin; but
this is somewhat marred by its use as a term of opprobrium
among children or its restriction by the agriculturist to horned
cattle. Consequently we are obliged to adopt ‘ mammal”
as the most correct designation in English for the air-
breathing, warm-blooded vertebrates which suckle their newly-
born young.

Before beginning a description of British mammals, living
or recently extinct, it might assist the unenlightened reader if
the author attempted a brief definition of the leading character-
istics of the Mammalia as a class. They are warm-blooded,
air-breathing vertebrates with a four-chambered heart, with a
skin covered usually with hair, wholly or partially ; possessing
differentiated teeth’; lungs freely suspended in the cavity of
the chest (partitioned off by a muscular wall from the stomach) ;
red blood corpuscles without a nucleus ; and with glands in the
skin (usually on the under part of the body) especially developed
in the female for the creation of milk as nourishment for the
new-born young. They are also marked off from other verte-
brates—such as fishes, reptiles, and birds—by the exclusive
possession? of an outer ear (that is to say, a conch, or flap of
skin, muscle, and tendon, which focusses the vibrations of sound
on the inner hearing organ); by a heart which has only one
aortic arch on the left-hand side (not two arches as in reptiles,
or one on the right-hand side as in birds); by the existence
of four optic lobes in the brain for the organs of sight; by a
lower jaw of a more fused character, with peculiarities as to its

1 That is to say, teeth not all of one pattern, as in the generality of reptiles,
most fishes, and primitive birds, but divided normally into four kinds:
incisors for seizing, canine teeth for tearing, premolars for champing, and
molars for grinding.

2 The lowest known forms of the Mammalia, the existing Monotremes of
Australia, possess no conch, or external ear, but in all other Mammalia where
the conch is not present (as in the whales, certain seals, edentates, and
insectivores), there is every reason to believe them to be descended from
forms possessing the external ear.
10 BRITISH MAMMALS

composition and articulation with the skull that are essentially
mammalian ; by a skull that lacks several of the many separate
pieces of bone that goes to its composition in reptiles and
birds. But the last of these obvious distinctions (an invariable
one) is the manner in which the skull articulates with the first
vertebra of the spinal column. This is by means of two
separate processes of bone (the condyles), which develop from
the end of the occiput, or roof of the skull; whereas in birds
and most reptiles the articulation of the skull with the vertebral
column is by means of a single process of bone. There is a
double process— two condyles—in the Amphibians (frogs, newts,
etc.), but these condyles do not arise from the bones roofing
the skull.

Then, again, the vertebrae of the mammalian neck are
markedly different in shape and structure from those of the
back, and the neck vertebre are almost invariably seven in
number. There are not a few other and minor peculiarities
connected with the bones forming the spinal column, with the
ribs, the ankle joint, the ear bones, and the soft parts (that is to
say, the muscles and the various organs of the body); but as
this book is not a scientific treatise, it would be wearisome to
go too deeply into these particulars. The main feature in the
Mammalia which sharply distinguishes them from other animals
is the secretion of milk by which the young are nourished after
birth. In all the Mammalia, except the two existing forms of
Monotreme in Australia ;* the young are born alive. Mammals,
therefore, in the eyes of the undiscriminating differ markedly
from birds and reptiles, in that they produce their young alive
(from eggs so minute that they are scarcely visible to the naked
eye). Mammals are not alone in this feature of living-born young.
Some fishes and reptiles, extinct and living, have acquired the

1 The echidna and the duckbill—very ancient and primitive types of
mammal which present a good many reptilian features—produce eggs with
large yolks, and these eggs are either hatched in the mother’s pouch, or
perhaps in the case of the duckbill, allowed to hatch separately from the
mother, after which the young animal is placed in the pouch.
MAMMALS IN GENERAL II

habit of hatching the egg within the mother’s body and producing
living young.

The mammals probably developed from a group of reptiles
generally known as the Anomodonts, and these again arose (in
common with the rest of the reptilia) from amphibian forms
allied to the extinct Labyrinthodonts. The Anomodont or
Theriodont reptiles (remains of which are found all over the world,
but principally in North America, Europe, and Africa) differed
from other known reptiles in the differentiation of their teeth on
mammalian lines; that is to say, the specialisation of prehensile
teeth answering to our incisors, of tusk-like canines, and of molars
and premolars that exhibited three or more cusps in the single
tooth. The first mammals were creatures allied in their structure
to the Monotremes still existing in Australia. From this stock
developed what is known as the Eutherian, or true mammalian
form. Among the most primitive of the true mammals were
the marsupials, who retain many low characteristics coupled with
a certain amount of special development and some degeneracy.
At the present day marsupials are limited in their distribution to
Australia, New Guinea and the southern islands of the Malay
Archipelago, and also to North and South America’; but
anciently there were marsupials in Great Britain, creatures some-
what resembling the opossums of America and the banded
ant-eater of Australia.

When the earth was passing through the first phase of the
Tertiary Epoch (the Eocene period), when in fact the British
Islands were beginning to assume something like their present
relations with Europe (instead of being an outlying part of North
America separated from Europe by a shallow sea), the true
mammalia were already spreading out into many orders, a few
of which are extinct, but most of which have their living repre-
sentatives at the present day. ‘These existing orders are (1) the
Marsupials ; (2) the Edentates (armadillos, ant-eaters, sloths, etc.) 5
(3) the Whales; (4) the Ungulates (all hoofed mammals) ;
(5) the Sirenia (manatis, dugongs, etc.); (6) the Carnivores

1 They originated probably in North America.
12 BRITISH MAMMALS

(creodonts, seals, dogs, cats, bears, etc.); (7) the Rodents
(squirrels, rats, hares, etc.) ; (8) the Jnsectivores (moles,
hedgehogs, shrews, and their allies); (9) the Bats; (10) the
Primates (lemurs, monkeys, man). The term “order” is
of somewhat varying signification in these groupings, but in
a work of this description it is unnecessary to discriminate
too closely.

The history of mammalian distribution over the British
Islands, and the relations of that colonisation with the great areas
of mammalian development in the world at large may be
summarised as follows :—It is possible that the Mammalia as
a class originated in North America’ or in some region round the
North Pole. During the early part of the Secondary Epoch, the
backbone of Britain, that is to say, the mountainous regions of
Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, possibly formed an outlying
peninsula of the North American continent, and from that
direction came the first primitive types of monotreme, mar-
supial, and early Eutherian, remains of which are found in
British formations of the Secondary Epoch. No doubt at this
time Britain may have been a link connecting the Old World
with the New in the Northern Hemisphere, whilst South America
was connected through Antarctica with Australia, and later, in
equatorial regions, with Africa. This connection of Britain with
the Western Hemisphere no doubt ceased to a great extent
before the Tertiary Epoch.’ During the Tertiary Epoch, Scot-
land and Ireland seem to have been but little favoured in
mammalian distribution, whilst England and Wales (connected
then with the European continent) shared to a considerable
extent in the great mammalian developments of France, Germany,
and the Mediterranean regions.

1 On the other hand, it is equally possible that they may have grown out
of Theriodont reptiles in South Africa. But hitherto the remains of the most
primitive mammals—the earliest known in geological time—have only been
obtained in North America and in England.

2 Except for the northern link by way of Iceland and Greenland, which

(especially when reinforced by ice-floes in the Glacial periods) may have
enabled a few northern forms to reach Britain from Arctic America.
 

Yd)

fh 5.
or ASE

 

 

ff

a
Sh

I

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ye
Ae

 

 

 

 

VV é ry

 

|

 

 

|

|

 

 

|

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A

 

 

 

fa
x
m
A
=
2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
14 BRITISH MAMMALS

Though the Mammalia may have originated from reptilian
forms in North America (though this is by no means certain), there
is no doubt that during the Tertiary Epoch this class had its most
wonderful development in India. India would seem to rank
first as a focus of radiation, as the region which has developed
the most remarkable and numerous mammalians. From India or
Southern Asia, as a whole, Europe, Africa, North Asia, North and
even South America, received many of their extinct and existing
mammalian forms. North America ranks next in importance as
the area which has evolved and distributed mammalian types.
Indeed, it would seem as if the Primates, the order of which man
is a member, originated in North America, and Britain may have
been one of the stepping-stones by which the North American
lemurs entered Europe, Africa, and Southern Asia. South
America was a selfish continent as regards mammalian develop-
ment. It originated many striking forms of ungulates which
lived and died within its limits. It received its monkeys from
Africa, but it is doubtful whether it returned to Africa or trans-
mitted to Australia more than a few types of rodents and
marsupials.

The value of Africa as a centre of mammalian develop-
ment is still unknown, because of our great ignorance as to its
fossil mammalian types. It is possible, however, that Northern
Africa originated the order Proboscidea (elephants), and the
tropical regions of the continent have no doubt developed special
genera of antelopes.

Roughly speaking, since the close of the Secondary Epoch
Britain has been dependent for its supply of Mammalia on
Germany, France, and Spain. We have really only had the
leavings of Central and Western Europe; and, moreover, in
the distribution of the Mammalia, Scotland, and especially Ireland,
fared miserably compared to England and Wales. This was
partly due to the Glacial episodes which afflicted the close of the
Tertiary Epoch, and which placed under ice nearly all Scotland
and Ireland, and much of Wales. At the end of the Tertiary
Epoch the British region richest in mammalian forms seems to
MAMMALS IN GENERAL 15

have been East Anglia, which, no doubt, was connected then
with Belgium and Holland.

Out of the one hundred and thirteen species known to have
inhabited the British Islands from the close of the Pliocene
period to the present day, no less than thirty-five are restricted
to England and Wales, Scotland being credited with sixty-seven,
and Ireland with only fifty. Moreover, in Scotland and Ireland
(notably in Ireland) no mammalian remains have been found of
an earlier date than the Pleistocene period’; whereas in England
mammalian remains date from the Secondary Epoch and are found
representing all the many stages of the Tertiary.

Of the aforesaid hundred and thirteen species of mammals
only seventy-two are now existing (with any degree of pro-
bability) in the British Islands or adjacent seas; and of these
at least fifteen species (seals, whales, and bats) are so scarce or
of such doubtful occurrence as to be scarcely worth enumerating
in the list of British mammals.? Forty-one species, out of the
hundred and thirteen, have become extinct between the remote
days of palzolithic man and the eighteenth century of this era.
But of these forty-one, twelve are completely extinct, while twenty-
nine are still found living (as scarcely differing species) somewhere
in Europe, Asia, Africa, or North America. These are the
narwhal, the lesser killer whale, the sperm whale, the southern
right whale, the hunting-dog (Lycaon), the wolf, the brown Lear,
the panda, the glutton, the striped and spotted hyenas, the lion,
leopard, lynx, and Egyptian wild cat, the bearded seal, the walrus,
the pika (Lagomys), the beaver, the suslik, the lemming and banded
lemming, the hippopotamus, wild boar, elk, reindeer, saiga antelope,
musk-ox, and European bison. Some of these creatures, therefore,
might legitimately be reintroduced.

Notz.—The following table of geological epochs and periods
referred to throughout this work in connection with the past
history of British mammals may be of use to unlearned readers.

1 This, no doubt, is a pure accident of geological formations.

2 So that the total number of species existing within British limits at the
present day, is, for all practical purposes, fifty-seven.
16 BRITISH MAMMALS

EPOCHS

SECONDARY

Periop—Triassic (The beast-like Reptiles, Anxomodontia, begin to appear.
Mammals of a low, indeterminate, Monotreme type
make their appearance in Europe and North America.)
4 Jurassic (Birds originate from reptiles atthe beginning of this period.)
si Cretaceous (The “Chalk” ages. Forms related to the Marsupial
or Metatherian Order of Mammals make their
appearance ; and perhaps at the close of this period
the first types of Eutherian orders—Insectivores,
Creodonts, Early Primates, and Ungulates—are

evolved. This is the great age of reptiles.)

TERTIARY
4 Eocene (“Dawn of recent times.” Most of the known orders
[Oligocene] of Mammalia accomplish their definite differentiation
during this first period of the Tertiary Epoch.)

i Miocene (“ More recent.” Most of the families of the Mammalia
are developed during the Miocene. The flora and
fauna of England at this time suggest affinities with
tropical Asia and Africa.)

i Pliocene (‘Still more recent.” The modern genera are now
developed. The fauna of England and Wales at
this time recalls that of modern India, Malaysia, or
Africa. Man originates during this period in South-
eastern Asia, and spreads westwards towards Britain.)

5 Pleistocene (“ Most recent.” During this period many modern
species are differentiated. Man becomes established
in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and elsewhere
all over the world. In the early part of the
Pleistocene the mammalian fauna of England and
Wales is that of Northern Africa, the Mediterranean,
and North Indian regions, gradually changing to a
Boreal (Siberian, North American) character, as the
icy ages, the Glacial sub-periods, supervene in the
British Isles and in much of Northern and North-
western Europe.)

QUATERNARY

3 Prehistoric (The age of Neolithic man; of the origin of our
domestic beasts; and of most varieties and sub-
species of existing mammals.)

ay Recent (From the rise of human history, about eight thousand
years ago, to the present time.)
CHAPTER III
Orpver: CETACEZ. WHALES AND PORPOISES

As our review of the British mammalian fauna only commences
with the human period—that is to say, the Pleistocene division of
the Tertiary Epoch—when most existing mammalian species were
developed or developing, no mention will be made here of our
long extinct monotremes and marsupials. The first order (on
the upwards list) represented in the British fauna is that of the
Whales.

The Cetacee are an order of purely aquatic mammalia, so
absolutely adapted to life in the water that it is impossible for them
to live and move out of their element. Yet their lives must be
spent for the most part near the surface, since they are as much
dependent on a supply of air for the oxygenation of their blood as
are any of the other mammalia. Any member of the Whale order
can be drowned if prevented from renewing its supply of air.
Some cetaceans cannot remain under the surface of the water for
more than an hour without rising to renew their supply of air,
though it is said that some of the larger cetaceans (such as the
rorqual whales) can remain below the surface for as much as twelve
hours without expiring from lack of air. Whales are further dis-
tinguished from all other mammals (except the Sirenia) by their
complete loss of all external vestiges of hind limbs. In all whales
there are minute fragments of bones found isolated in the muscles
of the lower part of the body which represent the disappearing
structure of the hind limbs, but these vestiges at most only extend
as far as a fragment of the thigh bone and sometimes of the tibia

(one of the leg bones), all traces of the feet being completely
17 2
18 BRITISH MAMMALS

absent. As regards fore limbs, the hand is usually five-fingered in
one great group of the whales (those which retain teeth), and four-
fingered in those which have replaced teeth by plates of baleen.
The central fingers of some whales develop an extraordinary
number of phalanges, or jointed bones. These in the normal
mammalian hand are three in number; in some of the whales
there are twelve in the central finger. Another peculiarity of
whales (shared, however, by some of the aquatic carnivora, and by
certain low types of mammals) is the absence of any external ear,
though rudiments of the conch are found in the porpoise. Then,
again, the teeth of whales differ from most of those of other
existing mammals by their complete uniformity, that is to say,
they are not divided up into incisors, canines, premolars, and
molars. In one or more forms of river dolphin in the Amazon
River (South America) there are said to be traces of additional
cusps on those teeth which have replaced the molars. This
point, however, is not such an important distinction, because we
now know through the discovery of fossil forms that ancestral
whales (Archeoceti) possessed normal mammalian teeth, at any
rate so far as the upper jaw is concerned. On each side there
were three incisors, one canine, and five molars. Remains of
these creatures, which are grouped under a single genus
(Zeuglodon\, haye been found in North America, and more
doubtfully in England and other parts of Europe, in Egypt, and
even in New Zealand.

The next marked stage in the development of the whales
is represented by the Squalodonts, in which the teeth are
very numerous, and are rapidly approximating to a simple,
pointed type ; but the molars are still doubly rooted, and their
upper surface is notched. The incisors are three on each side,
the canines are just distinguishable in form, but the premolars
have become simple, single-rooted teeth, and they, together with
the molars, have increased in numbers beyond the normal
mammalian formula so that in the upper jaw there are as many
as twelve of these molar and premolar teeth. Then perhaps
next in order of development come the numerous existing
WHALES AND PORPOISES 19

forms of the Toothed 1 Whales (Odontoceti). The toothed whales
include (besides the extinct Squalodonts) the fresh-water Dolphins,
or Platanistide (relatively small forms found in the Amazon and
the Ganges, but in a fossil state also in Europe and North
America), the True Dolphins (Delphinide), the Sperm Whales
(Physeteride), and the Ziphioid Whales (Ziphiing).

Finally there is the sub-order of the Baleen, or Whalebone
Whales (Mystacoceti), which differ so markedly from the existing
toothed whales that at one time certain zoologists were inclined to
believe in the double origin of the whales, that is to say, they
would have derived the baleen whales from a different source from
that which gave rise to the toothed whales. But this perhaps is
due to an exaggeration of the differences between the two great
existing groups of the Mystacoceti and Odontoceti. In the jaws of
the unborn young of most, if not all, whalebone whales there are
actually two sets of true teeth, the last of which is, however,
absorbed into the substance of the jaw before the birth of the
foetus. These two sets of teeth seem to answer to the milk and
the mature dentition of other mammalia. In the earliest set of
teeth which makes its appearance in the jaws of the foetal whale-
bone whale the teeth are much fewer in number than in the
succeeding dentition, and they actually offer traces of more than
one cusp, thus approximating to the molar teeth of the
Zeuglodonts (4rcheoceti). In this point, as in some others, the
whalebone whales offer more archaic features than most of
the toothed whales, though in other respects they are a more
extreme departure from the ordinary mammalian type. For
instance, in the toothed whales the nostrils (except in the foetus)
have only a single opening—the blow-hole—whereas in the
whalebone whales the orifice is double, as it is in other mammalia.
Also among existing whales the Mystacoceti offer slightly more
traces of hind limbs than the Odontoceti. In the right whale, for
instance (from which the best whalebone is obtained), there is not
only a minute ischium and pelvis but there is a short thigh bone,

1 As distinguished from the whalebone whales, which have lost all
functional teeth.
20 BRITISH MAMMALS

and below this a tiny spur which is a rudiment of the tibia, or
principal bone of the leg. In the breast bone, made of a single
piece (to which only one pair of ribs is attached), in the perfectly
symmetrical shape of the skull (both sides being absolutely alike),
and in the development of whalebone in the mouth, the Mystacoceti
differ from the toothed whales. Perhaps their nearest allies in
this group are the Ziphioids.

In all whales the mamme, or mammary glands, are a single
pair. They are situated in the inguinal region, close to the
vent, and the nipple is concealed in a deep cleft.

uo Pelvis,

     
 

Thigh bone.

Tibia.

ALL THAT REMAINS OF THE WHALE'S HIND Limps (Ba/exa),
From a specimen in Museum of College of Surgeons,

Whales are wonderful instances of successful adaptation to
a special mode of existence. Originally land animals, they can
now exist with comfort under the water at a considerable depth
and at very low temperatures. The elaborate network of blood-
vessels utilises slowly and with economy the supply of oxygen
stored in the lungs; the thick padding of blubber all round the
body is an elastic cushion which protects the whale from pressure
at great depths or from the effects of cold; so that whales can
pass with indifference from the Tropic to the Arctic seas. Blubber
is fat (sometimes liquid) held in a dense mesh of areolar tissue.

Owing to their exclusively aquatic existence, and almost
equally exclusive confinement in these latitudes to salt water, it
WHALES AND PORPOISES 21

is not as easy, as in the case of land mammals, to definitely
include this or that species of whale in the British fauna. Some
species not yet recorded as British may occasionally enter our
waters within the three-mile limit. In the case of others, their
being stranded on British shores after some storm may be the
result of a special accident, such as that which occasionally drives
North American species of birds to Ireland or Scotland. Up to
the present time, however, the species enumerated and described
below have been identified in British waters—that is to say, within
the three-mile limit—or have been stranded on British coasts.

SUB-ORDER: ODONTOCETI, TOOTHED WHALES
Famity: DELPHINID.Z,. DOLPHINS AND PORPOISES

Monodon monoceros. Tue NaRWHAL

The Narwhal, or Sea Unicorn, has been recorded at least
three times within British limits since the middle of the seven-
teenth century: once near the island of May (Firth of Forth,
Scotland), another time in the Shetland Islands, and on a third
occasion off the coast of Lincolnshire (shores of the Wash).
The narwhal, in its present distribution, is almost entirely
confined to the Arctic regions. It is a smallish whale, not
known to exceed 15 ft. in length, turning nearly if not quite
white when old, but usually with the upper surface of the body
mottled or spotted in dark or light gray on a whitish ground,
with the under side entirely white. This creature is famous for
its extraordinary tusk. The head is very round, without any
projecting beak. ‘The foetus of this animal has numerous teeth
in the jaws, like those of other dolphins; but none of these
teeth, as a rule, reach maturity, with the exception of one or
two in the front of the upper jaw. In the female narwhal
these two tusk-like teeth are quite small, and do not project
beyond the jaw, but in the male on one side (usually the left),
the tooth develops into an extraordinarily long, spirally twisted

1 But there are fossil remains of the narwhal, dating from a period just
prior to the Glacial periods, found on the north coast of Norfolk.
22 BRITISH MAMMALS

tusk, perhaps as much as 6 ft. in Jength occasionally. This
tusk grows out horizontally through bone and flesh, inclining
towards the middle of the skull. The corresponding tooth on
the right side of the upper jaw remains usually quite rudimentary.
Occasionally, however, both teeth are developed, though this is
a rare occurrence. The narwhal being practically toothless, it
is apparently unable to feed on the larger kinds of fish, and its
diet is said to consist mainly of octopuses, small crustaceans
with soft shells, and small fishes. Scoresby, however, relates
that he found the remains of a large flat-fish in a narwhal’s
stomach, and thought it probable that the male narwhal used
his tusk to spear large fish. This, however, seems improbable,
since the mouth of the narwhal is too small to take in a fish of
any considerable size, even if it succeeded in detaching it from
the long tusk, while, as it has no biting teeth, it could not tear
off morsels. It is pretty certain that the main use of the tusk is
in battles between the males for the possession of the females.

Delphinapterus leucas. Betuca,’ oR Wuite WHALE

The White Whale is in many respects a less specialised form
than the narwhal, and no doubt represents more or less nearly
the stock from which the narwhal evolved. But it has no long
tusk. On the other hand, the permanent dentition consists of
as many as ten teeth on each side of each jaw—teeth which
are simple cones in the young animal, but become, by use,
flattened stumps. The young belugas are generally slate colour,
fading into grayish-white on the under parts, but the adults
become pure white all over—a white which is sorhetimes tinged
with oyster-gray or with a pinkish tint.2 The beluga is not
known to exceed 12 ft. in length.

1 This is a Russian name, derived from the adjective meaning white.

? Nordenskidld, who saw much of this whale when coasting along the
arctic shores of Siberia, describes the adult beluga as singularly beautiful, its
glistening white hide showing scarcely a scratch or a wrinkle. Two young
male belugas, which were cast ashore in Pentland Frith in 1793, were
mottled with brownish-gray, the mottles somewhat resembling the spots of
the narwhal.
WHALES AND PORPOISES 23

The beluga has but little more claim than the narwhal to
be considered a British mammal. Hitherto it has only made its
appearance on the coast of Scotland, some five instances in all
having been recorded. In 1879 a specimen was stranded by the
tide off a river mouth in Sutherlandshire. The broad tail of the
whale had in some way been caught between two short posts
which were connected with a net. A dead salmon lying in the
vicinity suggested that the beluga had attempted to ascend the
river in pursuit of this fish. Indeed, the white whale not
infrequently ascends rivers, and appears to have little terror of
shoal water.

In both the beluga and the narwhal there is practically no
back fin, merely a low ridge standing up along the lower part
of the back. Also in common with the narwhal, the vertebrae
of the neck in the beluga are separate bones, not fused into a
mass, as in most other cetaceans and all other members of the
Dolphin family. In these two animals also (especially in the
beluga) there is a slight indication of a neck in the outward
aspect.

The beluga feeds on such fish as salmon, cod, and flounders,
also on cuttlefish and crustaceans. Like the narwhal, it is
never solitary, but consorts with others of its kind in small
herds. The beluga is unusually playful, not only with its fellows,
but even seeming to romp through the water in accompanying
ships. This charming confidence, however, is fast dying out,
on account of the way in which the animal is attacked by man
for its blubber and hide. The beluga, when swimming close to
the surface of the water, often emits a bellowing noise when it
comes to the surface to breathe. Whalers have named it the
“Sea Canary,” from the fact of its uttering these cries; but
the metaphor is very strained, as, at most, its cry is a sobbing
sound, like the faint lowing of an ox. The beluga has been
several times caught alive, has been kept in captivity, and
become quite tame. One which was captured in the Gulf of
St. Lawrence, in the middle of the nineteenth century, was kept
alive in a tank at Boston for two years. In the seventh volume
24 BRITISH MAMMALS

of the Boston Fournal of Natural History it is stated by Professor
Wyman that during its captivity this beluga became quite tame,
and allowed himself to be harnessed to a floating car in which
a woman performer was seated. The beluga then swam round
the tank, dragging the little vessel with him. He recognised
his keeper, allowed himself to be handled, and at the proper
time would come and put his head out of the water to be
harnessed or to take food. This beluga was very playful in
disposition. He would take into his mouth a sturgeon and a
small shark which were confined in the same tank, and, after
playing with them awhile, allow them to go unharmed. He
would also pick up and toss stones about with his mouth. In
connection with this, it is rather interesting to note that sand
and pebbles are often found in the stomach of the beluga, as,
indeed, in some other whales. Two other specimens of the
beluga lived for a short time at the Westminster Aquarium in
1877 and 1878.

Phocena communis. THe Common Porpolse

The Porpoises differ from the preceding genera in the larger
number of teeth which are found in each jaw, and which may
extend to as many as twenty-six on each side. The teeth are
peculiar in shape, being compressed, spatulate, and sometimes
divided into distinct lobes. The tooth is pinched into a narrow
neck between the crown and the roots. The porpoise differs
from the true dolphins in that it has a relatively round and
blunted head, the muzzle of which is not prolonged into a long
snout as in the dolphins. It is, like these other animals and
unlike the beluga, in the possession of a marked back fin. This
fin is remarkable in the porpoise for having often a row of
horny tubercles along its margin. These were first observed by
the English naturalist, Dr. Gray, who in a specimen caught off
Margate noticed that these tubercles were calcified or bony.
This was a very interesting discovery. In allies of the porpoise
found in the Indian seas these calcified tubercles or scales tend
to spread along the whole back of the animal. Moreover, in the
 

hots :By Ae ae RUdiauds GRAMPUS, OR KILLER (Orca gladiator).

 

To face p. 24.
WHALES AND PORPOISES 25

foetus of the common porpoise the horny or bony tubercles on
the fin are larger and extend further. These tubercles are evi-
dently the last remains of an armature of bony plates which
covered the bodies of the early cetaceans. Distinct traces of
this armature were discovered by the German naturalist, Johannes
Miller, in connection with the remains of the zeuglodon, that
primitive whale in which the teeth were still differentiated into
incisors, canines, and molars. It is possible, therefore, that when
the cetaceans branched off from some stock of primitive land
mammals allied to the modern edentates, they, like so many
existing edentates, had to a great extent replaced hair as a
covering for the skin by an armature of bony plates, hair only
remaining here and there on the under parts and about the
mouth, in which last position
it remains in so many whales
in the shape of a few bristles.

The Common  Porpoise
rarely exceeds § ft. in length.
The colour of the upper parts
is dark grayish-black, with
black flippers and tail flukes.
The whole of the under parts
from the chin to the vent is white tinted with lemon or pink.
At the junction of the black of the upper and the white of the
under parts there is in many specimens a curiously distinct gray
line, as represented in my drawing. The eye in the porpoise is
relatively small. The external ear is represented by an opening
in the skin so minute that it is scarcely larger than a pin-point.
This aperture of the ear is situated about two inches behind the
eye, in a line with that organ, and is backed in some specimens
by a small wart, the vestige of an ear conch. The porpoise has a
voice, though it rarely utters cries except when in sore distress.
It is related by Thomas Bell (the author of 4 History of British
Quadrupeds) that in the middle of the nineteenth century some
porpoises which had entered Poole Harbour made their way up
the little River Frome as far as Wareham, in Dorsetshire. Here

 

TEETH OF PORPOISE (after Flower).
Magnified to twice natural size.
26 BRITISH MAMMALS

they were detained by hastily constructed weirs, and for three
days they made such a distressing noise with their bellowing that
(with the usual quaint notion of kindness which distinguishes
our treatment of the lower animals) they were “put out of their
misery,” not by being released and allowed to return to their
happy life in the open sea, but by being promptly killed.

There is no doubt about the porpoise being a British
mammal, for not only is it extremely abundant all round the
coasts of Great Britain and Ireland, but it frequently ascends the
principal British rivers, not even excepting the Thames. The
breeding season of the porpoise is generally supposed to be in
the spring, and the period of gestation is said to be six months,
but it would seem as though breeding may take place at other
seasons, since females with fully developed young have been
captured in May. The porpoise only produces a single young
one at a birth.

The food of the porpoise consists entirely of fish, usually of
the size of mackerel or salmon. The flesh of the porpoise is said
to be like pork, and the creature was formerly much eaten in the
coast regions of Great Britain, though it has now gone entirely
out of vogue. During the middle ages it was an important
article of diet, since, being regarded by the Roman Catholic
Church as a fish, it was permissible to eat the succulent flesh of the
porpoise on fast days. Nowadays its only importance to com-
merce consists in its hide, which furnishes doubtfully good leather
for boots,’ and for its oil yielded by the blubber. The average
porpoise may yield as much as three gallons of oil.

Orca gladiator. Tur Common “ Kitten” WHALE, OR
GRAMPUS

This is, in some respects, the most interesting of the British
whales, owing to its ferocious disposition, striking coloration,
and world-wide distribution. It is constantly met with near the
coasts of the British Islands, and occasionally ascends tidal rivers.

1 Much of the leather known as porpoise hide is, however, made from the
skin of the white whale.
WHALES AND PORPOISES 27

Three specimens entered the Thames in the spring of 1890.
They swam up the river as far as Chelsea Bridge, and apparently
returned to the sea without having been killed by a people
celebrated for its love of animals. It is more commonly met with
at the present day about the Shetland and Orkney Islands and
along the east and west coasts of Scotland. The orca is larger
than most dolphins. One specimen killed on the coast of Norfolk
measured as much as 21 ft. 3 in. The snout is not prolonged
into any beak. The gape of the mouth is not so wide as might be
supposed in reference to the ferocious appetite and carnivorous
(rather than piscivorous) nature of the animal. The teeth are, as

   

THE KILLER WHALE (Orca gladiator).

compared to the porpoise, comparatively few in number, not
exceeding thirteen, and usually as few as ten on each side of the
two jaws; but they are slightly curved, pointed, and much
larger in size than those of the porpoise or of most dolphins. The
longest teeth project as much as three inches from the gum. The
coloration of the orca is a bold and eccentric arrangement of black
and white, the black, especially over the back, assuming almost a
purple tinge. The distribution of black and white is so compli-
cated that it is best illustrated by the accompanying drawing.
The Killer Whale has rather large flippers, and a particularly long
back fin. This, which is situated rather nearer to the head than

1 The greatest known length of the orca is stated by Beddard to be
30 ft.
28 BRITISH MAMMALS

to the tail, is nearly vertical, and is prolonged to quite a sharp,
stiff point. But this lengthy development of the back fin is
characteristic of the males; in the females it is much shorter.
Ancient writers were much impressed with this long, sharp back
fin of the killer whale, and started the theory that it was even
more rigid and sharp than it is in actuality, and that with this
powerful weapon the orca ripped up the belly of the huge
whales whom it delights to attack. There is, however, no truth
in this story. The killer whales devour seals, porpoises, and
dolphins, and attack and eat piecemeal the biggest whales of all
kinds. They are said to swallow the smaller dolphins alive, even
to the extent of four in succession, and Eschricht, a Danish
naturalist, even asserted that in one specimen of the orca which
was stranded on the Baltic coast, and which only measured 16 ft.
in length, there were remains in the stomach of fourteen small
seals. Graphic accounts have been given by Lydekker and
Scammon of the way in which the killer attacks large whales,
generally aiming first at the mouth and head. It is stated by
some that when a whalebone whale opens its mouth the orca
dashes in, snatches at and drags out the tongue, which it devours
with gusto.

Pseudorca crassidens. Tue Lesser KILLer

This whale scarcely exceeds 14 ft. in length, and has some-
what fewer teeth on each side of the jaw than in Orca, those in
the lower jaw (ten on each side) being usually more numerous
than in the upper jaw (eight on each side). The back fin is
much shorter than in the orca, and the flippers are more pointed
and less broad ; moreover, in colour it is entirely black. This
whale appears to be almost universally distributed, having been
found (fossil) in England (Lincolnshire), and living on the coast of
Denmark, and also off Tasmania. It is remarkable (as a British
mammal) from the fact that it was first described from a fossil
skull found in the Lincolnshire fens. Some years ago a herd
of these lesser killers entered the Baltic, and were described
by Danish naturalists.
WHALES AND PORPOISES 29

Globicephalus melas. Tur Buack Frsu, or Pitot or
“Ca’iInc”” WHaLE

This rather large dolphin, at least 20 ft. in length when full
grown, is nearly black all over, with the exception of a heart-
shaped whitish patch on the throat, which is sometimes extended
into a narrow whitish strip along the middle of the belly. It is
sharply distinguished from the killers by its very globular-
shaped head, which has hardly any projecting muzzle. The
flippers are long and narrow, especially towards the tip. They
are somewhat
“ falcated "—that
is to say, they are
very broad near
the base, and

    
    
  

S
\}

we
WY

    

\y
then curve like a AN i
scimitar towards \ i
the tip, The : aN
number of the iS

phalanges, or small
bones, in the two
middle fingers of
the flippers may be
as many as four-
teen. The back
fin is depressed,
and not erect as in the orca. It is long and thick. The teeth
are small in size, and mainly confined to the front part of the
jaws, never exceeding twelve on each side.

This whale is of a mild disposition, entirely lacking the
ferocity of the killer. It feeds mainly on cuttlefish, though
it also devours herrings, mackerel, and other fish of small size.

The Black Fish is often seen off the British coasts. In
different varieties or species it is very nearly world-wide in
distribution, though it does not extend very far into the Arctic
regions. Its most common habitat in British waters is the sea

HEAD OF BLACK FISH (Glodicephalus).
30 BRITISH MAMMALS

round the Orkney and Shetland Islands. The black fish is said
to be the most gregarious of all known whales, assembling in
large herds, which are believed to include sometimes from one to
two thousand individuals, though more commonly not exceeding
two or three hundred. These herds follow a leader, and follow
this leader blindly, even though it may be into shoal water,
where they become stranded. In 1845 it is stated that two
thousand and eighty of these black fish were driven ashore by
the fishing fleets on the Farde Islands ; and in the same year, on
September 22nd, fifteen hundred and forty were killed in two
hours in Quendall Bay, Shetland Islands. ‘Should one whale
break through the line,” writes Bell, ‘all is lost: the rest will
follow it out to sea in spite of every exertion of the fishermen ;
but if they are forced into shallow water they plunge blindly on
till they strand themselves, and then the whole population rushes
wildly at them, armed with harpoons, spears, hatchets, picks, spades,
and any weapon that comes to hand ; and the cries and dying
struggles of the poor animals, the shouts of the men, and clash
of weapons, the bloody and troubled sea, combine to form an
extremely exciting if somewhat revolting scene.”

The young of the black fish is 3 ft. long at birth, and is
generally born towards the end of summer.

Grampus griseus. Rrisso’s Grampus *

This whale, which is very rarely taken in British seas, is
distinguished from all other dolphins by the total absence of
teeth in the upper jaw, while in the lower jaw the teeth are
sometimes as few as three on each side, or as many as seven. In
the configuration of the head it somewhat resembles the black
fish, though there is a greater extension of the snout. The
flippers are long, but much narrower and less falcated than in the
black fish. The length of the animal rarely exceeds 13 ft.
The coloration is rather peculiar. The head and fore part of the
body (except the flippers) is gray, with mottlings and lighter

1 The English word grampus is simply a corruption of the French “ grand
poisson.” It is a name often applied to the orca, or killer whale.
WHALES AND PORPOISES 31

patchings. The back, the back fin, and the tail are blackish,
almost purple in parts; so also are the flippers. The under
parts are grayish-white; the sides are grey, sometimes tinged
with yellow ; and the flippers and much of the body are strangely
marked with whitish spots, streaks,
and scratches, giving the creature
the appearance of its glossy hide
having been scored by the body
being dragged over pebbles. The
food of this grampus is mainly
cuttlefish. Its distribution is
pretty general, though it seems
to avoid the Arctic regions. As
regards its frequentation of British By Sian aha Ponaicti hd
waters, it has been most commonly eee g acres
met with in the British Channel, between Devonshire and Kent,
though it has also been recorded in the Solway Firth and off the
Shetland Islands. A specimen caught near Chichester in 1875
was exhibited for a day or two at the Brighton Aquarium.

 

Lagenorhynchus albirostris, Hr Wuire-BEAKED DoLpHIN

The genus Lagenorhynchus—“ short-beaked ” dolphins—in-
cludes a group of several small cetaceans which are thought to
connect the beakless forms previously described, in which the
muzzle is very short, with the long-snouted true dolphins,
where the muzzle is often prolonged into a form like the beak
of a bird in outline. In the short-beaked dolphins there is very
little break in outline between the forehead and the muzzle. In
the White-beaked Dolphin the upper jaw is rather shorter than
the lower. The teeth are small, and may be as many as twenty-
six in number on each side of both jaws. The adult white-
beaked dolphin is from 8 ft. tog ft. long. Onespecimen captured
on the coast of Norfolk measured 8 ft. 2 in. This dolphin is
very handsomely coloured, the upper part, including the flippers
and the tail, being deep purple-black. The sides are grayish,
and the belly, throat, under jaw, and the greater part of the
32 BRITISH MAMMALS

upper jaw are cream-white. On the gray sides there are three or
more large spots of whitish colour, which, however, are often
broken up by mottlings of a darker tint. There is also a light
patch on the back of the head behind the blow-hole, and another
near the root of the tail, The back fin is long and pointed, and
slopes backwards. In the living animal the black area of the
back is really a rich purple, almost iridescent. The skin is of a
soft and silky texture, and so thin that it is easily rubbed off.

This dolphin is an inhabitant of the seas of the North Atlantic
and the coast of America and of Europe. About six specimens
have been obtained at different times on the west and east coasts
of Scotland. One at least was captured on the north coast of
Ireland, and the remainder of the examples were obtained on the
east coast of England from the Tweed down to the vicinity of
the Thames. The white-beaked dolphin is also found in the
Baltic Sea.

Lagenorhynchus acutus. Tue Wuite-sipeD DoLpHIN

This rare form, distributed sparsely about the coasts of the
North Atlantic, only seems to have made its appearance in British
seas in the vicinity of the Orkney Islands, where it has been
obtained three times, including its first description from a stranded
skull. It is also stated that it has been met with in the Hebrides.
It is perhaps a little smaller in size than the preceding species,
and its distribution of colours is pretty much the same, except
that the whitish areas on the flanks of the white-beaked dolphin
become a continuous white band in Lagenorhynchus acutus, which
feature gives it the name of the white-sided dolphin. This white
stripe on the flanks extends nearly the whole length of the body,
from the flippers to the vicinity of the tail, but away from the
middle of the body the white stripe becomes yellowish or even
brown. There is sometimes a dark line lying within this long
band of darker colour. This dark line starts from the right
of the tail and ends on the upper portion of the white patch on
the flanks. The mixture of white, yellow, brown, and purple-
black gives this dolphin a very handsome appearance.
WHALES AND PORPOISES 33

Delphinus delphis. Tur Common DotpHin

The Common or True Dolphin and all the members of its
genus are distinguished from the other members of the family
by their pronounced beak. This is a considerable prolongation
of the skull, rendered the more striking by the great accumula-
tion of fatty blubber in front of the forehead. In the shape of
its skull and jaws the dolphin is more primitive than the other
genera of its family, and represents more nearly the original
cetacean skull, which in the earlier types of that group was very
prolonged. The jaws are sometimes furnished with as many
as sixty-five teeth on each side—seldom less than forty. The
dolphin, therefore, has more teeth than any other mammal.
The neck vertebre are less fused, and are more distinctly
developed than in the porpoises and killers. The flippers, or
front limbs, are rather long and pointed, sometimes almost hook-
like in outline. The back fin is well developed, but broad, and
not so pointed as in the short-beaked dolphins. The eye in the
true dolphins is relatively large (with a white pupil), the ear being
represented, as usual, by the tiniest pin-prick. The coloration
of this creature is beautiful, and its appearance is somewhat like
watered silk. The upper parts, as usual, are black, the flanks are
striped in ochre and yellowish-gray, and the belly is white, The
lips are bordered with stripes of lead gray. The remarkable
striping and spotting are best illustrated by a drawing.’ The
total length of the common dolphin is probably not more than
8 ft. The dolphin only produces one young one at a birth.
To this the female devotes herself with the greatest tenderness
and care. The mammary glands, which are situated near the
vent, and of course in the lower part of the body, become very
much enlarged and projecting when the young is born, while

1 This appearance of watered silk sometimes almost takes iridescent hues
in the living animal; but it is scarcely necessary to point out that the dolphin
of poetry, which passed through a gamut of exquisite rainbow hues as it died,
was not this or any other cetacean, but a large fish (Coryphena) which is
found in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, and which has often been mixed up
with the dolphin in heraldry.

3
34 BRITISH MAMMALS

the teats, which at other times are concealed in folds of the
skin, stand out, much swollen. The milk is said to be abundant,
and very rich.

The dolphin is not one of those cetaceans that frequent the
Arctic regions. It is very rarely met with as far north as
Southern Greenland, and it is not common off the coast of Norway.
The chief home of the common species appears to be the Mediter-
ranean, though it also extends across the North Atlantic. In
British waters it frequents the Channel more than the North Sea,
and in the Channel it is very common. Its food is fish, especially
herrings and mackerel, and also jellyfish, small cuttlefish, and
crustaceans. It seems to be a creature of happy disposition,
perpetually romping in the water, and by no means afraid of man.
It constantly accompanies ships in large herds, and, indeed, is
more commonly seen even than the porpoise. Like its congeners,
it has a voice, which it is said to use in a gentle lowing sound.

Tursiops tursio. Tue Botrie-Nos—D DoLPHIN

The Bottle-nosed Dolphins differ from the true dolphins by
their somewhat larger size, and by the much shorter and less
prominent beak. This creature is very under-hung, the
upper jaw being quite short as compared with the lower jaw, while
the opening of the mouth begins much higher up in the head,
suggesting a faint resemblance to the whalebone whales. The
teeth are fewer than in the true dolphin—about twenty to twenty-
five on each side of each jaw. These teeth in the adult animal
become worn down to flat surfaces, except perhaps in the case of
one or two in the front of the jaw which retain their conical
shape. In colour the bottle-nosed dolphin is purplish-gray above
and gray or grayish-white on the under parts. The flippers are
shorter than in the common dolphin, the back fin is rather long,
but blunt-tipped. This creature is said to have a powerful voice,
like the bellowing of a bull. The range of the bottle-nosed
dolphin is very much that of the common dolphin, but in British
waters it isa much rarer animal. Specimens have been obtained
during the last hundred and twenty years from the Thames and
     
    

SSS
pecasiie)

  

ComMON DOLPHIN (Delphinus delphis): to show markings. Note the white iris of the eye.
36 BRITISH MAMMALS

the coasts of Devonshire, North Wales, Lincolnshire, Scotland,
and Ireland.

Famity: PHYSETERID.Z. SPERM AND ZIPHIOID WHALES

This family is supposed to differ at the present day from almost
all the dolphins in that there is an absence of functional teeth in
the upper jaw. This is perhaps rather a foolish distinction, since,
apart from the similar case occurring in Risso’s grampus, we now
know that in one genus at least (Kogia) of sperm whales there are
two functional teeth on each side of the upper jaw, and in most of
the Physeteroids there are rudimentary teeth in the upper jaw
which do not cut the gum. Moreover, remains of fossil sperm
whales in Europe and South America show that in these earlier
types there were teeth in both jaws. But the Physeteroids also
differ from dolphins and from other whales in the remarkable
construction of the back portion of the skull, which rises into a
high ridge or crest behind the nasal aperture. This family is,
or was, represented in British waters by the sperm whale and the
beaked whales.

Sun-Famity: PHYSETERINA. SPERM WHALES
Physeter macrocephalus. THe Sperm WuHate, or CacHALOT

This has perhaps in its time been the most gigantic cetoid
development in size, for there are credible stories, supported to
some extent by the evidence of teeth, that sperm whales, 80 ft.
long existed in the Pacific off the coast of South America.
But at the present day the largest known males have not been
found to attain a greater length than 60 ft. The female sperm
whale is proportionately much smaller than the male, being
scarcely over 30 ft. long. The True Sperm Whale has an
enormous head, in length about a third of the total length of the
body. There is a marked prominence at the back of the head,
which corresponds (though there is a great mass of blubber behind)
to the great upward development of the crest of the skull in the
Ziphioids. The blow-hole, or outer valve of the united nostrils,
WHALES AND PORPOISES 37

is carried much further forward than in any other existing whale,
and is immediately over the tip of the upper jaw. The lower
jaw is quite slender towards its tapering end, but the upper jaw
terminates outwardly in an enormous truncated mass, rising
vertically above its attenuated bony termination. This truncated
snout is flat and broad, and its termination is almost square
with the sides of the head, though it is somewhat rounded
above. There is no indication of this extraordinary development
of gristle, flesh, and blubber in the skull of the sperm whale.
From the attenuated upper jaw one would argue a long, thin
beak instead of this gigantic snout, in shape like a huge travelling

 

bag. ‘The eyes are placed not very far from the angle of the jaw,
and relatively close to the eye is situated the flipper, which must
be of little functional use to the sperm whale. All the neck
vertebre are fused together, and the neck is extremely short.
In the attachment of the ribs to the vertebre, the double head
of the rib may rest on a single vertebra. The blow-hole,
or outer termination of the nostrils, which, as in all the
Odontocetes, is a single opening, lies on one side of the termina-
tion of the snout, and not exactly in the middle. This makes
the upper surface of the skull markedly asymmetrical. The
aperture of the blow-hole is almost in the form of the letter S.
38 BRITISH MAMMALS

In the narrow lower jaw the number of teeth may be as many as
twenty-five. The two diverging bones which form this mandible
are united for more than half their course, and are not widely
separated from their junction at the chin, as is the case with
most other cetaceans. In the enormous cavity between the bones
of the skull and the upper surface of the trunk-like head is an
accumulation of oily matter—spermaceti—secreted by the lining
membranes of the great cells that surround the long passage
running diagonally through this huge excrescent growth from
the openings of the nasal bones in the front of the skull to
the outlet of the nostrils at the end of the snout. This whitish
oil, which is secreted on either side of the passage of the nostrils,
has been in use for hundreds of years for many purposes. Its
origin and nature were at first misunderstood by the ancients,
who thought that it was the seminal fluid of the whale and there-
fore called it “ spermaceti.” The thick blubber which lies all along
the back of the sperm whale also produces a most valuable oil, and
for these two products (together formerly with ambergris) the
sperm whale has been hunted well-nigh to extinction. Ambergris,
which is found in its intestines, and which, when expelled there-
from, floats on the surface of the sea, is a gummy substance in
which are embedded the beaks of cuttlefish. This substance is
used in perfumery, and anciently was thought to be a strong
aphrodisiac. The sperm whale has no back fin, but along the
line of the back there are a series of lumps and undulations.
The largest of these, which rises in the middle of the back over
the junction of the tail and the body, is almost prolonged into
a fin-like excrescence. The colour of the cachalot, or sperm
whale, is black, shading into a grayer tint on the belly. Its food
consists mainly of squids and cuttlefish. It also eats such fish as
come in its way.

The cachalot was formerly world-wide, with the exception
that it avoided the icy seas of the Arctic and Antarctic regions.
Sperm whales were repeatedly cast ashore on the coasts of Britain
in preceding centuries, the last occurrence, however, being no
farther back than 1871, when a large specimen was stranded on
WHALES AND PORPOISES 39

the island of Skye. But in a more remote period in the history
of this species, sperm whales closely allied to the existing form
were common in English seas, and their remains are preserved in
East Anglian rocks of the Pliocene period.

SuB-FamiLy: ZJPHIIN.Z. ZIPHIOID OR BEAKED WHALES

A small Physeteroid or sperm whale (represented by the
genus Kogia found in the Antarctic seas, and not much larger in
size than a porpoise) forms some link between the huge sperm
whale and the outwardly very dissimilar remaining members of
the Physeteride, who are grouped together as a sub-family,
Ziphiine. In the Ziphiines there are no functional teeth’ what-
ever in the upper jaw, and in the lower jaw the teeth are reduced
to one pair, or more rarely to two pairs. These scanty teeth
sometimes become very large in the males, and are perhaps used
for fighting in some species. A marked feature in the Ziphioids
is the extraordinary development of crests of bone behind the
ear or in front of the nasal openings at the top of the skull.
These bony crests support great bulging foreheads of fatty tissue
containing spermaceti. ‘They are even more exaggerated in the
male than in the female. The upper jaw is prolonged into a
long and narrow beak, usually not much, if at all, under-hung by
the lower jaw. In nearly all the Ziphioids there are marked
longitudinal grooves on each side of the throat. All possess a
small back fin. The blow-hole is single, shaped like a crescent,
and usually in the middle of the huge bulging forehead of fatty
tissue.

The stomach of the Ziphioid whales is a peculiar feature, and
contains a great many compartments, sometimes as many as
fourteen. All the Ziphioid whales, being, for masticating and
snatching purposes, practically toothless, live entirely on cuttle-
fish and small, soft-shelled sea animals. Indeed, it is no doubt
this diet, so much affected by many groups and species of
whales, which is gradually causing the disuse of the functional
teeth. All these Ziphioids with whom man has come into

1 That is to say, the teeth practically never pierce the gums.
40 BRITISH MAMMALS

contact are stated to possess loud voices, which they use when in
distress, and which resemble the bellowing of oxen, or even loud,
human-like sobs.

Hyperoodon rostratus. THE Common Bgakep or Bottie-
NOSED WHALE

This animal attains to a length of from 20 ft. to 26 ft., males
even perhaps as much as 30 ft. The upper jaw is prolonged
into a short beak, and above the beak rises a huge, dome-like
forehead, supported not only by the premaxillary crests of bone
which rise from
the base of the
skull, but also
(in the males) by
two still huger
excrescences of
bone growing up
above the eyes in
a pyramidal shape.
This growth of
bone in the males,
and the con-
sequent exagge-
ration of the
bulging forehead,
almost covers the beak, which is much more apparent in the
females and in the young. The teeth are reduced to a small
pair, conical in shape, at the extremity of the lower jaw, but these
even are covered over by the gum, so that the creature during
its life is practically toothless. The tail is not notched in the
middle between the flukes, but has a perfectly straight outline
along its extremity. In colour the bottle-nosed whale is black
above and grayish-white beneath, but with advancing age turns
to yellowish-gray all over, with a white band round the neck and
white on the front of the head and upper jaw. The beaked
or bottle-nosed whale is never found in herds, but goes about

 

HEAD OF BOTTLE-NOSED WHALE (Hyperoodon rostratus).
WHALES AND PORPOISES 41

singly or in pairs. This whale is still found pretty frequently
in British waters. One was caught in the Thames above
London Bridge in 1783, and nearly a hundred years afterwards
(1882) a pair entered the Thames and were killed there. It
is of very common occurrence round the Shetland Islands, and
is frequently stranded on the coast of Norfolk and along the
British Channel.

It is curious that this whale appears to be unknown elsewhere
in the west of Europe than on the coasts of the British Islands
and of Northern France. Its chief area of distribution at the
present time is the Arctic Ocean. It, or a closely allied species,
is found fossil in East Anglia.

Ziphius cavirostris. Cuvier’s WHALE

This remarkable creature is very rare, only one example
having been found in British waters (off the mainland of
Shetland). In Cuvier’s Whale the lower jaw, when covered by its
integuments, is larger and more prominent than the upper jaw,
which it overhangs. There are two conical teeth in the lower
jaw, placed in the front, so that when the jaws are closed these
teeth project in front of the muzzle of the upper jaw. Some
specimens of this Ziphioid from the Mediterranean are stated to
have the skin of the jaws set with hard bony tubercles. In the
skull of this animal there are but slight indications of the bony
crests so common in most of the other Ziphioids. The colour
of this whale appears to be uncertainly known. It is possible
that it is dark gray above and whitish on the belly, with the
dark gray portion of the body marked with irregular white
streaks.' Ziphius in one or more species is (however rare) of
world-wide distribution, having been met with off the coast of
South Africa and of South America, New Zealand, and the
Mediterranean.

1 These whitish streaks and scratches, found on the thin outer skin of so
many Ziphioids and Dolphins, are said to be due to blisters caused by the
sharp suckers of cuttlefish.
42 BRITISH MAMMALS

Mesoplodon bidens. Sowzrspy’s WHALE

In this animal (about 15 ft. long) there are two functional
(and rather large) teeth growing out of the middle portion of the
lower jaw. In the males these teeth are sometimes considerably
developed, and always show like the tusks of a boar when the
mouth is closed, as they diverge from the edge and project
outwards. Under the throat are two diverging furrows somewhat
in the shape of a V, with a point directed forwards. The opening
of the ear in this animal is so small as to admit only a fine bristle
being passed through it. Sowerby’s Whale is dark blackish-gray,
or sometimes a bluish-slate, with the under parts of the body
much lighter, and the surface of the body is also diversified with
small whitish spots and streaks. The nostrils open not at the
bottom of a deep hole just above the base of the beak, but
directly on the top of the skull, in a slight depression. This
Ziphioid was first made known to science by a specimen cast
ashore on the coast of Elginshire (Scotland). Since that time a
number of other specimens have been stranded on the Scotch or
English coasts, or have been captured at sea close to the coast-line.
This whale would appear mainly to frequent the Atlantic, and to
range perhaps as far south as the Equator. In the southern seas
it is represented by closely allied species. In a very distinct form
of this genus in South African waters, the teeth in the lower jaw
appear to grow out into long, grooved tusks, which arch over the
upper jaw and prevent the animal from opening its mouth more
than a few inches.

Sus-OrpEr: MYSTACOCETI. WHALEBONE WHALES

The Whalebone Whales, whose distinction from the existing
toothed whales has already been described, are divided at the
present day into two well-marked families: the Right Whales?
and the Rorquals.

1 Called by whalers the “ Right” whales because the other whalebone
whales were wrong, that is to say, far less valuable, both for the whalebone
and oil.
 

SowErRBy's WHALE (Mesoplodon bidens).
Head and skull, showing single pair of teeth in lower jaw and remarkable frontal crest of bone.
44 BRITISH MAMMALS

Famity: BALZNIDAZ. THE RIGHT WHALE
Balena anstralis. Tur SourHern Ricut WHALE

The hugest of the “ Right’ whales, commonly known as
the Greenland whale (Balena mysticetus), now so near extinction,
and driven up to the most inaccessible parts of the Arctic Ocean,
cannot be classed as a British mammal, because no certain evidence
exists of it having been seen in close vicinity to the British
Islands, the recorded instances of its presence being more probably
referable (it is thought) to the species about to be described, the
Southern Right Whale. But in the Pliocene deposits of Eastern
England fossil remains are found (the ear bones) which would
almost seem to indicate that the Greenland whale was found at
one time in British waters.

The southern right whale does not grow to quite the same
enormous size as the Greenland whale (which may be as much as
60 ft. long), and its head is also proportionately smaller. In the
Greenland whale the shape and the size of the head are carried to
the utmost degree of exaggeration. The southern right whale
also is‘(or was, for it may be quite extinct by now) almost black
in colour, and not marked with white in various parts of the
body, as often occurs to the Greenland whale. Neither the
southern nor the Greenland right whales have any dorsal fin, or
any longitudinal furrows on the skin of the throat and chest. Its
average lenoth may not exceed 50 ft. The baleen, or whale-
bone, is shorter, and perhaps lighter in colour than in the case of
the Greenland whale. This baleen is nothing but an extravagant
development of the lamelle or furrows of the palate (epithelium).
These thin plates or blades of horny matter are broadest at their
base where they are attached to the gum, and narrowest at their
terminations. In their lowest portions they are frayed into a
number of threads, and these threads serve as a fine sieve for the
purpose of straining from the water the minute organisms on
which the right whales feed. The plates of baleen may be as
many as 380 in number. In the right whales they are generally
black in colour, and gray or grayish-yellow in the other members
WHALES AND PORPOISES 45

of the family. They are ranged transversely across the palate,
exactly like the furrows in the epithelium.1. In the right whales
these plates are so long that, however widely the mouth is opened,
they still close up the intervals between the jaws.
The right whales open their mouths when they
find themselves in the middle of shoals of minute
crustaceans and pteropods,? and then close the
mouth, forcing out the water through the sieve
of the whalebone. The tiny organisms that are
prevented from escaping by the fringe of the
baleen plates then fall on to the broad tongue
which lies in the great hollow of the under jaw, _Clione limacina.
and in this manner are swallowed through the Oe (eee

Molluse = (bright
very narrow gullet. In the right whales the Purple in colour)

£ ‘ on which the
throat is so narrow at the swallow that it would great whalebone
probably allow nothing to pass of larger size than ae fsa He
a mouse. When the mouth is shut the long

fringes of whalebone fold backwards, the front plates lying below
the hinder ones, so that in a sense the long ends of the whalebone
are partially contained within the approach to the gullet. When
the animal opens its mouth wide the whalebone springs forward
till it is perpendicular.

All the whalebone whales are considered to be characterised
by possessing only four true fingers in the flipper, as against the
five that are generally found in the toothed whales. There is
a seeming exception to this in the right whales, where the hand
appears to be five-fingered ; but it is the opinion of Mr. Beddard
that the presumed first finger of the right whale is really the
prepollex, the additional finger which occasionally appears in
mammals before the first or thumb, and which no doubt in this
whale has been retained or developed for the support of the

 

1 These furrows exist even in the human palate.

2 The principal source of the right whale’s food is a pteropod mollusc
about an inch long, named Clone limacina, bright purple when alive.
Specimens of this little creature are exhibited in the admirably organised
Whale Gallery at the British Museum (Natural History).
46 BRITISH MAMMALS

flipper. The finger which has disappeared drops out seemingly
in the middle of the series, and is possibly the normal third
finger. Whalebone whales, though such extreme types of
cetacean development in many directions, yet retain a few
primitive characteristics. The vestiges of hind limbs are more
developed in right whales than in any other member of the
order, for these small bones not only represent the pelvis and
ischium, but also the thigh bone and a portion of the tibia or
upper leg bone. All the whalebone whales, also, have double
openings to the nostrils. They further have traces of a smelling
organ, which is absent from other whales. It has been already
stated that all the whalebone whales, when in the foetal stage,
have teeth in the upper and lower jaws, which in calcifying are
absorbed by the time the animal is born. The whalebone does
not commence to form till the young whale is several weeks old.

The southern right whale is now very nearly extinct. At
one time it was certainly an inhabitant of the British Channel
and of the North Sea, perhaps also of the Irish Sea and Atlantic
coast of Ireland. It abounded in the Bay of Biscay, and was also
found in the Mediterranean, and perhaps also on the east coast
of North America, the South Atlantic, and the Indian Ocean.
The last recorded certain appearance of the southern right whale
in British waters was at Peterhead (east coast of Scotland) in
1806, though there is some evidence to show that a specimen
was stranded at Yarmouth in 1846. Another was seen off
Peterhead in 1872, while the bony remains of a right whale
were dredged up off Lyme Regis in 1853.

Famity: BALZNOPTERIDA. THE RORQUALS

These whalebone whales are not so much specialised as the
right whales. The head is proportionately smaller, and the
whalebone is much shorter.

Megaptera hoops. Tut Hump-sackeD WHALE

In this whale the flippers are very long and narrow (with
only four fingers). The vertebre of the neck are free, and not
*(sdo0g vaajdoSayy) FIVHN, AXMOVE-dWOAH

 
48 BRITISH MAMMALS

fused. The eye is proportionately rather large, and is situated
well above the angle of the jaw. There is absolutely no trace
of a neck, and the body is even more fish-like in shape than
that of any other whale. There is a back fin. A row of bony
tubercles, referred to in connection with other whales, often
grows along the edge of the lips. The skin under the lower
jaw, and along the throat and a portion of the belly, is streaked
with folds, which are so marked a characteristic of the Rorquals
and of the Ziphioid whales.’ There is a slight hump in the
middle of the back. The head is often studded with large
scaly tubercles about the size of an orange, which may also be
the remains of the original bony plates that covered the bodies of
the primeval whales. In colour the hump-backed whale is black
above, with entirely white or black-speckled flippers, and with
under parts marbled in black and white. The hump-backed whale
is of almost universal distribution. As regards its connection
with the British Islands, it is commonly seen during the summer
off the east coast of Scotland and the north-east and north-west
of England, occasionally appearing in large numbers off the
notth of Ireland. This whale frequently produces two young at
a birth, The hump-backed whale eats much larger molluscs
and crustaceans than the right whales, and it will also swallow
small fish.

Balenoptera musculus. THe Common Rorquat

This genus in the species next to be mentioned probably
includes the largest of living whales. The Common Rorqual
may be taken as a type of the genus. Curiously enough, in the
rorquals, as also in the hump-backed whales, the female is
generally bigger than the male. The length of the common

1 These slice, or longitudinal folds, are thought by some whalers and
zoologists to serve almost the purpose of gill openings in fishes, and to
oxygenate the blood from the oxygen of the water by dermal respiration.
The Balenopterids are certainly able to remain for very lengthened periods—
twelve hours, it is said—beneath the surface of the water without coming up
to breathe atmospheric air.
 

THE COMMON RORQUAL WHALE (Balenoptera musculus).
WHALES AND PORPOISES 49

rorqual is not known to exceed 70 ft. The head is proportion-
ately smaller to the body than in the right whales or in most of
the other rorquals. It has also some slight indication of a neck.
It is the species which I have chosen to illustrate in a coloured
drawing, which is partly based on the painting of a rorqual cast
up on the east coast of Ireland in 1860. From this painting it
will be seen that in colour this whale is blackish-gray above and
white beneath, though the white is often modified by gray and
yellow tinges. The whalebone is yellowish gray, sometimes
whitish in parts, or touched with brown or slate-gray. The
interior of the numerous folds on the under surface of the body
is black." There is a low back fin placed very far down the
body not far from the tail.

The common rorqual is less restricted in its choice of food
than the other whalebone whales. It can swallow herrings and
even larger fish as well as molluscs and crustaceans. This whale
is no rarity in British waters. It is widely distributed over both
the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean. It is more frequently
met with in the English and Irish Channels than in the North
Sea, but specimens are cast up frequently year after year on the
coasts of Ireland, Wales, and England. In Scotland it is met
with in the vicinity of the Orkney and Shetland Islands, and
occasionally in the Firth of Forth. It produces such inferior
baleen and blubber as to be scarcely worth killing for commercial
purposes. This, perhaps, is the reason why it still exists in
considerable numbers.

Balaenoptera sibbaldii, Sippatp’s Rorqual, oR THE “Biue”
WHALE

This is the largest of all known whales. Specimens have
been credibly recorded that measured go ft., though an estimate
of 105 ft. has sometimes been quoted. Several specimens have
been measured which were 80 ft. in length. A pregnant female
which was cast up near Edinburgh in the Firth of Forth contained

1 Sometimes in the living animal rosy-red.
4
50 BRITISH MAMMALS

within it a male foetus which measured nearly 20 ft. in length.
In this species the head is much larger proportionately than in the
common rorqual, while the flippers are longer and broader.
There are also a great many more folds in the throat and belly.
The dorsal fin near the tail is reduced to little more than a slight
protuberance. The colour of the baleen is deep black, thereby
contrasting strongly with the yellowish-gray of the common
rorqual’s whalebone. The colour of the body is dark gray
above, shading into lighter gray on the belly. The gray of this
whale is often quite bluish in tone, for which reason it is known
amongst whalers as the “blue ” whale. Its gray coloration is
also varied by small whitish spots on the breast. The upper side
of the flippers is black and the under whitish. Off the east
coast of America the under parts of this whale have frequently
a lemon-yellow tinge. The “blue” whale feeds principally on
small pteropods and crustaceans, such as Clione, Euphausia,
and Thrysanopoda. It also eats small fish, such as sardines
and sprats. This whale seems to be distributed throughout the
greater part of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, unless
in the last-named sea its representative is a different species or
variety. It is fairly abundant in the North Sea, being much
attracted to the coasts of Norway, because of the presence in the
fiords of the crustaceans on which it lives. Its occurrence in
British waters is a much rarer event than is the case with the
common rorqual, but it has been washed ashore at various points
of the Scottish coast, in the Hebrides, and on the north-east coast
of England. Sibbald’s whale yields much more oil proportion-
ately than does the common rorqual.

Balenoptera borealis. Rupotpui’s Rorguat

This whale scarcely reaches to 50 ft. in length. Its flippers
are very short proportionately. The whalebone is black, except
at the extremities, where it turns white. The upper parts of this
whale’s body are bluish-black, marked with oblong spots of light
gray ; the under parts of the body are whitish-gray. The upper
surface of the flippers is entirely black. The throat is streaked
WHALES AND PORPOISES 51

with the same longitudinal folds as in other rorquals. The back
fin is unimportant, and only just discernible as a slight excres-
cence. Rudolphi’s Rorqual inhabits the Atlantic, the North Sea,
and the British Channel. It is also thought that it or a closely
allied form is found in the Indian Ocean. Its discovery as a
member of the British fauna seems to date no further back than
1872, when one was stranded on the shores of the Firth of Forth.
Subsequently Rudolphi’s rorqual was found repeatedly on the
east and south-east coasts of England. A fine example actually
entered the Thames, and was captured at Tilbury in 1887.
Another entered the Medway, and was stranded near Rochester
in 1888. This one was said to utter sounds like the crying of a
child when it found itself hopelessly stranded. It is stated that
Rudolphi’s whale feeds exclusively on small crustaceans and never
touches fish, but this is doubtful in view of the fact that the one
which entered the Thames in 1887 did so in pursuit of a shoal of
sprats.

Balenoptera acuto-rostrata, Tur Lesser Rorgual, OR
Pike WHALE

This whale is quite commonly captured or stranded on the
coasts of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The female is said
to seek the vicinity of the coast when about to bring forth her
young. The Lesser Rorqual is the smallest of all this family
of whales. It scarcely exceeds 30 ft. in length, and is usually
smaller. The colour of the upper parts is blackish-gray, rather
sharply distinguished from the white of the throat and belly.
There is a white band across the flipper. The long creases or
folds which mark the throat and a portion of the stomach are
often orange-coloured, and sometimes black in the inner part
of the fold. The baleen is yellowish-white. The dorsal fin is
placed higher up in the body than in other rorquals, and is
longer.

This whale is of relatively common occurrence along the
British coasts. Elsewhere it is found in the North Sea, and as
far north as the Arctic Ocean, and over the whole of the North
52 BRITISH MAMMALS

Atlantic. A closely allied form is found in the North Pacific ;
which, indeed, may be identical. The lesser rorqual also feeds
on small crustaceans and tiny fish.

The remains of fossil whales related to the rorquals, as well
as others closely allied to the right whales, are found in some
abundance in the Eocene formations of East Anglia; perhaps
also of Hampshire, in which county remains of the archaic
Zeuglodonts (Archeoceti) have been discovered. From these
remains in England and Belgium, it would almost seem as
though the North Sea at one time was a great area of develop-
ment and radiation for the Mystacoceti, or whalebone whales, if
not, indeed, for the whales generally.
CHAPTER IV
Orvir: INSECTIVORA. INSECT-EATING MAMMALS

Turis is an order to which, as Huxley said, it is exceedingly
difficult to give a definition. They are none of them large animals,
and appear always to have been small throughout their long
history. ‘They are of the highest interest to the biologist because
they are almost as remarkable in possessing archaic features as
the Monotremes and certain Marsupial types. The Insectivores
of to-day offer in some of their forms very nearly exact repro-
ductions of the earlier placental mammals which existed at the
close of the Secondary Epoch. There are some points, indeed,
in which the Insectivora are of lower development than the
modern Marsupials, several of their existing types being
practically Monotremes, like the ornithorhynchus of Australia—
that is to say, having only one shallow cloaca in the female,
which receives and exudes the excreta of the bowels, kidneys,
and ovaries. Others, again, in the number of their incisor teeth,
the inflection of the lower jaw, and the construction of the
palate, resemble Marsupials. The Insectivores usually possess
clavicles (collar bones), which are absent in so many specialised
mammals. Their limbs usually retain the five toes. They are,
with one or two rare exceptions, plantigrade—that is to say,
when they walk they place the whole of the hand and foot on
the ground, as do monkeys and bears, not walking only on the
fingers or toes or on their nails. The nose is long, and often
developed into a proboscis or snout. The mamma, or teats, in
the Insectivores tend to be very numerous—often as many as
53
54 BRITISH MAMMALS

seven pairs, and in one species of tenrec twelve pairs. Their
teeth are remarkable in several ways; frequently presenting the
typical and Eutherian number of forty-four.'’ The molars in the
generalised types are of simple tritubercular construction ; in the
others they are many-cusped. The canines and incisor teeth are
normally present in both jaws; and in regard to the incisors,
several species of Shrews exhibit an apparent affinity to the
Marsupials, and perhaps to the earlier Mammals, in that they have
four pairs in the upper jaw instead of the normal three.? There
is a third trochanter to the thigh bone, and an entepicondylar
perforation of the arm bone (humerus, see p. 149). Both these
are archaic features. The canines in some species are double-
rooted—a peculiar and perhaps a primitive feature met with in
that curious animal the flying cobego of Eastern Asia, which
has affinities to the Bats, the Lemurs, and the Insectivores.

In their origin the Insectivores are with difficulty dis-
tinguished from the early types that gave rise to the Primates
(Lemurs) or to the Carnivores. The order certainly dates from
the Secondary Epoch, and one genus—Frinaceus (the Hedge-
hog)—is one of the oldest genera of existing mammals, for
it has continued on the earth (in France, if not in England)

in an unaltered form from the Miocene period of the Tertiary
Epoch.

1 In Centetes, a Madagascar genus, there would appear to be four pairs
of true molars. This may also occur in other insectivorous forms. See
p. 115.

2 In several Marsupials there are even five incisors on either side of the
upper jaw, and in a great many there are four. On the other hand, in the
Theriodont reptiles it is doubtful whether there were more than three on
each side. A proto-mammal with four incisors on each side of the upper
jaw has been postulated to explain this feature in the Marsupials, and perhaps
in the Shrews; but the more reasonable suggestion has been put forward
latterly that in the Marsupials the fourth and fifth incisor on each side may
be only an instance of the first, or ‘* milk,” dentition remaining persistent.
Either this may be the explanation of the four incisor teeth on each side of

the upper jaw in the Shrews, or the extra incisor may be a canine, and the
supposed canine a premolar.
 

van"

Photo by C. Reid.

 

Photo by C. Reid.

To face p. 54.
INSECT-EATING MAMMALS 55

Famity: ERINACEIDA. THE HEDGEHOGS
Erinaceus europeus. Tur Common HepcenHoc

The Hedgehog found in Britain shares with other members of
the genus Ervinaceus the striking outward characteristic of hair
developed into sharp spines, which extend in a thick growth all
over the upper surface of the body from forehead to the rump.
The cheeks, throat, belly, and limbs are covered with coarse hair.
The hedgehog is coloured as follows in most adult specimens :—
The forehead, the short ears, the throat, chest, and all the under
parts except the limbs are yellowish-white or pale buff. The
snout and muzzle are blackish-gray. At a distance the spines are
coloured a warm brown shot with white and black, the spines
being grayish-white at the tips, but brownish-black or black and
brown in the middle of their length. The length of head and
body is about ten inches, and the tail is another inch and a half.
The tail is naked above and hairy on the under surface. The
ear conches are broad and round. They are quite short, and-are
partially hidden by the coarse hair of the forehead. The claws
are long and grooved, but weak. The muzzle ends in a snout-
like nose. The legs are so short that the creature almost touches
the ground with its belly as it walks. The pig-like snout, short
neck, long body, and bristles are so suggestive of a miniature hog
that the common English name is a very apt one.

The hedgehog’s peculiarity of teeth should be noted, as it is
of interest in several ways. There are three pairs of incisors,
one pair of canines, three pairs of premolars, and three of molars
in the upper jaw; in the lower jaw the incisors are reduced to
two pairs and the premolars to two pairs also. The inner pair
of incisors in the upper jaw are very long and tusk-like, and
are separated from one another by a short interval. The
companion pair of inner incisors in the lower jaw are also long,
and are proclivous, that is to say, placed in a horizontal position.
The exceptional size of these teeth and their position quite
suggest a foreshadowing of the way in which the Rodents may
have developed from a low type of Eutherian mammal allied (as
56 BRITISH MAMMALS

was probably the case) to the Insectivores. In fact, if the hedge-
hog could have been traced back to a period as remote as the
end of the Secondary Epoch it might not have seemed unreason-
able to consider it as the first departure from the generalised
Eutheria in the direction of the Rodents. The second and
third incisor teeth in
the upper jaw of the
hedgehog are becoming
a negligible quantity,
Dec dlo and in some of the
CPkip Asiatic species the
7 second incisor almost
disappears. The upper
and lower canine teeth
are not markedly
prominent. In some
of the Asiatic species
the upper canines and
ae the third incisors are
Se ioe inserted by a double
Wages aitetaes instead of a single root.
But in the British
Nate: hedgehog (Erinaceus
so dower previous, europeus) these teeth
ee have only a single
root, though in the
canines there is a

rst incisor.

SKULLS OF INSECTIVORES, TO SHOW TEETH. groove that suggests

A. Hedgehog and 2. Mole (nat. size); C. Lesser Shrew that the root was
(24 times nat. size).

      
 
 

    

 

4th incisor.

    
  

originally double-
fanged. The third upper premolar in the series (it should
properly be styled the fourth, an intermediate one having
dropped out) is also a notable tooth, with a trenchant blade,
resembling the great carnassial fourth premolar so characteristic
of the true Carnivora.

The hedgehog has five pairs of teats, and the number of
INSECT-EATING MAMMALS 57

young born at a time varies from four to six. The young
are born blind, and nearly naked, the sprouting spines being
white in colour, and quite flexible. Nor are they at this tender
age able to roll themselves up, which habit would be of little
use to them then, since the undeveloped spines would offer
no protection. Breeding between hedgehogs takes place in
May or June, and the young are born after only a month’s.
gestation. Sometimes a second litter is produced in October.

The use of the spines as a protection is seen at once when the
hedgehog, on the approach of anything which is likely to be an
enemy, rolls itself up into a prickly ball. The head and all four
limbs are tucked into the soft belly, and the creature becomes.
almost a ball in shape. It is doubtful if it would have lingered
as a common animal in Europe for several million years had it
not very early in its history developed this protective coat.
Practically no enemy but man can kill it with certainty under
ordinary conditions. It is said, however, that the long and
strong claws of the badger serve sometimes to tear open the
rolled-up hedgehog, which is then attacked from its hairy belly
and eviscerated. The fox is also said to be able, by various
clever dodges, to injure the hedgehog and cause it to open,
such as, for instance, pushing it or rolling it towards the edge
of a bank, and thus letting it fall from a height so that the
shock bruises the spines, or stuns the hedgehog, and causes it
to relax.

During the winter—generally commencing in December—the
hedgehog goes into retirement under a mass of dead leaves, or
in some cranny lined with moss. Here, tightly rolled up into a
ball, it becomes absolutely torpid, and sleeps till the first warm
day in March. During this period it is not known to eat, and,
unlike other hibernating animals, lays up no store of food.

The habits of the hedgehog are mainly nocturnal, though
occasionally they are seen moving about in the daytime. None
of the Insectivora (another sign of lowly development) possess a
loud or varied voice. The hedgehog is a silent animal, but can
apparently squeal and cry when caught in a trap. Ordinarily, it
58 BRITISH MAMMALS

utters a hoarse squeak either when pursuing its mates or its prey.
The food of the hedgehog is, in the first place, nearly every
insect it can get hold of, together with slugs, snails, spiders,
and worms. It also kills and eats frogs, snakes (innocuous and
viperine), small birds, and no doubt besides mice and moles,
young rabbits and hares. Of eggs it is very fond. Hedgehogs
in captivity will also eat cooked vegetables, and they are very
partial to milk.!| Earthworms are eaten slowly, and are chewed
to death—that is to say, crushed between the long blades of the
big premolar teeth. Being so extremely undiscriminating in its
insect diet, the hedgehog can render the greatest services to a
house which may be infested with crickets and cockroaches. It
is one of the few vertebrates which will willingly eat a cockroach,
a diet which is most unwholesome for cats, and singularly
repellent.

Its method of attacking adders is (according to Mr. J. E.
Harting) cautious and intelligent. Dodging the first angry move-
ment of the viper, the hedgehog dashes in and endeavours to inflict
a bite on the back. After the snap, it instantly ducks the head and
rolls into a ball. Unless the viper is disabled by the first bite it
strikes at the hedgehog’s spines, of course quite ineffectually as
regards piercing its skin. The viper, indeed, may strike and
strike again till it injures and incapacitates itself on these sharp-
pointed spikes. Whenever the hedgehog thinks it can dodge
the viper’s darts, or when that creature has exhausted itself by
vain attacks, the hedgehog repeats its sharp bites at the backbone
till the snake’s spine is broken. As soon as the viper is thus

thoroughly disabled, the hedgehog passes the body gradually

1 There is an old-established tradition, not only in England, but in other
countries, that hedgehogs will suck milk from the udders of cows which are
left out in the fields at night. This story is alternately revived and scouted.
It does not, however, seem by any means improbable. The hedgehog would
probably seek the recumbent body of the cow to feed upon the insects which
might be settled on the cow’s skin. It is a well-known fact that when cows
or even bitches and other female mammals are in full lactation, drops of milk
will ooze out of the nipple. The hedgehog would naturally at first be attracted
to this oozing milk, and might from that proceed to suck at the nipple.
INSECT-EATING MAMMALS 59

through its jaws, cracking the bones with its molars and premolars
at short intervals till the whole body is limp. He is said then to
begin at the tip of the tail and eat the snake gradually from that
direction.

Hedgehogs, we have all heard or read, were formerly eaten
by the agricultural labourer, and more certainly by the gipsies.
The latter, after killing them, roll them in clay and bake them.
When a sufficient time has elapsed the clay ball is broken open,
and the spines embedded in the clay are torn out, leaving the
flesh of the hedgehog cooked and accessible. The animal has,
however, a filthy flavour, derived, with its smell, no doubt, from
some of those preputial glands possessed by so many of the
Insectivora.

The distribution of the hedgehog in the British Islands is
as follows :—It is found pretty nearly all over England, except,
of course, in the vicinity of towns. In Scotland its range was
formerly limited to the south and centre, but now it is creeping
northwards. It is, however, absent from the Hebrides and all
the larger islands off the west coast of Scotland. It is found
in the Orkneys and Shetlands, but some authorities think its
presence there is due to human introduction. In Ireland its
distribution is somewhat interrupted, but it would appear to be
indigenous to that island. Outside the United Kingdom the
common or European hedgehog extends its range through
Central Europe, across Asia to the Chinese coast of the Pacific
Ocean. It is also found in Syria, Asia Minor, and Italy.

Famity: T4ZPIDA,. THE MOLES

The Moles, like the hedgehogs, seem to have originated in
Europe, or at any rate in the temperate regions of the Old
World. Some genera of moles, however, are found in North
America. The moles are distantly allied to the shrews, than
which, however, they are less specialised in dentition. In all of
them the eyes are very small, and in some practically function-
less. The outer ear is short, and completely concealed by
the fur. This group is represented in the British Islands by
60 BRITISH MAMMALS

Talpa europea. Tue Common Mo te

This animal is about 6? in. long, and of this length the
thick bristly tail occupies nearly 14 in. The body is almost
cylindrical, and there is no clearly
defined neck. The front limbs are
remarkably modified. The elbow of
a mole’s arm is contained within the
body, and the arm only protrudes
from the wrist joint. This and the
lower part of the arm are deflected
in such a way that the palm of the
hand is turned outwards and side-
ways. The bones of the hand are
i remarkably expanded, and on the

inner or “thumb” side there is a

flattened bone that might well be
the prepollex,’ which looks, in fact, like a falsethumb. The upper
arm bone, or humerus, is extraordinarily curved and shortened.

The eyes in the Common Mole are not,
as is often supposed, absolutely non-existent.
It is thought, nevertheless, by the most
recent authority on the subject, Mr. Lionel
—~prenatuz, H. Adams* (quoting also from Saint Hilaire
and Mr. Trevor-Battye) that an adult mole
is practically blind. Saint Hilaire, however,
thought it was extremely short-sighted.
ss There is no doubt that when the extremely
RicuT Foot or More. minute eye of the mole is exposed it has

 

HAND OF MOLE.

ist toe.

  
 

 

* It is a moot point whether the first air-breathing vertebrate, which
grew by degrees from out of a fish into an amphibian and was the parent
form of all land vertebrates, was six-fingered or five-fingered. There is a
constantly recurring tendency, throughout mammals (at any rate), for a sixth
finger to make its appearance, preceding the thumb. This is termed the
prepollex.

? A Contribution to our Knowledge of the Mole (Manchester Literary and
Philosophical Society, 1902).
 

THE COMMON MOLE (Lalpa enropady,
INSECT-EATING MAMMALS 61

some power of vision, and is at any rate sensitive to light.
What is remarkable is, according to observations made by
several persons, including the present writer, that, although under
normal circumstances the eye is rendered quite invisible by
being completely covered with hair, the mole can at will cause
this fine fur round the eye to radiate, thus leaving the eye
exposed. In the accompanying picture I have painted a mole
with the eye thus exposed to sight. The eye of the young mole
is more developed, and larger in the foetus and in the newly-born
young.

The mole has four pairs of mamma, or teats. There is a
curious point about the external genitalia of the mole which
requires some notice and explanation. As in the spotted hyena
and one or two other mammals, the outward appearance of males
and females is absolutely similar to a superficial observer—that
is to say, all moles appear to be males. In these Insectivores,
as in a good many forms of this group, the testes are abdominal,
and the long clitoris of the female exactly simulates the male
preputium. It is only during the short breeding season that
any difference in the sexes can be determined.’

There are no external ears in the mole. The fur is plush-like
in appearance. The individual hairs are very fine and silky.
They are short, and are set vertically in the skin, and do not
lie in a sloping direction. Their arrangement, therefore, is
exactly like the silk threads in velvet.

As regards colour, the under part of the mole’s fur is
generally a rich dark brown, but the effect on the surface of
the body is more or less black, or dark bluish-gray. The
females, especially on the face and belly, are generally a little
browner than the male. There is a marked tendency, however,
amongst the British moles towards variation. In them, as in
one or two foreign species, an orange patch sometimes appears
on the chest. More common variations are an olive tint, a pale

1 Very full particulars are given on this point, with anatomical drawings,
in Mr. L. E. Adams’s article on the Mole (Manchester Literary and
Philosophical Society, 1902).
62 BRITISH MAMMALS

gray, a cream colour, an orange or piebald. White moles are
sometimes met with; while a white mole with a reddish-brown
throat, and a black mole with a white head, have also been
recorded.

The teeth of the mole are less specialised than its front limbs.
They are the primitive forty-four in number, and consist normally
of three incisors, one canine, four premolars, and three molars on
each side of each jaw. In the adult mole, however, one of the
upper premolars (the first) is frequently missing, so that the
adult dentition is sometimes reduced to forty teeth. There is
also a tendency among moles, especially species allied to the
European moles, to lose the lower canine, which has become an
unimportant tooth exactly similar to the incisors in appearance.
The first lower premolar is tusk-like, and replaces the lower
canine in its functions. The lower and upper incisors are small
and chisel-shaped, and never assume the long tusk-like form of
the incisors in the hedgehogs and shrews. The upper canine is
two-rooted, with a heel, trenchant, tusk-like, and much more
important than in the hedgehogs and the shrews.

The nose of the mole is long,’ and terminates in a blunt
snout,” in which the nostrils are situated, placed close together.
The upper lip (the opening of the mouth is some distance behind
the termination of the snout) is cleft by a median line.

The breeding-time of moles is confined to a short season in
the spring, generally in the month of April, though they may
begin to breed in March, or the breeding may continue till the
beginning of May. The period of gestation is about five weeks.*
The young, which are never less than two and are not known to
be more than seven in number (generally there are four in a
litter), are born quite naked, but at the age of five weeks they

1 The mole is extremely sensitive on the snout, and can be killed by a
relatively slight tap on that part of the head.

? This snout, which plays a most important part in the burrowing of the
moles, is supported by a strong cartilage, which ossifies into a bone a quarter
of an inch long.

3 Some authorities say four and some six weeks, but five weeks seems to
be the average time.
INSECT-EATING MAMMALS 63

are able to move about on their own account, and are then
three-quarters grown. They are able to breed at the age of ten
or eleven months. It is now made quite certain from the in-
vestigations of Mr. Lionel E. Adams that the mole only breeds
once in the twelve months. The same writer and other recent
authorities have shown that the former supposition regarding
the great excess of males over females is also incorrect, and is due
to the anatomical peculiarities referred to in connection with the
genital organs. Males and females are about equal in numbers.
The males are not exactly polygamous, but a male mole during
the breeding season will pay attentions to as many females as will
permit of his approaches, and one female mole will often be
surrounded by a number of males, who may engage in fierce
fights to secure her. When the female is nearing the end of her
pregnancy she retires from the males’ society, and makes a
separate fortress and nest in which to bring forth her young.
The mole is described as being extremely voracious. This
is perhaps because it is unable when adult to go for any
period more than a few hours without food; in fact, it easily
dies of starvation. Besides worms, which form its principal
diet, and the pursuit of which through the soil has done so much
through ages to shape the mole into what it is now, this creature
eats almost any insect it can capture, and consumes no end of grubs
and larve. Italso eats slugs and snails, frogs, lizards, small birds,
or the young of its own kind. Specimens in captivity have been
known to consume and apparently to digest in the course of
twenty-four hours a mass of food equalling their own bodies in
weight. The mole is also a very thirsty animal, and its fortresses
are never placed very far from water. On the other hand, the
mole itself falls a victim, not only to the indignant gardener or
the callous gamekeeper,! but to weasels, stoats, foxes, badgers,
owls, buzzards, and herons. Hedgehogs are quite willing to eat
them, but cannot do so as a rule, because their weak claws and
incisor teeth are not sufficiently sharp to tear open the tough skin

1 Who accuses it of robbing the nests of pheasants and partridges and
eating their eggs.
64 BRITISH MAMMALS

of the mole. But it is probably not a favourite article of diet
with any of these carnivorous creatures, because its dark flesh has
a sickening musky smell and taste.

Moles do not hibernate: they remain quite active during the
winter, even throwing up molehills through the snow where the
latter does not lie deeply. If the ground is frozen hard the mole
has to confine his journeys in search of food (worms) to below
the surface. It is of course mainly nocturnal in its habits so far
as emergence from its subterranean home is concerned. I have,
however, seen moles not infrequently in broad daylight in the
summer-time.. When they are aware that they are being
watched (no doubt from their senses of smell and hearing) they
attempt to escape by scuttling over the ground, moving their
large hands alternately. ‘Their fastest pace on a smooth surface
above ground is only equal to a man’s slow walk.

The mole is able to swim. This it does with the whole head
and a good deal of the body and even the tip of the tail above
the water. It makes great way with its huge flat hands, which
beat the water downwards and backwards.

To remain secure from its enemies and at the same time
to obtain supplies of its favourite food (worms), the mole
excavates cavities in the ground which are called its “ fortress,”
and in these the nest is constructed, the “ fortress” being reached
by ‘at least two tunnels. The site of the fortress is generally
chosen at the side of a bank or beneath the roots of a tree-trunk,
or more often in an open field or turfy downland. A circular
cavity is first of all scooped out by the front paws, and the loose
soil is then pushed out and up on to the surface, the pushing
being done by the nose and the top of the head. All this soil
which is excavated to form the hollow or hollows (for there are
sometimes two or more nests, one above the other) forms the
molehill. This dome (the earth of which is rendered strong and
solid by being constantly pressed and beaten by the mole when it

1 A place where moles for some reason are remarkably en évidence during

the daytime is that sandy gorse- and heather-covered promontory of Hengistbury
Head, near Christchurch, Hampshire.
INSECT-EATING MAMMALS 65

is being formed) is permeated above the globular inner cavity by
a series of galleries, some of which are blind alleys, while others
open out into the air, generally below the outer surface of the
molehill, but sometimes at points in the sides of the dome itself.
The main entrance, the high road, so to speak, into the fortress
has a circumference larger than the body of the mole, though not
large enough to permit of two moles passing each other. Indeed,
should an intruder meet the owner of the domain, the two moles
must either fight for mastery, or one of them must back into

_-Molehill

 

Down shaft,

PLAN OF THE INTERIOR OF AN ORDINARY MOLEHILL,

a side alley and give way. This long tunnel is widened and
heightened more by the constant passage of the mole’s body than
by excavation. The mole, so to speak, forces his way through
the yielding soil, and by the compression of the earth makes the
sides of the passage smooth and compact. This high road
extends right through the mole’s domain, and opens to the
surface at a considerable distance from the fortress. It is paralleled
on the other side of the nest by another passage, much shorter,
however, generally called the “bolt run,” which is, in fact,
a short exit from the fortress to the upper surface of the
5
66 BRITISH MAMMALS

ground. From above this nest cavity start several or many
tunnels into the mound, called the molehill, which is formed by
the excavation of the nest. These, it is supposed, are used for
ejecting earth from the nest cavity. They are, however, often
spiral in their ascent from the nest, with many branches, most of
which may end blindly without emergence into the open air.

In a complicated fortress the design of which is given by Mr.
Adams there are as many as eleven exits from the branches of
these spiral tunnels into the open air round the base of the mole-
hill. Mr. Adams considers that these often very elaborate
galleries are simply formed in the process of ejecting the mould
from the nest cavity, and are not to be considered as elaborate
labyrinths along which the mole may evade rivals or other
enemies. Much cleverness is displayed by the moles in exca-
vating their fortresses in marshy land or by the banks of streams.
A way of escape is always arranged above flood level, which
the mole by some inherited instinct or experience seems to
be able to gauge pretty correctly. The curious down shafts,
ending blindly, which are found in some moles’ nests, were
thought at one time to be receptacles for paralysed worms which
the mole was storing up for food, or a provision for draining the
nest in the case of wet weather, or wells which should provide the
mole with underground drinking water. All these theories are
derided by Mr. Adams, who believes that these down shafts are
little else than projected bolt holes which have been abandoned
when half made. The bolt hole, or alternative main exit from the
nest, is generally started in a downward direction and then turns
up somewhat abruptly towards the surface. Sometimes these
abandoned pits below the nest do contain bunches of sickly look-
ing worms, but these have probably fallen in accidentally. The
nest itself, which completely fills the nest cavity, is a ball of
grass or leaves, or a mixture of both. There is no hole or
entrance to this spherical structure of dried vegetation. When
the mole quits it, it manages in some way to arrange the stems of
grass or leaves so as not to suggest a passage. Mr. Adams
relates that in his experience the inside of the nest is warm to the
INSECT-EATING MAMMALS 67

touch long after the mole has left it, and that when there are
young in the nest it is infested with fleas and mites.

The fortress of the mole, in spite of this elaborate construc-
tion, is not necessarily a permanent residence. It is inhabited
from September (say) to June.1 During the summer months the
mole lives in it little if at all. He spends a good deal of his time
at night above the surface of the ground seeking for prey in that
direction, and during the day he may be traversing the loose soil

aM olehill.

 

_ exit or entrance,

 

tunnel for ejecting earth or raising mound.

EEE Suniel directly communicating with nest : ‘ bolt hole.”

 

PLAN OF A MORE ELABORATE MOLE ‘‘ FORTRESS" (after Mr. Lionel E. Adams).

(only an inch or so under the surface) in long “ mole runs,” seek-
ing for worms. The nest of the female who is about to give
birth to young is usually constructed on a more simple plan than
the fortress of the male, and seldom possesses a second exit or
bolt run. It would seem that male and female prior to the
breeding season do not share the same fortress. Except for brief
meetings during the courtship, the sexes in adult individuals
live apart. The long straight runs are considered to be those

1The mole, no doubt, often returns in September to the fortress it
used before the summer, but in this case sometimes makes a fresh nest
above the old one.
68 BRITISH MAMMALS

constructed by the males, whilst the winding tunnels are
made by the female. In the bringing up of these tunnels to
the surface the masses of earth that are propelled by the mole’s
forehead and snout often come out solid like a sausage. In
lighter soil the mould is propelled upwards in little jerks. Mr.
Adams expresses the wonderment that must have been felt by
many observers of the mole at the way in which runs are made
through such hard ground as sandstone, ground that the spade
penetrates with the greatest difficulty, but through which the
mole makes long runs, and turns out heaps of stones, severally
weighing as much as 4 0z., the maximum weight of the mole
itself. In this hard formation the runs lie as much as a foot
beneath the surface, and they are also very wide. In soft soils
the runs may be so near to the surface that it not infrequently
becomes a mere trough, and the back of the mole may be seen as
it passes along.

The distribution of the mole in our country is signalised, as
in the case with so many other mammals, by its complete absence
from Ireland. It is found almost universally throughout England
and Wales, even to the westernmost extremities of the last-
named country. In Scotland its distribution was formerly (in the
eighteenth century) confined mainly to the lowlands, but during the
last hundred years it has been making its way steadily into the far
north and west of that country, reaching even (through the acci-
dental intervention of man) into the large islands close to the
West Highland coast. It is evidently an instance of a British
mammal slowly advancing northwards and westwards after the
recovery of these islands from the last Glacial episode. In England,
especially in East Anglia, the mole is an ancient inhabitant, its
fossil remains dating from at least as far back as the end of the
Pliocene period of the Tertiary Epoch. It thus dwelt in South
Britain before the advent of man, and before the commencement
of the first cold period. The mole as a genus stretches back to a
great age in the geological past, our English species on the
Continent being found in deposits of the Lower Miocene, while
moles a little less differentiated in type go back to the earliest
INSECT-EATING MAMMALS 69

period of the Tertiary Epoch. The present distribution of Talpa
europea, besides England and Scotland, extends at the present day
over the greater part of Central Europe and Asia. It is found in
Japan and in the Himalaya and Siberian mountains.

Famity: SORICIDA. THE SHREWS

The Shrews are Insectivores of small size and mouse-like
appearance. Some members of this family (but not the British
species) are remarkable for possessing an archaic feature sug-
gestive of the earliest types of the Mammalia. Instead of there
being three external and unconnected orifices in the female (the
anus, urinary meatus, and vagina) for the separate excretion of
the contents of the intestinal canal, the urethra, and the womb,
there is but one; these passages opening into a common cloaca,
or vestibule, which, though shallow, is still a single orifice
externally for these three canals. This is the condition met with
in the Monotremata (such as the duckbill of Australia), which for
this reason are separated from the rest of the Mammalia into a
sub-class. In another respect the shrews are thought to be
archaic, in that they possess four incisors on each side of the
upper jaw, a condition similar to what obtains in so many
marsupials. This point, however, is not quite certain, as the
fourth incisor may prove to be a canine, and the so-called canine
a premolar.

The family of Shrews contains the smallest known mammal,
Sorex suaveolens. The next smallest in size is the British species,
Sorex minutus.

Genus: SOREX. THE TRUE SHREWS

In these little animals, two representatives of which are
found in Britain, the openings of the female generative and
urinary organs are separated from the anal orifices. The teeth
are coloured red at their extremities, and offer noteworthy
features. The first incisor in the upper jaw is developed inte
a large two-pronged hook. The second and third incisors, the
tooth which is taken to be the fourth incisor, and the canine
70 BRITISH MAMMALS

are all small teeth of uniform size and appearance in the upper
jaw. Next to the supposed canine there is a minute premolar,
almost undistinguishable in the common shrew, but larger and
more evenly placed in other shrews. The second of the two
upper premolars—probably the fourth of the normal series—is
larger than the molars, as in the hedgehog. In the lower jaw
of the shrews there are only two incisor teeth on each side.
The first of these is a very long, procumbent tusk, markedly
serrated on its upper surface with two or three hook-like pro-
cesses. The second lower incisor is unimportant; there is no
canine, and there is only one premolar. The teeth of the shrew
even more than those of the hedgehog suggest a very close
analogy of the way in which the specialised dentition of the
Rodents arose.

In the shrews the ear conches are better developed than in the
moles or in the water shrew. The snout of the shrews is pro-
duced into a long, almost proboscis-like nose, from the sides of
which radiate a large number of vibrisse—those fine or coarse
bristles which are developed on the faces of so many mammals,
and which are the origin of the moustache in the human. The
skull of the shrew is strikingly different from that of other
Insectivores by the almost complete absence of the zygomatic
arch, or ‘“‘cheek bone.”

Shrews do not burrow beneath the soil, but dart in and out
of the herbage, sometimes forming clearly marked runs round the
base of trees or round the stout stems of herbaceous plants.

There are three pairs of mamme in the shrew. The breeding
season is apparently limited to the spring, at which time the
female gives birth to from five to seven young.

Sorex vulgaris. THe ComMon SHREW

This animal is about 23 in. long from the snout to the base
of the tail, and the tail, which is tapering and covered with short
hair to the tip, is another 14 in. in length. The Common Shrew
is a reddish-gray in colour, the under parts being gray or pale
buff. Sometimes the fur is flecked with white. Exceptional
  
   

 

Photo by T. A. Metcalfe.

 

Promila drawing by the Aathory THE LESSER SHREW (Sorex minutus).

From a drawing by the Author.
THE WATER SHREW (Crossopus fodiens) UNDER WATER.

To face p. 70,
INSECT-EATING MAMMALS qI

forms have been met with in England with a white band over the
loins, or boldly pied in other ways with white patches. Although
the normal colour of the upper parts is a reddish-gray, this tint
strengthens into chestnut in some examples, or deepens into
black. The external rim or conch of the ear is small and
rounded, but is quite discernible. On the flanks on either side
there is a gland covered by rows or patches of hairs much coarser
than the rest of the coat. These glands secrete a fluid of an
offensive musky scent which makes the shrew distasteful to some
carnivorous birds and beasts.

The food of the shrew consists of worms and insects of all
kinds—slugs, snails, and even young frogs. From the enormous
amount of grubs and slugs which they devour, the shrew is a
great benefactor to the agriculturist. As it is in every other
respect perfectly harmless to man or to his crops, it is deserving
of close protection at our hands. Nevertheless, in past times
and even at the present day the shrew was persecuted by country
people. It was thought to be very mischievous to cattle, and
able to poison them. It was believed, too, that it produced
lameness in the foot of man or beast if it ran over that foot, and
for the supposed harm done by the shrew the practice arose of
applying to a particular ash-tree for a remedy. A tree was
chosen in which a cylindrical hole or tunnel existed, or,
in default of this, a long hole was bored with an auger.
Into this tunnel in the wood a poor little shrew-mouse was thrust
alive, and the rest of the hole carefully blocked up. When it
was supposed that the shrew’s body had decayed and fused with
the substance of the tree, thin twigs of this “ shrew ash”’ were
potent as remedies for the poison caused by a shrew running
over or biting any creature, which had only to be touched with
the twigs to instantly recover. Our Board of Agriculture ought
to endeavour to spread throughout the kingdom into the rustic
mind the conviction that both species of shrew are absolutely
beneficial to man, in that they are engaged incessantly in the
destruction of noxious insects. Shrew-mice should be protected
by law, and it should be made a penal offence to kill one.
72 BRITISH MAMMALS

The female shrew makes a nest in the spring in some hole or
depression in the ground or in a bank. The nest is constructed
of soft herbage, is covered at the top, and entered from the side.

Shrews utter faint squeaking cries, sometimes so shrill as not
to be audible to every person. They are very pugnacious, and
their spiteful attacks on each other have given rise to the adjective
“ shrewish’” in reference to similar actions on a larger scale in the
human species. The name, which is an Anglo-Saxon word, is
related to such meanings as shred, shrive, and relates to the action
of cutting, biting, or reproving.

At certain seasons of the year shrews are often found dead on
paths and roadways. This is generally during the autumn, and is
now attributed, with some probability, to the starvation induced
by want of insect food at this season. These animals generally
hibernate during the winter, taking refuge in holes or crevices
made by other animals.

The distribution of the common shrew again leaves out
Ireland, in which country it is totally unknown. In England and
Wales and in Scotland its distribution almost coincides with that
of the mole, as does also the length of its residence in Britain.
It is absent from the big islands off the west coast of Scotland,
and from the Hebrides. Outside Great Britain the shrew is
found round the northern regions of the world—Europe, Asia,
and North America.

Sorex minutus. Tue Lesser on Pycmy SHREW

This little creature is the smallest British mammal. Its
body is about 13 in. long and the tail about another 1$ in.
The tail has rather a marked fringe along the upper surface.
There is a slight difference in the teeth between the Lesser
Shrew and the larger form. The first upper incisor is not
so long and prominent a tooth as in Sorex vulgaris. The
fore feet are also shorter proportionately. The general colour
is brown above and grayish-white on the under part. The brown
of the head and back displays almost an orange iridescence, and
the arrangements of the silky hairs recalls the beautiful “watered”
INSECT-EATING MAMMALS 73

appearance of the gorgets in humming-birds. It is, in fact, an
exquisite little creature. It breeds between April and August,
and produces from five to seven young, occasionally, however,
as many as ten. Asin the common shrew, the young are blind,
naked, and toothless when born, somewhat suggestive of the
incompletely finished young of some marsupials.

The distribution of the lesser shrew in the British Islands
is very different from that of the common shrew. It is found
abundantly in Ireland and also in the Hebrides and some of the
large islands off the west coast of Scotland. In the rest of Scotland
and in England it is much less abundant, yet it is more frequently
met with in the south of England than in the north. Its fossil
remains in Eastern Ireland would appear to date back as far as the
beginning of the Pleistocene period. Outside Great Britain the
lesser shrew extends its range across Central Europe and Asia
to the borders of the North Pacific Ocean, but, unlike the
common shrew, it does not reach North America.

Genus: CROSSOPUS. AQUATIC SHREWS

Crossopus fodiens. THE WaTER SHREW

This genus, though included within the sub-family of the
True Shrews, differs from them in several important points.
As regards the teeth, there is only one premolar (the fourth)
on each side of the upper jaw, otherwise the dentition is fairly
similar to that of the common shrew. The ends of the teeth
are brownish-red, as in the other shrew-mice, but they “wear”
white with age and use. The outer ears are small, and scarcely
distinguishable amid the fur. The tail is long, and its under
side is fringed with long hairs. There are also fringes of
the same kind on the feet. The snout is decidedly shorter
and broader than in the common shrew. The eyes are small,
and the hind feet are large and adapted for swimming. The
opening of the female generative organs, though not actually
coalescing with the anus, is situated very close to that opening,
and is enclosed with it in a ring of integument. In size the
74 BRITISH MAMMALS

water shrew is decidedly larger than the common shrew. Its
body is about 34 in. long, and the tail measures a little over
2 in., thus giving a total length of over 54 in. The colour
is blackish-gray above and white beneath, the two tints being
rather sharply divided. Sometimes the lower surface of the
body (that is to say, the outer edges of the hind and front
limbs, the throat and belly) are tinged with russet-red, this

 

THE WATER SHREW (Crossopus fodiens).

warmer tint nearly always making its appearance on the throat.
The upper surface of the tail is black, but the stiff hairs fringing
its lower surface are white, and the same occurs with the hairs
fringing the outer surface of the feet. When swimming under
water the animal has quite a gray appearance, as many minute
air bubbles adhere to the points of the hair and impart to the coat
a silvery sheen.

The female is a little smaller than the male. The breeding
INSECT-EATING MAMMALS 75

season occurs during the spring, and in May the female gives
birth to from five to ten young ones, which are housed in a
circular cavity at the end of a long winding burrow. The water
shrew drives a passage upwards into this nest, commencing
underneath the surface of the water on the side of the bank,
while the nest has, of course, another passage leading to the air.
The entrance to this upper passage is generally approached by a
number of paths radiating in different directions. The interior
of the nest is lined with soft grass. Mr. Trevor-Battye describes
the young water shrews as being most sportive and amusing little
creatures, which may be seen playing and chasing one another on
the ground outside the burrow. When the creature is alarmed it
generally enters its burrow from the hole made under the surface
of the water.

Its swimming and diving powers are remarkable, and resemble
those of the otter. In swimming it moves chiefly by the action
of the hind feet, which paddle alternately so as to impart a
wriggling motion to the body. As a rule it swims on or close to
the surface, constantly putting its nose out of water. Its body
flattens and spreads out, the long flattened tail acts as a rudder,
and the fore paws are generally drooping and inactive. The
water shrew frequently seeks for its food at the bottom of the
stream, turning over stones in its hunt for small crustaceans or
water insects. It devours insects both on land and in the water,
fresh-water shrimps, frog spawn, tiny fish, fresh-water molluscs,
and even carrion.

The range of the water shrew in Britain is entirely confined
to England and Wales (where it is very common) and Scotland
(where it is rare). It extends to the extreme north of Scotland,
but has never been obtained in the Hebrides or any of the other
islands off the west coast of Scotland. It is quite unknown in
Ireland. Its existence in England dates from the beginning of
the Pleistocene Epoch. Elsewhere in the world the water
shrew seems to extend across Central Asia to the Altai Mountains
of Siberia. It does not reach America.
CHAPTER V
Orpen: CHEIROPTERA. THE BATS

In the Silurian period of the Primary Epoch, before ever a
vertebrate probably had evolved from a mollusc or an ascidian,
the first real conquest by animals of the land and of the air
commenced when from some form of many-legged worm or
centipede the insect developed into the first lord of Creation,
in that he took possession of the dry land and of the air. No
doubt prior to his evolution crustaceans had turned into scorpions,
and worms (using the word in its widest sense for primitive
invertebrates) into centipedes. But though these might have
crawled out of the water (in which element animal life originated)
on to the mud, or even the sand and the rock; nothing that we
know of, before the insect, commenced to fly. Then began the
Scourge of Creation, the incarnation of evil, and at the same time
the provocation to higher development. The abundance of
insects on land and in the air became so great that when the early
vertebrates had developed into fish and were without rivals in the
watery covering of the earth’s surface, insects proved the bait that
drew the fish to land and turned it into an amphibian. The
amphibian grew into a reptile, still mainly pursuing insects (some
of which at that day and subsequently were as big as fowls).
Some of these large crocodile-like amphibians no doubt returned to
the water to eat the fish, their lowlier brethren ; and the earliest
reptiles ate amphibians and fish as well as insects. But still the
growth and predominance of insects incited to fresh develop-
ments, and an ancient group of reptiles took to the air to pursue
their prey and became huge flying dragons. Other reptiles
76
THE BATS 7

developed into birds, still with the pursuit of insects as their
magnet. The earlier mammals no doubt were largely insecti-
vorous, and descendants of this type exist but little modified at
the present day in hedgehogs, tree-shrews, moles, shrew-mice,
and tenrecs.

The earliest Insectivores were no doubt content to pursue
insects in and out of the herbage, into the soil, and up on the
trees. Once they had taken to a tree life their jumping and
leaping through the air after flying insects became inevitable,
and they learnt to do as flying squirrels—even the common
squirrel—have done: to stretch out their fingers, arms, and the
loose skin of the body to act as a parachute and break a fall.
Later on, provided with a great membrane of stretched skin (such
as the cobego of the Philippine Islands possesses), they strove to
beat the air with their webbed hands, to turn a downward swoop
into an upward flight, or to postpone descent. The hands, like
those of certain lemurs, grew more and more long and slender-
fingered, and the Insectivore had become a bat.

The exact origin of the Bats is still a matter of dispute. On
the whole their nearest affinities in structure are with the Insecti-
vora rather than with the Lemurs, to which in several points
some of them offer misleading resemblances. Any one who in
Africa has possessed a galago’ will have been struck with the
extraordinary resemblance in its movements which this creature
offers to the bat. It jumps upwards, downwards, or hori-
zontally through the air, starting with a tremendous spring from
the hind legs, but aided, no doubt, by the large outstretched hands
and loose skin of the fingers. The galago literally seems to fly
through the air from a table to a window, where with unerring
aim it will snap up some insect that has attracted its attention.
In the position of the mamme (which in all bats are reduced to
two and are placed on or near the breast), in some points con-
nected with the teeth, and, as regards the fruit-eating bats only,
in the superficial aspect of the head, the bats certainly offer points

1 A species of lemur only found on the African Continent, varying in size
from that of a small cat to the bulk of a rat.
78 BRITISH MAMMALS

of resemblance to the lowest of the Primates. On one point
they differ markedly. The thumb and generally the big or first
toe on hands and feet in all the Primates down to the lowest of
the Lemurs is armed with a nail, and not with a claw, while there
is a strong tendency to develop flat nails instead of claws on all
or several of the fingers. But the thumb and the big toe in the
bats are terminated by curved claws not in the least resembling
a nail.

As regards the terminations to the phalanges of the hands
in all bats, there is very rarely a claw at the end of the

Ist finger (thumb).

    
   

3rd finger.

i

*, —~ Cartilage

sth finger.

SKELETON OF A Bat’s HAND.

second finger,’ but in the rest of the fingers the attenuated
terminal joint of bone is entirely unarmed, and there is nothing
to indicate whether it was originally furnished with a claw or
a nail. The proportionate length of the fingers in the bats is not
dissimilar to what obtains amongst the Primates, the third finger
being the longest. The second, or index finger, tends towards
neglect and degeneration in the bats, but in the fruit-eating
sub-order still has three joints or phalanges, and is terminated
by a small claw. Even among the fruit-eating bats the second

1 A remarkable feature of all existing Lemurs as opposed to other existing
Primates (monkeys and man) is that the second (our first) finger is armed
with a claw, and not a nail.
THE BATS 79

finger is joined at its tip to the third finger. In the insect-
eating bats it has never more than two joints, and sometimes
one, or none at all, and is pressed closer and closer to the strong
third finger until in some species its rudiment is hardly discernible
in the membrane. In the fruit-eating bats the hallux, or big toe,
is well developed and armed with a big claw; so also is the fifth
toe. In one genus of bats the hallux is opposable to the other
toes, like the big toe in the hind feet in lemurs and monkeys.
The hind limbs are almost directed backwards at right angles
to the spine and pelvis in order to support the flying membrane.
In the fore arm the radius becomes a much-bowed and very
strong bone, while the ulna shrinks to a mere splinter.

In the teeth there are these points to be noted :—The upper
incisors are never more than two in number on each side, while
the lower incisors may number three pairs. The earliest known
lemurs had three pairs of incisors in each jaw, but in all modern
lemurs, monkeys, and anthropoids the formula never exceeds two
pairs in each jaw. Some Insectivores possess the normal three
pairs in both jaws, but in that group there is a tendency towards
the loss and specialisation of the lower incisors. This is the
opposite to what prevails in the bats, in which, where a change
takes place, it is usually in the direction of diminishing the
number of upper incisors.’

The mamme are never more than two in number, and are
placed on the breast. In the external and internal organs of
generation the resemblance of the bats lies almost equally with
the Insectivora and the lower Primates. The brain is of low
development, and is that of an Insectivore.

This order is divided into two clearly marked sub-orders,
the Megacheiroptera (fruit-eating bats) and the Microcheiroptera
(usually insect-eating bats). The first of these sub-orders hardly
comes within the purview of this book, as no form of this group
has ever been known to exist in Britain or in any part of Europe.

1 This tendency to increased degeneration in the lower incisors exists
to some extent in the fruit-eating bats, which also never possess more than
two pairs of incisors in either jaw.
80 BRITISH MAMMALS

Its range is confined mainly to Southern Asia and Australia, with
a few representatives in Madagascar and Africa. The fruit-eating
bats would seem to be a later development in time than some
of the insectivorous forms; yet, though specialised in some
directions, they must have evolved from a more archaic type of
bat than any now existing, since they retain the original three
phalanges of the second finger (which is also provided with a
claw), the long muzzle, large eyes, simply constructed ears
without a tragus, and generally simple nose.’ On the other
hand, their molar teeth (except in one genus) are devoid of cusps,
are smooth, and are marked with a longitudinal groove. The
fruit-eating bats include the largest specimens of the order, and
as a rule are much larger than the insect-eating sub-order.

The Microcheiroptera, indeed, tend towards diminutive size.
Unlike the fruit-eating bats, they are almost world-wide in
distribution, only excepting the Arctic and Antarctic regions
from their range. The crowns of the molar teeth are set with
sharp cusps separated by transverse grooves, and not longitudinal,
as in the fruit-eating bats. As already pointed out, the index
finger never has more than two, and usually only one phalanx,
which may be quite rudimentary. The lower incisors are, with
very few exceptions, more numerous than those in the upper jaw.
The ears, which sometimes attain exaggerated development,
beyond anything met with in any other mammal, are signalised
by this peculiarity, that the outer and inner sides of the ear conch
start separately at their base, and not from a common meeting
point. Moreover, the tragus, or forward flap of skin (which .in
the human species guards the entrance to the inner ear), often
attains an excessive and extravagant development. ‘There is
nearly always something strange or eccentric about the nostrils.
These are marked in many species by an excrescent growth,
occasionally of extravagant dimensions and intricacy of pattern.
The fantastic ornamentation of the nose and muzzle sometimes
includes the lower lip. The eyes are invariably small, and in
some species are scarcely functional.

1 Though the nostrils may sometimes be prolonged into tubes.
THE BATS 81

All bats are mainly nocturnal in habits. They never produce
more than two, and usually only one, young
at a birth. They only seem to breed once in
the year, in the spring-time. The period
of gestation probably varies in the insecti- }
vorous bats from three months to a month |
and a half. The young at parturition are
of fairly large size, but are blind and naked.
As they emerge from the body of the mother
they are received into a bag formed by the
forward-curled tail and its membrane on
either side. Thence, after being licked over
and cleaned by the mother, they are hoisted 4, Human Ear for
up by the fingers of the wing to the mother’s “omparisom
breast. Here

 

  
    

  
   

they cling oN
ENS AN

tightly with Cw

their own wing Ve

  

membranes, ;

thumbs, and i

hind feet, " Antteragas!
thus spreading Ss

themselves B. Ears of Pteropodid and Rhinolophid Bats, without tragus.

a. Pteropus. b. Cynonycteris (Pterotodida), +. Rhinolophus.
across the chest -

of the mother
and fastening
on to one of
the nipples.
Some little
time after birth

the mot her C. Ears of Vespertilionid and Nycterid Bats, wz¢h tragus.
constant ly d. Megaderma (Nycteride). e. Pterygistes noctula, f. Myotis bechsteint.

 

uards the Ears or BATS, TO SHOW TRAGUS, ABSENCE OF TRAGUS, AND
& DEVELOPMENT OF ANTITRAGUS, (The three lower examples

young from much enlarged.)
observation by folding one wing over the body, suspending

herself by the thumb of the other.
6
82 BRITISH MAMMALS

Bats fly swiftly and with rapid swoops, but they also flap
the membrane of the wings. The strong interfemoral membrane
which stretches between the hind legs and the tail, and, in a
species of British bats, extends to the very tip of that organ, acts
as a rudder to some extent ; though the direction of the flight (as
in soaring birds) is also effected by shifting the axis of the body.
The skin which forms the flying membrane, and which stretches
from the fingers to the heel and the tip of the tail, is exceedingly
thin and silky in texture, almost, if not entirely, devoid of fur
(though hair may grow on the inner surface of the arms, and fine
hairs on parts of the membrane). It is in appearance very like the
silk stretched over the rods of an umbrella, and has sometimes a
“watered” aspect. This is caused by the network of nerves and
veins, which makes the wing surface extremely sensitive to pulsa-
tions of the air, and assists the bat, no doubt, in avoiding obstacles.

Bats, of course, can walk and climb; in fact, they probably
originated from a climbing and arboreal type of Insectivore which
developed huge hands like those of the aye-aye lemur and spread
them over the tree trunk. They can also swim ; at least several
of the Vespertilionide have been observed swimming in streams
into which they had fallen. Their present method of progression
on the ground or on trees is as follows :—The great hands (i.e.,
wings) are folded back along the sides, while the hooked thumb
is extended. The bat, in fact, walks on its bent wrist. The
wrist is pushed forward, the strong claw of the thumb grips some
inequality, then the foot of the same side of the body is moved
forward, then the other side of the body is raised by the extension
of the other hind foot, and lastly the thumb claw of the other
wing advances. So the body moves along by a series of sidelong
plunges. It is, however, very much quicker at climbing up a tree
than in moving along a smooth surface.

When sleeping, bats hang perpendicularly from some pro-
jection by the claws of their hind feet, generally depending from
one foot, the knee of which remains crooked. The tail membrane
and the wings are folded over the stomach.

The insectivorous bats, especially those which dwell in
    

Photo by George Jolly. Photo by George Jolly.
LONG-EARED Bat (Plecotus auritus), COMMON BAT HANGING BY ITS THUMBS.

  

RACAL AL 2

 

Photo by George Jolly. Photo by George Jolly.
Common Bat (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) HANGING BAT HANGING WITH FOLDED WINGS
BY ITS FEET, AND TAIL.

To face p. 82.
THE BATS 83

Britain, depend but little for guidance on their sense of vision,
the eyes being very small, and often partially concealed under
the large ears and the fur. They are, however, extremely
sensitive in their hearing, and the considerable ear surface pre-
sented by some of them to the air undoubtedly guides them
in their avoidance of obstacles by receiving and recording the air
currents which may indicate by their vibrations the proximity of
any solid body. The extraordinary development of cartilage
round the nose in several families of bats is, no doubt, an additional
organ of sensation.

In most parts of the temperate regions and in Britain bats
hibernate ; that is to say, they retire in companies to a sheltered,
dark place of security, where they suspend themselves by their
hind claws, often holding on as well to their neighbours, so that
they are sometimes crowded together in large numbers. The
period of hibernation varies according to species. Some bats “go
into retreat” in August, others in October or November, while
the commonest of British bats, the pipistrelle, may only sleep for
two or three weeks at a time during the winter, emerging from its
hiding-place on a mild day, and pursuing such insects as may remain
to haunt the air. Most bats are out again at the end of April, and
breeding goes on amongst them at the end of the hibernation.

Although the food of this group is mainly insectivorous, most
of them will eat meat greedily when they can get it, and even
fish ; while some species of microcheiropterous bats in America
live wholly on fruit or on fish, or, in the true vampire, on the
blood of live beasts.

Famity: VESPERTILIONID<. THE TYPICAL BATS

This is the largest family in the whole order. It extends
to something like 190 species, though the number of genera
is considerably less. This group in some respects is the least
specialised of the bats. Its members have, as a rule, three
pairs of incisors in the lower and two in the upper jaw. In
the upper jaw there is a remarkable open space between the inner
pair of incisors. The ears are furnished with a tragus, and
84 BRITISH MAMMALS

the whole of the tail, practically, is contained within the flying
membrane. The index finger in each hand has two phalanges,
or joints. These bats, in common with most of
the Microcheiroptera, have developed a bony spur
(calcaneum), which grows almost at right angles
from the ankle (inwards towards the tail), and
serves to support the interfemoral membrane. This
membrane is also supported by what appears to be
another spur of bone, but which is really the stumpy
fibula". The apertures of the nostrils, though
Ronss or 4 Bar's sometimes hidden in deep grooves, are without
EG AND Foor. :

any excrescence or “nose leaf,” except in two
non-British genera in which a rudimentary excrescence or nose
leaf occurs above the nostrils.

  

Fibula.—

 
 
 
 

Spur.—

Genus: VESPERTILIO?

In this genus of bats, and in the two succeeding genera,
Prerygistes and Pipistrellus, the ears are comparatively small, and
situated rather wide apart. The outer margin of the ear is
extended to and ends at the angle of the mouth, where it
thickens into a rounded lobe. The inner margin of the ear curls
round somewhat sharply at its base into another lobe, situated
quite close to the small eye. The tragus, or flap covering the
entrance to the ear, is short and thick, and curves towards the
inner margin of the ear. The muzzle is short, broad, and blunt,
rather like that of a frog, and there are prominent swellings

1 The smaller and second bone of the leg.

2 In the classification of British bats the author follows—not aitoather
confidently—the authorities at the British Museum (Natural History) in their
most recent nomenclature, and departs somewhat widely from that great
authority on bats, the late Dr. G. E. Dobson. The new classification of
British bats is due to the researches of an American zoologist, Mr. G. 5.
Miller, and of Mr. Oldfield Thomas. In this arrangement the old generic
term Vesterugo is abolished (according to the law of priority) in favour of
Vespertilio, and is further divided into Prerygistes and Pipistrellus. The
Vespertilio of Dobson and others becomes Afyotis. Vesperugo discolor becomes
Vespertilio murinus, while the totally distinct Vespertilio murinus of Dobson
(Myotis myotis) is not always recognised as a British species.
THE BATS 85

of the glands between the eyes and the nostrils, making the face
even rounder and wider. There is a small additional expansion
of skin behind the bony spur. As regards the teeth, there are
two pairs of incisors above and three pairs below ; only one pair
of premolars in the upper jaw and two pairs in the lower jaw ;
and, of course, three pairs of molars above and below.

 

SEROTINE Bat (Vespertilio serotinus) : to show (a) shape of ear; (3) naked three-cornered space
on under lip; (c) remains of sucker disc on ball of thumb; (¢) point of departure of wing
membrane from base of toes; (e) calcaneum or spur; (/) post-calcaneal lobule and inter-
femoral membrane ; (g) degree to which tail projects beyond interfemoral membrane.

Vespertilio serotinus. ‘THE SEROTINE BaT

In this species the head and muzzle are particularly flat. The
front of the face is almost denuded of hair, but there is a slight
moustache on the upper lip. The thumb has a callosity at its
base, which is probably the remains of a suctorial disc possessed
86 BRITISH MAMMALS

by other species of bats attached to the base of the thumb or the
soles of the feet, and enabling them to adhere more tightly to
smooth surfaces over which they are creeping. The use of this
disc has evidently been lost in the Serotine Bat, but its rudiment
remains. The upper incisor teeth of all old specimens betray
a tendency to divide in two at the extremity. They are marked
with a groove even when this has not deepened into division.
The lower incisors betray a similar tendency to split into three
points. ‘There are two pairs of incisors in the upper jaw and
three in the lower, one pair of canines in both jaws, one pair
of premolars above and two pairs below, and three pairs of molars
in each jaw. The length of the head and body is about 22 in.
the tail measuring 2 in. more. As regards colour, this bat is
generally a dark brown, paling to yellow-brown or yellowish-gray
on the under parts. The wing membrane, of course, as in all
British bats, is a dark sepia or blackish-gray. The serotine bat
produces a single young one at a birth, this event taking place
about the month of June. In the British Islands its distribution
seems to be confined to a small portion of the south of England
between Cornwall and Essex. Outside England its range is so
world-wide as to exceed that of any other bat, for it is found
over all Temperate Europe, Asia, and North America, also in
North Africa, and even, it is said, in parts of South America.
It has been named the “serotine” bat from its habit of only
making its appearance late in the evening, and not at sunset.
It is not as gregarious in its habits as other members of the
genus, and is accustomed to hibernate singly, taking up its
abode in hollow trees.

A species allied to the serotine is the Parti-coloured Bat
(Vespertilio murinus). This bat has the colour of the upper parts
dark brown, spangled with yellowish-white, owing to the last
quarter of the long hairs being that colour. The under parts are
yellowish-white, with gray as an under colour. In the middle of
the chest and stomach there is a large patch of reddish-brown
flecked with white. It is about the size of the serotine bat—
perhaps a little smaller—with a tail proportionately somewhat
THE BATS 87

longer. Only one British example of this bat has{been obtained
with certainty up to the present time, and that was caught at
Plymouth. It was no doubt accidentally introduced by some
ship. Its actual area of distribution is confined to Central
Europe, Northern Africa, and Temperate Asia.

Genus: PTERYGISTES

This genus differs from the foregoing in the premolar teeth,
two pairs above and two pairs below. In the upper jaw the
first premolar is very minute, and is pushed inwards behind
the canine.

 

GREAT OR NOCTULE BAT (Pterygistes noctula).

Prerygistes noctula, Tue Great Bat, or NoctuLe

This is the largest of British bats, and the head and body,
from the tip of the nose to the root of the tail, are nearly 3 in.
long. The tail is another 13 in. The stretch of the wings
from tip to tip is sometimes nearly 14 in. long. The head is
flat and broad and the muzzle is expanded, the nostrils being
very broad, and separated from one another by a large space of
tumid skin. The ears are wide apart, somewhat short, but broad
and deep. The external margin of the ear has a deep fold near
the base, and it is continued downwards below the corners of
the mouth. The tragus, or earlet, is short, and is very narrow
at its base, but extends into a kidney-shaped lobe of thick skin
covered with minute papille. The accompanying illustration
shows the remarkable space in the skull below the nasal opening
88 BRITISH MAMMALS

and between the inner pair of upper incisor teeth. The tip of
the tail projects for less than one inch beyond the membrane,
and has a tendency to curve downwards and inwards towards the
belly. The wing membrane in this bat starts from the beginning
of the ankle, and not from the base of the toes. The eyes in
this species are placed very close to the inner margin of the ear,
and are almost hidden by that organ. The fur of this animal
is soft, long, and rather silky. In colour it is a yellowish or
golden-brown, slightly paler below. The nearly bare ears, the
muzzle, and the membrane are a dusky brown-gray.

The period of gestation in this bat would seem to be as

 

SKULL OF NOCTULE BAT FRONT OF SKULL OF NOCTULE BAT,
(14 times natural size). To show separation between incisor teeth and
large canines (3 times natural size).

much as two months. It has not been known to produce more
than one young at a time in England, but on the Continent
two at a birth is a common occurrence. The young, as in all
these bats, are born blind and naked.

The Noctule flies high and rapidly, and when in pursuit of
insects often utters harsh or shrill squeaks. Though a most
cleanly animal in keeping its own fur in proper condition, it
emits a very offensive odour ; and when a number of these bats
have congregated in a hollow tree, or in the eaves of a house,
the effuvia emanating from them is markedly disagreeable. This
bat would appear to feed largely on beetles. It prefers these
and other insects that fly to those that crawl, but it will eat meat
greedily, if such diet is obtainable. Specimens kept in captivity
(and this is a trait recorded of many bats belonging to both
sub-orders) are observed to eat more than their own weight in
food. This passes so quickly through their system that they
THE BATS 89

soon regain their normal weight. The noctule emits a very
offensive smell from glands in the mouth. It would seem to
possess a relative insensibility to the effects of poison. One
living specimen had a drop of prussic
acid placed on its tongue, and was
some time dying. Meantime its
parasites (all bats are much afflicted
with fleas and lice) dropped off dead
from the poisoned blood.

The range of the great bat in

 

Vy TRPD

Britain is confined to the midland Heap or Nocruze Bat (nearly

‘ twi tural size).
counties, the south and south-west. ae altel oe

Yorkshire and Lancashire are its northern limits. It has not
been found in Wales or Scotland, but does appear to occur in
Ireland, specimens having been obtained in the north-east of
that island. It is, apparently, commonest in our midland counties.
Outside England, it is found throughout Temperate and Southern
Europe and most parts of Asia ; also nearly the whole of Africa.

Prerygistes leisleri. THe Hainy-armMep Bat

This species closely resembles the noctule, but it is a little
smaller, and there is some difference in the incisor teeth, those
in the lower jaw being ranged in a semicircle with no overlapping,
whereas the incisor teeth in the lower jaw of the noctule are
crowded, and the outermost pair of upper incisor teeth in the
species now described are not so disproportionately broad and
short as in the noctule. The length of the head and body of
the Hairy-armed Bat is about 2} in., while the tail measures
nearly 12 in. The bat takes its English name from the fact
that the inner surface of the fore arm, instead of being covered
with bare skin, is furred with fine, short hairs as far down as the
wrist. The side of the fore arm in the noctule is also hairy, but
not to such a marked extent. The nostrils are crescent-shaped,
and there is a large naked gland near the angle of the mouth.
The outer margin of the ears does not reach as far as the corner
of the mouth, and the ears are hairy on the inner surface. The
90 BRITISH MAMMALS

thumb is rather short, and armed with a somewhat feeble claw.
The fur of the body is long; deep brown at its base and chestnut
on the surface, but tending towards gray on the belly. The:
colour of this bat varies, however, and English specimens seem
to be more chestnut in tone than those of the Continent, which
are often a dark sooty-brown. The head of this bat is rather
less rounded and blunt than is the head of the noctule. The.
snout projects markedly over the lower lip.

The distribution of Pterygistes leisleri is still not very clearly
known as regards the United Kingdom. Hitherto it has been
recorded from the western midlands of England, the Lake
District, and the north-east and east of Ireland. Outside.
England, the bat ranges right across Central Europe to Tem-
perate Asia, as far south as the Himalayas. It is also found in
Madeira and North Africa.

The flight of this bat is said to be at a higher elevation than
that of the noctule, and it flies in a zigzag fashion, as if uncertain
as to its direction. This desultory manner of flight appears to
have been remarked in all specimens under observation.

Genus: PIPISTRELLUS

It is not clearly established that the differences between the
bats of the preceding genus and those of Pipistrellus are generic in
their importance. The author, however, follows Thomas, Miller,
and Allen in this arrangement. The upper incisorsin Pipistrellus
are longer and the inner pair more markedly bifid (grooved into.
two points), while the first premolar is less reduced and dis—
placed than in Prerygistes.

Pipistrellus pipistrellus. "Tur Common Bart, or PipisTRELLE.

The second name of the commonest species of bat in the
British Islands is apparently a French dialect name given to this
bat in Eastern France, and adopted specifically by Schreber, a
German writer on mammals, in 1775. The country name applied
to this and other bats in England is “ flittermouse,” an Anglo-
Saxon combination that explains itself, and which is paralleled by
THE BATS gi

the German Fledermaus. “Bat” isa word of Scandinavian origin,
and is a corruption of Jakke, which again is an abbreviation of
blakke, a word which meant “to flap.” This term “ bat”? came
into use in English after the Norman Conquest, and gradually
spread from the east of England into the literary language,
“flittermouse ” only surviving in country speech.

The Pipistrelle is the smallest of the English bats, and
measures at most 12 in. from the tip of the nose to the base of
the tail, while the tail is scarcely 1$ in. in length. Its head is
more rounded than that of the hairy-armed bat, but the nose and
muzzle are less blunt than those of the noctule. The ears are
fairly large, and are nearly triangular in shape, resembling in
outline very much the
wings of a butterfly.
There are well-developed
glandular swellings on
the muzzle, and the face,
including the region of
the eyes, is nearly devoid
of hair in full-grown x
specimens. The thumb HEAD OF PIPISTRELLE OR COMMON BAT
is tather weak and the (Pipistrellus pipistrellus).
feet are small, with very fine claws. The innermost pair of the’
upper incisor teeth have bifid crowns—that is to say, they seem
almost as though they were divided into two teeth in the middle ;
nor are they set quite straight in the jaw, for the innermost
divisions of these teeth project forward more than the outer
section. There are four incisors in the upper jaw and six in the
lower. Those in the lower jaw are divided into three lobes, in
contrast to the upper incisors, which, as already mentioned,
have each of them two divisions. There are two pairs of pre-
molars and three pairs of molars in each jaw. On each side of
the nose above the upper lip is a protuberance covering the
sebaceous glands, which add to the swelling of the muzzle. The
eyes are very small and deeply sunk. Over each eyebrow is a
small wart, from which spring a few black hairs. On the top of

 
92 BRITISH MAMMALS

the forehead is a tuft or crest of rather nee hair, which gives
a lofty appearance to the head.

The fur of the pipistrelle is long and aig and is in general
reddish-brown in the upper parts, fading into gray on the belly, a
gray tinged with brown, however, owing to the tips of the hairs
being chestnut. The reddish-brown lightens into a yellowish
tint on the forehead and round the ears. The naked parts of
the muzzle and ears and the flying membranes are a dusky tint,
sometimes a blackish flesh-colour. The young of this, as of so
many other species of Vespertilionide, are born naked, and the first
hair they acquire is of a much grayer, duskier tone than the
warm brown or reddish-yellow tints of the full-grown animal.

The pipistrelle would appear to breed later in the year than
the noctule, females being generally taken with young in the
month of July. So far as is known, the common bat only has
one young one at a time. It is asserted, however, that the Con-
tinental form of the pipistrelle, as of the noctule, produces two
young at a birth, and certainly this fact was recorded by Pliny.

The pipistrelle hibernates for two or three months in the
middle of the winter, though it may occasionally emerge from its
retreat on a sunny winter’s day. Its hibernating sleep seems rather
to depend on the absence of insect life in the air than on tempera-
ture, for although the pipistrelle may appear in flight in the
middle of March, it only emerges then because insects likewise
have come out into the air. It does not frequent trees like the
noctule, but retires during the daytime and during its hibernation
to crevices in walls, and nooks and crannies in roofs, rocks,
and caverns. It will sometimes crawl into the spouts of disused
pumps. During the summer-time it often passes its midday
sleep in the vicinity of farmyards, no doubt because in the
evening it can whisk about such cattle as may be sleeping in
the fields, and snap up the flies settled on them.

The pipistrelle progresses over a horizontal surface at a much
quicker rate than most bats, almost seeming to run. It keeps
the head depressed and near the ground, and uses the tail as an
additional limb for propelling itself. The tail in this animal
THE BATS 93

tends to curve inwards under the body. The bone projects a
short distance beyond the membrane, and almost acts as a kind
of spring. The tip of the tail is forced against the ground on
each side alternately, moving in concert with the hind foot, and
having a slightly prehensile character. It is of great use to the
body in ascending or descending an inclined surface. Apparently
it also assists the pipistrelle to rise into the air from the ground
by acting as a spring with the hind feet. The flight of this
bat is quick, but unsteady and zigzag, like that of a moth. It
does not fly ordinarily very high, as a rule not much more than
twenty feet from the ground.

The food of the pipistrelle consists of all the smaller flying
insects and moths. It consumes large numbers of gnats and
flies, and is also fond of raw meat. This common bat appears
occasionally in broad daylight, drawn out perhaps by hunger.
Ordinarily it does not make its appearance in the open till the
sun has set, though it is an early bat compared to the serotine
or noctule, and may not infrequently be seen still flying about at
sunrise on a summer morning.

The distribution of the common bat over the British Islands
is practically universal. It is met with all over Ireland, Scotland,
the Hebrides, the Isle of Man, Wales, and England. It is found
all over Europe and Temperate Asia, and in India its place is taken
by a form so closely allied as hardly to be specifically different.
This Indian form extends as far south as Australia. It is also
found in Northern Africa. Its fossil remains apparently date
back in England to the close of the Pleistocene period.

Genus: AZ YOTIS

This genus is clearly marked by the possession in each jaw
of three pairs of premolars and the same number of molar teeth,
a characteristic which is shared by only two other genera (Thyrop-
tera and Myxopoda) in the sub-order. The incisor teeth in the
upper jaw (two pairs) diverge from each other. The ears also
are narrow ; the tragus, or earlet, is long, narrow, and sometimes
recurved outwards. The outer margin of the ear conch does not
94 BRITISH MAMMALS

grow down so low as the angle of the mouth, but starts on a line
with the origin of the lobe of the inner margin of the ear; so
that the ear, though long and provided with rather a marked
tragus, has nevertheless a normal aspect. The muzzle is more
pointed; the eyes are small and deep-set; the nostrils are
simple and not projecting. In some respects these are the least
specialised among the British bats.

Myotis dasycneme. THe RouGu-LeccEeD Bat

In this bat the bony spur which starts at right angles to the
heel to support the membrane stretched between the thigh and
the tail is unusually long, and extends for over three-quarters of
the distance along the edge of the membrane from the ankle to
the tail. The thumb is armed by a very large claw. The earlet,
or tragus, has a blunt, rounded tip, and in some respects resembles
the same feature in forms of Prerygistes. The ear-conch also is
shorter, and the face is less hairy than in the typical Myotidine
bats. In the teeth the first and second upper premolars are
pushed inwards, so that the large third premolar nearly touches
the canine. The fur on the upper surface of the body is blackish
in the lower parts of the hairs, and light brown at their tips.
The belly has a more “ pepper and salt” appearance, as the hairs
are white at the tip and black below. The size of this bat is
fairly large. The length of head and body is nearly 23 in., and
the tail, which is long, measures 2 in. more. The flight is
vacillating and butterfly-like.

Until recently this: bat was only represented as a British
species by one example, captured on the River Stour, near
Christchurch, where its captor, Lord Lilford, found it swimming.
But subsequently it has been found in Warwickshire, and in
several places in the south of England. Elsewhere its range
extends through Central Europe to Asia.

Myotis daubentonit. Davusenton’s Bat

This is a smaller animal than the preceding, not 2 in. in length,
with a tail measuring 1? inches. Like the rough-legged bat, it
THE BATS 95

has rather large feet. The oval-shaped ears are three-fourths of
the length of the head—z.e., a little more than half an inch long.
The wings when extended measure g in. across. The fifth or
‘outer toe is somewhat separate from the others. The membrane
of the wing arises from the side of the foot, much below the ankle.
‘The earlet, or tragus, is moderately pointed, and measures about
half the length of the ear. The face between the eyes and the
nostrils is nearly naked. The upper incisor teeth are nearly
equal in size, with wide notches between the bifid cusps. The
second premolar in the upper jaw is much smaller than the first,
but is not pushed inwards. The general colour of this soft-furred
bat is reddish-brown above and grayish-brown below. The under
surface may be sometimes almost
white, but on separating the fur
above and below the under part
of the hairs is seen to be black
or dark gray in colour. The
membrane is the usual dusky
dull black, but has a tinge of
Indian red in parts, due, no
doubt, in the living bat to the
coursing of the blood through the veins. The eye, as usual, is
very small, and is placed quite close to the inner margin of the ear.
Daubenton’s Bat has a particular affection for the vicinity of
water, and flies slowly and quiveringly close to the surface of this
element. This, no doubt, is done in pursuit of insects, though as
the bat is occasionally seen to stoop and dip its nose into the
water, it may also be searching for minute floating water insects
or dead fish. In captivity Bell states that they would soon become
tame, and freely take milk, flies, or pieces of meat from the palm
of the hand. When they had seized with their mouths an insect
or piece of food that was rather unmanageable, they would make
use of the wrist joint to push the substance into the mouth.
Daubenton’s bat inhabits North Africa, Southern and Central
Europe, and Asia. In England it has hitherto been observed
most in the Western Midlands and Lake District. It seems to be

 

HEAD AND Foot oF DAUBENTON'S BAT.
96 BRITISH MAMMALS

much less common in the east or south-east. It extends into
Scotland as far north as Aberdeenshire and Banff, and has been
found in the north, north-west, and south-east of Ireland.

Daubenton’s bat is sometimes confounded with the notch-
eared bat (Myotis emarginatus), a very doubtful British species,
which is described on p. 102. It may be distinguished at
once from the notch-eared bat by the absence of a very marked
indentation in the outline of the outer margin of the ear. The
feet in Daubenton’s bat are larger proportionately than those of
Myotis emarginatus, and there is scarcely any trace in the former
of the two bats of that fringe of long hairs on the sides of the
upper lip and muzzle which is so marked a characteristic of the
whiskered and notch-eared bats. Daubenton’s bat, no doubt, in
its wide range from Ireland to Burma, and from Finland to
North Africa, develops not a few local varieties which approximate
towards other distinct species.

Myotis nattereri. Tur Reppisu-Gray Bat

This bat is just under 2 in. in measurement from the tip
of the nose to the base of the tail, and the tail is a little over
12 in. long. The ears are nearly three-quarters of an inch
in length, somewhat pointed at the extremity, but in general of
an oval shape. The inner margin is turned outwards, and does
not form any lobe by curving in the reverse direction towards the
middle of the ear. The outer margin nearly meets the inner at
the base, and its lower portion curls over towards the centre
of the ear. The tragus is narrow, sharply pointed, and curves
outwards. The eyes are very small. The nostrils are oval in
shape and surrounded by a naked patch above and below, which
is somewhat swollen. There is a thin moustache along the upper
lip, and a prominent sebaceous gland on each side of the face
above the lip. The head on the whole is rather small in size
proportionately. This appearance is, no doubt, the result of the
hair on the forehead and the nape of the neck being no longer
than that of the body. The interfemoral membrane which
connects the hind legs with the tail is supported by the calcaneum,
THE BATS 97

or long bony spur arising from the ankle, and on its outer
margin this spur is somewhat notched, and fringed with stiff
hairs. The colour of this bat is a light reddish-brown flecked
with gray, as the tips of the hairs are grayish. The under
surface of the body is sometimes nearly white in aspect, ordinarily
a light silvery-gray. By this nearly white under part the reddish-
gray bat may be easily recognised, as also by the fringe of hairs
along the interfemoral membrane. The reddish-gray bat is very
gregarious in habits, and is fond of frequenting caverns, the
under side of roofs (especially in churches), and occasionally
hollow trees. It is said to have a kindly disposition towards its
comrades, and to be easily tamed by man; yet specimens that
die in captivity are often half eaten by their comrades. The
distribution of the reddish-grey bat in England is fairly common
over the southern and midland counties. It has been found in
the west of Scotland, and is occasionally met with in Ireland in
the counties of Dublin, Wicklow, Cork, and Longford. Else-
where its range appears to be limited to Central and Eastern
Europe. It has not been recorded from Asia or from any part
of Europe to the south of the Alps.

Myotis bechsteint. Becustein’s Bat

In this species the margin of the interfemoral membrane is
naked. The length of the head and
body is slightly over 2 in., and the
tail is 14 in. The ears are nearly an
inch in length, and oval in shape.
The tragus is a third of an inch in
length, tapering to a point, curving
somewhat outwards, and shaped a
little like a scimitar. The narrow
nose is rather depressed in the middle.
The gape is very wide, extending to
the base of the ears. The muzzle is H#a4p or Becustein’s Bat (nearly

- twice natural size).
rather long. The wing membrane
extends almost to the base of the toes. The wings are broad, but
7

 
98 BRITISH MAMMALS

not so long proportionately as in the species next to be described.
The colour is reddish-gray above and light gray beneath, the base
of the hairs on the belly being blackish, and their tips grayish-white,
The flying membrane is nearly black in colour. This bat is
forest-haunting. It resorts exclusively to hollow trees for shelter,
and never enters buildings. It is also rather a solitary bat, and
if not alone it is never found in larger numbers than twelve or
thirteen, and they are generally all of one sex. Its occurrence
in England was originally somewhat doubtful, as it was only
known from specimens captured in the early part of the nine-
teenth century in the New Forest; but in 1902 Mr. J. G.
Millais caught a Bechstein’s bat at Henley-on-Thames. Else-
where its range is confined to nearly all parts of Europe, from
the south of Sweden in the north to the Pyrenees and the Alps
in the south.

Myotis myotis. THe Common ConTINENTAL Bat

This is the largest species of bat ever recorded from Britain,
as it probably exceeds in size (even in average specimens) the
noctule, or great bat. But as this species, though so common
on the Continent, is extremely scarce in England (where its
recorded certain occurrences are only two in number), it can
hardly be held to oust the noctule from its position as the largest
British bat. The British bats are, however, imperfectly known,
as this type of mammal is only interesting to specialists.
Moreover, bats are far less easy to observe and to obtain (owing
to their aerial and crepuscular habits) than other land mammals.
Further research may establish more certainly the claim of this
species to be considered a British mammal.

The Myotis bat sometimes measures 34 in. from the tip
of the nose to the base of the tail, and the tail itself is over
1% in. in length. The ears are nearly an inch long, and the
tragus nearly half an inch. The wings measure about 15 in.
across from tip to tip. The eyes are exceptionally large in this
group of bats (in some members of which the eye has almost
become a negligible quantity), and they are not placed so close
THE BATS 99

to the margin of the ear. The forehead is very hairy ; but the
nose is naked and smooth and prominent, extending a little
distance beyond the lower lip. The muffle is wet, and the
nostrils open at the side. The ears are inclined backwards,
and are long and somewhat oval in shape. The tragus is erect,
slightly curved, and rather sharp-pointed. The lower part of
the inner margin of the ear is hairy. There is a slight moustache
on the upper lip, and the area between the eye and the nostrils
is swollen. The wing membrane arises from near the base of the

 

HEAD OF COMMON CONTINENTAL Bat (A@yotis myotzs), Natural size.

toes. The interfemoral membrane is covered with hair on the
basal half of its upper surface. The first upper premolar tooth
is small as compared to the third, and the middle premolar still
smaller, and set rather back. The general colour of the body is
pale reddish-brown above, and grayish-white beneath. The outer
side of the ears is grayish, the inner yellowish. The colour of
the membrane differs markedly from that of the bats hitherto
described, in that it is not blackish, but pale yellowish-brown.
This bat only produces a single young at a birth, generally
at the end of May. It frequents buildings and caverns, and it
does not resort to forests or trees, nor does it associate with
100 BRITISH MAMMALS

other species of bats. It is gregarious with its fellows, but very
quarrelsome. In combats which take place amongst these bats,
much damage is done by the sharp teeth, strong jaws, and the
stout hooks of the thumbs. These combats result in the wing
membranes being torn to rags, and even the long arm bones
being broken. Moreover, Mr. Lydekker records that specimens
of this bat kept in India, in confinement, attacked, killed, and ate
their weaker comrades.

The Common Continental Bat is supposed to have been captured
in a Bloomsbury garden in the early part of the nineteenth
century, and it is thought that the British type in the posses-
sion of the Natural History Museum at South Kensington is
one of the bats caught in the vicinity of the British Museum
in Bloomsbury. Only one other certain instance occurs of its
presence in England—about fifteen years ago, in Cambridge-
shire'—though it has been reported, on probably mistaken
evidence, to exist in Dorsetshire and the Isle of Wight. It is
such a common bat in France, that, as it is quite able to fly
across the Channel at its narrowest, there is no reason why it
should not be found in the south of England. It is met with
in most parts of Europe and in North Africa, and over the
greater part of Temperate Asia. This bat is the Vespertilio
murinus of Blasius, Dobson, Lydekker, and other authorities
prior to 1898. It is now re-named Myotis myotis.

Myotis mystacinus, Tue WuHiskerep Bat

This is very nearly as small a bat as the pipistrelle. The
length of the head and body is a little over 14 in., and the
tail is a little less than 1$ in. The ears are slightly shorter
than the head. Their outer margins develop a notch (through
the jutting outwards of the outer fold) not unlike that which is
seen in the species next to be described. The tragus is erect and
somewhat pointed, and a little more than half the length of the

1 This specimen has been identified by Mr. J. Lewis Bonhote, to whom
I owe the information.
THE BATS IOI

ear. The eyes are small, and nearly concealed by the long coarse
hair of the face. On the lip there is a decided moustache of long
hair, which rather incorrectly gives the name of “whiskered ”
bat. It should rather be called “ moustached.” The tip of the
tail, which projects beyond the membrane, is slightly curved.
The membrane of the wings takes its rise from the base of the
fifth toe, and there is no lobe of the interfemoral membrane
outside the calcaneum, which last terminates in a small pro-
jecting tooth. The fur is long and thick, and the hair on the
upper part is dusky black colour over the greater part of its
length, but bright chestnut at the tip. The tips of the black
hair on the stomach are ash-gray.
The ears and the flying membrane
are nearly black,’ and the transverse
lines on the flying membrane are
very numerous. The Whiskered Bat
produces its young in the summer
(end of June or beginning of July).
It is rather a solitary creature, being
very often found singly in its place
of rest, though congregating in small
numbers during the breeding season HEAD OF WHISKERED BAT

or when searching for food. This a eiar ea

bat occasionally appears in the daytime, and does not seem to
be as averse to daylight as others of its kind. Its hiding-place
is generally in walls, roofs, and any convenient cranny in a
building or in timber. Apart from the refuges offered by man,
it is probably a cavern-haunter, in contradistinction to bats which
make their home in hollow trees. It frequently flies low over
the surface of the water, like Daubenton’s bat. Its occurrence in
England has been noted in the eastern counties and the Midlands,
from Kent to the Lake District, and from the Isle of Wight to
Norfolk. It appears to be quite absent from Scotland, but is
somewhat doubtfully to be met with in the west of Ireland.

 

1 In some specimens a well-defined pure black spot appears on each
shoulder.
102 BRITISH MAMMALS

Myotis emarginatus. THe NoTcuH-EARED Bat

This is of very doubtful existence as a British species. It is
a valid species, allied to Myotis bechsteini, and was first described
by Geoffroy in France in the early part of the nineteenth century
from specimens taken at Abbeville and at Dover.
But the Dover specimen was subsequently shown
to be Myotis (Vespertilio) mystacinus, a bat with
which M. emarginatus is constantly confounded.
Other reputed British examples of M. emargi-
natus have turned out to be M. dasycneme and
M. daubentoni. But inasmuch as M. emarginatus
is fairly common in Northern France and
EAR of NorcHbansy Delgium (elsewhere in Middle and Southern
Bar Europe and Western Asia), it is most likely
(Myotis emarginatus). Ae) i
Twice natural size, tO prove a visitant to Southern England. It is
a small bat, head and body scarcely more than
1? in. long, tail nearly 1$ in. in addition. The ears are strongly
notched on the outer margin. Colour of fur is reddish-brown
above and pale brown below. Skin of ears and wings reddish-
brown.

 

Genus: BARBASTELLA

The two species of bat of this genus differ markedly from
those already described, in that the ears, instead of being set
somewhat widely apart, have their inner margins so approximated
that they are actually united at their bases. The outer margin
of the ear is carried forward in front of the eyes, and terminates
near the upper lip, so that the whole of the face is very nearly
enclosed in a circular band of ear cartilage. The inner margin of
the ear is very convex and rolled backward. The membrane of
both ears unites at their base. The tragus is nearly triangular
in shape, with a curved, sharp tip. The eyes are small, and are
situated close to the termination of the outer margin of the ear.
The muzzle is very short, and is naked. The naked, grooved
hollow along the nose is certainly peculiar, and suggests a
THE BATS 103

commencement of those conditions which invest so many bats with
growths of cartilage above and around the nostrils. The nostrils
open upwards in this groove, and the naked space extends along
the bridge of the nose. Below the
nostrils are a couple of deep vertical
grooves extending to the lip, the
space between these grooves being
swollen. The cheeks are distended,
and are covered with black hair.
The length of these bats is about
2 in. from the nose to the base of
the tail, and the tail is about 12 in.
long. The teeth differ in number — Heap or BarpasreLte BAT
fr om those of the genus My otis in Note ee ee fore-
the loss of a pair of premolars in _ head, groove along nose and eyes fairly
: 4 close together. Twice natural size.
each jaw, the total number of grinding
teeth, therefore, being only five pairs in each jaw, instead of six.
Of the two pairs of upper incisors, the innermost pair is much
longer than the outermost. The outermost incisors are small,
simple, and sharp-pointed. The innermost incisors are divided
into two cusps. The feet are slender, with long toes.

 

Barbastella barbastellus. Tur BarspasTetLe Bat

The description of the genus may be applied to this species,
about which it may be said additionally that the fur is soft and
deep black, with a grayish tinge on the surface caused by the tips
of the hairs being that colour. The region a
round the genital organs is of a whitish-brown =)
colour, and fine hairs of grayish-white grow S\:
sparsely on each side of the flying membrane, “Wijk
the skin of which is dusky black in colour. Gi a ss
This is also the tint of the naked skin on the ~ parsasrette Bat
face, so that in average aspect the Barbastelle (3 times life size).
is the blackest of British bats. A perfectly white specimen of
the barbastelle, and another in which the body was black, while
the head and membrane were pure white, were seen and noted

     

   
     

SYM
S

Wigan

   
104 BRITISH MAMMALS

by the late Mr. Bell, who also records an extraordinary specimen
that was caught in Warwickshire which had the fur of the under
parts strangely tinged with purplish-red.’ The barbastelle hiber-
nates early, and appears to be very sensitive to cold. It does not
frequent trees, but, on the contrary, seeks out deep caverns or
profound crevices below the surface of the ground. It is said
seldom to retire to the same place day after day, but to choose
constantly a different retreat. It is a solitary bat, and its flight
seems desultory and lazy. It also flies low.

Its distribution over England is not uniform. It is met with
in Kent occasionally, in the midland counties, and in East
Anglia. Examples have been captured as far west as Warwick-
shire, and as far north as Cumberland. It has never been
obtained from Scotland or Ireland.

Genus: PLECOTUS

This is a genus represented by two species, one inhabiting
North America and the other Europe, Asia, and North Africa.
It can be best described in connection with the species that is
found in Britain.

Plecotus auritus. Tue Lonc-EARED Bat

This bat is readily distinguished by the enormous size of its
ears, which are proportionately longer than in any other mammal.
Each ear, in fact, is nearly as long as the animal’s body. The
Long-eared Bat measures a little under 2 in. from the tip of the
nose to the base of the tail, and the tail is about 12 in. The
ears measure in length 13 1in., and in breadth three-quarters of
an inch. The tragus is shaped rather like a leaf, except that the
inner side is nearly straight. It is little more than half an inch
long, and bends slightly upwards. The outer margin of the ear
commences behind the angle of the mouth. The inner margins of

1 In some other Vespertilionid bats there is a tendency in the breeding
season for the males to develop a rich yellow tinge in the lower half of the

hair of the under parts. It may be the same tendency which tinged the fur
of this example with a purplish tone.
THE BATS 105

the ears are nearly joined at the base by a prominent rounded lobe.
The inner portion of the ear conch is supported by three thin,
slender, longitudinal cartilages. These cartilages serve to erect

 

THE EARS OF THE LONG-EARED BAT: to show
the tragus, or earlet. Note also the position
of the folded ears.

A. Ears of the Long-eared Bat (half again as large
as life).

B. The Long-eared Bat (life size), showing ears
pressed against the sides and tragus erect.

and stiffen the conch. The inner margin of the ear is covered
with short hair, and is bent back from the middle cartilage into
a broad longitudinal fold. The ears are very flexible, and quite
under the control of the creature’s muscles and tendons ; they
106 BRITISH MAMMALS

are able to droop, and even to be turned under the arm during
sleep. The ear conch is silky in surface and transparent, and can
be thrown into elegant curves and folds. The eyes in this bat
are well developed. They are placed not far from the corner of
the mouth. The openings of the nostrils are at the extremity
of the muzzle on the upper surface, in front of rather deep
grooves, which are naked and nearly semicircular, and which are
bordered by raised, rounded edges. The hair is long over the
shoulders and thick, soft, and silky about all the body. It isa
pale reddish-brown above and brownish-gray below, the basal part
of the hairs being blackish. The flying membrane is blackish,
with a slight red tinge. Old bats of this species tend to become
rather gray in colour. As regards the teeth, the upper incisors
are separated by a wide gap in the middle,
and grow close to the canines. There are three
=" pairs of incisors in the lower jaw as against two
pairs in the upper jaw. The total number of the

iP teeth is thirty-six. This is because there are three
Ae ane ae OF pairs of premolars in the lower jaw, as against
(3 times natural size). Only two pairs in the allied genus Barbastella.
But for the loss of a pair of premolars in the upper jaw, the
dental formula would be the same as in Myotis.

This bat apparently brings forth its young in the month of
June, a single one at a birth. It frequents for its retreat caverns,
buildings, and hollow trees, especially affecting the inside of roofs
of houses. In winter they pack themselves between the tiles, or
in holes or crevices of timber. This bat rises readily from the
ground, but crawls rather slowly and awkwardly over a flat
surface, not being able to run quickly, for instance, like the
pipistrelle. In the case of the long-eared bat the head and
chest are raised, and the body is jerked forwardly from side to
side. It moves the fore feet alternately, and endeavours to
adhere to the slightest roughness or point of vantage into which
it can stick the claws of its thumbs or toes. When walking it
generally turns the great ear right back along the sides, while the
tragus, or earlet, falls forward, so that very often in this attitude

 
THE BATS 107

the tragus appears to be the real ear. The ears are also folded
under the arm during sleep and hibernation. Sometimes when
this bat hovers like a humming-bird over foliage, picking off
moths and caterpillars and other insects, the ears are bent out-
wards and downwards, so that they hang down on either side of
the face like huge cheek pouches. When, however, the animal is
flying from place to place the ears are erected. When preparing
for repose the tail is curved in under the body. Undoubtedly
these huge ears are extremely sensitive, not only to sounds, but to
currents of air, and almost take the place of sight by the fine
perception they give the creature of its approach towards an
obstacle. Experiments made many years ago in France by a
zoologist who blinded these bats, showed that they were but little
embarrassed in their movements by the loss of sight. But when
in addition their ears were closed the creature became perfectly
helpless, and banged itself against obstacles.

This bat is more nocturnal than most species of the Vesper-
tilionine and Myotidine sub-families, apparently remaining abroad
all through the night, though it may also be seen hawking insects
in the early twilight. Its voice is sometimes extremely shrill,
so much so that some ears are incapable of distinguishing its
squeaks, while others hear them distinctly above other sounds.
Bell writes: “ At all hours through the dead of the night and
on the darkest nights, in the open fields or elsewhere, we have
heard the shrill clatter of the long-eared bat over our heads ; its
voice, once known, being easily recognised from that of any
other species.” When actually interfered with the cry becomes
clear and piercing.

The long-eared bat is a cleanly creature, assiduously re-
moving impurities from its fur at all times, and even assisting its
comrades to do so. They are affectionate one towards another,
though spiteful to other bats of different species, and very
playful. Their tameness in captivity, according to the accounts
given by Bell, is perfectly charming. They would fly to the
hand of any one who held up an insect, or even take with great
gentleness a little piece of raw meat from between the lips. If
108 BRITISH MAMMALS

any one made a humming noise like a bluebottle, the bat
would fly up to his face and search his lips anxiously. As this
creature, in common with other English bats, does absolutely
nothing but good in ridding the country of noxious insects, it is
to be hoped that it will henceforth receive protection at our
hands ; for, in addition to rendering such beneficial services, it is
one of the most remarkable objects in Creation, having so far
uttered “the last word” on the subject of ear development.’
This wonderful little bat is distributed throughout Europe,
Temperate Asia, and Africa north of the tropics. A closely
allied species is found in North America. Its distribution in
the British Islands is encouraging (in view of the extreme
scarcity of other bats). It ranges over England, Ireland, and
Scotland, though it may be absent from the Hebrides and
Shetland Islands.

Famity: RAJNVOLOPAHID.Z. THE LEAF-NOSED BATS

The bats of this family develop more or less extraordinary
appendages round the nasal apertures. There is a tendency in
most bats to large nostrils, and to grooved and naked spaces
above and below these apertures ; and, indeed, in two genera
of Vespertilionide allied to Plecotus (Anthrozous and Nyctophilus)
there is a rudimentary nose leaf. A somewhat similar develop-
ment takes place in the rather distinct family Phyllostomatide,
which includes the vampires. But nothing in this last-named
family equals the extravagant development of nose leaf to be
seen in some of the Rhinolophids. The ears are also remarkable
in that, though large, they are without any tragus, or earlet, the
place of which is almost filled by a remarkable lobe developed
from the outer margin of the ear. The pre-maxillary bones are
reduced to rudiments suspended from the nose cartilage, and
supporting one pair of small incisors. There are never more
than two pairs of incisors below and one pair above, and the

1 Bell very rightly insists on this wonder, which only escapes our notice

because the creature that exhibits it is so small. He asks us what we should
think of a dog or an ass the ears of which were nearly as long as its body.
 

Photo by G. I. Storer, F.Z.S.

GREATER HoRSESHOE BAT (h/nolophus ferrum-equinum).

    

Photo by C. Reid. CoMMON Bat (Pipistrellus pipistrellus).

   

oe

To face p. 108.
THE BATS 109

upper premolars are reduced to two pairs. The skull is large, and
the nasal bones supporting the nose leaf are expanded vertically
or laterally. The nose leaf varies slightly in dimensions between
the male and the female, and is less developed in some forms
than in others. The tail is not very long, and is entirely enclosed
within the interfemoral membrane.

The late Sir William Flower regarded the Rhinolophids as

the most highly organised and eleborately developed of the
insectivorous bats. iy

Genus: RHINOLOPHUS. THE HORSESHOE BATS

The dental formula is as follows:—In the upper jaw, one
pair of rudimentary incisors, one pair of canines, two pairs of
premolars, and three pairs of
molars ; in the lower jaw, two
pairs of incisors, one pair of
canines, three pairs of premolars,
and three pairs of molars. The
molar teeth are armed with sharp
cusps ranged in the shape of a
W (as in a good many other
forms of insectivorous bats).

The first hind toe, or hallux, Heap or Greater HorsesHoz BaT
tae only fw phalanges. Each (Rhinolophus ferrum-equinum): to show

nose leaf. Note also absence of tragus
of the other toes has three. and large development of lobe of outer

Although there is Ho trie tragus margin ofear. Nearly twice natural size.
?

or earlet, its place is taken by an antitragus, which is a develop-

ment of the outer margin of the ear, and from which it is

separated by a notch.

 

Rhinolophus ferrum-equinum. Tur Greater HorsesHor Bat

This creature, though not so remarkable in its development of
nasal cartilage as the genus Trienops, has nevertheless a sufficiently
extraordinary appendage to its nostrils. The nose leaf consists
of three portions. That which lies immediately above the lip
110 BRITISH MAMMALS

(the lip is hairy and cloven) is horizontal, and shaped like a
horseshoe. This is divided in the middle by the same septum as
cleaves the upper lip. Behind the horseshoe is a deep depression,
in which the nostrils are situated. Between the nostrils, from the
septum of the nose, rises the second portion of the leaf. This
presents a cup-like hollow, where it rises from the septum of the
nose, and then, after a contraction and expansion, ends in a sharp
point which is raised above the third section of the leaf. This
last lies under the horseshoe at its base, and is of the same
breadth, but narrows and finally tapers to a point on the forehead.

Undoubtedly one use of the nose leaf is to act as a receiver
of sensations and enable the bat to
thread its way through the most intricate
passages without using its small and
inconspicuous eyes. A horseshoe bat
turned loose in a room, for instance,
will, unlike most other bats under
similar conditions, avoid with perfect
ease every kind of object, without ever
Nose LEAF of GREATER Horse. COMing into direct contact with any-

—— BaT IN Prorite (slightly thing. But the nose leaf is also due
arger than natural size). :
to that craving for the development
of ornament common to most animals. Bats of the family
Phyllostomatide decorate not only their noses, but also their
under and upper lips.

The ears of the Greater Horseshoe Bat are rather large, and
broad at the base. The inner margin is much curved, and ends
in a sharp point, which is a good deal turned outwards. The
conch of the ear is marked by about twelve transverse ridges.
On the outside of the ear conches grows a little fine hair, which
becomes a thick fringe of fur along the inner margin. The
forehead and cheeks are thickly clothed with hair, and the eyes
are small and nearly hidden between the hair of the forehead
and the cheeks, and the large raised nose leaf. The head and
body of this bat measure a little over 23 in. in length. The
tail is about 1% in.

 
THE BATS IIt

The colour of the great horseshoe bat above is reddish-
gray, the fur being paler at the root than at the tip. The belly
and under parts of the body are very pale gray. The cartilage of
the ears and of the nose leaf is pale brownish flesh-colour, and
the flying membrane is dark grayish-brown.

The female of this and other Rhinolophids exhibits a pair of
warts on the skin of the abdomen which correspond internally
to the front of the pubic bones. These warts have been taken
by some to represent a disused pair of inguinal mamme which
are no longer functional.

The horseshoe bats fly high when hunting for insects, and
live a good deal on cockchafers. The wings are broad, and in
flight this bat may be told from other species by the greater width
of the flying membrane. The horseshoe bat appears rather late
in the evening, and affects the neighbourhood of trees, flying
round and round the foliage to snap up beetles and other insects
of good size. When it retires, however, to rest during the day
or to hibernate, its favourite haunts are ancient buildings and
caves. It is estimated that it has continued to inhabit the large
cave known as Kent’s Hole, near Torquay, continuously since
the age of the mammoth. In this cave its remains are found
going back to the Pleistocene period. Its present distribution in
these islands is confined to the south and west of England. It
ranges from Devonshire and Gloucester to the Isle of Wight,
Kent, and Essex, and is occasionally met with in the Midlands.
Hitherto it has been entirely unknown in Northern England,
Scotland, and Ireland. Outside England the greater horseshoe
bat extends its range over most parts of Europe and Africa, and
of Asia north of the Himalayas.

Rhinolophus hipposiderus. Tue Lesser HorsesHor Bat

This is a smaller animal than the previous species. It
measures a trifle over 14 in. for the head and body, and just
over an inch for the tail. The measurement across the wings in
the larger specimens is 9 in. The teeth are the same in number
as the greater horseshoe bat, but the first premolar in the upper
112 BRITISH MAMMALS

jaw is extremely minute. The ears are still more pointed, and
the outer margin is deeply notched and almost separated from the
large antitragus, which is really a fold of the outer margin of
the conch. The nose leaf is proportionately smaller than in the
greater horseshoe bat. The first, or “horseshoe,” portion is
less closely applied to the upper lip than in Rhinolophus ferrum-
equinum, and its lower edge is slightly crimped. The erect
process between the nostrils is proportionately shorter, and is
much less cupped at the base. The posterior
portion which grows over the forehead is shaped
like the head of a lance, and is of greater relative
size than in the preceding species. The muzzle
is a little less swollen than in the greater horse-
shoe bat, and the colour of the fur a little
yellower below, and rather more brownish-gray
Nose Learor Lesser than reddish-gray above.

HORSESHOE BAT The Lesser Horseshoe Bat is equally clever in
(Rhinolophus hipposi- , aut a ‘ g :

derus) (twice natural its ability to maintain itself on the wing in the
eee) most cramped and intricate quarters without
coming into contact with obstacles. It will enter quite small
crevices on its flight and emerge again, and apparently never
touch any place with the wings. When pausing before any
object which it wishes to inspect it keeps up a vibratory
motion of the wings like a humming-bird. It is quite well able
to use its eyes (though these are very small, and almost hidden
in the nasal cartilage), but in all its flights and researches it
seems to trust to the sensitiveness of the nose organ, of the
ears, and of the wing membrane to guide its movements. The
distribution of this bat is nearly as extensive as (but not quite
identical with) that of the bigger form. It is found pretty widely
over the southern half of England. It is also met with in
Western Ireland. No specimens have yet been sent from the
north of England and Ireland, from Wales, or from Scotland.
Outside these islands it extends over Central Europe as far north
as the Baltic and the more northern regions of Russia. It is
found, no doubt, over the greater part of Temperate Asia, and has

 
THE BATS 113

been obtained from the regions of the Himalayas and North-
west India. It is also distributed over Northern and North-east
Africa as far south as the Sahara Desert and Nubia. Species
allied to the horseshoe bat range over India, Malaysia, and
Northern Australia, and over Africa as far south as the Cape.

It will be seen from the perusal of the foregoing chapter that
our knowledge of British bats is relatively scanty, and requires
much additional research, not only into the life history of these
interesting creatures, but still more into the identification and
correct naming of British species. At least four of the species
here enumerated and described (Vespertilio murinus or discolor,
Myotis dasycneme, M. bechsteini, M. myotis) are so rare as British
examples that they are often refused admittance into lists of
British mammals, and their few undisputed occurrences are
attributed to accidents or the result of high winds. Seeing the
flying powers of bats, and the ability of some species at least
to swim if thrown into water, the twenty to sixty miles of sea
between France and Belgium on the one hand and England on
the other ought not to deter the bats of Continental Europe
from colonising Britain. Assiduous efforts, therefore, should be
made to collect and identify bats throughout Great Britain and
Ireland.
CHAPTER VI

Orpver: CARNIVORA. THE FLESH-EATING
PREDATORY MAMMALS

DOGS AND BEARS
Tue True Carnivora arose from or near to a group which we
know as the Creodonta, and which flourished early in mammalian
history. The Creodonts first make their appearance in strata of
the Lowest Eocene—that is to say, at the very commencement

” a a

Premolar 4.

 

JAWS OF Otocyon megalotis.
Slightly separated, to show molar teeth (four premolars and four molars in both jaws) and
absence of differentiation in the carnassial teeth (fourth upper premolar and first lower molar).

of the Tertiary Epoch. Their earliest types were generalised,
and betray considerable affinities to the Marsupial order. They
almost represent, indeed, at that period the main line of

mammalian descent, the arrangement and aspect of their teeth
114
2

THE FLESH-EATING PREDATORY MAMMALS 115

not only closely resembling existing carnivorous Marsupials, but
even the dentition of the Theriodont reptiles. There were in
each jaw at least three pairs of incisors, one pair of tusk-like
canines, four pairs of premolars, and three of molars: the typical
mammalian formula of forty-four teeth."

Modern Carnivora are divided into two sub-orders: the
Fissipedia, or separate-toed flesh-eaters (dogs, cats, civets, weasels,
bears); and the Pinnipedia, or web-toed fish-eaters (sea-lions,

 

Angle of lower jaw of Angle of lower jaw of Canis cancrivorus Angle of lower jaw of Otocyon
Wolf. (Crab-eating Dog of Central and South megalotis.
America).

ANGLE OF THE LOWER JAW IN Ofocyon, AS COMPARED WITH THE ANGLE OF THE JAW IN
Canis cancrivorus (CRAB-EATING DoG) AND IN WOLF.

‘So far as I am aware no Creodont (unless it is so with Proviverra)
has ever been discovered which possessed more than three true molars,
and yet there is one remarkable problem in the descent of the Carnivores
which has not yet been solved. In South and East Africa is found a
curious aberrant dog, called the long-eared fox (Otocyon megalotis). This
creature has four pairs of molars in the lower jaw, and very often four
in the upper. A fourth molar makes its appearance in the lower jaw
of dogs of the genus Canis occasionally, and an increase of molars to four
or more appears as a common feature in existing or extinct Marsupials.
On the other hand, no existing Marsupial has more than ¢kree permanent
premolars, One of these teeth, however, is preceded by a “ milk” premolar,
which may be the missing fourth of this series of teeth. In extinct
mammals that are supposed to have been Marsupials, four premolars
are present. On the other hand, in these extinct Marsupials with four
premolars, there would appear to be only three molars. It would almost
116 BRITISH MAMMALS

walruses, seals). Besides the special adaptation to a life in the
water which affects the Pinnipedia, there is a further marked
difference between them and the terrestrial Carnivores at the
present day. The Fissipedia have developed a pair of carnassial
or powerful cutting teeth from out of the grinders in both jaws.
In the upper jaw this carnassial tooth is the fourth premolar. In
the lower jaw it is the first true molar. Now in the seals there
is no special differentiation, for crushing or tearing purposes, of
either the premolars or molars. This feature of the carnassial
teeth, however, is scarcely developed at all in O+ocyon, and but
little developed in aberrant forms of the Raccoon family and in
the Bears.

The Carnivora are for the most part five-toed, and never
have less than four toes on each foot. Their teeth are always
rooted. ‘The incisors are almost invariably three pairs in each
jaw, except in the case of the seals. The molar and premolar
teeth are generally narrow, and divided longitudinally into sharp
cusps ; but if broad, flat, and set with tubercles, they are never

seem, therefore, as though, to account for the four molars of certain
dogs co-existing with four premolars, we must go back for the origin of
the modern Carnivora to a proto-mammalian type ancestral to Marsupials,
Creodonts, and other mammalia. Until some Creodont is discovered with
four molars, it will be difficult to believe that the existing Carnivora have
descended from that group. The Creodonts, like the carnivorous Marsupials,
probably pursued a parallel line of development as predatory flesh-eating
mammals. It might, perhaps, assist the reader of these pages who is not
well acquainted with the nature of teeth, to be told that the distinction
between molars and premolars is this. Premolars have—at any rate for the
last three of the series—*‘ milk” predecessors in most mammals, whereas true
molar teeth have ~o predecessors. This distinction scarcely applies to some
teeth in Marsupials, whose ‘‘milk” dentition has been almost suppressed.
Molars and premolars, therefore, in those creatures are generally distinguished
by shape ; but, even in this case, what is equivalent to the fourth premolar in
a Marsupial has a “milk” predecessor. As regards the fourth true molar
tooth, it is found in some Edentates, living and extinct; in extinct Sirenians
(ancestors of the dugong and manati); and perhaps occurred in the earliest
Primates. It makes its appearance even in the human species occasionally,
and as a sport this happens much more frequently in the black Australian
and the Negro races than with Europeans.
THE FLESH-EATING PREDATORY MAMMALS 117

divided up into complex lobes marked by deep inflections of
enamel (like the zigzag ridges so often met with in Rodents
and Ungulates). The stomach is always a simple pear-shaped
bag, and the caecum is either absent or short and simple in most
(but not all) cases) The mamme vary in number from one pair
to six pairs. The clavicle, or collar bone, is frequently absent,

 

THE UPPER CARNASSIAL TOOTH (FOURTH PREMOLAR) IN VARIOUS CARNIVORES.

1. In Common Seal (Phoca vitulina), two-rooted. vy. In the Wolf (Canis Zupus), three-rooted. Very
ut. In an extinct Creodont of the Eocene period similar in all other existing members of the
(Proviverra), three-rooted. genus Canis.
ut, In Bear (Ursus arctus), two-rooted. vi. In Otocyon (the Long-eared Fox).
tv, In Glutton (Gudo of the Weasel group), three- vi. In Lion.
rooted. yi. In a Machairodont (Machairodus neog@us).

and, if present, is in a rudimentary condition and incomplete.
There are other marked features in the bones of the limbs which
are characteristic of this group, but which it is not necessary to
describe here. In the True Carnivores, or Fissipedia, the first
118 BRITISH MAMMALS

finger of the fore limb (our thumb) is always shorter than the
others ; and this is generally the case with the first or innermost
toe in the feet.

Famity: CAM/D.4. THE DOGS

In some respects this group is the most generalised of the
existing Carnivora. In one genus (Ofsocyon)* (and occasionally,
as a sport, in the genus Canis) the number of teeth reaches to or
exceeds the typical mammalian forty-four because it includes one
or two extra pairs of molars. The cecum is always present,
in some species short, in others long, and rather curiously folded.
There is an alisphenoid canal,’ but the entipicondylar perforation
of the humerus (see p. 149) 1s wanting in existing dogs, though
present in extinct forms. No known dog is ever marked with
spots and stripes, as in the cats, civets, and some other Carnivora ;
but there is a slight tendency to black-and-white markings on
the face, characteristic also of the raccoons and badgers.

Genus: LYCAONM. THE HUNTING DOG

This genus is scarcely separable from that which follows ;
but in Lycaon there are only four toes on each limb, as against
five on the fore feet and four visible toes on the hind limbs
in the typical dogs. The teeth of Lycaon are more massive
than those of the wolves. The fourth premolar in the lower
jaw has an extra cusp in front. The skull is somewhat shorter
and broader. The Hunting Dog is also distinguished by the
relative length of the intestines, and by the cartilage below the
tongue. The ears are long and somewhat rounded, and the tail
is bushy. The coloration is very peculiar. On a groundwork

1 It is really a question whether Ofocyon should still be included in the
family Canide. Its osteological differences from the True Dogs are at least
of family rank.

? The alisphenoid canal, constantly referred to in the classification of the
Carnivora, is a short channel or tunnel in the alisphenoid bone, on the under
surface of the skull, near the origin of the palate. Through this perforation
passes the carotid artery.
THE FLESH-EATING PREDATORY MAMMALS 119

of ochre and grey are scattered large tracts of blackish fur, which
on the stomach and thighs break up into spots. These black
blotches also extend over the limbs and the base of the tail.
The genus Lycaon presents one archaic feature marking it off
from other existing dogs: it has considerable traces of the
collar-bone, which in the modern representatives of the dog
tribe is reduced to a mere cartilaginous rudiment. In many
respects, however, the genus approximates closely to the Lupine
group of true dogs. The present range of the genus is confined
to Africa, south of the Sahara, chiefly to Eastern and Southern
Africa; but a jaw bone, resembling that of the Zycaon in the
peculiar last lower premolar, was found in a cave deposit in
Glamorganshire, and therefore seemed to show the existence of
a hypothetical Lycaon anglicus in Wales and probably in England
during the Pleistocene period.

Genus: CANIS. THE TRUE DOGS

The dental formula of this genus is normally three pairs of
incisors, one pair of canines, four pairs of premolars, and two
pairs of molars in the upper jaw, the same number of canines,
incisors, and premolars in the lower jaw, but generally three, or
abnormally four, molars in the lower jaw. One group of dogs,
the sub-genus Cuon, has lost the third molar in the lower jaw.
On the other hand, an American dog (Canis cancrivorus) some-
times has three pairs of molars in the upper jaw. The fourth
premolar, or upper carnassial tooth, consists of a stout cutting
blade with a scarcely developed anterior lobe (differing thereby
from the cats), and a compressed ridge forming the posterior lobe.
The tooth which meets this in the lower jaw is the first molar,
which is a very large tooth with a strong compressed blade
divided into two lobes, the hinder of which is the larger and more
pointed. The remainder of the tooth is broad, low, and tuber-
culated. The collar bones are very rudimentary, represented by
little else than cartilage. There are five toes on the fore feet,
the first, or thumb, being very short and at some distance from
the ground. Although there are only four toes visible in the
120 BRITISH MAMMALS

skin of the hind foot, there is a rudiment of the first toe in the
bones of the metatarsus.

The dogs of the genus Canis might be divided into these
groups: the Fox, or Alopecoid division ; the Wolf, or Lupine
section, which in the main includes the races that have formed
the domestic dogs; and the Cyonines, or East Asiatic wild dogs
of the sub-genus Cuon ; besides several aberrant forms in sections
by themselves. The Fox group, perhaps, is a little less specialised
than the other three divisions. In England it has been repre-
sented since the Pliocene period; and perhaps in the Glacial
ages the Arctic fox (Camis lagopus) dwelt in these islands, and,
at the same time, penetrated far south into France. But the
remains of this animal in England are so scanty and doubtful
that it is hardly worth while including it in a description of the
British mammalian fauna.

Canis vulpes. Tur Common Fox

The fox differs from the dogs of the Wolf group in the
absence of air cells in the forehead of the skull, as well as in the
shape of the hinder portion of the bone of the eye socket,
the upper surface of which is concave instead of convex. In
general it is more slender in the build of its body and has shorter
limbs. The tail in the Common Fox is nearly half the length
of the head and body. The length of the head and body in
an average dog fox is about 3 ft., and the tail about 1 ft. 3 in.
Specimens of English foxes have measured as much as
3 ft. 10 in. from the tip of the nose to the base of the tail.
The ears are large, and the pupil of the eye, instead of con-
tracting under a strong light into a round spot, as in the dog
or the wolf, forms in the fox a slit or ellipse. The number of
teats also is different, being six, as against eight or ten in the
wolves and dogs. The muzzle is brought to a sharp point in the
nose, and this pointed aspect is added to by a considerable pro-
jection of the nose and upper lip beyond the lower jaw. The
vibrisse, or ‘“ whiskers,” are very abundant.

Foxes, also, are not only more nocturnal in their active life,
 

FOXES (Canis viipes).
 

Photo by C. Reid. Tue Common Fox (Can/s vulpes).

 

Photo by the Scholastic Photo Company.
THE WoLF, EUROPEAN TYPE (Canis lupus).

To face p. 120,
THE FLESH-EATING PREDATORY MAMMALS 125

and more given to burrowing and inhabiting burrows than wolves
or dogs, but they are in comparison solitary in their habits, and
do not associate so much in packs. In this respect the Arctic
fox above alluded to is perhaps a little more dog-like, as it
generally dwells in small colonies of from twenty to thirty
burrows each.

The colour of the common fox varies slightly in different
districts of Great Britain and abroad, being somewhat grayer in
Scotland than in England. The following, however, is a fairly
accurate description of the coloration of the English fox in winter
and summer alike. The lower portion of the cheeks and the
under part of the throat, neck, and chest, and the upper and lower
lips, are white. The belly is dirty white, with a tendency to
become brown in some examples, or actually grayish-black in
others. The inside of the thighs and of the arms from the
elbows to below the wrists is white, and there is a marked white
line extending down the outer aspect of the hind legs from the
knee to near the inside of the hock. The long hair inside the
ears is yellowish-white. The front part of the upper lip and
the muzzle round the nose is blackish-brown, and a blackish line
separates the white of the upper lip from the red of the nose, and
is then continued in a narrow but distinct line to the inner angle
of the eye. The centre of the nose is also inclined to be blackish-
brown. The outer side of the large ears is black or blackish-
brown, the black being very evident along the inner edge. The
feet are black, with sometimes a patch of white on the inside of
the fore paws, the inner side of the feet being brownish, while
the black of the outer aspect is often continued up the edge of the
arm to the elbow. The long vibrisse are black, and the long
hairs along the back and sides of the tail are often tipped with
black. The hairs of the soles of the feet (unlike those of the
dog and the wolf, the soles are hairy and not naked) is deep red.
The whole remainder of the coloration not as yet described varies
from a beautiful orange-red to an almost silvery pinkish-gray.
The forehead, the region round the eyes, and the upper part of
the nose, the shoulders, and arms are particularly bright orange-
122 BRITISH MAMMALS

red, and this tint also prevails on the outer aspect of the thigh
and leg. The long fur on the flanks and hind quarters is a
silvery reddish-brown, because many of the hairs are whitish
towards their extremities. The greater part of the tail is brown
or yellowish-brown, mingled, as above stated, with black or white-
tipped hairs, the black hairs being very numerous along the sides
of the tail. The general aspect of a fox, then, is red-brown above
and outwardly, and white below and inwardly, with black ears, a
blackish muzzle, and a black-fringed, white-tipped tail. The
short nails on the feet are horn-colour. In coloration the fox is
almost the handsomest of our British beasts. In Scottish types
there is more gray, especially about the hair on the upper parts,
and a greater proportion of white hairs on the hind quarters,
while the white tip at the end of the tail is larger. About the
Cheviots and the Scottish borderland the foxes are smaller, the
fur is a darker red, and the tip of the tail has little or no white.
In Wales, according to Mr. W. E. de Winton, a blackish-brown
type of fox is sometimes met with, but in South Wales the
present writer has noticed the particularly orange colour of the
fox’s fur. The occasional specimens with blackish-gray bellies
that are met with in England recall the variety of the common
fox which is more characteristic of Southern Europe and Northern
India. There is a great tendency in foxes to abrupt alternations
between a blackish and a white belly,’ and this tendency to
alteration in tint may have made itself felt independently in
England. On the other hand, it is possible that the dark-bellied
examples met with in this country may be due to the importation
of foreign foxes, which have so often been brought over to re-
inforce the native breed ever since the fox became a fashionable
contributor to sport. Female foxes do not differ in colour from
the male, though they are smaller in size. Fox cubs, however,
are decidedly different from their parents in coloration. There is
scarcely any black or white about them, and the general colour
is a brownish or pinkish-gray, not unlike the colour of the coat

1 The white tip to the tail, so characteristic of Canis vulpes in all its
varieties, may also appear as dark gray or even black in English specimens.
THE FLESH-EATING PREDATORY MAMMALS 123

assumed in summer by the Arctic foxes. This tint soon warms
into yellowish-brown, and by the time the fox is a year old has it
developed the colours given in the foregoing description.

The fox, like some other species of dogs, possesses a scent
gland, which is situated under the tail, near the anus, and which
secretes a foetid sebaceous substance. This gland is present in both
sexes, but isa little more highly developed in the male. The urine
of the fox has the same strong and unpleasant scent as the sub-
caudal secretion. Glands, and nasty odours communicated to
the excreta, are a constantly recurring feature in the Carnivora,
reaching, perhaps, its highest point of development in the skunk,
a member of the Weasel tribe. In civets the strong odour is
agreeable to man, and not absolutely repellent, as is the case with
foxes, cats, and many members of the Weasel family. This stench
which attaches itself to the fox provides the means through
which he is tracked by the dogs and hunted down.

No fossil remains of the fox have yet been obtained from
Scotland. It is possible, therefore, that the fox may only have
penetrated into North Britain since the close of the Glacial
period, but its fossil remains have been found in some of
the Irish caves, dating from the close of the Pleistocene.
In England the creature is one of the oldest of British
mammals, and dates from the Pliocene Epoch. In all probability
it was here long before the advent of man, and at a time
coeval with the sabre-toothed tiger and the huge fauna more
characteristic of Eastern Asia and Equatorial Africa. At the
present day the fox is found all over England, Scotland,’
Wales, and Ireland. It has probably been affected to some
extent by the introduction of foreign breeds from Sweden and
Germany.

Another instance of the difference between the Fox group and
the Wolf group of the genus Camis is that, whereas the domestic
dog (which belongs to the Wolf group) will freely interbreed
with the wolf or jackal, it generally regards the fox of either sex

1 Not, however, including the Hebrides, Mull, and almost all the large
islands off the west coast of Scotland, except Skye (where it is indigenous).
124 BRITISH MAMMALS

with detestation ; and although instances of interbreeding have
been reported, they are extremely rare.

Foxes never consort in couples, male and female, except
during the breeding season ; and even then as many as three dog
foxes may be hanging round the vixen’ to solicit her favours,
rather than one chosen husband. The vixen only breeds once in
the year, generally in February. She attracts the dog foxes by
uttering a sharp bark. When the vixen is pregnant she leaves
the society of the male and makes or takes a burrow for herself.
Here the young are born, generally in the month of April, after a
period of gestation of between sixty and sixty-five days. Foxes
only breed once a year. The females only come into season
once, and not twice, in the twelve months, as is the case with
dogs. ‘The number of cubs ina litter varies from three to seven.
Fox puppies are born blind, and do not open their eyes until
about the age of ten days. They are playful little creatures, and
very active, with a yapping cry which is like a short bark. The
mother suckles them about a month, and then brings them food,
such as young rabbits, and later on she takes them out with her,
and trains them to hunt for themselves, summoning them to the
trail with sharp barks.

Compared to dogs and wolves the fox is a very silent
animal. The usual cry isa short bark, not unlike that of the
domestic dog. This is only uttered during the breeding season
or when the female is calling to the cubs. It does not howl like
the jackal or wolf.

The cunning and sagacity of the fox have become pro-
verbial in European folklore.? This beast stands for astuteness

1A south-west dialect word, originally derived from the Anglo-Saxon
Juxen = female fox. The word “fox” itself is an old term of the Teutonic
branch of the Aryan languages which can be traced back to a form like the
Gothic fauho, or faukhs.

? Reinaert (Reynard) de Vos (fox), an old Low German beast epic,
summed up the impressions which the fox, the wolf (Isengrim), the badger,
the bear, the hare, the sheep, the lion, and the monkey had made on the
mind of European man from the close of the Glacial age to the close of
the Roman Empire.
THE FLESH-EATING PREDATORY MAMMALS 125

and unscrupulous cleverness, just as the wolf represents stupid
ferocity. In some districts, however, where it has been long
unmolested, its attacks on live stock in the vicinity of human
habitations almost assume the boldness of a wolf. When the
present writer was in Achill Island, in the autumn of 1902, the
natives of that west-of-Ireland paradise complained to him of
the boldness and audacity of the local foxes, which during the
winter-time would descend the hillsides into the villages along
the seashore, and take geese and fowls and young pigs from
under the noses of their enraged proprietors. ‘The same foxes
are accused by the people in the summer-time of attacking young
foals on the uplands, and killing many lambs.

It is almost a commonplace to point out that the fox is
subterranean in his dwelling ordinarily. He either excavates
burrows for himself, or appropriates those which have been made
by the badger or the rabbit. At the bottom of these “ earths”
the fox remains concealed during the daytime, unless love or
hunger should drive him abroad before dusk. But in the
summer-time he frequently leaves the burrow in well-wooded
districts and lies in the thick vegetation and undergrowth, making
a sort of lair for himself. In favourable seasons, when there are
young hares or young birds about, the fox frequents cornfields
and hedgebanks, or it may even take up a dwelling in ricks or
straw yards close to the farm building from which it intends to
rob poultry.

The food of this predatory animal is most varied and compre-
hensive. It kills and eats hares, rabbits, pheasants, partridges,
lambs (in the west of Ireland it is said to kill and eat the foals of
mountain ponies), hedgehogs, rats, mice, voles, any bird which it
can surprise and capture, frogs, the larger beetles, grubs, and
worms. It will also, especially in Scotland, frequent the sea-
shore and eat fish (fresh or putrid), shellfish, and crabs. It is
ready to devour carrion of any kind when hungry, and, of course,
delights in robbing hen roosts and carrying away ducks and
geese. It will attack, kill, and devour swans ; in fact, the present
writer knows of a pretty mere in the New Forest from which all
126 BRITISH MAMMALS

the swans have been exterminated by foxes. With its rapacious
instincts, the fox does a great deal of damage, not only amongst
domestic birds and beasts which are the property of man, but
amongst the wild creatures of the wood and the lake. Artificially
protected as it has been since its pursuit on horseback became a
favourite and well-established sport some two hundred years ago,
the fox is no doubt answerable for a decided thinning of our
indigenous birds and beasts.

During the rule of the Plantagenets foxes are mentioned, but
somewhat contemptuously, as beasts of venery. Early engravings
seem to indicate that the fox was pursued to his earth by a single
hound followed by sportsmen on foot, who then proceeded to
dig him out. It is probable that regular foxhounds, of French
or Spanish’ origin, were not kept in England till the latter half
of the seventeenth century. About the beginning of the
eighteenth century it became customary to follow the hounds
on horseback. Hitherto mounted men had chiefly devoted
themselves to the pursuit of deer. Fox-hunting at the end of
ithe eighteenth century meant striking a fox’s “drag,” or scent,
early in the morning, and following this drag till the hounds
traced it to the kennel or earth to which the fox had retreated.
In modern fox-hunting a man is sent to stop up all the “ earths,”
or foxes’ burrows, in the district over which hunting is to take
place. To do this successfully he must commence operations
soon after midnight, that is to say, after the foxes have left their
holes to forage for food, and he must complete his work before
the approach of morning, before they are back again in their
burrows. Should he be too late at any particular earth he may
stop the fox inside and completely spoil sport.

Supposing these directions to have been efficiently taken, one
or more of the foxes in the district will have found himself shut

1 This refers to the class of hound that would not only pursue, but, if
necessary, grapple with and kill the fox. Much earlier in English history the
dogs which tracked foxes to their burrows may have been of a smaller breed,
and perhaps more of the terrier class. These, in fact, were known as.

“fox dogs.”
THE FLESH-EATING PREDATORY MAMMALS 127

out of his retreat, and must perforce lie concealed as best he can
in the vicinity. Here he is put up by the hounds, and he then
leads the hunt in the direction of some possible refuge, which he
either succeeds in entering or which he fails to reach before the
hounds despatch him.

Canis lupus. THe Wo.F

Between the Wolf and the Fox groups (the “ Thooid ” and
“ Alopecoid”’ of the genus Canis) there are some transitional
forms of dog that it is difficult to allot definitely to either division.
These are several South American dogs, and the raccoon-like dog
of Japan and North-east Asia (which is remarkable for its extra-
ordinary resemblance, especially in coloration, to the Raccoon
family).! The Thooid, or Lupine, series includes the jackals, the
Abyssinian wild dog, the wolves of Europe, Asia, and North
America, and all the breeds of domestic dog. There is a third
series of canine species which might be termed the Cyonoid, and
it may be briefly mentioned here in connection with the origin
of the domestic dog. The Cyonoids constitute the representa-
tives of the genus or sub-genus Cuon, and are represented by a
series of wild dogs stretching from Siberia on the north to the
verge of Australia in the south. This sub-species Cuon was
represented anciently in Europe? by a form which has been
named Canis (Cuon) europeus. The dingo of Australia is closely
related to this group, from which, indeed, may have sprung acon-
siderable element in the stock of the domestic dog. The reason
why these Cyonoids are separated from the Wolf group is that
they often lose their third molar tooth in the lower jaw, though
this loss is by no means constant. They also possess as a rule
six pairs of teats, instead of five pairs which are customary in the
wolf and in most dogs.’ The profile of the face in some of them

1 It is really, in all probability, only an aberrant fox.

2 Possibly also in Southern England.

3 Mr, A. J. Sewell, the well-known M.R.C.V.S., informs me that he has
not infrequently met with six pairs of mamme in domestic dogs, though the
number of teats in most breeds of domestic dogs is fer. In some examples,
128 BRITISH MAMMALS

is rather convex (a trait which often comes out in domestic dogs).
The muzzle is shorter than in the wolf, and there is long hair
between the pads of the feet. Moreover the general colour of
these dogs (except for the winter coat of the Siberian species)
almost always tends to bright red-brown, a colour constantly
represented in breeds of domestic dog or in the dingo. On the
whole, the most dog-like of this Cyonoid group at the present
day is the Siberian Canis alpinus, and the most aberrant the
buansu, or dhol, of India. The dingo would almost seem to
represent a collateral descendant of this group which had retained
the third lower molar and had lost the extra pair of teats. Prob-
ably the dingo of Australia (to which the semi-domesticated
dogs, and even the pariah dogs of India and Western Asia, are
nearly allied) represents one of the parent forms of Canis
familiaris, while the other parent of the domestic dog has been the
wolf. The mingling of these two breeds, together, possibly,
with a dash of the jackal, has produced all the breeds of domestic
dog in existence. Some of these breeds, like the Eskimo dog
and the dogs of the Indians in the South-western States of North
America, have been derived direct from domesticated wolves,
while other breeds of native dogs in Central and South America
are akin to jackal-like types of wild dog belonging to the genus
Canis. I have seen in Achill Island, off the west coast of Ireland,
dogs which were simply stunted wolves, exactly resembling the
wolf in colour, in brush, in the shape of the ears, and in the
arrangement of the masses of hair along the line of the back.
The Cyonoid dogs are, as has been mentioned, somewhat
marked off from the Wolf group by their red colour. The male,
however, and sometimes the female, generally develops a blacken-
ing of the coat over the neck and shoulders and along the back
to the tip of the tail, The wolves and jackals are more nearly

chiefly terriers, there are Zze—four on one side, five on the other. In some
fox terriers and (according to the author’s investigations) in smaller toy breeds
the number is reduced to four pairs.

1 But it is said that there are sometimes six pairs of teats in the female
dingo.
THE FLESH-EATING PREDATORY MAMMALS 129

allied to one another in scheme of coloration. They start, so to
speak, from a reddish-yellow basis, and as reddish-yellow appears
in foxes and in the South American dogs of uncertain alliance,
it is probable that it is the original colour of the Dog genus.
The black-backed jackal of Africa exhibits the wolf-coloration
carried to its most beautiful development of black, silver, and
orange. In the European wolf (and no doubt it was the same in
the now extinct British form) the limbs are fawn-colour, with a
tendency to blackish-brown down the front of the fore paws.
The face is umber-brown, with a grizzled forehead, and patches
of the same colour on the eyebrows. The back is black, ochre-
yellow, and white, owing to the long hairs growing in that region
being yellow in their lower portion, white in the middle, and
black at the extremity. The edges of the great masses of hair
which grow somewhat unevenly along the wolf’s back are quite
black when seen from the side, but their depths are yellowish-
white. There is a good deal of black about the upper surface
of the tail. The skull of the wolf scarcely differs from that of
the more primitive types of domestic dog, the chief characteristic
being a slightly less cranial capacity, and a somewhat longer
muzzle. The only real difference would appear to be in the
canine teeth, which are proportionately more long and massive
than in most known breeds of dogs. The forehead above the
orbits is a little narrower and flatter, and the crest of bone along
the top of the skull is longer and higher.

The number of mammz is five pairs, a number characteristic
of nearly all breeds of domestic dog.’ The collar bone is present,
but very rudimentary, though usually composed of a longer
fragment than in most breeds of domestic dogs. The fore feet
are five-toed, but as a rule there are only four toes apparent on
the hind feet, though in the bones there are several joints
representing the vanishing first toe of the hind foot. Occasion-
ally in the wolf, and much more frequently in the domestic dog,
the first toe of the hind foot is represented by what is called
the dew claw, situated high up on the inner side of the hind foot.

1 See note § on p. 127.
9
130 BRITISH MAMMALS

This is a claw attached to two or three minute phalanges, which
are not completely connected with the metatarsal bone of the first
toe. On the whole, however, it may be said that wolves and
dogs are five-toed on all four feet, and in this respect are more
generalised than the South African hunting dog, which has no
trace of the first toe on any of the feet. The arrangement of the
toes on front and hind limbs in the wolf and in most breeds of
domestic dog presents a feature which deserves some attention
(inasmuch as painters often misrepresent this): the two middle
toes on each foot are pressed closely together, so that their claws
are almost touching. The tail is not nearly so long as in the
fox, but in most wolves and jackals is bushy. In the Asiatic
type of red dog akin to the dingo and perhaps in the Cyonoid
group the tail has a tendency to become smooth and short-haired,
and this tendency is met with in the development of breeds of
domestic dog, a mixture of all the Thooid and some Cyonoid
races. The pupil of the eye in the wolf and dog, as already
mentioned, contracts to a round point, and not to an elliptical slit.

The present distribution of the various races of true wolf
comprises the whole of Asia except Arabia, Ceylon, Burma, Indo-
China, and Malaysia, and includes Japan ; the whole of Europe
except the British Islands and parts of the Continent where it has
been recently exterminated by man; North America, from the
Arctic Sea to Mexico. No breed of wolf is found in North Africa,
Arabia, or Syria, its place being taken by several species of jackal.
In South America there are species of dog not far removed from
the wolf and the jackal, but offering some affinities to the fox.
One of these, Canis cancrivorus, possesses the archaic feature of a
third molar in the upper jaw.

It is still an open question as to whether the Wolf group
originated in Asia or North America. On the whole, it may
be decided that Asia was more probably the focus of radiation
of the Dog genus—which is, perhaps, the most widely-distributed
type of mammal, as it is represented in every quarter and region
of the habitable globe, except the isolated continent of Antarctica.
The wolf, as a species, dates in European formations from the
 

THE LAST BRITISH WOLF!
THE FLESH-EATING PREDATORY MAMMALS 131

end of the Pliocene, and in England from the same period. In
the Pleistocene Epoch the wolf spread into Scotland and Ireland,
and in Ireland existed in very great numbers—no doubt owing
to the fact that it met with no rivalry from hyenas, lions, or
other beasts of prey except the bear. In all probability, the wolf
of Britain resembled very closely that of modern France and
Germany. The fossil bones of British wolves are not in any
way to be distinguished from those of existing wolves on the
Continent of Europe at the present day.

The Anglo-Saxon monarchs appear to have taken strong
measures to reduce the number of wolves in England and in
Wales by levying tributes of wolves’ heads or skins. But
Mr. Harting, in his interesting chapter on the Wolf in
Extinct British Mammals, brings much evidence to bear to show
that, contrary to the accepted opinion of early English historians,
wolves were not exterminated in England till the close of the
fifteenth century, during the reign of Henry VII. Perhaps the
last specimens lingered in Yorkshire, Lancashire, and the forest
of Savernake, in Wiltshire. The last wolf was probably killed
in Scotland about 1743, and in Ireland (Kerry) perhaps as
late as 1766. The predatory nature of this animal probably
furnishes a sufficiently conclusive argument against its reintro-
duction; though, at the same time, it should be pointed out
that, whereas the wolf lends a certain picturesqueness to the
forests of France and Germany, it seldom interferes with man
except during the height of the winter. Its presence in Epping
Forest, in the New Forest, and in other great domains increas-
ingly affected by pleasure parties, would greatly add to their
romantic interest, and at the same time might wholesomely check
the gambols of the beanfeaster and his mate without subjecting
them to any worse punishment than a scare.

Famity: URSIDZ. THE BEARS

The Bears are more primitive than the dogs, in that they
have five completely developed toes on each foot, and are planti-
grade ; but they have other features which indicate specialisation,
132 BRITISH MAMMALS

such as the absence of a caecum, and of an entepicondylar foramen
(see p. 149), the presence of a long penial bone, and other
peculiarities of the male genital organs, and a rudimentary tail.
They possess the same number of teeth as the typical dog
(though in one genus there is the occasional loss of one pair of
incisor teeth in the upper jaw). Yet there is a tendency in the
first two premolars in the upper and lower jaw to disappear.
This gives the skull of a bear, therefore, an aspect very different
from the skull of a dog, as it induces (when the premolars have
dropped out) a large diastema, or toothless space, between the
great canines on the one hand and the molars on the other.
Nevertheless, in modern bears (as opposed to many extinct
genera) all four premolars are represented in both jaws, however
rudimentary may be the first three. The fourth, or carnassial,
tooth in the upper jaw is proportionately smaller than in the
dogs, is blunter, and of little importance as a tearing tooth.
This is, no doubt, partly due to degeneration. The molar teeth
are large as compared with those of the dog, and have broad, flat,
tuberculated crowns. The canine develops into a considerable
tusk. The number of teats is usually three pairs, one pair
situated on the breast and two pairs along the belly.

The bears, like so many other groups of mammals, seem to
have arisen in India, or on the northern limits of that country,
where the remains of the first true bear are found in Upper
Miocene strata. In Europe they made their appearance in the
Upper Pliocene, and the earlier forms of European bear agreed
with the brown bear of to-day in possessing four premolars in
both upper and lower jaw.

Ursus arctos. Tue Brown Bear

This species is, in some respects, the least specialised amongst
existing bears. Its colour ranges from dark fulvous-brown to
silvery-gray. Young bears have white on the throat—a detail
of coloration which is seen in other species and genera of bears,
and in members of the Weasel group. In Eastern Tibet the
brown bear tends towards black in coloration on the upper parts.
THE FLESH-EATING PREDATORY MAMMALS 133

The length of a good specimen of European bear may be as
much as 8 ft. from the tip of the snout to the root of the
tail. The tail in all existing bears is reduced to a mere stump,
and is, perhaps, longest in the polar bear. In the brown bear
the tail does not exceed 3 in. in length.

The Brown Bear hibernates in the colder districts of Europe
and Northern Asia, retiring into some cavern or safe retreat and
sleeping until April, in which month the cubs are usually born.
These very seldom exceed two in number, and are born blind and
naked, being unable to see till about three weeks after birth.

It is a relatively silent animal; snarling, growling, and
whining with its companions, but not, as a rule, uttering any
cry that can be heard at a distance. When disturbed by man,
it gives vent to a loud, gruff bark. The bear can climb trees,
and is a good swimmer. Its diet is almost omnivorous.

The present range of the brown bear extends over almost
the whole of Europe, except those regions which are thickly
inhabited by man, and over all Asia, except such parts as lie
within the tropics. In North-east Asia the brown bear almost
grades into the great grizzly bear of North America, or the
splendid chocolate-coloured Alaska bear. In England the brown
bear has existed since the Pleistocene Epoch. Its distribution
throughout England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland seems to have
been almost universal. Caledonian bears from Northern Scotland
were sent to Rome for the sports of the Circus. The creature
appears to have become practically extinct in Scotland! (as a
wild animal), and equally in Ireland, before the eighth century.
In the northern parts of England it may have lingered till about
the commencement of the ninth century. Later on it was
reintroduced as a tame animal from the Continent, and used in
medizval sports down to a relatively recent period.

It seems to be hardly determined with certainty that the
grizzly bear (Ursus horribilis) of North America is distinct as
a species from the brown bear. Extreme forms of both differ

1 Bell states, in his British Quadrupeds, that wild bears may have existed
in Scotland as late as the year 1073.
134 BRITISH MAMMALS

markedly in size, the grizzly bear being in general a much bigger
animal than the brown bear. Its coloration also varies consider-
ably, and there are slight differences in the relative size of the
tail. Remains of the bear found in Ireland seem to resemble
more nearly the grizzly bear of North America than the ordinary
brown bear of Europe, and traces of this grizzly bear type are
also found in the Pleistocene and recent deposits of England.

Ursus speleus. Tue Cave Bear

This creature was in some respects the culmination of the
bears, a splendid and awful development of a predatory Carni-
vore. It was, perhaps, preceded in development by Ursus priscus.
As a temporary king of destroying animals it probably succeeded
the sabre-toothed “ tigers,” and,exceeded the lion in size and
strength, besides being more at home in north temperate regions
where the lion seldom penetrated. It was nearly twice the size of
the brown bear, and exceeded the grizzly bear by about a third.
It differs from the other bears in the total loss in the adult animal
of all the first three premolar teeth in each jaw, also by the high
forehead, the shorter nose, and possibly the higher and more
horizontal opening of the nostrils. The upper canines were
enormous, but the lower canines not proportionately quite so
large as in the brown bear. The under jaw is provided with
a strong chin for the attachment of powerful muscles, and is
further marked with three deep cavities in the bone on either
side. The presence of its remains in absolutely extraordinary
quantities in all the caves of England, France, Germany, Belgium,
Poland, Italy, Algeria, the Balkan Peninsula, and South Russia
would seem to show that this enormous bear used caverns as its
home and lair, dragging its prey to be devoured in these retreats,
where, its hunger satisfied, it abandoned the remains to spotted
hyenas of great size. In England its existence dates from the
end of the Pliocene Epoch. It became extremely abundant
during the Pleistocene and the Prehistoric age of man. It was
certainly contemporaneous with Palaolithic man in these islands,
and may even have lingered down to the Neolithic age. So far
 

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.
British CAVE LION (Le/is leo spel@a).

 

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.

BRITISH CAVE BEAR (Ursus speleus).

To face p. 134.
THE FLESH-EATING PREDATORY MAMMALS 135

as is yet known the range did not extend to Scotland, or further
north than Yorkshire. Somewhat doubtful ursine remains in the
Shandon Cave in Ireland are attributed to the cave bear, but are
more likely of the grizzly bear type.

Famity: PROCYONMID.. THE RACCOONS

This group of small bear-like animals (differing, however, in
outward aspect from the bears in that they have tails sometimes
of great length) is slightly less specialised than the Bear group
in the shape of the molar teeth, but more specialised in that they
have lost a molar tooth from the lower jaw, never having more
than two pairs in each jaw, as against two pairs above and three
below found in all true bears. There is, however, one exception
to this in a somewhat transitional animal, the luropus, or big
panda. This creature, an inhabitant of Tibet, is extremely
bear-like in appearance, and has a very short, stumpy tail. It
was until recently classed with the bears, but it is now put in the
family Procyonide. luropus has two pairs of molars above and
three pairs below. The Procyonide walk on the soles of their feet
(are plantigrade, that is to say). There are other anatomical
points in which they are more or less generalised than
the bears. They possibly originated from creatures allied to the
ancestral bears and dogs in North America or in North-east Asia.
They are represented in the British fauna by

Aslurus anglicus. Tue British Panpa

This was an animal quite half again as large as the existing
4flurus fulgens of the Himalayas, the only living representa-
tive of the genus to-day. The British Panda may have been
akin to 4luropus now existing in Tibet, which is a very large
bear-like panda with a short tail. The remains of the British
panda date from the end of the Pliocene period, and were found
in the east of England. No doubt the range of this genus and
of the allied #luropus stretched once from England to Kamshatka,
and thence communicated with the allied forms of Procyonide in
North America.
CHAPTER VII
CARNIVORA (continued). THE WEASEL FAMILY

Famity: MUSTELIDA, THE WEASELS

Tuis is a more specialised group of Carnivores than the Bears
or the Raccoons. They never have more than one pair of molars
in the upper jaw and two in the lower. They preserve, however,
one feature in connection with the humerus, or arm bone (the
entepicondylar foramen, see p. 149), which makes them a little
more generalised than the bears. They branched off, no doubt,
from the dog-bear stock not far from the origin of the Pro-
cyonide, and yet also not far from the point of origin of the
Civets and the Cats. Perhaps, on the whole, the Weasel group
is a family of Carnivores of Old World rather than New World
origin, though at the present day they are well represented in
both hemispheres. In the most ancient fossil forms there were
two molars in the upper jaw. At the present day the Mustelide
are divided into three sub-families—Lutrine, or Otters; Meline,
the Badgers ; and Mustelinz, the Weasels.

The Otters include one genus, Laiax, the sea otter, which
still exists on the Asiatic and American shores of the Pacific
Ocean. This animal bears a strange and disappointing resem-
blance to the seals, and exhibits to us, no doubt with seemingly
complete accuracy, the outward appearance of the transitional
form which stood between the normal land Carnivore and the
thoroughly aquatic seal. But this resemblance is only due to a
parallel line of evolution ; the otter taking entirely to a marine
life has actually got its body and hind limbs shaped to resemble

136
THE WEASEL FAMILY 137

those of the seals leading a similar existence. The specialised
molars and general dentition of Latax forbid us to derive either
the sea lions or the true seals from the Otter sub-family. The
sea otter is a much-specialised member of this sub-family owing
to its long, flipper-like hind feet ; otherwise in the rest of the
otters the feet are short and rounded, and the toes are webbed.
The claws when present are curved and blunt. The head is
broad and flattened. The kidneys are specialised in structure.
In the teeth, however, the otters are a little more generalised than
the remaining groups of the Weasel family in that there are four
pairs of premolars in the upper jaw. In the lower jaw there
are three pairs, and the true molars are two pairs below and one
pair above. The single molar in the upper jaw of the otters
is excessively large, and the carnassial fourth premolar is also
a tooth of considerable size, with a formidable, three-cusped
cutting blade. The first premolar is very small, and often
absent in adult otters.

Lutra vulgaris. Tur Common OTTER

Besides sharing the general characteristics of the sub-family,
the Common Otter may be described as follows :—The full size
of the male will measure from the tip of the nose to the root of
the tail about 2 ft. 4 in., and the tail would be another 1 ft. 3 in.
The body is long and low, the legs are short and powerful. The
upper part of the tail is broad, and flattened horizontally. Under-
neath the tail, as in so many of these carnivorous mammals, there
are small glands which secrete a foetid liquid. The muzzle
is very broad, and the upper lip thick and overhanging the
lower. The vibrisse, or “ whiskers,” are thick, almost quill-like.
The small eyes are somewhat prominent on the flat head, and are
situated not far behind the nostrils. The ears are short and
rounded, and pressed close to the nape of the neck. The lower
jaw at its base is broad and bulging. The fur, which is of some
value, consists of a very fine and soft under-fur of a pale
yellowish-gray colour below and brown at the tips. This is set
with longer and coarser hair, which is a shining umber-brown
138 BRITISH MAMMALS

over all the portion that is visible. The general colour of the upper
surface is a bright raw-umber, the chin, throat, belly, and inside
of the limbs being grayish-brown or yellowish-gray. Occasionally
British otters are spotted with white, especially on the throat
and flanks. These white blotches (generally on the borderland
between the bright brown hair of the upper parts and the whitish-
gray of the belly) commonly occur in Scottish otters. On the
other hand, in Ireland there is a tendency towards melanism,
some specimens of Irish otters being so dark as to be nearly
black above and blackish-brown below.

The number of mamme in the otter is only one pair. The
period of gestation is about nine weeks. They only breed once
in the year, and the rutting season is in midwinter.1 The young
are born either in March or April. They are from two to five
in number, and are born blind. The nest in which they are
born (which, together with the ordinary retreat of the otter, is
called its “ holt”) is generally a large hole in the bank of a river,
under the roots of some overhanging tree or a jutting rock.

The cry of the otter is a shrill, whistling noise when contented
and at play. They also make a whimpering sound, especially
when searching for food on land. If alarmed or excited they
utter a shrill bark, varied with a whistling call. They have a
keen sense of hearing and of smell, but not a good sense of sight.
The long vibrisse are extremely sensitive, and no doubt the otter
is greatly guided by the sensations transmitted through these long
feelers to the nerves of the muzzle.

The otter, it is needless to say, swims and dives with great
facility, and propels itself with all four limbs, using the tail as a
great rudder. It swims ina nearly horizontal position, with the
nose just above the surface of the water, unless searching for fish,
in which case the otter will swim below the surface, putting up
its nose every few minutes to breathe. Although its ordinary
habitat in England is large streams or rivers, on the coasts of

1 It is not certain, however, that breeding may not take place at other
seasons of the year, though only one litter of cubs is produced within the
twelve months.
 

 

|

S
3
g
a
a
7
2
>
a
°
2
2
a

MMON OTTER,

E Co

TH

F.Z.S.

 

(Lutra vulgaris).

THE COMMON OTTER

Photo by C. Keid.

To face p. 138.
THE WEASEL FAMILY 139

Scotland and Ireland the otter takes to the seashore. All round
those grand chalk cliffs of Antrim, in North-east Ireland, there
are traces of the otter in the hollows in chalk and basalt. It is
said to frequent this coast for salmon. It is also found off the
coast of Donegal, equally taking to a sea life. The otter is said
to kill and spoil more fish than he eats ; but fish are so common
and otters are so rare that this surely ought not to matter to
humanity. When it has brought a fish to shore it generally
holds the head between its fore paws, and begins to eat at that
end, devouring it downwards till it has reached the fin of the tail,
which is discarded.

Otters do not hibernate, and if their streams are frozen over
they either migrate to the seashore in search of sea fish, or if
that is too far away they turn their attention to land animals.
They will eat any bird or small beast they can get hold of, and
occasionally attack the poultry and young lambs and pigs of
farmsteads, They catch and devour numbers of moorhens, coots,
and wild duck. When they are back in the water they not only
eat almost every kind of fish, but also frogs, and (on the sea-
coast) crabs and shrimps.

Otters are extremely playful creatures, and male, female, and
young display much mutual affection. It is an animal which can
be readily tamed by man. Bishop Heber, writing in the early
part of the nineteenth century, very justly says that the simple
Hindu shows a better taste in taming the otter and training it to
catch fish for its master than “half the otter-hunting, badger-
baiting gentry of England.” Professor Bell gives the following
directions as to how young otters may be tamed and trained :
“ They should be procured as young as possible, and they are at
first fed with small fish and water. Then bread and milk is to
be alternated with the fish, and the proportion of the former
gradually increased till they are led to live entirely on bread and
milk. They are then taught to fetch and carry, exactly as dogs
are trained to do the same trick, and when they are brought to
do this with ease and docility a leather fish stuffed with wool is
employed for the purpose. They are afterwards exercised with
140 BRITISH MAMMALS

a dead fish, and chastised when they disobey or attempt to tear it;
and finally they are sent into the water after living ones.” In this
way, although the process is somewhat tedious, it is believed that
the otter may be certainly domesticated and rendered subservient
to our use.

Whether or not our rustics and gentry have the leisure and
patience to train otters to catch salmon and trout, the time has
come when active steps should be taken to promote the preserva-
tion of the otter, a creature far more beautiful, wonderful, and
“obvious” than any fish. If we had ever had a Government
that cared for the preservation of beauty in England, the otter
would long ago have been placed on the protected list, and
would not have been subjected to the undiscriminating attacks of
sportsmen referred to by me in the first chapter in this book.
It is difficult to conceive an increase in numbers of the otter
so gigantic that our fisheries in salt and fresh water could be
seriously affected in their abundance. There is always a sort of
rude justice, which it is impossible to control and unnecessary to
condemn, that keeps the rivalry between man and other mammals
in check. If otters became so numerous that they did serious
damage to the farmsteads, the otters thus leaving their proper
element would very soon get knocked on the head by the
indignant owners of poultry, and so kept in proper check, just as
in some districts a similar stop is put to the ridiculous increase
of foxes beyond bounds that are fair and reasonable.

Otter-hunting generally commences in the late spring, and
the dogs used in the sport are the well-known otter hound, a
middle-sized, rough-haired hound, probably of Welsh origin, and
allied to the harrier. The feet of the otter hound are broad
and splay, and the coat is furnished with a thick, woolly under-
fur that is very greasy. The ears are long and drooping, and
the coat from the nose to the tail is shaggy. The hounds are led
to the waterside, where an attempt is made to hit upon the
track by which the otter has passed to his retreat in the bank of
the stream. On first hearing the hounds, if the otter is at home
he dives into the water as soon as they approach. After diving
 

OTTERS (Dutra vulgaris).
THE WEASEL FAMILY 141

he remains several minutes under water, and then comes up to
breathe. This is called “venting.” His course under water is
traced by the mud stirred up, or by the air bubbles which rise to
the surface from his lungs. As soon as the otter is sighted the
hounds are set on him, and pursue him through the stream.
Whenever the otter in his course nears the bank, one or other
of the sportsmen (all of whom are armed with long spears)
makes a dark at the beast with his spear. If he misses, it is
considered a rule of the hunt that the owner of the spear should
wade into the water to recover his weapon. If the otter is
transfixed, however, the owner of the spear goes into the water
and raises the otter over his head at the spear’s point. As a
rule, however, the otter is caught and killed by the hounds.
When the otter is first seized by a dog he attempts to dive and
remain under water, so that his assailant may drown, not being
able to stand immersion so long as the otter himself. The otter
administers also fierce bites to his pursuers, occasionally even
killing hounds, and by his bravery, pertinacity, cunning, and
agility making his insensate slaughter still more regrettable.
Yet an otter hunt is a picturesque scene, with the scarlet-coated,
white-breeched men armed with spears, the shaggy hounds, and
the landscape set with great marsh marigolds; the willows out
in fresh leaf; the cascades, the rocks, the stretches of placid
water, and the sunshine of May. But when otter-hunting was
in full swing many years ago it was not unusual to kill nine
otters in a day. If by public opinion or legislation the
slaughter of otters could be limited to ten per annum in any
one county, it might be possible to keep up a picturesque sport
without unduly lessening the number of otters in our rivers.
At the present day the otter is found in the wilder parts of
England, in nearly all Scotch rivers, and along the sea-coasts
of the north and west of Scotland, and equally widely in
Ireland and Wales. In South Wales the otter is quite com-
monly met with, and the same might have been said about
Devonshire until quite recently, where, unhappily, two or more
great landowners of that county have made a dead set at
142 BRITISH MAMMALS

the unfortunate beast because they or their friends have an
exaggerated fondness for fly-fishing. The otter has been an
inhabitant of Britain since the end of the Pliocene Epoch. It
has not yet been obtained in a fossil state from either Scotland
or Ireland, and it may, therefore, only have penetrated to those
countries since the close of the Glacial age. It could easily
have reached Ireland from Scotland by swimming the inter-
vening strait of sea-water. Outside the United Kingdom its
range is very considerable. It is found over the greater part of
Europe and Asia, even including India and Ceylon. In North
America a larger species, nearly allied to it in structure, is also
found ; while representatives of the genus Lutra (some of which,
in South America, for example, attain a considerable size) are
found all over the terrestrial surface of the globe, excepting the
Australasian, Arctic, and Antarctic regions. The otter seemingly
evolved from a very generalised type of Mustelid, closely resem-
bling the Civets, and the Otter sub-family can be traced back on
the Continent of Europe to the Lower Miocene. It is just
possible that the otter originated in Europe, though the group
very early attained considerable development in Central and
Southern Asia, spreading thence into America.

Sup-FamiLy: ACZELIN.Z. THE BADGERS

In this group the fore feet are long, and the creatures are
plantigrade in their walk. The toes are straight, and ordinarily
the hands are larger than the feet, and are armed with long,
slightly curved, blunt claws. The claws of the hind paws are
much shorter. They are rather large animals compared with their
weasel relations, and their habits are generally terrestrial and
burrowing, though several species, like the skunk, may be able to
climb trees. All this group (as is the case with so many other
Carnivores) possess scent glands round the anus. This feature
is developed in the American skunk to a degree met with in
no other beast ; for the foetid liquid secreted by this gland is
ejected from two conical papille, or teats, which can be erected
and directed so as to spurt out jets of foul-smelling liquid to a
THE WEASEL FAMILY 143

distance of as much as 12 ft. In the badgers the foetid slime
exuding from these anal glands is rubbed upon vegetation and
the soil, and no doubt serves to attract one sex to the other.
Occasionally the presence of this foul-smelling exudation lends
a foetor to the badger which has become proverbial.| Yet when
the creature is kept in captivity it is not particularly odorous, and
is said to be cleanly in its habits.

Meles taxus. Tur Common Bapcer

The members of the Badger genus (Meles) have a dentition
which normally includes four pairs of premolars in each jaw, one
pair of molars in the upper jaw, and two pairs in the lower jaw.
The Badgers, therefore, are more generalised in their dentition
than the Skunks (their near allies) or than the Weasels. But
they are exhibiting the same tendency to lose the premolar teeth
which is so obvious in the Bears, Raccoons, and Weasels. The
first pairs of premolars in both jaws are very minute teeth, and
often fall out when the animal is adult. Another feature in
badger dentition is the large size of the single molar in the upper
jaw. This is nearly as broad as long, and almost square in shape,
and is much larger than the upper carnassial or fourth premolar.
The carnassial in the lower jaw of the badger (which is the first
molar) is rather like the first upper molar in appearance, having
three low cusps on the outer side and two longitudinal ridges
across the upper talon or heel of the tooth.

The body is stout and very broad, and the limbs are short.
The length of an average badger from the tip of the snout
to the root of the tail is about 24 ft. The tail, which is very
bushy, like a stumpy white brush, is about 74 in. in length.’
The badger is quite plantigrade as regards the fore feet, but
the hind feet are only semi-plantigrade—that is to say, that it
often walks on its toes, and not on the whole length of the

1 “ He stinks like a badger.”

2 A writer in the Globe of May 2gth, 1903, gives the average weight of
Cornish badgers at 30 lb. About the heaviest specimen known is one that
weighed 43 lb. (Warwickshire).
144 BRITISH MAMMALS

foot as far as the heel. The badger only stands about a foot
high at the shoulder. The body is much flattened, and the back
is very round and broad. Mr. Aubyn Trevor-Battye points
out that the badger is able to walk and trot backwards with the
greatest ease. It very often moves along with a dancing motion,
something like that of its ally, the Indian ratel.

The colour of the badger is whitish-gray on the nose, white
on the muzzle and upper lip, lower lip, cheeks, forehead, nape
of the neck, middle of the neck, and shoulders ; also the long
hairs of the flanks and belly are white. A black mark starts
from just behind the muzzle, above the edge of the upper lip,
passes across the cheeks and behind the eyes to the base of the
ears, and is continued behind the ears on to the shoulder. The
rim of the ear (which is broad and rather long) is white, the inside
of the ear being blackish. Underneath the chin, on the throat
and chest, the colour is black. The lower part of the arms, the
fore feet, and the hind feet are also black. The naked nose is a
purplish plum-colour. The short, scrubby, bushy tail is white all
over the brush, but the hairs round the base of the tail are
golden-yellow. The hair on the belly is yellowish-white. A
touch of lemon-yellow also marks the white hair ridges on the
cheeks. This lemon-yellow is replaced by a reddish tint on the
edges of the stiff white hair that marks the sides of the neck.
The naked skin of the tips of the fingers and toes is pinkish, and
the long claws are pinkish-brown. The whole of the back, from
the nape of the neck to the base of the tail, and also the sides, are
covered with long coarse hair, which in general is gray, but is
a blackish or grayish-brown on the back and pale brown on the
sides. The lower ends of these long hairs are often blackish, and
when they lie smoothly on the body they seem to mark it with
black bands. Old badgers sometimes become quite a light
silvery-gray on this part of the body. The claws of the front
paws are long and rather horizontal, not much curved. The
claws of the smaller hind feet stick out horizontally, and are much
worn down.

The skin of the badger is singularly loose for the size of the
 

Ehote By Wes Dando, E.2iS: THE PINE MARTEN (J/ustfe/a martes).

 

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S, THE BADGER (Meles taxus).

To face p. 144.
THE WEASEL FAMILY 145

body, so that the creature when seized by any part can turn
rapidly and bite. The badger is endowed with astonishing
strength of jaw, which it is impossible to dislocate, the lower
being articulated with the upper in such a manner that it cannot
be detached except by breaking the skull. This strength of jaw,
combined with the flattened, ridged molar teeth, enables it, no
doubt, to crack up roots, bones, nuts, and other substances. It
is almost omnivorous in food, eating nearly every kind of fruit,
the eggs of birds, roots, fungi, nuts, honey and the larve of wasps
and bees, frogs, snails, and insects.

Like most beasts of any considerable size in a wild state, the
badger is silent under ordinary circumstances, except during the
breeding season, when it grunts and yelps. In captivity, however,
when it has ceased to fear making its presence known, it is as noisy
as a dog, uttering sharp barks and yelps not unlike those of a
PUPPY:

The sexes do not associate much, except at the breeding
season, which appears to take place in October or earlier in the
summer-time. The young are born within the deepest recesses
of the female’s burrow, in a large, snug nest made of dry fern
and grass. The young may be born any time between March
and June. It would seem as though the normal period of
gestation was about six months, but apparently the female badger,
like the roe deer, has the power of retarding the development of
the foetus, so that cases are recorded of female badgers having
gone with young for more than twelve months.

The young are quite blind when born, and in some cases do
not open their eyes till more than a fortnight after birth.

Although each badger dwells alone in its burrow, except,
perhaps, during the breeding season, or when the female is rearing
her young, they are not whollv solitary, since a number of them
seem to make their burrows in close proximity, and frequently a
pair or more will go out together to forage for food.

They are nocturnal in habits. Their favourite haunts are the
deepest recesses of woods or the copse-clad sides of hills, cliffs, or

quarries. At the bottom of some hillside, or possibly under-
Io
146 BRITISH MAMMALS

neath a bank, or in a disused quarry, it tears out with the long
and powerful claws of the front feet (kicking away the earth also
with the hind paws) a deep burrow, which at the end probably forks
into a couple of holes. The burrow, or at any rate the sleeping
chamber, is kept scrupulously clean, and is lined with dried grass
and bracken fern or other herbage. Mr. Ellis, who has written
much on the habits of the badger, states that in the autumn the
old bedding is replaced by fresh, and for this purpose fern and
grass are torn up by the badger previously and left to dry in little
heaps. In such a retreat as this the badger passes a good deal of
the daylight, starting forth at sunset or in the twilight to seek for
food. Generally, as the badger leaves the mouth of its burrow
it kicks up against it a good deal of loose soil and vegetation to
screen the entrance. Badgers hibernate in the British Islands to
a certain extent, though not so uninterruptedly as in parts of
Northern Europe. Badgers and foxes sometimes dwell together
in close proximity and apparently on friendly terms, or at any
rate with friendly neutrality. The fox being a lazy animal
dislikes the bother of making a burrow for himself, and will
sometimes attempt to take possession of one which has been
temporarily discarded by a badger. It is said, even, that in one of
these burrows with twin nests at the end fox cubs have been
brought up on one side and badger cubs on the other.
Badgers readily take to the water, and are good swimmers.
Their presence in Ireland, however, is somewhat of a problem,
since they would probably not be able to swim across the existing
strait between the Mull of Kintyre and the coast of Antrim ;
yet it is doubtful whether, when the badger entered England
from the Continent of Europe by the then existing land bridge,
there was still any land connection between Scotland and Ireland.
Nevertheless, badgers are found pretty widely all over Ireland, and
their fossil remains even have been discovered in caves in the south
of Ireland. In England they have existed since the Pleistocene
Epoch. At the present day they are found almost throughout
England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, but not on the large islands
off the west coast of Scotland. It is doubtful, also, whether their
 

BADGERS $ (Meles taxwus).
THE WEASEL FAMILY 147

range includes the most northern counties of Scotland. Outside
the British Islands the range of the common badger extends over
the greater part of Europe and Northern Asia. Mr. Lydekker
is of opinion that the Badger group originated in Asia, as the
remains of the genus Me/es are found in early Pliocene deposits
in Persia, whereas in Europe the animal only dates from the
Pleistocene period. In all probability India was also the scene of
radiation of this group of the Mustelids, and from India through
Central Asia came the ancestors of the American badgers (Taxidea)
and the skunks. Other allies of the badgers are found in Africa,
but the greater number of genera and species of this group
inhabit Asia, temperate and tropical, at the present day.
Although the badger must have been well known to all the
peoples speaking Aryan languages, it is not often mentioned by
Greek or Roman writers, and has a great diversity of names in
Aryan tongues. The Latin me/es, or melis, may be connected
with the root mel = honey, and may have been given to it for its
love of the honeycomb. Or it may be related to an old Aryan
root mala, meaning dirty. The Greek ¢axos is obviously the
same as the German dachs. The old English name is drock, and
the commonness of the badger in earlier times is shown by the
frequency with which this word forms surnames of people and
names of places (Brockenhurst, Brockley, Brockenden, ett.)
Brock, curiously enough, is one of the few words of Celtic origin
in English. It is the name of the badger in Irish, Gaelic, and
Manx, becoming in Welsh and Cornish broch. This word is said
to be derived from a Celtic adjective meaning speckled or greyish.
The word “badger” is a puzzle to etymologists. Some think
it comes from the word ‘‘ badge” (derived through Norman-
French from Low Latin), and was a nickname implying an
animal with a badge or stripe, referring to the black and white
coloration of the head. Others would derive it from another
Norman-French-Low-Latin word meaning “a stealer of corn,”
as the badger was supposed to (and quite possibly does) rob the
harvest-fields when the corn is quite ripe. ‘“ Badger” in Middle
English meant a dealer in corn, and was derived through many
148 BRITISH MAMMALS

corruptions and changes from a Low Latin name (d/adius) for
wheat, which also gave rise to the French 4/é. In France,
curiously enough, the badger is called b/aireau, which might also
be connected with wheat in its origin. As, however, it was
customary at one period during the badger’s persecutions in
England to push great sacks up the badger’s earth at night-time,
when the animal was out foraging, and then catch it when it had
bolted into the sack in the early morning, big badgers that were
caught may have been called ‘“‘baggers.” In any case, the
present name in use arose as a local slang word in Southern
England during the fifteenth century, and was sometimes written
bageard. Getting into the literary dialect of London, it gradually
replaced the ancient name of “ brock,” except in country dialects.

Considering what relatively small harm the badger did to
man’s possessions, it is curious what a long persecution this
interesting animal has suffered, not only in England, the land
par excellence where man has been cruel to other animals, but
also in Germany. Special breeds of dogs (such as the dachshund)
were trained for digging out the badger, and in parts of Germany,
when the situation of a badger’s burrow was located, an instru-
ment like a huge corkscrew was driven down from the soil
above till it either transfixed the badger or drove him out of
his hole. Badger-baiting in England has given a metaphorical
expression to the language. On some properties now badgers
are strictly protected, and the protection ought to be made
universal in the law of the land, quite as much as in the case
of interesting wild birds.’

Sus-Famity: ACUSTELINA. THE WEASELS

The toes in this group are short, and are united for part of
their length by a web of skin. They are armed with short,

1 An interesting letter on “ Badgers,” by W. T. Dymond, published in the
Globe of May 29th, 1903, shows that at one time in Cornwall “ardent all-
round sportsmen” thought little of killing “two hundred” badgers in the
course of a few years, for no earthly reason but the unreasoning love of
destruction which classes us as a race on a level with the worst type of negro.
THE WEASEL FAMILY 149

compressed, and sometimes sharp claws, which in some genera can
be partially drawn back, as in the cats. In appearance the molar
teeth are very different from the badger’s. The fourth pre-
molar is a powerful carnassial, narrow, and with generally two
great cusps. The single upper molar is far smaller than in the
badger, and is a tooth of no importance, with two tubercles,
and is very narrow longitudinally. It is set at right angles to
the fourth premolar, and suggests a decided resemblance to the
same tooth in the cats.

Gulo luscus. Tur GLutTtTon

This creature is the largest and stoutest member of the
Weasel sub-family, and is almost equal in size to a small bear
when full grown. It has a short, bushy tail, and is sub-planti-
grade. Its dentition, which is thoroughly musteline, suggests
strong superficial resemblances to that of the cats. It has a very
large and narrow upper carnassial tooth (fourth premolar), and
an equally large lower carnassial (first molar). The outermost
incisor tooth, nearest to the canines, is large, and like a second
canine in appearance, as is the case in the cats and hyenas. The
humerus, or upper arm bone, of the Glutton has what is called an
entepicondylar foramen, an archaic feature which has been lost in
the existing dogs and in the bears, but has been retained by the
cats and the civets (though lost by the hyznas).’

The present range of the glutton extends over Norway,
Northern Sweden, Northern Russia, Siberia, Alaska, and Canada,
and anciently—within the time of man—it inhabited Germany,
France, and England. It is first recorded from England at the
end of the Pliocene period, and the remains found in English and

1 This entepicondylar foramen is a curious perforation of the lower end of
the humerus, or arm bone, near the condyles, on which move the lower arm
bones, radius and ulna. Through this crevice pass nerves and blood vessels.
This foramen through the lower end of the humerus is absent in members of
the order which includes man (Primates). It is also absent in the Rodents and
the Ungulates. It is present in Marsupials, Monotremes, and, still more

remarkable, the Anomodont reptiles, from which the Mammalia are supposed
to be derived. Consequently it is a very primitive mammalian feature.
150 BRITISH MAMMALS

Welsh caves and relatively superficial deposits show that it
lingered on almost to the Prehistoric or Neolithic period.

Genus: MUSTELA. THE MARTENS

The Martens are handsome Mustelids, larger in size than the
next genus, which contains the typical Weasels. The body is
long, slender, and flexible, though not so disproportionately
elongated as in the True Weasels. The head is broad across the
forehead, and the muzzle is pointed, the nose being somewhat
prolonged beyond the lips. The eyes are large and prominent,
and the ears are well developed, broad and rounded at the ends,
and heavily furred inside. The paws are somewhat cat-like in
shape, and their soles are densely furred between the naked pads.
The tail is long and bushy. The under-fur is abundant, soft,
and almost woolly, and of a lighter colour than the outer hairs
which mark its surface. These are long and silky. The
celebrated sable is a marten. Its coat is singularly beautiful,
because both the outer hairs and the inner fur are a beautiful
reddish-brown. The Martens differ from the Weasels (amongst
other points) in possessing four pairs of premolars in each jaw,
though the first premolar is small and with only one root. The
carnassial teeth are well developed, and possess sharp, bi-lobed
blades. In the upper jaw there is only one pair of molars, which
are tubercular and very broad transversely, narrow longitudinally,
and set nearly at right angles to the fourth premolar. Another
feature of the teeth in the Martens is the smallness of the lower
incisors and the way in which they crowd together so that they
are not placed in an even line. The upper incisors are placed
regularly in a straight line at right angles to the length of the jaw.
They are long, and rather narrow.

The Martens have not got the unpleasant smell possessed by
the True Weasels and derived from the usual anal glands.
They are graceful and beautiful creatures, and the beech marten
(which is not an inhabitant of the British Islands, as supposed by
earlier writers) was domesticated by the Greeks and Romans

1 “Sable” paint brushes are generally made of'squirrels’ hair.
 

THE PINE MARTEN (Aastela martes).
THE WEASEL FAMILY 151

apparently before the domestic cat became a common animal, in
order to keep their houses clear of rats and mice. In Nipal (to
the north of the Indian Peninsula) an allied form is also now
domesticated. Seeing how extremely beautiful and much sought
after is the pelt of the sable (a Siberian species of marten), it is
curious that no attempt hitherto has been made to domesticate
this creature and breed it on a large scale for its fur. Instead of
doing so the Russian authorities in Siberia are allowing this
charming creature to be rapidly exterminated.

Mustela martes. Tue Pint Marten

This creature is distinguished from its near ally, the beech
marten, by the throat and chest being yellow (inclining to white
at the side, and orange in the centre) instead of white. The
general colour of the upper parts is a chocolate-brown. The
ears are edged with white. The under-fur is reddish-gray with
a tinge of yellow. But the long hairs of the outer fur are rich
glistening sepia or umber. The hair on the paws is blackish.

The length of the Pine Marten is sometimes as much as
20 in. The tail varies in length from g in. to 12 in. if it is
measured to the end of the long hairs at the tip.

The pine marten probably breeds twice in the year, in
February and June. The average number of young in a litter is
three, but as many as seven have been reported from Ireland.
It generally frequents woods during the breeding season, in order
to adapt some bird’s nest as a home for its young. In Ireland,
however, it often breeds in crevices of the rocks. Although
called the pine marten, just as its European congener is called
the beech marten, it does not affect the pine in preference to
any other tree; but inasmuch as its last resorts in the British
Islands are in districts where the Scotch pine is a common tree,
and as its habitat on the Continent is Northern rather than Central
Europe, it is often found in pine forests. In Ireland, however,
it adapts itself very readily to the lichen and moss-covered rocks
of the bare mountains. It is generally met with in pairs, there
152 BRITISH MAMMALS

being more permanent attachment between male and female than
is the case with the badger or the fox.

The marten does not hibernate, and appears, like most of the
Weasel sub-family, to be more diurnal in its habits than the
badgers.

It is a bloodthirsty animal, though not so universally de-
structive as the stoat. It catches a good many birds in trees,
devours young rabbits and hares, rats, mice, pheasants, poultry,
and even lambs. In the west of Scotland and on the coasts of
Ireland it resorts to the seashore and eats shell-fish. It will also
eat ripe rowan berries, blackberries, and other fruit. In captivity
it will readily accept a ripe pear or a fig. When surprised in the
open by dogs, the pine marten will fight desperately with claws
and teeth, and if pursued, bounds over the ground with astonish-
ing leaps of six or seven feet. It makes, of course, for the
nearest tree, up the trunk of which it flies with extraordinary
speed, its short sharp claws enabling it to obtain a good hold on
the bark. In its attacks on birds, and attempts to reach their
nests, it is somewhat reckless, and will venture out on to very
slender branches, from which it occasionally falls. One specimen
seen by the present writer in the south-west of Ireland apparently
met its death in this manner by falling from the extremity of
a branch, and breaking its back as it struck a strong lower bough
in its descent.

The range of the pine marten at the present day (its existence
in England and Ireland dates from the Pleistocene Epoch’)
includes many parts of England (the Midlands, East Anglia,
North Devon, Hampshire, North Wales, the Lake District,
Northern Yorkshire, and Durham), the Highlands of Scotland,
and, until quite recently, the Hebrides (where it became extinct
about thirty years ago) ; also the north of Ireland, even to the
vicinity of Dublin. The finest specimens of British martens at
the present day probably come from the west of Ireland. The
author’s painting has been done from Irish specimens. The range

1 Like so many other mammals, the Marten genus seems to have originated
in India, its remains in the Siwalik Hills dating back to the Pliocene period.
THE WEASEL FAMILY 153

of the pine marten outside the British Islands includes the whole
of Northern Europe and Western Siberia. Its place in Southern
Germany, France, and Italy, Eastern Europe, and South-western
Asia is taken by the beech marten, which is distinguished by the
white coloration of the under parts, and by slight differences
in the molar teeth. It is melancholy to read in the self-satisfied
records of “naturalists,” how a fine pine marten was shot quite
close to London, in Hertfordshire, not many years ago, and how
another was destroyed with equal gusto in some other Home
County, and so many more in North Wales. If the persons who
shot these martens would only strip off their clothes, let their
hair grow, and become wild men of the woods, one would not so
much mind their ravages on the British fauna; as it is, they are
not nearly so interesting, physically and mentally, as the creatures
they destroy, and are generally, in addition, an incongruous blot
on the landscape. If martens received a reasonable degree of
protection and became more accustomed to man, they would
be beautiful objects in the British woods as they scrambled about
the branches in pursuit of birds or squirrels; and if other wild
birds and beasts not so disastrously harmful as the rat or the
sparrow were allowed to co-exist, the marten would have enough
to feed on without resorting to occasional ravages on the
poultry yard.

Genus: PUTORIUS. THE TRUE WEASELS

The True Weasels (minks, polecats, stoats, and weasels) differ
from the martens in having only three pairs of premolar teeth in
each jaw. The bodies, also, are proportionately more elongated.
The tail is shorter. Members of this genus also differ from the
martens in the foul smell of the anal glands, and perhaps, also, in
the greater difference in size between the males and the females.
It must be admitted that there is much to be said against elevat-
ing this generic distinction between the members of the sub-
family Mustelinz, especially as many extinct forms of True
Weasel possessed four pairs of premolar teeth in one or other
or both of the jaws.
154 BRITISH MAMMALS

Putorius fetidus. Tur Common Porecat

The origin of the name of this large weasel is very doubtful.
It appears in early English after the Norman Conquest, and it
written polcat. The second syllable explains itself, but pole, or
pol, is possibly derived from the French poule, a hen, because
of the fondness this creature shows for attacking domestic
poultry ; or it may be a variant of the Anglo-Saxon word ful
(foul). In early English it was also called foumart, or “foul
marten,” from its disgusting smell. In old French this animal
was called fissau (corrupted in English into fitchew, or fitchet), and
this was derived from an old Low German and Scandinavian verb,
to make a disagreeable smell (allied to English fizz and fizzle),
Whatever name is given to this creature, whether it be the Latin
Putorius or the French Puzois, is connected with the fact of its
filthy odour, due to the secretion in the anal glands underneath
the base of the tail. The length of a fair-sized male polecat is
about 17 in. from the tip of the nose to the base of the tail.
The tail, which is short and bushy, is another 6 in. or 7 in.
long. The female, on the other hand, may only measure 11 in.
to 12 in. along the head and body, with the tail about 5 in.
longer. The male polecat in country dialect is usually known
as the “hob,” a name also given to male stoats and weasels.
The first finger or toe on all four feet is very short.

The colour of the polecat is rather handsome. The upper
and lower lips are white. The white extends on a little distance
over the muzzle, and is succeeded sharply by a blackish-brown,
which extends from the under side of the jaws over the eyes and
nose. There is a band over the forehead behind the eyes stretch-
ing to the extremity of each cheek, which is a dark bluish-gray,
with perhaps a tendency in some varieties to become whitish.
The blackish-brown colour begins again behind this gray band on
the forehead, and includes the ears and neck. The rim of the ear
is white. All four legs are black. The greater part of the body
has an under-fur, which is dense, soft, and matted, and of a
yellowish-brown colour, sometimes quite a pale ochre. This,
ssoymny oui Sq Suramesp yeusi0 we worst

‘(snpywf snisong) LVONIOd SHI,

 

To face p. 154.
THE WEASEL FAMILY 155

however, is largely concealed by the long upper hairs, which are
glossy black, so that the general aspect of the polecat from the
forehead to the tip of the tail is blackish-brown, but this general
tone is broken when any raising of the outer hairs reveals the pale
yellow of the under-wool. Like the marten and the other
weasels, the polecat is a silent animal ; but it can growl fiercely,
and when alarmed or in pain it makes a squeaking noise, and will
give a low mewing cry to its mate or its offspring.

The female polecat apparently only breeds once a year, in
May or the beginning of June, making her nest in a rabbit
burrow or in the crevices of rocks, or any other hole or corner
more or less concealed by stones or brushwood. The number of
young ranges from four to six. They are born blind. There
are three pairs of ventral mamme in the female.’ The period of
gestation is about seven weeks.

The polecat is extremely bloodthirsty, killing much more than
it can devour, apparently for the pleasure of killing, or the
delight of sucking the hot blood of its victim. It is entirely
carnivorous in a wild state, though in captivity it will eat bread
and milk. It devours all small mammals, birds, and snakes,
lizards, frogs, fish, and eggs. Generally when on the forage it
destroys everything within reach, and will then carry away one of
its victims to be devoured at leisure. It is more nocturnal in its
habits than the marten, but that is rather due to an avoidance of
man than to dislike of daylight. It cares little for climbing trees,
but will readily take to the water and swim. It does not burrow
for itself, but will often take possession of the holes dug by foxes
or rabbits. It will often hide in the crevices of rocks and in
discarded buildings.

Earlier writers state that the polecat will catch frogs and toads
and bite them through the brain in a manner sufficient to paralyse
but not to kill them, and that these half-living amphibians are
then transferred to its nest, to serve as provender for the young.
In one polecat’s nest forty frogs and two toads thus dealt with

1Sometimes four pairs. In ferrets there are usually four pairs, with
occasionally an odd one, making nine in all.
156 BRITISH MAMMALS

were found close to the five young polecats. As it is also very
fond of birds’ eggs, it is no doubt a source of justifiable anger on
the part of the gamekeeper or farmer. A pair of polecats in a
rabbit warren will in time efface the rabbits, while pheasants run
a very poor chance of co-existence, since their eggs and young
and they themselves are devoured by this rapacious little Carni-
vore. Nevertheless, it would be a pity if the polecat became
wholly extinct, as it is a handsome and interesting creature.
Of late years its distribution in England has been considerably
reduced, owing to trapping and poisoning. It still lingers in
parts of Hampshire, Devonshire, and the Western Midlands, in the
Lake District, and in Scotland. Earlier writers include the polecat
in the list of Irish Mammals ; but Dr. Scharff informs the author
that this is a mistake—that the polecat is absent from Ireland. It
does not inhabit the Hebrides or the large islands off the west coast
of Scotland. Outside the British Islands its range extends over the
greater part of Europe, including the south of Sweden, Russia,
and Northern Asia. It is also represented by a closely allied form
in North America. At some unknown period it, or an allied
species, was domesticated either in North Africa,’ Spain, or Italy.
This domestic type is known to us as the ferret, and is used
for rabbit-hunting. For this purpose it was also employed in the
Roman world. The Latins called it Viverra.. From Rome the
domestic polecat spread through France to England, where it still
shows traces of its Mediterranean origin by its intolerance of cold.
The English word “ ferret’ is probably derived from the French
furet, which again may have a Celtic origin. It is probably

1 Roman writers persistently refer to the ferret as having come from North
Africa, yet it is curious that up to the present time no species of polecat has
been found to exist farther south than Northern Spain and Northern Italy.
Further researches may, however, bring to light the existence of this animal in
Algeria or Morocco or Southern Spain. If this point, however, must be given
up, then it is possible that the polecat may have been domesticated in
Northern or Central Spain, and sent thence through the Pheenicians to North
Africa in the form of the ferret, on account of the rabbits which existed in
Western Mauritania.

? A name given by zoologists to the Civet genus.
THE WEASEL FAMILY 157

incorrect to suppose that this name was derived from the Latin
viverra. The common type of ferret is usually an albino,
yellowish-white in colour, with pink eyes ; but not infrequently
the ferret reverts to a type of coloration very similar to the
polecat, and the two creatures will interbreed.

The polecat is apparently an older species than the weasel or
the stoat. It, or a closely allied form, is found in the Pliocene
deposits in Central France, and in England its remains are
obtained from the uppermost Pliocene deposits of Suffolk. Its
remains are also obtained from the Pleistocene deposits of Devon-
shire and the various British caves. It has apparently not been
found fossil in either Scotland or Ireland.

Putorius ermineus. THe SToaT or ERMINE

The stoat and the weasel differ from the Polecat Mink
section of the genus in little more than size and coloration.
The blackish-brown of the polecat’s body, with its tendency to
a black belly, is replaced by the clearly defined reddish-brown
upper parts and the almost pure white ot the lower portions of
the body in stoats and weasels. The last-named Mustelids, also,
are markedly smaller in their size. The tail is less bushy, and
the feet are so much more covered with hair that the claws are
scarcely visible.

The Common Stoat is a handsome little creature, nearly 11 in.
long from the tip of the nose to the base of the tail in a full-
grown male. The female is a good deal smaller, since she only
measures about g in. in the length of the head and body, The
tail in a male may be about 64 in. long, as against something
under 5 in. in the female. The body has the characteristic
weasel proportions of great length compared with the short limbs.
It is less plantigrade than the polecat, and runs more on its
toes than on the full length of the foot. Its general method of
progress is by a series of bounds or a long gallop. Its colour
in the summer dress is reddish-brown above and white (some-
times tinted with lemon) below. The edge of the ears, and
sometimes the hair along the tips of the toes, is white. The
158 BRITISH MAMMALS

last third of the tail is black, and these hairs are almost plume-
like. The white coloration of the under parts commences with
the upper lip, and extends almost to the angle of the ear. It
includes the throat, chest, belly, and under side of the limbs.
These colours of the summer coat may persist throughout the
whole year in stoats found in the south of England, though
even in these examples there may be white patches or spots
occurring in the winter-time. But in the north of England
and Scotland (the true stoat is not found in Ireland), and in
the north of Europe, Asia, and America, the stoat assumes that
winter coloration which is so familiar to us under the name of
ermine fur. The whole of the creature’s body is then a pure
white, exquisitely tinged perhaps with lemon-yellow, especially
near the base of the tail. The terminal third of the tail, however,
remains a jet-black colour, and this is made the most of in the
preparation of ermine fur, the vivid contrast of the black tail
and the white body having very early struck the Teutonic fancy,
and thus become associated with royal or noble dress. In the
midland counties of England the winter change of the stoat may
occasionally be complete, or it may be limited to the spreading
of white in irregular blotches over the flanks and limbs,
leaving, in some instances, merely a red-brown streak all down
the middle of the back.

The eyes are somewhat larger than in the weasel, and the ear
conch is perhaps a little more developed. The paws are fringed
with such long hair that the pale-coloured claws are scarcely
visible, and it is difficult to count the divisions in the toes. The
teeth do not differ markedly from those of the polecat in number
or in shape. The upper canines are particularly long and sharp.

The stoat breeds about February, and produces young in
about April or May. It does not seem to have a second brood
within the twelve months. The young, produced in a litter, are
not more than five or six in number. The nest is generally
made in some hole in a bank, or in the bole of a hollow tree.
It is composed of dried leaves and grass, and is warm and dry.
When the young are a month old, they may often be seen
 

From an original drawing by the Author.

THE CoMMON STOAT (Putorius ermineus): SUMMER COAT,

To face p. 158.
THE WEASEL FAMILY 159

frolicking outside the nest, not being particularly timid or
alarmed at the presence of man. It is a silent creature ordinarily,
but when fiercely protecting its young it utters a chuckling,
clucking sound.

The stoat, like the weasel, is famed for its bloodthirsty
disposition and unremitting pursuit of its victims. The smaller
ones are killed by a bite over the back of the neck; the larger,
like hares or rabbits, by the severance of the blood vessels of
the throat, on to which the stoat will hang (sucking blood all
the time) pertinaciously, so that it will often allow itself, still
attached to its victim, to be picked up by a human being. It
swims well, and thinks nothing of attacking and killing the
water vole. When swimming, the head and upper part of the
shoulders are kept well above the surface of the water, the line
of the back being just below, and the tip of the tail just showing.
It is equally agile in ascending trees and running along the most
slender branches. Its disposition is extraordinarily playful. It
will sit up on a tripod made by its hind legs and tail and fence
at a companion with its fore paws, or leap vertically in the air,
performing a summersault, hop or strut on its hind limbs,
throw itself over backwards, stopping every now and then in
an erect position to utter little pert coughs, as if shocked at the
impudence of its companions or of the observer. These extra-
ordinary gambols are said to be part of its system of fascinating
its larger and stupider victims like the hare and rabbit. Hares
have been observed to gaze with stupid curiosity at this frolic-
some creature and its clownish tricks, until at last the stoat in
its gambols had approached sufficiently near to dash at the throat
of its victim. On the other hand, circumstantial accounts are
given of its indulging in these pastimes from a sheer spirit of
play, and actually playing with the rabbits without winding up
the performance with any sinister action. This almost reminds
the author of this book of the equally strange proximity, in parts
of Eastern and Central Africa, of the lion, leopard, cheetah,
jackal, and herds of antelopes and zebras. These beasts of prey
may, in those rare districts where Europeans have not made
160 BRITISH MAMMALS

everything wild and apprehensive, be seen actually strolling
round the great herds of browsing beasts without disturbing
their equanimity.

The stoat hunts by scent more than by sight, and when in
doubt darts backwards and forwards till it is certain that the
right track has been hit off, after which it trots along at a rapid
pace with its nose to the ground. This creature is almost
beneficial to man from the number of voles, mice, and rats which
it kills. Young stoats are mainly reared on mice and voles.

The present distribution of the common stoat includes
England and Scotland, but not Ireland. It ranges through all
Northern Europe, Northern and Temperate Asia down to the
Himalayas, and North America almost as far south as the Mexican
frontier. In Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America it is
known as the ermine when in its beautiful winter dress of lemon-
tinted white with a black-tufted tail. The word “ermine”’
in English is derived through the Norman-French from the
Teutonic harmin (Anglo-Saxon hearma). This again seems to
come from a Lithuanian word, sharmu. In its summer dress the
Anglo-Saxons seem to have often confused the stoat with the
weasel. It was called the stoat, or stot, weasel, meaning the bigger,
more pushing, energetic of the two beasts. ‘“Stoat” is derived
from a Scandinavian and Low German root represented by the
Gothic stautan, to push. It was a term often applied to male
animals in general, and is met with in dialectal English (stor) in
the sense of a stallion, or a young bullock.

The stoat has seemingly inhabited England since the
Pleistocene period.

Putorius hibernicus. Tur IrisH SToat

This creature is peculiar to Ireland, from which country the
common stoat and the weasel are absent. For a long time the
Irish Stoat was described as a large weasel, but it would seem to
be an independent species, and perhaps a dwarf form of the
common stoat. It is a smaller animal than the last named, being
barely g in. long from the tip of the snout to the base of
THE WEASEL FAMILY 161

the tail in a full-grown male. The female is an inch shorter.
The tail is about 4 in. in length, and has a black tip. The
coloration is pretty much the same as in the common stoat, but
it undergoes no winter change. In all respects as regards habits
Putorius hibernicus differs very little from Putorius ermineus.

Putorius vulgaris. Tue WeraseL

This pretty little beast is the smallest existing Carnivore.
The adult female Weasel is only 7 in. in length from the tip of the
snout to the base of the tail, and her stumpy little rough-haired
tail measures another 2 in. A well-grown male weasel may be
slightly over 8 in. in the length of the head and body, and his
tail may run to 24 in. The measurement of the fine specimen
from which the author’s drawing was made (sent to him from
Salsey Forest, Northamptonshire) measured along the head and
body nearly 84 in. The elongated character of the body reaches
its most exaggerated development in this little creature, the most
snake-like in form of any mammal. The body is not only long
and slender, but also arched over the back. The head is small
and flattened, the ears very short and rounded. The neck is
proportionately longer than in the stoat. The limbs are very
short, digitigrade, and the toes are almost concealed by the long,
coarse hair which covers the feet. The eyes are small and black.
From the muzzle and the brows there are the usual long vibrissz
observable in most of the Carnivores. The colour of the upper
part of the head, neck, and body, the tail, the outer surface of
the limbs, and the feet is a light reddish-brown, very similar
to the colour of the stoat. The short tail is reddish-brown
throughout its length, and has no black tuft. From the upper
lips and cheeks to the verge of the ear, and all over the under
surface of the body and inside of the limbs, the hair is white,
generally pure white, sometimes grayish or buff-tinted. The
weasel does not usually, like the stoat, turn completely white in
the winter in the northern parts of England and Scotland.
Occasionally specimens from the Highlands of Scotland have

been secured in which nearly the whole of the body was white,
It
162 BRITISH MAMMALS

while the tail remained pale reddish-brown; but in Northern
Europe, Northern Asia, and Canada the weasel often turns com-
pletely white in the winter, a reddish tint remaining in the tail.

The weasel would seem to have two broods in the twelve
months. The breeding probably takes place first in January or
February, and the young are born, after about six weeks’ gestation,
in April. Four is the average number of young in a litter ;
occasionally there are five, or even six. Another brood may
make ‘ts appearance in July. Cases of three broods in the year
are reported. No doubt the number of broods depends greatly
on the supply of food, and a vole plague is said to have coincided
with great prolificness on the part of weasels. There are three
pairs of mammz. The mother would seem to suckle her young
for a month with great assiduity. After this she begins foraging
for meat on their account while they remain snug and safe in the
nest, outside which they often come to play with one another.
When the next brood is near being born the mother turns the first
lot of young ones out of the nest, and they probably make a home
for themselves close by. Some keepers, however, state that the tiny
cubs of the summer brood are born and brought up in the same
nest with the spring litter. Young weasels are born blind, but
well covered with hair. To forma nest for their reception the
female weasel either scrapes out and lines with grass and leaves
a former home, or makes a fresh receptacle. She may also
establish her nest in a discarded rabbit burrow. As a rule the
nests are made in banks, and very often under the overhanging
roots of trees. The mother weasel is bold and desperate in the
defence of her young, and will fiercely attack dogs who are
attempting to tear out the nest.

Weasels, old and young, are sportive, but the young are
more playful than kittens, and seem to be full of the joy of
living. The same characteristic may be observed in young
genets,! perhaps the most exquisite little romps that could
be found, since they have what the weasel does not possess—
beautiful long tails and handsome spots. Nevertheless, the

1 Genetta—allied to Civets.
 

From an original drawing by the Author.

THE WEASEL (Puforius nivalis).

To face p. 162.
THE WEASEL FAMILY 163

weasel, for beauty, grace, and interest, can match most other
Carnivores, and it argues a great want of geniality on the part
of the Northern Aryans that we have not domesticated the weasel,
as the Greeks and Romans did the marten and the spotted genet,
and as the Egyptians tamed the cat. Perhaps it might be argued
that the weasel, being so small and lithe, would have become
almost uncontrollable, haunting our houses like the rat, and not
confining its destructive powers to rats and mice. But the
experiment would be well worth trying.

Except by its short tail, which has no black tuft, and its much
smaller size, the weasel differs but little from the stoat, and its
habits are remarkably similar. The weasel kills its smaller
victims, such as mice, by a single bite on the head which pierces
to the brain. In this case, as soon as the animal is dead it
generally proceeds to open the skull and devour the brain, which
is regarded as a very choice morsel. As regards blood-sucking,
it is doubtful whether the weasel or the stoat deliberately apply
themselves to this practice with a view to obtaining nourishment ;
but when attacking all larger mammals or birds whose skulls are
not easily attained, or are too hard to be bitten through, it goes
for the great blood-vessels under the wing in birds and in the
throat of mammals. Having severed these vessels in a rabbit or
a hare (for instance), the weasel no doubt greedily sucks at the
blood of its victim. The weasel, however, does not as a rule
attack prey that is too large to be carried off. Mice or voles are
generally carried by the skin of the neck, the head of the weasel
being held as erect as possible, so as to keep the hind quarters of
its quarry off the ground. Once stowed away in or near the nest,
the carcass is eaten at leisure, part of it becoming quite putrid
before it is eaten.

The structure of the weasel’s body, its long, snake-like neck,
short tail, and limbs, enable it to pursue mice, voles, and rats
through the tunnels these make in passing to and fro in dense
grass, hedgerows, or thickets. Like the stoat, it hunts by scent,
and though its sight may often reveal the proximity of a victim,
once on the hunt it rarely raises its head above the ground. If
164 BRITISH MAMMALS

the scent is lost, the weasel retraces its steps, and darts about in
every direction till it has picked up the trail. Like the stoats,
weasels climb easily and swim well, and will frequently pursue their
prey across water. They are sometimes to be met with near
corn-ricks ; and the farmer who would slay them then would
indeed be a crass fool ; for the weasel will wind its way in and out
of the burrows made by mice, and almost, if not entirely, rid the
rick of these pests. Weasels are not of quite so much use against
rats, because the rat is a strong beast, and has a habit of com-
bining against beasts of prey when attacked in its own quarters.
They are more gregarious than stoats and polecats. Parties of
four, five, or even eight may often be seen hunting together.
Possibly they represent the father and mother weasel and the
grown or half-grown young, but apparently they work with the same
idea of co-operation as exists in a pack of wild dogs. The distri-
bution of the weasel in the British Islands includes most parts of
England and Scotland. It is not found in Ireland, but outside
Great Britain it ranges over nearly the whole of Europe, North
and Central Asia, and North America. Its fossil remains in
Britain do not go back so far as those of the stoat, the marten, or
the polecat, and it is probably a creature of later development
and greater specialisation. Hitherto the only remains certainly
attributable to the weasel have been found in Devonshire and
Yorkshire cave deposits. The name “weasel” is of Teutonic
origin, and is a diminutive. It is possibly derived from the root
wtz (compare wizen), to shrink or dry up, on account of the
way in which the weasel squeezes through small openings. The
female weasel, which is so much smaller than the male, is some-
times taken to be a different beast, and is called cane, or kine.
CHAPTER VIII

CARNIVORA (continued). CIVETS, MACHAIRODONTS,
AND CATS

In order that the reader who is not already a zoologist may
apprehend the scheme of the existing Carnivora, an allusion may
be made here to the family of the Viverridz, or Civets, although
this group has not been represented in England since the Upper
Eocene (Oligocene) period, when a species allied to the existing
civets of India and Africa inhabited the Isle of Wight, and no
doubt other parts of Southern England. If, as supposed, this
Viverra hastingsie is really a member of the genus Viverra, it
would make it almost the oldest mammalian genus in existence.
The Viverrids represent rather a generalised type of Fissipede
Carnivore, though a little more specialised in some directions
than the Dogs. They are one of those basal groups from which
more highly modified types, such as the Hyznas, Cats, and
possibly the Machairodonts, sprang." The most frequent
dental formula amongst Viverrids is three pairs of incisors in
both jaws, one pair of canines, four pairs of premolars, and two
pairs of molars. The Civets possess, with few exceptions, the
alisphenoid canal and the entepicondylar foramen of the humerus
alluded to on pp. 118 and 129.

The Civets are entirely Old World in their range, past and
present. The site of their origin may have been Europe or

1 There is some relationship between the Machairodonts and that
aberrant Viverrid of Madagascar, Cryptoprocta, which has many cat-like
features in its structure and dentition, but differs markedly from the Cats
and Civets in the arrangement of the external male genital organs.

165
166 BRITISH MAMMALS

Northern Africa. In Europe (including Britain) their remains
go back to the Upper Eocene. Down to the present time no
remains have been found in Asia of any form of civet anterior
to the Upper Miocene. Europe, therefore, may have had the
privilege of originating this group, as it may also have given
birth to the Dogs, Weasels, Hyznas, Cats, Machairodonts, and
even the basal forms of the true Carnivora. With Europe in
these developments might have been associated the Continent
of Africa, at any rate its northern portion.

Famity: HY 4ZNIDA. THE HYANAS

The Hyznas undoubtedly sprang from the Civets through
some such type as the extinct Ictitherium. In their divergence
from this group they threw off a curious degenerate form, the
Aard Wolf (Proteles) of Africa. This family has lost the
alisphenoid canal in the base of the skull and the entepicondylar
foramen of the humerus. The dental formula is reduced in
existing forms to three pairs of incisors in both jaws, one pair of
canines, four pairs of premolars in the upper jaw and one pair
in the lower, and only one pair of molars in both jaws. The
teeth, especially the canines and hinder molars, are large and
strong. The upper carnassial has a great blade divided into three
distinct lobes. The single upper molar tooth is very small, and
placed at right angles to the hinder edge of the carnassial
premolar. The whole of the hyzna’s skull is strengthened with
a view to the cracking of bones by the powerful jaw. The limbs.
are practically four-toed, as the first toes on fore and hind feet
are only represented by rudimentary bones. There are anal
scent glands under the tail, as in so many of the Carnivora. The
genus Hyena at the present day is divided into three species,
the first two of which (the striped and the brown hyenas) are
closely allied, while the third species, the spotted, is almost
generically distinct. The brown hyena still exists in South and
East Africa, and is perhaps the most generalised of the existing
forms ; but as no trace of it has ever been found in England
it would be out of place to describe it here.
CIVETS, MACHAIRODONTS, AND CATS 167

Hyena striata. Tue Strirpep Hyana

In this and in the brown hyzna the upper molar tooth is
more normal in size than in the spotted hyzena, and it has three
roots. The lower molar is also proportionately larger, and has
a well-developed inner cusp and hind talon. The ears are large
and pointed, and there is a mane of long hair on the back from
the nape of the neck to the base of the tail. The tail also is very
bushy, and the shaggy hair of the body is marked with irregular
stripes something like those of the tiger. The present range of
the Striped Hyzna is limited to Northern, North-western, and
North-eastern Africa (perhaps as far south as Unyamwezi,
Kilimanjaro, and Somaliland), Arabia, Syria, parts of Mesopo-
tamia, Persia, Palestine, and India as far south as the Deccan
(it does not spread westwards as far as Bengal or southwards as
far as Ceylon). Anciently, in Pliocene and Pleistocene times,
the striped hyzna inhabited Southern France, and possibly Italy ;
no doubt also the greater part of Southern and Western Europe.
Its range even extended to Eastern England at the end of the
Pliocene period.

Hyena crocuta. Tue Spotrep Hya@na

This is the most specialised of the hyenas. The upper molar
is very small, and sometimes has only one root. It often falls
out in the adult animal. The carnassial molar in the lower jaw
is also reduced in size, and has no inner cusp. The ears are
moderate in size and rounded, and the hair along the back forms
no mane, and only a very slight one on the neck and throat.
The tail is short, and has not nearly so large a brush as in the
striped hyzna. Moreover, the markings are spots distributed
pretty widely over the body, and not stripes. The female of
the Spotted Hyzena shares that peculiarity already described in the
female mole, by which the external male genital organs are exactly

1 In the equatorial regions west of the Victoria Nyanza a local variety of
spotted hyzena is found (a skin of which the author brought home and sent

to the British Museum) in which the spots are more distinct and black, and
are almost prolonged in places into short stripes.
168 BRITISH MAMMALS

imitated in appearance by the female parts, though the resem-
blance is only superficial. It thus seems to the casual observer
not acquainted with this hyzna’s anatomy that every specimen
killed is a male.

The present range of the spotted hyana (which generally
attains to a larger size than either the brown or the striped
forms) is limited to Africa south of the Sahara Desert. In
Eastern and Southern Africa it co-exists respectively with the
striped and the brown hyena. In Somaliland it grows to a great
size, and is almost as bold and dangerous as the lion. Its
former range in geological history was far more extensive. On
the east it reached as far as Southern India, and on the north
to Yorkshire. Its remains dating back to the Pleistocene and
Pliocene periods have been found in all the countries of Southern,
Central, and Western Europe as far north as Saxony, Yorkshire,
and Wales. The spotted hyzna first appears in East Anglia
at the close of the Pliocene period. In the Pleistocene it
swarmed over England and parts of Wales almost down to the
arrival of Neolithic man. Many of these hyenas must have
dwelt in the caves, in which their remains are found in incredible
quantities. They almost seem to have shared these domains on
terms of alliance with the cave bear and the great cave lion.
At one time this cave-dwelling hyaena was distinguished specific-
ally as Hyena spelea, just as the cave lion was called Felis
spelea ; but the cave hyena was nothing but a very large form
of spotted hyzna which inhabited England, France, and other
parts of Europe, just as the Felis spelea is nothing more than
a very big lion. The range of the spotted hyena in England
(like that of so many animals now of African habitat) does not
seem to have extended beyond Yorkshire. No remains of the
hyzna have been obtained in Scotland or Ireland.

Famity: JZACHATRODONTIDA. THE SABRE-TOOTHED CATS

Here we have the destructive carnivorous mammal brought to
its most amazing development, a development distancing even
that of the lion and tiger, and only exceeded in potency by man
CIVETS, MACHAIRODONTS, AND CATS 169

with his weapons and cunning. The Machairodonts are closely
related in origin to the True Cats, though, on the one hand, they
exhibit more generalised features in their structure, and, there-
fore, cannot be derived from the existing cats; and, on the other,
their dentition shows great specialisation. The general structure
of the skeleton is remarkably like that of the Cats, but at the base
of the skull there is an alisphenoid canal, together with other
features (postglenoid and carotid foramens) of a primitive character
lost in the True Cats. The femur, or thigh bone, also retains
the third trochanter, a feature which is entirely lost in the
True Cats.

In their dentition the Machairodonts begin as very generalised
cats with a tooth formula of three pairs of incisors in each jaw,
one pair of canines, four pairs of premolars in the upper jaw and
three in the lower, and one pair of molars in each jaw. But in
the genus Eusmilus the teeth were reduced to three pairs of
incisors in the upper and only two pairs in the lower, while in the
upper jaw there were only two pairs of premolars and a single
pair of molars, and in the lower jaw one pair of premolars and
one pair of molars. The canine teeth through all this family
or sub-family were gradually developed to enormous size and
trenchant capabilities, so that in the grandest examples the upper
canine may well be compared to a sabre, as it is broad, flattened,
thin, and has a finely serrated edge. The great tusks of the
sabre-toothed “tigers” differ, indeed, from most developments of
tusk-like canines (except in the case of some extinct Ungulates) in
their very small diametrical measurement. They are broadened
and flattened out like the blade of a scythe. Curiously enough,
the most specialised Machairodont (so far as dentition is concerned)
appears very early in geological history. This is the genus
Eusmilus, which makes its appearance in the Upper Eocene. It
may even have reached Britain, though no traces of it have yet
been discovered. This is admittedly one of the problems of
paleontology. It is not until the Upper Eocene that any traces
whatever of True Carnivores are found. At this stage we find
ancestral forms of the Cats, Civets, and Dogs, yet at the same
170 BRITISH MAMMALS

period here is the most specialised, not only of the Machairo-
donts, but in some respects of the whole carnivorous group—
Eusmilus. One would almost hope that the problem might be
explained by a mistake having arisen in the attribution of the
few known remains of Eusmilus to such a remote period as the
earliest division of the Tertiary Epoch. The remains of Eusmilus
would be more in place if they had been found in the Pliocene or
Pleistocene.

Machairodus, the sabre-toothed “ tiger” par excellence, though a
little less specialised in teeth, was probably larger in size and
more specialised in the structure of its skeleton than Eusmilus,
and is best regarded as heading up all the family or sub-family of
the Machairodonts. This genus seems to have arisen in Europe
(France) at the end of the Eocene, but not to have reached its
full development till long afterwards, in the middle of the
Miocene, when it had already spread out into several other
species in France, Germany, Greece, and Persia. In the Pliocene
period a form of Machairodus had reached England, and its
remains are found in Norfolk. During the Pliocene the Machairo-
donts also spread into India, and possibly farther east. During
the Pleistocene the genus produced several species in North
America, and the largest and grandest species with the hugest
development of sabre tooth (Machairodus neogeus) spread through
South America to Patagonia. The Pliocene species of Machairo-
dont which inhabited Eastern England was Machairodus cultridens,
which had a very short muzzle and a tremendous chin spread out
below in flanges to act as a protection for the long, broad sabre-
tusk when the mouth was closed. In this species the edge of the
canine tusk was nearly smooth and almost without serrations.
In the Pleistocene period, and co-existent with Paleolithic man in
Britain, appeared Machairodus latidens,a more specialised form.
This is apparently identical with Machairodus crinatidens, de-
scribed also as from the earliest Pleistocene deposits in East
Anglia, but chiefly from the Upper Pliocene of Italy and France.
Machairodus latidens has a shorter, broader, and thinner canine
tusk, both edges of which are sometimes strongly serrated, so that
CIVETS, MACHAIRODONTS, AND CATS 171

    
 
 
  
  
 
  
   
   
     
 

it is a veritable
double-edged
saw-blade. This
probably was the only
species of sabre tooth
that was seen by the
inhabitants of Britain. It was
not larger than a leopard, however.
The configuration of the skull of
these British Machairodonts (more
so than in the extreme South American
developments of the same genus) cer-
tainly resembled in a superficial way
the skull of the tiger quite sufficiently
to justify the name first applied to them of
“sabre-toothed tigers,’ but none of the
European species, except, perhaps, M.
cultridens, was equal to the tiger in size. The
resemblance to the tiger is largely due to parallel-

ism, and not to any close affinity of descent; for
EXAMPLES OF UPPER CANINE TOOTH IN LION AND IN TWO MACHAIRODONTS.

Teeth are drawn natural size.
1, Upper canine tooth of Lion (Fedis eo) ; 11. of Machairodus latidens; 111. of Machairodus cultridens.
172 BRITISH MAMMALS

to return to the common origin of the tiger and Machairodont
one must travel back to the most primitive cats of the Upper
or Middle Eocene.

The Machairodonts had retractile claws. The earlier forms
were nearly plantigrade, the latter digitigrade, but not quite so
markedly as the modern cats. The claws of the largest species
must have been even more terrible weapons than those of the
lion and tiger, which look feeble in comparison ; and the strength
and weight of the tremendous fore limbs are also greater than
could be seen at the present day in the biggest lion or tiger.
Nothing (I believe) is known as to the tail of the later and bigger
Machairodonts. It is possible that this member may have been
short or almost absent (as in the bears). In the only complete
skeleton yet obtained of Machairodus neogeus (from South
America), the bones of the tail have either been accidentally
lost or the creature was as tailless as a bear. But in Hoplophoneus,
an early Machairodont, there was a tail of exceptional length and
stoutness.

In other respects the Machairodont skeleton is remarkably like
that of the cat. As in the cats (and hyenas and bears), the spinous
process at the top of the second vertebra of the neck is developed
into a huge transverse plate for the attachment and support of
the powerful muscles of the head and of the lower jaw. This
excessive development of the spinous process of the axis verterbe
shows what tremendous force was given to the bite of the
Machairodont. Until recently, however, it was an unsolved
problem with biologists how the highly developed Machairodonts
got their living (so to speak). The sabre tusks were so long
that with the ordinary gape of a feline it was impossible that the
creature could have opened the mouth sufficiently to obtain
a grip or to take a large bite of any substance into its mouth.
It was thought that the Machairodonts might have lived by
sucking the blood of their victims; but the problem was how,
unless they struck with the closed mouth—which, again, was
obviated by the great development of the flanges of the chin—
they would be able to pierce the veins. An American palzonto-
CIVETS, MACHAIRODONTS, AND CATS 173

logist, however, in recent researches into the fossil Machairodonts
of North America, has offered a solution of the problem which
seems sufficient. He points out that the condyles of the lower
jaw worked in such a manner on the squamosal groove at the
base of the skull that the lower jaw could be pulled back by the
muscles attached to the chin and neck until it was drawn right up
against the throat. In this manner the Machairodonts obtained
an enormous gape, and the powerful lower jaw, with its deep

 

GAPE OF JAWS IN A BRITISH SABRE-TOOTHED ‘' TIGER” (Machairodus cultridens),

flanges, and its short, strong, hook-like canines and incisors,
would act as a powerful fulcrum for the vertical sabres implanted
in the upper jaw. Armed with such cutting power as this, the
sabre-toothed “ tigers” probably severed the vertebral column of
many a huge Ungulate, and tore off enormous hunks of flesh
from the quivering body, which they swallowed with little
mastication. They may also, of course, have severed the great
blood-vessels and sucked the pumping fountains of venous blood
down their gullets.

Possibly, however, over-specialisation told its tale with the
174 BRITISH MAMMALS

Machairodonts. They could not have died out for lack of
provender, or why are they not still subsisting in Africa at the
present day?* Nor could man have been the immediate cause
of their extirpation as early as the Pleistocene. One can only
imagine that they became too heavily armed, and that the use
of their weapons was too intricate in a life of greater rapidity and
fiercer competition ; and that, while they starved, the True Cats
rose to power through their lither frames and less pretentious teeth.

Famity: FELID.Z. THE TRUE CATS

These are, perhaps, the most beautiful and specialised group
of the Carnivora. They arose from the basal stock of the True
Carnivora, no doubt as a development of the Viverrids, and not
far from where the Weasels branched off in the Middle Eocene
period. In the Upper Eocene, or earlier, the primitive cats gave
off that remarkable branch already described as the Machairo-
donts. In nearly every respect the True Cats of to-day are more
specialised in structure than the Machairodonts, except, perhaps,
in the dentition and the shape of the lower jaw. In one respect
only are they less specialised than the modern dogs, and that
is the retention of the entepicondylar foramen of the humerus,
which is entirely absent in every member of the genus Canis.
On the other hand, they have lost the alisphenoid canal in the
base of the skull, and the femur or thigh bone is without the
third trochanter which is present in most Machairodonts and
early cats. As regards the teeth, there are always three pairs
of incisor teeth in both jaws. The canines are long, sharp, and
conical or rounded. They are proportionately longest, perhaps,
in the species known as the clouded tiger, and the inner edges
of these canines, especially in the lion and tiger, are finely
serrated. There are three pairs of premolars in the upper jaw, but
the first pair is minute, and sometimes missing (as in the lynxes).
The tooth answering to the fourth premolar, which is the

1 It is remarkable that down to the present time no remains whatever of

any Machairodont have been obtained from any part of Africa, though they
are found in abundance in Europe, Asia, and North and South America.
CIVETS, MACHAIRODONTS, AND CATS 175

carnassial in the upper jaw, is three-rooted, as in the dogs, and
divided into three lobes in front, with an inner tubercle. The
single pair of molars in the upper jaw are minute, functionless
teeth on the road to complete disappearance. They are placed
at right angles to the long premolar carnassials, are small, and
tubercular. In the lower jaw there are only two pairs of pre-
molars, and the first pair is quite unimportant. The single pair
of molars in the lower jaw form the carnassial teeth, and are
reduced to a large, narrow, bi-lobed blade, perhaps the most
powerful cutting tooth in the head. Another point in which the
cats are less specialised than the modern dogs is in the presence
of fairly well-developed collar bones, though these are not
sufficiently prolonged to make the complete shoulder girdle.
There are five complete toes on the fore feet, the first, or thumb,
being very short and placed rather high up, but provided with as
large a claw as the other fingers ; but the hind feet have only
four functional toes, the first toe being merely represented by
a rudimentary metatarsal bone concealed under the skin. The
claws are large in all species, perhaps smallest in the serval.
They are strongly curved, compressed, and sharp, and are (except in
one genus) completely retractile, though perhaps more markedly so
in the fore feet than in the hind limbs. All these conditions of
the claws, however, are perhaps exceeded in specialisation by
those of the later Machairodonts. In one genus of True Cats, the
cheetah (Cynelurus), the claws have to a great extent lost their
retractility and sharpness, and protrude from the sheaths a little,
like those of a dog ; but this is due to degeneration rather than
because it is a primitive characteristic, the cheetah having taken to
developing great length of limb and swiftness in running. In all
cats existing at the present day the ears are of moderate size, the
eyes are rather large, and the tongue is thickly covered with
sharp-pointed, recurved, horny papille, so much so that in the
lion and tiger the tongue is a rasp which can remove pieces of flesh
from the bone.

The cats for the most part exhibit spots and stripes of dark
on light as a marking of their fur, whole-coloured cats, indeed,
176 BRITISH MAMMALS

being rare as compared to spotted or striped forms. This
coloration (often assimilative to surroundings) is, no doubt, a
concomitant of their stealthy life, and is more needed by the
solitary cats who take their prey by surprise than by bears and
dogs who hunt in the open. The spotting and striping is
generally lost by such cats, large and small, as have adopted this
more open existence. The cat-like markings are possessed by
many existing civets and hyznas, and in a less marked degree by
the carnivorous Marsupials.

The cats may have been developed from the primitive
Carnivores in Europe, in the strata of which continent their
remains are found at a more remote period (Upper Eocene) than
any yet discovered in Asia or North America. Africa has
received a large share of the great and notable cats, but there is
nothing in its paleontological history to show that it (Africa) was
the original home of their development, all indications pointing
either to Europe or Asia. Possibly, as in other cases, Western
Asia was the centre of radiation. In Western Asia there seem to
have originated the main types of modern cat—the lion, which
spread west and north into Europe as far as England, and south-
westward into Africa, its eastern range once including the whole
of the Indian Peninsula; the tiger, which was evolved in Northern
India or Central Asia from a jaguar-like type, and spread north
and west perhaps as far as Russia, and north and east till it
reached not only the Behring Straits and New Siberia, but
possibly also North America’; the jaguar, which once inhabited

1 These continents have not been as well explored for their fossils as
Europe. The earliest form of cat found in Asia dates back to the Upper
Miocene, and in North America to the Lower Miocene; but it must be
remembered that the term ‘“‘ European” as applied to fossils sometimes
includes Western Persia.

2 Remains are found in North America of two great cats about the size of
a lion, and very lion-like in skull—/e/s atrox and Felis augusta. These may
have been only local variations of the tiger. The tiger is known to have
inhabited the Arctic islands of New Siberia, and its range at the present day
is not so very far distant from Behring Straits. On the other hand, no
trace of the lion has ever been found east of Madras or north of the Punjab.
CIVETS, MACHAIRODONTS, AND CATS 177

Eastern Asia! and spread thence across Behring Straits into North
America, from which it gradually made its way to the southern
part of the New World’; the leopard, the snow leopard, the
clouded tiger, the lynxes, the smaller cats, and the cheetah.

Felis leo. Tuer Lion

Since the disappearance of the Machairodonts and the cave
bear this has been admittedly the grandest development of the
carnivorous type. It is doubtful even whether for ferocity, for
irresistible might, and magnificent dental armature the cave bear
should not be counted inferior to the splendid development ot
lion (known as the cave lion) which inhabited England and
France during the Pleistocene period; while as regards the
Machairodonts, though in one or two species they attained
dimensions exceeding the biggest lion, and their mouths were
armed with huge ivory sabres, it must be remembered that these
grandest examples of carnivorous development existed in North
and above all in South America. The Machairodonts of Europe
were certainly armed with big flattened canine tusks, but it is
questionable whether they attained the same size of head and
body as the big cave lions. Their commonest forms were not
much larger than leopards.

The Lion differs from all existing cats, even slightly from the
tiger, in the relatively long muzzle into which the face is
prolonged, and also in the direction and growth of hair on the

1 Von Zittel (Handbuch der Paleontologie—Palaozoologie, vol. iv.—is
my authority for this statement.

2 A fossil cat, Fels cristata, found in the north-west of India, would seem
to indicate the existence there of a form intermediate between the jaguar and
the tiger. The jaguar (which is, no doubt, only a larger development of the
leopard) seems, together with the ocelot, to have once inhabited parts of
Eastern Asia, and thence to have reached North America. Its range in North
America at the present day is probably confined to Mexico and Texas, but
formerly it was met with farther north. It is now most abundant in South
America. Consequently its range is a singular parallel to that of the tapir
and alligator, both of which are found existing or fossil in Eastern Asia on the
one hand and South and Central America on the other.

12
178 BRITISH MAMMALS

neck of the male. Even if this hair be not developed into a
mane, it stands out somewhat stiffly, and is directed forwards
from the shoulder towards the cheeks. This altered direction
of the hair of the neck, however, is to some extent met with
in leopards and tigers; and in the male tiger there is the
beginning of a mane. The lion, tiger, leopard, and jaguar
differ from the other cats in the less perfect development of
the bones of the hyoid arch (that separate apparatus of bones
which supports the tongue and larynx), and in the pupil of
the eye, which, when contracted, shrinks to a circular hole, and
not a vertical slit.

The lion and the tiger are somewhat divergent forms. The
tiger has a more arched and convex profile of the skull. The
commencement of the nasal bones also in the tiger takes
place much higher up on the forehead than is the case on the
lion’s skull. There is also a difference in the fourth premolar,
or upper carnassial, tooth. It has already been mentioned that in
cats, besides the three lobes of the blade of this tooth, there is a
tubercle on the inner side. This tubercle is larger and better
developed in the upper carnassial of the tiger than it is in the
lion. The tiger’s skull is also wider and more massive than the
lion’s, and there are slight differences in the shape of the lower
jaw. Perhaps on the whole the lion is slightly more specialised
than the tiger, but it is almost certainly a direct development
from the Leopard group. So too is the tiger, with perhaps some
intervening form like the existing jaguar and the extinct Felis
cristata. The stripes of the tiger are the large, square rosettes
of the jaguar pulled out. In the case of the lion, the markings
which may be seen in the fur of young cubs and occasionally of
adult females are almost precisely those of a leopard. If we
could restore the lion’s spots they would be nearly identical in
proportionate size and arrangement with the rosettes, single
spots, and short stripes of the leopard. There is one particular,
however, in which lion cubs differ strangely, both when born in
a wild state and in captivity. Sometimes, although the body is
spotted like a leopard, the tail is ringed with circular stripes. In
CIVETS, MACHATRODONTS, AND CATS 179

other individuals the tail is marked longitudinally with circular
rosettes, exactly like the tail of a leopard.

Gradually, as the lion discarded the forest and took to a life in
the open country, the ground colour of the fur, which may have
been pale yellowish-gray, deepened into tawny, while the black
spots faded into brown, until at last the lion became to all intents
and purposes a dun-coloured beast with a black tuft at the end
of his tail, black rims and backs to his ears, and a black fringe
(more or less) to his ample mane or along the line of the belly.
Such spots as remain in the adult lioness on the flanks, belly, and
limbs are chestnut-brown, but many of these spots on the lower
parts of the body in young cubs are quite black. It might be
noted in passing that leopards in the extreme south of Africa
(Orange River Colony or Transvaal) have been known occasionally
to throw off a curious variety. The size is large, and the build
somewhat heavy, like that of a lioness. There are a few black
stripes and spots on the head, neck, and limbs, but over the
greater part of the body the rosettes have given way to a
multitude of tiny black dots, almost merged into the general
tawny-gray of the fur. The change of black spots into tawny-
brown may also be noticed in the South African variety of the
cheetah.

There is absolutely no difference in the structure, size, colour,
mane, or any other particular between the existing lions of Asia
and of Africa, but it is possible that the huge lion which once
inhabited Western Europe during the Pleistocene period may still
have retained the distinct black spots of the original leopard
markings, which have only faded in the more desert-loving type
that has since populated Western Asia and the whole of Africa.

The range of the lion at the present day is limited to a small
district of Kathiawar, in Western India ; to a strip of Southern
Persia, the valley of the Tigris and Lower Euphrates ; to a small
portion of Southern, South-eastern, and South-western Algeria
(and perhaps the adjoining territory of Morocco south of the
Atlas) ; and to those regions of Africa south of the Sahara Desert
from Senegal on the west across Nigeria to the Egyptian Sudan,
180 BRITISH MAMMALS

Abyssinia, and Somaliland. South of this line the lion is still
found all over Southern Africa except the dense forests of the
West Coast and of the Congo Basin, and all the settled regions
of British South Africa. But within the Historic period the lion
was found throughout North Africa from Morocco to Egypt, in
parts of Arabia, Southern Persia, Palestine, and the whole of
Western, Southern, and South-eastern India, in Asia Minor, the
Balkan Peninsula, Greece, and Rumania. In Prehistoric times
the lion inhabited much of Austria, Southern Germany (it
attained a very large size in Bavaria), and Eastern France ; while
doing the Palzolithic age the lion extended its range over
France, Spain, and Britain. In our own country the lion
seems to have swarmed during the Pleistocene period, even
contemporaneously with the Ice age. Its remains have been
obtained from nearly every English county as far north as
Yorkshire and the north of Wales. It does not seem to have
reached Scotland, and no trace of its remains are found in Ireland.
Its range, in fact, in Britain was coincident with that of so many
other mammals now characteristic of Asia and Africa which
entered Britain from the south-east during the Pleistocene period,
and are found in greatest abundance in the eastern counties.
The lion was certainly contemporaneous with Paleolithic man,
and may have lingered on down to the coming of the superior
Neolithic races.

Felis pardus. Tue Lroparp

The Leopard, whose present range includes nearly all Tropical
and Sub-tropical Asia, and the whole of Africa (except the Sahara
Desert and Egypt), inhabited Asia Minor and possibly the Balkan
Peninsula during the Historic period. Further back than that
it was a native of Italy, Spain, France, and Southern England. In
our own land it was far scarcer (judging by the paucity of its
remains) than the lion, but undoubted bones and teeth of
leopards have been found in the caves of Dorsetshire, Somerset,
and Devon.
CIVETS, MACHAIRODONTS, AND CATS 181

Felis lynx. Tur European or NortHern Lynx

The lynxes are fairly large, long-limbed cats, with tufts of hair
at the points of their ears, and in most species with a mane
growing from the cheeks. They are further characterised by
their short tails (sometimes reduced to a mere stump), and by a
tendency to lose the minute anterior pair of premolars in the
upper jaw. On the other hand, there is a rudimentary talon to
the carnassial molar in the lower jaw, which is a more archaic
feature than is possessed by other existing cats. Their coats,
when marked at all, are variegated with small spots and short
stripes formed by a union of spots, but never by rosettes.
One member of this group—the common lynx, now found in
Northern Europe and Temperate Asia—inhabited England during
the Pleistocene period. Its remains have been found in Durham,
Yorkshire, and Derbyshire. It may have lingered here much
later than the lion, almost down to the Historic period, for it was
only extirpated in France during the nineteenth century, and still
exists in Germany.

Felis brevirostris. Tuer SuHort-racep Lynx

This was a large cat, now extinct, the size of a lynx, with a short
face, which has left traces (dating back possibly to the commence-
ment of the Pliocene) in Derbyshire as well as in France and

Italy.

Felis caffra. Tue Eoyptian Cat

This is a small and common wild cat of Africa, being found
(with some gaps in its distribution) from Algeria and Egypt to
the Cape of Good Hope, and from Senegal to Syria and Arabia.
Anciently it was found in Southern Europe, and its range seems
even to have extended to England (Somersetshire) within the
Pleistocene period. It is a slimmer animal than the European

1 Local varieties of this cat in Egypt, Syria, and Arabia are somewhat

unnecessarily elevated into separate species, /. maniculata and F. caligata.
These names are practically only synonyms of /. caffra.
182 BRITISH MAMMALS

wild cat, and has a thinner, longer tail. ‘Though its markings
vary considerably, it seems to be without the true tabby striping
on the sides of the body. It breeds readily with the domestic
cat, of which many consider it to be the main progenitor.

Felis catus. Tur Witp Car

This animal, it must be confessed by all honest observers,
nearly resembles in appearance that type of the domestic cat which
is familiar in Northern Europe and Temperate Asia. The head
is strikingly similar in appearance and shape, but is _pro-
portionately larger. The tail is shorter and thicker, ending in
something like a large brush, which is very boldly striped with
black rings. Felis catus is larger than the ordinary breeds
of domestic cat, the average length of males being 1 ft. ro in.
from the tip of the nose to the base of the tail, which measures
another I1in.or12 in. Bell, in his British Quadrupeds, mentions
that a large specimen was killed near Cawdor Castle (in Scotland)
which measured 3 ft. 9 in. from the tip of the nose to the
end of the tail. The vibrisse, or ‘“ whiskers,” are white, and are
more numerous and a little thicker than in the domestic cat.
The eyes are large, and of a yellowish-gray. The general effect
of colour is lighter and yellower than that of the tabby domestic
cat, though the markings are similar. The ground colour of the
thick fur is yellowish-gray, and the markings consist of short,
irregular stripes, which are vertical, and not horizontal, on the
upper part of the body, but tend to become horizontal on the limbs.
The markings on the forehead and cheeks are exactly like those
of a tabby cat. There is a large black tip to the bushy tail. The
chin and the throat, the edge of the upper arm, and the fur of the
under parts are often white, as are sometimes the extremities
of the toes. The fur on the soles of the feet is black in the
males. The claws are gray. In fact, this is a noteworthy point
in the whole of the Cat family, that the claws always range
in colour between yellowish-white and pale gray, and are never
black, as in some dogs, bears, weasels, and civets. The female
cat is smaller than the male, and is palish in coloration, the
 

THE WILD CAT (Felis catus),
 

Photo by the Scholastic Photo Company.

THE FERRET, DOMESTICATED FORM OF POLECAT (Putorius fatidus).

Felis catus).

 

To face p. 182,
CIVETS, MACHAIRODONTS, AND CATS 183

stripes being more broken up and fused into the grayish-yellow
colour of the fur.

The wild cat probably breeds twice in the twelve months.
There are from four to five kittens in a litter. The first
litter is born in the early spring and the second in the autumn.

This creature is, of course, purely carnivorous in the choice of
its food, and will attack and kill prey as large as a roebuck fawn.
It also kills and eats lambs, and, of course, large quantities of
rabbits, hares, grouse, pheasants, wood-pigeons, and other birds,
besides fish which may be stranded on the banks of a river
or a lake. It is an exceedingly fierce animal, and practically
untamable in captivity. It is a more forest-haunting creature
than the allied forms that prefer the open steppe and desert ;
in fact, the wild cat is probably found nowhere far from trees,
and it not only pursues a good deal of its prey (squirrels and
birds) up and down the branches, but generally makes its
breeding nest in some hollow or fork of the trunk, or even
in the large nest of woven sticks made by a hawk, a crow,
or a heron.

The wild cat of Britain and Central Europe belongs to
the Catine group of the genus Felis, the members of which
are all relatively small, with rounded heads, short muzzles,
and a tendency towards a tabby or dull coloration occasioned by
the relatively long fur, and characterised by the absence of bright
re. or yellow tints and definite jet-black markings. Although
the tail in the African form (Felis caffra) is fairly long and slender,
the general tendency in this group is towards the development
of a short and very bushy tail. This group includes (amongst
others) the aforementioned Felis caffra, the Wild Cat, Pallas’s Cat
(Felis manul), the Indian and Central Asian Desert Waved Cats
(Felis ornata, FP. shawiana, and F. torquata), and probably the
Colocollo and Pampas Cats of South America; possibly also the
Leopard Cat and Rusty Spotted Cat of India.

The author has inflicted on his readers this somewhat tedious
enumeration of the allies of the wild cat in order that he may
focus their interest on the origin of the domestic cat. Like the
184 BRITISH MAMMALS

domestic dog and ox (possibly also the sheep and the pig), the origin
of the domestic cat has, no doubt, been a multiple one. Those
who would deny all participation of the wild cat in the crea-
tion of this domestic species are simply unobservant persons.
There is no doubt that the average tabby found in France,
Britain, Germany, and the colder regions of Asia is more
nearly allied to the wild cat than to Felis caffra, which is
unquestionably the principal ancestor of the domestic cats
of Egypt and the countries bordering the Mediterranean. On
the other hand, all the Asiatic species above enumerated as allies
of the wild cat seem to have had their share in the ancestry
of the domesticated cats of India, Asia Minor, Persia, Tibet,
China, and Siam. A cat was probably first domesticated in India
and in Egypt, especially in the last-named country. The cat
which the Egyptians domesticated was the Felis caffra, the
common wild cat? of all Africa, Syria,and Arabia. The domesti-
cated Felis caffra was sufficiently near in origin and size to the
other European and Asiatic members of the Catine group to
interbreed with them. Consequently, when the domestic cat
of India and Egypt grew into favour owing to its capacity for
destroying rats and mice which had begun to infest human
habitations, it spread from Africa and Syria into Mediterranean
Europe, where it displaced the tamed martens which had
previously been domesticated for the same purpose. As this
domesticated Eastern cat spread into Asia Minor, the Balkan
Peninsula, Central and South-western Europe, it interbred freely
with the wild cats of those regions. The same thing occurred
when the domesticated cat spread eastwards and northwards from
India. In this way were produced the many different breeds of
domestic cat existing at the present day. It would probably
have been impossible to domesticate the wild cat of Europe
unmingled with any other type; but when tame female cats of

1 Felis caffra (as already stated) is by some authorities divided into
two species, # caligata and F. maniculata ; but there seem to be no
valid grounds for these divisions of a species which, like most cats, shows
considerable local variations.
CIVETS, MACHAITRODONTS, AND CATS 185

the Eastern kind wandered out into the forest, as is still their wont,
and entered into intimate relations with the male wild cats of the
district, their progeny, though perhaps at first a little less docile,
preferred the comfortable home of the mother to the precarious
existence of the father. Yet the female half-breeds again and
again strayed into the woods, became impregnated by the wild
cats, and returned to domesticity. Thus at the present day the
ordinary type of domestic cat in the British Islands, and in
all the British possessions or daughter nations abroad, the
domestic cat of Northern France, Germany, Central and Northern
Europe, has more of the blood of Felis catus in its veins than of
Felis caffra. On the other hand, the author has noticed that
domestic cats imported into Eastern Africa (for example) con-
stantly strayed into the woods in the breeding season and
interbred with Felis caffra.

The wild cat has existed in Britain since the Pleistocene
Epoch. As a species, in fact, it was co-existent in England with
the mammoth, the lion, the hyena, the reindeer, and the hippo-
potamus. Iam not aware that its fossi/ remains have ever been
found in Scotland. It has never been an inhabitant of Ireland
at any time, and the reports of wild cats in that country simply
refer to the domesticated cat which has returned to a feral
condition, and which by its descent (already described) from the
wild cat of England and Scotland resembles the wild species
so closely, except in the length and shape of the tail, that con-
fusion on the subject was excusable. It is possible that the wild
cat is a relatively recent immigrant into Scotland, having gone up
north together with the big cattle, the red deer, the roe deer,
and the wolf, owing to the gradual withdrawal of the ice, and the
attacks on wild beasts made by the more numerous human
inhabitants of South Britain. Its fossil remains dating back to
the Pleistocene are abundant in English and Welsh formations.
It remained an inhabitant of most parts of forested England
down to a relatively recent period—say four centuries ago.
Owing to its ravages on flocks and poultry it was detested
by the country folk, and as soon as firearms came into general
186 BRITISH MAMMALS

use the wild cat’s days were numbered. It lingered on in the
wilder parts of Northern England, such as the Lake District, down
to about the middle of the nineteenth century. It is not quite
certain yet whether it is absolutely extinct in North Wales. It is
safest to assume, however, that it is, and that there are no speci-
mens of Felis catus now existing in a really wild condition out
of Scotland, and here they are extinct everywhere south and east
of a line which, commencing at Oban on the western coast, would
pass through Perthshire to the vicinity of Aberdeen. It is certain
that they still exist in the Reay Forest in Caithness and in Assynt
Forest in Sutherland. They have always been unknown in the
Hebrides, and on any of the large islands off the west coast of
Scotland, except, perhaps, the island of Mull. Outside Great Britain
the range of the wild cat extends at the present day through
Northern Spain, the wilder parts of France, Germany, Switzer-
land, Hungary, Poland, South Russia, parts of the Balkan
Peninsula, Asia Minor, and Northern Persia. In Siberia its place
seems to be taken by Pallas’s Cat (Felis manul).
CHAPTER IX
CARNIVORA (continued)

Sus-OrDER: PINNIPEDIA. THE MARINE CARNIVORA

Tuis sub-order includes the Sea Lions, Walruses, and Seals, three
very distinct families of carnivorous animals addicted entirely to
existence in the water, and almost wholly marine in their habitat,
only entering fresh water when it is directly connected with the
sea. They are not modified for life in the water to such an
amazing extent as the whales; they are, in fact, amphibious,
and always resort to land during the breeding season, if not
oftener, for repose. The descent and relationships of the Fin-
footed Carnivores is still a matter of perplexity to zoologists.
They differ from the Fissipede, or Separate-toed Carnivores, in
the structure and arrangement of their molar teeth. These in
the seals, sea lions, etc., are placed in a perfectly straight row,
and offer no resemblance either to the tuberculated molars of
the True Carnivores or to the exaggerated development of their
lobed carnassial teeth. They also never possess in the adult the
complete three pairs of incisors in both jaws, and the incisors
are most reduced in numbers in the lower jaw. In the least
specialised forms the formula is three pairs of incisors in the
upper jaw and two pairs in the lower. But if it be the case that
the milk dentition in the walrus shows three pairs of incisors in
both jaws, it would seem that too much stress need not be placed
on this diminution of the incisors as a point of difference between
the Pinnipede and the Fissipede Carnivora; the more so as this

reduction in the lower incisors occurs in one genus of Otters and
187
188 BRITISH MAMMALS

in one genus of Machairodonts, while a tendency towards loss of
the lower incisors is beginning in the weasels.

The true molar teeth in the seals are tending towards
disappearance. They are paltry in size and development, and
often reduced to mere rounded stumps. They are never more
in number than two pairs in the upper jaw and one pair in
the lower. The premolars are larger in size than the molars
(usually), and, like the last-named, are simple, narrow, three-
cusped teeth (where they are not reduced to rounded stumps or
mere cones). It would seem to be impossible, having regard
to the structure of the teeth, to derive the seals from the bears
or the otters, or from any other form of existing land Carnivore.
On the other hand, the teeth do offer some slight resemblance
to those of the Creodont Carnivores, such as, for instance, those
of the family Palzonictide. "This family contains one genus
(Patriofelis) which presents a similarity to the seals in the con-
struction of its feet, though it is more differentiated in its
reduced premolar teeth. In the vertebrae the seals are more
related to the Creodonts. The alisphenoid canal is present in
several examples of the Pinnipede, and is also present in most
of the Creodonts. It is absent from the otters, though it 1s
present in the bears, the dogs, and some other Fissipedes. A
remarkable resemblance to the Creodonts exists in the formation
of the astragalus (one of the ankle bones). ‘The special re-
semblances which the seals offer to the bears and to the otters
consists in the lobulated kidneys, and in that portion of the brain
called the “ursine lozenge,” which rises in the middle of each
hemisphere. But another point in which the seals differ markedly
from the whole group of bears, weasels, otters, etc., is that in the
latter there is no cecum, or blind gut appendage, to the alimen-
tary canal, whereas a cecum exists (even though it be very short)
in all the seals. All seals are described by biologists as having an
extremely short tail. It would be more correct to say that the
external tail is reduced to a stumpy lump or tuft; but there are
a fair number of caudal vertebre remaining, so that the seal is
really a creature with a moderately short tail, the bony part of
THE MARINE CARNIVORA 189

which is but little protruded from the surface of the body, and
the reason for this is that the bones of the hind limbs are directed
backwards on a line with the tail and are bound up with it, so to
speak. Another peculiarity of the seals, in which they differ
from all the Fissipede Carnivora, is in the arrangement of the
toes of the hind feet. In most Mammalia the middle toes (third
and fourth) are longest and the first and fifth are shortest.'. But
in all the seals the first and the fifth toes have become strong
and long, whilst the intermediate toes are shortened and are
provided with much thinner bones. Undoubtedly the sea otter
(Latax) and the rest of the Lutrine group suggest obvious
resemblances to the seals in the shape and conformation of the
head, body, and limbs ; but these resemblances are only due to
the similarity in the mode of life, and do not require to be
explained by the descent of the seals from an otter-like form.
Moreover, the seals date back in geological time as far as or
further than the otters or bears.

Consequently we must regard this interesting group of
aquatic Carnivora as being, in all probability, direct descendants
from the Creodonts, that early group of Carnivores, who died
out on land because they could not sufficiently quickly develop
large brains to compete with the more highly organised True
Carnivora. In the water—in the sea particularly—the aquatic
Creodonts met with a less vigorous competition, and had time to
turn their attention to enlarging their cranial capacity, with the
results that their descendants, the seals, have become large-
brained creatures who are (were) able to hold their own on the
sea-coasts and the ice-floes until man—Caucasian man especially—
decreed their destruction for the sake of their skins, their oils,
or their tusks, or merely because they made excellent pot-shots
for yachtsmen.

It would seem from such evidence as we have that the seals
as a group originated in North America, and thence spread down
the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the New World to Antarctica,
where at the present day they are the only land mammals. From

1 In man the first toe has become the longest.
190 BRITISH MAMMALS

Antarctica they reached the Indian and the South Pacific Oceans,
while from the Atlantic coasts they became circumpolar, and also
spread to the Mediterranean.

 

ForE PAW AND HIND PAW OF COMMON SEAL COMPARED WITH FORE PAW AND
HIND Paw OF SEA LION.

1, and 11, Fore paw and hind paw of Common Seal (Phoca).
ui, and ty. Fore paw and hind paw of Sea Lion (O¢avia).

The sub-order Pinnipedia is divided again at the present
day into three families : (1) Osariide, or Eared Seals (Sea Lions,
THE MARINE CARNIVORA IgI

etc.); (2) the Trichechide, or Walruses; and (3) the Phocide, or
True Seals. The first-named family (which is not represented by
any British species) still possesses small ear conches or outer ears.
It has an alisphenoid canal for the passage of the carotid artery
at the base of the skull. Its members are able to use their hind
limbs in a normal mammalian fashion, and, in fact, to walk with
them. The muzzle is rather bear-like, and the nostrils are
situated in the normal position at the end of the muzzle. The
testes, instead of being entirely retained within the body, as in
the Walruses and True Seals, descend into a scrotum. The Otariids
also have a postorbital process rising out of the zygomatic arch, or
cheek bone, and assisting to define the orbit of the eye. This is
less observable in the True Seals, but is present in the Walrus.

On the other hand, the molar teeth of the Otariids are even
more degenerate and simplified than in the True Seals, and
although they are able to turn their hind limbs forward for
walking, the structure and appearance of the feet are more
specialised than in the True Seals, because beyond the bony ends
of the toes and their nails the webbed skin is prolonged consider-
ably into a deeply lobed margin. The fore paw, or flipper, is also
highly modified, having no outwardly separable fingers, while the
terminal phalanges are only armed with small, useless nails.!. In
the conformation of the fore limb the Otariids are much more
specialised than the True Seals.

Famity: ZRICHECHIDA. THE WALRUSES
Odobenus rosmarus. THE Watrus

It is doubtful whether there are two species of Walrus, or
whether the differences between North Pacific, Arctic, and Atlantic
forms are any more than a marked variation of sub-specific
character. The characteristics of the Walrus family can be best
illustrated in describing the only known genus and species of this
remarkable Pinnipede.

The walruses anatomically are more nearly related to the eared

1 In the hind feet the three middle toes of the Otariids retain longer and
stronger claws.
192 BRITISH MAMMALS

seals or sea lions than to the True Seals (Phocide). The walrus
is able to turn the hind feet forwards, as in normal mammals, for
purposes of locomotion. It also agrees with the Otariids in
having the skin of the feet prolonged into lobes beyond the
termination of the toes, and also in the very feeble nails on the
fingers of the fore paws. The claws on the hind feet are
proportionately longer than in the Otariids. In the base of the
skull there is an alisphenoid canal as in the sea lions, and there
is a small postorbital process. The testes, however, do not
descend into a scrotum. The nostrils are dorsal in position, and
more like those of the True Seals. From both sea lions and True
Seals the walruses differ markedly in their dentition. In the first
place, in the very young animal there are three pairs of minute
incisors in both jaws, an archaic feature lost apparently even in
the milk dentition of the Otariids and the Phocids. But in other
respects the teeth of the walrus show an extraordinary specialisa-
tion. In the adult animal the grinding teeth are practically
reduced to three pairs of premolars in each jaw, and these are
simple, rounded teeth without any distinct cusps. The incisors
are reduced to a single functional pair in the upper jaw, and
disappear altogether in the lower jaw, while the lower canine is a
small, round, blunt tooth like the premolars. Sometimes a fourth
premolar tooth of extremely minute size persists in the lower jaw,
and an equally minute fourth premolar and first molar in the
upper jaw. But the upper canine teeth are developed into a pair
of enormous tusks, longer by far even than the huge canine tusks
of the sabre-toothed Machairodonts. Just as the elephant is the
mammal which has developed incisor teeth most extravagantly,
so the walrus is the mammal which has carried furthest the
development of the canine teeth. The longest tusks as yet
obtained from this animal measure 31 in., of which about
24 in. would have protruded from the gum. The canine
tusks of the female are proportionately shorter. The longest
pair of female tusks obtained did not exeeed 20 in. in length.
In the Pacific Ocean, however, the walrus is said to develop even
longer tusks than those above recorded.
THE MARINE CARNIVORA 193

Unlike the seals and the sea lions, the walrus has proportion-
ately a very small eye. The upper lip is very much developed
and is set with forward-directed bristles, which are a marked
feature in the creature’s countenance. These exaggerated vibrisse
are as thick as crowquills. The upper lip is divided into two
great lobes by the vertical groove below the nostrils. These
vibrissz, answering to the cat’s “ whiskers,” are thick, coarse, and
very numerous in all the seals, but in none of them are they
developed to such an extent asin the walrus. They would
almost seem to act like the whalebone of the whale—a sieve
through which the molluscs, sandworms, and star-fishes can be
strained free of inedible matter. The great tusks seem to be
used for digging into sand and mud in order to rake up bivalve
molluscs, crustaceans, and other shore-frequenting creatures on
which the walrus feeds. The rounded molars are useful for
crushing shells, which are then ejected from the mouth whilst
the tongue feels for and retains the soft parts from which
the shells have been removed. No doubt the walrus also eats
small fish, but it is questionable whether the remains of seaweed
found in the stomach have not been introduced accidentally in
association with the shell-fish. There seems to be little doubt that
the walrus also makes use of its long tusks for hoisting itself
up on to ice or on to rocks, and for aiding its progress on land
when it is in a hurry. They are certainly used as weapons of
offence in defending itself against the polar bear or man and in
fighting among the males at pairing-time.

The walrus is a very big creature, adult males measuring
from 10 ft. to 15 ft. in length from the snout to the tip of the
small tail, and it is said that the largest recorded adult male
weighed nearly 3,000 Ib. In the adult the hide is nearly hairless
in parts except along the neck. The skin in adults is thrown
into a number of folds and wrinkles, especially about the
shoulders, Young walruses have the body thickly covered with
fine short hair. In the upper parts of the body the hair is
yellowish-brown, which deepens into chestnut on the limbs and
belly. The breeding season of these animals is from April to

13
194 BRITISH MAMMALS

June, according to latitude. The period of gestation is about
a year, and the female walrus is said to breed only once in every
three years. The mamme are two in number ordinarily, and are
situated on the abdomen,

An extinct form of walrus (Odobenus huxleyi) inhabited
Eastern England at the close of the Pliocene period, and the
True Walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) was found in the same region
(Ely fens and off the coast of Suffolk) during the human epoch,
but it was also known on the coast of Scotland perhaps as late as
the fifteenth century. Much later than that, within the first half
of the nineteenth century, walruses have been killed on the coasts
of the Hebrides and of the Orkney Islands. It was reported that
one was seen off the coast of Orkney in 1857, and another about
the same time in the Shetland Archipelago. Two or three
centuries ago the walrus was still abundant off the coast of
Norway, and was very common round the coasts of Iceland,
while in the North Pacific between latitude 55° and the polar
ice it was extremely abundant down to about thirty years ago.
The walrus, however, is fast being exterminated by man.
Mr. Lydekker states that in ten years, between 1870 and 1880,
at least 100,000 walruses must have been killed by the Russian
whalers, who exported from the vicinity of Behring Straits
400,000 lb. of walrus ivory and 2,000,000 galls. of walrus oil
during that period. At the present day the walrus is found
round the northern coast of Greenland and the north-western
shores of Hudson’s Bay and Baffin’s Bay. At one time they
ranged southwards as far as Newfoundland, but have been
extinguished near all the habitable parts of British North America
since 1840. East of Greenland the walrus is met with occasion-
ally off the coasts of Iceland, Spitzbergen, Franz Josef’s Land,
Novaia Zemlia, and eastwards along the north coast of Siberia as
far as the estuary of the Lena. The Pacific variety of the walrus
is still found along the north-east coast of Siberia, the chain of
islands across Behring Straits, and the northern and north-western
coasts of Alaska. Its days are numbered, because neither the
British Government, nor the Russian, nor the Danish, nor that
THE MARINE CARNIVORA 195

of the United States, as Governments, care one particle about
zoology, or the saving from extinction of remarkable mammals
which can be slaughtered for “sport” or commerce.

Famity: PHOCID. THE TRUE SEALS

The Phocide are a little less specialised in their teeth than the
sea lions and walruses. The upper incisors are not grooved as
they are in the Otariids, and the premolar teeth are proportion-
ately larger and have longer cusps. Both the hind and fore feet
are also less specialised than in the other two groups. In the
case of the fore feet of the True Seals, though the first finger is
the longest, the rest are more nearly equal to it in length than is
the case with the elongated flipper of the sea lions and walruses ;
in fact, it is more like the normal paw of a land Carnivore ; there
is more outer distinction between the
toes, the web does not protrude
beyond the tips of the claws, and
the claws are in most seals very well
developed, almost like the claws of a
bear. The hind flipper has the same *--... 4
feature as in the other two families, }
of the fifth and first toes exceeding coca an
the other three inner ones in length Paemorars awp Morar, Urrer
and thickness, but the lobes do not en ae
extend appreciably beyond the nails on the five toes. On the
other hand, in the True Seals the hind feet cannot be brought
forwards as in ordinary mammalian progression ; they are always
turned back, and more or less closely adpressed against the short,
stumpy external tail ; in fact, the hind limbs of the True Seals
now serve just the same purpose as the flukes of a whale’s tail.

In the following points the True Seals are more specialised
than the sea lions and walruses: they have no outer conch to the
ear, and the nostrils open upwards, are placed, that is to say, on
the dorsal surface of the nose. The neck ‘is very short, and the
True Seal’s body is obviously more suited for existence in the
water than on shore. Owing to the impossibility of using the

   
196 BRITISH MAMMALS

hind limbs for locomotion on land, the True Seals cannot travel
very far from the water’s edge. Such progress as is made over
the rocks or on ice or sand is by wriggling the body in a
serpentine course, occasionally using the fore limbs to grasp
uneven surfaces, pushing them forward alternately. When land-
ing on rocks or on ice they raise their bodies nearly erect, and
hoist themselves up out of the water by means of their fore
limbs. In spite of these disadvantages seals manage to accomplish
considerable distances during the night (they rarely travel in the
daytime) on land.

In the skull of the True Seals there is no alisphenoid canal,
and the angle of the lower jaw lacks that inflection characteristic
of the Otariids, the Creodonts, and the Marsupials. The
testes never descend from the abdomen into a scrotum, and the
palms and soles of the feet are hairy, and not naked or warty as
in the sea lions and walrus. There is no woolly under-fur as in
the sea lions (who are the “fur” seals of commerce), but the
skin of nearly all True Seals is covered with stiff, shiny closely-
pressed hair, and this coat is nearly always more or less marked
with spots or blotches of dark on light. In this spotted
nature of their coat the True Seals differ markedly from the
sea lions and the walrus, both of which groups are absolutely
one-coloured. Seals generally possess two pairs of mammz on
the abdomen. The young are invariably brought forth on the
land, and have to be taught to swim by their parents. They
take to the water with some reluctance.

True Seals are polygamous, but do not have such a strongly
marked rutting season as is the case amongst the sea lions (a
period of something like three months, in which the male almost
entirely abstains from food). They are, however, equally
gregarious.

Sup-FaMILy: PHOCINV.ZA. THE COMMON SEALS

In this sub-family the incisor teeth number three pairs in the
upper jaw and two pairs in the lower. There are five well-
developed claws on all four feet. In the hind limbs the first toe
HHL

IS NOWNOD)

ad

Yuuyt, voy) TV

 
THE MARINE CARNIVORA 197

is longest, then the second. ‘The third and fourth are shortest,
and the fifth is nearly as long as the second. Although the
general aspect of the hinder feet is to show a preponderance of
length on the part of the first and fifth toes, still this is nothing
like as much exaggerated as in the other sub-families of the True
Seals or as in the sea lions. As already remarked, the fore paws
(especially in this group) are much more similar in appearance to
those of the terrestrial Carnivora, though the first finger is the
longest.

Phoca vitulina. Tae Common SEAL

The three last premolars and the molar teeth in the jaws of
the Common Seal and other allied members of the genus Phoca
are double-rooted. The head is round and short, and the eyes
very large. The aperture of the ear is not far behind the eye,
and is triangular in shape. The upper lip is thick and somewhat
overhanging. It is deeply scored with the parallel lines of the
insertion of the vibrisse, and these are long and abundant, as
they are in most seals. As already related of this family, the
aperture of the nostrils is directed backwards rather than for-
wards. The fore feet are short, and armed with strong, narrow,
sharp claws. The claws on the hind flippers are narrow, shorter,
and less curved. The adult of the common seal scarcely exceeds
5 ft., and females may show as small a measurement as 3 ft.
The neck of the common seal is rather short.

The coloration varies much in individuals and according to
age. The young at birth is covered with a coat of thick, soft
fur, lemon-white in tint. In the species under review this woolly
coat is shed by the infant seal a few hours after its birth. In
some cases this woolly covering when shed seems to form a kind
of mat for the young seal to lie on. When the white fur has
been discarded, the bright little creature (and young seals are
beautiful with their large liquid eyes) is seen to be smoothly clad
with the shiny silky hair characteristic of the adult; but it is
generally much more vividly spotted and streaked with dark on
198 BRITISH MAMMALS

light. The ground colour of the hair of the common seal may
be described as a lemon-yellow inclining to a sickly white or an
amber tint. Sometimes this lemon ground is almost greenish by
the admixture of gray or brown hairs. On this light ground are
scattered many irregular spots, bluish-black with the sheen of the
hair. The hind limbs incline more to umber-brown. The strong
vibrisse are white. In some specimens the spots are very thick
on the back, and are brownish. Some examples of the common
seal are almost black all over. Others, again, are a greenish-
yellow, with only a few black spots. The large eyes are one
uniform tint of deep bluish-brown.

The number of mamme in the common seal is four. The
pairing season round the coasts of the British Islands is in
September, and the single young one—occasionally two—is born
in the month of June. The young of the common seal takes
to the water a few hours after it is born, and as soon as the
woolly coat is shed. The mother lies on her side to suckle
the calf.

The common seal, like all members of this sub-order, is not
a silent animal, and has considerable inflections of voice. When
a number of them are massed together on the rocks out of the
water, and are not alarmed, they keep up a constant grunting
sound not unlike that made by pigs in a state of contentment.
Occasionally this grunt rises into a snort of defiance, more of
sportiveness than pugnacity. The young seal makes a constant
baaing sound, especially when seeking nourishment from the
mother. Adults vary their grunts with a plaintive bleat or a
loud bark. In the month of September this harsh coughing
or barking noise is distinctly audible on parts of the coasts of
Ireland and West Scotland which seals frequent, and is no doubt
uttered by males who are attracting or defending mates. Unless
very much harassed by human enemies, the seal, in short, is
rather a noisy creature, and seems to be fond of sound, for
it is undoubtedly attracted by loud talking on the part of
fishermen and by music. No doubt it has long since learnt
not to inquire too closely into the ways of man, finding that
THE MARINE CARNIVORA 199

the raising of its head is a signal for a hail of bullets ; otherwise
there are many stories showing that in former times seals have
often approached boats out of curiosity when loud talking was
going on. Music undoubtedly attracted them, and in captivity
seals seem to experience the greatest delight at the playing of
musical instruments. It has been related by an old writer in
connection with the fauna of the Orkney Islands that the seals
would swim directly to the shore when the church bells of Hoy
(in Orkney) were rung. They are extremely inquisitive animals,
and no doubt the unusualness of the sound attracts them as
much as any pleasure in the novel vibrations in their ears. And
as regards this point it is noteworthy that, although the seal is
quite unprovided with any ear conch (deemed so essential to
good hearing in other mammals) it is apparently most alive
to gradations of sound.

Its brain case is large, the brain highly developed, and the
intelligence keen. It can become attached to a human being
as acutely as any dog. Indeed, in earlier times seals experienced
such a desire to consort with seafaring humanity as to have
attracted the attention of classical writers, and no doubt to have
given rise to most of the stories of mermaids. Any foolishness
of this kind has, of course, been promptly put a stop to during.
the last century by the unflagging use of the rifle or any stout
piece of wood that came to hand.

The common seal has a somewhat valuable skin, and provides
from the fat that surrounds its body a preparation of valuable
oil. The flesh even is edible. Apart from all these excuses,
of course it is a “wild animal.” When caught on shore it is
entirely at man’s mercy, and when bobbing about in the water
itis as good a mark for the rifle as an empty beer bottle.
Apart, therefore, from any inducements to use its skin for the
coats of motorists, or its oil for making soap, the joy of killing
it for the sake of killing is irresistible to yachtsmen, sportsmen,
and fishermen, and it is unlikely, therefore, that it will continue
to exist much longer as an inhabitant of British waters. But for
this craze for destruction we might have had seals all round the
200 BRITISH MAMMALS

sea-coasts of England, Wales, and Ireland as tame as dogs and
as harmless. When our grandchildren awake to the knowledge
of what they have lost, they ought to take the ashes of those
ministers and permanent officials who never raised a finger to
stop the destruction of British Mammalia, and scatter them
abroad with every sign of loathing and contempt.

The food of the common seal consists in the main of fish,
crustaceans, molluscs, starfish, sea porcupines, and occasionally
sea gulls and other wildfowl.

The distribution of the common seal is practically circumpolar.
It is found on the eastern and western shores of the North
Atlantic, and on both coasts of the North Pacific. To the
southward it reaches as far as the north coasts of the Mediterranean
(where, however, it is very scarce), and on the American side as
far as the coasts of New Jersey. In the Pacific it extends south-
wards to California on the one hand and Kamshatka on the other.
It is common along the coasts of Spitzbergen and Greenland.
On the Danish coast of Greenland something like 300,000 are
killed annually, the Danish Government having no more regard
than the British for the preservation of interesting creatures. In
the waters surrounding the British Islands the common seal was
a hundred years ago very abundant. It was even foolish enough
once to visit Brighton within the memory of people now living.
Naturally impertinences of this kind on the coasts of Hampshire,
Sussex, Kent, and Essex were promptly punished, and it is
probably never seen now on the English coast except off Cornwall,
Northern Yorkshire, Northumberland, and Cumberland. It is
still common all round the coasts of Ireland and of West and
North Wales, and Northern-eastern and Western Scotland, the
Orkneys, Shetlands, Hebrides, and the great islands off the coast of
North Britain. It should (if our rulers Kad the slightest interest
in unproductive science) long ago have been placed on the
protected list. As it is, its destruction and that of other seals
and sea lions makes an excellent subject for a Mansion House
jest by modern statesmen.
THE MARINE CARNIVORA 201

Phoca grenlandica. Tue Harp Sear

The Harp Seal is readily distinguished from any others by its
remarkable coloration. The young is born with the usual woolly
coat, which it retains for a fortnight or three weeks instead of the
few hours mentioned in the case of the common seal. Its hairy
covering following on the discarded wool is dark and speckled
blackish on yellow-white. The next stage in colour is an increase
of dark on the back (which assumes a blackish tint) and of
silvery-white on the belly. From the third to the fifth year in
the creature’s age it assumes the adult coloration, which is very
handsome. In the adult male the ground colour of the body is

 

THE HARP SEAL (Phoca grenlandica).

yellowish-gray to pale yellow-white, almost with a lemon tinge.
The face and muzzle from the region of the ears and brows to
the upper lip and nose is blackish-brown. On the back there
is a huge irregular mark of blackish-brown, which can be
best realised by a reference to the accompanying illustration.
This is sufficiently like a harp in shape to warrant the name
of harp seal. The hind limbs are streaked and spotted with
blackish-brown. The adult female, on the other hand, is pale
yellow ranging from straw colour to amber, and deepening into
tawny-brown on the back, with or without spots and blotches.
The harp seal, when adult, may be as much as 6 ft. long, but
males of ordinary size and females range from 4 ft. to 5 ft. in
length. The back and top of the skull differ very much in
202 BRITISH MAMMALS

outline from the configuration of the head in the common seal..
The nasal opening is higher up and more dorsal. The brain
cavity is proportionately less in size, and the under jaw is
stronger and heavier. Apparently the young of this seal are
born much earlier in the year than is the case with the common
seal—in the month of March. There are often two cubs at a
birth, and three even are reported. This creature is almost
extinct as a British Mammal, and therefore it would be a waste of
space to say much regarding its habits. It is thought to have-
been caught in the Severn in 1836 and the Thames in 1858, and
also on the coasts of Lancashire, Scotland, the Hebrides, and
Galway. Its present range is the circumpolar seas and the
northern coasts of the Atlantic and Pacific. It is common off
the coasts of Newfoundland and Greenland. At one time half a
million of these seals were killed annually off the coast of
Newfoundland, and the annual yield of the Danish settlements.
in Greenland is something like 30,000.

Phoca hispida. Tur Rincep SEAL

The Ringed Seal is perhaps the smallest member of the
sub-family. The adult male rarely exceeds 44 ft. in length,
and the female about 3 ft. The upper parts are brownish-
gray, almost black along the medium line of the back, and the
belly is whitish-gray. The face is uniform grey-brown, and the
vibrissz are brown instead of being white. The sides are marked
with irregular oval rings of light gray, in the middle of which isa
dark spot. It isin the shape of the skull, however, that the ringed
seal is most readily distinguished. This resembles more nearly
in shape the skull of the harp seal, but at the back, over the
brain case, there is an enormous projecting ridge of bone. The:
cranial capacity is proportionately much less than in the common
seal.

The ringed seal is almost extinct as a British species. A
specimen was caught on the Norfolk coast in 1846, and another
on the coast of Lincolnshire in 1889, and it may still visit the
Hebrides. Elsewhere its range is circumpolar, including the:
THE MARINE CARNIVORA 203

northern coasts of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Near allies
of this form inhabit the waters of Lake Baikal, in Central Asia,
and of the Caspian Sea, relics of a time not far distant geologically
when the Arctic Ocean communicated with these inland seas.
The ringed seal was much commoner in British waters in the
Pleistocene period, especially during Glacial conditions. Its
fossil remains have been found off the coasts of England and
Scotland, and in great abundance in Belgium.

Phoca barbata. Tuer BEarpDED SEAL

This is a large Phocine, almost the largest member of the
sub-family, unless it is exceeded by the gray seal, a creature for
which it is sometimes mistaken. It differs markedly from the
other True Seals in its large muzzle, high forehead, and small and
weak teeth, among which the canines are not much larger than
the incisors or premolars. Some of these fall out in the adult,
and the Bearded Seal is evidently on its way (if man does
not exterminate it) towards becoming a toothless mammal. A
curious feature in its fore paws is that the third, or middle,
finger is longer than the rest. In this point, therefore, the
bearded seal is less specialised than the other members of the
sub-order. Full-grown males are from Io ft. to 11 ft. in length,
and the females over 7 ft. The colour of the bearded seal is
dark gray on the back and flanks and light yellowish-gray on the
under parts. The considerable development of vibrisse gives
the creature the name of the bearded seal. The present
distribution of this Phocine is circumpolar and North Atlantic.
On the Atlantic coast it does not extend farther south than
Labrador. It is abundant on the coasts of Greenland, is met
with round Iceland, and on the north coast of Norway. It is
doubtful whether it has been recorded recently within British
waters, though its existence was rumoured in the middle of the
nineteenth century off the Hebrides. The reason it is mentioned
in this book is that its fossil remains occur in the late Pleistocene
deposits of Norfolk.
204 BRITISH MAMMALS

Genus: HALICHGRUS
Halicherus grypus. Tur Gray SEAL

This is a larger seal than the other members of the Phocine
sub-family, and it is the only other species besides the common
seal which can be with any emphasis regarded as a British
mammal. It is not very clear that the differences between the
Gray Seal and the rest of the Phocinz are of generic importance.
The distinctions are based on the configuration of the premolar
and molar teeth. These, instead of being provided with two or
more cusps in addition to the central cone, are much simplified
and reduced to conical compressed crowns. Occasionally the
molars in the lower jaw have small hinder accessory cusps.
Moreover, three at least of the premolars in each jaw are only
single-rooted, and not double. It is, of course, an instance of
degeneration and simplification of structure, the molar teeth in
the gray seal becoming like those in the whales—simple pointed
crowns like the canines and incisors.

The length of the adult male of the gray seal may be nearly
as much as 11 ft., though the measurement of the females
scarcely reaches 7 ft. 6 in. The average male is perhaps be-
tween 9 ft. and roft. in length. The colour varies a great deal
according to age and individuals. The young is at first a lemon-
white in tint, and this woolly coat is retained for perhaps as long
as six weeks. The young gray seal then becomes in the main
yellowish-white on the under surface, and is heavily marked with
quite a dark blackish-brown above. In fact, its coloration is
almost black and white, the black being distributed in splotches
and spots and streaks on a white ground. The top of the head
and the region round the ear, the ridge of the nose and the
upper part of the muzzle, are blackish, with a white spot round
the eye. The flippers are marked with black spots. Some of
the white parts in the young seal are tinged with yellow.
Gradually as age increases the white or yellow parts of the fur
darken into brownish-gray, while the black marks fade into sooty
brown, until at last the whole aspect of the creature is grayish-
       

Halicherus grypus).

From a drawing by the Author, Tur GRAY SEAL (

Adult and young.

To face p. 204.
THE MARINE CARNIVORA 205

brown, with a tendency to lighter coloration on the belly, and
more distinctness of spots and splotches on the flanks and flippers.
In the adult animals, when the fur has dried in the sun, there is
a uniform silvery-gray sheen, which justifies the animal’s title of
gray seal. When this is seen, however, against the light or from
underneath it becomes a deep umber-brown. In some individuals,
however, the spots and streaks of the original markings are more
distinct than in others.

The breeding-time of the gray seal is very different from that
of the common seal. Breeding would seem to take place in
February, and the birth of the young in the autumn—September,
October, and November. The young of the gray seal is generally
born in caverns or sheltered crannies, and not on open rocks or
beaches. It is this species that chiefly frequents the celebrated
seal caves of Achill Island off the west coast of Ireland. The
large-eyed, lemon-coloured cubs (seldom more than one at a
birth) take to the water with seeming reluctance, and apparently
have to be taught to swim by their mothers. They do not
finally adopt a water life until about six or seven weeks after
birth, by which time they have shed the first woolly covering.
This want of precocity in the young (which, however, may be a
more generalised feature in the gray seal) makes the species
much more liable to extermination by man. The mother seal is
constantly with her offspring during this period of cave-dwelling,
and will fiercely attack any one who may attempt to capture her
cub, but her efforts, of course, are futile against rifles and clubs.
The mother seal remains out of the water with her cub during
the first few weeks after its birth, but when she resumes her life
in the sea she generally comes on shore to suckle the cub every
high tide. Whilst the cub is left on shore amongst the boulders,
in some sheltered retreat or cavern, it is very silent, and its
lemon-white colour, broken only by the large black eye, is
curiously protective, as it resembles the whitened boulders that
lie about in all directions, spotted by occasional dark purple
anemones or drilled with round holes.

Gray seals are ordinarily very noisy, and make a regular
206 BRITISH MAMMALS

howling at times, like dogs. Owing to its much less pro-
portionate cranial capacity the gray seal is a dull and sulky
creature as compared with the common seal. In confinement it
is morose and ill-tempered.

When undisturbed by man it is fond of leaving the water in
the summer-time and basking for hours in the warm sunshine.
At intervals it stretches its muscles in a peculiar way by turning
the head backwards, and curving the hind flippers upwards till it
almost assumes the form of a flattened crescent. It is very
cautious nowadays about landing, and swims backwards and
forwards with its head high up out of the water. The creature
when pursued on shore gets over the ground a great deal faster
(for a short distance) than a man can walk, and helps itself
alternately with its fore paws, pressing them hard against the
surface of the ground to propel the body forwards.

The gray seal is now limited in its British distribution to
the south, west, and north coasts of Ireland, the coasts of the
Hebrides, and the great islands to the west of Scotland, the
Orkneys, Shetlands, and here and there the east coast of Scotland.
Very rarely it is heard of off the coasts of Norfolk, Cornwall,
and Wales. The gray seal has been caught several times in the
Severn in the early part of the nineteenth century, and in 1857
one was killed on the coast of the Isle of Wight. In the middle
of the nineteenth century living specimens were occasionally sent
from the coast of Wales to the Zoological Gardens in London.
Outside the British Islands the range of the gray seal appears to
be limited to the coasts of Norway and Sweden, Spitzbergen,
Iceland, Greenland, and North America down to Nova Scotia.

The sub-family of the Monachine, or Monk Seals, is not
represented in British waters, its genera being confined to the
Mediterranean, the Tropical Atlantic, and the Antarctic Ocean.

Sus-Famity: CYSTOPHORINZ. THE HOODED SEALS

This sub-family includes among its representatives the
enormous elephant seal of the Antarctic and Pacific Oceans.
The seals of this sub-family have the incisors reduced to two
THE MARINE CARNIVORA 207

pairs in the upper jaw and one pair in the lower, while the molar
teeth are nearly all one-rooted, and are reduced in size and
‘degenerate in structure. The canines are strong and stout and
rather tusk-like, and the outer pair of upper incisors somewhat
resemble canines, so that, however much the outer teeth may be
reduced, the creature retains effective weapons in the canines and
upper incisors. The first and the fifth toes in the hind feet
exceed the others very much in length, and have the lobe of skin
prolonged for a considerable distance beyond the nail ; moreover,
the claws or nails on the hind toes are either absent or rudi-
mentary. The nose of the males is surmounted by a remarkable
appendage which can be inflated at will. This, in the species
represented in the British fauna, is developed into a great bladder,
shaped almost like a cockscomb, but in the elephant seal it
becomes a short proboscis.

Cystophora cristata. THe Hoopep or BLapDDER-NOSED SEAL

The skull of this animal, to begin with, differs considerably in
shape from that of the normal seal. The ramus of the under
jaw is long, broad, and heavy.
The ridges round the eye orbits
are much developed, and the
cranium, or brain case, is pro-
portionately small. The bony
partition between the nostrils is
prolonged in front of the
orbits in a circular form:
to support the huge air
bladder which terminates

 
 
 
 
  
 
 

skull. The neck is somewhat
Jonger than in the common seals.
The adult male has the nose
bladder much more developed
than the female. The bony partition in front of the eyes is
continued down to the aperture of the nostrils by a cartilaginous

HEAD OF HOODED SEAL (Cystophora).
208 BRITISH MAMMALS

crest, which really forms part of the septum, or division between
the air passages of the nostrils. This cartilage, added to the pos-
terior bony wall, serves to support twin bladders divided in the
middle by a groove indicating the line of the nose. These
bladders can be inflated and erected at will till they somewhat
resemble a policeman’s helmet. When the creature is at rest
the hood almost hangs down on either side over the eyes and
cheeks in a series of folds.

The length of the Hooded Seal varies from 8 ft. to 12 ft. The
body is long and robust. The colour in the newly-born woolly
young is the usual lemon-white. When this wool is lost, their
rather long hair is a grayish-yellow above and white below, and
the grayish-yellow parts are marked with spots and blotches
of dark gray or black. As the seal grows older the yellowish-
gray of the upper parts deepens in colour into grayish-brown,
which, with the black markings, gives the upper surface of the
animal a hue of nearly uniform dark gray.

The voice of the hooded seal is the’ usual barking and
whining. The young apparently are born in the month of April.
The polygamous males fight very much amongst themselves
in autumn during the breeding season. This seal is much more
pugnacious than those hitherto described, and will not only stay
to give battle to a human enemy, but will sometimes rush and
shuffle towards its opponent, attempting to bite him with its
canine tusks. They also attack their assailants with the fore
paws, striving to overbear them and knock them to the ground
preparatory to inflicting dangerous bites.

The hooded seal has been killed off the coast of Suffolk and
of Eastern Scotland and in the Orkney Islands. It has also been
observed off the west coast of Ireland. In former centuries its
appearance off the British coasts was not uncommon, and gene-
rally attracted attention owing to the extraordinary bladder or
hood. It was met with formerly off the west coast of France,
but its present range seems to be limited to the Arctic regions
and the coasts of Greenland, Spitzbergen, Norway, and New-
foundland.
CHAPTER X

Orver: RODENTIA. RODENTS, OR GNAWING
MAMMALS: HARES AND RABBITS

Rererence has already been made to the Rodent, or gnawing
group of mammals, as having started probably in very ancient
times from some generalised group of Eutherian mammal akin
to the Insectivores. The marked feature in the Rodents is the
complete absence of canine teeth in the upper and lower jaws,
and the reduction of the incisors, which in the lower jaw are
never more than two, one on each side, and in the upper jaw are
equally reduced to two, except in the case of the sub-order of
hares and rabbits, where the upper incisors may be three on
each side in the case of young animals, and two on each side
in the adult. The premolars are always below the full number,
and very often either completely wanting or reduced to one each
side. The feet almost invariably possess the original five toes,
but differ from those of the Primates (man, apes, and lemurs) in
never having the thumb or first toe opposable. The extremities
of the toes and fingers are armed with claws, sometimes long and
sharp, occasionally in the few large forms becoming blunt, angular,
and almost hoof-like, but never developing a flat nail as in the
Primates. Nearly all the Rodents have collar bones, though
sometimes in a very rudimentary form. Most of them have a
cecum. The mouth is characterised by a very peculiar feature.
Behind the large incisors, or gnawing teeth, of the upper and
lower jaw the palate is covered with hair, so that the mouth is
really divided into two portions—the entrance in front between

the great incisor teeth, followed by a narrow passage more or
209 14
210 BRITISH MAMMALS

less thickly covered with hair, and then the larger space between
the rows of molar teeth with a wet palate. The object of this
division is to enable these animals to gnaw all sorts of substances
with their teeth without the stuff through which they are gnaw-
ing their way reaching the interior of the mouth and being
swallowed, unless, of course, it is suitable for food.

In the Rodentia Nature is again repeating herself, and pushing
to an absolute conclusion a plan which has possibly occurred
to her over and over again in the development of fishes and
reptiles, and the many diverse orders of Mammalia. In the
Proto-mammals, in those early groups of the Secondary Epoch
which, from such slight knowledge as we possess, appear to be
allied to the Monotremes, we see frequent developments of forms
in which the incisor teeth are reduced in number and developed
into circular tusks with a chisel-like edge, while there is an
absence of canines and a diastema, or toothless space, between
the exaggerated incisors and the premolars. Then, again, in the
Marsupial order, one of its two divisions is distinguished from the
other by a more or less Rodent-like development of the incisor
teeth ; and in such a form as the wombat the resemblance to a
Rodent is very striking. Among the Primates (that group to
which man belongs) we have the aye-aye lemur, a creature with
Rodent-like incisors, and with all the intermediate teeth absent in
the adult animal. In branch after branch of Ungulates, Rodent-
like conditions of teeth are developed independently and repeat-
edly. This is the case with the elephants, to instance only one
of many examples. It is thought, indeed, by some geologists
that in their remote origin the Rodents may have been connected
with the primitive Ungulates. It is doubtful, however, whether
this was the case any nearer in time than that in which the
gnawing animals first differentiated from the primitive and
generalised Eutherian stock. The point at which they did so
must have been very near to the branching off of Marsupials,
Insectivores, and Primates. It will be noticed in all these three
groups that the first incisors to disappear are the side ones in
the lower jaw: there is more persistency in the upper incisors ;
HARES AND RABBITS 211

whereas in the Ungulates the tendency is rather in the opposite
direction, for the lower incisors to remain and the upper to
dwindle or disappear.

The Rodents are an extremely ancient group, dating back
in time to the Eocene, or first period of the Tertiary Epoch.
Their forms at the present day are sharply divided into two sub-
orders, the Duplicidentata, or rodents (such as hares) with at
least two pairs of incisors in the upper jaw, and the Simplicidentata
(such as squirrels, porcupines, mice), with only ove pair of
incisors in the upper jaw.

The Duplicidentata are divided at the present day into two
distinct families, one containing the pikas and the other the
hares, rabbits, and a remarkable form, Romerolagus, which is in
some respects aberrant, and in others a link between the pikas
and the hares.

Famity: LAGOMYIDA. THE PIKAS

These Rodents, represented by the genus Lagomys, are smaller
than the hares and rabbits. They have short ears, no external
tail, the fore and hind limbs are about equal in length, the
incisor teeth are two on each side in the upper jaw, and there
are premolars, either two on each side or only one. The present
distribution of the Lagomyide is confined to Eastern Europe
(Russia), Northern and Central Asia (from Persia to Kamshatka)
and the western territories of North America (Rocky Mountains).
In the Pleistocene period, however, pikas of the existing Siberian
species (Lagomys alpinus) were found in the southern half of
England in common with so many other beasts which inhabit
Central Asia at the present day—gazelles, saigas, jerboas. The
pika lingered on in Sardinia almost to the Historical Epoch, but
apparently became extinct in Britain at a more remote period.

Famity: LEPORID4. HARES AND RABBITS

It would seem as though in our review of the origin of
British Mammals we were for once to leave India as the starting-
point of an important group and turn to North America.
212 BRITISH MAMMALS

Although the Duplicidentata are strongly represented in India
and Central Asia, the balance of proof seems to be in favour of
their having originated (perhaps with the whole of the Rodentia)
in North America. Not only is a species of pika found still
living in that continent, but on a mountain in Mexico a primitive
type of rabbit-like Rodent has been recently discovered, the
scientific name of which is Romerolagus. Lastly, hares are
abundantly represented in both North and South America, and in
both North and South America occurs the form of hare most
nearly related to the rabbit.

The Leporide are, all things considered, the most primitive of
Rodents and of the Duplicidentata. They possess two permanent
incisors on each side of the upper jaw, and in young animals a
third incisor occurs in the “milk” dentition. There are three
pairs of premolars in the upper jaw, and two pairs in the lower.
The molars are three pairs in both jaws, the third molar being
very small. All the molars are rootless, and their crowns are
marked with transverse ridges of enamel. The fore feet are
five-toed, the hind limbs four-toed. The ear conch is invariably
long, sometimes very long.

The hares and rabbits are now generally divided into two
distinct genera, Oryctolagus and Lepus, because there are dif-
ferences in structure and habits between the true hares and the
common rabbit, which are thought to be of generic importance,
even though one or two intermediate forms exist which it is very
difficult to classify as belonging precisely to either group.

Oryctolagus cuniculus. THe Common Rapsit

This creature is perhaps the only type of the genus Oryctolagus
which, although connected by intermediate forms, differs in the
following particulars from most hares of the genus Lepus:
the longer and narrower bones of the palate, the more slender
muzzle, the smaller size and capacity of the skull, the shorter
ears (nearly without the hares’ black tips), and the condition of
the young at birth—these in the rabbit being naked and but
poorly developed, while the young of hares are born with their
Photo by C. Reid.

WILD RasBiTs (0

ry

 

ctolagus cuniculus).

To face p. 212
HARES AND RABBITS 213

eyes open, fully covered with hair, and able to run about.’ The
rabbit, moreover, burrows into the ground and inhabits these
burrows, whereas the typical hares live above-ground. Closely
allied to the European rabbit, however, is a remarkable primitive
type of Leporine, the Assam hare (Lepus or Oryctolagus hispidus),
which has short ears, a fur tending in colour to the rabbit gray, and
other resemblances in the skull. Also related is the South African
form, Lepus crassicaudatus, and the Lepus sylvilagus of North and
South America. Professor Scharff believes that the rabbit type
originated in or near North America, and that its allies penetrated
westwards into Central Asia, while the rabbit itself travelled
eastwards across the Atlantic by a now vanished land bridge into
Western Europe and Northern Africa. Many problems in the
fauna of Europe and North America, and above all of the Azores,
Madeira, and Canary Islands, are difficult to explain, unless we
can postulate the existence during the close of the Tertiary Epoch
of a land bridge across the Northern Atlantic. The equatorial
isthmus which may have connected Venezuela with West Africa
had probably broken down at the commencement of the Miocene
period ; but a good deal of the North Atlantic bed may have
risen to be dry land between North America and Western Europe
by way of the Azores and Madeira. This would have been at a
time when Spain was connected with the south-west of Ireland.
By this route the ancestors of the rabbit must have travelled and
have reached the vanished land lying to the west of Portugal
now restricted to the Madeira and Azores Archipelagoes. In the
Azores rabbits undoubtedly existed when the islands were first
discovered by Flemish merchants. Rabbits also have been
known to exist in Madeira, or in the little islands off Madeira,
from the time of their discovery by the Portuguese. It has
always been assumed that the Portuguese must have introduced
rabbits into both archipelagoes, together with weasels and goats,
Goats they certainly brought to Madeira, but it is a moot
question whether the existing wild goat of the Azores may not
be an indigenous wild species connected with the wild goat of

1 There is also a difference in the structure of the czecum.
214 BRITISH MAMMALS

Spain, and a relic of the days when the Azores were an outpost
of Western Europe. But there is no certain evidence to prove
that early in the fifteenth century the Portuguese were sufficiently
interested in the rabbit or the weasel to deliberately introduce
these animals into the Azores or into Madeira, directly these
islands were made known. From Portugal the rabbit spread over
Spain, North Africa, Corsica, and- Sardinia, and no doubt from
Western France or from Spain reached Ireland and England.

Into these last-named countries it is supposed to have been
introduced, though there is no historical record of the Romans
having done so. Since Roman times, at any rate, the rabbit has
been a British mammal. It is true that no name for this animal
apparently exists either in the Celtic tongues of Britain and Ireland
or in Anglo-Saxon which is not derivable from the Latin name
Cuniculus. ( Rabbit” comes from the Dutch or Flemish rodée,
and is a relatively modern word.) The native name, however,
for the wild species may have been lost, and its place taken by
the Latin term applied to the domestic animal. The existence of
the rabbit in these islands, as a wild creature not originally
introduced by man, is a question similar to the origin of the
pheasant and the existing park “wild” cattle. The ancestors
of all three are considered to have been brought here by the
Romans, but no historical record exists definitely proving that
the Romans introduced the rabbit or the pheasant. The case of
the wild cattle is more dubious. As the pheasant is found fossil in
France, and the rabbit admittedly inhabits parts of that country as
a wild animal at the present day, it is conceivable that both forms
may have reached England without the intervention of man.

But the rabbit, though it may be indigenous to England, and
perhaps to Ireland, is quite a new arrival in Scotland beyond the
Lowland districts. In the Highlands it was relatively unknown
seventy years ago. It seems to be pretty certain that the fossil
remains of the true rabbit exist in British formations dating back
to the Prehistoric and Pleistocene periods. These remains have
been found in Ireland, and in Devonshire, Yorkshire, and else-
where in England.
HARES AND RABBITS 215

The general colour of the rabbit is grayish-brown, but the
neck becomes, in some examples, reddish-brown. The throat
and belly are white, and the outside of the ear is grayish-brown,
the inside being a buff-white. There is a narrow black edging
along the tip of the ear, but no decided black point like that
seen in so many forms of hare. The top of the short tail is
blackish, the under side, or “scut,” is pure white. The upturned
white tail of the rabbit when it is in flight undoubtedly serves as
a signal and warning to its fellows. The wild rabbit measures
in adult specimens about 16 in. from the tip of the nose to the
base of the tail, and the tail is another 3 in. in length. The
ears are far shorter than those of the common hare, quite
two-thirds shorter proportionately. The head also is rounder
and shorter, and the hind legs are not so disproportionately long
as in the hares.

The rabbit is far more gregarious than the hare; in fact, it
is never found singly at any season of the year, but always in
large companies whose burrows form a “ warren” of associated
dwellings. These burrows are mainly excavated by the fore
paws of the rabbit, though masses of earth are flung backwards
by the hind feet. These last, indeed, constitute the rabbit’s only
means of offence. With them it stamps loudly when angry, and
tame rabbits can deal severe blows or kicks at puppies that may
try to interfere with them. In wet or marshy localities with
abundant vegetation rabbits construct (more or less by their
constant passage to and fro) a labyrinth of runs and galleries in
the matted heather, gorse, and other vegetation, and it is said by
the late Professor Thomas Bell that these runs in such localities
are substituted entirely for burrows. This would seem to be
correct, and if so it is an interesting instance of an earlier mode
of life on‘the part of this member of the Hare family, with whom
burrowing in the loose soil may have become a much more
recently acquired habit, shared by only one other member of
the group."

The female rabbit, when about to give birth to young,

1 Lepus, or Oryctolagus, hispidus.
216 BRITISH MAMMALS

excavates a separate burrow for herself with only one entrance
(like that of the mole). Ordinarily, rabbit burrows are provided
with an official entrance and a back door, or bolt hole. At the
bottom of the breeding burrow the female prepares a nest for
the reception of her naked young by pulling with her teeth
mouthfuls of fur from her chest and belly. (This habit has
been observed by any one who has kept tame rabbits.) In
captivity the domestic rabbit is shy and nervous about her
young, and, as every boy knows, may eat them at an early stage
if interfered with. It is probable that this habit exists also in
the wild type, though what use it can be to the species or
community it is difficult to understand. It almost appears to
be related to the instinctive eating of the placenta, or “ after-
birth,” an action performed by nearly all mammals possessing
teeth in whom the placenta is deciduate. The young vary in
number from eight to four in normal litters, and the number of
mamme is ten. As already mentioned, young rabbits are blind
and practically naked at birth. They are also very small (as
compared to young hares), and bear a strong superficial re-
semblance to the offspring of those marsupials who produce their
young in a most undeveloped condition.

Rabbits are mature and able to breed at the age of six
months, if not earlier, and the number of litters in the year
may be as many as four. The obvious result of this fecundity
is that the increase of the rabbit when unchecked can
assume such extravagant proportions as to become what the
Germans would call a ‘ world-force.”’ Given favourable con-
ditions, and the non-intervention of man, or the lack of sufficient
carnivorous birds and beasts, and rabbits may ruin a continent
by devouring all its vegetation. It is a matter of common
knowledge how the introduction of the rabbit into Australia has
resulted in serious damage to pastures and plantations, and how,
if it had not been checked in a most expensive and elaborate
manner, it might have led to the extinction of sheep and
cattle, and of most of the indigenous marsupials. In a
natural state of affairs the increase of the rabbit in Europe
HARES AND RABBITS 217

and the British Islands would be kept in check by the pro-
portionate increase of weasels, cats, foxes, buzzards, owls, and
eagles ; but when man, in his short-sightedness, exterminates
these interesting beasts and birds, he must rely solely on his own
efforts to keep down the devastations of rabbits and other rodents.

In Australia the rabbit shows great signs of adaptability, and
will often climb trees. Instances are recorded by Thomas Bell
of rabbits that have existed in hollow trees in England, and have
been able, owing to the slant of the trunk, to ascend the tree for
some distance. It is quite possible, therefore, that if this form
developed extravagantly it might give rise to a new species or
genus of arboreal habits ; whilst another became more and more
addicted to life underground, feeding on roots; and a third
might even become semi-aquatic, for a rabbit is quite well able
to swim.

In England the rabbits are somewhat nocturnal in their habits,
and feed generally in the early morning and late evening, passing
a good deal of the warmth of the day in the burrow, though in
the winter-time they range the field by day and retire to their
burrows at night.

Lepus timidus. Tue Mountain Hare

This is a true hare, but a little nearer to the rabbits than the
form to be next described. The Mountain Hare has ears propor-
tionately shorter than those of the common hare (Lepus europaeus),
but these ears have the customary black tip which is so marked
a feature in all the hares. In size the mountain hare is slightly
smaller than the common hare, its length being a little over
21 in. from the nose to the base of the tail, and the tail (24 in.)
is shorter than that of the common hare. On the other hand, the
head of Lepus timidus is proportionately larger than the head of
Lepus europzeus. The two, however, differ markedly in colora-
tion, in the contour of the head (which is rounder in the
mountain hare), in the relative length of the hind legs (shorter in
the mountain hare), and, as already mentioned, in the length of
the ears and tail.
218 BRITISH MAMMALS

In the summer-time, between April and November, the
woolly, soft fur of the mountain hare is fulvous-gray, the under
hair being almost bluish-gray, with longer hairs on the surface
that are yellowish-brown. The backs of the ears are gray and the.
tips are black. The belly is dirty white, and the under parts
generally range between gray and white in tint. The tail is dark
gray above and white beneath. In the northern parts of Scotland
the mountain hare assumes the snow-white coat which this animal
bears during the winter season in the Alps and the Arctic regions.
Only the tips of the ears remain black. But in Ireland (the
mountain hare is extinct in England) this change to complete
white is never known to occur. The utmost amount of white
recorded in the winter change of the mountain hare in Ireland is.
represented by the author’s drawing, which is done from a specimen
in the Natural History Museum, Dublin. In this case the face and
a broad band along each side of the back remained grayish-brown,
whilst the rest of the body became white. This, however, is a very
rare example, and ordinarily the mountain hare in Ireland only
turns a somewhat bluer gray in the winter. There are remarkable
colour variations of this hare in Ireland. One of them, confined
to the county of Wicklow, assumes a uniform coat of sandy yellow.

The mountain hare at the present day has its habitat in these
islands reduced to Scotland and Ireland, but during the Pleistocene
Epoch it equally inhabited England, where, indeed, it seems to
have preceded the arrival of the common hare. Elsewhere than
these islands its distribution includes Scandinavia, Northern Russia,
Siberia, and Japan. It is also met with in the Pyrenees, the Alps,
and the Caucasus, possibly also in the Carpathians. In Northern
America it is represented by the closely allied, if not identical,
“polar” hare, the distribution of which scarcely extends farther
south than Canada.

The mountain hare is the only type of Leporine found in
Sweden and Norway. In the days when Linnzus endeavoured.
to bring zoological nomenclature into an orderly condition, fine
distinctions were seldom drawn between species of animals nearly
allied : consequently it never occurred to Linnzus, or those that
 

From an original drawing by the Author.

THE MOUNTAIN HARE (Lepus timidus): WINTER COAT IN WICKLOW MOUNTAINS, IRELAND.

N.B.—This is the utmost extent of white ever assumed in Ireland. Drawn from a specimen in the
Royal Dublin Museum.

To face p. 218.
HARES AND RABBITS 219

worked with him, that the common hare of Germany, England,
and the south of Europe was a different animal from the mountain
hare. To the mountain hare, therefore, and hares in general, he
gave the name of Lepus timidus, but it is clear that in applying
this name he had his own indigenous mountain hare under
contemplation. Later but more discriminating zoologists applied
the adjective europeus to the very distinct hare of Central and
Southern Europe. Then later Linnzus’s specific name timidus was
applied to the common hare, while the mountain hare, on account
of its changes of colour, was called variabilis. Nowadays, with
some difficulty, zoologists have set the matter right by retaining
Linnzus’s name (¢imidus) for the mountain hare, and styling the
species which will be next described europeus.

The mountain hare agrees with the common hare in having
only two broods of young in the course of the year, in limiting
the number of young at a birth to five at the outside (often only
two), and in producing these young in a much more advanced
state of development than is the case with the rabbit, as they are
born covered with hair, with eyes open, and almost able to follow
their mother two days after birth. The number of mamme in
this and the common hare is five pairs.

The mountain hare generally produces its young under the
shelter of an overarching tree trunk or root, or in a cranny or
sheltered crevice in the rocks.

Its “form,” or resting-place to which it resorts, is usually
between stones or on easily reached ledges of rock. In summer-
time it eats grass, leaves, roots, and bark ; during the winter, bark,
pines, and other seeds, and even lichens and moss.

Lepus europeus. THe Common Hare

The Common Hare measures in adult male specimens about
211 in. from the tip of the nose to the base of the tail ; and the
tail is about another 3} in. long. The ears are about 4} in. in
length, markedly longer than the head. They are rather tapering
towards the tip, which is black. The inside of the ear is some-
what naked. The tail is more developed than in the mountain
220 BRITISH MAMMALS

species, and the hind legs are proportionately much longer than
the fore limbs. As in the rabbit and the mountain hare, the soles
of the feet are completely covered with hair. Noteworthy in
hares and rabbits is the deeply marked cleft in the upper lip. In
colour the common hare tends to be much redder than the
mountain form or than the rabbit. The throat and chest are a
warm buff, which changes. into white on the belly. The tail is
black above and white below. The ears are buff-coloured at the
back, with a black tip. The face is reddish-fawn-colour on the
cheeks and round the eyes, while the forehead and nose are a dark
blackish-brown. The hind and fore limbs are reddish-yellow.
The whole of the rest of the upper parts of the body is yellowish
in the under-wool, varied by the longer hairs which lie on the
surface, and these are generally gray in their lower half and black
for the rest of the length, so that the upper surface of the hare’s
body appears grizzled (“ pepper and salt”), with a warm yellow-
red in the clefts of the soft coat.

Hares breed when a year old. The female goes with young
about thirty days, and then produces from two to five leverets
at a birth. These, as already stated, are born in an advanced
condition of development, with open eyes and covered with
hair, and practically able to run from the day of their birth.
There is no more beautiful object amongst the wild mammals
of Britain than the leveret of a few days old. Its large eyes
are a deep blue-gray. The ears are shorter and broader than
in the adult, and the fur is perhaps a little redder in tone.
These sweet little creatures in their timidity squat with their
limbs and ears closely adpressed to the body. They are a
warm, fluffy handful which it is irresistible to slip into one’s
pocket. Hares are readily tamed, and their ways as domestic
pets are so charming and full of intelligence that it is surprising
they are not more often kept ; but it would seem as if there
were a very great difficulty in inducing hares to breed in captivity,
which is perhaps the reason why they have never become
domesticated like the rabbit. Large breeds of rabbits, on the
Continent especially, often assume, when domesticated, a hare-like
  
  

 

DA ee

we hae
Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.

   

Photo by C. Reid. THE EUROPEAN BEAVER (Castor fiber).

To face p. 220,
HARES AND RABBITS 221

aspect, and this is sometimes attributed to hybrids between the
hare and the rabbit; but as a matter of fact these two distinct
genera have never been known to breed together.

The hare is a solitary animal in comparison with the rabbit.
The sexes really only meet and live in company during the
breeding season, which may be March and August. (For, in
spite of statements to the contrary regarding the number of
broods to which the hare gives birth, it is doubtful whether
under normal circumstances this creature breeds more than
twice a year.) During the month of August, however, when
the grain is cut and lying in sheaves on the harvest-field, the
hares flock to the feast at eventide. Not infrequently the little
companies consist of a mother and her grown-up offspring.
The author has taken advantage of this circumstance in his
painting to illustrate a number of attitudes which the hare
assumes, but it must be distinctly understood that the compo-
sition of the painting is not to imply that under ordinary
circumstances hares congregate together as do rabbits.

The hare commonly feeds in the evening, and also perhaps
in the early morning. In the daytime and during the latter
part of the night it retires to its “form.” This is a smooth
oblong space generally in a slight depression between banks of
vegetation, the surface of the form being smoothed by the
stamping of the animal’s feet, and its lying on the thin grass
and herbage, which becomes dry and flattened into hay with
the pressure and warmth of the animal’s body. It probably
passes backwards and forwards over the spot where it intends
to make its form, thus clearing a tunnel through the herbage.
When an enemy passes near where the hare is lying, it usually
remains squatting on its form, with ears closely pressed to the
body, hoping thus to conceal itself from the eye; but if the
hare is out pasturing and hears a noise, its first impulse is to
sit upright with erect ears, after which it either attempts con-
cealment by lying flat, or takes to flight in a bounding gallop,

1 Hares and rabbits never progress by moving the legs alternately. They
gallop and jump, but do not walk.
222 BRITISH MAMMALS

in which the long hind legs play a great part. Hares are strong
swimmers, and in escaping from their enemies or in pursuing
their mates they do not hesitate to take to the water, though
they are more timid about crossing streams with a strong
current. In swimming, the rump and tail are kept above the
water almost as high as the head, while the back is bent
inwards.

Except that so many people who read books to-day are
inhabitants of towns and better acquainted with zoological
gardens than with the wild beasts of their own land, it would
hardly seem necessary to describe the remarkable intelligence
and agility with which the hare eludes its pursuers. Unless
taken unawares it can only be caught by dogs specially bred
for swiftness during countless generations. But the hare is
not only swift—a very ordinary qualification—it is also remark-
ably intelligent in eluding and disappointing the greyhound ;
for it will constantly reverse its course, will ‘“‘double”’ and
start off with unchecked speed in a direction almost the reverse
of the one it has been pursuing. Granted the proximity of
cover, and the hare must escape again and again by this trick,
but of course it is practically doomed to death when its pursuit
by greyhounds has been carefully arranged on chosen ground.

The cunning and agility of the hare made a deep impression
on early man, especially in Southern Europe and Africa. The
hare enters into Grecian and Iranic fables, while in African
folklore it is universal, and takes the place of the fox, the
European emblem of astuteness and cunning. Elsewhere the
hare is really the origin of “ Brer Rabbit.” The negro slaves
imported from West Africa into the United States brought
with them their beast stories and fables, in which the hare played
such a prominent part. In the early days of American coloni-
sation the white settlers called every hare a rabbit. The
negroes, therefore, adopted this name for their equivalent to
“Reynard the Fox.”

The North Aryan word for hare is derived with some
probability from a root meaning “jumper.” Its name in Greek
> ppeyyvo ur ut (smevdosne sndoey) SUUVH

“DULUOAD

 
HARES AND RABBITS 223

(Lagos) and in Latin (Lepus) may have been derived from
Mediterranean languages not Aryan in vocabulary.

The group of the True Hares is of almost world-wide
origin, being represented by one or more species in every part
of the habitable globe except Australasia. Hares are found in
the equatorial regions of Sumatra and of Central Africa and in
Northern Greenland ; in the southern extremity of Africa (Cape
of Good Hope), in South America, North America, the Sahara
Desert, the Himalayas, Japan, and Ireland. The species under
treview—Lepus europeus—is absent from Ireland, and until
recently was not found in Northern Scotland. It is present
(possibly through deliberate human introduction) in the island
of Mull and some other large islands off the west coast of
Scotland. It is very common in England and Wales, though
its remains in this country are perhaps of slightly later date
than the earliest traces of the mountain hare. It would seem,
indeed, as though the common hare entered England with
the rest of the Central European fauna, and until recently
confined its range to South Britain. It is not found in Northern
Russia. It is common over the whole of the rest of Europe
(except Scandinavia), extending its range eastwards as far as
the Caucasus and Ural Mountains.
CHAPTER XI

RODENTIA (continued). SQUIRRELS, BEAVERS,
DORMICE, AND RATS

Suz-OrpEeR: SLMZPLICIDENTATA. RODENTS WITH ONLY ONE
PAIR OF INCISOR TEETH IN BOTH JAWS

Tuts group includes by far the largest number of Rodent
species, perhaps in proportion to Duplicidentata something
like three hundred to twenty. Its most archaic representa-
tives are the squirrels, which, except for not possessing more
than a single pair of incisors on both jaws, are in some respects
more generalised than the hares and rabbits. Although mainly
of small size, and offering a remarkable external resemblance one
to the other in the smaller forms (so that an ignorant observer
might class all the Simplicidentata in a single family), there are
nevertheless remarkable differences amongst these Rodents in the
number and construction of their molar teeth, in the possession
or loss of collar bones, and the grooving or non-grooving of the
incisors, as also in the existence of the cecum. They are divided
into three principal groups, which are termed respectively squirrel-
like (Sciuromorpha), rat-like (Myomorpha), and porcupine-like
(Hystricomorpha). ‘The last-named is not represented at all in the
British fauna past or present, though early and existing types
of porcupines once inhabited France and Germany. The other
two sections are divided into a great number of distinct families,
of which four are represented in the types of recent or existing
British Mammals.

224
SQUIRRELS, BEAVERS, DORMICE, AND RATS — 225

Famity: SCJURID.Z. THE SQUIRRELS

The squirrels and marmots are a closely allied group exhibit-
ing very varied modes of life. Some almost fly, and many are
wholly arboreal, while others never leave the ground or burrow
and live beneath its surface.

Sciurus vulgaris. THe CoMMON SQUIRREL

In this charming little animal, the teeth, as in most squirrels,
consist of the single pair of incisors in the upper and lower jaws,
one or two pairs of premolars in the upper jaw and one pair in the
lower, and three pairs of molar teeth in both jaws. The molar
teeth of the squirrels are remarkable in that they present perhaps
more archaic features than can be met with in other groups of
Rodents, their crowns being still marked by tubercles and retaining
roots (see p. 238). The incisor teeth, as is the case with so many
Rodents, are stained a chestnut colour. In the hind limbs of the
squirrel there are five functional toes, but in the “ hands” there
are only four fingers, for the thumb is marked by little else than
aclaw. In the toes and fingers the terminal joints are crooked,
and armed with long, curved, sharp claws admirably adapted for
clinging tightly to the bark of trees. The number of teats in
the female varies from two to three pairs, and they are situated
along the abdomen. The tail is long—indeed, nearly as long as
the body. From the tip of the nose to the base of the tail an
average male squirrel measures just over 8 in., while the tail
from its base to the end of the bone measures 7 in. The tail
is somewhat heavily plumed on either side, though the thickness
of these long hairs varies according to season, being more abun-
dant in winter than in summer. When sitting up on its hind
legs in repose the tail usually coils over the back, but is always
stretched out behind when it is in movement, sometimes quite
straight, at other times slightly curved. The nose is rather
arched, the upper lip is cleft, the eye is large and full, and the
ears are rounded, wide, and of considerable size. This circular
outline of the outer ear is disguised during the winter months by

15
226 BRITISH MAMMALS

remarkable plumes of hair rising to an apex, and giving the
creature at this season an appearance of possessing large and
pointed ears. At almost all times there are a few long hairs at
the point of the squirrel’s ear, but these become strengthened in
November into a tuft of considerable size from half an inch to
an inch long. This tuft begins to diminish in April, and in
May is much reduced in size.

The changes of colour in the squirrel also vary to a re-
markable degree according to season. In the winter-time the
squirrel’s colour is dark brownish-red on the head, along the
back, and down the middle of the tail. The sides of the body
are quite gray. The limbs are brownish-red with a tendency to
bright chestnut. The throat, chest, belly, and inside of the
limbs are white. ‘The thick plumes along the sides of the tail are
dark reddish-brown. At the end of April this winter coat begins
to lose the gray sides, and in the early summer the pretty little
animal is a bright chestnut-red above and white below. But as
the summer advances the long hair on either side of the tail
tends to become a buff colour, and it is not uncommon to meet
with examples in August in which the tail is quite cream-coloured
at the sides, only retaining the darker brown down the middle.

Squirrels breed once a year, in April or May. They are
monogamous—that is to say, they mate in pairs—and once mated
remain attached to one another for years. The nest in which
the young are to be born is constructed of interlaced shreds of
moss, leaves, leaf stalks, grass, and strips of bark, and is placed
generally in a fork between two branches or in a hollow in the
trunk. Usually it is so arranged as not to be conspicuous, and
often resembles merely a thickening of the trunk when placed
at the angle between two branches. The young are born in
June, seldom more than four in a litter; and although able to
shift for themselves in a month or six weeks, they continue to
associate with their parents until the spring of the next year.
When eating, the squirrel seats itself on its hind legs with the
tail coiled over the back, and holds its food between the fore
paws. When scrambling up or down a tree, it presses its body
Photo by C. Reid.

   

THE SQUIRREL (Scdurus vulgaris).

     

Photo by T, A. Metcalfe.
THe Common DorMousE (J¢uscardinus avellanarius).

To face p. 226,
SQUIRRELS, BEAVERS, DORMICE, AND RATS — 227

against the trunk and moves the limbs alternately and inde-
pendently. When on the ground, however, it progresses by a
series of short bounds, and does not walk. It takes bold leaps
from branch to branch, foreshadowing distinctly in this move-
ment the specialisation of allied genera and families, some of
which develop a regular parachute expansion of skin between the
limbs. The broad plumed tail of the squirrel undoubtedly assists
this flight through the air, in which the limbs are spread out
horizontally.

The food of this pretty Rodent is somewhat varied. The
staple of its diet is fruit, nuts, and seeds, but the squirrel could
easily, under force of circumstances, develop into a flesh-eating
animal. It is certainly addicted to eating the eggs of birds, such
as the wood-pigeon, thrush, or robin. It is even accused of
devouring young nestlings. A favourite food during the autumn
and winter is the hazel-nut. The squirrel destroys large quan-
tities of pine-cones, and as its attitude towards mankind is very
monkey-like and “cheeky,” it seems to take a pleasure in attack-
ing these pine-cones immediately over the head of one who has
retired to the forest to paint or to meditate over a book. In
tearing away the segments of the pine-cone to get at the pith
of the interior and the seeds, the squirrel showers down these
rather moist and sappy fragments on the human being beneath,
accompanying this inconvenient action by spitting and swearing
sounds, or else conducting this mischievous operation in profound
silence, and thereby startling one all the more by raining down
unexpectedly a mass of half-chewed débris. It also devours beech-
mast, acorns, and young leaf shoots, tender bark, buds, and
flowers. The sharp and pointed lower incisors easily pierce the
soft rind of the young nut. When the hazel-nut is brown and
hard (as it becomes in the squirrel’s winter store), a circular cut is
generally made right round the nut, so that the shells fall off
in halves. The kernel is then taken out, and every particle of
brown skin is peeled off it before the nut is devoured.

The squirrel in a really wild state lays up considerable stores
of food during the autumn for its use in the winter, and these
228 BRITISH MAMMALS

stores are put into many hiding-places, and are not confined to a
single hoard. But in the more southern parts of England, where
food is fairly abundant during the winter, or where the squirrel
continues to live in close proximity to towns—which proximity
results in various forms of food being procurable during the
Wwinter—it seems to abandon this practice. So it is as regards
hibernation. In bleak districts, with a poor food supply during
the winter, the squirrel curls itself up in some sheltered hole or
cranny in a tree trunk and passes into a torpid condition, only
reviving when the sun shines brightly. During these spells of
warmer weather in the winter it leaves its hiding-place and
searches for hoarded nuts, returning to sleep again after a good
meal. But in such districts as Bournemouth, where there is an
abundant food supply all through the winter and the climate
is mild, squirrels are as much en évidence during the winter-time
as in the summer, especially if they can rely on human neighbours
for scraps of food.

The squirrel can do considerable harm to plantations of young
trees by tearing away the bark and interfering with the flow
of sap, so that in this way the tops of young larches will decay
and fall off; but the worst of its evil actions is almost atoned
for by its beauty and fascinating ways. It has all the impudence
and much of the intelligence of the monkey, whom it imitates
also in its wastefulness and its chattering cries. The squirrel’s
voice is very varied. Sometimes it utters a series of metallic
clacks, then a rapid succession of spitting squeaks. It constantly
intimates in this manner, with a distinct tone of haughtiness, its
impatience and annoyance (more or less affected) at the intrusion
of the human visitor, whose inquiring gaze it will dodge per-
versely round and round the ample trunk of some tree. Yet
it 1s as inquisitive as a monkey, and is by no means anxious
to scamper off and avoid human society. Any one who has sat
long sketching in a wood where squirrels are will realise that his
presence affords to them a perverse attraction, due, no doubt, to
their inquisitiveness. They pursue one another from branch
to branch and from tree to tree with much swearing, as though
SQUIRRELS (Sciurus vulgaris) robbing ring-dove’s nest.
(The coat is that of the end of the winter season, say April.)

»
2

A iE
eee
“ee

\E Me

woe \

Say
C3

he

Va

 
SQUIRRELS, BEAVERS, DORMICE, AND RATS — 229

they completely ignored the presence of a stranger. Then they
will affect to be excessively frightened at their audacity, and hide
palpitating behind a tree-trunk, scrambling round, however, in a
minute to gaze at you with their large liquid eyes and to spit and
swear from their open mouth, with the points of their little brown
teeth just showing. Squirrels are adorable. They should be
placed in the first rank of native beasts which we have every
justification for cherishing and helping to increase and multiply.
There are countless stories of their charm and intelligence when
they are obtained quite young and carefully tamed. It is little
or no use catching them after they are grown up, as they are then
untameable, and can bite very severely.

The squirrel has apparently existed in England since the
Pleistocene period, and is abundant everywhere in this country
and in the wooded parts of Wales. Although existing in many
parts of Ireland, it is scarce there; and its presence in that
distressful country, which Nature has treated so badly in the
distribution of mammals, is ascribed to human introduction. In
the north of England and in Scotland the existence of the squirrel
seems to have been subject to vicissitudes. It was originally
unknown in the Lake District, and perhaps did not exist there
as far back as a hundred years ago, but it has now become fairly
common in the woodlands of Cumberland and Westmoreland.
The squirrel has always been known in the Lowlands of Scotland,
but in the Highlands its existence has fluctuated. No doubt, as
Mr. Lydekker points out, the complete disappearance of squirrels
in some Scotch counties has followed frosts of unusual severity ;
while, of course, everywhere in this region its presence depends
on whether the country is forested or quite without trees.

Outside these islands the common squirrel extends right
across Europe and Asia to Japan. It is found in the north
of Africa (Morocco, Algeria, and Tunis) wherever there are
woods ; throughout Temperate Asia, north of the Himalayas;
but is absent seemingly from Italy and the Crimea. Its range
on the north just about reaches the Arctic Circle. As it depends
absolutely on the existence of trees, it is but little met with in
230 BRITISH MAMMALS

Spain and Portugal, except in the northern regions. It does
not seem to have been well known to the Romans in the past,
for the Latin name, Sciurus, is simply derived from the Greek,
Skiouros, a combination meaning ‘‘shadow-tail.” There is also,
so far as I am aware, no recorded Anglo-Saxon or Celtic name.
The English word at present in use is, of course, derived
through Norman-French from Latin; yet, as it is pretty certain
that the squirrel inhabited England continuously from the
Pleistocene Epoch, the absence of any reference to it before
the Norman Conquest is a negative argument in favour of the
rabbit being also indigenous.

Spermophilus citillus. Tur Susiik*

This is a squirrel-like creature with a short tail, which is,
no doubt, a transitional form between the squirrels and the
marmots. It inhabited England during the Pleistocene period.
The Suslik is represented in North America by a nearly allied
form called the gopher, which has a longer tail. The susliks in
both continents excavate and inhabit burrows. Both European,
Asiatic, and American forms have a tendency to a flesh diet, and
American gophers have become of late remarkably flesh-eating
animals. This is an interesting transformation in such Rodent
types as the squirrel, the suslik, and the rat, as the teeth of this
order were originally developed and differentiated solely with
a view to a vegetable diet.

Famity: CASTORID.Z. THE BEAVERS

In the Beavers there are three molars in each jaw, but there
is only one pair of premolars in each jaw (as against an occasional
two in the upper jaw of squirrels), and the molar teeth are
rootless—a sign of specialisation. The tail is highly specialised,
being long, broad, flat, and covered with entirely hairless, scaly

1 Remains indicative of the genus Spermophilus have been found in the

Thames Valley. It is not quite certain that these remains can be attributed
to the modern form inhabiting Central Europe and Northern Asia.
SQUIRRELS, BEAVERS, DORMICE, AND RATS — 231

skin. The short and flattened ears, which are very much con-
cealed in the long fur, are naked and scaly, like the tail. The
hind feet of the beaver are larger than the fore paws, and are
webbed. A characteristic of great interest (as revealing an
archaic trait in the beaver’s construction) is the opening of the
anal and uro-genital passages of the female into a common outlet,
which, though shallow, gives the appearance externally of con-
ditions like that of the Monotremes. The hind feet have another
peculiarity, in that they carry a small additional claw on the
second toe. There are five toes on both front and hind feet.
The fur is composed of long, soft, fine hair, set very thickly;
and the general colour is a deep chestnut or umber-brown all
over the upper surface of the body and head, fading into a gray
on the stomach and under parts. Beavers are large animals,
measuring as much as 34 ft. from the tip of the nose to the
end of the tail. The number of mamme is four, and only three
to four young are produced in a litter.

The habits of the beaver are so remarkable that it is one of
the world’s typical mammals, adorning many an ancient story
of Northern Europe and North America. These creatures have
developed (perhaps more in North America than in Europe) a
habit of felling trees on the banks of streams so that they fall
athwart the water, and by means of their trunks, boughs, and
added brushwood (together with the débris and mud brought
down by the stream) form a dam which eventually turns the
rivulet into a pool. Often in the middle of this pool the
“lodge,” or nest, of the beaver is placed. This is reached by
one or several tunnels made from the shore under the surface of
the water into the nest, which is, of course, above the surface.
The nest is covered by brushwood, and the interior is lined with
grass. This underground passage and the surface of the nest,
together with much of the work on the dams, is rendered imper-
vious to water by mud plastered on with the beaver’s fore feet.
The construction of the dams is sometimes most elaborate, for
after cutting down the tree or trees which are selected for the
purpose, the trunks of these are stripped of boughs and cut into
232 BRITISH MAMMALS

separate lengths of 5 ft. or 6 ft. Then the bark is stripped off,
and these round logs are rolled into position. The trees chosen
for felling rarely have a greater diameter than g in. to 12 in.
They are, of course, trees that grow close to the bank, and are
probably leaning over the water. The beaver gnaws at the tree
stem near the root in a circular manner, tearing out great chips
with his strong incisor teeth, and so directing his attacks that the
tree shall fall by its own weight into the stream, and not on to the
beaver.

It has been thought by some authorities that the constant
felling of these trees is (or was originally) a provision made for
supplies of food, as the beaver eats bark, together with twigs,
roots, and perhaps leaves. The formation of these dams may,
therefore, have been originally accidental until the beaver dis-
covered what a protection to its nest was the artificial surrounding
of it by water. Their industry, however, in this direction, seems
to depend a good deal on the supplies of food, and in parts of
Europe (where the beaver still lingers) abundance of food away
from the river banks, in the shape of corn or fruit, seems to have
made it indifferent to the work of felling, building, and plastering.
The beaver progresses on land by the alternate movement of its
feet, not employing the jumps and bounds of the squirrel or the
rabbit.

The distribution of the European beaver (Castor fiber) at the
present day is limited to a few spots on the Rhine (where they
are nearly extinct), on the Rhéne (but not elsewhere in France),
here and there in the Elbe Basin, especially in Bohemia, and on
the Lower Danube. The beaver still lingers on some of the
rivers of Western and Arctic Russia, in Poland, and on a few ot
the Siberian rivers. It also inhabits Norway, and it has been
reported to exist on the Upper Euphrates and in the Caucasus.
Except, however, on the Lower Danube and in Norway, where
it is carefully protected, the European beaver is rapidly nearing
extinction. The North American beaver, though closely allied
to the form now being described, is made into a separate
species, so that there is no need to discuss its range. So far
SQUIRRELS, BEAVERS, DORMICE, AND RATS 233

as the European beaver is concerned, its numerous remains,
together with traditions and place-names, show that it once
inhabited the greater part of Northern and Central Asia and
all Europe, with the exception, perhaps, of Greece, Southern
Italy, and Southern Spain.

In the British Islands the beaver existed well into the
Historical period. It was finally extinguished (in Scotland)
during the sixteenth century, if the Chronicles of Hector Boece
(written in 1526) may be believed.’ In the Gaelic of Scotland
the beaver was called Dobhar-chu,’ or Water Dog, also sometimes
by another term (Dovran-loslithan), Broad-tailed Otter. In Wales
the beaver certainly existed down to the end of the twelfth century,
and possibly did not finally die out for another three hundred
years. The river in which these animals were most frequent, and
in which they seem to have remained longest, was the consider-
able stream called the Teivi, or Tivy, which enters the Irish Sea
in Cardigan Bay. In Welsh the beaver is generally known by
the name Afange (pronounced Avank), but it is true that this
word is also applied, especially in modern times, to the otter.
Its etymology is said to be derived from afan or afon (a stream),
and ci (a dog). Ordinarily the otter is called Dyfr-gi (meaning
Water Dog). It is also stated that Llostlydan, or Broad-tail, is
the more exact appellation of the beaver in the Cymric tongue ;
this, at least, is the statement of Owen, the author of a Welsh
dictionary ; but this term bears so strong a resemblance to the
Gaelic Losleathan (pronounced Loslithan) as to suggest the possi-
bility (seeing the wide difference between the Gaelic and Cymric)
that the Highland name has been transferred to Wales, or vice
versd. In England the beaver must have lingered as a living
animal at least as late as the ninth century, though no doubt in
the south of England it was earlier extinguished. The town of
“‘ Beverley,” in Yorkshire, is only a slight softening of the

1 See Extinct British Mammals, by J. E. Harting, p. 40.

2 Pronounced Dovar-Khu; another name is Dovran. Dovar, Dovrin,
and the Welsh Diifr or Dyfr (English : Dover) mean water, or anything con-
nected with water.
234 BRITISH MAMMALS

Anglo-Saxon words meaning beaver meadow. Beverley was
founded and named about 710 a.p. Many other places in
England between Yorkshire in the north and Wiltshire in the
south retain names (such as Beveridge) showing that they were
associated with the beaver by the early English. The Anglo-
Saxon word defer (pronounced dever) has kindred forms, not
only in all the other Teuton languages, but in Latin (fiber) and
Russian (J0ér). It would seem, indeed, as though this was the
original Aryan name for the beaver which the Celts had lost.’

Fossil or semi-fossil bones of the beaver are found in all
parts of England, from Devonshire to Yorkshire and Norfolk,
dating from the early part of the Pleistocene period. Its re-
mains, dating from the Pliocene (which is earlier still), have been
found in Northern Italy. It is interesting to note that in the
writings of Welsh and Scottish historians, who described the
beaver and its mode of life from actual observation (in all proba-
bility), it pursued exactly the same habits of constructing a lodge
in the middle of a pool, and of cutting down trees to build dams,
as is related of its existing representatives to-day in Europe and
America.

Like so many other British mammals, the beaver seemingly
never reached Ireland. It is quite possible that its introduction
into Scotland was a much later occurrence than its first invasion
of England, and took place probably after the Glacial ages, by
which time Ireland had become completely insulated. Never-
theless, inasmuch as the strait separating the Mull of Kintyre
from the north-eastern extremity of Ireland cannot at that period
have been very wide, and as the beaver is a strong swimmer, it
is certainly extraordinary that it should not have reached Ireland
and thriven in the suitable climate of that island.

Trogontherium cuvieri. Tur Giant Beaver

This creature was about one and a quarter times the size of
the common beaver. In the structure and configuration of the
skull, and in the molar teeth, it is slightly less specialised than

1 Though they also borrowed the Anglo-Saxon defer.
SQUIRRELS, BEAVERS, DORMICE, AND RATS 235

the smaller beaver of to-day. Hitherto its remains have only
been obtained from Norfolk (where it existed at the close of the
Pliocene and the beginning of the Pleistocene periods), from
France, Germany, and Russia.

Section: 4 YOMORPHA. THE RAT-LIKE RODENTS
Famity: GZJRID.Z. THE DORMICE

Members of this group are all arboreal in habit, with long
tails more or less heavily furred, though sometimes the hair on
either side is long, coarse, sparse, and bristle-like. They are
distinguished from the rest of the rat group by having no
cecum, and by their intestinal peculiarities. The premolars are
one on each side, and the molars the usual three pairs. The
molars retain their roots, but the crowns are not tuberculous ;
they are marked with long zigzag, parallel folds ending in
loops, with flat surfaces.

Muscardinus avellanarius. Tur Common Dormovuse

This charming little rodent bearsa strong outward resemblance
to the squirrels, the likeness, however, being mainly superficial
and limited to the bushy tail, the reduction of the first finger
to a rudimentary form (while all five toes in the hind feet
are developed), and the nut-eating habits. The length of
the Dormouse is 3 in. from the tip of the nose to the root
of the tail, and the tail is about 22 in. long, and evenly
plumed with thick, short hairs. The body is round and
mouse-like. The ears are also round, with a slight in-
dication of a point. The ears are smooth and naked inside,
and covered with short hair on the back. The face is rather
squirrel-like, though the nose is a little more pointed. The eyes
are black and prominent. The colour is a light reddish-brown,
softening into yellow-white on the belly, with an outside patch
of white on the throat and breast. The young of the dormouse,
however, when first born are brownish-gray, with a reddish tinge
on the head and sides. They do not assume the colour of the
236 BRITISH MAMMALS

adults until they are nearly a year old. The front paws are
a little smaller than the feet, and both are rather mouse-like in
shape and appearance. The soles of all four feet are well padded
with broad, fleshy prominences like those of so many lemurs, so
that they are able to cling, to break the shock of a jump, and to
move very silently. The face of the dormouse is abundantly
supplied with long vibrissz.

It is extraordinarily agile in its movements, and suggestive
of those African and Asiatic lemurs that take rapid and silent
leaps through the air. The dormouse thinks nothing of a jump
6 ft. upwards as well as downwards.

It has five pairs of mamme, and produces generally four
young in a litter. These are born blind, but in a few days are
able to move out of the nest. It is generally held that the
dormouse breeds but once a year, in the spring, though the late
Professor Bell gives instances of broods occurring in the autumn.
Perhaps this double brood depends somewhat on favourable years
or conditions of food supply. The dormouse would seem to be
monogamous, but is often gregarious at breeding-time, or when
preparing its nests for the winter hibernation. At these times
a number of couples may form quite a little colony. The
dormouse generally constructs its winter or its breeding nest in
the thick foliage and closely set twigs of a high hedge or a
nut-bush, not generally much higher than 3 ft. or 4 ft. above
the ground. The winter, or hibernating, nest is sometimes
actually put together on the ground between withered stems of
grass or of short vegetation. The nests may be as much as
8 in. in diameter, and are generally constructed of blades of
grass, or long stems of leaves, carefully interwoven, and offering
no visible aperture. The dormouse very frequently utilises a
discarded bird’s nest if situated conveniently in a low coppice.

The dormouse grows extremely fat by the end of October,
and about that time curls itself up into its nest and commences
its hibernating sleep. Packed into the nest are supplies of hazel-
nuts ; and if there is an unusually warm day in December or
February, or in any of the winter months, the dormouse awakes,
SQUIRRELS, BEAVERS, DORMICE, AND RATS 234

eats a little food, and resumes its sleep, which may last until
it emerges in April for its active summer life. Breeding
generally takes place in April, and the young are born in
May.

The food of the dormouse consists, during the late summer
and autumn, of hazel-nuts and acorns. LE arlier in the summer it
eats corn and any other kind of grain, and the seeds of a good
many plants, together with leaf and flower buds, many small
grubs, caterpillars, weevils, and other insects, and the eggs of
small birds, besides such wild fruits as it can obtain. Though
almost the shyest of British Rodents, and never liking to force
itself on man’s attention as does the squirrel, it is nevertheless
the most easily tamed of all of them, and makes such a
charming and cleanly pet that one wonders not to see it more
often kept in captivity.

The common dormouse is found fairly abundantly in the
south and centre of England, and in the south of Wales. Its
distribution in the north of England is apparently confined to
the wooded parts of Western Lancashire and Cheshire. It has
never been recorded from Scotland, though it may be found
here and there in the Lowlands, and it is entirely absent from
Ireland. Outside the British Islands its range extends over the
greater part of Central Europe, reaching as far north as the south
of Sweden and as far south as Northern Italy. Eastwards its range
stretches into the western districts of Russia, but it does not
appear to be an inhabitant of any part of Asia. In seeking for
information about its distribution, care must be taken not to
confuse it with allied forms belonging to the genus Myoxus, the
larger and handsomer dormouse of Southern and Central Europe,
which, however, never seems to have reached England in its
distribution. This dormouse of the genus Myoxus can be traced
back geologically to the Eocene period! One of these species
of extinct dormouse developed in the island of Malta into a very
large size, comparatively, becoming bigger than a guinea-pig.
This giant dormouse, curiously enough, shared the island of Malta
in the Pleistocene period with elephants and hippopotamuses
238 BRITISH MAMMALS

which had shrunk to pygmy forms, the elephants no larger than
sheep and the hippopotamus the size of a small pig.

The dormouse, strange to say, does not seem to have been
of Asiatic orgin, but to have originated in Africa, where three
genera are represented at the present day. The range of the
family at present extends from South Africa to Southern Sweden,
and from West Africa to Little Russia.

Famity: MURID4@. THE RATS AND MICE

The Muridz differ from the Rodents hitherto described in
being still further specialised. Their teeth, besides the single

3rd premolar,
often missing.

4th premolar

  

. Molar x.
ast molar... ..- e- Molar 2.
and molar... +++ rfid... Molar 3.
3rd molar. . .
Squirrel. Rat. Water Vole (Microtus).

MoLar TEETH OF SQUIRREL, RAT, AND WATER VOLE (A/icrotus) FOR COMPARISON.
Twice natural size.

pair of incisors in each jaw, are reduced to only three pairs of
molars above and below. They have lost the premolars. The molar
teeth of the Rats are sometimes rooted and sometimes rootless.
In the True Mice and their allies they are marked with rubbed-
down tubercles (like little craters), which are widening out into
ridges of enamel. In other forms these enamel ridges become
the usual zigzag, raised, flattened folds. The tail is nearly
always hairless, with the skin covered by minute scales. The
ears are large and rounded. There are five toes on all four
feet, but the first finger (equivalent to our thumb) on the fore
feet is rudimentary, and reduced to little more than a nail. It
is noteworthy that the thumb should be marked in the True Rats
and Mice by a short nail instead of a long claw.
SQUIRRELS, BEAVERS, DORMICE, AND RATS — 239

Mus decumanus. Tue Brown Rat

This creature is almost an unmitigated pest, and is one of the
Jew mammals that it would be virtuous to completely extinguish. It
is almost the largest form amongst the True Mice, measuring
when fully grown about g in. from the tip of the nose to the
root of the tail, and over 7 in. in addition along the tail to its
extremity. Its head is very long, as compared with other mice,
and is furnished with a powerful lower jaw. The snout is ugly,
and nearly naked. The black eyes are very prominent, seeming
almost to bulge from the head, and not being sheltered within
any marked cavity in the brows. The ears are round, large,
and set well back. The mouth opens far behind the snout, and
the cleft upper lip is consequently long. The general colour
is grayish or umber-brown, darkened here and there by the
presence of long hairs that are blackish in colour. On the under
surface it is gray. The tail is flesh-colour, with the small scales
set in overlapping rings. On the coasts of Ireland this rat
sometimes develops a black variety with a whitish patch on the
chest. The prominent eyes, the long, blunt snout, the scaly tail,
the dingy brown colour, and the savage disposition of this rat,
combine to make it a repulsive creature. It is said to be cleanly
in its habits, though it frequents the filthiest adjuncts of
humanity.

The Brown Rat, like some other members of the genus Mus,
has six pairs of mamma,’ and is exceedingly prolific. It breeds
as often as four times a year, and the litter may contain from
eight to fourteen young ones. The female rat can breed before
she is fully grown, at six months old. As regards food, they are
omnivorous, and will eat flesh as greedily as parchment, leather,
grass, seaweed, shell-fish, corn, roots, bones, ivory, fruit, sewage,
and fish. The rat’s carnivorous propensities leads it to attack,
kill, and devour birds and all the smaller mammalia with which
it may come into contact, and even man himself. Snakes and

1 According to Owen. Some zoologists reduce the number to five pairs.
There is quite possibly local variation.
240 BRITISH MAMMALS

insects which it might attack and destroy with some benefit to
humanity it leaves alone, and the snakes, owls, buzzards, and
other predatory animals which might assist man in ridding the
world of a plague of rats, are foolishly slain by humanity, instead
of being most carefully protected.

The brown rat burrows easily into the ground, and uses its
strong incisor teeth to gnaw its way through timber or cement.
It is nocturnal in its habits when its presence abroad in the day-
time might be risky. In moving about in the darkness it is
undoubtedly much helped by the length of the sensitive vibrissz
which grow from the muzzle. In its home life, so to speak,
it can be affectionate and even tender, yet when pressed by
hunger or fear it will devour its young or its weaker comrades.
It has a considerable development of voice, squeaking loudly,
uttering a thin metallic “ skikking” sound when angry, or a
grunting, murmuring noise when amorous. It can jump to
considerable heights up or down, run for miles and at great
speed, and swim for considerable distances. In some districts
it almost takes to a water life, so that in many English rivers and
canals it is mistaken for the large water vole. Elsewhere it will
resort to the trees, or it will live a life wholly subterranean.

The brown rat would appear to have originated in Central
Asia, and allied forms are found in India. Some great increase
in numbers, combined with the decrease of food supply, caused
it to commence emigrating from Central Asia in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries. It crossed the Volga and entered
European Russia in 1727. It was brought to England by
vessels coming from the Baltic about 1730, or even earlier.
Paris was occupied in 1750, and now the distribution of the
most odious and universally detested mammal on the face of
the earth is world-wide. It is found throughout the British
Islands, including not only England, Wales, Scotland, and
Ireland, but even the remotest islands off these shores. British
shipping has assisted unconsciously but effectively in carrying
the brown rat to all parts of America, Australia, the Pacific
Islands, and Africa. In remote parts of Central Africa it is
SQUIRRELS, BEAVERS, DORMICE, AND RATS 241

as great a pest as in India (where it carries the plague from place
to place) or in England. Its universal extirpation should be
made the special object of an International Congress.

Mus rattus. Tue Buack Rat

The Black Rat is 2 in. shorter in the body than the brown rat,
but the tail is proportionately longer, being 7} in. in length as
compared with the 7 in. of the body. The tail is very tapering
and curly towards the tip. In colour normal specimens are
grayish-black above and pale gray below. Occasionally examples
are met with that are brownish-gray, and allied forms in Egypt
and Tropical Asia tend very much to reddish-gray or chestnut.
The fur of the black rat is beautifully fine and soft, and when
it was more plentiful the skins were of considerable value in
commerce. In an allied form coming from the Andaman Islands,
however, the fur actually develops spines. The black rat is the
origin of tame albino or pied rats, which must have been in
existence as a domesticated breed for at least a couple of hundred
years. Like the brown rat, it has twelve mamma, and_ breeds
three or four times in the year, having a large number of young
in a litter. It is almost as omnivorous as the brown rat, though
perhaps from its less vigorous constitution and greater timidity
it is not such a carnivorous animal. The black rat presumably
originated in Western or Central Asia, and commenced the
invasion of Europe and Africa at a relatively remote period
(perhaps 1,500 years ago), travelling, like the brown rat, through
Russia and Germany.’ Its introduction into England may date
back to the time of the Norman Conquest or earlier. It was
called by the Welsh the “French mouse.” After a time it
inhabited the whole of Europe as far north as Lapland, and
southwards into North Africa. The present writer has met
with the black rat in Central Africa, in the more isolated
villages where it has not yet been extirpated by its brown relation.

1 The word ‘‘rat” is of Teutonic origin, The Romans did not

distinguish this creature by any specific name. If they knew it they called

it a mouse.
16
242 BRITISH MAMMALS

It was carried in ships to America in the middle of the sixteenth
century, and is now found throughout the New World and the
West Indies concurrently with the brown rat. In the British
Islands it lingers in small numbers in parts of Ireland, Scotland,
and Northern England, but has been nearly destroyed by the
brown rat, which has also exterminated it in many parts of
Europe.

Mus musculus. Tut Common Mouse

‘ A pretty, but annoying little pest,” is the very apt definition
of this commonest of Rodents given by several writers on British
Zoology. The Common Mouse has nothing of the repulsiveness,
or even horror, that attaches to the brown rat. It may be very
annoying through the mess and litter which it makes and the
damage it may do to food, but it is of engaging appearance and
ways which can even be winsome. Its length from the tip of the
nose to the root of the tail is about 33 in., and the tail is nearly
as much again. It differs from the wood mouse, which is about
to be described, by its smaller ears and eyes, the limbs and tail
being also somewhat shorter. Its coloration is less bright, being
an almost uniform grayish-brown, somewhat lighter on the belly.
The singular glossiness of the fur, however, gives it the appearance
of being “well groomed.” It is, in fact, a very elegant little
creature. There is a great tendency to variation in the common
mouse, both in colour and size. Some varieties of it inhabiting
islands or mountain districts are smaller than the house mouse or
than those which frequent stacks and granaries. Amongst other
variations of colour than albinism—and white mice seldom
maintain this for long amongst their coloured brethren—there
are pale pray or pale buff varieties and others in which the back
is dark brown flecked with white, or dark sepia. There are long
whiskers, or vibrisse, but these are not developed quite so
extravagantly as in the wood mouse.

The common mouse has large naked ears, though this feature
is not so marked as in the wood mouse. ‘The ears are rounded,
 

Photo by T. A. Metcalfe.

 

LONG-TAILED FIELD OR WOOD MOUSE
(Afus sylvaticus).

  

Photo by T. A. Metcalfe. Photo by W. J. Clarke.
RED BANK VOLE (£votomvs glareolus). BLACK Rat (Mus ratlus).

To face p. 242.
SQUIRRELS, BEAVERS, DORMICE, AND RATS 243

almost horseshoe in shape. The tail is scaly, the rings of scales
being interspersed with sort hairs.

It has twelve mamma, and produces from three to five litters
in the year, the young, like those of all other members of this
sub-family, being born blind. Young mice are, however, able to
shift for themselves at the end of a fortnight, and are fit to breed
on their own account when about four months old. The common
mouse is the reverse of a silent animal except when suspicious of
danger. Its squeaks are varied in tone, and individuals actually
develop singing powers. The present writer was incredulous at
one time as to this fact, but several years ago had his attention
drawn to mice that had been captured in Tunis and kept for a
time in confinement, and to similar instances in England. The
singing of these mice resembled the chirping, quavering notes of
a young cock canary who is beginning to experiment with his
voice. Mr. Lydekker states than an example of these singing
mice has been heard to “run up an octave and end with a
decided attempt at a trill. . . . An octave seemed to be
about its range .. . and one could distinctly see the
expansion of its throat and chest. Its favourite position when
singing was an erect one, standing on its hind feet.”

The burrowing habits, the leaps and bounds and high jumps,
and the omnivorous capacity of the common mouse are too
well known to be described in detail.

This little Rodent is of almost universal distribution except
in the Arctic regions. Oceanic islands may only have been reached
within the last hundred years, and through the agency of man.
Probably the Mouse and Rat genus originated in Asia, but the
common mouse was one of the first of these animals to spread
over the greater part of the earth’s surface which is habitable by
man. It is thought that its fossil remains have been found in
Pleistocene deposits and in the caves of England. It is, of course,
found at the present day all over Great Britain and Ireland and
everywhere else in the world except in the Arctic or Antarctic
regions, the Sahara Desert, the forest regions of Africa, and the
north-western parts of India.
244 BRITISH MAMMALS

Mus sylvaticus. Tue Lone-tarrep Firetp Mouse

This ofttimes very beautiful little creature (though some of
its varieties are markedly prettier than others in coloration and
form) is frequently confused with the common house mouse by
unobservant people. It resembles the last-named mouse closely
in form and shape, but the tail is proportionately longer,
measuring exactly the same as the head and body. Each of
these measurements is about 4 in. in average specimens. It
is thus in most of its sub-species a larger animal than the
common mouse. In an admirable paper on Mus sylvaticus
and its allies (published in the Proceedings of the Zoological
Society, April, 1g00), Mr. G. E. H. Barrett Hamilton recognises
nineteen sub-species or varieties of Mus sylvaticus, the forms at
either end of this series differing widely in appearance, in colour,
and in size. Of these, five inhabit different parts of Great
Britain and Ireland at the present day, while osseous remains
have been collected in Kent, which would seem to indicate the
former existence of a sixth sub-species. The typical length of
the field mouse (or wood mouse, as it is sometimes called) is,
as already stated, in excess of that of the common mouse.

The preponderating number of sub-species have a handsome
and well-marked coloration, which is warm reddish-brown or
yellowish-gray above and pure white below, with a brown or
yellow spot in the middle of the chest. The demarcation
between the white of the under parts and the sandy-red of the
upper is, in most varieties, very abrupt. The white of the
under part includes the inside aspects of the limbs and the outer
aspects of the paws, and extends across the cheeks to the tip of
the nose. The under side of the tail is also pure white. The
large, broad, rounded ears are hairy on the outer side and some-
what naked within, though in the inner aspect there are sparse,
long hairs. The vibrisse, or whiskers, are very long, and the
eyes are particularly large and prominent. The five varieties
which are found in the British Islands are named, distinguished,
and distributed as follows :—
SQUIRRELS, BEAVERS, DORMICE, AND RATS 245

1. Mus sylvaticus intermedius is of medium size (the head
and body about 4 in. long), but the red of the average coloration
is tinged with gray, or even black, owing to many of the hairs
of the back being tipped with black in the winter-time.
Occasionally this sub-species becomes almost identical in colour
with the common mouse. ‘This form is distributed over Great
Britain, Ireland, some of the large islands off the west coast of
Scotland (but not the Hebrides), and the Channel Islands.
Elsewhere it is found in Holland, Belgium, France, and Switzer-
land, possibly also in Western Germany and Southern Sweden.

2. Mus sylvaticus celticus. This is quite a small form of
wood mouse, scarcely, if at all, larger than the common mouse.
The tail also is not proportionately so very long, while on the
other hand the ears and hind legs are longer in proportion. The
colour of this form is much darker and grayer. It becomes
almost black along the upper surface of the tail and the ridge
of the back, while the pure white of the belly is toned to a
bluish-gray. This wood mouse has rather a remarkable dis-
tribution, being confined in the United Kingdom to Southern
and Western Ireland, the Hebrides, and the island of Skye.
Elsewhere it exists in Northern Portugal, an interesting instance
of what Dr. Scharff styles “ Lusitanian” immigration.

3. Mus sylvaticus hebridensis. This mouse is rather a large
one, but has proportionately smaller ears, bigger hind feet, and a
shorter and thicker tail. The colour of the under side is less
white (more gray) than in the other sub-species mentioned.
The tail is uniformly brownish-gray, and there is no sharp
demarcation between the sandy-gray of the upper parts and the
dusky-gray of the under side. This large wood mouse is
entirely confined in its distribution to the islands of Lewis and
Barra, in the Outer Hebrides.

4. Mus sylvaticus hirtensis. This mouse is still larger than
Mus sylvaticus hebridensis, and the under parts are quite buff
colour or yellowish-brown, the upper side being sandy-gray.
In other respects, and in the proportions of the ears and feet,
it resembles the mouse of the Hebrides. Its distribution is
246 BRITISH MAMMALS

entirely confined to the isolated island of St. Kilda, to which
it is supposed to be indigenous, and a relic of the time when
St. Kilda was connected with the mainland of Scotland.

5. Mus sylvaticus wintoni. This is the mouse described by
Mr. W. E. de Winton in 1894 as Mus flavicollis, a sub-species
(which is really the typical form of Mus sylvaticus) found
in Scandinavia. This is a large wood mouse, about 4} in. in
length from the snout to the base of the tail, and very brightly
coloured. It has a long tail, which contains thirty vertebre, as
against twenty-seven in most of the other wood mice. Above
it is a golden-brown, and below pure white. The brown spot
found on the throats of so many of these wood mice is in this
sub-species extended into a form like a cross, which forms a
continuous band across the chest with the golden-brown of the
back and sides, and a cross is formed by the upward and down-
ward extension of this brown colour along the breast bone. This
mouse was discovered by Mr. W. E. de Winton in Hereford-
shire, but it is also found (not very commonly) in South-east,
East, and North-east England. It reappears again on the
Continent in Central and Eastern Germany and Hungary,
gradually merging as it proceeds eastwards into the handsomest
form of all the wood mice, Mus sylvaticus princeps, which is
found in Rumania, and which is really (for a mouse) a very
beautiful little animal.

As regards the general distribution of Mus sylvaticus in all
its forms, it may be described as fairly universal over North,
Temperate, and Central Asia, the whole of Europe except the
extreme north, Palestine, and North Africa. It is not found
in Japan.

The wood mouse is perhaps the most prolific of all Rodents
whose habits have been studied. Females will breed from the
age of five months. They probably commence to breed about
the beginning of March. If the food supply is good, a female
wood mouse will have two litters in thirty days, the period of
gestation being only three weeks. Experiments which were
made and recorded by Mr. R. M. Barrington in 1881 showed
SQUIRRELS, BEAVERS, DORMICE, AND RATS — 247

that between the beginning of March and the beginning of July
one female wood mouse, at least, amongst those which he kept
in captivity, had five litters, the interval between each litter being
on an average twenty-five days. It is true that there were not
more than five, and as few as three, in these litters, whereas the
wood mouse when wild is known to have as many as nine or ten.
It may be, perhaps, that the mouse in a wild state does not breed
quite so frequently, but has more young at a birth. Mr.
Barrington’s experiment was interrupted from various causes
in July, and there was nothing to show that the female which
had already had five litters that year would not go on producing
more into the autumn. In any case, these experiments showed
that a female wood mouse under favourable conditions could in
five months produce thirty-six young, the females among which
would be producing litters on their own account during the
summer and autumn. But for the attacks of birds of prey,
owls, weasels, stoats, snakes, and such other creatures which feed
on small Rodents, the wood mice would speedily devastate the
crops. As it is, they are occasionally, like the smaller voles,
responsible for locust-like ravages. Will it ever be brought
home to the British agriculturist by the Board of Agriculture
that all the above-enumerated “vermin” should be protected
so as to keep down the plague of rats and mice? What harm is
really done by snakes in England? None. What injury is
done to our supplies of food by the owl, the kestrel, the sparrow
hawk, the buzzard, kite, weasel, stoat, or polecat? None at all,
worth mentioning. And if they do destroy a few pheasants’
eggs or kill an occasional rabbit or young hare, their own
existence in the country more than compensates for this modest
toll by the interest and beauty which they add to the landscape.

Foxes also devour wood mice ; and their nests and young (it
is stated by Mr. Lydekker) are dug up by rooks and crows, who
use their strong beaks for this purpose. Mr. Trevor-Battye also
states that black-headed gulls pick up these mice and kill them by
dropping them on the ground from a height.

The wood mouse is mainly a vegetable feeder, but will also eat
248 BRITISH MAMMALS

insects. In its burrows, or nests, it stores during the summer and
autumn enormous quantities of food—acorns, beech-mast, ears of
wheat, barley, and oats, hazel-nuts, beans, haws, and many other
seeds and berries. These supplies of hidden food are so considerable
that they are a great attraction to pigs when turned loose. They
are smelt out and rooted up by the pig, and thus much further
damage is done indirectly by the wood mouse. Wood mice very
often adapt mole-runs to their purposes as burrows, but here they
occasionally meet with a serious foe, for the mole greedily devours
their tender young, and thinks nothing of attacking, killing, and
devouring the mother mouse. Birds’ nests are occupied, or
regular nests of woven grass are made by the mice themselves in
hedgerows, amongst wheat, or in the long grass that is ripening
for hay. It is much more probable that it is to the wood mouse
and its nest in the harvest-field that Burns addressed his famous
lines, rather than to the harvest mouse, which is scarcely found in
Scotland.t The wood mouse does not undergo regular hiberna-
tion, but nourishes itself during the winter from its huge supplies
of stored food. Though leading a life in the country by prefer-
ence, it is, in fact, the country mouse of the fable—it does not
shrink at times from coming into houses, where it often displays
greater boldness even than the town mouse.

Mus sylvaticus appears to be an old inhabitant of Britain, as
its fossil remains can with some probability be discerned amongst
the relics of the early Pleistocene Mammalia of East Anglia.

Mus minutus. ‘Tut Harvest Mouse

This is the second smallest mammal in England. The
length of average specimens from the tip of the nose to the root
of the tail is about 23 in., and the tail is almost exactly the same
length as the body. The tail is very lithe and mobile, and
appears to be distinctly prehensile. It can be coiled twice round
objects, and the tip grasps somewhat tightly. The ears are not
proportionately so large as in either the house or the wood mice,

1 “The best laid schemes 0’ mice and men gang aft a-gley.”
SQUIRRELS, BEAVERS, DORMICE, AND RATS 249

and are pressed more closely to the neck. In shape and attitudes
the Harvest Mouse does not differ much from the common mouse.
Its coloration, however, is different, being a bright orange-brown
above on all the upper parts, and white or grayish-white below.
The tail and feet are flesh-colour. The warm brown of the
upper parts ranges in local variations from pale yellow to chestnut,
with an inclination to dark brown on the back. It is nearly as
prolific in breeding as the wood mouse, and the number of young
at a birth range from five to nine. The food of the harvest
mouse consists of corn, seeds, grass, insects, and worms. It
will eat bluebottle flies, and even bees.

One of the most interesting characteristics of this tiniest of
mice is its elaborate and beautifully constructed nest in the shape
of a sphere. This is built at a height of from 6 in. to 1 ft.
above the ground, and is often constructed round two or more
contiguous upright stems of corn or grass. This ball of finely
plaited leaf blades, or of the panicles of roots or similar stems and
straws carefully shredded to the necessary degree of fineness by
the mouse’s teeth, is sometimes without a visible aperture, the
probability being that the weaving of the plaited vegetation of the
elastic grass blades admits of the mouse passing in and out, while
the gap closes up behind. As the young grow, which they do
very rapidly, the soft, smooth interior of the ball becomes filled
up with them, so that it would be impossible for the mother to
get into the nest. It is difficult, therefore, to see how she can
give nourishment to the young, unless, as has been supposed by
some, she straddles over the outer surface, while the young push
their noses through the plaited framework, and thus get at the
teats. Later on, no doubt, the young issue through the interstices
one by one, and are suckled outside the nest.

In winter-time the harvest mouse generally retires to burrows
in the ground.

Its distribution in our country is entirely confined to England
and a small portion of Eastern and Lowland Scotland. It seems
to be absent from Ireland, such exceptions as are mentioned
referring probably to the young of the wood mouse. It has not
250 BRITISH MAMMALS

even been recorded in Wales, or anywhere to the west of the
counties of Gloucester and Warwick. It is very scarce in the
north of England, but ranges from Devonshire to Nottingham
and Lincoln, and reappears again in Eastern and Southern
Scotland, ranging as far north as Aberdeenshire. Its distribution
is, however, very patchy, and a great deal more might be known
about this smallest mouse in regard to its habits and distribution.
Outside England its range extends over France, Northern Italy,
Central Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, and Siberia.

Sus-FamiLy: MICROTINA. THE VOLES

The sub-family, which includes the voles and lemmings,
differs from the mice and rats in possessing short ears and an
abbreviated, hairy tail. These animals are stouter and clumsier
than the rats and mice. They also have the molar teeth (three:
pairs in each jaw) imperfectly rooted, or rootless, and very
remarkable in shape and structure, having a shape and a surface
pattern which can only be expressed by the diagram given on
p. 238.

The Microtine sub-family includes not only the voles, but
their near ally, the musquash, or North American water rat, and
the lemmings.

Microtus agrestis. "THE SHORT-TAILED FreLtp VOLE

This animal is about the size of a house mouse, with perhaps
a slightly larger, though shorter and stumpier, body, measuring a
little over 4 in. in length from the tip of the nose to the root of
the tail. The tail is another 13 in. or less. It can be at once
told from the True Mice by the far blunter head. The eyes, also,
are not quite so prominent and projecting. The ears are relatively
small, are set close to the head, and are a good deal covered by
the thick hair of the cheeks and neck. The soles of the hind feet
develop six naked pads. The colour of the upper parts is brown,
and of the lower grayish-white or ash-colour, the demarcation
between the two tints being quite distinct. The tail is covered
with short hair, and not with scales as in the True Mice.
Photo by C. Reid.

To face p. 250.

   

 
SQUIRRELS, BEAVERS, DORMICE, AND RATS 251

The fecundity of the Field Vole in favourable seasons is so
remarkable that it constitutes a plague seriously affecting human
interests. In normal seasons this Rodent has as many as four
broods in the year between March and October, and each brood
contains from four to six young. AA closely allied species on the
Continent may produce six different litters in a single season,
some of these litters containing as many as eight offspring. A
mild winter is necessary as a precedent to one of those special
outbursts of fecundity which suddenly people districts of Scotland,
England, and Germany with hundreds of thousands of field
voles. Without the intervention of man it is probable that this
rapid increase of a Rodent would receive counter-checks in many
directions, but would nevertheless profoundly affect the develop-
ment of other animals. In the first place it has been noticed that
one of these gigantic swarms of field voles will so exhaust all the
vegetable food within its residential area that a large proportion
of its members will die of starvation or will engender some
microbe of disease that diminishes the swarm by half. Then it
would lead to the proportionate increase and prosperity of owls,
hawks, buzzards, weasels, stoats, crows, ravens, and foxes, so that
the uninteresting and unpicturesque little vole might be the
means of adding hugely to the attractiveness of the local fauna
by encouraging these scarcer, larger, handsomer, and more
interesting beasts and birds. But man generally steps in and
destroys the voles by poison and traps, and with equal zest
destroys the owls, crows, hawks, and weasels that have been
endeavouring to abate the plague, and the presence of which
would have rendered the country so much more attractive to the
eye. The extravagant increase of field voles in Scotland or
England (the animal is not found in Ireland) has never reached
to the dimensions of the same plague in Germany, but it is
calculated that occasionally on the borderlands of Scotland and
England (about the Cheviots), or in former centuries in Essex, the
field vole has suddenly appeared “swarming in millions.” On
these occasions they may kill a thousand birch trees in one district
through gnawing away their bark, or they may cause many sheep
252 BRITISH MAMMALS

to die in Yorkshire and Lowland Scotland (and anciently in the
east of England) by destroying the turf. They will kill heather
by barking it or nipping off the young shoots. In one part of
Teviot Dale in 1891 15,000 acres of pasture were rendered
useless by voles. In Germany it has been recorded that over a
million and a half of these field voles were caught in fourteen
days. In 1872 and 1878 the harvests of Brandenburg and of
Central Germany were practically ruined by this plague.

The food of this animal is almost every vegetable substance,
though they will also eat a few insects. They do especial damage
to gardens and plantations, their passion for eating and peeling
bark and nipping off buds being disastrous to saplings and young
trees. Grass is eaten down to the very roots, and thus turf is
for all time absolutely destroyed in pasture lands. Scotch farmers
and graziers are deserving of no pity whatsoever for the losses
they have suffered, because this plague is entirely due to their
gleeful extermination of birds and beasts of prey who would be
content to feed mainly, if not entirely, on voles if they were left
unharassed.

The distribution of this harmful, and rather ugly, little Rodent
is in this kingdom confined entirely to England, Wales, and
Scotland, with the exception of the island of Lewis (Hebrides).
It is quite unknown in Ireland. Elsewhere it ranges over the
greater part of Northern and Central Europe, but apparently does
not extend into Asia or the regions bordering the Mediterranean.
In England it has seemingly existed since the Pleistocene period.
In the south of Europe at the present day it is replaced by an
allied species, Microtus arvalis, which differs from it in little else
than the structure of the second upper molar tooth. Curiously
enough, this southern field vole inhabited at any rate the east of
England at the beginning of the Pleistocene period before the
Glacial ages. It is possibly the ancestor of Microtus agrestis.

Microtus amphibius. Tur Water Voie

This is a much larger animal than the preceding species, a
fine male specimen being nearly 84 in. long from the tip of
 

THE WATER VOLE (AMictotus amphitiusy.
SQUIRRELS, BEAVERS, DORMICE, AND RATS 253

the nose to the root of the tail, while the somewhat long tail
measures another 44 in. The fore feet, as usual, have only four
complete toes, the thumb being merely marked by a claw. The
hind feet have five complete and somewhat long toes with just
the commencement of a webbing. The tail is thickly haired,
especially on the under side. The body is densely covered with
long, fine, silky hair, exquisitely soft, and very impermeable to
water. When the creature is under water the tips of the fine
hairs are hung with innumerable minute air bubbles, which give
it quite a gray appearance. The ears are very short, set close to
the head, and almost concealed in long, silky hair. The eyes
are small and deep-set. The incisor teeth are very distinct from
that of the other voles, in that they are deep orange or chestnut
colour in front. In their shape they somewhat recall those of
the beaver. The molar teeth are long, and have the same
remarkable alternate triangles marked by zigzag folds of enamel.
These prismatic spaces (as they are called), beginning with the
first molar on each side of the upper jaw, are respectively five in
the first tooth, four in the second, and four or five in the third.
In the lower jaw the first molar has seven, the second five, and
and third three spaces.' The fine glossy hair is a rich yellow or
reddish-brown, mixed with a good deal of gray, and even a
bluish tinge owing to the gloss. The yellow or red is intensified
on the cheeks, on the fore limbs, and on the belly ; but varieties
of the water vole are often almost black, or a dark gray. The
black variety is generally met with in Scotland and in the east of
England. The soles of the feet are flesh-colour, and the claws
purple or reddish. The number of teats in the female is five
pairs. This vole is not so prolific in the number of litters as in
the smaller species. In all probability many individuals only
have one brood in the course of the year—in the late spring or
early summer. Others may produce a second brood in October.
There are from five to six young in a litter, and these are born

1 As against (in the upper jaw) five, five, and six prismatic spaces in the

upper molar teeth, and nine, five, and three in the lower molar teeth in the
field vole, showing that smaller Mccrotus in this respect to be more specialised.
254 BRITISH MAMMALS

in a nest made at the end of a long burrow. The entrance to
this burrow, or one of the entrances, may be in the bank of a
stream, under the surface of the water. The burrow will be
carried in an upward direction, so that the nest may be above
flood level. The nest is lined with dry grass or dead leaves. In
this resort the water vole will store up food for the winter. It
is said that the female water vole, when afraid that her nest has
been disturbed, will take up her young in her mouth and carry
them away to a place of safety. Burrows and nests are also
made by this animal in fields at no great distance from the water,
or in sand hills.

Naturally, from its habits, it is never found far away from
water, and it has become very aquatic, swimming and diving
with ease, and able to remain for several minutes beneath the
surface. Mr. Trevor-Battye states that when swimming (unless
exceptionally agitated or hurried) it presses the small fore paws
against the sides of the body as a seal might do, and uses its long
hind feet exclusively for propelling itself through the water, the
long tail acting as a rudder. Even unobservant persons should
experience no difficulty in distinguishing the water vole from the
odious brown rat which has taken to a water life (and whose
misdeeds are sometimes attributed to the innocent water vole) by
its large, blunt head, short neck, and stout body, which are
markedly different from the long, sharp snout and slimmer pro-
portions of the brown or black rats. In many canals and streams
in the more inhabited districts, however, there are so many real
“water”? rats that the water vole has been driven away. As
this brown rat that has taken to the waterside is very carnivorous
and devours young ducklings, moor-hens, and fish, it has been
thought by less careful writers in times past that the water vole
was equally omnivorous. As a matter of fact, it appears to be
a purely vegetable feeder, and eats the pith of flags, rushes,
and other water plants, the buds and seeds and leaves of water-
lilies, duckweed (of which it is extremely fond), the bark of
willows, roots of many kinds, and, of course, such additional
vegetable food as may be afforded by cultivated plants in the
SQUIRRELS, BEAVERS, DORMICE, AND RATS — 255

vicinity of streams. It does relatively little damage, however,
except to osier plantations, or by pushing its burrows through
dams and canal banks. As it is a relatively large and handsome
creature, and an almost necessary adjunct to the exquisite stream
landscapes still existing in England, it should be placed under
protection, and allowed to increase and multiply within due
bounds.

As regards its distribution, it is unknown in Ireland, but
almost universally distributed throughout England, Wales, and
Scotland as far north as Caithness. It has not, however, been
found in Argyleshire or in the large islands off the west coast of
Scotland, It is found fossil in various parts of Southern England,
dating back to, at any rate, the middle of the Pleistocene period,
if not earlier. Outside Great Britain the water vole is distributed
right across Central Europe and Asia to China.

Evotomys glareolus. Tur Bank Vote?

This animal is perhaps a little smaller than the field vole,
measurements of average specimens from the tip of the nose to
the root of the tail not exceeding 32 in., while the tail measures
1% in., and is consequently a little longer proportionately than
the tail of the field vole. Of late years it has been placed in a
separate genus, Evotomys, owing to the marked difference in'the
molar teeth from those of the genus Microtus. It is perhaps a
more generalised Rodent, as the molar teeth develop roots in the
adult, while the prismatic spaces in between the zigzags of enamel
are fewer in number. The head is shorter and rounder, the nose
a little more arched, and the eye larger. The ears are slightly
more erect, and perhaps a trifle larger than in the field vole. As
regards coloration, the feet are whitish, and there is a white line
on the under side of the jaws. The sides of the muzzle, the
chest, belly, and the insides of the limbs are pale gray, as is also
the under side of the tail. The upper parts of the body are
yellowish-red or chestnut, and the upper part of the tail tends to
become blackish-brown. The breeding habits resemble those of

1 Sometimes called the wood vole, or red vole.
256 BRITISH MAMMALS

the field vole, and in well-wooded districts, such as the New
Forest, the animal may be subject to those periodical increases
described in connection with the field vole, though, as it is more
dependent upon woods and plantations for its existence, it has
not the same scope for development. It does not burrow so
much as the field vole, but prefers to make its home in the
interstices of banks, especially choosing crevices behind the roots
of trees. Its food is similar to that of the field vole, though
comprising perhaps more insects, and possibly birds’ eggs. It
does an even greater amount of damage to the bark and buds of
trees. It also roots up and devours bulbs, and is a terrible pest
in a garden.

The distribution of this animal extends over England and
the southern half of Scotland. It is not found in Ireland. In
England its fossil remains are met with as far back as the
Pleistocene period. It is a rarer animal than the field vole,
no doubt because it affects forested country. Outside England
it ranges across Central Europe through Asia and China, with
a near ally (perhaps only a local variety) in the Arctic regions,
and another in North America.

Myodes lemmus. Tur LEMMING

The Lemmings are distinct from the voles by being more
clumsily and stoutly built, with a short head and a large arched
nose, very small ears, and a short, stumpy tail. The soles of
the feet, moreover, which are naked and padded in the voles,
are furred in the lemmings, and possess much longer claws.
There are also differences in the skull, due to its greater breadth
and massiveness. The incisor teeth are without grooves. The
molar teeth also, though vole-like, are even more deeply incised
by the triangular zigzags.

The common or Norwegian lemming is about 5 in. in length.
Each of the four feet has five toes, armed with strong claws in
the front paws. The soft fur is yellowish-brown marked with
blackish-brown streaks extending from the nose to the back
of the head, and from the brows to the ears. The common
SQUIRRELS, BEAVERS, DORMICE, AND RATS — 257

lemming is at the present day an inhabitant of Scandinavia, but
was once widely distributed over Europe, and only recently
became extinct in Northern Portugal.’ Its remains are found
fairly abundantly in Southern and Eastern England, and in
North-east Ireland, dating from the Pleistocene period.

Cuniculus torquatus. Tue BanpEep LEMMING

The Banded Lemming differs from the True Lemmings of
the genus Myodes in coloration, in the almost complete absence
of an outer ear, the shorter, thicker feet, of which the first toe
in the fore feet (the thumb) is reduced to a mere claw, and also
by the exaggerated length of the claws on the third and fourth
toes in the fore feet. The molar teeth are less specialised, and
more like those of the voles. But, except for this, the genus
Cuniculus is a much more specialised form than the true lemming.
Its colour is a curious mingling of chestnut, orange, black,
pale gray, bluish-gray, and umber, the fur on the back having
an undulating gloss which looks like watered silk. The belly
and throat are bluish-gray, and there is a black line from the
nose along the back to the short tail, broken completely or
partially by a gray collar round the neck. The present range of
the banded lemming is circumpolar. It is found in the extreme
north of Russia and Novaia Zemlia (but not in Spitzbergen), in
Northern Siberia and the extreme north of America and Green-
land; but during the Pleistocene period it inhabited Southern
and Eastern England, and existed to an even later date in
Germany, Belgium, and France.

1 A closely allied species inhabits Siberia, Alaska, and Northern Canada.

17
CHAPTER XII

Orver: UNGULATA. HOOFED MAMMALS: ELE-
PHANTS, RHINOCEROSES, AND HORSES

Tue absence of primitive types of Ungulates from the deposits
of the early Eocene in Europe, perhaps also in Asia, causes
Professor H. F. Osborn’ to argue that the Ungulates originated
in North America together with the ancestors of the Edentates,
and possibly those of the Rodents and Primates. But a good
many primitive types of Ungulates reached the British Islands,
perhaps as early as the time in which these islands were rather a
dependency of North America than a peninsula of Europe; and
during the succeeding periods, commencing from the connection
of the British plateau with the European Continent down to the
invasion of these countries by devastating man, hoofed animals
of large size and strange developments flourished in England
and Scotland, and to a lesser degree in Ireland.

The earliest forms of Ungulates probably reached these islands
directly from America in the opening part of the Tertiary Epoch.
Later on the route was reversed : they travelled hither from Asia
and Africa through France and Belgium. Towards the end of
the Pleistocene period, the revived connection with Arctic America
by way of Iceland, Greenland, and the ice floes of the Glacial
ages, may have brought us one or two circumpolar types ; but
even these, too, more probably came here from Siberia through
Central Europe.

1 President of the New York Academy of Sciences; pupil, and in many

respects successor, of the great American palzeontologist, Cope.
258
ELEPHANTS, RHINOCEROSES, AND HORSES 259

Modern zoologists divide the great Ungulate group—the
Hoofed Mammals—into the following principal divisions or
sub-orders, most of which are extinct. There is a hypothetical
parent-group called by von Zittel “ Protungulata,”’ which, seem-
ingly, gave rise to three divergent sub-orders—the Condylarthra,
the hypothetical Platyarthra, and the Prohyracoidea, or ancestors
of that diminished group of which the little hyrax of Africa is
the only living representative. From the Condylarthra sprang
the Odd-toed and the Even-toed Ungulates (Perissodactyla and
Artiodactyla), which are the dominant Ungulates of to-day. It
is possible, also, that from the Condylarthra arose a very
aberrant group of Ungulates, in which the hoofs (as in the
camel and in other early types of Artiodactyle) had retained,
or reverted to, a claw-like growth. These are known as
the <Ancylopoda. From the Platyarthra arose the Amblypoda?
and the Proboscidea (elephants). Lastly, from the Prohyra-
coidea (a divergent group of early Ungulates no doubt akin in
origin to the stocks which gave rise to the Primates and the
Rodents) were developed the extinct sub-orders of the Toxodontia
and Typotheria (South America), together with the Ayracoidea,
which at the present day are represented by the hyraxes of
Africa and Syria.” The only sub-orders of Ungulates which
are now or have been in the not-far-distant past represented
in the British Islands are the elephants (Proboscidea), the
Odd-toed (Perissodactyla) and the Even-toed (4rtiodactyla)
Ungulates.

1 A remarkable group of early Ungulates, offering faint resemblances
in their structure, but not in their dentition, to the elephants. They are
celebrated, amongst other points, for their extravagant development of the
canine teeth into long tusks, and for the huge, bony, horn-bearing processes
of their skulls, which were evolved in the American forms. A relatively
early type of Amblypod was Coryphodon, with great canine tusks, and, in the
lower jaw, large proclivous incisors. A Covyphodon once dwelt in Camber-
well, among other places, its remains having been found there at the bottom
of a well.

? Extinct members of the Hyrax group are found in Europe and Asia
Minor.
260 BRITISH MAMMALS

Sus-OrDER: PROBOSCIDEA. ELEPHANTS

It is now thought that the Elephants originated in North
Africa, their original centre of evolution perhaps including
the eastern basin of the Mediterranean. Dr. C. W. Andrews,
travelling through the Fayiim district of Lower Egypt (where
the Nile once formed a considerable lake in the Libyan Desert),
came across early Tertiary deposits, one of which, of the Upper
Eocene, contained remarkable Proboscidean remains attributed
to a creature which has been named Meritherium lyonsi. This
creature, which offers slight resemblances in its teeth (allowing
for the dwindling canines) to Coryphodon, had three incisor teeth
and a small canine on each side of the upper jaw, and two
proclivous' incisors ; possibly, also, a minute canine on each side
of the lower jaw. In the upper and lower jaws there were three
premolars and three molar teeth, and in the succession of the
last-named (by teeth growing up from the inside of the jaw bone
and successively displacing the worn-out molars) there is a hint
at one of the most peculiar features characterising the elephants
of to-day. Apparently in North Africa, or the eastern basin of
the Mediterranean, the mastodon, dinotherium, and no doubt
other unknown forms of Proboscideans, developed from this
primitive type of Meritherium. From this focus between Egypt
and Syria the mastodon (of which a very early type was found
in the same Faytim deposits) travelled into Asia (where from the
Stegodonts the True Elephants were developed), and from Asia
into America (North and South) on the one hand, and Europe
on the other. The mastodon, the earlier types of which had
tusks in the lower as well as in the upper jaw, thus became the
most widely spread form of elephant, having apparently reached
to every country in the world, with the exception of Antarctica
and Australia. The remains of two species (Mastodon arvernensis
and Mastodon borsoni) have been found in East Anglia (Suffolk
Crag), but as these were probably not contemporaneous with

1 Perhaps it is necessary to explain that this word means inclined forward
in a horizontal direction.
ELEPHANTS, RHINOCEROSES, AND HORSES 261

man in these islands the mastodon need not be described here
in detail.

Famity: ELEPHANTIDZ. THE ELEPHANTS

The family of the Elephants, besides the genera Mastodon and
Stegodon, includes that of the elephants proper, Elephas, a genus
which almost certainly originated from a Stegodont form of
mastodon in Eastern Asia, and spread thence (firstly in the form
represented to-day by the African elephant) into Western Asia,
Africa, and Europe. Thus, though Africa was the source of
the Elephant sub-order, it was probably not the centre of develop-
ment from which the True Elephant genus originated.

The elephants are not only remarkable by their great bulk
(though some of their extinct forms in the Mediterranean basin
and in Europe degenerated into pygmy types not larger than
sheep or Shetland ponies), but also for the prolongation of the
nose into a long, prehensile trunk. It is thought by some
zoologists that the original Proboscidean had rather a long,
tapering skull, the head ending, no doubt, in a prehensile snout
such as has been developed in the pigs, in the insectivores, in
the tapir, and in some other mammals. Owing to the disuse
of the front teeth, with the exception of the long central pair of
incisors, the bones of the skull gradually sank backwards, leaving
the premaxillary region (namely, the front portion of the head)
unsupported. Their theory, therefore, is that the trunk of the
modern elephant represents not only a much-elongated nose,
but the fleshy portion of the original upper jaw and ribbed palate.

The elephants have retained the five toes on hind and fore
feet. The structure of their limbs is unique, the skeleton of
the limb being almost perpendicular, almost vertical from the top
of the scapula or of the pelvis to the wrist or ankle-joint—that
is to say, there is very little bend when the animal stands erect,
either at the knees or at the elbow. The elephants are without
collar bones. The nasal opening in the skull, also, is situated
very high up, somewhat as in the whales (this, however, is a
feature which is met with not only in the whales, but in at least
262 BRITISH MAMMALS

one other family of Ungulates, the Litopterna). It is, however,
in their teeth that elephants offer the most striking and peculiar
characteristics. There are no canines and no permanent pre-
molars. The deciduous premolars (which in children of the
human species are lost at seven or eight years of age) last on
into the maturity of the animal, and they are replaced by the
true molars from the end—that is to say, a true molar forms in
the bone of the elephant’s jaws near the angle, and as the molar
pushes itself up into the gum it squeezes out the first of the
deciduous premolars in the anterior portion of the jaw. This
process is repeated by the formation and upward growth of two
other permanent molars, so that at last in extreme old age all the
three deciduous premolars have been pushed out of the skull, and
the elephant is grinding his food on the three permanent molars.
These are so large that the jaws cannot accommodate more than
two, and perhaps a portion of a third, at one time. These
molars are characterised by numerous ridges which are gradually
worn down in the process of mastication, while the intervals
are filled up with a hard cement which forms between the arches
of enamel-covered dentine. In the African elephants these
arches in the molar are arranged in a continuous diamond
pattern; in the Indian elephant they form separate lozenges
(vide illustrations opposite).

But the teeth of the elephant which are most interesting to
the scientific observer are the tusks. These are incisor, or front,
teeth, and, judging from what we see in the Meritherium, they
represent the two middle incisors, not the first or the third in
the series. These incisors in existing elephants are only de-
veloped, one on each side, in the upper jaw. In some of the
earlier mastodons, however, there were incisors (tusks), fairly
long or quite rudimentary, in the lower jaw as well; while in
the extinct Dinotherium the incisors of the upper jaw had
apparently dwindled away completely, while the pair in the
lower jaw had developed into strong tusks. In the mastodons

1 Permanent premolars occasionally make their appearance in a very
reduced form, and without functional capacity in extinct species of elephant.
ELEPHANTS, RHINOCEROSES, AND HORSES 263

these huge incisors have a band of enamel over the lower
portions; but this enamel has almost entirely disappeared in
the tusks of modern elephants, being reduced to a small patch
at the top, which is soon worn away in the young animal. These
incisor teeth begin with a pair of “milk” tusks, which fall out
when the young elephant is a few years old, and are replaced by
permanent teeth in the ordinary way.

Modern elephants are to a great extent devoid of hair in

RES

x
TR

WY
SS

Lp
Py)

a

y)

SS.

YN
\

 

PATTERN OF ENAMEL AND DENTINE ON SURFACE OF MOLAR OF INDIAN ELEPHANT.

the adult, except for the fringe of thick bristles at the end of the
tail; but the present writer and others have been able to testify
that the newly-born African and Indian elephants are fairly well
covered with hair—are quite hairy animals, in fact. In the
African elephant this early hair is black. In extinct elephants,
such as the mammoth, which grew accustomed to live in cold
climates, the hair developed to an extravagant extent. Excessive
development of any organ or feature often runs parallel with
complete disappearance. Thus, in the human being as in
264 BRITISH MAMMALS

the mammoth, there has been excessive development of hair
in various parts: in the human on the top of the head, in
the mammoth on the sides of the body. Whenever a beast
develops enormous tusks, it is a sure prelude to the complete
disappearance in any form of those teeth in the degenerate
species.

The African elephant is, in some respects, a little less
specialised than the Indian, and the two species (at one time dis-
tinguished as different genera) form the types of the two main
groups of modern elephants. To the African type belongs
Elephas meridionalis (perhaps the largest of the True Elephants),
a beast which stood 13 ft. high at the shoulder; also Elephas
antiquus. Both of these were found in England, perhaps con-
temporaneously with man. Elephants of the African type were
also found in India anciently, an interesting fact as illustrating
the theory that the true elephants were developed from the
mastodons from the Stegodont form in Eastern Asia, whence
the ancestors of the modern African elephant travelled through
the Mediterranean regions to Africa, while other forms of this
“ African” type penetrated nearly as far as Great Britain. It is
thought, however, that these “African” elephants, together with
other creatures now associated with the tropical regions, did not

penetrate much farther north than Yorkshire, and did not reach
either Scotland or Ireland.

Elephas primigenius. Tue MamMotTu

The Mammoth is a development of the Indian group of
elephants, which differs from the African in the more complicated
structure of the molars, in the smaller ear, in the shape of the
head, and in some other points. The mammoth originated
probably in Asia, and its first great area of distribution was
Central or North-central Asia, from which direction it spread
westward as far as Ireland, and eastward into Northern America.

1 The reader might be again reminded here that as far as the revelations

of paleontology go, the American Continent has had but a sparse share of
the great Proboscideans. The mastodon developed something like fourteen
ELEPHANTS, RHINOCEROSES, AND HORSES 265

The southern range of the mammoth in Europe appears to
have been a line more or less coincident with the 4oth parallel
of North latitude. (Its remains have not hitherto been found
in either Scandinavia or Finland.) It did not, therefore, so far
as we know, reach the Mediterranean Basin. It became em-
phatically the one, perhaps the solitary, attempt of the elephants
to adapt themselves to a cold climate, though quite possibly
when the mammoth flourished there were relaxations of the
Glacial temperature which permitted the growth of more
abundant vegetation for the mammoth’s sustenance than would
now be found in such parts of Siberia as those in which the
mammoth’s remains are so abundant.

What the mammoth looked like we have been able to
ascertain from two very interesting sources of information :
firstly, when the Russians began to open up Siberia in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there were discovered
carcasses of mammoths frozen or otherwise preserved in the ice
and peat of Siberia. Several of these were so well preserved
that the flesh was eatable, the hair remained on the body, and
the contents of the stomach could be analysed ; these contents
showing that the mammoth had accustomed itself to a northern
vegetation, and lived mainly on the shoots of conifers.

The second source of information is still more remarkable.
The Abbé Boucher de Perthes started half accidentally the
exploration of the remains of Prehistoric man. ‘This exploration
brought to light in the deposits of French caverns Prehistoric
implements or ornaments of bone and ivory on which some
vanished race—possibly allied to the Eskimo—had graven
wonderfully truthful pictures of known beasts, such as the

species within the limits of North America, though probably on closer
examination it will be found that some of these are only local varieties. Two
of these North American mastodons penetrated into South America, and from
them were derived two further species peculiar to the southern half of South
America. In the Pliocene period the mammoth penetrated from Asia into
North America, extending as far south as Mexico, and developing certain
local varieties.
266 BRITISH MAMMALS

reindeer and the horse, and probably equally truthful representa~
tions of the mammoth. The illustration, which is given from
the author's drawing, is based partly on one of the more
recently discovered and vivid of these representations.’ In
1895 and in subsequent years MM. Capitane and Breuil
discovered on the walls of the Cave of Combarelles, in the
wild country of Dordogne, 109 engraved figures which date
from a period perhaps 20,000 years ago.

In Ireland the mammoth appears to have lingered almost to
the verge of the Historical period, and it still lives in the legends,
myths, and fairy stories of the people.” Mammoths may still
have been living in England 15,000 years ago, but it is probable
that they were extinguished in Great Britain at an earlier date than
in Ireland, and that they were saved from extinction in the last-
named island by its complete insulation.

The molar teeth of the mammoth represent the extreme form
of elephantine specialisation in this direction. They are much
broader in proportion to the length than are those of any other
elephant; and although they offer a close resemblance to the molar
teeth of the Indian elephant, they possess more enamel ridges.
These are much narrower and much closer together. The skull
differed from that of the Indian elephant by having a narrower
summit and more prolonged and stronger sheaths necessary to
support the roots of the enormous tusks. These tusks in the
male often attained a length of ro ft., measured along the outer
groove. They were directed downwards and outwards, then
upwards and inwards at the tips, with a tendency to a spiral form.
There is, however, great variation in the shape of the mammoth
tusks, some of which describe nearly a complete circle, so that
there is but little space between the tip of the tusk and the
front of the skull, while others are nearly straight. The very
much curved tusks which predominated must have become 2

1 Partly also on skeletons of the mammoth and on the structure of the
Indian elephant and the growth of hair in its young.

2See for this an extremely interesting work, Zhe Elder Faiths of
Lreland, by A. Wood-Martin.
 

From a drawing by the Author,

THE MAMMOTH (Elephas primigenius).

To face p. 266.
ELEPHANTS, RHINOCEROSES, AND HORSES 267

useless burden to the animal, as they were unserviceable for
defence or offence, and of no use as diggers for grubbing up
trees and roots (the original object of the tusks, and one much
evident with the African elephant). It is thought that in the
female tusks were present, which were small and straight. The
hide of the mammoth was covered almost all over with a
dense clothing of woolly under-hair of a reddish-brown colour.
In addition there were strange manes of long coarse hair (brown
or black), which hung from the sides of the animal and reached
almost to the ground. Other fringes and crests of long hair
grew along the edge of the ears and at the top of the skull.
There was long hair or bristles at the end of the tail as in
existing elephants. In height and general bulk the mammoth
does not seem to have much exceeded the larger known
specimens of its near relation, the existing Indian elephant.

Sus-Orpver: PERISSODACTYLA. ODD-TOED UNGULATES

The Odd-toed Ungulates are so named because in their
original departure from the five-toed type of early Ungulate
(Condylarthra) they laid the chief stress of their weight on the
third finger or toe of the foot (equivalent to our “second” finger),
whereas in the other great upward branch of the Condylarthra—
the Artiodactyles—the stress was laid on the two middle toes, or
fingers (digits three and four, our “second” and “third” fingers).
There are other characteristics connected with the formation of
the molar teeth which are distinctive of the two great orders
of Odd-toed and Even-toed Ungulates, but these, perhaps, are of
too recondite a nature to be discussed in this volume. The
Odd-toed Ungulates retain that alisphenoid perforation for
the passage of the carotid artery, near the base of the skull,
which is met with in the Carnivora and several other orders.
The Even-toed Ungulates have lost this alisphenoid perfora-
tion. There is also a difference in the number of the vertebra of
the back, while, as is known to even unscientific readers, the

1 Which occasionally reaches to 12 ft. at the shoulder.
268 BRITISH MAMMALS

construction of the stomach in the Odd-toed Ungulates is much
more simple than that of the Even-toed Ungulates, many of
which are ruminating mammals. On the other hand, there is
a strong outward similarity between some of the members of
both groups, though this, no doubt, is due to parallelism. In
both Odd-toed and Even-toed Ungulates the teats are usually
reduced to four, or even two, and are confined to the regions
between the thighs. The pigs (a very primitive form of Artio-
dactyle) are exceptions to this rule, as in them the mammez are
as many as eight or ten in number, and are placed along the
belly from the thighs to the vicinity of the thorax.

The Odd-toed Ungulates at the present day are reduced to
three groups only, each of which represents a distinct family—the
Tapirs (in South America and Eastern Asia), the Rhinoceroses
(in Africa and Asia), and the Horses, which in a really wild state
are now only found in the Old World, though originally they
were equally abundant in North and South America.

Famity: RAZNOCEROTIDZ,. RHINOCEROSES

An early form of tapir (Tapirus priscus), scarcely distinguish-
able from the existing tapir of South-east Asia, lived in England
as late as the end of the Pliocene Epoch. Its remains have been
discovered in East Anglia, which exhibits so strong a connection
with France and Germany in its ancient fauna, as almost to
lead us to suppose that during a great part of the Pliocene it
was connected with the European Continent, and separated from
a good deal of the rest of England by a strait of the North Sea,
which flowed south from what is now the Wash. But as it is
very doubtful whether man had already entered Britain whilst
this tapir survived, I shall not attempt to describe it as a
recent British mammal. I therefore proceed to the considera-
tion of the Rhinoceros family, which was strongly represented
in England during the Pleistocene, and almost remained here
down to the invasion of these lands by that superior type of
humanity which is associated with ‘“ Neolithic,” or improved
stone implements.
ELEPHANTS, RHINOCEROSES, AND HORSES 269

The rhinoceroses originated at the beginning of the Miocene
period in North America, but all their more wonderful develop-
ments of bulk and horns, and their correlative loss of teeth, have
taken place in Europe and Asia. The rhinoceroses grew
gradually from out of a primitive type of Perissodactyle, not
far removed from the ancestral tapir, which, of course, was also
the stock from which tapirs and horses and other groups of
Perissodactyles arose. The original rhinoceros had four toes on
each foot, and a full set of teeth, including the normal number
of incisors, canines, premolars, and molars.

It is probable that the early rhinoceroses in America were
hornless, though in that country had arisen even earlier a
marvellous group, distantly allied to the rhinoceroses in origin,
called the Titanotheres, nearly of the size of elephants, and pro-
vided with one or more pairs of “horns,” represented in their
skulls by larger or smaller projections of bone. The rhinoceroses
have never grown “horns” in the direct sense of the word ; that
is to say, so far as the skull is concerned, there is at most
a great or small boss of bony matter, which acts as a support to
a shorter or longer projection of matted hair. The “horns” of
the rhinoceros are simply coalesced hair. They are not bone,
like the horns of giraffes or deer, nor are they hollow caps of true
horn (a substance like the nail or hoof, and distantly allied to
hair), which cap the bony projections in the skull of oxen and
antelopes. Increase of specialisation in the rhinoceroses caused
them, no doubt, to rely more and more on the mobile upper lip
for the collection of their food, and less on the incisor teeth for
this purpose ; while the development of “horns,” or sharp pro-
jections of matted hair, replaced as weapons of offence and
defence the canine teeth, or tusks, which are so prominent in
the early rhinoceros. Consequently in the more advanced types of
rhinoceros, living and extinct, there are absolutely no teeth at all
in the fore part of the upper jaws, and indeed the fore part of the
jaws has ceased to exist. The teeth in these extreme types are
merely reduced to molars and premolars. This group is well
represented at the present day by the African rhinoceroses, of
270 BRITISH MAMMALS

which there are two species, the “‘ white,” or square-lipped, and
the black, or pointed-lipped. Neither of these rhinoceroses has
any incisor or canine teeth, at any rate functional, though in the
jaws of the immature young traces of incisors sometimes appear.
This type of rhinoceros has recently been erected into a special
genus, Diceros, because of its marked differences from the Asiatic
rhinoceroses.

The existing Asiatic rhinoceroses also fall into two groups,
possibly of generic value. The first is the original rhinoceros,
which was first described by scientific men—Rhinoceros indicus, the
one-horned, absolutely hairless rhinoceros of India, in which the
hide thickens into great ridges and folds, curiously simulating
armour. This curious feature of the excessive thickening and
folding of the skin is common to the one-horned and two-horned
Asiatic rhinoceroses, as is also the retention of functional incisor
teeth. But the rhinoceroses of Eastern India and Malaysia differ
from Rhinoceros indicus, and from its Javanese ally, in having two
horns, and in some anatomical features they possess a certain
affinity to the African types, though on the whole they are most
nearly related to Rhinoceros indicus on account of retaining the
incisor teeth. The two-horned Asiatic rhinoceroses are some-
times classed as a separate genus.

At the close of the Pliocene Epoch there were probably
two, if not more, rhinoceroses in England, the remains of which
are found in the red crag formations of East Anglia. One of
these, Aceratherium incisitvum, was hornless, while the other,
which carried two horns (Rhinoceros dihoplus), is somewhat allied
to the living two-horned Sumatran rhinoceros ; but it is doubtful
whether either of these existed in Britain coincidently with
man. At the end of the Pliocene and during the earlier part of
the Pleistocene Epochs there appeared in England (coming
from France) the Leptorhine and the big-nosed rhinoceroses
(Celodonta, or Diceros, etruscus or leptorhinus, and Diceros
megarhinus). Both of these, especially the last-named, were
closely related to the pointed-lipped African rhinoceros of
to-day (Diceros bicornis); indeed, it is possible that the
ELEPHANTS, RHINOCEROSES, AND HORSES 271

Megarhine rhinoceros above mentioned was identical with this
common African species. Lastly, there co-existed with man in
Britain, down to quite a late period, the woolly rhinoceros
(Diceros antiquitatis) This creature appears to have been
very closely allied, structurally, to the large ‘“ white,” or
Burchell’s, rhinoceros, which still lingers in East and South-
Central Africa (Diceros simus, the Square-lipped). The woolly
rhinoceros evidently persisted in Europe and Siberia, if not in
England, down to the verge of the Historical period.’ Its body
was covered with woolly hair. It is supposed to have carried a
tremendous front horn, longer even than the longest known
horn of the white rhinoceros, that is to say, perhaps as much as
5 ft. or more in length. The length and weight of this horn
have been inferred from the special bony wall which has been
developed in the skull between the nasal bones. The Tichorhine
rhinoceros had, of course, two horns, as in other members of
the genus Diceros. In bulk it was, perhaps, larger than the
largest known specimens of the white rhinoceros when fully
mature, though this idea is only derived inferentially from the
proportionate size of some of the bones. In the entire specimens
of the Tichorhine rhinoceros which have actually been preserved
for our inspection in the frozen soil, the size was not larger than
that of the existing African rhinoceroses. The woolly rhinoceros
had a smooth hide, like that of the African forms, without the
folds in the skin characterising those of Asia. The fur grew

1 Sometimes called the Tichorhine rhinoceros, and, of course, given the
generic title of RAznoceros by all older writers.

2 Some of the legends of monsters and dragons that were killed by
popular heroes in Germany, Hungary, and Poland seem even to have been
based on the destruction of lingering specimens of the woolly rhinoceros. It
is stated, though I cannot find the requisite authority, that a traveller in
Germany, asking to see the remains of a monster kept in a castle as a relic
of some past deed of prowess, was shown the skull of a rhinoceros; and at
Klagenfurt, the head of a supposed dragon preserved in the Town Hall, and
used as the model for a monster killed by a knight, and represented in the

statuary of a fountain, is stated by Herr Unger, of Vienna, to be the skull of
a woolly rhinoceros,
272 BRITISH MAMMALS

thickly on the skin, and appears to have formed great bunches
of hair round the feet (somewhat as we see in the artificially-
developed cart-horse). As in the case of the mammoth, the
undergrowth of woolly hair was supplemented by fringes of
longer and coarser hairs on certain parts of the body, such as
along the flanks and throat and the edges of the ears. The hair
of one of the specimens found in Siberia is said to have been
ash-coloured.

In view of the fact that human remains and implements have
unquestionably been found associated with the remains of the
woolly rhinoceros in Belgium, England, France, etc., and that
this family certainly co-existed in Europe with man, it is
very strange that amongst all the drawings or sculpturings of
Prehistoric man discovered (mainly in France), apparently there
is no representation amongst them of so striking and terrible a
beast as must have been this immense, two-horned, hairy
rhinoceros.

Famity: ELQUID.@. THE HORSES

In this family the five toes of the primitive Ungulate have
gradually dwindled to only one functional toe, with, in the
earlier forms, two small useless toes in addition, one on either
side of the big third toe or finger. These (the second and fourth
digits of the mammalian hand or foot) are only represented by
the splint bones in the horses of to-day. Even the modern
horse, however, occasionally “ reverts” to a former condition,
and foals are sometimes born and grow up with the traces of as
many as four toes in all, some even with one or other of the
splint bones enlarged into a complete toe, with a hoof at the end.
Another condition of specialisation in the True Horses lies in the
molar teeth.

The horses have six incisors above and below, and canines.
in both jaws, though in the modern species canines are sometimes
wanting in the female. The incisors of horses have a peculiarity
not found in the teeth of any other mammal, in that a curious
deep pit, or groove, is formed in the crown of the tooth,
ELEPHANTS, RHINOCEROSES, AND HORSES 273

penetrating it nearly to the root. There are four pairs of
premolars in the upper, and three in the lower jaw, while on
each side of both jaws there are three molars. The molar teeth
of the modern horses are extremely long-crowned, or hypsodont.
The triple fangs of the root have, in course of time, become
quite inconspicuous, and the tuberculated, crater-like crown of
the old type (such, for instance, as is seen in the molar teeth of
a man) is lengthened and lengthened until it is nearly three times
as long as the roots, while its surface is folded into intricate
zigzag ridges of dentine bordered with enamel. The develop-
ment of the horse’s teeth is illustrated in so many modern works
of zoology, coincidently with the gradual diminution of the toes
and of the secondary bones in the arm and leg, that it is not
necessary to go further into the question here.

A three-toed horse (Hipparion) once inhabited England, but
became extinct before the arrival of man. When man came to
these islands—these peninsulas of Europe, as they then were—
he possibly found still lingering a somewhat primitive type of
horse, Eguus stenonis, the molar teeth of which offer some
approximation to those of the Hipparion, or three-toed horse.
But True Horses, more or less similar to those still found existing
in Tibet and perhaps in Central Asia, made their appearance in
Britain in the middle of the Pleistocene Epoch, and had soon
overrun England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.

Equus caballus. Tur True Horse

The genus Equus, which includes Equus stenonis above
mentioned, seems to have originated in India or some contiguous
parts of Asia from a form like Protohippus.' This early type
spread westward as far as Britain, and into North America.
Other one-toed horses had probably been developed in North
America, previously, from Protohippus, and had spread right down
into the extreme end of South America, where they only became

1 The Protohippus with two small lateral toes was, as far as is known,
North American, but an allied form more equine than H7pparion may

well have inhabited Eastern Asia.
18
274 BRITISH MAMMALS

extinct quite recently (Onohippidium, for example). Equus caballus,
practically identical with Equus przevalskii, also seems to have
been evolved in Asia; while forms closely allied to this species
migrated to America, and filled the whole of America during the
Pleistocene Epoch with horses belonging to the genus Eguus.
Equus caballus itself, however, does not seem to have entered
North America, but to have confined its range to the whole of
Europe and Temperate Asia. The only living wild horse—Eguus
przevalskii—is scarcely separable specifically from Equus caballus,
and photographs of it may well stand for representations of the
kind of horse familiar to our far-distant ancestors as the wild
horse of Britain. But there also developed from the original
horse stock in Asia, other types belonging to the ass and zebra
group which are scarcely distinguishable from Caballine horses in
their bones or teeth, though they may be very different in
outward-aspect, in the markings, the growth of the mane, of the
tail, and of certain callosities on the inner side of the hind
limbs.

There is almost every graduation in form between the horse-
like wild ass, Equus hemionus (the Kiang) and the magnificent,
liberally striped Grévy’s zebra of Eastern Africa. The asses and
zebras mainly differ from the True Horse (1) in their having
a stiff, hog-like mane ; (2) in the absence of a fully plumed tail
(that is to say, they have a tail in which the long hairs grow
merely in a tuft at the end, and do not start growing from the
base of the tail) ; and (3) in the fact that all the zebras and one
or two of the asses are striped to a greater or less degree. It
has been said that a form of ass, probably identical with that
source of the domestic donkey, the wild ass of North-east Africa
(Equus teniopus), has been found fossil in England in the
Pleistocene formations, but this statement is of doubtful value,
and von Zittel equally doubts the existence of this animal (in a
wild state) in Central Europe. There is so little to distinguish
the African wild ass from the horse in its teeth, or even in the

1 The adult males of this Prjevalski’s horse in Woburn Park are singularly
like underbred cart-horses.
ronwercoaneta

  
  

 

 

Re Sl SESS
Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S. PRJEVALSKI'S HORSE,

Notice faint stripes on fore leg.

 

PRJEVALSKI'S HORSE (Zguus preevalskit).

This is almost identical with the original wild horse of Britain and Central Europe, from which the northern
breeds of domestic horse are descended.

To face p. 274.
ELEPHANTS, RHINOCEROSES, AND HORSES 275

 

bones of its limbs, that mere fossil remains would prove
nothing conclusively. From other evidence we are entitled to:
presume that no species of wild ass penetrated as far north and
west as the British Islands.

The wild horse which the earliest men may have encountered
in Britain—Equus stenonis—was probably striped and dappled
with a lighter colour on a reddish ground. (A piece of skin
preserved in a cave in Patagonia,
which there is reason to believe
belonged to the extinct and allied
Onohippidium, was foxy-red, with
spots and dapplings of a reddish-
yellow.) The True Horse, Equus
caballus, which succeeded it, in its

THE EVOLUTION OF THE HorRse’s TAIL,

1. African wild ass (common donkey).

ut. Asiatic wild ass (onager).

iu, Zebra.
1v. Kiang (Zguus hemionus).

v. Prjevalski’s wild horse (and the type of tail usually depicted in drawings of
horses by Prehistoric man in France. The type of tail characteristic of half-
wild breeds of Northern Europe).

vi, The tail of the Arab or South Mediterranean horse (well-depicted on Greek
vases from Cyprus as early as 1000 B.C,).

   
276 BRITISH MAMMALS

early forms probably bore dark stripes on the limbs and perhaps
on the shoulder, and dapplings on the body. The true Con-
nemara ponies (which there is reason to think are descended
directly from the wild horse of Ireland), the modern Norway
ponies (also descendants of the Norwegian wild horse), and
Prjevalski’s wild horse of Tibet in its summer coat (besides
also country-bred horses in India) frequently display two, three,
or more dark stripes on the fore limb between the wrist and
the elbow, and sometimes one dark stripe on the shoulder. They
nearly always have a longitudinal dark stripe all along the ridge
of the back, such as is seen in the asses. Many horses, feral and
domestic, show distinct light dapplings on the flanks and the hind
quarters.’

The theory of the present writer is that the original markings
of the Horse group were not (as imaginative artists are wont to
depict in restoring extinct types) zebra-like black stripes on a
pale ground, but, like the primeval markings in so many
mammals, white or pale spots and stripes on a dark ground.
Gradually the light-coloured spaces grew and grew, till they
coalesced in the lower parts of the body, making the belly and
the limbs uniformly light-coloured. The dark spaces that were
left grew darker in the case of the asses and zebras, until they
became brown or black stripes and spots. In reality the stripes
(on the legs of the wild ass, for example) are merely the remains
of the original dark colour of the fur, where nearly all the rest of
the body has been swamped in light colour, or where the alternate
light and dark markings have fused into a brown or ash-coloured
tint.

It is not advantageous, as a rule, to wild animals to be
excessively white, so that when these white ‘markings had spread
till they enveloped nearly the whole of the coat they tended to
become dun or cream-colour. In the horse the white markings

1 These spots may be often quite clearly distinguished and drawn if
the horse is closely clipped. Seen in a favourable light, these dapplings
are like loops and spots between darkish spaces answering to the stripes
of the zebra.
ELEPHANTS, RHINOCEROSES, AND HORSES 277

grew darker, and the chestnut or dun-coloured intervals fused
with them. Only on the limbs did the dun-coloured intervals
turn to blackish-brown, while the fused white markings darkened
to chestnut. In the tapir, which is a distant relation of the horse,
and the young of which are profusely spotted and striped with
white, we see something like the original coloration of the horse,
which is only represented to-day by the stripes of the zebra and
the dapplings of horses. The same white spots and stripes were
the characteristic of the primitive Artiodactyles, and are exhibited
to-day in the coloration of nearly all young pigs, in the perma-
nent markings of the tragulines,’ in the deer, the giraffe, the
okapi, and the tragelaphine antelopes. So that the parent forms
of the horse were originally marked with white spots and stripes ;
not black, as in the modern zebra.

Equus caballus, or the True Horse, seems early in its de-
velopment to have exhibited two varieties, or sub-species. One
(represented by the modern Arabian horse) was characterised
by a small finely shaped head, a long mane, a smooth coat, and
a tail which was set on the body in such a way that the base
of the tail advanced a few inches in a horizontal direction before
making the downward sweep. ‘This tail also was abundantly
plumed with hair, commencing at the very root. In this type of
horse the profile of the nose is either straight or slightly concave.

The other and more northern type of horse is well represented
by the wild or semi-wild tarpan of Central Asia and the Russian
Steppes, a form which, though said to be feral—i.e., to have run
wild—is as likely as not to be the original wild horse of Europe.
This type, with the clumsy head and Roman nose, and (in the
original) a hog-like mane and a tail poorly furnished with plume
near the base, finds its highest expression in our modern cart-
horse. This was the horse that was hunted, eaten, tamed, and
ridden by primitive man in Europe and in Britain almost since
man appeared in this part of the world.

It would seem as though the earliest domesticated of all
animals had been the dog, in the sense that various types of

1 Primitive pig-like ruminants found in Africa and Asia.
278 BRITISH MAMMALS

wolf, jackal, and cyon! took to prowling about the vicinity of
human camps, and gradually attaching themselves to the society
and the service of this successful anthropoid ape. But certainly
the next beast to be brought under man’s influence—perhaps the
first which he deliberately domesticated, in Europe at any rate—
was the horse. In the earliest Greek art of Cyprus, Greece, and
the Greek islands two types of horse are plainly depicted (as may
be seen, for instance, in the collections illustrating Greek art in the
British Museum). One—familiar to all of us from many a mag-
nificent bas-relief and statue—is the true Equus caballus type : the
sturdy, hog-maned, arch-nosed horse which has been the principal
breed of North Europe. The other (which is shown specially in
paintings on vases obtained in Cyprus) is the Arab horse, with
its fine head, smooth limbs, long mane, and well-furnished tail.
The various blendings or special developments of these two
varieties have given us all the breeds of domestic horse which
exist at the present day throughout the whole world, for it is
needless to remark that when the Caucasian entered America all
the indigenous American horses had completely died out, and
the wild horses of to-day in America are simply the descendants
of Equus caballus, introduced in adomestic form by the Spaniards,
Portuguese, French, and English.

It is fairly certain that the Shetland pony is descended direct
from a dwarfed form of the wild Eguus caballus, and that the
same may be said of many breeds of ponies in the west of
Ireland, and less certainly of the ponies of the New Forest. The
Romans, of course, introduced their domestic equine breeds into
Britain. These, too, were mainly derived from the Northern
stock. By various indirect means, however, from the time of
the Roman Conquest down to the seventeenth century, tinges
of the Oriental stock began to affect the domestic breeds of
the British horse, coming to England, no doubt, in the form
of barbs* ; and these mixed types sprang from the union in the

1 See p. 128.

? Barb, of course, stands for Barbary. The Barbary horse of North
Africa is probably the result of an early cross between the Northern and
ELEPHANTS, RHINOCEROSES, AND HORSES 279

Mediterranean Basin of the Northern and the Oriental breeds.
But early in the eighteenth century, through increased commercial
and diplomatic intercourse with Turkey and the Levant, the
Arabian stallion was deliberately introduced into these islands
to modify the local breeds, which in some types are almost more
Oriental than Northern.

the Oriental types in North Africa. The original stock of the barb may
actually be descended from the wild Zguus caballus, which certainly existed

in North Africa, and which need not have been extinguished by the advent of
man.
CHAPTER XIII

UNGULATA (continued) ARTIODACTYLA: HIPPO-
POTAMUSES, PIGS, AND DEER

Suz-OrDER: ARTIODACTYLA. EVEN-TOED UNGULATES

Tue leading characteristics of this important modern group of
Ungulates have been delineated in the description of the Peris-
sodactyles. Their main feature is, of course, that they rest the
stress of their weight on two toes (the third and fourth of the
mammalian series, our “second” and “ third”’ fingers) instead
of on a single toe. Therefore in the course of their development
they tend to become exclusively two-toed, just as the Peris-
sodactyles have advanced towards a one-toed condition. The
Artiodactyles arose very early in the development of the Un-
gulates, from a stock (the Condylarthra) which gave rise to the
Perissodactyles. The earliest known types of Artiodactyles had
five digits on hind and fore limbs. The digit that is equivalent
to our big toe very early disappeared in the hind feet of the
Artiodactyles. Then the thumb was lost in their hands. In
those days, of course, the extremity of the fore limb was much
more like a hand than is the case with the attenuated, highly
specialised limb of the modern Artiodactyle. In looking at an
antelope or a deer, for instance, it is hard for unlearned persons
to realise that from the wrist (which is falsely called the knee)
down to the tip of the hoof we have merely a modification of the
human hand. In hands and feet man is far more archaic than
the stag, or the horse. He has not, in fact, advanced in this

respect much beyond the reptile. Artiodactyles that have merely
280
  

BONES OF THE HAND OR LOWER FRONT LIMB
IN MODERN ARTIODACTYLES, TO ILLUSTRATE
THE GRADUAL DISAPPEARANCE OF THE SIDE
FINGERS.

M.=Metacarpal bones.

ph.=phalanges,

(The metacarpal bones are numbered in Arabic
figures, the phalanges in Roman numerals),

. Sheep (Ovis aries).

. Musk ox (Ovibus moschatus).

. Ox (Bos taurus).

. Red deer (Cervus elaphus) (Plesiometacarpalian),

E, Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) (Telemetacarpalian).

F. Pig (Sus scrofa).

bower
282 BRITISH MAMMALS

reached the four-fingered stage are well illustrated at the present
day by the hippopotamus, the swine, and those curious little
creatures, the tragulines, which represent the parent stock of
the modern Ruminants. Outside these groups such creatures as
deer, oxen, sheep, antelopes, giraffes (Pecora), and camels have
entirely, or to a great extent, lost the bones of the outer toes,
though in some cases they still retain fragments of these; and,
except in the giraffes and a few antelopes and in the camels, the
missing toes are still represented by what are called the false hoofs,
so that at first sight an ox, a sheep, or a deer appears to be four-toed.
Not only in the course of evolution did the higher Artiodactyles
reduce their functional toes to a pair, but the first bones of those
toes (which are called the metacarpals and metatarsals*) gradually
fused into a single bone (called the cannon bone), down the
middle of which a slight groove indicates in some forms the
original duplicate character of the bone.

The Artiodactyles also show considerable modifications in
their teeth, as they differentiate from the main stock In the
hippopotamus and the pig the teeth are of a more generalised
character. There are in most swine, and in the earlier types of
hippopotamus, the full number of six incisors above and six below.
Canines are likewise present in both jaws, and there are generally
four pairs of premolars and three of molars in each jaw. More-
over, in the swine and in the hippopotamus the molar teeth are
short in the crowns, and their surface is divided into a number
of nipple-like mounds, originally four in number in each tooth.
These two groups also, together with many extinct allied families,
exhibit no tendency whatever to the growth of bony, horn-
bearing projections from the skull.

In the more modern types of Artiodactyles, represented by
the camels,’ tragulines, and horn- or antler-bearing Pecora, the
incisors in the upper jaw are either reduced to one on either

1 Pygmy musks, chevrotains.

2 These metacarpals (for instance) are the five bones bound up in the
palms of our hands.

3 Which, however, are quite an independent development.
HIPPOPOTAMUSES, PIGS, AND DEER 283

side, as in the camels, or disappear absolutely, as is the case
with the tragulines and Pecora. Canine teeth tend to disappear
in the upper jaw, though they are retained by the camels and
tragulines, and by some deer. In the lower jaw a marked
feature of this section of the Artiodactyles is that the canine
tooth grows close up to the lower incisors, and tends to resemble
them exactly in appearance. In the lower jaw of an ox, for
instance, the unlearned observer would decide that there were no
canine teeth at all, but four incisors on each side instead of the
normal three. Asa matter of fact, the outer tooth in this range
is acanine. The molars also develop an ever-increasing length
of crown ; many of them are hypsodont, as in the horse. More-
over, all the molar teeth of camels and Pecora are what is called
“selenodont,” that is to say, their enamel ridges assume a crescent
shape, so that the grinding surface is a series of half-moon-shaped
ridges, instead of a number of blunt hillocks as in the swine.

The Even-toed Ungulates described below are those now
existing in the British Islands, or which are known to have
inhabited some portion of this area since man came on the
scene at the beginning of the Pleistocene period.

Famity: AZPPOPOTAMIDZ. UHIPPOPOTAMUSES

The Hippopotamuses are for the most part’ huge animals,
leading an amphibious life. The tusks, or canine teeth, are
enormously developed, especially in the lower jaw. The incisor
teeth are also prolonged into tusks. The extremity of both jaws,
especially that of the lower, is remarkably broad, and in the lower
jaw the canines and incisors as seen from the front are in the same
line, that is to say, the canines are pushed so far forward in their
growth that they are in no way behind the incisors, as is the case
in a normal mammalian arrangement of the teeth. The feet are
four-toed, the two central toes being larger and more important
than the second and fifth. The skin is bare of hair, with the

1 Some of the forms isolated in Cyprus and Malta during the Pleistocene
degenerated into pygmy types hardly larger than small pigs.
284 BRITISH MAMMALS

exception of bristles (often bifid) round the muzzle, and a few
at the end of the tail. The mammz are reduced to one pair.

Hippopotamuses appear to have originated, like so many
other remarkable beasts, in India, and they arose, seemingly, from
an early Artiodactyle family (allied to the pigs) called the Authra-
cotheride, the teeth of which, in some forms, bear a strong
resemblance to those of the hippopotamus. The earliest known
forms of Asiatic hippopotamus had six incisor teeth in both jaws.
This type with the six incisor teeth penetrated westwards as far
as North Africa, and possibly the south of Europe. From this
type there arose in the later Pliocene a hippopotamus with only
four incisor teeth in each jaw. This form was identical with
the modern African hippopotamus, and reached England in the
Pleistocene Epoch, before the Glacial episodes or during the
warmer intervals between the Ice ages. It penetrated at least as
far north as Yorkshire (possibly during the summer-time), and
was coeval with the earliest types of man in Britain. In fact,
there were hippopotamuses in the Thames once, larger than those
in the Nile at the present day, but not specifically different. No
doubt it frequented all the English and some of the Welsh rivers
south of Lancashire and Durham. It may have swum the
narrow straits of the Irish sea, and have reached Antrim. On
the coast of this county remains of the hippopotamus are said to
have been found, but they are of a dubious nature, and until
better evidence is forthcoming the hippopotamus cannot be
classed as an Irish mammal.

Famity: SULD.Z. THE TRUE PIGS

The True Pigs, like the hippopotamus, appear to have been
confined at all times to the Old World, and never to have existed
in America, where they are only distantly represented by the
allied group of the Peccaries, and by certain ancestral forms from
which both pigs and peccaries sprang. Pigs made their appearance
very early in Europe in the Upper Miocene formations, and it
is possible that they originated in Central Europe, though they
soon travelled to Asia, and in India received some wonderful
HIPPOPOTAMUSES, PIGS, AND DEER 285

developments, one species of True Swine developing to the size
of a rhinoceros.

The True Pigs have usually six incisors in both jaws, though
in two African genera the upper incisors tend to disappear, a
tendency parallel to what has occurred among the Ruminants.
As already mentioned, the pigs have “bunodont” molars with
short crowns, that is to say, the surface of the molar tooth is
divided into a number of blunt hillocks. The most striking
feature of the True Pigs lies.in the canine teeth. In the upper
jaw, instead of growing vertically downwards, as in almost all
other mammals, they curve outwards and upwards, and this
tendency is carried to such an extreme in the Oriental genus
Babirusa that the upper canine teeth turn right round from their
sockets, and grow straight upwards through bone and flesh.
An archaic feature in the pigs is the number of mamme (from
five to three pairs), and their distribution along the ventral
region. ‘To this may be added, perhaps, their tendency towards
an omnivorous diet, a characteristic shared by the allied peccaries
of America. Although this feature is carried to a much greater
extreme in the domestic than in the wild pig, still nearly all
forms of pig will eat, in addition to various vegetable sub-
stances—roots, fruits, nuts, and herbage—animal matter, as
represented by snakes, lizards, young birds and beasts, and
carrion. Pigs, also, are unlike other existing Ungulates (except
one or two species of deer), in that they produce ordinarily more
than two young at a birth. Their digestive organs are relatively
simple and primitive.

An early type of pig (Sus paleocherus), and a gigantic swine
as large as a tapir (Sus erymanthius), reached England during the
Pliocene Epoch, and Sus erymanthius may have lingered on into
the Pleistocene and the time of man’s coming to this country.
But with this doubtful exception man has only known one wild
pig in these islands, the wild boar, unless, as some zoologists
have thought, another wild species of pig of a more slender type,
more like the wild pigs of Eastern Asia, existed in Ireland, and gave
rise to the domestic greyhound pig, which is now nearly extinct.
HIPPOPOTAMUSES, PIGS, AND DEER 287

certainly suggests intermixture with the stocks derived from the
wild pigs of Eastern Asia, which are almost devoid of hair.

The wild boar probably did not become finally extinct in
England till the beginning of the seventeenth century. In 1593
(as Mr. Harting points out in his book, British Animals Extinct
within Historic Times) Erdwick, in his Survey of Staffordshire,
mentions wild swine as existing in the celebrated Forest of
Chartley, which still harbours the feral cattle. In 1174, if not
later, there were wild boars in Epping Forest. Wild boar
hunts took place in Scotland in the middle of the sixteenth
century, and the boar probably lingered on in the Highlands
down to the beginning of the seventeenth century, about which
period it became extinct in Ireland. It is stated that the
Irish wild boar was a somewhat diminutive animal as compared
with its brother of Britain and Continental Europe, no doubt
through insulation from Europe and interbreeding of the wild
stock. Many of them in Ireland, by enclosure of land, seem to
have gradually drifted into the condition of semi-domesticated,
and finally domesticated, animals. The half-wild pigs in the
New Forest at one time had very much the look of diminutive
wild boars, but this seems to have been due to the deliberate
reintroduction into that forest of wild boars imported by
Charles I. But in England, as in Ireland, the last of the wild
boars seem to have been enclosed and domesticated rather than
exterminated, and in the allusions to boars by the writers of
Shakespeare’s time it is difficult to ascertain whether they mean
the entirely and naturally wild animal or a half-wild pig. Mr.
Harting considers that the last truly wild boar became extinct in
England as late as 1683, in Staffordshire, and wild boars were
killed in Westmoreland a little earlier. King James I. hunted
wild boars in Windsor Park in 1617, in which same year he
in his progress through Lancashire feasted on a wild boar pie
at a banquet given by Sir Richard Houghton.

Camels, which originated in North America, and spread
thence right across Asia into North Africa, and perhaps to
Greece and Italy, never reached England with other specimens
288 BRITISH MAMMALS

of the Mediterranean fauna. The chevrotains, or tragulines
(Tragulide), a most interesting group of primitive Ruminants,’
extended their range in the Miocene and Pliocene Epochs as far
north and west as France, but no traces have been discovered
of their existence in England. That great group of monster
Ruminants, the giraffes, also left England outside their ex-
tremest range, so that the first family of true ruminating,
selenodont (and horned) Artiodactyles represented in the British
fauna past and present is the deer.

Group: PECORA. HORNED ARTIODACTYLES

The Horned Artiodactyles (among which a few species have
lost or have never developed horns) are usually divided into four
families, based on the structure of the excrescences growing on
the skull, which are loosely known as “horns,” independently
of their substance. The most primitive of the four families,
perhaps, is that of the giraffes, in which bony projections grow
out from various points of the skull, but remain practically
separate bones. In the Giraffe genus these are merely covered
with skin and hair. In the newly discovered okapi it would seem
as though the extreme tip of the short bony projection was bare
of skin and hair, and might even be an independent ossicle.? In
certain more extravagant extinct forms of the Giraffe family, such
as the Sivatherium, these bony projections grew to a great size,
forked and branched; and the larger of the projections were
probably covered with some sheath of hardened hair or of horn.
In the case of the next family, the Prongbucks, a curious and
complicated stage is reached. The male prongbuck grows a
permanent pair of bony “horns” from the top of the skull,
and then these bony projections are covered and increased by a

1 The Tragulids—even those existing at the present day—represent very
nearly the original stock from which the horned Artiodactyles (Pecora)
sprang, the base from which the giraffes, the prongbucks, the deer, and the
Oxen-Antelope-Sheep group evidently arose.

* In which case we have a very interesting suggestion as to the way in
which the deer’s horns began.
HIPPOPOTAMUSES, PIGS, AND DEER 289

somewhat soft sheath of branching horn. This horny sheath in
the prongbuck is shed annually and grows up again. In the
third family about to be described (the Deer) there is, first of
all, a permanent bony pedicle, or core, developed from the skull.
(In the muntjacs, a somewhat primitive and ancient type of deer,
these pedicles are several inches long, and often more important
in length than the little antler which grows from them.) From
the end of this bony projection, or pedicle, the deer start another
and independent growth of bone, which in the earliest or least de-
veloped types of deer is a mere prong or a simple fork. But in all
the more extravagantly developed types this additional detachable
growth of bone at the end of the permanent pedicle is often of
enormous size and weight. Whilst this bony antler is develop-
ing during several months, and until its extreme growth has been
reached, it is covered outwardly with blood-vessels, skin, and
hair, so that in that condition it resembles the “horns” of the
giraffe ; but when the growth of the antler is complete, the
blood-vessels dry up, nourishment ceases to reach the skin and
hair, and thus the “velvet” is soon rubbed off by the stag,
leaving the naked and dry bone. This lessening of the nutrition
continues long after the velvet has disappeared ; and finally, about
ten months from the time at which the additional growth of bone
has started,’ the complete antler, as far as its connection with its
parent pedicle, is easily detached and falls off.

In the last family of this group, the Bovide, or Hollow-
horned Ruminants (Cattle, Tragelaphs, Capricorns, Sheep, and
Antelopes), the original bony projection from the skull is con-
tinuous with the skull bones and of a permanent nature, growing
sometimes to extraordinary lengths. It is never known to branch,
as in the aberrant giraffes. As this bone grows up from the skull
it is covered by a sheath of horn (no doubt a modification of an
original hairy covering), and this horn cap ends in a sharp point,
and often considerably exceeds in length the bony core. It has

1 This period refers to deer—the vast majority—which only renew their
antlers once a year. It is, of course, proportionately shorter where (as in
Pere David’s deer) the antlers are fwzce shed in the twelve months.

19
290 BRITISH MAMMALS

been said that certain antelopes can shed this horny covering and
renew it, in which case they would offer a distinct approximation
to the prongbuck’s plan; but this statement lacks confirmation,
and in all cases which have come under the writer’s observation,
where antelopes or oxen have by some accident had a horny
sheath torn off the bone core it has not been renewed.

All the Pecora have the stomach divided into four chambers,
and all of them are True Ruminants.

Famity: CERVID.A. THE DEER

With regard to the peculiarities concerning the growth of the
deer’s antlers, it only remains to add in a general description of
this family that antlers are entirely confined to the male (abnor-
malities apart), except in the aberrant and remarkable reindeer,
in which genus the females also grow antlers.’ All the deer as
yet examined have four mamme. One genus, Hydropotes (a
hornless deer), produces from three to six young at a time.
Forms of primitive deer allied to Hydropotes were inhabitants of
part of Britain and the rest of Europe in the Miocene period.
The young of nearly all species of deer except the elk, the rein-
deer, and the sambur are spotted with white, the spots sometimes
running into horizontal stripes, and these white markings remain
permanently, or occur seasonably, in not a few kinds of deer.

It is probable that the deer, like so many other groups,
originated in Asia, where at the present day the most primitive
and archaic representatives of this group are still found living.
But they made their appearance in Europe at an early period, the
very beginning of the Miocene, the first forms, of course, being
hornless, and allied to such types as Hydropotes of China, and the
Muntjac deer of India. The earliest type of antlered deer to

1 At the same time antlered females, fertile and able to breed, do occur
in not infrequent instances, scarcely to be called abnormalities, in other
genera, such as the roe and even the red deer. “ Abnormality” would rather
cover those instances of aged or unsexed females which produce stunted
antlers, just as aged female pheasants assume male plumage or aged women
grow beards.
HIPPOPOTAMUSES, PIGS, AND DEER 2g1

reach Britain seems to have been the roe (Capreolus), a persistent
and an archaic form of Cervine. Then came an elk—larger than
any now known—A/ces latifrons. This early British elk may have
been a peculiar development of these islands, as no remains of
this very large species have been discovered on the Continent.
It was possibly one of the forerunners of the Glacial ages, and an
instance of the invasion of Britain from the north, by types of
animals coming from Iceland, Greenland, and North America.
About the same time appeared a deer with a palmated antler,
which has been named after Professor Boyd Dawkins (Dawkins’s
deer), and which may have been a transitional form leading up
from the Fallow group (Dama) to the Cervus megaceros, or
Gigantic deer. Cervus sedgwicki is a deer which may be
related to the Rucervine group.’ The antlers of Sedgwick’s
deer (which was possibly contemporary with early man in the
first half of the Pleistocene period) are most extraordinary,
being a perfect forest of branching points, as many as thirteen
on each antler. It is possible that it may be an extreme
development in one direction of Dawkins’s deer, though there
is also a resemblance to the Elaphine, or red deer, type. A
deer of very mysterious affinities, and very imperfectly known,
which was found in England, at any rate, during a portion of the
Pleistocene period, is Buckland’s deer (Cervus bucklandi), which
was about the size of a reindeer. The imperfect fragments of its
horns suggest affinities to the roebuck (this is the most probable
theory), or to that considerable group of American deer which
have no brow tine to the antlers; for the fork in the horns of
Buckland’s deer starts several inches above the coronet. Cervus
suttonensis appears to be related to the spotted axis deer of India.
Cervus browni and C. savini were obviously early forms of
fallow deer. Cervus carnutorum, together with C. dawkinsi
(verticornis), are supposed to be related to the Gigantic deer,
and a large stag, with tremendously heavy, round, thick antlers
(C. strongyloceros), is probably a gigantic race of Elaphine deer,
allied to the red deer, and still more to the modern maral of

1 Such as Schomburgkh’s deer and the other swamp deer of Eastern Asia
292 BRITISH MAMMALS

Persia. The True Red Deer has always been an indigenous
inhabitant of these islands since the Pleistocene period, though
it probably came here from two different directions,’ and exhibited
several varieties, large and small. Lastly, there was the reindeer,
at one time as abundant in England, Ireland, and Scotland as
the red deer.

Capreolus caprea. THe Rot DEER

The deer are often divided by zoologists into two groups,
both, unfortunately, with very long names. The first group,
which is called the Plesiometacarpalia, comprises the muntjacs
and their allies, and all the True Deer (Elaphine, Damine, Rusine,
Rucervine, and Axine) of the Old World. This group, which
in some respects is the most specialised, only retains the upper
fragments (near the wrist and the heel joints) of metacarpal and
metatarsal bones of the second and fifth toes. Only the upper
fragments of these remain, though the actual toes themselves are
still represented by outside hoofs (the “ false” hoofs), and these
hoofs are supported sometimes by minute fragments of bone,
the remains of the lost phalanges. On the other hand, the
second group (which includes the reindeer, the elk, the roebuck,
the hornless Hydropotes of China, and all the American deer)
belongs to the division Telemetacarpalia, in which that portion
of the metacarpal or metatarsal bones of the second and fifth
toes ordinarily retained is the /owest portion, equivalent to the
joints of our fingers. This bony support in the lower portions
of the limb to the two side toes gives a rather splay appearance
to the feet of the reindeer, elk, and some of the other deer. At
the same time, seeing how, in the feet of the reindeer, there are
occasionally fragmentary traces of the metacarpal bones above
as well as below, and that traces of a similar feature exist in
one or more of the muntjacs, and having regard to the ease

1 Portugal and Belgium. Possibly there came first from Portugal or
Northern Spain the earlier, smaller red deer without the “bez” tine, which

is still found in North Africa and parts of Spain. From Belgium arrived
the large, fully antlered red deer.
 

ROE-DEER (Capreslus cupraa): September,
HIIPPOPOTAMUSES, PIGS, AND DEER 293

with which either condition can arise quite independently when
all of them are descended from Miocene forms in which the
bones of the side toes were complete, the distinction is not
a very strong one for natural classification. (See illustration
On ps 283)

However that may be, the roe deer is one of the few Old
World examples of the Telemetacarpalia (or deer that only retain
the bones of their side toes at the end of the limb). The
tail in the roe is so short that there is practically no outward
manifestation of it between the thick hair of the buttocks.
Although nearly related to archaic extinct deer, and to the very
primitive Hydropotes, or water deer, of China, all of which
possess canine teeth in the upper jaw, the roe has lost this
feature. Occasionally minute traces of upper canine teeth are found
in the males. The ears are fairly long, narrow, and rather pointed,
not round, as in Hydropotes. The legs are long, flat, and slender,
and the hoofs are small. The whole foot, in fact, is closely
compressed and “fine,” not at all like the rather spreading,
pig-like foot of the Chinese water deer. When the roe walks
there is a curious interlocking of the hind limbs, which is often
more marked than in other deer. Any one who observes the
movements of a sheep or cow will notice that as the animal
moves its hind limbs in walking the hock remains pretty much
in the same line as the buttocks, whereas in the deer the hock
twists inwards so markedly at every step as almost to touch the
inner flank of the other leg. This movement is specially marked
in the roe deer.

' The existing roes are not large animals. The biggest males
of the European form which is found in England seldom exceed
26 in. in height at the withers. The head of the roe deer is
proportionately small. The profile is straight, or slightly con-
cave. The eyes are large, but they are not placed so wide apart
as in the red deer (for example). The muzzle is neat and
tapering, but there is a considerable expanse of wet muffle about
the nose. ‘The under-fur is woolly, and the hair on the upper
surface of the coat is coarse, sometimes flattened, stiff, and not
294 BRITISH MAMMALS

very long. These coarse hairs are but loosely implanted, and
easily come out. For a considerable proportion of their length
they are purplish-gray, but within a short distance of the tip
they turn either to reddish-brown or brownish-gray, according to
the season. This variation of colour in the longer hair causes
the animal’s coat to look somewhat patchy and spotted at times
by the purplish-gray becoming visible under the lighter surface
of the tips. The colour of the roe, male and female, varies
markedly between the winter and the summer season. About
May the roe begins to assume its summer coat, which is a
foxy-red all over, though slightly paler, perhaps, on the belly,
the rump, and underneath the chin. Summer and winter alike,
however, the roe retains a very distinct mark on the face. The
naked skin of the muffle is black, and there are patches of jet-
black hair on either side of the nose, on the outer edge of the
muzzle, above and below the angle of the mouth. The front of
the muzzle and the chin are pure white. This black and white
nose and mouth gives rather an effective touch to the appearance
of the extremely pretty head possessed by this deer. The hair
inside the ears is yellowish-white, and the outer edge of the ear
and the tip are black. In the winter, that is to say, between
October and April, the fur is much thicker and coarser, and the
general effect of colour is brownish-gray, the lower part of the
hairs being much more of a blue-gray than the tip, which inclines
to brown. The general effect over the greater part of the body
is that of a dark brownish-gray, with a slightly reddish tinge
on the shoulders, behind the ears, and on the limbs, while the
brownish-gray strengthens almost into black as it nears the edge
of the rump. On the rump itself and the loose prominent hair
that juts out on either side of the stump of a tail there is a
patch of pure white in the winter season, so that at this time the
black line drawn across the muzzle on either side, the white lips,
and the white stern make the roe somewhat conspicuous. In
the winter season there is a tendency to white under the jaw,
and on the throat of the roe this may sometimes take the form
of a crescent-shaped band across the under side of the throat.
  
 
      
         

‘ a viet
a ae “\
‘| Sea a

 
 
 
   
       

=

iS ROS

WSS TS
SS RS
HR SNSES

Wy iH Hl Ay SS \.
i

   
  
 
   

x" WHARF
\ \ L

yi bo

AT

NAY

AER ‘\
NG

y WEY i x

HEAD AND NECK OF ROEBUCK, TO SHOW WHITE MARKINGS ON NECK AND BLACK MARK
ACROSS MUZZLE
296 BRITISH MAMMALS

These bands are very characteristic of the early white markings
of Ungulates. The adult roe is unspotted, but young roes
when first born are fully spotted with white, and have these
white half-circles on the throat. The spots fade during the first
year of the roe’s life, and the patches of white on the throat
only recur (more or less marked, sometimes very faintly) in the
winter coat of the adult animal.

As in all deer, there is a prominent tuft of hair covering the
gland on the hind legs just below the hock. The female roe
is hornless except in abnormal cases, wherein, as happens so often
among vertebrates, when the female loses her breeding powers
she assumes something of the characteristics of the male. Under
these conditions the female may produce an aborted antler.
Mr. J. G. Millais, however (who in his British Deer and their
Horns has produced a classic work on the subject), quotes a
German writer in the Field, who asserts that female roe deer
may produce antlers without being either unsexed or barren.
He alludes to many cases in which does with horns were prolific
and dropped and suckled fawns. ‘This is interesting as showing
how such a condition as the reindeer could be brought about,
wherein the female now invariably grows antlers. These would
begin as sports, as quite exceptional instances, such as they are
in the roe, and gradually, if circumstances (such as the protection
of the young) rendered it necessary, would become universal.
The most primitive types of cattle (now extinct) only produced
horns in the male, and this is the condition of most antelopes ;
but in modern cattle, in two genera among the Tragelaphs (the
eland and the bongo), in the sheep and goats, gazelles, oryxes,
and hartebeests, the female is always horned.

The antlers in the male roebuck vary considerably in length,
girth, and number of points, not only as between the two species
(those of Europe and Siberia), but also between Scottish and
English examples, existing and fossil. The average roebuck’s
horn is as depicted in the drawing on p. 295. Other types
are illustrated on p. 297. In some roe deer the tubercles
of bone which appear on the lower half of the antler become
 

EXAMPLES OF ROE DEER’S ANTLERS, ANCIENT AND MODERN.
1. and 11. From Scottish peat and gravel (Pleistocene).
III., 1V., Ve) and v1. Modern Scottish heads.

vu. Type of ‘“‘ mossy ” thick antler.
vu. Example of antler in female (aberrant).
298 BRITISH MAMMALS

so exaggerated as to produce a “mossy” appearance, which
may stamp the whole outline of the horn. The typical
roe antler rises some 4 in. or § in. from the coronet! (in
some cases nearly vertically from the head), and then forks.
The front prong of this fork might very well answer to the
brow antler of the typical stag, and no doubt is the same in
origin. The antler then slants backwards after the first fork,
and forks again, the lower prong of the second fork pointing
downwards. This, therefore, gives an average roebuck horn
three points. But in past and present specimens of this deer
there can actually be six points (a not uncommon extravagance),
or even, in abnormal heads, eight. Occasionally the first fork
of the antlers is so low down that there is nothing to dis-
tinguish the front prong in position from the true Cervine
brow antler.

The extremest length of a roe antler measured along the outer
curve to the tip of the furthest prong is 13 in. (for a British speci-
men), the finest known heads on the Continent or in Tartary perhaps
reaching 2 in. farther. But normally good heads of the roe in
England rarely exceed 11 in. The girth of the horn round the
coronet may be 7 in. in excessively thick horns, or more when
they become monstrosities. The ordinary girth round the base
of a good horn is about 54 in. Besides other eccentricities roes.
occasionally produce three horns, an extra horn sometimes
appearing in the middle between the two normal antlers, or at
the side, and slightly nearer the brow. Sometimes the two
normal horns (which in any case are not very wide apart) grow
together and fuse into a solid mass. One feels, in short, that as
regards antlers, at any rate, the roe is still in such a plastic state
that it might go on originating new species. Undoubtedly it
stands very near a primitive type of deer, which might be at the
base of several widely divergent existing forms. From its horns
and the bones of its side toes and the anatomy of the male
generative organs, it is in any case thought to be closely allied to

1 The “ coronet” being that spreading-out of the base of the antler where
it starts from the bony pedicle.
HIPPOPOTAMUSES, PIGS, AND DEER 299

that somewhat abnormal (Dorcelaphine) group of American deer
represented by Dorcelaphus and other genera.

The roe deer at the present day exhibits two sub-species or
species. There is the common roe, indigenous to Great Britain,
Europe, and Western Asia, and there is the Siberian roe
(Capreolus pygargus), which is a decidedly larger animal, with a
somewhat less abbreviated tail. The antlers of this roe can
occasionally become quite palmated. There is also said (though
this is doubtful) to be a third variety or species—the Manchurian
roe, which agrees in most particulars with the European, but
differs somewhat in coloration. The present area of distribution
of the European roe is the greater part of Europe (including
the south of Sweden), and parts of Russia, the Caucasus, and
Asia Minor. The roe is not indigenous to Ireland, and no
fossil remains of the animal have been found as yet in Irish
deposits. It exists in Ireland at the present day in the county
of Sligo, in the north-west, but it has only been introduced there
for a hundred years. In one or two other parks of Ireland it
was also kept, but it does not seem to flourish in that country.
There are said to be still a few indigenous roe living in parts of
Cumberland descended from the old English stock, but elsewhere
in England the roe became extinct early in English history.
In Wales the wild roe lingered down to the end of the sixteenth
century. When the owners of parks began to take an interest
in the native fauna, attempts were made at the beginning of
the nineteenth century and onwards to reintroduce the roe. A
flourishing colony of them was got together in Dorsetshire, mainly
on the estate of Milton Abbas. It is here that the present writer
has seen most of the roe, and his coloured drawing is made from
sketches of roe in the park of Milton Abbas some years ago.’
The roe, however, has remained continuously a native of Scotland
from the Pleistocene period. Here they are still found in the
Highland districts, away from the farming and industrial localities,

1 There are roe deer now in the New Forest, at Virginia Water, in
Epping Forest, and in several parks in Sussex, Surrey, Wales, and no
doubt elsewhere.
300 BRITISH MAMMALS

The male roe deer drop their horns towards the end of
December, and by the end of February the new antlers are nearly
perfect. Roe are monogamous, unlike so many other deer. The
bucks begin to seek the does soon after the fawns are born in
June. In July the male presses his attentions closely on the
female, and at this time they are especially eager at their racing
rings. With the roe, as with several other deer and antelopes,
there is a practice of resorting to certain fixed places—open glades
generally—where they race round and round in a circle until
regular tracks are made, sometimes in loops, sometimes in other
circular shapes. Their resort to these rings during the breeding
season is constant. The female will allow herself to be pursued
by the male sometimes till both are exhausted for want of breath.
It is not until the beginning of August, as a rule (in Scotland),
that the rut, or actual breeding season, commences, though this
may be as early as July in Dorsetshire. Does that have not been
fecundated sometimes invite once more the attentions of the male
in October. But the remarkable and apparently now well-estab-
lished feature in the breeding habits of the roe is this, that
assuming the female to have become pregnant in August, the
embryo remains dormant and of minute size until the end of
December, when its development proceeds at a normal rate, and
the fawn is born in England during the month of May, in Scotland
early in June. This is as yet an unexplained phenomenon, but
it seems to be one that is well established by the researches of
Professor Bishop and Dr. E. Ziegler, the German embryologist.
The explanation possibly may be that the roe originated (as did
most of the deer) in Eastern Asia, where its nearest relation,
Fydropotes, still lives ; and that in a semi-tropical climate there
was no risk in producing young early in February; but that
when the force of circumstances and competition with other
forms pushed the roe into the northern regions of the Old
World, and into a Glacial age in full swing, this deer may
have gradually acquired a power of retarding the development
of the fcetus until it could be produced at the beginning of
the summer.
HIPPOPOTAMUSES, PIGS, AND DEER 301

The roe has a voice and uses it, especially during the
breeding season. The male utters a loud bark, a sound some-
times more like a bleat or a harsh yelp, often resembling the cries
of adog. The female is more silent, but during the breeding
season (writes Mr. Millais) “she gives an amorous call when
she wishes the male to come to her. If he is within hearing he
puts out his neck straight and comes at full speed... . In
Germany many roebucks are shot by alluring them in this
manner, and calls exactly imitating the voice of the female are
made for the sportsman’s use.”

Though a relatively small animal, the roebuck can be very
fierce, and the male in the rutting season is excessively dangerous,
as he can kill a man with his sharp horns. Several instances
are known of men and boys meeting their death in this manner.
The female will defend her fawn against dogs, and sometimes
even men, by striking out with her sharp-hoofed fore feet, and
even butting with her forehead. The male also strikes out
with his feet in his own defence. But in this respect roe deer
do not find their hoofs such effective weapons as is the case
with the red deer, the elk, or the reindeer.

The food of this little deer is grass, leaves, fungi (which
they scent and dig up), and (among other fruits) rowan berries,
of which they are passionately fond. To reach these they will
often stand on their hind legs, supporting themselves for a time
by leaning the fore feet on some low branch or against the trunk
of the tree.

Alces machliss Tue Exx, or Moose

It has already been stated that the gigantic extinct Broad-
horned Elk (4. Jatifrons) was a British beast, and mainly con-
fined in its range to Britain. The elk which at present exists
in Scandinavia, Siberia, and parts of North America was probably
also an inhabitant of Great Britain not longer ago than some
ten thousand years. Antlers and bones, apparently belonging to
Alces machlis, have been found in the Pleistocene and superficial
>

302 BRITISH MAMMALS

deposits of North Wales, Northern and North-eastern, Eastern
and Central England, as far south as Essex. In Scotland the
remains are abundant, especially in the east, south, and south-
west. In Ireland its existence is argued from some fragments of
antler and bones found in County Tyrone.

The elk is a very isolated, and in some respects specialised,
form of deer. Such resemblances as it does offer to other
creatures of the same group lie in the direction of the American
deer of the sub-family Dorcelaphine. The bones of the
side toes are (as already mentioned) like those of the rein-
deer, the roe, and the American group; only their lower
portions are retained. The antlers are very big. Their beams
grow horizontally and almost at right angles to the line of the
neck ridge and forehead. The pedicle is very low. The round
unbranched stem or beam of the horn is rather long in some
extinct species, and then palmates broadly. The palmated part
of the horn is divided conspicuously into two main portions.
One, the nearest to the skull, contains about five prongs in the
mature male. The palmation then continues in a direction
almost at right angles with the round, lower stem of the antler,
and along the edge of this palmation project as many as twelve
or more prongs or points in well-developed antlers. It is
thought by that great authority, Mr. Lydekker, that there are
some slight resemblances in the arrangement of the elk’s antlers
to the horns of the American group of deer. It is possible that
the elk may have originated in North America from a stock
which produced the American sub-family, itself a development,
very likely, of an Old World roebuck origin.

As the elk has been so long banished from these islands as
a wild species it is not necessary to describe it any further.
Perhaps the British climate has changed disadvantageously from
the elk’s point of view in ten thousand years, for attempts like
those made by the Duke of Bedford to acclimatise and reintro-
duce the elk have been unsuccessful, apparently for climatic
reasons,
HIPPOPOTAMUSES, PIGS, AND DEER 303

Rangifer tarandus. Tur REINDEER

The Reindeer belongs, as has been already mentioned, to
that group of deer (Yelemetacarpalia) which only retain the
lower ends of the metacarpal bones of the second and fifth
toes; though occasionally in the reindeer there are minute
fragments near the wrist joint of the upper portions of the
second and fifth metacarpals which are so well represented
in their lower portions. Antlers are present in both sexes
—an exceptional instance in the Deer tribe—but it is said
that this is not the case amongst all the breeds of reindeer,
and that the females of those found in North-east Russia
are hornless. The head is rather coarsely built, with a big
muzzle, which certainly offers a suggestion of the elk about
it. The ears are not long, are rather rounded, very hairy,
and white in colour fringed with black. The general colour
of the head, especially along the ridge of the nose, is also
blackish. In colour the rest of the body varies a good deal
according to the season, but in June it is a pale yellowish-gray
on the neck (including the thick fringe of hair that lines the
edge of the throat), a bluer gray on the body, with a tinge
of warm brown in the gray on the hind quarters. There is
a blackish stripe along the edge of the flanks and the belly is
whitish. The front limbs are blackish-brown, and this tint
marks very strongly and decidedly the inner sides of the hind
legs, with a whitish patch on the inside of the hock, and whitish
lines on the edges of the hoofs. The tail, which is distinct
though short, is also fringed with white, and there is a little
white on the buttocks. These tints vary according to the
different races into which the reindeer is divided. The female
is rather darker and the young are darker still,* with a blackish
line along the back. The limbs are distinctly short in com-
parison with the length of the body, shorter proportionately
than in any other big deer. The feet are clumsy-looking

1Except when first born and quite young: then they are pale yellow-
brown.
304 BRITISH MAMMALS

and large, with well-developed false hoofs and very large splay
main hoofs.

The antlers are of remarkable appearance, but vary a good
deal according to race. They rise from low pedicles just behind
the eyes, and close to the junction with the pedicle throw out
two long palmated tines, which overhang the long nose, lying
almost parallel with it in forward direction. A short distance
above the point at which these frontal tines branch forth
over the nose rises another tine, also palmated. Then comes
(in some forms) a great sweep of smooth, round antler, which
only throws off on the under side one small tine before it gives
the final palmation. In one of the Arctic American types the
horns may be much simplified. The second tine above that
which grows over the nose is a simple prong, and not palmated,
and grows so close to the frontal tine as to be partly fused with
it. The beam of the rest of the horn is extremely long before
it is broken by the final tines, which are but little palmated.

It is very difficult to classify the reindeer type of antler, or
to say from what more primitive stock it was derived. It is
quite conceivable that it could have been derived from the same
type of antler (such as in the extinct Cervalces) that gave rise to
the horns of the elk. The position’of the frontal tines suggests
relationship (probably quite fallaciously) with the Elaphine (red
deer) group. On the whole, perhaps, the reindeer’s nearest
relation is the elk. It is rather an old type of deer, and made
its first appearance early in the Pleistocene period, but apparently
a little later than the elk, traces of which are to be met with in
the Pliocene. The present distribution of the reindeer is con-
fined to Sweden and Norway, Russia, Siberia, Spitzbergen, the
Arctic regions of North America, Greenland, Northern and Eastern
Canada, the extreme north-eastern part of the United States, and
Newfoundland. The range of the reindeer in Europe was very
different a few centuries ago. It was still found along the
southern shores of the Baltic in the sixteenth century, and about
the same time in Poland. At the beginning of the Christian era
it was (on the authority of Cesar) met with as far south as the
HIPPOPOTAMUSES, PIGS, AND DEER 305

Black Forest in Southern Germany; while further back still in
Prehistoric days it extended right across France, almost to the
Mediterranean and to the base of the Pyrenees. In these Pre-
historic days, also, it inhabited the whole of England, Scotland,
and Ireland. In the last-named country it is the opinion of
Dr. Scharff that the type of reindeer met with was that still
found in the Arctic regions of North America, while the reindeer
of England and Scotland he believes to have been identical with
the Scandinavian, or “ Woodland,” form. He supposes, there-
fore, that the Arctic American type of reindeer, travelling vid
Greenland and Iceland, over a then continuous land (or ice)
surface, reached the north of Scotland and so passed into Ireland ;
while England and Southern Scotland were peopled with reindeer
from France and Belgium, of the type still found in Scandinavia.

It has been thought by some authorities that, although the
reindeer died out long before the Historic period in England, it
still persisted in the extreme north of Scotland down to the close
of the twelfth century; and they support this opinion by quoting
the history of Torfeus, a Dane, who in the seventeenth century
put together a History of Orkney from translations into the
Latin of the Norse sagas of Orkney. An Icelander named
Jonzus again translated these sagas into Latin in 1780, and
commented on Torfeus’s History. According to him, the
correct phrase (he gives the original Norse) might be translated
into English: “The Jarls of Orkney were in the habit of
crossing over to Caithness almost every summer, and there hunt-
ing in the wilds the Red Deer and the Reindeer.” I see no
reason to doubt the probability of this statement. As Professor
Boyd Dawkins points out, the red deer had probably advanced
little by little on the reindeer, taking possession of their pastures
(aided by the milder climate), until at last all that remained of
the British reindeer were crowded into the northern extremity
of Scotland, and so gradually became extinct before the attacks of
man and the rivalry of the more successful red deer.

It is generally considered now to be probable that the reindeer

as a genus originated in North America, like the elk; and that
20
306 BRITISH MAMMALS

it made its way vid Behring Straits (then dry land) into Siberia,
and so reached Western Europe. Dr. Scharff considers that a
second invasion of Europe by the reindeer took place when that
small form known as the Barren Ground race (Rangifer tarandus
arcticus), with long slender antlers possessing but few points,
journeyed to Northern Scotland and Ireland by way of the
land bridge, or by the ice then joining Scotland with Iceland and
Greenland.

The reindeer (no doubt as an article of food) made a
profound impression on primitive man in Northern Europe,
and is often portrayed by scratches on bone or ivory, or on
the sides of caverns. A capital picture of a reindeer from the
cave of Combarelles, in Dordogne, indicates a type of antler
much like that of the Barren Ground variety. The Woodland
form of reindeer does not seem to have arrived in Britain till
the close of the Glacial phase. It soon swarmed over the country,
leaving almost more remains than have been left by any other
extinct beast. It specially abounded in the valley of the Thames,
in Wiltshire, Kent, and Somerset. There is reason to suppose
that it may even have lingered in parts of Britain when the
Romans arrived here. Its fossil remains are found all over
Scotland. As already mentioned, remains of the reindeer are
also abundant in Ireland; but, in common with some found in
Western Scotland and Northern France, they appear to indicate a
type similar to that now dwelling in Arctic America. In England
it was apparently fiercely attacked by the cave lion and the
spotted hyana; no doubt also by the great cave bear and by the
wolf.

Genus: CERVUS. THE TYPICAL DEER

This large genus, together with allied genera of the same
group, belongs, as already mentioned, to the Plesiometacarpalian
division, in which the lost toes (second and fifth) are repre-
sented by the upper ends of their metacarpal’ bones close

1 The metatarsal fragments on the hind limbs are rarely found.
HIPPOPOTAMUSES, PIGS, AND DEER 307

to the wrist joint. These side toes, however, in the typical
deer are also supported (and perhaps sufficient stress is not
laid on this fact by zoologists) by a few bony phalanges at
the extremities. The antlers of the typical deer invariably possess
(even if it has only degenerated to a rudiment) a brow tine,
which, rising quite close to the coronet, or commencement of the
antler, extends more or less horizontally over the forehead, often in
a line nearly parallel to the profile of the nose. As a general rule,
in the typical deer this front tine is never forked, the exception
to the rule being in the extreme types of Cervus giganteus, that
giant deer of Europe and Ireland. The skin round the nostrils
and middle of the upper lip is naked and wet. A gland on the
hind leg, which is a feature in so many deer besides this genus,
is present (concealed by a tuft of hair) on the outer edge of the
metatarsus—that is to say, on the lower part of the leg just
below the hock ; and there is no gland in the inner side of the
hock, such as exists in the American deer. The males of this
genus may or may not possess small canines in the upper jaw.
Occasionally these teeth make their appearance in the female as
well. They have, however, lost all importance in this genus,
and are practically no longer functional. The females have four
mamme. The genus Cervus is divided by Lydekker and other
authorities into the following groups or sub-genera: (1) The Red
Deer, or Elaphine; (2) the Sikine,*or Sika Deer (found in Eastern
Asia, and the stock from which the Red Deer group arose) ; (3) the
Damine, or Fallow Deer group; (4) the Rusine, or Axis-sambur
group ; and (5) the Rucervine, or Swamp Deer group. As already
stated, it is believed that a species of Axis Deer (Cervus suttonensis)
inhabited England during the early Pleistocene, and some of the
scarcely defined earlier species of deer in this country may possibly
have belonged to the Sikine’ group; otherwise the only two
groups of deer which are represented with any certainty in the
British fauna are the Damine (Fallow Deer) and the Elaphine
(Red Deer).

1 They certainly existed in France, where one species has been classified
as Cervus perrieri.
308 BRITISH MAMMALS

Cervus dama. Tue Commow Fattow DEER

The existing fallow deer are divided into two main types:
the first (rather larger than the second) becoming in the summer-
time of a light reddish-gray (or light reddish-brown), spotted
more or less brightly with white, the legs and belly being cream-
colour or a pale buff. The neck is of the fallow or reddish-gray
of the rest of the body, with or without spots on its lower
portion. There is generally a black line right down the centre
of the back from the shoulder to the tail, and this black is
prolonged to the very end of the upper surface of the tail, the
under surface of which is white. The rump under the tail is
white, edged by a blackish line on each side. This first type of
fallow deer changes the spotted coat in October, and throughout
the winter its pelage is on all the upper surface of the body a
dark uniform brown, while the belly and legs are a pale grayish-
brown. The black and white markings of rump and tail are
retained. The head of this fallow deer has white lips and chin
and whitish edges to the jaws. The inside of the ears is whitish.
There is generally a black mark (as in the roebuck), beginning
near the end of the angle of the nostrils, descending to the angle
of the mouth, and crossing over to the edges of the lower lip.
In many specimens of the spotted fallow deer no spots are discern-
ible above the shoulder on the neck, but this is certainly not the
case with all, as may be seen not only by the author’s drawing,
which is done from life, but in a photograph, which is given to
illustrate the different varieties of fallow deer. If this photograph
is looked into carefully, it will be seen that in bucks and does,
where there are spots at all, the spots extend on to the lower
neck. Moreover, some of the photographs of fallow deer
given in Mr. J. G. Millais’s British Deer and their Horns
also show indications of spots on the neck. The author has
even seen slight indications of spots on the cheeks of some
male fallow deer. It is, perhaps, necessary to insist on this
point, because it is often asserted that spots in this species never
extend beyond the shoulders. It is, of course, rare for deer
‘(pup snaw)) VHAGC MOTIVA

 
ae Bempeneten gee denna

Fe cape att aan Pe ane EES

  

Photo by the Scholastic Photo Company.

To face p, 308.

 

FALLOW DEER (UNSPOTTED FoRM).
HIPPOPOTAMUSES, PIGS, AND DEER 309

to be spotted on the neck, but this feature:occurs in the axis
of India.

The other type of fallow deer in England is much less
handsome. It is slightly smaller than the first described, and
is entirely without spots. The belly, the inner side of the
neck, the muzzle, and the limbs are pale, sometimes a buff-white.
The under surface of the tail and the stern are white, with the
black border as described in the other form. The colour on the
neck and body either becomes a dark brownish-black or even
quite black (generally darkest in summer) ; or the brown becomes
quite a chestnut or vinous-red, the neck, however, remaining
blackish. There are, of course, white and other varieties of the
fallow deer produced in a domestic state, from which the true
lover of nature turns away wincing, just as he would do from any
other non-natural type perpetuated by man’s protection.

Fallow deer have a tail covered with rather long hair. It is
about 6 in. in length, and sometimes longer. In this length of
tail they differ markedly from the very short-tailed red deer.
They have another peculiarity. The penial sheath is marked
with a plume or fringe of dark hair. This feature occurs inde-
pendently in the oxen, but I cannot recall it in any other
Ruminant, though there is a bushy growth round this organ in
the roebuck.

The height of a good buck of the larger variety of fallow
deer may be as much as from 39 in. to 40 in. at the shoulder,
but fallow deer in these islands rarely stand higher than 36 in. at
the withers, and a little less in the females. The smaller plain-
coloured type is about 34 in. in the same measurement. The
antlers of this sub-genus are specially remarkable for their palma-
tion ; that is to say, the spaces between the tines are filled
up by a broadening of the bone. There is a tendency to palma-
tion inherent in the Deer family which crops out quite indepen-
dently in different genera. It occurs, as we have seen, in the
elk, and in a lesser degree in the reindeer. The horns of the red
deer have a distinct tendency towards palmation. In the big
fallow deer found on the western coast of Asia Minor the palmation
310 BRITISH MAMMALS

is almost unobservable, and I give a drawing of one of the horns
of this deer (together with illustrations of the other types) to
illustrate this important point; for there is no doubt that no
undue stress should be laid on palmation in the classification of
this group. The Fallow Deer sub-genus, however, does differ
somewhat markedly from the Elaphine and Sikine deer, in that
its antlers are usually lacking in the bez, or second tine.’ But
this does occasionally make its appearance in a short knob, or
prong, close to the brow tine. In the Persian fallow deer the
brow tine is often reduced to a mere knob.

For the origin of the fallow deer we must hark back to
Asia, as we have to do with more than two-thirds of the
British Mammalia. It is evidently allied in origin to the Sika
group. At the present day one species of fallow deer is found
in Western Persia, while a large fallow deer, which is sometimes
nearly the size of the red deer, but is apparently identical with
Cervus dama, still lingers on the west coast of Asia Minor.
Fallow deer of much the same type are found at the present
day in a wild state in Northern Palestine, in the island of Rhodes,
in Greece, Sardinia, Spain, and Portugal. The fallow deer in
Italy are said to be introduced. The fallow deer in the south
of Sweden are of that insipid dark brown variety which is also
met with in England. These, too, are said not to be indigenous.
Lastly, the fallow deer, spotted and unspotted (the spotted
form bearing a remarkable resemblance, except in size, to the
fallow deer of Asia Minor) is found in England and Scotland.
As to whether existing fallow deer in Great Britain are
descended direct and uninterruptedly from the wild fallow deer
which we know inhabited these islands in Prehistoric times, is
still a matter of dispute. The fallow deer of Scotland and of
the New Forest bear many signs of being wild animals, and not
the descendants of tame ones. On the other hand, it is asserted

1 The tines, or branches, of the Cervine antlers are known by the following
names: The first is the brow tine, the second the “ bez” (pronounced “ bay ”),
the third the “trez” (“tray ”), and the remaining tines in the terminal group
the cup.”
Fine specimen of modern British fallow deer's antler (Scotland).

Antler of
English fallow deer
(New Forest).

English fallow deer
(New Forest).

Antler of
extinct British fallow deer
(Cervus browni).
EXAMPLES OF FALLOW DrEeER's ANTLERS,

 
312 BRITISH MAMMALS

that the spotted form of the fallow deer was reintroduced
into these islands (after it had become extinct) by the Romans,
and that the dun-coloured variety was brought here at some
time or another from Sweden. With regard to the last-
mentioned introduction, it is certain that King James I. did
import dun-coloured fallow deer from Sweden, no doubt to
reinforce the existing stocks; but there is historical evidence
to show that the dun-coloured variety existed in England long
before the time of James I. It may or may not be descended
from a wild stock.

The author fails to see, however, that any sufficient proof
has been brought forward to show that the spotted fallow
deer are entirely descended from pet animals introduced
by the Romans. Why should the Romans have given
themselves the trouble of conveying fallow deer right across
France to establish them in England for the future puzzle-
ment of zoologists? The Romans, in the last days of the
Empire, were fond of keeping birds and beasts in a tame
or semi-tame condition, but this practice refers rather to their
life in Italy. To them has also been ascribed the introduction
of the rabbit and of the pheasant into these islands, as well as
that of the white water-lily, the elm, and several others of our
now native trees and plants. The white water-lily certainly is
an introduction: whether by the Romans or succeeding civilisers
is uncertain; the elm also. But Dr. Scharff and other recent
writers have combated with some force the idea that Great
Britain owes rabbits, fallow deer, and pheasants to these
fastidious conquerors. There is every reason to believe that
the pheasant (which as a wild bird may have died out in France,
but has certainly persisted as such in Transylvania, and the
fossil remains of which are found in France dating from the
Pleistocene period) did find a refuge in the forests of
England, where it lingered on as a scarce wild bird, until it
was taken up and encouraged to increase and multiply for
purposes of sport a hundred years ago. The case of the
rabbit was dealt with on p. 214.
HIPPOPOTAMUSES, PIGS, AND DEER 313

The fallow deer cannot be considered native to Ireland, the
few that are found in that country having been quite recently
introduced from England.

The male of the fallow deer casts his antlers in May (in the
case of the bucks of the first and second year, not till June).
By the middle of August the new horns are almost free from
their “velvet.” It should be noted that, as regards the length
of time in which a fallow buck grows his new antlers, he
accomplishes this growth at a quicker rate than the red deer, in
whom there is generally an interval of five months between the
shedding of the horn and the presentation of the perfect antler
stripped of its skin.

The shape of the fallow deer’s antlers seems to interfere
somewhat with their value as deadly weapons. When the bucks
are sparring, the flat, bony basins of the horns make a loud-
sounding clashing, and no doubt they can hustle and push one
another about very roughly, but there is scarcely any prong or
portion of the horn so constructed as to be a good stabbing
weapon. For this reason, also, fallow deer are best suited
to be park animals, because they are mild in disposition and
practically harmless. ‘They have neither the savage boldness (at
times) nor the stabbing antlers or powerful feet of the roe deer
or the stag.

Fallow deer do not make so much use of their voice as the roe
or the stag. The females are generally very silent, and the male
only utters a grunting bark occasionally during the rutting season
in September. Only a single fawn is produced as a rule, twins
being very rare. The fawn is born in June, Fallow deer are
always gregarious—that is to say, they do not go about in couples
or alone, but for the greater portion of the year the sexes
separate, the bucks being together and the does by themselves,
with their young. But the small parties of males, or of females,
generally coalesce into large herds in August and September, and
again during the beginning of the winter. This last congregation
(in the winter-time) is no doubt a relic of the days when at
that season they were forced to band together in large numbers
314 BRITISH MAMMALS

(males and females) to protect themselves from the ravages of
wolves and other carnivorous beasts.

In winter they feed on such grass as they can find, and
on leaves and twigs; but it is doubtful whether, during the
present conditions of disforested England, the fallow deer, if
allowed to run completely wild, could survive the winter
without starvation. Therefore, in all parks and forests where
they are now kept, they are supplied during the winter-
time with a certain amount of hay and corn. Fallow deer
are very fond of horse-chestnuts, which they eat greedily during
the autumn ; standing up on their hind legs to reach the boughs,
striking at the boughs with their front feet and horns in order
to knock off the chestnuts. This fondness on their part for the
fruit of a tree which is a recent introduction from Asia Minor,
certainly might suggest to some the idea of the fallow deer itself
being an introduction from those parts. But it is quite possible
that the liking for this food could be independently acquired in
England.

Cervus brownit. Brown’s Fattow DEER

This, together with Cervus savini (which may be a varying
form of the same animal), was a fallow deer of the early type,
with simpler antlers, which inhabited, at any rate, the east of
England during the Pleistocene Epoch.

Cervus giganteus.s THe Mecaceros, or Gicantic DEER
(Also incorrectly known as the “Irish Elk.’’)

This magnificent creature, the males of which stood at least
six feet high at the shoulder, is little else than a gigantic develop-
ment of the fallow deer type, greatly as it differs in appearance
from the fallow deer of our parks. We have had to trace so
many examples of the mammalian fauna of these islands, and of
Europe, back to Asia for their origin, that it is a gratification
to be able to suggest that this culminating triumph of the deer
tribe was probably born within the limits of Europe. Neverthe-
less, it is not absolutely certain that Siberia may not have been
   

Troma drawing by the Author,

 

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.

 

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.5.

Tue GIGANTIC IRISH DEER (Cervus megaceros): ANTLERS AND SKELETON.

To face p. 314.
HIPPOPOTAMUSES, PIGS, AND DEER 315

its original home. The probability is, however, that in the early
part of the Pleistocene period a species of fallow deer very like the
one above mentioned (Brown’s) developed under very favourable
circumstances in Central Europe into a deer of considerable size ;
no doubt in the absence of rivalry with the red deer type, which
had not at that time developed from the Sikas, or taken complete
possession of the temperate regions of Central Europe. This
enormous fallow deer migrated westwards, and in France and
England assumed the form we designate as the Forest Bed race—
Cervus giganteus carnutorum. ‘This is apparently the same form
as Cervus verticornis and C. dawkinsi, the horns of these deer
only offering such variation from the French form C. g. carnu-
torum as is explicable by local variation, or the different age of
the antlers. In Germany the gigantic fallow deer assumed a
type which we know as Cervus giganteus rufi. In Ruff’s deer
the antlers are smaller and less palmated than in the British race.
In Italy, however, and not in Britain, may be found the earliest
link between the fallow deer and the gigantic form ; for in that
country and in Hungary the Cervus giganteus was not much
larger than the red deer, the antlers were comparatively simple,
with narrow palmation ; but the back twist of the horns, which
almost brings the outer surface of the “ palms” into sight from
the front and not from the side, and some other features, rather
point to a case of degeneration, The Cervus giganteus was also
represented in France by the variety called delgrandi, but this
form is hardly separable from the form described as carnutorum
(dawkinsi, verticornis).

But the grandest development took place in Britain and
Ireland. Cervus giganteus typicus, the typical Megaceros, or
Gigantic Irish deer, was probably developed first in England.
It also spread to the north-west of Scotland. From here it
passed over to Ireland, where, partly owing, no doubt, to
the absence or scarcity of man, and to the non-existence of great
Carnivores, such as the lion and sabre-tooth, it had the whole
island or the Hibernian Peninsula to itself, and reached its acme
of magnificent development. It will be noticed that there is
316 BRITISH MAMMALS

absolutely no trace of the bez, or second tine, on the horns,’ and
that the brow tine tends to be very short and to assume palma-
tion, while alone amongst the deer it forks into one or more
prongs (though, of course, there are some examples in which
it is simple). In fact, the brow tine of this deer resembles that of
the reindeer. Occasionally the brow tine is not only divided, but is
much bent down over the face. Sometimes, instead of branching
out into a “palm,” it merely forks into two short prongs. In
Mr. Rowland Ward’s book on big game measurements,
11 ft. 6 in. and 11 ft. 3 in. are given as the greatest recorded
measurements of the horns of the gigantic Irish deer from tip to
tip. The length along the inside curve of one of the antlers,
which measured 11 ft. 3 in. from tip to tip, was 7 ft. 54 in., and
the measurement across the greatest width of palmation was
194 in. This antler contained seventeen points. The greatest
recorded width of palmation is 25 in. The greatest recorded
number of points in a megaceros antler is twenty-eight, and
apparently the greatest length measured along the inside curve
that has been recorded is as above stated, 7 ft. 5h in. Mr.
Millais mentions a head which measured 11 ft. 3 in. in span
from tip to tip, but his own measurements of some of the finest
heads in the world, which are exceptionally careful, give no
greater spread than g ft. 5 in.

The females of the gigantic fallow deer were hornless. The
vertebra of the neck, in the male especially, were greatly
enlarged and strengthened to bear this splendid burden. There
were no canine teeth developed in the upper jaw. The tail
was slightly longer than it is in existing fallow deer. We can
only now make inferential guesses at its hair and colour. It is
improbable that it became hairless in our cold climate; it may
even have become shaggy. Unlike the pigs and bovines, the
deer show no tendency towards loss of hair. The magnificent
megaceros may have added to its splendour of antlers by a heavy
throat mane. It may also have retained the white spots and the
red-gray colouring of the fallow deer; but, judging by analogy,

1 A fallow deer feature.
HIPPOPOTAMUSES, PIGS, AND DEER 317

it probably became one-coloured in its maturity like all the big
deer, though the females and young may have shown the
white spots.

The megaceros in England was certainly co-existent with
the earliest types of man that arrived in Britain, but it dis-
appeared soon after their arrival, no doubt in consequence of
the attacks that were made on it as an article of food, but also
because at that time there existed in Britain enormous lions,
and one, if not two, forms of sabre-toothed feline. The megaceros
does not seem to have thriven much in Scotland, or to have
existed there in any great numbers. Indeed, up to the present
its remains have only been found in Ayr and that portion of
Scotland which approaches nearest to Ireland, and where the
last land bridge existed which connected Ireland with Great
Britain. Across this bridge the gigantic fallow deer travelled,
and found in Ireland its last home. In this almost-island,
separated then from England and Wales by the Irish Gulf, but
connected still with the south-west of Scotland by a bridge which
included the Isle of Man,’ the grandest culmination of the deer
tribe found itself at first with no worse enemies than the wolf
or the bear. When Ireland became finally insulated at the close
of the Pleistocene period, only three causes could have brought
about the extermination of the megaceros: (1) It may have
become so over-specialised that sterility ensued. It generally
seems to occur in such instances as where much-specialised types
are cut off by the sea and obliged to lived on an island that
unless they degenerate into a dwarfed form they die out from
increasing sterility on the part of males and females. The
extravagance in antler growth on the part of the males
of these deer may actually have reacted unfavourably on the
generative powers. (2) The massing of these huge deer may
have caused the development of some bacillus, which, like the
poison conveyed by the mosquito or the tse-tse fly, caused a
disease leading to their rapid extermination. (3) Probably the
last and most effective agency was the British sportsman (if I

1 In which locality the megaceros existed in some numbers.
318 BRITISH MAMMALS

may apply the term British to anything that grew up in Ireland).
The earliest types of Paleolithic man which reached Ireland
from South-west Scotland, or from Wales, probably found the
megaceros an easy prey with its unwieldy antlers. The great
height of its head above the ground would have made it less
observant of things that crept along the ground. No doubt it
was done to death (as are big animals in Africa) more by falling
into concealed pits, or by huge drives, which sent herds of
megaceros tumbling over precipices or floundering into bogs,
than by direct attacks on the part of man with his feeble flint-
headed arrows, assegais, or axes. A good deal of doubt has
been thrown of late on the question as to whether the megaceros
survived in Ireland down to the Neolithic period; but that it
did so seems probable, in spite of the absence of that absolutely
conclusive evidence which in France (and also, perhaps, in
Belgium) shows that the gigantic fallow deer was constantly
the prey and the food of primitive man.

Cervus elaphus. Tue Rep DEER

The red deer is a member of the Elaphine group, which
includes the grandest species of deer now living, the culmination
of the type being, perhaps, the Asiatic or American wapiti. The
Elaphine group arose in Asia, perhaps in Central Asia, from
some Sikine form similar to those which now exist in China
(Cervus sika), Manchuria, and Formosa. The most primitive
example of the Elaphine group at the present day is probably
Thorold’s deer (Cervus albirostris), which occurs in Tibet, with
perhaps an outlying variety in Turkestan. This form lacks the
bez, or second tine, of the antlers. The next most primitive form
(in which the heart-shaped patch on the rump so characteristic of
this deer is much less conspicuous in the summer-time) is the
Duke of Bedford’s deer (Cervus xanthopygus).' In the Duke of

1 This word of course means yellow-rumped, because the caudal disc or

the large light or white patch on the rump so characteristic of the Elaphine
deer is a bright yellow in this particular species during the summer season.
HIPPOPOTAMUSES, PIGS, AND DEER 359

Bedford’s deer the bez tine is poorly developed, and the antlers
are of simple construction and with a “cup” at the extremity.
Professor Scharff, of Dublin, is of opinion that the earliest of
the several types into which the True Red Deer are divided is the
present North African race (Cervus elaphus barbarus). This stag
is distinguished from the other types of red deer by the rudi-
mentary character or the absence of the bez, or second tine, of the
antler. Its colour, like that of the Corsican deer, is scarcely to
be described as red. It is more a dark brown, with a tendency
to gray on the back, and with a retention of the white spots of
the young on the flanks and hind quarters in some individuals.
This earliest form of the red deer seems to have travelled due
westwards from Asia Minor across the Mediterranean Basin, its
journey, no doubt, taking place at a time when the distribution of
land and water in the Mediterranean was very different from
what it is now. Much of Italy was under water, and the Greek
islands were the mountain peaks of a broad land which, with
Greece, stretched across to Sicily, Sardinia, and North Africa.
The small red deer (as this race may be called) still exist in
Corsica and Sardinia, and in the Regency of Tunis and part of
Algeria. They are probably extinct in Morocco, but seem to
have inhabited that country at one time. The Spanish race of
red deer, though it is really “red” in coloration, in some respects
seems to be akin to the North African race. In the Car-
pathians, the Crimea, and the Caucasus, in parts of Asia Minor
and Northern Persia, there is a red deer of the “ maral” type,
which, though belonging to the species elaphus, shows some
affinity to the wapiti. This form connects the red deer with the
great wapiti stock of Northern Asia and North America. It is
excusable to mention the maral here, because this creature appears
to have once inhabited Britain, where it preceded the typical red
deer. The remains of its horns in English caverns by their
massive character were thought by the late Sir Richard Owen to
have belonged to a distinct genus of deer, to which he gave
the name of Strongyloceros. But German naturalists and Mr.
Lydekker have together shown, perhaps conclusively, that these
320 BRITISH MAMMALS

fragments of antlers belonged to a deer identical with Cervus
elaphus maral.

The typical red deer seem to have reached the British Islands
relatively late in the Pleistocene period, some time after the
arrival of man. Professor Scharff thinks the first form to arrive
was the small red deer from the Spanish Peninsula (see p. 319).
This was followed by the big, normal red deer from Germany and
Belgium. The red deer gradually displaced the “maral’’ type,
and pushed the reindeer farther and farther north till it took
possession of their feeding-grounds altogether. In Great Britain
and Ireland the red deer, in Prehistoric times, developed antlers
far more magnificent than any which are grown at the present
day, except it be in certain cases of almost artificial park
development.

The present habitat of the typical wild red deer is restricted
to the following countries and districts :—In the United Kingdom
it is found (wild) in the county of Kerry, in Ireland ; on Exmoor
(Devonshire and Somerset); in the Highland counties of
Scotland and most of the great islands along the west coast of
Scotland, including Harris, in the Hebrides. It is found on the
island of Hetteren only in the kingdom of Norway, but it is also
met with in the southern provinces of Sweden. In Spain it is
fairly abundant, and perhaps in the border regions and the Serra
d’Estrella of Portugal. But the Spanish race is thought to be
more allied to the North African stock. Possibly it is the result
of a fusion of both types, for the heads of deer which are shot in
Northern Spain can scarcely be distinguished from the antlers of
British or French stags of not over-good development. The red
deer is found in France wherever it has been preserved, but it is
hardly, perhaps, as near a wild state in any part of that country as
it is in Scotland. It is extinct in Italy and in Switzerland.
Germany and Austria are its best centres of development at the
present day, and from those countries come the finest heads and
the biggest stags. In fact, the British deer are being very much
Germanised. Constant importations of stags from Germany and
Austria during the nineteenth century have sensibly modified the
  
   

   

Pe

Se e Le b Sv Ar :
Photo by C. Reid. Photo by J. $. Bond,

 

RED DEER. STAG (Cervus elaphus). RED DEER: HIND AND Fawn.

Photo by C. Re

 

RED DEER: HINDs,

To face p. 320.
HIPPOPOTAMUSES, PIGS, AND DEER 321

size and antlers of the deer in English parks, and even the wild
deer of the Highlands. The red deer is found in the Balkan
Peninsula and in Northern Greece. In Asia Minor it merges
into the maral. The same thing occurs in Hungary and Tran-
sylvania, where it is somewhat difficult to discriminate between
the typical red deer type and the maral, which obviously holds
possession of the Carpathians.

The True Red Deer is a large beast, the male standing 4 ft.
at the withers, or even a few inches more, though in the case of
the British stock a height exceeding 48 in. generally suggests park
feeding or German intermixture. The hind is markedly smaller
than the stag, and her height at the withers reaches in average
specimens to about 43 in. The weight of a fine stag may be as
much as 400 lb., but many greater weights than this are spoken
of, perhaps without conclusive proof. In winter the colour of
stag and hind is in general brown, with a good deal of gray
about the neck and the face in the stag and the old hind. The
inside of the ear is creamy-white (almost reddish in the stags
sometimes), the outer edge of the ear being blackish. There is
a tendency to a black stripe all down the crest of the neck and
the back nearly to the root of the tail. This black streak is
sometimes more obvious in hinds than in stags, and in the
summer than in the winter. The hair on the belly is grayish-
white in the winter and a pale ochre or reddish-yellow in the
summer. The outside of the ear is a dark umber-gray. Seen
at a distance, the black tips and edges of the ears and the whitish
hair of the interior are a prominent feature in the hinds, and
perhaps the most discernible part of the animal. Another impor-
tant feature in the colouring of red deer is the rump, which
exhibits (more markedly in the summer than in the winter) a
heart-shaped area of pale ochre-yellow, broad near the base of the
tail, and narrowing as it descends the hind quarters, which, as it
nears the tail and the inner side of the buttocks, becomes almost
white. There is a pinkish naked space under the tail, the tail
itself being short, tufted, and thickly covered with reddish-yellow
hair. As the hair of the hind quarters nears the edge of the

21
322 BRITISH MAMMALS

buttocks where the wide patch begins, it darkens almost to black,
making an effective contrast with the great white or yellow patch
ontherump. For the summer half of the year the red deer, in male
and female, is really red over the greater part of the body; that
is to say, the coat (except on the limbs, which remain umber-
brown ; on the belly, which is cream-colour; and on the neck and
cheeks, where there is a good deal of grey) assumes almost a red-
gold in healthy animals. On the back this gold deepens into pur-
plish-black, and this purple element in the coat is apparent often
in patches amongst the red-brown, and is due to the fact that the
lower half of the coarse hairs of the red deer’s coat is purplish-
gray in colour. The neck, which is heavily maned on the under
side and round the jaws in the male, and sometimes in the hind,
is gray or umber on its under side and slightly more reddish or
blackish over the nape. The head of the stag is rather brightly
coloured in the summer-time. The forehead is almost red-gold,
except where the purple end of the hair shows or where the red-
gold is flecked with glossy black. The nose is blackish, and the
hair, being very glossy, takes a blue or purple tinge according to
the light. The cheeks are markedly gray. There is a light
patch round the lower eyelids, and the lips and chin are whitish.
At the angle of the lower jaw there is that characteristic black
patch that one sees in so many deer. The nostrils and muffle
are naked, wet, and black. The outside and front of the fore
limbs is sometimes so dark a brown as to be almost black,
especially near the feet. In the summer-time, perhaps, the hinds
are even redder in colour than the stag. There are, of course,
albino red deer, as there are colourless examples of so many other
beasts and birds. But in Ireland a somewhat persistent variety
seems to have been naturally developed in the white-faced deer
characteristic of Kerry. In these there is a white blaze between
the horns, down the forehead, and ridge of the nose. The young
of the red deer are profusely and distinctly spotted with white,
the distribution of the spots being very like that which prevails
in the axis deer. The neck in the young is slightly maned
down the throat, and is without spots.
AHIPPOPOTAMUSES, PIGS, AND DEER 323

The colour of the red deer’s horns varies a good deal in
individuals and according to season. Generally in July and
August, when the “ velvet ” has just been stripped off, the horns
are a whitish-yellow, with a dark brown colour in the crevices ;
but as they grow older they tend to become dark umber-
brown, with light tips to the prongs, these tips of bone becoming
almost white in some instances. The “ velvet,” or thin skin
covered with woolly hair, which clothes the young antlers, is a
grayish-brown in colour. The horns are generally shed in
February and March, and begin to grow again in April. They
are complete in growth in July, and in August the “ velvet”
begins to peel off. The horns are scarcely free from these very
unsightly strips of dead skin till the end of August or the
beginning of September. In the author’s painting of “Red
Deer on the Heather” (month of August) he has shown the
antlers still hung with these strips of whitish skin.

The neck of the red deer is long, often markedly so in the
hind. Red deer are particularly broad across the forehead from
eye to eye, and, seen from the front, the heavy wrinkled brows
of the broad forehead so much overhang the eye that but little
of that organ is visible. This, the observer will note, is very
different from the appearance of the roebuck and of other primitive
forms of deer, in which the eyes are more pig-like in position
and somewhat nearer together. The shape of the red deer’s
head is not quite of the ideal beauty always represented by Land-
seer, who gives it a straight, or concave, nose profile—not too
long—with dilated nostrils and enormous eyes. The hind some-
times has quite an ugly head, with a long nose, and rather a
dog-like muzzle. The “pretty” type of Landseer hind might
be explained by the theory that he had only drawn young hinds ;
but in the young hind the nostrils would not be so large and
prominent as in Landseer’s deer. In the young hind the muzzle
is more pointed, and the nose is shorter than in the older
animal. The stag may even exhibit quite a Roman, or arched,
nose, but as a general rule he has a more beautifully shaped
head than his mate. The ears are rather long, and are pointed
324 BRITISH MAMMALS

rather than round, round ears being characteristic of the lower
and:more pig-like types of deer.

Stags, and sometimes hinds, have small tusks or canine
teeth in the upper jaw, as well as, of course, the invariable
incisor-like canine in the lower jaw. Stags, but especially
hinds, are not disinclined to use their teeth for purposes of
offence, and hinds can give a very severe bite with their
lower front teeth. The hoofs of the front toes are long and
well developed, as are also the “false” hoofs of the side

toes. As already mentioned,
yf red deer fight with their feet
(especially the front feet)
almost as much as with their
horns. They possess the usual
metatarsal gland and tuft on
the outer side of the hind
legs, and the face gland, or
tear pit, which characterises so
many of the deer and some
\ of the antelopes.
AW Sinesteelow = The antlers of the red
deer rise somewhat slantingly
and divergently from their
bases on top of the skull,
above and a little behind the
orbits of the eyes. The pedicle of bone from which they grow
is quite short, not more than from 1 in. to 2 in. in length,
though of considerable diameter. As in most of the highly
specialised deer, this pedicle tends to become shorter and shorter,
though, as we have already seen in our review of horns and
antlers, the pedicle was at one time she “horn,” and remains
such in the Bovine ruminants, among which it has grown to
tremendous lengths, adding to itself an outer covering of horn.
The great burr, or folding of bone, which marks the place out-
wardly where the antler joins the pedicle, is called the “ coronet.”
Just above the coronet on the under side of the antler starts the

   

GLAND Turt ON HIND LEG OF RED DEER
HIPPOPOTAMUSES, PIGS, AND DEER 325

brow tine, which, after extending horizontally for a little distance
over the forehead, turns up more or less abruptly. Above and
close to the brow tine is the bez, or second tine, and after a
longer interval of unbroken beam the great third, or trez! tine,
bifurcates. No one of these three tines—frontal, bez, or trez—
ever bifurcates at the tip? in the normal antler. The beam

 
 
   
  
  

    
    
  
 
 
 
 
   

NN \ ‘ pf 4 WOH
W\ Nie MM
MY"

~ iH

\\

YU
y

Xi

 
 

STaG IN EARLY MARCH WITHOUT ANTLERS: TO SHOW PEDICLE OF ANTLERS.

above the bifurcation with the trez tine in highly-developed
antlers broadens and increases greatly in girth. It then divides
into a varying number of prongs, in the centre of which is what
is called the “cup,” sometimes actually a hollow which could

1 The bez and trez (pronounced “ bay” and “tray,” and meaning twice and
thrice) are terms derived from Norman-French, and their use in England
dates from the Norman Conquest.

2 Occasional, but rare, instances in recent park stags show a slight
bifurcation at the tip of the frontal and trez tines.
326 BRITISH MAMMALS

contain liquid. The longest of these prongs starting from the
cup is often turned more or less sharply downwards, and this and
other prongs starting from the cup may bifurcate. It is in this
development of the cup that the red deer differ from the other
members of the same group, and, indeed, from all other deer.
In the simplest form of development this cup is merely the
original bifurcation of tines, one or other of the terminal prongs
of which may again bifurcate. But in modern German and
English park stags, and, above all, in the horns of stags of
Great Britain and Ireland in Prehistoric or early historic times,
the development of the cup reaches such an extravagance that
it may give rise to as many as eleven points, possibly more.
Early British stags often exhibited a great tendency to flattening
out or palmation (accompanied by shortness of beam) in their
antlers. The deer in Sussex parks seem to have a marked
tendency towards palmation.

Stags’ horns vary a good deal in their angle of divergence
from the median line of the skull and neck. Of course, the
most primitive type of antlers, in common with the horns
of other primitive ruminants, would grow more or less parallel
with the line of the neck. But as soon as specialisation
begins in the deer, as well as in oxen, so much divergence
may take place that, as in the case of the elk or bull or musk
ox, the horns may grow out at right angles to the median
line of the skull and neck. In the case of the red deer
the divergence is hardly such as to constitute a right angle,
but there is a good deal of variation in this respect, as neces-
sarily in the measure of the span between the extremities of
the horns. The span of the widest antlers found in Britain is
approximately 5 ft. It is the measurement (allowing for restora-
tion) of a most remarkable head found in Derbyshire (Prehistoric),
and now in the Natural History Museum, London.’ The

1 This, which is one of the most remarkable stags’ heads found in Britain,
was lying about unrecognised in the huge unsorted collection of horns in the
basement below the Natural History Museum, and its unearthing and exhibition
are due to the efforts of Sir Edmund Loder and Mr. J. G. Millais.
HIPPOPOTAMUSES, PIGS, AND DEER 327

average span or measurement between the extremities of the
antlers in an ordinarily good head is about 40 in., and the
length, measured along the inner side of the beam, from
the coronet to the extremity of the last prong of good English

 

RED DEER’S ANTLER OF PLEISTOCENE PERIOD: DuG uP AT DURHAM (BRITISH MUSEUM).

or Scotch heads may be as much as 36 in., though at the present
day it is rare to obtain antlers as long as this. In Prehistoric
times stags’ antlers in Ireland and England often reached 42 in.
in length, and this measurement is occasionally obtained, or
even slightly exceeded, by half-wild stags in Ireland at the
328 BRITISH MAMMALS

present day. The extreme British measurement (which is
perhaps 422 in.) of the length of red deer’s antlers is exceeded
sometimes in Germany and Austria. The greatest length of any
known German head is 473 in. Mr. Millais is of opinion, in
his classic work on British Deer and their Horns, that there has
been a gradual degeneration in antlers amongst British deer. At

 

EXAMPLE OF WELL-DEVELOPED ANTLERS IN STAG OF 12 OR 13 YEARS OLD.

the present day those which are reputed to be first-class heads
seldom measure more than 34 in. in length. Another point in
which British stags evince degeneration is the increasing tendency,
especially amongst those that are allowed to breed in and in, to
slenderness of antler, in contradistinction to thickness and
palmation. Many of the modern antlers are slim and quite
rounded in beam, and the tines are short, and often tend to
HIPPOPOTAMUSES, PIGS, AND DEER 329

disappear, the first which goes being the bez tine, while the
cup is often represented by a simple bifurcation of the terminal
point beyond the trez. There is little doubt that but for the
intervention of man and the introduction of stags from Germany,
the British deer, if it had not become extinct, would have
degenerated to quite a small stag, with relatively simple antlers.

Occasionally it happens that a stag is polled—that is to say,
grows no antlers at all, merely retaining the bony pedicles. Yet,
so far from this being due to want of virility or vigour, these
stags are generally heavier in build and much stronger than their
horned brethren, with whom they contend so successfully for the
possession of the hinds, that the polled stag is often the best
breeder.

After the growth of a stag’s antlers is complete, and the
velvet is all removed (which means that the blood-vessels per-
meating the outer skin have dried up), the bone which remains is
looked upon by many as dead matter, especially towards the end
of the time in which it is borne by the stag’s head; but Mr.
Millais points out that the antlers of the stag, and of other deer
as well, are permeated in the cells of the bone with an oily
substance, seemingly composed of mucus and fat. But a
certain amount of blood would still seem to ascend through
the pores of the bone from the pedicle even after the velvet
is stripped off the outside, and no doubt the antler still
continues to “live,” in an ever-lessening degree, until the time
has come for it to fall off, this falling off being brought about
by the absolute death of the bone above the pedicle. Naturally,
whilst the stag’s antlers are still covered with the velvet, this
skin is not only permeated with blood-vessels, but with nerves,
and the horns are extremely sensitive to injury. The older stags
retain the velvet much longer than the young ones, whose horns
take a much shorter time to grow, and Mr. Millais has pointed
out how young stags whose horns are hard, and no longer
sensitive, will for a few weeks enjoy the extreme pleasure of
bullying their elders and superiors, whose softer antlers are
much too sensitive to deal a return blow.
33° BRITISH MAMMALS

When stags fight with their antlers, or attack other animals,
including man, they deal the fatal blow with the brow tine,
stabbing downwards or upwards, whichever may be the easier
method of dealing a blow home to the adversary’s heart or
belly. They can, no doubt, deal terrible blows, especially to
any smaller animal, such as a man or a dog, by bringing the
whole mass of the antlers to bear on the object; and in fighting
with one another they sometimes strive to push the adversary
over on his side with a direct thrust of the whole antler, or else
by means of fencing to use the adversary’s horns as a lever to
turn over head and body. In other species of deer, in which the
brow tine is not much developed, and its place for stabbing

 

2nd year’s antlers.
THE PROGRESSIVE GROWTH OF A RED DEER’S ANTLERS.
ist year hornless.

purposes is not taken by any other forward prong or snag, the
horns do not seem to be of so much use to the male for
fighting with his rivals as might be imagined. In many species
their development is due to an undefined impulse which stirs
throughout living forms, and which cannot be adequately ex-
plained by Darwin’s theory of female approval and selection,
since that, for instance, would hardly explain the extraordinary
beauty developed by certain sea-shells. Just as a race or an
individual, when it has attained competence, and more than
competence, begins to crave for beauty in some form, so it
would seem that directly a species of plants or animals has
become well established and successful it expends some of its
accumulated energy in developing mere (useless?) beauty.
     
   
 
 

The cup in the 6th year,

 

——The cup.

—Bez.

——Frontal or brow tine.

3rd year’s antlers.

THE PROGRESSIVE GROWTH OF A RED DEER'S ANTLERS.
332 BRITISH MAMMALS

As regards defence against attack, some of the heavy-bodied
polled or “humble” stags (as already related) seem to be more
successful in the struggle for the possession of the hinds than
even those which have developed magnificent antlers. The polled
stags can butt with their pedicles and bony foreheads most
effectively. They do not waste time by fencing with their
horns, as do those gifted with antlers, and, having no horns
themselves, they offer no leverage by which, through a cunning
wrench, they could, in wrestling, be thrown to the ground.
Therefore, inasmuch as the rival stag provided with antlers
could probably only stab to kill if he were able to throw his
hornless enemy, he is unable to do much harm, and whilst he
is considering his plan of campaign he is pushed and butted off
the ground by the heavy, hornless male. It is undoubtedly the
strongest and most vigorous stags, but not necessarily the
largest antlered, that secure the most considerable harem.

The antlers of the red deer (as of other Cervines) illustrate
to some extent in their gradual increase of growth the progress
of evolution in the deer tribe generally. A male fawn born, say,
in May, begins to grow an antler the following spring. This is
a simple prong from 6 in. to 1 ft. long, sometimes ending
in a slight knob. When the stag is only two years old its
second growth of antler, which is merely slightly curved, and
is more erect than in the fully developed animal, has a small
brow tine and a trez (not always present in both antlers —
represented, perhaps, in the left-hand antler by a mere knob),
and beyond the trez the beam extends for some distance farther,
and ends in a simple bifurcation. In the third year’s antler
the bez tine makes its appearance, perhaps only on one side, the
whole antler increasing, of course, in length. In the fifth year
of the creature’s life each antler has a frontal, a bez, and a trez
tine. In the sixth year the terminal bifurcation begins to form
a cup, with three points on one side. In the seventh year there
will be probably three points to each cup. After this, if the
stag is a good one and of a good breed, the points in and about
the terminal portion, or cup, go on increasing in numbers and
     

EXAMPLES OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ‘‘CuP”

OR TERMINAL FORK OF THE RED DEER’'S fi
ANTLERS.

”

. Simple fork.
1. ‘f Royal ”—three prongs.
1u1. Development of ‘‘cup” in modern British stags.
1v. Example of exceptional palmation.
+ “Cups” of the antlers of a Prehistoric specimen.
334 BRITISH MAMMALS

complexity. A stag which has at least three points to the cup
is called a royal. After the stag has reached the age of about
fourteen years the horns do not go on improving in size and
complexity, but actually degenerate, losing length, girth, and
even points.

It is an extraordinary but apparently a well-attested fact that
the deer gnaw their cast-off antlers, getting the tines between the
molar teeth of their jaws, and moving these with that rotatory
motion which may be observed in these and other ruminants
when they are chewing. They also gnaw at the beam of
their antlers with their chisel-like incisors of the lower jaw. It
is undoubtedly the case that in this way some portion of the
thrown-off bone is absorbed into the system, but this is a point
of such importance as to demand very careful investigation, since
it would seem well-nigh incredible that the whole of so hard and
bony a mass could be completely devoured by anything but a
hyena. It would be interesting to know in this connection how
captive deer manage in zoological gardens. Their horns are in
some cases (such as the wapiti deer) almost as large as in deer
living in a wild state, yet apparently no keeper has ever recorded
the fact of any of these deer masticating and consuming the
whole of the cast-off antler.

The red deer has a voice and uses it to some effect. Males
and females utter a low, bleating sound to their friends, human
and cervine—a sound which is almost a squeak. When alarmed,
both males and females bark. When the breeding season
approaches, however, the stag begins to express his yearning
for the female by the bellow of the rut, a summons which
attracts the female and also the rival. The “weird, wild,
yawning roar” of the love-sick or jealous stag is described by
Mr. Millais as being in his opinion one of the grandest sounds
in nature, but he very rightly points out that it does not com-
pare for effect with the roar of a lion. He made interesting
experiments in this direction, and found that, whereas he could
hear the roar of a lion under favourable conditions of wind
at a distance of six miles, two miles was about the outside
HIPPOPOTAMUSES, PIGS, AND DEER 335

that a stag’s voice would carry. Mr. Lydekker compares the
cry of the male red deer to the grunting, soughing roar of a
leopard, a not inapt comparison, as the present writer, who has
heard both, can testify.

The breeding season of the red deer begins in September,
though the males display much interest in the gathering together
of a harem as early as August. In Scotland the breeding season
is at its height at the beginning of October. Some vigorous
stags will attempt to serve a harem of sixty hinds. During
this month of love-making they shepherd their hinds incessantly,
striving to keep them together and to beat off the intrusions
of rivals. At this period the stag has but little leisure to
devote to eating, being constantly on the alert. Despite his
utmost efforts sometimes his preserves are poached on by
daring youngsters, two- or three-year-olds.

Gestation lasts a little over eight months, and the fawns are
born, therefore, in May and June. The mother attends and
defends her fawn with the greatest care and bravery. She teaches
it to conceal itself instantly on the approach of danger, the signal
being generally a tap with the fore foot. Red deer very rarely
bring forth more than one young at a birth, and although twins
are not unknown, triplets are absolutely unheard of. During
the winter, the hind, though pregnant with another young one,
assiduously cares for her half-grown fawn, and at that season
hinds and fawns congregate together while the males resume

1] was much struck by the loud bellow uttered by the Barbary stag
when travelling through the forests of the Tunisian-Algerian borderland,
in the late autumn of 1897, where these animals, now protected by the
French, are abundant. By a curious coincidence, in the same forest we
heard a leopard calling. The two sfahis, who were sent with me as escort
by the French Government and the French verderer of an adjoining lodge,
both thought it was a stag calling, but on their making for the sound they
put up a leopard. In the same kind of country, but a little farther north,
in 1880 I took part in some battues got up by the French and Tunisians,
in which we killed Barbary stags, leopards, and lions. The lion is now
extinct in that country, but in 1880 he still lived partly on the unprotected

Barbary deer, which have increased somewhat in number since the lion was
exterminated.—H. H. J.
336 BRITISH MAMMALS

their bachelor condition. Male stags seldom fight seriously
out of the brief period of the rutting season, arid during winter
and spring great friendships sometimes arise between an old
male and a young one, the young one often acting as sentry
or as pioneer. In great migrations to new feeding-grounds,
hinds, fawns, and stags mix together, and a hind generally leads
the way. In June, after the fawns are born, stags often seek
out a particular hind, perhaps a wife of the year before, and
consort with her. The extreme limit of age for a male red
deer seems to be thirty years, and for a hind twenty-one or
twenty-two. Both sexes, however, shows signs of age after
fourteen years. ‘Their dentition is not complete till they are
five years old, and it is not until that age that stags completely
develop their upper canine tusks.

Red deer are good swimmers and readily take to the water,
but it is doubtful whether they would possess the necessary
strength to swim a strait of more than ten miles broad. They
make nothing, of course, of crossing rivers and small lakes or
narrow arms of the sea. When swimming they keep the whole
of the body under water. The neck is outstretched, and the
horns (in the case of the male) are thrown well back. Mr.
Millais considers that when the deer reach shallow water, cease,
in fact, to be out of their depth, they raise the head and neck
considerably above the water.

Their senses of sight, hearing, and smell are all keen,
but they are not all as intelligent in discriminating dangerous
from harmless objects as the roebuck.

The food of the red deer consists of grass, leaves and leaf
shoots, mushrooms and such fungi as would be wholesome to
the human being, beech-nuts, and acorns. Deer will also eat
heather, and they are particularly fond of that fine emerald-
green grass that grows in the bare patches and on the edges
of rills and watercourses in and out amongst the heather.
They are said also to eat dry seaweed on the coasts of some
of the Scotch islands. In captivity they can become strangely
omnivorous, and even slightly carnivorous, not even objecting to
HIPPOPOTAMUSES, PIGS, AND DEER 337

the meat in sandwiches, certainly not rejecting ham, this perhaps
on account of its saltness. Of salt they are very fond, and will
travel far in some districts in search of salt “licks.” For this
reason they visit the sea-coast (where they are undisturbed), and
lick the brine off the rocks that have been swept by the tide.
There are certain sages and grasses of the moorland kinds
which they affect, no doubt for the same reason, because salt
would be obtained from the potash of these grasses, as it is
from similar forms in Africa, which are also much appreciated
by antelopes.

On the whole, forests are necessary to the well-being of the
red deer, and their advance in England and the rest of Europe
must have depended on the retreat of the Glacial conditions and
the revival of trees. Perhaps this arises from the fact that, when
in an absolutely wild state, they would find little or no sustenance
in the winter season except in the woodland, where they would
have a certain amount of evergreen foliage, bark, twigs, dry
leaves, seeds, and fruit to fall back on. In summer-time they
generally feed at night, in the morning, and in the late afternoon,
resting a good deal in shelter during the heat of the day. In
winter they feed at intervals all day and all night; spend their
time, in fact, hunting for food, unless artificially fed in parks.

They are not known to suffer from many diseases, but every
now and then an epidemic of some kind, akin, no doubt, to
diseases affecting cattle and sheep, may sweep through the herds,
decimating, or even exterminating them, unless human inter-
vention checks the spread of the malady. It is known that they
are liable to hydrophobia. When this disease has been intro-
duced amongst them by a stag or a hind having been bitten by
a rabid dog, it is spread among the deer themselves by those far
gone in hydrophobia taking to nibbling at the skin of the healthy
deer, which they do until there is a slight abrasion, as though
impelled by some perverted instinct to spread the disease. No
recent cases have been reported of hydrophobia amongst deer,
and this, no doubt, is due to the complete extermination of the

disease amongst all animals since greater care was taken by the
22
338 BRITISH MAMMALS

authorities to stamp it out among dogs. A bot-fly, called
Cephenomyia rufibarbis, attaches itself very specially to the red
deer. In outward appearance it mimics a bee, but of course has
only one pair of wings. This fly is found in Great Britain,
Germany, and wherever the red deer has its habitat. The flies
generally begin their attacks in May. These odious insects (an
adjective which can almost without discrimination be applied to
all insects) enter the open nostrils of the deer and squirt out
from their vent a drop of fluid containing a number of very
small, just-hatched maggots. These fasten themselves by hooks
to the tender skin inside the nostrils, and then by degrees
gradually wriggle themselves up the passage of the nose till they
reach the back of the throat. Their presence and the strong
irritation they provoke induce a great flow of mucus. On this
mucus they feed, and increase in size till they are over an inch in
length. Apparently the deer is generally able to eject these
grubs by coughing and sneezing, and only suffers temporary
inconvenience by giving them this unwilling hospitality. When
they are coughed out they fall to the ground and become
chrysalides for two or three days, after which the perfect insect
emerges. Much more serious results, however, come from the
attacks of a fly which is akin to the ox-warble.

Red deer may be considered to have reached their maximum
development in size and numbers in Great Britain and Ireland
about the time when Julius Czxsar invaded Britain. The
complete close of the Glacial ages a few thousand years before
had caused Great Britain to become a land of dense forests (only
broken by a few mountain tops, moors, chalk downs, and human
clearings) from the south of England northwards to Sutherland-
shire. Ireland, also, was much forested, especially in the south-
west and east. The megaceros had died out long before; only
a few fallow deer lingered possibly in England. The roe deer
in Great Britain was no serious rival, the reindeer was extinct in
Ireland, and was being rapidly driven by the red deer into the
treeless desolation of the extreme north of Scotland and the
Orkney Islands. The assiduity of the Romans in England, no
HIPPOPOTAMUSES, PIGS, AND DEER 339

doubt, had something to do with the diminution of the red deer,
and the gradual civilisation and increase of population in the
two islands increased the want of arable and pasture lands and
diminished the forest. When the Normans came, although the
deer were saved from destruction at the hands of the common
people, and were in a measure preserved, still the hunting of the
nobles and of the outlaws put a limit to their increase. As
century after century went by and forest.after forest was laid low,
the deer began to be grievously affected from restricted feeding-
grounds and interbreeding. That they suffer from this (unless
new blood is constantly introduced) in each great park is obvious,
and in several Government forests they have become extinct from
this cause within the memory of men now living.

All things considered, we may congratulate ourselves on the
splendid home—I hope a permanent home—that the red deer
has found in Scotland. The glorious mountain scenery, the
scattered pine and fir forests, the innumerable tumbling streams,
broad rivers, and lovely lakes—studded with islands to which the
deer swim off for concealment and repose ; the wonderful scenic
effects of the mists alternating with sunshine, the snow that
covers the ground during the winter and dapples the mountains
in spring and autumn, the glorious flush of the purple heather in
the late summer, the lichen-painted rocks interspersed with the
greenest moss and gay in August with yellow ragwort: this is
a setting worthy of what we may regard—even reviewing the
splendid past of Megaceros and Alces—as a very noble represen-
tative of the Deer tribe.
CHAPTER XIV
UNGULATA (continued).

ARTIODACTYLA : THE BOVINES

Famity: BOVID.Z. THE HOLLOW-HORNED RUMINANTS

Ir will hardly be necessary to describe the main features of this
family, since they have been already given in a general review
of the Pecora. They are divided at the present day into six
sub-families : the Tragelaphs, or Spiral-horned Bovids; the
Antelopes, or Ring-horned Bovids; the Capricorns, or Mountain
Antelopes; the Ovi-bovines (represented at the present day only
by the Musk Ox); the True Oxen; and the Sheep and Goats.
All the members of this family are very closely inter-related,
and their classification is a matter of some difficulty. Nearly
each group has in equal measure preserved primitive features in
some directions, and has attained great specialisation in others.
On the whole, it may be said that the antelopes proper (those
with annulated horns), the sheep and goats, and capricorns (which
also share this feature of the annulated growth of the horn) are
specially related each to the other. The Tragelaphs in some
ways are the most primitive of the sub-families, and their nearest
relations are with the oxen. The oxen stand somewhat apart,
and the musk ox has some affinities with the Bovine group;
but, on the other hand, is perhaps most nearly related to the
Capricorns.

So far as we know, the Tragelaphine sub-family (elands,
kudus, bushbucks) never extended its range to England, though

340
THE BOVINES 341

representatives of this group may have reached Southern France.
The Tragelaphs possibly originated in Asia, where they have left
one living example in the nilghai. They attained considerable
development in Greece, Asia Minor, and Algeria, but their range
at the present day is entirely confined to India and Tropical Africa.
The True Antelopes are represented in the British fauna of the
Pleistocene by two examples, a gazelle (Gazella anglica), the
remains of which have been found in the eastern counties; and
the saiga (Saiga tartarica), a somewhat aberrant antelope belong-
ing to the Gazelle group.

But little is known regarding Gazella anglica, which was
probably allied in race to one or other of those types of rather
sturdily-built gazelles with lyrate horns, which are found at the
present day in the temperate regions of Central Asia. The
gazelle (together with the saiga and other forms that co-existed
with them in Eastern Britain in the early Pleistocene) is rather
associated with a dry country of steppes. At the time when
it lived in England there are indications that East Anglia was
more connected with Belgium, Holland, and Germany (of which
it formed a projection) than with the rest of Britain, owing to
the inlet of the North Sea, which began at the Wash. There
is much in the present condition of the plains of Northern
Germany which would thoroughly suit gazelles (no change of
climate being necessary), and it only needs to give East Anglia
the continental climate of Prussia to make it suitable for habita-
tion by these steppe-frequenting antelopes. There would be
gazelles allied to the Persian and Tibetan now in Northern
Germany but for the presence of man.

As regards the saiga, this strange-looking beast inhabited
Eastern and Southern England much more decidedly than did
the gazelle. Its remains have been found (amongst other places)
at Twickenham, in the Thames Valley. Its existence in England
was seemingly of later occurrence by perhaps thousands of years
than that of the gazelle in East Anglia, which apparently died out
at the beginning of the Glacial age.
342 BRITISH MAMMALS

Saiga tatarica. "THE Satca, oR SWOLLEN-NOSED GAZELLE

This antelope, though grouped with the gazelles, which it
resembles in its horns, is yet a very peculiar creature of puzzling
affinities. The females are hornless; but in males and females
there are short nasal bones and a high, bloated nose, terminating
in a snout that is almost pig-like. The ears are so strangely
truncated as to look as though they had been cropped.
The general appearance of the body is not unlike that of a
sheep. ‘The hoofs are somewhat heavy and broad. False hoofs
are present, and the feet are rather sheep-like. The tail is short.
The coloration is yellowish-gray, with a whitish throat and chest,
and a touch of white on the edge of the rump. The fact that
this antelope has only two premolar teeth in the lower jaw
instead of the three which are almost universal among ruminants,
shows specialisation. This loss of premolars, however, also
occurs in another aberrant gazelline, the springbok of South
Africa. But a fossil saiga has been discovered in Moravia and
Germany which had the full number of three premolars. The
British specimens are too imperfect to decide as yet to which
type—the ancient or the modern—the British Saiga belonged.
On the other hand, the existing saiga retains the more primitive
feature of four teats, while all the other known gazelles are only
provided with two mamme.

The nearest living relation of the saiga is the interesting
chiru antelope of Tibet. In this the horns are very long, and
the form of the animal is more graceful than in the saiga, while
it retains the full number of premolar teeth in both jaws, yet, on
the other hand, has only two teats. The sides of the muzzle
and nose in the male are much swollen, suggesting an approxima-
tion to the saiga in their external nasal protuberance. The
outward resemblance of the saiga to a sheep is, no doubt, simply
a case of parallelism, and it must be regarded as an aberrant
gazelle which has retained a more primitive number of mamme.
It is at present so characteristic of the treeless steppes of Eastern
Europe and Central Asia that its presence in England is somewhat
 

Photo by the Duchess of Bedford. Tue MusK Ox (Ovibos moschatus).

From the specimen (a male) until lately living at Woburn Park.

To face p. 342.
THE BOVINES 343

inconsistent with the supposed forested nature of that country.
It may, however, have only existed here for a short time in
one of the inter-Glacial periods before the smitten forests had
recovered their luxuriance.

Ovibos moschatus. Tur Musx Ox

The Musk Ox is another of the puzzles which await solution
in the classification of the Ruminants. In size it is that of a
small ox, and is very ox-like in build and in the shape of the
head, especially in the broad forehead, short nose, and large
muzzle. The muzzle, however, is hairy, and not a wet, naked
muffle, asin the oxen. The short ears are rather more sheep-like
in appearance, not being the characteristic broad ears of the ox.
‘The tail is so short as to be almost non-existent. This is not an
ox-like characteristic. The hoofs and the false hoofs are some-
what bovine in appearance. The outer hoof in each foot is
‘broader and more rounded than the inner one, which is pointed.
This peculiarity is derived from the characteristic habits of the
animal. It is as though it always turned its toes in. Unlike
the oxen, it has an ante-orbital pit, or tear gland, similar to that
which is present in so many antelopes, deer, and sheep—a feature
which has disappeared in the oxen. The molar teeth, though
long-crowned, lack the additional column which is characteristic
of those teeth in the oxen. The cannon bones—that is to say,
the fused metacarpal and metatarsal bones, which are equivalent
to the bones of our knuckles and instep—are short and stout as
in the oxen, and not long and slender as in most of the sheep
and antelopes. On the other hand, these cannon bones in the
musk ox are absolutely single, with no trace whatever of that
division down the middle which makes the same bones in the
oxen look like (what they really are) two separate bones joined
in the middle. Another point in which the musk oxen differ
entirely from the Bovines is that they retain on the outer side
of each front leg a large splint bone (a metacarpal), which,
beginning at the wrist joint, reaches nearly as far down as the
knuckle, or metacarpal joint. On the inner side of each front leg
344 BRITISH MAMMALS

there is no trace of the metacarpal bone of the second toe. The
oxen have this outer metacarpal splint of the musk ox merely
represented by a small knob of bone. In this point, therefore,
Ovibos is more primitive than the oxen.’

In the anatomy of its soft parts the musk ox is somewhat
isolated, but perhaps conforms most nearly to the capricorns.
In the direction of this group, indeed, its nearest affinities seem
to lie. It branched off, no doubt, from a primitive type of
hollow-horned ruminant, which was the stock which gave rise
to the oxen on the one hand and the capricorns on the other,
while the capricorns are the parent forms of the sheep and goats.
These mountain antelopes, as they are usually termed, are repre-
sented at the present day by Budorcas, a heavily built animal
living in Tibet, with a strong superficial resemblance to the
musk ox; by the serows of the Chinese, Indian, Sumatran, and
Japanese mountains’; by the chamois of the Alps and the
Caucasus ; and, lastly, by another strange-looking creature, the
rocky mountain goat (Haploceros) of North-west America.

The horns of the musk ox are, perhaps, its most peculiar
feature. Those of the male are enormously expanded and
flattened at the base, and the bases almost touch in the middle
of the forehead. They are curved abruptly downwards and then
upwards, and resemble very strongly those of the white-tailed

1 See illustration on p. 281. The vestiges of the second and fifth
metacarpal and metatarsal bones in the skeletons of the Bouvide have been
very insufficiently illustrated and considered by zoologists. Metatarsal
vestiges are very rare—perhaps only to be met with in some Tragelaphs
and Cephalophines. All the Bovids are “ plesiometacarpalian,” like the
True Deer. It is only the upper portions of the side metacarpals which
survive, though there are also nodules of bone (in the sheep, for example)
which support the side hoofs. In the Zvagelaphine (elands, kudus,
bongos, bushbucks) the side metacarpals are well developed, and metatarsals
also. They are present in the Cephalophines, but absent from most other
antelopes, Their traces in sheep and goats are fleeting. In the oxen, the
musk ox, and the capricorns they are only developed on one side—the outer.

? Urotragus caudatus, the long-tailed goral of North China, is a remarkable
form, retaining the primitive long tail which has disappeared in so many
bovids.
THE BOVINES 345

gnu, the resemblance, of course, being purely accidental. The
flattened base of the horns and a good deal of their length is in
adult males marked by coarse, broken grooves of fissures running
parallel with the length of the horn. In some specimens of
younger animals or females these longitudinal fissures are less
marked, and are crossed at right angles by “ ripplings,” which
may be the traces of original annulations similar to those which
characterise the horns of antelopes, sheep, and capricorns. Much
of the extravagant boss represented in the frontal portion of the
male’s horn is but a development of the outer horny sheath, and
is only represented by a very roughened surface of bone, from
which the horn core grows out sideways. In the female the
horny coverings of these bosses do not meet in the centre, but
there is a considerable space between the horn bosses covered
with hair. In the young animal (and this is a characteristic of
the horns of fossil American species) the shape and direction
of the horns are not so aberrant. The bony core grows
out laterally and horizontally from the frontal bone, as it
does in the common ox, and the horny sheath continues this
horizontal direction, and then turns sharply upward exactly like
the horns of a domestic cow. There is at this stage (and the
same remark applies to at least one species of fossil musk ox) no
downward sweep of the horn. We are still, however, very far
from the type of horn found in the capricorns (excepting
Budorcas), for in these the bony cores and their horny coverings
rise more or less vertically from the frontal bone, and are directed
backwards. This is the same with sheep and goats, except that
in the former, after an upward and backward direction, the horns
curve round in most cases to the front. In the North African
wild sheep, however, there is some approximation made to the
outward and downward curve of the musk ox’s horns.

The female musk ox has a somewhat primitive udder. There
are four functional teats, and an extra, or fifth mamma, which is
not functional. This feature of five teats is repeated (not
functionally, of course) in the male. In the True Oxen, besides
the four functional teats of the udder, there are (as any one can
346 BRITISH MAMMALS

ascertain who examines the domestic cow) very often two more
mamme placed on the front of the udder, from which, of course,
no milk can be drawn.

From the little that we know of its past history in fossil
forms, and arguing from the present locality of its only near
relations—the Central Asian capricorns and the primitive oxen—
we may suppose that the musk ox originated in the chief womb
of the world, somewhere in Asia, possibly in the regions north
of India. From Central Asia it spread across Behring Straits
into Arctic America, where it still exists. During the Pleistocene,
however, it travelled across Siberia and Central Europe into
France and the Pyrenees. It also entered England from the
direction of Belgium (no doubt at a time when the land con-
nection subsisted), and spread right across Southern England and
into East Anglia. Its remains have been obtained from Kent,
from various places in the valley of the Thames, from near Bath,
and from Gloucestershire, as well as from Norfolk. Elsewhere
in the Old World its remains have been found in Northern
Siberia, of such a recent character as to suggest that its extinction
in that part of the world has been within the Historical Epoch.
Its remains in Germany, as in England, date from the Pleisto-
cene period and before the advent of the Glacial ages. This is
an important point to remember, because the presence of the
musk ox in this island, in company with the remains of such
creatures as the lion, hyzna, reindeer, and hippopotamus, was
thought to present an inexplicable jumble of northern and
southern forms, of some creatures which must have a warm
climate and of others absolutely dependent for their very existence
on Arctic conditions. On second thoughts, however, it will be
seen that, judging from their affinities, both musk ox and reindeer
must have originated in a region possessing a temperate climate ;
at any rate, a country with hot summers, a region equally well
admitting the existence in the summer-time or all the year round
of lions and hippopotamuses. The struggle for existence drove
the musk ox farther and farther north, until it has only survived
finally in the extreme Arctic regions of North America. During
THE BOVINES 347

all these ages, no doubt, it has slightly differentiated, and has
gone on fitting itself more and more for life in a climate of
rigorous cold. At the present day its range is limited to a small
portion of North America eastwards of the Mackenzie River,
and north of the 6oth degree of latitude. From here it extends
over a good deal of Greenland, especially along the east coast,
from regions close to the Pole to almost the southern extremity
of that huge continental island. The musk ox formerly, and not
very long ago, existed in Alaska. The discovery of its remains
in that extreme north-western part of America was an interesting
point, as it showed that in all probability Ovidos reached North
America from Asia rather than from Northern Europe ; and this
probability is increased by the fact that no remains of it have ever
been discovered in Spitzbergen or Franz-Josef Land. But the
ancient distribution of the musk ox in North America extended
much farther south than Alaska and Canada—almost, if not quite,
to the Gulf of Mexico—an additional proof that the genus could
adapt itself to a warm climate ; possibly, in fact, preferred a warm
climate to a cold. In Temperate North America the musk
ox was represented by perhaps two other species, one with a
bulging forehead (called Ovibos bombifrons), and the other with
a cavity or depression below the frontal bone (Ovibos cavifrons).
But Mr. Lydekker, perhaps wisely, attempts to show that
the cavifront specimen is due to injuries inflicted on the skull,
and that Ovibos bombifrons is the only valid species of musk
ox coming from Temperate America which differs from O.
moschatus.

The illustration of the musk ox which, together with the
saiga, faces p. 342 is of peculiar interest. It is a photograph
by the Duchess of Bedford of the only living musk ox which
has been in Britain since the early part of the Pleistocene period.
At one time it was supposed that it would be impossible for a
musk ox to live in this temperate climate, but the specimen
referred to has now been for some years in the Duke of Bedford’s
collection at Woburn Abbey.
348 BRITISH MAMMALS

Sus-Famity: CAPRINV.Z. THE SHEEP AND GOATS

The Sheep and Goats are evidently closely allied; indeed, it is
said that they will interbreed and can produce hybrids. Their
horns, especially in the female and young, show those annulations
which are so characteristic of the True Antelopes, and which are
found in a less marked type in the capricorns. From this
last-named stock it is almost certain that the sheep and goats
arose, the capricorns having somewhat more archaic features in
the anatomy of their soft parts and their bones. Although the
sheep have departed somewhat widely from the antelopes or
capricorns in the development and directions of their horns,
they present primitive features in some directions, and it is more
probable that they originated simultaneously with and inde-
pendently of the goats from capricorn ancestors—from some
type very like the tahr of India and Arabia (Hemitragus). The
tahrs date back in a fossil state to the Pliocene Epoch. Two
of the existing forms retain the more primitive four teats in the
female. The tahrs, however, in common with all the goats and all
but two species of sheep, have very short tails. The length of the
tail is a problem, both in the origin of the sheep in general and
of the domestic sheep in particular. The domestic sheep (unless
interfered with by man) has in all its varieties, woolly and hairy,
a long tail, which is supported by a considerable number of
caudal vertebra. The same feature exists in another sheep, the
audad (Ovis lervia) of North Africa, a form once found in
France and Spain. It is impossible, however, to derive the
domestic sheep from the audad for many good reasons. Curiously
enough, the audad is rather capricorn-like in a number of points,
and (in the author’s opinion) offers marked affinities to the tahr.
The fact of its retaining a long tail, therefore, seems to point to
the disappearance of this feature in the tahrs as having been
a matter of recent specialisation, and as though the original sheep
had possessed this appendage, which has persisted in the least
specialised torm of sheep (the audad) and in one of the several
wild species from which the domestic sheep was derived. One
THE BOVINES 349

capricorn, Urotragus caudatus, the goral of North China, has a
very long tail.

The goats have lost almost all traces of the side toes, and
are exclusively two-toed, though they still retain the false hoofs
and nodules of bone of the missing digits. In the sheep,
however, thin slips of metacarpal bones—the upper ends—are
encountered in most of the species, though they are easily
detached and lost sight of in the tendons and skin of the
fore leg. The sheep also retain traces of the tear pit, or gland

 

HORNS OF A RAM (Ovis aries) FROM ACHILL ISLAND, OFF WEST COAST OF IRELAND.

on the face, which the goats seem to have lost, but which Ovibos
and some of the capricorns' have retained. The sheep, also,
have not developed the peculiar chin beard of the goats. They
favour, on the contrary, the throat mane so characteristic of
certain capricorns and of the tahr. This throat mane is seen
prominently developed in the North African wild sheep, but it is
by no means limited to that species, for it is frequently abundant
in the Armenian sheep (which is very near to the domestic), the
urial (Ovis vignei), and the European mouflon ; while in domestic
sheep this throat fringe is represented abundantly in African
forms, and elsewhere is even transformed into a dewlap of the skin.

1 Nemorhedus ; the gland has been lost in Hemitragus.
350 BRITISH MAMMALS

A wild sheep once existed in England (Ovis savini), which is
thought by Lydekker to have resembled the Armenian mouflon.
No traces of this sheep, however, are found in this country of a
later date than the early part of the Pleistocene Epoch, almost
before Glacial conditions supervened. The only remains we have
yet found come from East Anglia. It is very doubtful if it
was contemporaneous with man in England, and almost certain
that the domestic sheep of England in their most primitive types
could not be descended from this form by its gradual taming.
No traces of domestic animals existing in these islands (except
the dog, perhaps) are obtainable till the Neolithic period, which
would be after the close of the Glacial conditions. But Ovis
savint may have existed, almost certainly did, on the Continent
of Europe, and may have been one of the sources from which
Ovis aries, the domestic sheep, was formed. At present it is
an open question whether any wild sheep continued to exist in
the British Islands through and after the Glacial ages. The
Highland sheep and some of the Welsh breeds, and the sheep
to be seen on the islands off the west coast of Ireland, are
extremely like wild animals. Those from Western Ireland and
from St. Kilda off the west coast of Scotland have a tendency
to lose their wool and revert to a hairy type. On the other
hand, Highland sheep in the formation of their horns are very
like the merino breed from Central Spain. The Soa and St. Kilda
sheep are known to have been introduced by the vikings from
Norway and the Farées.

The difficulty in the pedigree of the domestic sheep is its
long tail, as already mentioned. It almost seems necessary to
assume the existence of an extinct species (this might have been
Ovis savini), which, like the North African Ovis /ervia, retained
the primitive long tail lost in all other living wild sheep. If
physiologists could assure us that it was possible for an animal
to replace the lost vertebra of its tail by the fresh development
of nodules of bone, and if we could assume that the domestic
sheep had done this, it would be easy enough to decide that our
sheep had arisen from a mingling of wild stock such as the
 

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.
Soa SHEEP, ST. KILDA (Qvis aries). FEMALE CoRSICAN MOUFLON (Ovis musimon)
TO SHOW TAIL.

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.2.5

To face p. 350.
THE BOVINES 351

European and Armenian mouflons, with perhaps a little inter-
mixture of some type like Ovis vignei of Central Asia. The hairy
domestic sheep of Syria and Africa resemble most, perhaps, the
Armenian mouflon (except that they have long, and sometimes
very fat, tails). The domestic sheep of Europe, England,
and Northern Asia (barring the difference of tail) offer consider-
able resemblance in their horns to Ovis vignei, the urial, and it
is noteworthy that this wild sheep has horns in the female.
The European mouflon has hornless females. In the domestic
sheep there is a curious difference in this particular. In the
African and Syrian breeds, which are, I believe, derived from
some form very like the Armenian mouflon, the females never
have any horns. In the English, European, and North Asiatic
sheep the females are horned, and in this important particular, as
well as in the shape of the horns in the male, they offer affinities
to Ovis vignei. Moreover, the tail in this wild sheep is a little
less short than in the mouflon.

No fossil remains dating beyond the age of domestic animals
exist from any part of the British Islands to show that there was
an indigenous wild goat. The author believes he is right in
saying that such bones of goats as there are, are always found in
connection with human settlements, and are of the Neolithic
period. Goats have run wild, however, and still exist in feral
conditions in parts of Wales, the western islands of Scotland,
and on islands off the west coast of Ireland. These Irish wild
goats are, perhaps, only represented at the present day by small
herds on the cliffmountains of Achill Island. They are white
in colour. Large as are the horns of Welsh and Irish goats,
they do not, perhaps, reach the great development met with in
the original wild goat, Capra hircus egagrus, of Persia, Asia
Minor, and Western India.

Sus-Famity: BOVINA. THE OXEN

The Bovine sub-family of the Bovide is thought by
paleontologists to have been of comparatively late origin, and
to be the most specialised group of the Hollow-horned Ruminants.
352 BRITISH MAMMALS

I do not find myself quite in agreement with the authorities on
these points. In the first place, from the little we know of the
geological age of oxen, sheep, and goats, the oxen appear to be
older than the last two named ; and though specialised in some
directions, they retain in others distinctly primitive features.
The cannon bones of front and hind legs (especially in the
front) are decidedly short, and they are divided down the
middle by so distinct and deep a groove as to be almost two
distinct bones, instead of being completely fused into one, as is
the case with the sheep and goats, the musk ox, and most
antelopes. Even in the deer the original division in the cannon
bone is only faintly indicated. The mamme, also, instead of
being only four, as in the deer, or two, as in so many sheep and
antelopes, are practically six in number. Only four are functional
teats, but on the udders of most cows there are two additional
mamme not normally functional. In this there would seem to
be some slight approximation towards the condition of the swine
(as examples of primitive Artiodactyles), in which there are six
to ten mammz. The tail in oxen is invariably long—also a
primitive feature. In the most archaic of living oxen, the
Anoa and Tamarau buffaloes, there are indications of the white
spots, gorgets, and other markings of the primitive Artiodactyles ;
and though these are not developed anything like as much
as in the Deer and Tragelaphs, yet in the Capricorns,
Goats, Sheep, and Antelopes they have absolutely disappeared.
The horns of oxen do not display any sign of regular annu-
lation, which is characteristic of all the other groups of the
Bovide except the Tragelaphs. Indeed, in the structure of
their horns they offer, perhaps, slightly more approximation
to the Tragelaphs than to any other of their relations. In
the last named, especially in an archaic form like the nilghai,
there is a tendency towards the development of triangular
twisted horns, in which the angle facing the front is often deve-
loped into a strong ridge. This three-cornered, and perhaps
slightly twisted, type of horn is characteristic of the earliest
known or most primitive of living oxen (Leptobos, Amphibos,
THE BOVINES 353

Anoa). In these archaic types of oxen the horns diverge but
slightly from the median line of the skull, present no boss in
front between the horn cores, and lie backwards almost parallel
with the ridge of the neck, and very nearly in the same line
as the profile of the nose. In all the developments of oxen
from this primitive type, however, the direction of the horns is
greatly changed, and the tendency is for the horn cores to grow
outwards almost at right angles to the median line of the skull,
while the tips of the horns are either directed backwards or
upwards and forwards. In the original types of Bos taurus, the
domestic ox, the direction of the horns is almost the exact
reverse of what it was in the primitive oxen.

So far as specialised features are concerned, the oxen have
developed somewhat peculiar molar teeth in the upper jaw,
with very long and square-shaped crowns, on the inner side
of which there is a slender, cylindrical additional column.’
There is never any trace of the upper canine teeth. Horns are
present in both male and female of the existing forms. There
are no face glands or tear pits. The young are scarcely ever
marked with white spots, except such slight remains of these
markings as may occur in the young and adult buffaloes of
the Malay Archipelago. The stomach is, perhaps, more
highly developed for rumination than in any of the other
Pecorines. On the other hand, there is a_ gall-bladder
persisting which has been lost by so many antelopes and by
all True Deer.

For the origin of the oxen we must again go back to Asia,
where, with the exception of the camels and rhinoceroses, most
of the higher mammals have been evolved. India or thereabouts
was the district in which the Bovine type first differentiated from
a form of Hollow-horned Ruminant, allied on the one hand to

1 The upper molar teeth of the nilghai (the nearest living ally to the
oxen) are also long-crowned, and there is a large accessory column in
those of the upper jaw. In the rest of the Tragelaphs the molars are
short-crowned, but those in the upper jaw possess a small inner accessory
column.

23
354 BRITISH MAMMALS

the early Tragelaphs and Cephalophines,’ and on the other to
the Capricorns. Not only did the sub-family Bovine originate
in India, but in the northern parts of that country the genus Bos,
and the Taurine sub-genus or original parent of the common ox,
also had its birth.

The most archaic of living oxen are the buffaloes. From
something like the buffalo stock arose a form classified as the
sub-genus Bidos, which is represented by the huge gaur and
gayal of India. From this Bibovine group separated on the one
hand the yak and the bisons, and on the other hand the Taurine
group represented in recent times by the aurochs and its
descendants, the European domesticated cattle and Bos indicus,
or the humped zebu type, from which the domestic cattle of
Africa and India are descended. The first True Bison was also
evolved in Northern India, a kindred form giving rise to the yak.
The bison spread northwards in the Pliocene or penultimate
period of the Tertiary Epoch. From Central Asia bisons
advanced early across the Behring Isthmus (that then connected
Asia with North America) into the New World. There the
bisons developed several types, and stretched their range down to
the Isthmus of Panama. One of these Bisontine species (Bos
latifrons) of the Southern United States developed during the
Pleistocene period into a very large animal, with enormous horns.
It is thought that when the bony core was covered with its horny
envelope the horns must have measured along the curve at least
5 ft. from the base of the horn core to the tip of the horn!
This is very different from the 12 in. to the 20 in. of the
modern American bison’s horns.

From the first great area of Bisontine development in Central
Asia a form of bison known as Bos priscus (this being also the
name given to the earliest species that entered America) wandered
westwards as well as eastwards, and spread right across Central

1 Though the Cephalophines, which at the present day are mostly small
antelopes in Africa and (one species) in India, have specialised in one or
two points, they stand very near to the primal stock from which all the
ringed-horned antelopes arose.
THE BOVINES 355

Europe as far west as England, as far south as Spain and Italy,
and as far north as the coasts of the Baltic. It inhabited the
whole of Russia, except, perhaps, those portions that were under
ice. Its degenerate descendants known as Bos bonasus, or the
European bison, still linger to the extent of a few hundred in
Polish (Lithuanian) forests and in the Caucasus. The modern
bisons in America and Europe differ from other cattle in the
exaggeration of the spines growing up from the vertebre at
the end of the neck and beginning of the back. These
serve to support a hump that is more or less evident, and
which is sometimes added to enormously by an immense
growth of fat and muscle. In the bison the horn cores are
set very widely apart. There is also a tendency to develop

excessive growth of hair on the forehead, under the chin, and
along the neck.

Bos priscus. Tue Extinct European Bison

Bos priscus differed from modern European bisons in the
much longer and straighter horns, the ends of which were turned
up and slightly back as they are in the existing bison of Poland
and the Caucasus. It was also much larger in size than the
modern form. It did co-exist in Britain with early man, but
disappeared not long after man’s arrival, giving way, no doubt,
in part before the rivalry of the larger and more powerful
aurochs. It does not appear to have reached Scotland, and its
remains have never been found in Ireland. Its northern limit,
as was the case with the lion and so many other beasts, was the
county of Yorkshire. Westwards it seems to have extended to
the borders of Wales. On the Continent of Europe it lingered
on far into the Historical Epoch. It abounded in France in
extraordinary numbers, and has constantly been depicted by
Prehistoric man.

In Germany, the Balkan Peninsula, and Russia (where, no
doubt, it was actually differentiating into the existing type, Bas
bonasus) it was still abundant down to the Middle Ages. It was
356 BRITISH MAMMALS

well known to the early Aryans, and its names in Gothic
(Wisent) and Greek (Bison) are obviously akin.’

Bos taurus primigenius. Tue Urus or AuRrocHs

This magnificent beast was known to the Romans through
their conquests of Gaul, Germany, and Austria. They found
that it was called by the Gothic races Ur or Aur. This they
Latinised into Urus, while the name descended into modern
German in the forms of Aurochs (i.e., Ur Ox). The Canton of
Uri, in Switzerland, was named after this creature, which once
inhabited its forested mountains. The Aurochs, or Bos taurus
primigenius, is the culmination of the Taurine type of the Bovine
genus, and, like nearly everything else, has to be referred back
for its origin to Asia, and in Asia to India. Here it seems to
have arisen from the Bibovine stock, very near to where the
Bisontine forms branch off ; in fact, there is a good deal of
kinship in origin between the Taurine and Bisontine races, in
both of which the horns are rather more cylindrical and less
flattened or less angular than in the buffaloes. In both these
groups, moreover, there is a great tendency to excessive growth
of the shaggy hair on the head and neck of the male. Where
the horns of the Taurine stock differ from the other groups 1s
also in their tendency to a forward direction. This is by no

1 It is a great pity that some reformer cannot arise in the United States to
rectify the incorrect nomenclature of our American brothers, a nomenclature
due in some instances to actual perversity and ‘“ contradictiousness.” As the
word éuffalo has been applied for many centuries to the most primitive group
of cattle existing in Asia and Africa only, and as the name é/som has such an
interesting Aryan pedigree, and was always applied in ancient times to this
distinct group of high-shouldered, heavily-maned oxen (the only group that
ever reached America), it is a pity that Americans still persist in writing and
speaking of 4uffaloes where they ought to use the word dison. In the same
way they persist in giving the Scandinavian name of e/& to American red
deer, which we know as the wafiti, from a Canadian Indian word. The
American antelope (prongbuck) is not an antelope, the puma is not a Lon
or a panther, and the jaguar is not a tiger. Whilst they continue to use the
English language they might at least strive to apply the correct English name
to their indigenous animals.
 

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.
Horns OF EXTINCT ENGLISH BISON (Bos priscus).

 

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.5,
SKULL OF ExTINCT AuROCHS (Bos primigentus).

To face p. 356.
THE BOVINES 357

means universal amongst the Taurine group. It is never met
with in the kindred species Bos indicus, which has had something
to do with the foundations of our breeds of domestic cattle.
There is some slight indication of this forward direction of
the horn tips in the yak, in the bisons, and in the East Asian
Bibovines. In all these cases, however, the forward direction of
the horns is much more associated with their upward than with
their horizontal growth. In a magnificent extinct species of
Taurine ox (Bos acutifrons) which developed enormous horns in
India (each core of which may have been 5 ft. long) the horns
first grew out at right angles from the median line of the skull,
but then, instead of curling round and forwards, they drooped
down at the sides, each forming nearly a half-circle in its growth.
A primitive type of Taurine ox (Bos namadicus) existed in Southern
England during the Pleistocene period, and its remains are
associated with human flint weapons. From India Bos taurus
spread in its wild form into Northern Africa and Central and
Western Europe. No form of this type ever reached America
(as a wild species).

The original wild form of Bos indicus is completely extinct.
This was, perhaps, the first of the two Taurine species to be
domesticated, and in this condition it early reached the Mediter-
ranean Basin and North-east Africa. The wild forms of Bos
taurus in North Africa (Bos taurus mauritanicus) also seem tc
have been domesticated locally, when the earliest types of
Caucasian races established themselves in that part of the
Mediterranean Basin, and in ancient—indeed, in modern—Egypt
we have descendants of the two principal stocks of domesticated
cattle, the Taurine and the Indicine, co-existing and mingling.
The Mauritanian cattle descended from the North African Bos
taurus are generally to be distinguished by the smoothness of
their coat and their uniform mouse-colour deepening into
blackish-brown.

In fact, the coloration in this breed is very much what

1 Bos indicus is nearest, perhaps, to Bos taurus, but it also displays slight
traces of affinity with the Bibovine (Gaur-Gayal) group.
358 BRITISH MAMMALS

we see in the Jersey cow—a race which is actually descended
through many divagations from this African stock. Early types
of domesticated Bos indicus that reached Egypt do not seem to
have had much of a hump, though there was a tendency to
height at the withers. In their earliest form they are more
archaic, perhaps, in appearance than the modern domestic cattle
of India, and are represented at the present day by the Gala ox,
a breed possessing enormous horns, in shape and turn very like
those of the yak in some examples, or of the Bibovine group in
others. ‘The Gala ox was the earliest breed of domestic cattle
in Africa, and is met with to-day in its purest type in
Abyssinia, Galaland, and the western part of the Uganda Pro-
tectorate. It was succeeded by a more modern Indian type
equivalent to the Indian zebu, which apparently proved more
suited to the climate of Tropical Africa. From Egypt, and
perhaps from India, strains of this Indian type of ox permeated
our European domestic cattle. In Europe (allowing for this
slight Oriental mixture) the stocks of domestic cattle are de-
scended from the two forms of Bos taurus—namely, from the
shaggy, black or red aurochs, and from the smooth, mouse-
coloured, Mauritanian ox. Perhaps, as already remarked, in the
east of Europe, and permeating westwards, there may have been
a strain of Indian blood.

The aurochs, or northern form of Bos taurus, was probably a
larger animal than the Mauritanian ox.’ In its finest development
in Britain and Germany it was a splendid monster, about twice
the size of a big bull of the domestic breed. The head was long,
especially in the facial portion, the nose being much longer than
in Bos indicus, or perhaps than in the Mauritanian variety of Bos

1 In this form the head was shorter; the horn cores did not curve so
much forward, but more downwards (a trait which often persists and comes
out in the cross-strains of European breeds), and the limbs were longer and
more slender. The Mauritanian ox may, on the whole, be taken to be the
chief source from which the breeds of Spanish, early Egyptian, Syrian, and
perhaps Hungarian cattle were derived. This breed may also have been

introduced at an early date into Southern Italy, though it is probable that
most of the Roman cattle were derived from the northern aurochs.
Photo by Sir John

re

   

Kirk,

EUROPEAN

GC.M.G.
BISON (

, in Wobu

  

rn Park.

Bos bonasus) FROM LITHUAN

   

IA.

ies

  

Photo by the Scholastic Photo Company.

HEAD OF ENGLISH WILD BULL (CHARTLEY BREED) (Bos taurus).

To face p. 358
THE BOVINES 359

taurus. In one specimen found in Britain the length of the face
from the frontal ridge between the horns to the tip of the palate
was 3 ft. The height of this animal at the shoulder must have
been from 7 ft. to 8 ft. As 11 ft. from the shoulder to the
ground is considered the height of a large elephant, it will be seen
that Cesar, in comparing the wild bulls of the Black Forest (which
probably stood 8 ft. from the ground) to elephants, was not
greatly exaggerating.’

The horns of the urus bull of the race found in Britain
measured in some examples as much as 38 in. along the outer
curve of the horn core, which, allowing for the horny sheath,
would give a length of nearly 4 ft. to each horn measured along
the curve. In some specimens there was a space of 42 in. in the
span of the horns measured across the forehead from tip to tip.
In colour the British urus may have been red or it may have
been black. It has already been stated that the original colour
of the Mauritanian form was probably dun-gray.

The last urus which survived as a wild animal in Europe was
slain in 1627 in the forest of Jaktorowka, forty miles south-west
of Warsaw, in Poland. A little prior to 1550, Baron Herberstain
made, or caused to be made, a picture of a Polish aurochs
(possibly of this forest of Jaktorowka), and this picture is pre-
served in his book (written in Latin and translated into Italian)
on Muscovy and Russia.? According to Herberstain, the colour
of this Polish aurochs was black. On the other hand, there is a
great deal of evidence deduced from our domestic breeds to show
that one variety of the ancestral ox was red (the common
ground colour for oxen and their allies the tragelaphs ; perhaps
also for the deer, the giraffe, the chevrotain, the pig, and
many more primitive Ungulates). In numerous mammals,

1 Cesar, De Bello Gallico, 6th book, p. 26, where in his description the
phrase used may be translated : ‘‘ These (U7) were little below elephants in

magnitude.”
2 The Italian version of the work is entitled Commentarit della Muscovia

et parimente della Russia, tradotti novamente di latino in lingua Italiana, by
Baron S. Herberstain. Venice, 1550.
360 BRITISH MAMMALS

however, there is an easy oscillation between foxy-red and black.
Even in our own order we may not only see the oscillation
between red and black in the hair of the chimpanzee on the one
hand, and the orang utan on the other, but gorillas have a
tendency to remain undecided between the two tints in the colour
of their coat, while in primitive man there was unquestionably a
black-haired type and a red-haired type ; reddish hair even crops
out in the Congo pygmies. It is not only possible, therefore,
that there were many local breeds of urus which may have been
black- or red-haired (in contradistinction to the dun-colour of
the southern form), but there was a tendency in these same
animals to produce white examples which were not albinos, and
which retained a few marks of dark colour about them on the
muzzle, ears, nose, and feet. These dark marks on the white
forehead were sometimes black and sometimes red. On _ the
other hand, in the Mauritanian ox these same places on muzzle,
ears, nose, and edge of hoofs are often white.

In the British Islands the urus made its appearance in the
Pleistocene period, and seems by its rivalry in size and strength
to have made life impossible for the bison. The range of the
urus in Britain extended far up into the north of Scotland.
The urus seems never to have reached Ireland in its original
form, only in that of its modified and perhaps partially domesti-
cated descendants, the Keltic short horn (Bos taurus longifrons).
In Britain the urus certainly lived as a huge wild animal well
into Neolithic times, and may even not have become wholly
extinct in Scotland until about the beginning of the Christian era.
Wild bulls and wild cattle, generally identical with or extremely
like the few herds that now survive under the rather mislead-
ing name of “Chillingham” or park cattle, were probably
of mixed origin. Some of them, such as the Cadzow breed of
Western Scotland, may be directly descended from one variety
of the wild urus, restricted space having brought about in-and-in
breeding and a great decrease of size. Elsewhere the breeds
of wild cattle (which are constantly mentioned by Norman
writers as existing in Epping Forest and other districts con-
THE BOVINES 361

tiguous to London) seem more to have been the descendants
of cattle run wild, and these feral oxen may have been of mixed
blood—urus and its modified descendant the Keltic short horn,
together with breeds of Italian cattle contributed by the Romans
(these cattle also being descendants of the urus). These, in
fact, were the parent stocks of the English wild cattle of recent
historical times, and of to-day.

The Keltic short horn, to which many names have been
given, is, according to some zoologists, a domesticated breed of
oxen resulting from degenerate tamed races of aurochs mixed
with imported “Indian”? domestic cattle from Egypt and Asia.
The more probable explanation of the variety, at any rate in the
British Islands, seems to be that it is nothing but a degenerate
urus, perhaps orginating in a small breed of that monstrous
ox in some restricted mountain country which became more
easily tamed by savage man, and which may have accompanied
the Neolithic peoples in their march towards Britain from France
and Germany. It is true that remains of Bos taurus longifrons
are found abundantly in Ireland, under conditions and with
associations which seem to indicate a perfectly wild condition.
Remains of the same dwarfed ox have also been found in
England associated with the bones of the mammoth, but these
English remains are not sufficient to determine precisely whether
they refer to a small form of bison or to a dwarfed type of urus.
From what we know of mammoth remains in Ireland it is quite
conceivable that that elephant may have lingered on till the
arrival of Neolithic man with his half-domesticated breeds of
dwarfed urus.

The British “ wild” cattle of to-day are found in the purest
form, that is to say, with the greatest likeness to wild animals,
in the forest of Cadzow, the ancient seat of the Dukes of
Hamilton in Lanarkshire (South-west Scotland). They lingered
also down to the seventies of the nineteenth century in the
parks of Kincardine, Stirling, and Cumbernauld, and at Drum-
lanrig, in Dumfriesshire. In most of these Scotch parks, however,
they have died out or become mingled with other stock, with
362 BRITISH MAMMALS

the exception of Cadzow, where they still remain a type well
worth studying! In England they are kept at Chillingham, in
Northumberlandshire ; Lyme Park, in Cheshire; Chartley (Earl
Ferrers’ place in Staffordshire) ; and at Vaynol (Mr. Assheton-
Smith’s place in North Wales). I rather think, however, that
at Vaynol they have been introduced. The colours of the
Cadzow wild cattle are white with black ears, black muzzles,
and black often on the lower part of the front legs. There are
often flecks of black about the head and fore quarters. The
Chartley cattle have black ears. Those at Lyme and Chillingham
Park are white with red ears. At Chillingham, in Northumber-
landshire, where the cattle have somewhat unjustly given their
name to this feral breed of the British Islands, the colour of the
ears and muzzle may be either black or red. But in all these
parks there is a great tendency for coloured calves to be dropped
that are either red or black or dun. As these are invariably
killed, the breed, of course, is kept white artificially ; otherwise
it is quite conceivable that it might revert to colour. Hector
Boethius, or Boece, who wrote about 1526, describes the wild
cattle of the Caledonian forests as being white, and shaggy like
lions. Domestic cattle that have run wild in various parts of the
world have often turned to a uniform white breed with black ears
and points.

The white wild cattle of England may be said to differ from
the urus, chiefly (1) in their much smaller size—they are as big
as fairly large domestic breeds; (2) in their proportionately
shorter limbs; (3) possibly in their colour; and (4) in the
proportionate size of the horns in the male. In the pure breed,
however, as shown by examples from Cadzow and Chartley, the
horns of the female agree almost exactly with the little we know
of the horns of the female urus—that is to say, they bend forward,
and then turn upwards and backwards with a slight twist. The
horns of the bull (when of pure breed) are remarkably like
those of the urus in shape and direction, only, of course, they

1 The picture of wild cattle which I have drawn for this book is intended
to illustrate the Cadzow breed
DONOL

err

SO) CTOL TAM

 

eS

r,

“(sy SOs)

MOZPBY)

“pooiy

 
   

Photo by the Scholastic Photo Company.
ENGLISH WILD CATTLE: BULL, CHARTLEY BREED (Bos tuwrus).

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by the Scholastic Photo Company.
ENGLISH WILD CATTLE: CoW AND CALF (CHARTLEY BREED).

To face p, 362.
THE BOVINES 363

are not so long. In fact, the English wild cattle of to-day bear
much the same relation to the urus as the pariah dog of (say)
the west of Ireland bears to the wolf. It is derived direct from
the wolf with scarcely any intermixture of other blood, and yet
is degenerate, differing from it only in smaller size, in bigger
brain capacity, and in the lesser bushiness of the tail.

The habits of these white cattle are those of wild animals.
The bulls are even dangerous sometimes to passers-by. As a
rule, however, they run away at the sight of man, and it is almost
as difficult to approach them as if they were African antelopes.
In the summer they generally feed at night-time, basking in the
day in the long fern or grass. They also sleep a good deal
during the daytime. The cows hide their young in thickets,
or brushwood, until they are old- enough to feed with the rest of
the herd. The whole herd is ready to make common cause in
defence of a single calf. When they move about from pasture
to pasture, and the calves are old enough to travel, they generally
move inside the herd, with their mothers on the outside of the
troop and the bull patriarch leading. In the winter-time bulls,
cows, and calves mix indiscriminately in the herd. When the
breeding season (the spring) draws near, there are fierce battles
amongst the bulls for the possession of the cows, battles which
often cost the life of the vanquished, which, if only wounded, is
said to be done to death by the others. In the natural life of
these cattle, where polygamy is the rule and castration does not
solve the difficulty of the unsuccessful males, it is obvious that it
is for the benefit of the herd that these unnecessary drones should
be killed. They are often, no doubt, driven to lead solitary lives
where they may easily fall a prey to the attacks of carnivorous
beasts. In fact, it is mainly on these solitary males, in countries
where big Carnivores still exist, that lions, tigers, leopards, lynxes,
wolves, and bears subsist. If the whole herd is in harmony,
or if a female or calf is attacked, success on the part of the
Carnivores is very doubtful.

Except in coloration, and perhaps in increased shagginess,
there is little difference between the English park cattle and the
364 BRITISH MAMMALS

Highland breeds of domestic cattle in Scotland. Authorities like
Mr. Lydekker are decidedly of opinion that these red and black
Highland cattle (their colours are noteworthy) may be descended
almost directly from the wild urus, of which they are little
else than a form degenerate in size. In Ireland and Wales,
and in Prehistoric Britain, the domestic cattle are less directly
connected with the urus, which in Wales and South Britain
(as on the Continent) appears to have dwindled into a dwarf
race, the Keltic short horn (Bos taurus longifrons). The little
black Kerry cattle, and the similar breeds in Wales, repre-
sent this degenerate urus at the present day, and this Keltic
short horn was the main stock of the domestic cattle in Northern
and Central Europe. In Eastern Europe it is supposed occa-
sionally to have mingled with the domestic cattle received from
Syria or Egypt, and descended from the Indian stock, and this
strain of Indian blood has markedly shortened the head. In
Germany and Hungary many of the types of domestic cattle
were and are of very large size, and much like the urus, except
that the horns have a tendency to undulate. The Roman cattle
also seem to have been derived from the northern urus; but in
Southern Italy, Southern and Western France, Spain, and North
Africa, the cattle have descended mainly from the Mauritanian
ox, though in Spain there seems to have been an intermixture
between this type and the northern urus. All these breeds have
at different times reached England by way of Germany, Holland,
France, and Spain, and have all played their part in evolving the
many modern types of domestic cattle in these islands, grafting
their own features on to a domesticated stock already in existence,
which was the child or the grandchild of the native urus.
      

     

eS 0 TERE ea alte ik NS i ole
DOMESTIC CATTLE: KERRY BULL (Bos taurus longifrons).
Allied to the Keltic Shorthorn,

POU ASA re
Photo by C. Reid,

DOMESTIC CATTLE: LonG Horn BULL,

To face p. 364.
CHAPTER XV
OrpverR: PRIMATES. LEMURS, MONKEYS, AND MAN

Tus group, which has given birth to the lord of Creation, might
from its earliest inception be described as the Handed Mammals,
the beasts whose fore paws were more or less developed into
that great agent of the brain, the hand. In this group there
was also from the earliest times a tendency to use the hind limbs
as the principal supports of the body, and even the main agents
of locomotion, so that a more or less erect position might be
assumed, and the extremities of the fore limbs be left free to
grasp, to examine, to fight,’ to manipulate, and to throw. This
tendency, which is pointing to inconceivable results in producing
man, originated very far back in the history of the Mammalia.
An inclination in the same direction may even be observed in
Amphibians, and this nascent differentiation between hand and
foot was, no doubt, continued through those early forms of
reptile which connect the Amphibian with the Mammal. Such
primitive types of Marsupial as the opossums of America
and the phalangers of Australasia (which last, except in their
very specialised dentition, are strongly suggestive of the lemur)
may be mentioned as early foreshadowings of the Handed
Mammal.

The Primates, as an order, date back to very early times,
perhaps to the end of the Secondary Epoch. They seem to

1 The galago, an African lemur, boxes with its hands like a man. Most
apes and monkeys fight with their hands as much as with their teeth.
365
366 BRITISH MAMMALS

have originated in North America from that basal stock of the
Mammalia not far removed from the Monotremes which gave
rise to the Marsupials, the primitive Carnivora, the Insectivores,
the Ungulates, and the Rodents. The earliest Primates, more
or less related to the modern Lemurs, seem in their origin not
to have been far from the Ungulates, Rodents, and Insectivores,
and indeed to have proceeded in their development on curiously
parallel lines with these groups, especially with the Ungulate and
Insectivorous Mammals.

The appearance of lemurs in Europe (including Britain)
dates from the Earliest Eocene, and probably rapidly succeeded
their evolution in North America. It would seem, indeed, as
though at the commencement of the Tertiary Epoch there was
a continuous land connection between North America (vid
Newfoundland, Iceland, and the Hebrides) with Britain. The
Lemuroids attained a remarkable development in France, and
from this part of West-central Europe the early Primates seem
to have spread across the Mediterranean Basin into Africa, and
possibly along the coasts of Arabia to India, Ceylon, and Malaysia.
Their development in North America (which was a remarkable
one) led seemingly to nothing. At that period North America
seems to have been cut off from South America, and so far as
is yet known no form of lemur ever reached South America.
Their development, in fact, so far as the future of monkeys and
man was concerned, seems to have been limited to Eurafrica.
Only a few straggling forms reached Tropical Asia, where they
have become highly specialised (Loris and Nycticebus). In
Africa, probably, the lemur developed first of all into that type
of monkey which is now associated exclusively with South
America, and which is known as the Platyrrhine.? A trace of

1 The nucleus of the British Islands—Ireland, Cornwall, Wales, and Northern
Scotland—appears, indeed, to have been, down to the Secondary Epoch, an
outpost of America. England was little more than the alluvium formed by
the washing down of the rocks of Cambria and Caledonia; England, in fact,
is made up of the detritus of Cornwall, Wales, and Scotland.

2 These South American monkeys differ from those of the Old World in
LEMURS, MONKEYS, AND MAN 367

this transition from lemur to monkey has been found by
Dr. Forsyth Major in the early Tertiary strata of Madagascar,
and named by him Nesopithecus. Although this creature is
specialised as regards the dentition of the lower jaw, it stands
very near the transitional type between the lemur and the
monkey. It may be supposed that this early type of South
American monkey first developed in and spread over Tropical
Africa, and passed thence (driven out, possibly, before the more
highly-developed, narrow-nosed family, the Catarrhines) across
the land bridge which once connected West Africa with Venezuela,
and so reached South America.

In previous chapters of this book the former extension of the
Antarctic Continent has been dwelt on, and it has been shown that
there are good reasons to suppose that it connected South America
with New Zealand and Australia, but not with South Africa.
At the same time there are equally good reasons to postulate
the existence in early Tertiary times of a land bridge connecting
Venezuela and Brazil with Western Africa; and it has therefore
been argued that the resemblances between the Madagascar (as
representing the primitive African) fauna and the South American
and Australian vertebrates and land invertebrates may be explained
by their migration to and from South America and Africa by
means of this Equatorial land bridge, and not by the connection
between the Cape Peninsula and Antarctica, a connection which
is rendered problematical by the great depths of the intervening
sea. In this manner the South American Continent became
peopled with those early representatives of the sub-order Simie—
the American monkeys. It would therefore seem as though the
Primates, having originated in North America (at that time
completely cut off from the southern part of the hemisphere),
travelled first to Europe, then to Africa, and thence penetrated
South America in the form of the Platyrrhine monkeys. By this
time the land connection through Antarctica between South
their broad noses, the number of their molar and premolar teeth (they

always have three pairs of premolars instead of the two found in other
monkeys and in man), and in some other particulars.
368 BRITISH MAMMALS

America and Australasia had ceased. Therefore, although the
South American monkeys reached as far south in that continent
as the Rio de la Plata, they never spread into Australasia.

It is possible, also, that in Africa from the basal stock of the
Platyrrhines arose the Catarrhines, or Old World apes, dis-
tinguished from the New World monkeys by the presence of
only two pairs of premolars in the dentition, by the narrow
nose, by the structure of the bony supports to the ears, and
several other features in the skull. Africa, therefore, may have
originated the True Apes, the direct ancestors of man. The
competition between the lemurs, on the one hand, and their
more perfected descendants, the Platyrrhines and Catarrhines,
drove the former southwards and eastwards into that projection
of the African Continent which is now the island of Madagascar,
leaving at the present day only a few isolated species of lemur
on the main continent of Tropical Africa. Madagascar was cut
off from Africa by the sea during the Tertiary Epoch, and at a
time before it could receive any form of real monkey. Thence-
forth Madagascar remained the great home of the lemurs,
many genera of which attained extraordinary specialisation.
Thus the lemurs originated in North America, but have found
their final resting-place in a large island several hundred miles
off the east coast of Africa!

The Catarrhine monkeys, having originated in Africa, where
by far the preponderating number of types are found at the
present day, spread northwards to the Mediterranean, Europe,
and across Arabia and Syria into Asia. Prior to this migration
they were probably sufficiently differentiated to represent the
parent types of the genera Semnopithecus, Macacus, Cynocephalus,
and the sub-family of the anthropoid apes. In Central and
Southern Europe the anthropoid apes appear first to have
emerged distinctly from the mere monkey, and, together with

1 The present and Pleistocene distribution of the South American
monkeys strongly suggests their African origin. ‘They are most numerous
in species in the north-eastern part of the South American Continent (Brazil),
though they penetrated as far south as Patagonia.
 

 

 

 

 

AN

 

 

.
ul

 

 

|
ft

 

 

mm J

 

 

 

 

a
\ “

 

 

 

 

Nk

   

aa
alll

 

 

 

 

\

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A La

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ab

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

=
——
-——
—s=I
>:

—_
=

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

|

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

oul it

“TTT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

iI ty Shiu

 
370 BRITISH MAMMALS

the baboons, the Semmnopitheci (or long-tailed entellus monkeys)
and the macaques, to have reached India and Tropical Asia. In
India, man himself seems to have grown out of an early genus
of the anthropoid apes, and from Tropical Asia he went forth
to conquer the world and to spread into every habitable portion
of the globe.

In the middle of the Tertiary Epoch monkeys very similar to
the macaques and Semnopitheci, as well as later forms actually
identical with the genera Semnopithecus and Macacus, lived in large
numbers in Southern, Central, and Western Europe, especially in
France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Greece. One of these
forms (Oreopithecus), a native of Italy, seems to have been in the
direct line of man’s ascent. It is noteworthy that it possessed no
largely developed canine, and that its teeth, like those of man,
were without a diastema, or open space separating one tooth from
another. A species of Macacus, tentatively called pliocenus, in-
habited England in the early part of the Pleistocene period, and
may just possibly have been contemporaneous in the Thames
Valley with the first arrivals of Paleolithic man. This genus
Macacus, which is now mainly Asiatic in its range (and which is
the only monkey inhabiting north temperate regions with a
climate as cold as England), is the only representative of its
family still existing in Europe, for one species of macaque
inhabits the rock of Gibraltar as well as the adjoining regions of
North Africa. Its presence there has been ascribed to the agency
of man, but there is every reason to suppose the contrary,
especially as its fossil remains are found in Gibraltar caves
and elsewhere in Southern Spain. This is possibly identical
with the species of macaque that once inhabited Essex, and no
doubt other parts of Southern England.

Famity: HOMINID. MANKIND

Man agrees with the Old World apes and monkeys in the
number and character of his teeth, though he differs from the
majority of these allies in never showing any diastema, or open
LEMURS, MONKEYS, AND MAN 371

space between the placing of the teeth, and in the small develop-
ment of the canines, which project but little, if at all, beyond the
line of the incisors and premolars. He is also able to assume
without difficulty the erect position, and to walk erect without
stooping or shambling. His body, moreover, as compared with
apes and monkeys, is nearly hairless. Like them, he has no out-
ward tail, the tail bones being tucked under the pelvis, or basin.
Unlike them, the first toe in the feet can no longer be used as
an opposable thumb ; it has become the longest and biggest toe
of the foot. On it the chief weight is thrown in walking, and
the rest of the toes are tending towards disappearance, so that
man is on his way to becoming a one-toed animal, not by the
extreme development of the middle toe, as in the horse, but
by the extravagant growth of that first toe, which is so often
reduced to uselessness or lost altogether in the other Mammalia.
There are many slight differences in the structure of man’s
skeleton and soft parts which separate him from the anthropoid
apes and the monkeys, and there is, of course, that wonderful
cranial development, which, however, has constantly occurred in
past ages in a slighter degree in the development of other
Primates—lemurs and American monkeys ; though, owing to the
want of help from local circumstances, it resulted in nothing.
Putting sentiment aside, it is sometimes questionable whether
physiologists should rank the physical difference between man
and apes as more than attributable to a sub-family. In the early
part of the nineteenth century, before the teaching of Darwin
had revolutionised zoological classification, man was placed in
an order by himself. On the other hand, in the middle of
the eighteenth century the great Swedish naturalist, Linnzus,
scarcely regarded the difference between man and the higher
apes as more than generic. In the absence of further infor-
mation, however, regarding the connecting links which once
existed between man and the earlier types of anthropoid apes, it
is perhaps reasonable to give him a separate family (Hominid)
to himself.
372 BRITISH MAMMALS

Genus: HOMO. MAN

The nearest approach on the part of the anthropoid apes
to the genus Homo seems to be represented by Pithecanthropus,
that man-like creature whose remains were discovered by Dr.
Dubois in Tertiary strata of Java. It is practically certain that
man did not descend from any of the existing types of anthro-
poid apes—the gorilla, chimpanzee, orang utan, and gibbon. We
must go back apparently to the parent form of the anthropoid
apes before we can find a common starting-point. In some
respects man resembles the least differentiated among existing
anthropoids (the gibbons of Asia), but differs from them again
by his small canine teeth, a most persistent human character.
The genus Homo, from such indications as we possess, would
seem to have originated in, or not far from, the peninsula of
India, and from that neighbourhood to have branched out into
three very distinct types, which, but for their constant inter-
mingling, have every claim to be regarded as distinct species.
Accepting them, however, as sub-species, the Homo sapiens of
Linneus may for convenience be divided into these three
principal types : Homo sapiens ethiopicus, H. sapiens caucasicus, and
H. sapiens mongolicus. Perhaps the lowest existing forms of the
human race belong to the two first sub-species, and physically
these two present more archaic features than the Mongolian. The
original stock of Homo sapiens before these divergences took place
was (we may postulate from the evidence at our command) not
unlike the Australian aboriginal or Veddah of Ceylon: a yellow-
skinned, prognathous man, with overhanging brows sheltering
largish eyes placed rather close together, with a retreating chin and
large teeth, especially as regards incisors and molars. He was high-
shouldered, short-necked, with long arms, and slightly bowed
legs. He was moderately hairy all over the back and outer
aspect of the limbs and breast in the male, but much less hairy in
the female. The head hair was equally long in both sexes, black
or occasionally red, with a tendency to curl. There was face
hair (a moustache, beard, and whiskers in both sexes, though
LEMURS, MONKEYS, AND MAN 373

much less in the female than in the males). Something like this
hypothetical sketch can be seen in the wild Veddahs of Ceylon,
who, if we had a Government that cared two straws for unpro-
ductive science, would be most carefully preserved and nurtured
as an object lesson.

Homo sapiens caucasicus. THe Wuitt Man

This is the commonest mammal in the British Islands at the
present day, with the doubtful exception of the long-tailed field-
mouse. It is, perhaps, simplest to style this sub-species in the
vernacular the “ White man,” in contrast to the Yellow man
(Homo sapiens mongolicus), and the Black man (Homo sapiens ethiopi-
cus). But the more primitive types of this sub-species at the
present day (and, no doubt, in past times) tend very often to
possess a dusky or brownish-yellow skin, though much of their
deepening colour is, no doubt, due to ancient intermixture with
the Ethiopian race. In some respects the lowest types, fossil
and existing, of Caucasic man come nearest to the primal stock
of humanity, and are less differentiated from the ape than is the
Negro or Mongolian. On the other hand, its highest examples
have almost left the class of Mammalia to found a new class of
Demigods. The sub-specific name caucasicus, or Caucasian, has
been much contested, but inasmuch as this type of humanity
early attained a very typical form in the races about the Caucasus,
and as europeus would not comprise a race which dwells also
(apart from recent migrations) in Asia and Africa, caucasicus
is, perhaps, the least inapt designation, as it represents the locality
in which the white man probably first became emphatically a
white man.

Britain has been inhabited by man since the early part of
the Pleistocene period, when he seems to have entered England
from Belgium or France, and to have spread northwards and
north-westwards into Scotland and Ireland. The Glacial con-
ditions which afflicted Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Northern
England during the Pleistocene no doubt much interfered with
early man’s prosperity and peregrinations in these parts, and
374 BRITISH MAMMALS

after his first incursion he may have retreated before the ice until
conditions became more tolerable. Nevertheless, he would seem
certainly to have been contemporaneous in England with the
great fauna of Early and Mid-Pleistocene times, and in Ireland
to have co-existed with the huge megaceros deer, while his
remains in Western Scotland go back to an equally remote
antiquity.

The first types of Paleolithic man that invaded these islands
were related to that low, almost simian race of Belgium and
Germany which we distinguish as the Neanderthaloid type, a
type, in all probability, not much different from the generalised
Australian aboriginal, who is either a very low Caucasian or a
direct descendant of the basal type of humanity. A picture of
the living Veddah of Ceylon would give a very fair idea of the
aspect of Paleolithic British man. It is possible, however, that
there is a Mongoloid element in the British races. Early in the
history of mankind an enterprising section of the early Mon-
golian, or yellow-skinned, straight-haired race boldly attacked
the frozen North as it lay under the glaciers of the Pleistocene.
Becoming more and more carnivorous, and learning to clothe
themselves in the skins of the beasts they killed, and, no doubt,
making use of the recently acquired knowledge of fire produc-
tion, these early Mongoloids (equivalent to the modern Eskimo)
apparently ranged round the northern regions of the Old and
New Worlds, and came to Britain and France when the cold
was still great, but when there were abundant supplies of rein-
deer, horses, mammoth, and wild cattle to nourish carnivorous
man. It is possible that a little Paleolithic blood still lingers in
Britain, especially in out-of-the-way parts of Ireland, Wales, and
Scotland. It is equally likely that in the same localities there is
more than a dash of the Eskimo, giving the broad cheek bones,
flattened nose, clumsy build, and peepy eyes of the Hyperborean
as seen in the modern Samoieds and Eskimo.

But under more favourable conditions in Western Asia and
Southern Europe the Caucasic race had developed that handsome
type which it is convenient to call Iberian—the white-skinned,
LEMURS, MONKEYS, AND MAN 375

dark-haired, dark-eyed, hairy man, with a skin which, though
tanned by exposure, is still clear enough to show a blush. The
dark-haired whites developed the first civilisation, and spread it
westwards over the Mediterranean Basin in North Africa and
South Europe, having, amongst other things, a passion for
raising objects of worship or tombs in the shape of huge erect
stones. The dark-haired, white-skinned Iberian spread through
France and Southern Germany into Denmark, England, Wales,
Ireland, and Scotland, where their descendants may be seen not
much differentiated at the present day. They were possibly the
Picts of history, while the fairies of legend were undoubtedly the
hunted remains of Paleolithic man—the dwarfish descendants of
the Australoid and Eskimo aborigines. The Iberian, in short,
was Neolithic man, with his vastly improved implements of
stone. He too began first to utilise metals.

Then, much later, somewhere in the north of Europe arose
a remarkable type of white man, whose origin is still uncertain.
He was even paler and clearer-skinned than the Iberian, and
consequently more blushing, but he differed notably from this
and from all other types of humanity by retaining the gray eyes
of infancy, and developing them until the iris was nearly blue in
colour. He was also notable for his red, still more his blonde
or brown hair. Whether he arose directly as a variety of the
primal Caucasian stock, or whether he was originally due to an
intermixture with the Mongolian, is uncertain. A tendency to
red or to dark brown hair exists in the germ of the human species.
Anthropoid apes, our cousins of to-day, not only are reddish-
yellow and brown in some genera and black-haired in others, but
even black-haired apes, like the gorilla, have a tendency, especially
in the female, to develop reddish hairs. The Congo pygmies,
who are amongst the lowest type of Negro, also incline towards
redness of hair on the head, and the fine down on their bodies
is reddish-yellow. Even the Iberians in Afghanistan and North
Africa developed a variety with reddish-brown hair and gray
eyes. A downright red-haired type of Caucasian man seems to
have been an extremely old variety, and is that which is so often
376 BRITISH MAMMALS

met with in Scotland, Ireland, France, and Portugal, which is, in
fact, the only racial type one can associate with the speaking: of
Keltic languages. The blue-eyed, absolutely golden-haired
Aryan, the race found in Scandinavia, in Ancient Greece, in
Russia, in Germany, and Anglo-Saxon England, is a marked
type of apparently recent birth—recent, that is to say, in the
history of human development. This type for the sake of
convenience one may style the Aryan, since it is associated
with the introduction of the Aryan family of languages.

The next invader of Britain after the Iberian was the red-
haired Kelt, who had an Aryan language imposed on him, no
doubt by conquest, at the hands of the true golden-haired
Aryans. Arriving in Britain from Belgium, having already
seemingly differentiated his Keltic vocabulary into two groups,’
represented by the modern Welsh and Gaelic, he possessed, no
doubt, some advantage of physique and weapons, but was
nevertheless unable or unwilling completely to exterminate his
Iberian predecessors, on whom, however, he imposed his Aryan
vocabulary. The children resulting from the mixed marriages
between the red-haired Kelt and the black-haired Iberian retained
from their mothers the Iberian grammar and structure of their
speech. The result is that Welsh and Gaelic represent a curious
compromise: the grammar and structure of the tongues are
akin to that of the Berber languages, are, in short, North
African, while the vocabulary is mainly Aryan or North
European. No doubt much the same linguistic compromise
was accomplished in France, and perhaps to some lesser extent
in Italy and Northern Spain. The only remains of the aboriginal
Iberian tongue is modern Basque, spoken in the Pyrenees.

The Brythonic, or British branch of the Keltic group, may
also have been the original speech of the flaxen-haired, blue-
eyed Belgians who invaded Eastern Britain after the red-haired
Kelts.

The Roman invasion introduced a small but powerful ele-
ment of very diverse origin. There were dark-haired Iberians

' Brythonic and Goidhelic.
LEMURS, MONKEYS, AND MAN 377

from Italy, Spain, and Southern Gaul, which reinforced the
dark-haired stock in Britain. There were red-headed Kelts and
flaxen-haired Belgi also in the Roman armies. Then before
the Romans left came the forerunners of the great Teutonic
invasion. Yellow-haired, blue-eyed men from Scandinavia, from
Western Germany, and Friesland began to settle on the coasts
of Scotland and East Anglia, and after the Romans left the
Teutonic invasion of Britain and Ireland proceeded apace. The
Teutons and Scandinavians were flaxen or red-haired, blue- or
gray-eyed northern Aryans, speaking pure Aryan languages.
Some of them may have been slightly changed in physique by
mixture with the Lapp and the Finn, that mixture which gives
such a Mongolian aspect to some of the inhabitants of Eastern
Germany and Northern Russia. In the main, however, this was
the clearly-defined, good-looking type which we see to-day in
the agricultural districts along the coasts of Eastern England
and the coast regions all round Ireland. This handsome Scan-
dinavian type remains particularly pure in Ireland at the present
day, and is by no means confined to the coast, though not much
met with in the centre and south. It is well represented in the
Royal Irish Constabulary. It is the best type of Englishman,
but is rare in Scotland except in the Shetland Islands and the
English borderland. It is easily distinguishable from the many
other types of Scotch physiognomy by the lesser prominence of
the cheek-bones, the straight and moderately short nose, and the
blue eyes. It is curious that this Scandinavian type, so much
associated with the best and conventional kind of Englishman,
should be most strikingly represented in Ireland.

A slight reinforcement of the Iberian element was probably
the outcome of the Norman Conquest. Many of the Normans
who invaded England were largely of French extraction and
of the dark-haired type. But under the Angevin kings who
succeeded to the Norman dynasty considerable numbers of
Gascons, Poitevins, and other types of dark Frenchmen entered
the country, and being given positions of influence and impor-
tance, became the sires of many children, legitimate and illegiti-
378 BRITISH MAMMALS

mate. Under the Normans, too, and thenceforth down to our
own days, Jews and Gipsies entered England, the Jews settling
for the most part at the coast towns, while the Gipsies pro-
portionately to their small numbers exerted a remarkable influence
over the character of the population in many parts of Essex,
Devon, Shropshire, Lancashire, and Southern Scotland. The
Gipsies were originally a nomad race of North-western India, be-
longing to the Caucasian family, of mixed Dravidian, Iberian, and
Aryan stock. They infused into parts of England the influence
of the dark eyes, dark hair, and lither forms of the eastern
Caucasian. The Jewish type has exerted the most influence over
parts of Kent, South Hampshire, South Yorkshire, London and
its suburbs, and Lancashire. The connection of Bristol and
Glasgow with the West Indian trade has actually introduced a
slight (and now scarcely traceable) negro element into the
population on the banks of the Clyde and the Somersetshire
Avon. Numbers of merchants and adventurers from Scotland
and Bristol married in the West Indies half-castes, or quadroons
or octoroons, and their children—dark-haired, brown-eyed, and
vivacious, and not differing very markedly from the Iberian
element—have perpetuated this strain in the districts above
mentioned. As Ireland has been kept apart from all consider-
able racial immigration since the invasion of the island by the
Norman and English nobility (who, however, brought over
numbers of Welsh and a few English and Scotch settlers at
different times), it is in Ireland that may be seen most marked
and least blurred the main elements of the British population
prior to the Norman Conquest—the oldest stock of all
(Neanderthaloid and Eskimo), the handsome Iberian, the red-
haired Kelt—ugly, but strong, resolute, and grim—the fair-haired
Norseman, and the very similar but shorter-statured Anglo-
Saxon.

With the exception of the red deer, the common mouse,
the brown and the black rats, man is probably the most recently
arrived mammal in the British Islands, and his advent and
development may fitly close this review.
APPENDIX
LIST OF BRITISH MAMMALIA

For the convenience of readers, a summary is here given of
the classification and the scientific and vernacular names of the
known British Mammalia. The species which are inhabitants
of any parts of the British Islands (or of the sea round about the
British Islands) at the present day are printed in black type.
Those that are common, or which may be seen in some parts of
the British Islands without difficulty, are underlined, in addition
to the heavy type. Species that are very doubtful natives of the
British Isles are placed between brackets, and are not counted.

It will be noted that out of the 113 recorded species of
the British Mammalia since the commencement of the Pleistocene
Period, 38 are universally distributed, 35 species are restricted
in distribution to England (and possibly Wales), 25 are common
to England and Scotland, 11 to England and Ireland, 2 species
are entirely restricted to Scotland in their known range, 1
species is common to Ireland and Scotland, and 1 species is
only found in Ireland. This gives England (and perhaps
Wales) a total, past and present, of 109, Scotland 66, and
Ireland only 51.

379
380 APPENDIX

LIST OF BRITISH MAMMALIA

FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE PLEISTOCENE PERIOD TO THE
PRESENT DAY

Orpvrer, CETACE.@. WHALES and PORPOISES.
Sus-OrperR, ODONTOCETI, TOOTHED WHALES.

Famity, DELPHINID. DOLPHINS and PORPOISES.
Monodon monoceros. The Narwhal.

(Practically extinct. Found fossil in East Anglia, and recorded
within the Historical Period from the coasts of Scotland and
Lancashire.)

Delphinapterus leucas. The Beluga, or White Whale.

(Northern coasts of Scotland and East coast of England.)

Phocena communis. The Common Porpoise.

(Coasts of Great Britain and Ireland.)

Orca gladiator. The Common Killer Whale, or Grampus.

(Seas round British Islands.)

Pseudorca crassidens. The Lesser Killer.
(Extinct. Found fossil in Lincolnshire.)
Globicephalus melas. The Black Fish, or Pilot or
“Ca’ing” Whale.
(Coasts of Great Britain and Ireland.)
Grampus griseus. Risso’s Grampus.

(Very rare. Coasts of Great Britain.)

Lagenorhynchus albirostris. The White-beaked Dolphin.

(Rare. Coasts of Great Britain and Ireland.)

Lagenorhynchus acutus. The White-sided Dolphin.
(Very rare. Northern coasts of Scotland.)
Delphinus Delphis. The Common Porpoise.

(Coasts of Southern and Eastern England and Southern Ireland.)
Tursiops tursio. The Bottle-nosed Dolphin.

(Rare. Coasts of Great Britain and Ireland.)

Famity, PHYSETE RIDA. SPERM and ZIPHIOID
WHALES.
Physeter macrocephalus.
(Extinct. Seas round Great Britain and Ireland.)

Hyperoodon rostratus. The Common or Bottle-nosed
Whale.

(Coasts of Great Britain.)
APPENDIX 381

Ziphius cavirostris. Cuvier’s Whale.
(Very rare, only one example having been found in British
waters, off the mainland of Shetland.)
Mesoplodon bidens. Sowerby’s Whale.
(Rare. East coasts of Scotland and England.)

Sus-Orprer, MYSTACOCETI. WHALEBONE WHALES,
Famity, BALZNIDAZ, The RIGHT WHALES.

Balena australis. The Southern Right Whale.
(Extinct in British waters. Formerly an inhabitant of the seas
round the British Islands.)

Famity, BALANOPTERIDA. The RORQUALS.
Megaptera boops. The Hump-backed Whale.
(Waters round the British Islands. Fairly common.)
Balznoptera musculus. The Common Rorqual.
(Waters round the British Islands.)
Balenoptera sibbaldii. Sibbald’s Rorqual, or the Blue
Whale.
(Rare. Occasionally met with in the waters round the coasts
of Scotland and the north-east coast of England.)
Balznoptera borealis. Rudolphi’s Rorqual.
(Rare. Eastern coasts of Scotland and England.)
Balznoptera acuto-rostrata. The Lesser Rorqual, or Pike
Whale.
(Waters round the British Islands.)

Orper, JVSECTIVORA. INSECT-EATING MAMMALS.
Famity, LRINACEIDAZ. The HEDGEHOGS.

Erinaceus europxus. The Common Hedgehog.

(Great Britain, except the Hebrides and Scottish islands.
Ireland.)

Famity, TALPIDZ. The MOLES.
Talpa europea. The Common Mole.

(England and Wales, most parts of Scotland, including the
island of Mull, but not the extreme north of Scotland or
the Hebrides. Not found in Ireland.)

Famity, SORICID.Z. The SHREWS.

Sorex vulgaris. The Common Shrew.

(England and Wales, and most parts of Scotland, except the
extreme north and the islands. Not found in Ireland.)
382 APPENDIX

Sorex minutus. The Lesser or Pygmy Shrew.
(Rather rare in Northern England. Found all over Scotland,
including the Hebrides, and abundantly in Ireland.)
Crossopus fodiens. The Water Shrew.
(Common throughout England and Wales. Rare in Scotland,
but extends its range to the extreme north. Not found in
the Hebrides or the Scotch islands, and absent from Ireland.)

OrpEerR, CHEIROPTERA. The BATS.

Sus-Orner, M/CROCHETROPTERA. INSECT-EATING BATS.
Famity, VESPERTILIONID.2&. The TYPICAL BATS.!
Vespertilio serotinus. The Serotine Bat.

(Distribution confined to a small portion of the south-east of
England, where it is not uncommon.)
Vespertilio murinus (discolor). The Parti-coloured Bat.
(A doubtful British species. Only one example obtained, at
Plymouth.)
Pterygistes noctula. The Great Bat, or Noctule.
(Found in England and north-east of Ireland, but not as yet
met with in Wales or Scotland.)
Pterygistes leisleri. The Hairy-armed Bat.
(Found in England and north-east of Ireland. Not met with
in Wales or Scotland.)
Pipistrellus pipistrellus. The Common Bat, or Pipistrelle.
(Universally distributed over the British Islands, including the
Hebrides and the Isle of Man.)
Myotis dasycneme. The Rough-legged Bat.
(Very rare. An occasional visitor to the south of England.)
Myotis daubentoni. Daubenton’s Bat.
(England, possibly Wales, the south and east of Scotland, the
north and east of Ireland.)
Myotis nattereri. The Reddish-gray Bat.
(England and Wales, the west of Scotland, and most parts of
Ireland.)
Myotis bechsteini. Bechstein’s Bat.
(Very rare as a British species. Only known specimens captured
a hundred years ago in the New Forest, and in 1902 at
Henley-on-Thames and in Sussex.)

1 The nomenclature of the bats—British and European—of the family Vespertilionide
has been much altered recently—since 1898. The former genus, Vesserugo, has been
divided into the genera Vespertilio, Pterygistes, and Pipistrellus, Vespertilio replacing
Vesperugo by a somewhat fanatical adhesion to the principal of priority (Linnzeus first
applied that name to the parti-coloured bat). The old Vespertilio of the latter half of
the nineteenth century is replaced by the still older term AZyorss.
APPENDIX 383

Myotis myotis. The Common Continental Bat.

(Of some uncertainty as a British species. Only specimens
caught hitherto found in London, near the British Museum,
and in Cambridgeshire. Reported to exist in Dorsetshire and
the Isle of Wight.)

Myotis mystacinus. The Whiskered Bat.

(Somewhat rare. Recorded from the southern half of England,
and reported to be met with in the west of Ireland. Absent
from Scotland.)

Myotis emarginatus. The Notch-eared Bat.

(Of very doubtful occurrence as a British species. May be found

in South England, as it is common in North France.)
Barbastella barbastellus. The Barbastelle Bat.

(Met with over the greater part of England. Absent from
Scotland and Ireland.)

Plecotus auritus. The Long-eared Bat.

(Almost universally distributed over the country districts of
England, Ireland, and Scotland. Probably absent from the
Hebrides and the Scotch islands.)

Famity, RHZNVOLOPAHID4. The LEAF-NOSED BATS.
Rhinolophus ferrum-equinum. The Greater Horseshoe
Bat.
(Distribution limited to the southern half of England.)
Rhinolophus hipposiderus. The Lesser Horseshoe Bat.
(Distribution apparently limited to the southern half of England
and the western districts of Ireland.)

OrpverR, CARNWIVORA. The FLESH-EATING PREDATORY
MAMMALS.

Sup-Orpern, FISSIPEDIA. The SEPARATE-TOED
CARNIVORES.

Famity, CAW/D.4. The DOGS.

Lycaon anglicus (?). The English Hunting Dog.
(Extinct. Of not very certain occurrence, but thought to have
existed in England and Wales during the Pleistocene Period.)
Canis vulpes. The Common Fox.
(Almost universally distributed over the British Islands, except
the Hebrides, Shetlands, and Orkneys.)
Canis lupus. The Wolf.
(Extinct. Formerly distributed all over Great Britain and
Ireland.)
384

APPENDIX

Famity, URSID. The BEARS.
Ursus arctos. The Brown Bear.
(Extinct. Formerly distributed over Great Britain and Ireland,
except the Hebrides and Scottish islands.)
[ Ursus horribilis. The Grizzly Bear.]
(It is thought that remains of this type of bear have been
found in Pleistocene deposits in Ireland and England.)
Ursus speleus. The Cave Bear.
(Extinct. Formerly abundant in the southern half of England
and in Wales.)

Famity, PROC YONIDA. The RACCOONS,

Alurus anglicus. The British Panda.
(Extinct. Inhabited the east and possibly the south of England
at the commencement of the Pleistocene Period.)

Famity, ZUSTELID.4. The WEASELS.

Lutra vulgaris. The Common Otter.

(Found in the wilder parts of England, all Scotch rivers and
sea coasts, Welsh and Irish rivers and coasts.)

Meles taxus. The Common Badger.

(Scarce in the more inhabited districts of England, but fairly
common in Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and the Isle of Man.
Absent from the Hebrides and the Scotch islands.)

Gulo luscus. The Glutton.

(Extinct. Distribution probably limited in former times to

England, Wales, and south of Scotland.)
Mustela martes. The Pine Marten.

(Scarce in England and Wales, except in the wilder forested
parts. Found in Scottish Highlands, and until recently in
the Hebrides. Fairly abundant throughout Ireland.)

Putorius foetidus. The Common Polecat.

(Very scarce in England, except in the wilder parts. Found in
Scotland, but absent from the Hebrides and the large Scottish
islands, and from Ireland.)

Putorius ermineus. The Stoat, or Ermine.

(Common throughout England, Wales, and Scotland, but not
found in Ireland or the Hebrides.)

Putorius hibernicus. The Irish Stoat.
(Range entirely restricted to Ireland.)
APPENDIX 385

Putorius nivalis, The Weasel.
(Common throughout England, Wales, and most parts of
Scotland, except the extreme north and the islands. Not
found in Ireland.)

Famity, HYZNIDA. The HYANAS.
Hyena striata. The Striped Hyzena.
(Extinct. Inhabited Eastern England at commencement of
Pleistocene Period.)
Hyena crocuta. The Spotted Hyzna.
(Extinct. Very common throughout the Pleistocene Period in
England and Wales. Absent from Scotland and Ireland.)

Famity, ACHATRODONTID.Z. The SABRE-TOOTHED
CATS.
Machairodus latidens. The Broad-tusked Machairodont.
(Extinct. Inhabited east and south of England in the early
Pleistocene.)
Machairodus cultridens. The Sabre-toothed ‘ Tiger.”
(Extinct. ? East of England in early Pleistocene.)

Famity, FELID. The TRUE CATS.
felis leo (Felis spelea). The Lion (sometimes called the Cave
Lion.)

(Extinct. Very abundant throughout England and Wales during
the Pleistocene and Prehistoric Periods. Absent from Scot-
land and Ireland.)

Felis pardus. The Leopard.

(Extinct. Remains found in no great abundance in south and

south-west of England during the Pleistocene Period.)
Felis lynx. The European or Common Lynx.

(Extinct. Inhabited England, and probably Southern Scotland,
during the Pleistocene Period, and lingered down to the verge
of the Historical Epoch.)

Felis brevirostris. The Short-faced Lynx.

(Extinct. Inhabited parts of England at the commencement

of the Pleistocene Period.)
Felis caffra. The Egyptian Cat.

(Extinct. Inhabited Southern England in the Pleistocene
Period.)

Felis catus. The Wild Cat.

(Nearly extinct. Only lingering in the north of Scotland.
Formerly abundant throughout all Great Britain, but absent
from Ireland.)

25
386

APPENDIX

Sus-Orver, PJNVMIPEDIA. The MARINE CARNIVORA.

Famity, TRICHECHID.2Z. The WALRUSES.
Odobenus rosmarus. The Walrus.

(Practically extinct as a British species. In the Pleistocene
Period frequented the east coasts of England, and was met
with occasionally off the northern coasts of Scotland down
to 1857. Not reported to have occurred off Ireland.)

Phoca vitulina. The Common Seal.

(South-west and north coasts of England, coasts of Wales,
Scotland, and Ireland.)

Phoca greenlandica. The Harp Seal.

(Almost extinct in British waters. Formerly met with off the
coasts of England, Scotland, and Ireland.)

Phoca hispida. The Ringed Seal.

(Very scarce. Occasionally met with on coasts of Hebrides,

North-east Scotland, and Eastern England.)
Phoca barbata. The Bearded Seal.

(Probably extinct. Reported from Hebrides coast fifty years

ago. Found fossil in Eastern England.)
Halicheerus grypus. The Gray Seal.

(Fairly abundant off the south-west and north coasts of Ireland,
and the coasts of Scotland and of all the large islands,
including the Hebrides. Rarely met with off the coasts of
Wales, Cornwall, and Norfolk.)

Cystophora cristata. The Hooded or Bladder-nosed Seal.

(Occasionally met with off the eastern coasts of England and
Scotland, and the Orkney Islands, and off the west coast of
Ireland.)

OrvER, RODENTIA. The RODENTS, or GNAWING MAMMALS.

Sus-Orper, DUPLICIDENTATA. HARES and RABBITS.

Famity, ZAGOMYID. The PIKAS.
Lagomys alpinus. The Siberian Pika.

(Extinct. Found in Southern England during Pleistocene Period.)
Famity, LEPORID.£. HARES and RABBITS,
Oryctolagus cuniculus. The Common Rabbit.

(Probably indigenous, and not directly introduced by man.
Abundant throughout England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.)
Lepus timidus. The Mountain Hare.

(Distribution at the present day limited to Scotland, the Hebrides,

and Ireland, but common in England during the Pleistocene
Period.)
APPENDIX 387

Lepus europzus. The Common Hare.

(Very common throughout England. Found also in Wales and
Scotland; but of recent introduction into Scotland, and
scarce in the extreme north. Absent from Ireland, from the
Hebrides, and from the Scottish islands.)

Sus-orDER, SZMPLZICIDENTATA. RODENTS with only one
pair of incisor teeth in both jaws.

Famity, SCJURID4, The SQUIRRELS.
Sciurus vulgaris. The Common Squirrel.
(Very abundant throughout England and Wales. Less commonly
met with in Ireland and Scotland.)
Spermophilus citillus. The Suslik.
(Extinct. Inhabited England during the Pleistocene Period.)

Famity, CASTORID. The BEAVERS.
Castor fiber. The Beaver.
(Extinct. Inhabited England, Wales, and Scotland from the
Pleistocene Period down to relatively recent times—eighth

century in England, sixteenth century in Scotland. Absent
from Ireland.)

Trogontherium cuvieri. The Giant Beaver.
(Extinct. Inhabited Eastern England at the beginning of the
Pleistocene Period.)

Famity, GZZRIDZ. The DORMICE.
Muscardinus avellanarius. The Common Dormouse.
(Common in the south and centre of England and the south of
Wales. Much scarcer in the north of England. Has never

been recorded from Scotland, and is entirely absent from
Ireland.)

Famity, URID4Z. The RATS and MICE,
Mus decumanus. The Brown Rat.

(Only introduced into the British Islands through the agency
of man at the commencement of the eighteenth century.
Now universally distributed throughout Great Britain and
Ireland.)

Mus rattus. The Black Rat.

(Probably introduced by the agency of man into these islands
in the eleventh century. At one time very abundant, but
now becoming scarce. It is found in parts of Northern
England, and in Scotland and Ireland.)
388 APPENDIX

Mus musculus. The Common Mouse.
(Universally distributed throughout the British Islands.)
Mus sylvaticus. The Long-tailed Field Mouse.

(Five sub-species or varieties are found in the British Islands,
one of which (JZ. s. Airtensis) is limited to the island of St.
Kilda, and another (JZ. s. hebridensis) to the islands of Lewis
and Barra in the Outer Hebrides. A third variety (AZ s.
celticus) is restricted so far as the British Islands are con-
cerned to the south and west of Ireland, the Hebrides, and
the island of Skye. A fourth variety (JZ. s. wintonz) is
restricted to the southern half and the north-east of England.
The fifth form (AZ. s. intermedius) is found pretty widely dis-
tributed over Great Britain and Ireland, the Isle of Man,
and the Channel Islands.)

Mus minutus. The Harvest Mouse.

(Absent from Ireland, and its distribution mainly confined to
England and Wales, together with a small portion of Eastern
and Southern Scotland.)

Microtus agrestis. The Field Vole.
(Absent from Ireland. Common throughout Great Britain and
some of the nearer Hebrides.)
Microtus amphibius. The Water Vole.
(Absent from Ireland, common throughout Great Britain.)
Evotomys glareolus. The Bank Vole.

(Absent from Ireland, and restricted in its distribution to

England, Wales, and the southern half of Scotland.)
Myodes lemmus. The Lemming.

(Extinct. Inhabited England, Ireland, and possibly Wales in
the Pleistocene Period.)

Cuniculus torquatus. The Banded Lemming.

(Extinct. Inhabited Southern and Eastern England in the
Pleistocene Period.)

OrverR, UNGULATA. HOOFED MAMMALS.
Sus-Orper, PROBOSCIDEA. ELEPHANTS.
Famity, ELEPHANTIDA.
(Liephas meridionalis, the Southern Elephant, and Zvephas antiquus,
both of them belonging to the African group of the True
Elephants allied to Elephas africans at the present day,

inhabited Southern England at the beginning of the Pleistocene
Period.)
APPENDIX 389

Llephas primigenius. The Mammoth.

(Extinct. The Mammoth was found over all England and
Wales, in the southern and lowland regions of Scotland,
and all over Ireland. It entered Great Britain during the
Pleistocene Period, and lingered in Ireland almost to the
verge of historical times.)

Sus-Orper, PERISSODACTYLA. ODD-TOED UNGULATES.
Famity, RHINOCEROTID. RHINOCEROSES.

Celodonta [or Diceros] leptorhinus. The Slender-nosed Rhinoceros.
(Extinct. Inhabited Southern and Central England and Wales
in the Pleistocene Period.)
Diceros megarhinus. The Big-nosed Rhinoceros.
(Extinct. Inhabited Southern England and South Wales in the
Pleistocene Period.)
Diceros antiquitatis. The Woolly Rhinoceros.
(Extinct. Inhabited England and Wales in great abundance
during the Pleistocene Period, lingering perhaps down into
Prehistoric times and the advent of Neolithic man.)

Famity, EQUID4. The HORSES.

Lquus stenonis. Steno’s Horse.

(Extinct. This was a primitive type of horse which was still
existing in Eastern and perhaps Southern England at the
commencement of the Pleistocene Period.)

Equus caballus. The True Horse.

(Exists in a domestic condition; but probably descended from
the wild form in the west of Ireland, and possibly parts of
England and Scotland. As a wild species the True Horse
existed in enormous numbers throughout Great Britain and
Ireland from the close of the Pliocene, through the Pleistocene
and Prehistoric, to the Historical Period.)

Sus-Orver, ARTIODACTYLA. The EVEN-TOED UNGULATES.
Famity, HZPPOPOTAMID. HIPPOPOTAMUSES.

Hippopotamus amphibtus.
(Extinct. Inhabited England as far north as Yorkshire, possibly

also parts of Wales. Remains of the hippopotamus are
thought to have been found in Antrim caves in the north-
east of Ireland. The hippopotamus lingered as an inhabitant
of England to near the close of the Pleistocene Period.)
39°

APPENDIX

Famity, SUJD4&. The PIGS.

[A very large pig, Sus erymanthius, which inhabited England
during the Pliocene, may have lingered on into the Pleisto-
cene. Its remains—which may be identical with a species
variously termed Sus antiguus—have been obtained from the
late Pliocene formations of East Anglia, together with those
of Sus paleocherus.|

Sus scrofa. The Wild Boar.

(Extinct. Inhabited Great Britain and Ireland through the
Pleistocene and Prehistoric Periods, and only became finally
extinct in Britain during the seventeenth century.)

Famity, CERVID4. The DEER.
Capreolus caprea. The Roe Deer.

(Formerly abundant in England, Wales, and Scotland, but now
restricted as a wild species to Scotland, though reintroduced
in a feral condition into England and Wales, and also
imported into Ireland, of which country the Roe is not a
native.)

Alces machlis. The Elk, or Moose.

(Extinct. An inhabitant of Great Britain and Ireland in the
Pleistocene Period, and possibly remaining on in certain
districts into Prehistoric times.)

Rangifer tarandus. The Reindeer.

(Extinct. An inhabitant of Great Britain and Ireland during
the Pleistocene Period. It lingered on through the Pre-
historic Period into the Historic, and probably did not
become finally extinct in the north of Scotland till the
eleventh century.)

Cervus dama. The Fallow Deer.

(A species doubtfully indigenous to Great Britain. Fossil
remains very like Cervus dama and others belonging to
Cervus browni and carnutorum, together with C. savint, closely
allied forms, show that Damine deer certainly inhabited
Britain at the beginning of the Pleistocene Period. It is
thought by some authorities that the existing Cervus dama,
which is found in a feral condition in England and Scotland,
was introduced into Great Britain either by the Romans, or
by the Norman, Angevin, and Stuart kings.)

Cervus giganteus. The Megaceros, or Gigantic Deer.

(Extinct. Inhabited Great Britain and Ireland—the last country

in great numbers—during the Pleistocene and Prehistoric

Periods, perhaps lingering in Ireland to the verge of the
Historical age.)
APPENDIX 391

Cervus elaphus. The Red Deer.

(Still found in a wild state on Exmoor (Somerset and Devon),
and perhaps in some parts of the north-west of England.
Found wild in the county of Kerry (Ireland), and in the
Highlands and some of the large islands of Scotland. In a
feral condition this deer is common in England, Wales, and
Treland.)

Famity, BOVID.Z. The HOLLOW-HORNED RUMINANTS.

Gazella anglica. The English Gazelle.
(Extinct. Found fossil in East Anglia.)
Saiga tatarica. The Saiga, or Swollen-nosed Gazelle.
(Extinct. Inhabited Southern England in the Pleistocene Period.)
Ovibos moschatus. The Musk Ox.
(Extinct. Inhabited Southern and Eastern England in the
Pleistocene Period.)

Capra hircus. The Common Goat.

(Doubtful as an indigenous British species, though common as
a domestic and even a feral animal. Feral goats found in
Western Ireland and in Wales.)

[Ovis savint.

A wild sheep, possibly connected with the Armenian Mouflon.
Inhabited Eastern England as late as the early Pleistocene
Period. ]

[Ovis aries. The Common Sheep.

Exists throughout the British Islands as a domestic animal, and
in a domestic condition it was certainly introduced. Whether
or not any true wild Ovis aries inhabited Ireland or Great
Britain is still a moot question. Remains very like what
might have been the wild stock of the domestic sheep are
found in Pleistocene deposits in Ireland. ]

Bos priscus. The extinct European Bison.

(Extinct. An inhabitant of England as far north as Yorkshire

in the early part of the Pleistocene Period.)
Bos taurus. The Bull (domestic and feral).
Bos taurus ( primigenius). The Urus, or Aurochs.

(Extinct as a wild species. Inhabited Great Britain, but not
Treland, during the Pleistocene and Prehistoric Periods,
lingering perhaps down to the commencement of the His-
torical age, when it merged into the existing breeds of feral
cattle. With it may be classed Bos taurus longifrons, which
392 APPENDIX

may have been an early domesticated race of the aurochs.
B. t. longifrons is the origin of several breeds of domestic
cattle, and its remains are found in Great Britain and Ireland.)

Orver, PRIMATES. LEMURS, MONKEYS, and MAN.
Famity, CE RCOPITHECID2&. The OLD-WORLD
MONKEYS.
Macacus pliocenus. The English Macaque.
(Extinct. This species of Macaque, hardly distinguishable from
the Gibraltar ape, inhabited Eastern England at the beginning
of the Pleistocene Period.)

Famity, HOMINID. MANKIND.

Homo sapiens caucasicus. The white or Caucasian race
of Mankind.
(Universally distributed over the British Islands.)
INDEX

Aceratherium, 270

Achill Island, 6, 125, 128, 205, 351

Adams, Mr. Lionel, 1, 60, 61, 63, 66, 67

Adder and hedgehog, 58

EE luropus, 135

lurus, 15, 135, 384

“Esthetic aspect of the Mammalia, 2, 4,
557

Afghanistan, 375

Aflalo, Mr. F. G., 1

Africa, 2, 14, 113, 119, 167, 366, 367

Africa, North, 167, 279, 319, 357, 375

Africa, South, 12, 166, 181, 223

Africa, West, 213

Agriculture, Board of, 71, 247, 286

Alaska, 133, 257, 347

Alces, 291, 301, 390

Algeria, 179, 181

Alisphenoid canal, 118, 169, 174, 188,
196, 267

Amazon River, 18, 19

Ambergris, 38

America, North, 11, 12, 14, 18, 59, 133,
189, 212, 231, 258, 265, 302, 304, 347,

366

America, South, 14, 18, 36, 129, 212, 213,
265, 366

American Indians, 128

American monkeys. See Monkeys,

American

American nomenclature of well-known
beasts, erroneous, 356

Amphibians, 5, 10, 76

Andrews, Dr. C. W., 260

Anglo-Saxon, 72, 90, 131, 376

Anoa buffalo, 352, 353

Anomodonts, the Anomodont reptiles, 11,
16, 149

Antarctica, 12, 189, 367

393

Ant-eater, banded, 11

Antelopes, the, 289, 340

Antlers, 288, 289, 302, 332 ; of Roe Deer,
296; of Reindeer, 303 e¢ seg.; of
Fallow Deer, 310, 313; of Mega-
ceros, 316; of Red Deer, 324 ef
seg.

Antrim, 139, 146, 284

Apes, anthropoid, 368, 371, 372

Arabia, 130, 167, 366, 368

Aran Islands (Ireland), 286

Archeoceti, 18

Arctic Ocean, Arctic regions, 346

Argyleshire, 255

Armenia, 349, 350

Artiodactyla, 259 et seg., 277, 280 ef seq.

Aryans, Aryan languages, 124, 356, 376

Asia, 14, 130, 346

Asia Minor, 286, 299, 310, 314, 319, 351

Asia, North-East, 133

Ass, Asses, 274 ef seq.

Assheton-Smith, Mr., 362

Atlantic Ocean, 189, I90

Audad (North African sheep), 348

Aurochs, 3, 356

Australia, 11, 93

Australian aboriginal, 372

Author, the, 2, 3, 335

Ayr, 317

Azores, the, 213

Badger, 142 ef seg.; stench of, 143;
dentition of, 143, 145; weight of,
143; food of, 145; habits, 145;
origin and distribution of, 146, 147 ;
etymology of, 147

Balena, 44, 381

Balenoptera, 48, 381

Balkan Peninsula, 180, 321, 355
394

Baltic Sea, 28, 304

Barbastella, 102, 383

Barrington, Mr. R. M., 246

Basque people, Bay of Biscay, 46, 376

Bat, Bats, 76 ef seg.; origin of 77, 78;
fruit-eating, 77, 79, 80; insect-eat-
ing, 79; nostrils in, 80, 83, 84, 106,
109, 112; breeding of, 81, 92;
methods of progression, 82, 92, 106;
hands or wings of, 78 ef seg., 80,
82, 84; very defective knowledge of
British bats, 113; revised nomen-
clature, 84, 382; legs of, 79, 84, 109;
teeth of, 79, 80, 83, 88, 90, 103, 106;
hibernation of, 83, 92; mamme, 77,
79, 111; food of, 83, 88, 93, 100,
IIl; ears of, 80, 81, 83, 84, 91, 93
et seg., 103, 104, 108; etymology of
“bat,” or

Bat, Bechstein’s, 97, 113

Bat, Daubenton’s, 94, 95.

Bat, the Barbastelle, 103

Bat, the Common Continental (AZyots),
98, 99, 113

Bat, the Greater Horseshoe, 109

Bat, the Hairy-armed, 89

Bat, the Lesser Horseshoe, 111, 112

Bat, the Long-eared, 104 ef seg.

Bat, the Noctule or Great, 87

Bat, the Notch-eared, 102

Bat, the Parti-coloured, 86, 113

Bat, the Pipistrelle or Common, go

Bat, the Reddish-gray, 96

Bat, the Rough-legged, 94, 113

Bat, the Serotine, 85

Bat, the Whiskered, 100, 101

Bath, 346

Bear, Bears, 15, 131 e¢ seg. ; anatomy of,
132 ; teeth of, 132

Bear, the Alaska, 133

Bear, the Brown, 6, 15, 132 e¢ seg.

Bear, the Cave, 3, 134

Bear, the Grizzly, 133

Bear, the Polar, 133

Beaver, 6, 15, 230; description of, 231 ;
habits, 231 ; distribution, 232 ; name
in Britain, 233

Beaver, the Giant, 234

Beddard, Mr. F. G., 1

INDEX

Bedford, Duchess of, 347

Bedford, Duke of, 302, 347

Beetles, 88

Behring Straits, 176, 306, 346

Belgium, 15, 52, 113, 134, 203, 245, 272,

292, 346, 373, 374

Professor Thomas (author of

British Quadrupeds), 1, 25, 107, 108,

133, 139, 182, 215

Beluga, 22, 23, 24

Berber, 376

Bibos, 354

Birds, 5, 16

Bison, 354, 355; in Britain, 15, 355,
356

Bison, the American, 354

Bison, the European, 6, 15, 355

Blasius, Dr. J. H., 2, 100

Blubber, 20, 23, 37, 38

Boar, Wild, 6, 15, 286 ef seg.; present
range of, 286; date of extinction in
England, 287 ; in Scotland, 287 ; in
Ireland, 286, 287

Boethius, or Boece, Hector, 233, 362

Bonhote, Mr. J. L., 100

Bos, 354, 391

Bos bonasus, 355

Bos indicus, 357

Bos primigenius, 356, 391

Bos priscus, 355, 391

Bos taurus, 353, 356, 391 ; sub-species of,
357, 358 et seg

Boston (U.S.A.), 23

Bournemouth, 3

Bovide, 289

Brighton, 200

Bristol, 378

Britain, British Isles, British Plateau,
12, 258, 366; anciently connected
with North America, 11, 12, 366

British horse, 6

British Mammals, 1 ef seg., 15, 379;
extirpation of, 4; reinforcement of,
6; numbers of, in the British Islands,
15, 379; in Scotland, 15, 379; in
Ireland, 15, 379; list of, 380 ef seg.

British Museum of Natural History, 45,
84, 100, 326

British races of man, 374 eZ seg.

Bell,
INDEX

Buckley, Mr. W., 1
Budorcas, 344
Butterflies, 5

Cachalot, See Sperm Whale

Cadzow Forest, 361

Czecum, 118, 188, 209

Celodonta, 270

Ceesar, Julius, 304, 338, 356, 359

Caithness, 186, 255, 305

Camberwell, 259

Cambridgeshire, 100

Camels, 287, 288

Canada, 161, 257, 304, 347

Canary Islands, 213

Canidae, 118

Canine teeth in Insectivores, 54, 56; in
Carnivores, 171, 174, 192; Machairo-
donts, 170, 171; in Deer, 293, 307,
324; in Artiodactyles, 282

Canis, 115, 119, 383

Canis cancrivorus, 115, 119, 130

Cannon bones in Artiodactyles, 281, 343

Capra, 351, 391

Capreolus, 291, 390

Capricorns, 340, 348 ef seg.

Carnassial teeth, 56; in the Carnivora,
56, 116, 117, 119, 137

Carnivora, Carnivores, 119 ef seg,

Caspian Sea, 203

Castor, 232, 387

Cat, the Cats, 174 eZ seg.; classification
of, 176, 178; markings of, 175; dis-
tribution of, 176; connection with
Machairodonts, 174; anatomical
features of, 175

Cat, the Domestic, 184; origin of, 183.

Cat, the Egyptian, 15, 181, 184 e¢ seg.

Cat, the Wild, 4, 182 e¢ seg.

Catarrhine apes, 368

Catine group of genus Fels, 183

Cattle (Bovine), 289, 340 et seg.

Cattle, Domestic, origin of, 358 e# seg.

Cattle, English park (Chillingham, Chart-
ley, Cadzow), 6, 360 ef seg.

Cattle, Indian, 357 et seg.

Cattle, Wild, 360 ef seg.

Caucasian man, 189, 372, 373 ef Seg. 392

Caucasus, 299, 319, 355

395

Caves (containing animal remains or
inhabited by early man), 266

Centetes (the Tenrec), 54

Cephalophines, 344, 354

Cervalces, 304

Cervide, 290

Cervus brown?t, 291, 314, 315

Cervus bucklandi, 291

Cervus carnutorum, 291, 315

Cervus dawkinst, 291, 315

Cervus giganteus. See Megaceros

Cervus megaceros, 291

Cervus savini, 291, 314

Cervus sedgwicki, 291

Cervus suttonensis, 291, 307

Cetacee (see Whales), 17 ef seq.

Ceylon, 366

Chamois, 344

Channel, British, 34, 49

Charles I., King, 287

Chartley Forest, 287, 362

Cheetah, the, 175

Cheiroptera (see Bats), 382

Cheshire, 237

Cheviots, the, 122, 251

Chevrotains. See Tragulines

Chillingham Forest, Cattle, 360, 362

Chimpanzee, 360, 372

China, 293, 344

Christchurch, 64, 94

Chiru antelope, 342

Civet, the Civets, 165

Clavicle, 261; in Insectivores, 53; in
dogs, wolves, etc., 118, 119, 129; in
rodents, 209; in Carnivora, 117

Clione limacina, 45

Cloaca in Insectivores, 69, 73

Cobego (Galeopithecus), 54,77

Cockroaches, 58

Collar-bone, See Clavicle

College of Surgeons, Museum of, 20

Combarelles, the cave of, 266, 306

Condylarthra, 259, 267, 280

Condyles of the skull in Mammalia, Io,
173

Connemara, 6, 276

Cork, 97

Cornish, Mr. C, J., 1

Cornwall, 148, 200
396

Corsica, 319

Coryphodon, 259

Cows and hedgehog, 58,

Creodont Carnivora, 16, 114, 115, 188,
189, 196

Cretaceous period, 16

Crossopus, 73, 382

Cruelty to animals, a British trait, 148

Crustaceans, 5, 23

Cryptoprocta, 165

Cumberland, 104, 200, 299

Cuniculus, 257, 388

Cuon, 127

Cuttlefish, 38

Cynocephalus, 368

Cyonoid group of dogs, 127, 128

Cyprus, 275, 278, 283

Cystophora, 207, 386

Darwin, 371

Dawkins, Professor Boyd, 1, 291, 305

Deer, Pére David's, 289

Deer, the, 8, 290, 306, 307; markings of,
290

Deer, the Barbary, 319, 335

Deer, the Damine, 307

Deer, the Duke of Bedford’s, 318

Deer, the Fallow, 307, 308 ef seg.

Deer, the Megaceros, 314 ef seq.

Deer, the Red, 290, 292, 305, 307, 318
ez seq,

Deer, the Roe, 290, 291

Deer, the Rucervine, 307

Deer, the Rusine, 307

Deer, the Sika, 307, 310, 315, 318

Deer, the Sambur, 290, 307

Deer, the Wapiti, 318, 356

Deer, Thorold’s, 318

Deer, Schomburgk’s, 291

Delphinapterus (see also Beluga), 22,
380

Demigods, 373

Denmark, Danish, 28, 200, 375

Derbyshire, 181, 326

Devonshire, 5, 36, 111, 141, 152, 157, 180,
378

Diceros, 270, 271, 389

Dingo, the, 127, 128, 130

Dinotherium, 262

INDEX

Dobson, Dr. G. E., 1, 84, 100

Dog, the Dogs, 118, 119 ef seg.; divided
into Wolf or Thooid, Fox or Alope-
coid, and Cuon or Cyonoid divisions,
119, 120, 123, 127

Dog, Abyssinian, 127

Dog, the Crab-eating (Candis cancrivorus),
115, 119, 130

Dog, the Domestic, 127, 129; breeds of,
128 ; origin of, 127, 128

Dolphin, the Bottle-nosed, 34

Dolphin, the Common, 33, 34

Dolphin, the White-beaked, 31

Dolphin, the White-sided, 32

Dolphins (Delphinide), 21 et seq,

Dorcelaphus, 299, 302

Dordogne (French Department of the),
266, 306

Dormice, the, 235

Dormouse, the Common, 235

Dorsetshire, 100, 180, 299

Dover, 102

Dublin, 97, 152

Dubois, Dr., 372

Duckbill (Ornzthorhynchus), 10, 53

Dumfriesshire, 361

Duplicidentata, 211

Durham, 152, 181, 327

Dwarfish races of man in Britain and
elsewhere, 375

Dymond, W. T., 148

Ear, in Mammalia, 9 ; in whales, 18, 25,
33 ; inseals, 191, 195; in bats, 80, 93
et seg., 105, 106, 108; in the horse
group, 276; in the shrews, 70; in
the mole, 61; in the elephant, 264

Eared seals. See Sea Lions

Earth worms, 58, 63, 76

East Anglia, 15, 39, 41, 52, 68, 104, 152,
260, 341, 346

Echidna, 10

Edentates, II

Edinburgh, 49

Eggs, 10; of Mammalia, 10;
Monotremes, 10, I!

Egypt, 181, 241, 260, 357

Egyptian wild cat, 181

Egyptians, the, 184

of the
INDEX

Elephant, the African, 262 e¢ seg., 264

Elephant, the Indian, 262 eZ seg., 263,
266

Elephants, 260; origin of the, 14, 260,
261

Elephas, 261, 262 et seg., 388

Elginshire, 42

Elk, 15, 291, 301, 302, 304

Ellis, Mr. (on the badger), 146

Ely, 194

England, 12, 14, 15, 134 e¢ seg., 266, 366,
379

Entepicondylar perforation of the arm
bone, 118, 136, 149, 174; in Insecti-
vores, 54; in dogs, 118; in bears,
132; in the glutton, 149; in cats,
174

Eocene period, 11, 16, 165, 169, 176, 369

Epping Forest, 131, 287, 299, 360

Equus, 273 et seg., 389

Equus stenonis, 273, 275

Erinaceus, 54,55

Ermine, 158, 160

Eschricht, Dr., 28

Eskimo, 128, 265, 374, 375

Essex, 111, 302, 370, 378

Euphausia, 50

Europe, 14, 166

Eusmilus, 169

Eutherian Mammals, 11, 16, 54

Evotomys, 255, 388

Exmoor, 320

Fallow deer, 308 ef seg., 390; colour of,
308; tail, 309; antlers, 310, 311,
313

Felis, Felide, 174, 385

Felis brevirostris, 181, 385

Felis spelea (the cave lion), 6, 176,
177, 385

Ferret, 155

Field mouse.
field

Field, the, 2

Finns, 377

Firth of Forth, 21, 49

Fish, 5 e¢ seg., 76

Fissipedia, 115, 117 ef seg.

Flower, Sir William, 1

See Mouse, long-tailed

397

Forsyth-Major, Dr., 367

Fox, Arctic, 120

Fox, the Common, 120 ef seg.; the pupil
of its eye, 120; its colour, 121, 122;
habits, 121, 124 ef seg.; scent glands,
123; distribution, 123; breeding
habits, 124; fox-hunting, 125, 126

Fox and hedgehog, 57

France, 14, 113, 306, 311, 315, 346, 373

Friesland, 377

French, French people, 265, 377

Gaelic, 376

Galago, 77, 365

Gall-bladder, 353

Gaul, 356

Gazella anglica, 341, 391

Gazelle, the British, 341

Geological epochs and periods, table of,
etc., 15, 16

Germany, 2, 14, 148, 251, 305, 315, 328,
341, 364, 377

Gibbon, the, 372

Gibraltar, 370

Giraffe, 288, 289

Glacial period or age or episode, 14, 16,
68, 123, 124, 284, 300, 306, 337, 349,
373

Glamorganshire, 119

Glands, mammary, 8, 9; scent (see also
Sebaceous and Sweat), 59, 71, 89,
123, 142, 143, 307, 324, 349

Glasgow, 378

Globe newspaper, 143, 148

Globicephalus, 29, 380

Gloucester, I11, 346

Glutton, 6, 15, 149

Goats, the, 213, 340, 348 ef seg., 351, 391
of Achill Island, 351

Goral, 344, 349

Gorilla, 372, 375

Government, British, 194

Government, Danish, 194, 200

Government, Russian, 151, 194

Government, United States, 195

Grampus, 30, 380

Grampus. See Orca

Grampus, Risso’s, 30, 31, 36, 380

Gray, Dr., 24
398

Greece, 278, 310, 319

Greek art, the horse in, 278

Greenland, 12, 34, 44, 200, 202, 258, 304
Greenland whale, 44

Gulo, 149, 384

Gypsies, 378

Hair, in Mammals, 9; in whales, 25; in
man, 372; in elephants, 263

Hamilton, Mr. G. Barrett, 1, 244

Hampshire, 52, 152, 200

Halicherus, 204, 386

Hallux, or big toe, 109

Hare, the common, 219; colour and
description, 220; breeding and
habits, 220; place in folk-lore, 222;
mamme, 219

Hare, the mountain, 217

Hares, 213; different kinds of, 213;
origin of, 212

Harting, Mr. J. E., 1, 58, 131, 233, 287

Harvie-Brown, Mr., 1

Heart, in Mammalia, 9

Hebrides, 50, 59, 73, 93, 123, 152, 245,
320

Hedgehog, 54, 55 ef seg.; teeth of, 55;
breeding of, 57; enemies of, 57;
hibernation of, 57; food of, 58;
distribution ot, 59

Hedgehog and cows, 58; and viper, 58;
and mole, 63

flemitragus, 348, 349

Herberstain, Baron, 359

Herefordshire, 246

Hertfordshire, 153

Highlands of Scotland, 152, 214, 229,
287, 299, 320

Himalayas, 113

Hipparion, 273

Hippopotamus, 6, 15, 282, 283 ef seg.,
389

Historical period (see also Recent), 266,
271, 305, 355

Holland, 15, 364

Homo, 372, 392 ;

Horns, 288 ; in ruminants, 288, 289

Horse, Prjevalski’s, 6, 274, 276

Horse, the Arab, 275, 277; origin of,
278

INDEX

Horse, the Barb, 278, 279

Horse, the Connemara, 276

Horse, the Domestic, origin of, 278

Horse, the Wild, of Europe, 277

Horses, 6, 272; teeth of, 273; markings
of, 274 ; types of, 276, 277; tail of,
274, 275

Hudson’s Bay, 194

Hughes, Mr, T. McKenny, I

Hungary, 186, 271, 315, 321, 364

Hunting dog. See Lycaon

Huxley, Professor, 53

Hyzena, Hyzenas, the, 6, 15, 166, 385

Hyzena, the Brown, 166

Hyeena, the Cave, 168

Hyzena, the Spotted, 6 15, 61, 167, 385

Hyeena, the Striped, 15, 167, 385

Hydrophobia, 337

Hydropotes, 290, 292, 293

LHyperoodon, 40, 380

fHyracoidea, 259

Hyrax, 259

Iberian race of man, 374, 375

Iceland, 12, 258, 305

Incisor teeth, 54; in bats, 79; in rodents,
209; in Artiodactyles, 282; in mar-
supials and shrews, 56, 69; in
hedgehogs, 56; in elephants, 262,
266; of horses, 272, 273

India, 14, 128, 132, 147, 167, 179, 184,
240, 284, 353, 366, 372

Indian domestic cattle, 354, 357, 358

Indian humped cattle, 354, 357, 358

Insectivores, the, 16, 53 ef seg., 77

Insects, 76, 88

Ireland, 3, 6, 12, 14, 15, 36, 46, 49, 68, 72,
73, 89, 90, 93, 97, 101, 108, 112, 123,
125, 131, 141, 151 ef seg., 156, 160,
229, 266, 299, 302, 306, 315, 317,
322, 361, 374, 378, 379

Irish deer, gigantic. See Megaceros

Irish “elk.” See Megaceros

Irish pig, 285

Irish stoat or weasel, 160

Isle of Wight, roo, ror, 111, 165, 206

Italy, 156, 364, 370

Jackal, 127, 128, 129
INDEX

Jaguar, the, 176, 177

James I., King, 287, 311

Japan, 7, 69

Java, 372

Jersey, 358

Jewish type, Jews, 378

Julius Czesar, 304, 338, 356, 359
Jurassic period, 16

Kamshatka, 200

Keltic (Celtic) races, languages, 147, 233,
376, 377

Keltic short horn ox, 360, 364, 391

Kent, 101, 104, 111, 306, 346

Kent’s Hole, near Torquay, 111

Kerry, 131, 320, 322, 364

Kiang, the (Eguus hemionus), 274, 275

Kilda, St., island of, 246, 350, 388

Kincardine, 361

Kogia, 36, 39

Labrador, 203

Lagenorhynchus, 31, 380

Lagomys, 15, 211, 386

Lake District, 90, 95, 101, 152, 229

Lanarkshire, 3, 361

Lancashire, 5, 89, 202, 287, 378

Landseer, Sir Edwin, 323

Lapland, 241

Lapp, the, 377

Latin language, 147, 230

Lemming, the, 15, 256

Lemming, the banded, 15, 257

Lemurs, Lemuroids, 14, 77, 78, 79, 365
et seq,

Leopard, 6, 15, 178, 180, 385

Lepus, 212, 217, 386

Lincolnshire, 21, 28, 36, 202

Linnzus, 218, 371

Lion, 3: 6, 15, 176, 177, 335) 385 ; dis-
tinction from tiger, 178 ; anatomy of,
179); habits, 175 ; markings, 179; dis-
tribution, 179

Lithuania, 355

Loder, Sir Edmund, 326

London, London Bridge, 3, 41, 378

Longford, 97

Lutra, 137 et seq., 384

Lycaon, 15, 118, 119, 383

399

Lydekker, Mr. Richard, 1, 28, 100, 147,
194, 229, 242, 302, 307, 335, 347) 359,
364

Lyme Park, 362

Lyme Regis, 46

Lynx, 6, 15, 181

Macacus, Macaque, 368, 370, 392

Macgillivray, Mr. William, 1

Machairodont (sabre-toothed
3, 170

Machairodonts, the, 165, 169, 177 ; anato-
mical features of, 169; gape of jaw,
172; tusks of, 171

Machatrodus, 170, 385

Mackenzie River, 347

Macpherson, Rev. H. A, 1

Madagascar, 165, 367, 368

Madeira, 213

Malay Archipelago, Malaysia, 11, 270,
366

Malta, 237, 283

Mammez (teats, nipples, mammary
glands), 8; in bats, 79; in mono-
tremes, 8; in whales, 20, 34; in
seals, 196; in Insectivores, 53; in
walrus, 192; in weasels, 162; in
moles, 61; in the polecat, 155; in
pigs, 285; in bears, 132; in otters,
138; in True Carnivora, 117; in
dogs, wolves, etc., 120, 127, 129; in
shrews, 70; in the hedgehog, 56;
in the beaver, 231; in Ungulates,
268 ; in rats and mice, 239, 241, 243 ;
in saiga, 342; in hippopotamus,
284; in sheep, 348; in the musk ox,
345 ; in the deer, 290; in oxen, 352;
in rabbit, 216; in the hare, 219 ;
in dormouse, 236; in water vole,
253.

Mammal, Mammalia, 8 ef seg.; origin
and etymology of term, 8; origin of
Mammalia, 11, 12; eggs of, 10;
definition of Mammalia as a class, 9‘
10; teeth of, 9; families of, 16;
orders of, I1, 12, 16; genera of, 16;
species of, 16

Mammoth, 3, 6, 263 e¢ seg., 389; in Ire-
land, 266, 361

“tiger ”),
400

Man, 16, 370, 371 e¢ seg,; divided into
three sub-species or species, 372;
dwarfish races of, 3, 375; origin of
man, 372

Man, Caucasian, 372, 373 ef seq.

Man, Neolithic, 3, 16, 168, 318, 350,
361

Man, Paleolithic, 3, 15, 134, 170, 318,
370

Man, Isle of, 93, 317, 382, 388

Manchester Literary and Philosophical
Society, 60, 61

Manchuria, 299, 318

Margate, 24

Marsupials, 11, 53, 54, 115, 116, 210

Marten, the Beech, 150, 153

Marten, the Pine, 151 e¢ seg.

Martens, the, 150, 184

Mastodon, 261, 262

Mauritania (the projecting peninsula of
North Africa), 357

Mediterranean, Mediterranean regions,
16, 34, 41, 288, 319, 366, 375

Megaceros (the gigantic Irish deer), 3,
307, 314 ef seg., 338, 374, 390;
development and varieties of, 291,
315, 316; antlers of, 316

Megachetroptera (fruit-eating bats), 79

Megaptera, 46, 381

Meles, 143, 384

Mendip Hills, 3

Mesoplodon, 42, 381

Metacarpal bones, 18, 46, 281, 282, 292,
306, 343) 349

Metatarsal bones, 282, 292, 306, 344

Mexico, 212, 265, 347

Mice, devastations of, 247, 251

Microchetroptera (insect-eating bats), 79
et seg.

Microtus, 250 et seg., 388

Milk, 8, 10, 34, 58

“ Milk” teeth, 115, 262, 263

Millais, Mr. John Guille, 1, 98, 296, 301,
308, 326, 328, 334

Miller, Mr. G. S., 84, 90

Milton Abbas, 299

Miocene period, 16, 68, 132, 142, 284,
290

Meritherium, 260

INDEX

Molar teeth: original number of, in
primitive Mammals, 115, 116;
number of, in most Mammals, 116;
four pairs of, in both jaws in primi-
tive Mammalia and in a few modern
examples, 115, 116; in bears, 132;
in bats, 80; in Insectivores, 54; in
Artiodactyles, 282; in oxen and
tragelaphs, 353; in voles, 238, 253;
in mice, 238; in elephants, 262; in
horses, 273.

Mole, the, 4, 59 ef seg.; limbs of, 60;
nose of, 62; eye of, 60, 61 ; external
genitalia, 61 ; colour, 61, 62; teeth
of, 56, 62; breeding, 62, 63, 67;
food, 63; molehills or “ fortresses,”
64 et seg. ; distribution, 68

Molehill. See Mole

Molluscs, 45

Mongolian man, 372, 373 é¢ seq.

Monkey, 7, 124, 368 et seg.

Monkeys, American, 14, 366

Monodon (see Narwhal), 21, 380

Monotremes, 8, 9 ef seg., 12, 16, 53, 69

Moose. See Elk

Morocco, 179, 319

Mouflon, the, 351

Mouse, the common, 242

Mouse, the field. Sze Vole

Mouse, the harvest, 248

Mouse, the long-tailed field, 4, 244, 373

Mull, Isle of, 381

Muntjac deer, 289

Muride, 238

Mus, 239, 387

Mus sylvaticus, 244, 248, 388

Muscardinus, 235, 387

Museum, British, 100; of Natural His-
tory, 45, 84, 100, 326

Musk ox, 6, 15, 281, 343; horns of, 344,
345

Musk, pygmy. See Tragulines

Mustela, 150, 384

Myodes, 256, 388

Myotis, 84, 93, 98, 382

Myoxus, 237

Mystacocett (whalebone whales), 19, 42

Narwhal, 15, 21, 22, 23
INDEX

Natterer’s bat.
gray

Neanderthaloid type of man, 374

Negro, 373, 378

Negro intermixture in British people,
378

Nemorhedus, 349

Neolithic (see Man), 3, 168, 318, 350, 361,
375

Nesopithecus, 367

New Forest, 125, 278, 287

Newfoundland, 202

New Guinea, 11

New Zealand, 3, 41

Nilghai, 353

Nordenskidld, Dr., 22

Norfolk, 21, 41, 101, 170, 202, 235, 346

Normans, 91, 147, 241, 325, 339, 377

North America, 11, 12, 14, 18, 59, 189,
347, 354

North Sea, 52

Northamptonshire, 161

Northumberland, 200, 362

Norway, 34, 276, 304, 320

Nose, Nasal Organ, 19, 53, 60, 80, 106,
109, 112

Novaia Zemlia, 194, 257

See Bat, the Reddish-

Odobenus, 191, 386

Odontoceti (toothed whales), 19

Oil, of walruses, 194; of whales and
porpoises, 26, 38, 42

Okapi, 277, 288

Oligocene period, 13, 16

Onohippidium, 274, 275

Opossums, 365

Orang utan, 372

Orca gladiator, 26

Oreopithecus, 370

Orkney Islands, 49, 59, 194, 199, 208,
304

Ornithorhynchus, See Duckbill

Oryctolagus, 212, 386

Osborn, Professor H. F., 258

Otariide (eared seals) (see Sea lions),
191

Otocyon, 114, 115

Otter, 5, 136 e¢ seg.; teeth of, 137, 188 ;
colour of, 137; mamme of, 138;

403

nest of, 138; habits of, 138 ef seq.;
use which might be made of, 139;
hunting of, 140; distribution of, 141,
142

Otter, the Sea, 136, 189

Otter hounds, 5, 140

Ovibos (see also Musk ox), 340, 343, 349,
391

Ovis aries, 350, 391

Ovts savini, 350, 391

Ovis vignet, 349 et seq.

Owen, Sir Richard, 1, 319

Oxen, the (see Cattle), 340, 351 ef seg.;
cannon bones of, 281, 352; origin
of, 353, 354; tail of, 352; mamme
of, 352; horns of, 352, 353; molar
teeth of, 353

Oxen, Keltic short horn, 360, 361, 364

Oxen, Taurine group of, 354, 356 ef seg.

Pacific Ocean, 52, 136

Paleolithic man, 3, 15, 134, 170, 318,
370; 374

Paleontology, Handbook of, 2

Panda, 15, 135

Patagonia, 275, 368

Pecora, 282 et seq., 288 et seg., 340 et seq.

Perissodactyla, 259, 267

Persia, 179, 184, 319, 351

Peterhead, 46

Pheasant, 4, 156, 214, 312

Philippine Islands, 77

Phoca, 197, 386

Phocena, 24, 380

Physeter 36, 380

Physeleride (sperm whales), 36

Picts, the, 375

Pig, the domestic, 283; origin of, 284, 286;
in Ireland, 285, 286

Pigs, the, 282, 284 e¢ seg.; canine teeth
in, 285; mamme in, 268, 285, 352

Pika, the (see Lagomys), 15, 211, 386

Pinnipedia, 115, 187

Pipistrelle, 90

Pipistreltius, 84, 92, 382

Pithecanthropus, 372

Platanistid dolphins, 18, 19

Platyrrhine monkeys, 366

Plecotus, 104, 383

26
402

Pleistocene period, 15, 16, 17, 123, 131,
134, 167, 284, 320, 341, 346, 373, 379

Plestometacarpalia, 281, 292, 306, 344

Pliocene period, 15, 16, 44, 68, 123, 131,
132, 167, 170, 288

Poland, 186, 271, 304, 355, 359

Polecat, 154 ef seg.; name of, 154;
colour of, 154

Ponies, Connemara, 276

Ponies, Norway, 276

Porpoise, the common, 25

Porpoises, 21

Portugal, Portuguese,
292, 310, 320

Prehistoric period, 16, 134, 265

Premolar teeth, 9, 119; number of,
in primitive mammals, 115, 116;
special development of, in true
Carnivora (carnassial), 116, 117;
premolar teeth in dogs, 115 ef seg. ;
in Machairodonts, 169 ; in cats, 174;
in civets, 165; in seals, 195; in
rodents, 209; in elephants, 262; in
saiga gazelle, 342; in monkeys, 367

Prepollex, 60

Primary Epoch, 76

Primates, 365 e¢ seg.; origin of the, 16,
210, 365; comparison with bats, 78

Prjevalski’s horse, 274, 276

Proboscidea, 14, 259 ef seg.

Procyonide, 135

Prongbuck, the, 288, 290

Proteles, 166

Protohippus, 273

Proviverra, 115, 117

Pseudorca, 28, 380

Pteropod molluscs (food of whales), 45

Pterygistes (Vesperugo), 84, 87, 89, 382

Putorius, 153, 154, 384

Pygmy men, 3, 375

Pyrenees, 346, 376

213, 214, 245,

Quaternary Epoch, 16

Rabbit, the common, 212 ef seg. ; origin
of, 213 ; migrations, 213 ; indigenous
to the British Islands, 214; colour
of, 215; habits, 216; in Australia,
217

INDEX

Raccoon-like dog, 127

Raccoons, the 127, 135

Rangifer, 303, 390

Rat, the black, 241

Rat, the brown, 239

Rats, 238

Reay Forest, 186

Recent or Historical period, 16, 266

Red deer, 281, 292, 305; diseases of,
337, 338; colour, 321; antlers, 323,
324 ef seg.; breeding, 335

Reindeer, 6, 15, 281, 292, 303 ef seg. ; two
types of, 305, 306 ; in Scotland, 305 ;
antlers of, 304

Reptiles, 11, 16, 54

Reynard the Fox, 124

Rhinoceros, the African, 270

Rhinoceros, the white or Burchell’s,
270

Rhinoceros, the woolly, 271, 389

Rhinoceroses, 268 ef seg. ; origin of the,
269 ; early British, 270; in Germany,

Rhinolophide (the leaf-nosed bats), 108

Rhinolophus, 109, 383

Rhododendrons, 7

Risso's Grampus.

Rochester, 51

Rocky Mountain goat (Haploceros), 340,
344

Rodents, 55, 209 ef seg.; divided into
two sub-orders, 211, 224

Roe deer, 292 ef seg.; distribution of,
299; colour, 294, 296; antlers of,
296; long pregnancy of, 300

Roe deer, Siberian, 299

Romans, 156, 278, 306, 312, 356, 376

Rome, 133, 156

Romerolagus, 212

Rorqual, Rudolphi’s, 50, 51

Rorqual, Sibbald’s, 49

Rorqual, the Common, 48

Rorqual, the Lesser, 51

Rowland Ward, Mr., 316

Royal Irish Constabulary, 377

Rumania, 246

Ruminants, 289, 290

Russia, Russians, 151, 240, 241, 265, 299,
304, 355

See Grampus
INDEX

Sable, the, 151

Sabre-toothed “tigers.” See Machairo-
donts

Saiga antelope, 6, 15, 341, 342, 391

Saint-Hilaire, M., 60

Salmon, 5, 23, 139

Sardinia, 211, 214, 310, 319

Savernake Forest, 131

Scammon, Capt., 28

Scandinavia, 250, 257, 265, 301, 305, 376,
377

Scandinavian type of man, 377

Scharff, Dr. R. F., 1, 156, 213, 244, 245,
305, 311, 319, 320

Sclurus, 225, 387

Scoresby, Capt., 22

Scotland, 12, 14, 15, 21, 23, 36, 42, 40,
59, 68, 73, 93, 96, 97, 108, 122, 123,
131, 133, 185, 186, 249, 299, 302,
306, 317, 339, 361, 374, 377, 379

Scottish races, 376 e¢ seg. ; physiognomy,
377

Sea lions, 190, 191; distinction between
seals and sea lions, 191, 195

Seal, the Bearded, 15, 203, 386

Seal, the Bladder-nosed or Hooded, 207,
386

Seal, the Common, 197, 386; colour of,
107 ; mamme, 198 ; voice, 198; love
of music, 199; destruction of, 199,
200; distribution, 200

Seal, the Greenland (see the Harp seal),
386

Seal, the Gray, 204, 386; colour, 204;
breeding-time, 205 ; distribution, 206

Seal, the Harp, 201, 386

Seal, the Ringed, 202, 386

Seals in general, 4, 15, 187

Seals, the true, 195; classification of,
and anatomy, 195; origin of, 189;
kidneys of, 188; fore and hind feet
of, 190, 197

Sebaceous (fatty) glands and fluids, 8

Secondary Epoch, 12, 14, 15, 16, 210

Semnopithecus, 368, 370

Serows, the, 344

Severn, the, 202

Sewell, Mr. A. J., 127

Shandon Cave, 135

403

Sheep, the, 340, 348 ef seg., 391; origin
of domestic, 348, 350, 351, 391

Sheep, the Armenian, 349, 350, 351

Sheep, the Soa, 350

Sheep, the St. Kilda, 350

Sheep, the Urial (Ovis vignei), 349
et seq.

Sheep, the Audad (N. African), 341, 350

Shetland Islands, 21, 41, 49, 59, 194, 278,
377

Shrew ash, the, 71

Shrew, the Common, 70, 71, 72

Shrew, the Lesser, 72, 73

Shrew, the Water, 73; description of, 73,
74; breeding, 75 ; distribution, 75

Shrews, 59, 69 ef seg,; teeth of, 56, 69,
73; mammez, 70; breeding, 70;
archaic features of, 69 ; food, 71

Shropshire, 378

Siberia, 16, 22, 127, 128, 186, 211, 257,
265, 272, 299, 301, 304, 314, 346

Sibbald’s Rorqual, 49

Sika. See Deer

Sirenia, 17

Siwalik Hills (N,-W. India), 152

Skunk, 123

Skye, Island of, 39, 123, 388

Sligo, 299

Soa sheep, 350

Somaliland, 167, 168

Somersetshire, 180, 306

Sorex, 69, 381

South America, 14, 18, 36, 41, 129, 213,
366

Sowerby’s whale, 42

Spain, 14, 156, 213, 214, 292, 310, 319,
320, 364

Sperm whale (see Whale), 36

Spermaceti, 38

Spermophilus, 230, 387

Spitzbergen, 194, 200, 304

“Sport,” 4, 153, 195

Squalodont whales, 18

Squirrel, the Common, 225; colour of,
226; seasonal changes, 226; breed-
ing habits, 226; food, 227 ; distribu-
tion of, 229

Squirrels, 77, 225

Staffordshire, 287
404

Stag (see also Red deer), 321, 324, 325
et seq.

Stirling, 361

Stoat, 157 ef seg.; colour of, 157, 158;
playful disposition, 159 ; distribution
of, 160; name of, 160

Stoat, the Irish, 160

Stomach, 268, 290; in the Pecora or
ruminants, 290, 353

Suffolk, 157, 194

Surrey, 299

Sus, 285 e¢ seg., 390

Sus erymanthius, 285, 390

Suslik, the, 15, 230

Sussex, 5, 299, 326

Sutherland, 23, 186, 338

Sweat glands, 8

Sweden, 98, 123, 156, 304, 310, 312

Switzerland, 186, 356

Syria, 59, 167, 368

Tahr goat, 348

Talpa, 60, 381

Tapir, 268, 277

Tarpan (semi-wild horse of Central Asia),
277

Tartary, 298

Tasmania, Tasmanians, 28

Teeth, 9, 11; typical Mammalian formula
of forty-four, 54; earlier Proto-mam-
malian formula of forty-eight, 115 ;
teeth of elephants, 260 ef seg.; of
Octoyon, 115, 116; of dogs, 118;
of Machairodonts, 171; of the lion,
174; of whales, 18, 19, 24, 33, 36,
42, 46; of Insectivores, 54 ef seg.,
56, 72; of bats, 79 ef seg., 88; of
horses, 272 ; of Artiodactyles, 282

Telemetacarpalia, 281, 292, 303

Tertiary Epoch, 11 e¢ seg., 16, 368

Testes, 61, 196; in walruses, 191

Thames, the River, 41, 51, 202, 284, 347,
370

Theriodont reptiles, 11, 54, 115

Thomas, Mr. Oldfield, 1, 84, 90

Thompson, Mr. W., 1

Tibet, 135, 276, 342

Tiger, 176, 178

Torfeeus, 305

INDEX

Tragelaphs, Tragelaphine Antelopes, 277,
296, 349, 341, 344, 352

Tragulines, 277, 282, 288

Tragus or earlet (in bats), 80, 84, 87, 94,
95) 99

Transylvania, 312, 321

Trevor-Battye, Mr. Aubyn, 1, 60, 75, 247,
254

Triassic period, 16

Trochanter, the third (projection of thigh-
bone), 169; in Insectivores, 54; in
Machairodonts, 169

Trogontherium, 234, 387

Tunis, 229, 319, 335

Tursiops, 34, 380

Twickenham, 341

Tyrone, County, 302

Ungulates, 14, 16, 258; origin of, 16,
259 ; odd-toed, 259; even-toed, 259

United States, coasts of, 50

Urotragus (long-tailed goral), 344

Ursus, 132, 384

Urus, 356

Vaynol Park, 362

Veddahs, the, 372, 373, 374

Venezuela, 213, 367

Vertebrze, 10, 267; neck, 10, 23, 46

Vespertilio (see also Myotis), 84, 382

Vesperugo (see also Vespertilio, Ptery-
gistes, and Pzpistrellus), 84, 382

Vibrissze, or “ whiskers,” 70, 137, 182,
193, 236, 244

Victoria Nyanza, 167

Viverra, 156, 165

Vole, the Bank, 255, 388

Vole, the Field, 250, 388; devastations
of, 251

Vole, the Water, 252, 388

Voles, the, 250

Wales, 5, 14, 15, 36, 93, 122, 152, 168,
186, 233, 299, 302, 351, 375, 379
Walrus, the, 15, 191, 386; anatomy of,

192
Wapiti, 319
Wareham, 25
Warsaw, 359
INDEX

Warwickshire, 94, 104

Water vole, “ Water rat.”
Water

Weasel, the, 161, 385; size of, 161;
colour of, 161; breeding of, 162;
mamme of, 162; distribution of,
164

Weasels, the, 136 ef seg. 148, 153;
divisions of, 136

Welch, Mr, Robt., 286

Welsh language, 376

West Indies, 378

Westmoreland, 287

Whale, Cuvier’s, 41, 381

Whale, Sowerby’s, 42, 381

Whale, the Baleen or whalebone, 42,
381

Whale, the Blue, 49, 381

Whale, the “ Ca’ing,” 29, 380

Whale, the Common Beaked or Bottle-
nosed, 40, 380

Whale, the Humped-backed, 46, 381

Whale, the Killer, 26 e¢ seg., 380

Whale, the Lesser Killer, 15, 28, 380

Whale, the Right (Greenland), 42, 44

Whale, the Southern right, 15, 44 e¢ seq.,
381

Whale, the Sperm, 15, 36 e¢ seg., 380

Whale, the White, 22 e¢ seg., 380

Whalebone, 44, 45, 49

Whales, 15, 17 e¢ seg., 52; limbs of, 17,
18, 19 ef seg. 46; teeth of, 18, 19,
24, 27, 33, 36, 42, 46; origin of, 18,
52; bony tubercles of, 24, 41, 48;

See Vole, the

405

voice of, 23, 26, 34, 40, 51 ; blubber
of, 20, 37 ; food of, 22, 23, 26, 28, 38,
39 45, 48, 49 e¢ seg.; mammary
glands of, 20, 34; ear of, 18, 25,
33; “gill” openings, skin folds of,
48, 49; nasal organ, nostrils, 19,
371 42, 46

Whales, the Squalodont, 18

Whales, the Toothed. See Odontoceti

Whales, the Zeuglodont, 18, 19, 52

Whales, the Ziphioid, 39

Wicklow, 97, 218

Wild boar. See Boar, Wild

Wiltshire, 234, 306

Winton, Mr. W. E. de, 1, 122, 246

Wolf, the, 15, 127, e¢ seg., 383; extinction
of, in Britain, 131; reintroduction of,
131

Woodward, Dr, A. B. Smith, 1

Wyman, Professor, 24

Yak, 357

Yarmouth, 46

Yorkshire, 3, 89, 135, 168, 180, 181, 233,
355

Zebra, Grévy’s, 273

Zebra, the, 276

Zebu (Indian domestic cattle), 354, 357

Zeuglodont whales, 18, 19

Ziphioid whales, Ziphiine, Ziphius, 19,
39 ef seq.

Zittel, Dr. Karl A. von, 2, 177, 259, 274

Zoologist, the, 2

Printed and bound by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.
THE WOBURN LIBRARY
OF NATURAL HISTORY.

EDITED BY
HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BEDFORD, K.G.,
President of the Zoologtcal Society.

Each in crown 4to, cloth gilt and gilt top. 12s. 6d. net.

HE purpose of this Library is to provide a series of Illustrated Books, of
practical utility, on subjects touching Country Life. Although popular in
character, these volumes will be at once accurate and reliable, and will contain
sufficient scientific data to fit them for their place as works of reference in the
library of every country house. Each volume will be written by a well-known
authority on the subject with which it deals, and the whole library will be under
the supervision of His Grace the Duke of Bedford.

VERY important feature of this Library will be the large number of beautiful

Illustrations which each volume will contain. For the most part these will be
reproduced in colour, and carefully printed on the best art paper; but care will be
taken that each book shall be as light as possible to handle.

i these volumes, each of which will be complete in itself, all the pedantry of

science will be excluded, so that imperfect knowledge may not be concealed
under scientific terms. They will not be merely popular gossip about scientific
subjects, but rather science expounded in popular language. In short, while each
voluine will be scientifically accurate, it will not be technically scientific, though
where occasion arises appendices will be added, containing the most up-to-date
scientific classification, etc., and all the scientific terms.

‘* The Editor of the Woburn Library has recognised the full value
of the highest form of colour printing by means of photography.
The Duke of Bedford has not given the name of his chief seat to this
library without the determination to make it worthy of the honour.”
—Daily News.

TWO VOLUMES by F. EDWARD HULME, F.L.S., F.S.A.,

Vice-President of the Selborne Soctety,
Author of “ Familiar Wild Flowers,” etc., etc.

WILD FRUITS OF THE COUNTRY SIDE

With 36 Coloured Plates by the Author, and an
Introduction by His GRAcE THE DuKE oF BEDFORD.

‘* A charming book, copiously illustrated with very attractive drawings. ... A very
pleasing and interesting volume.”—.Spectator.

“Tf each volume is as ably and carefully written and illustrated as the one before us,
the series will prove a distinct acquisition both to, the student and to the ordinary lover of
nature. The subject is treated quite exhaustively, and yet in such a pleasant and colloquial
manner that the reader is apt to forget that he is perusing a really scientific work on natural
history.” — The World.

“* A very attractive book.”’—Zhe Times.
The Woburn Library.

BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS OF THE
COUNTRY SIDE

By F. EDWARD HULME, F.L.S., F.S.A.

With 35 Coloured Plates by the Author, and an
Introduction by His Grace THE DUKE oF BEDFORD.

“Tt admirably fulfils the intention of this excellent series.” —Dazly Express.

“* Of great value.’—WVotts Guardian.

‘CA treatise of a very high order, interesting alike to scientific and non-scientific minds,
and forming a most valuable addition to the library of any lover of nature. Professor
Hulme’s work has been excellently done, alike in the letterpress and the illustrations. These
latter are an attraction in themselves. . . . No pains have been spared to ensure accuracy in
the presentiment of the various insects, and the result is a display of colour printing of
which we have rarely seen the equal.”—Birmingham Post.

‘*A work which will meet with the approval of every nature-lover.”—AZanchester Courter.

OTHER VOLUMES IN PREPARATION.

BRITISH FRESH WATER FISH

BY
The Rt. Hon, Sir HERBERT MAXWELL, Bart., P.C., F.R.S.,

Author of ‘Salmon and Sea Trout,” etc.
With 12 Coloured Plates and other Illustrations.

This is a popularly written book wherein Science, though it necessarily has a place,
does not intrude itself obtrusively. The Author begins with a brief introduction, which is
followed by chapters on the general character and structure of Fishes, the breathing
apparatus, their teeth, and organs of sense, etc. Then, after giving a classified list of British
Fishes, he proceeds to deal exhaustively with the various orders, families, genera, and species
of fish found in our British rivers and lakes. The coloured plates (printed separately on
art paper) have all been most carefully executed from photographs specially painted under
the author's supervision. They represent in all more than- twenty different fishes, and it is
believed that these plates are the finest which have ever been published in a similar

work, (Immediately.
FISHES OF OUR SEAS
F. G. AFLALO, - WM. SENIOR,
Author of “Sea Fish.” Editor of “ The Field.”

F. B. MARSTON,
Editor of ‘‘The Fishing Gazette.”

With many Coloured Plates, etc.

There is probably no greater practical authority on our British Salt Water Fishes in
general than Mr. Affalo; his subject is a wider one than Sir Herbert Maxwell’s, and even
more debatable ; but there can be no question on one point, and that is the author’s ability
to write simply and accurately on a subject which he has made peculiarly his own. It
spn Ng a to think of any other name which would carry the same weight beneath
a similar title.

HUTCHINSON & CO., PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, E.C.
i
peer

ay

Leen

bedi at

Seabee
‘

hi

aki
Utara
rit ENA Spite
; tues Af
Sitar
yuh

fy
aie

 

ae
Haat a
rte ca