FOR THE PEOPLE FOR EDVCATION FOR SCIENCE LIBRARY OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY THE WOBURN LIBRARY OF NATURAL HISTORY EDITED BY HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BEDFORD, K.G. BRITISH MAMMALS RED DEER (Cervus elaplius) : August. B 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 . . . . SIR HARRY JOHNSTON, Hon. D.Sc. Camb. 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 '•-' "^ 19^3 %■ ~ 9- h- ^ \X- iCli.?' 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. It 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 Woburn Series of Natural 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. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE PREFATORY I CHAPTER n MAMMALS IN GENERAL ; AND THE ORIGIN OF THE BRITISH MAMMALIA . 8 CHAPTER HI ORDER : CETACEAi. WHALES AND PORPOISES 1 7 CHAPTER IV ORDER : INSECTIVORA. INSECT-EATING MAMMALS 53 CHAPTER V ORDER : CHEIROPTERA. THE BATS . 76 CHAPTER VI ORDER: CARNIVORA. THE FLESH-EATING PREDATORY MAMMALS . . II4 CHAPTER VII CARNIVORA {continued). THE WEASEL FAMILY 1 36 CHAPTER VIII CARNIVORA {continued). CIVETS, machairodonts, and cats . . .165 X CONTENTS CHAPTER IX PAGE cARNivoRA {^continued), the marine carnivora 187 CHAPTER X ORDER : RODENTIA. RODENTS, OR GNAWING MAMMALS : HARES AND RABBITS 209 CHAPTER XI KODENTiA {continued). SQUIRRELS, beavers, dormice, and rats . . 224 CHAPTER XII order : VNGULATA. HOOFED MAMMALS : ELEPHANTS, RHINOCEROSES, AND HORSES 258 CHAPTER XIII uNGULATA {fontinued). artiodactyla : hippopotamuses, pigs, and deer 280 CHAPTER XIV VNGULATA {continued). artiodactyla : the bovines 340 CHAPTER XV order : PRIMATES, lemurs, monkeys, and man . . . . . 365 APPENDIX list of BRITISH MAMMALIA 379 INDEX . 393 LIST OF COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Red Deer {Cerfus elaphus) : August Frontispiece 2. The Common Rorqual Whale {Bahenoptera musculus) . . Facing page 48 3. The Common Mole {Talpa europitd) ,1 60 4. Foxes (^Canis vulpes) „ 120 5. The Last British Wolf „ 130 6. Otters (^Lutra vulgaris) „ 140 7. Badgers {Meles taxus) „ 146 8. The Pine Marten {Mustela marks') ,, 150 9. The Wild Cat {Felis catus) ,, 182 10. The Common Seal {Pkoca vitulina) m ^96 11. Hares (^Lepus eiiropceus) in an Oatfield : Evening ... „ 22 12. Squirrel {Sciurus vulgaris) robbing Ring Dove's Nest . . ,, 228 (The coat is that of the end of the winter season, say April.) 13. The Water Vole (^MicroUis amphibius) ,1 252 14. Roe Deer {Capreolus capma): September .... „ 292 15. Fallow Deer {Cervus dama) >> 308 16. English Wild Cattle {Bos iaurus). Cadzow breed . . ,, 3^2 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 {Delphinapterus leucas)^ was seen by Sir R. LI. Patterson off Scarborough on August 19th, 1903 ; and another recorded occurrence of Bechstein's Bat {Myotis hechsteini) 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. H. H. J. On p. 166, eighteen lines from the bottom, the number of premolars attributed to the Hyasnas in the lower jaw should be three pairs, not one ; with of course four pairs in the upper jaw. 24 LIST OF BLACK-AND-WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE 1. Sketch Map showing routes probably followed by the Mammalia in their migrations towards Britain . ......... 13 2. All that remains of the Whale's Hind Limbs {Balana). From a specimen in Museum of College of Surgeons .20 (Grampus or Killer (Orca gladiator) I _ . V Facing Common Porpoise {Phocana communis) . . • • ■ • I 4. Teeth of Porpoise (after Flower). Magnified to twice natural size ... 25 5. The Killer Whale {Orca gladiator) 27 6. Head of Black Fish {Globicephahts) 29 7. Head and Flipper of Risso's Grampus {Grampus grisetis) . . . -31 8. Common Dolphin {Delphinus delphis) to show Markings. Note the white iris of the eye • • • • 35 9. Skull of Sperm Whale {Physeter macrocephalus) 37 10. Head of Bottle-nosed Whale {Hyperoodon rostratus) 40 11. Sowerby's Whale {Mesoplodon bidens). Head and skull, showing single pair of teeth in lower jaw and remarkable frontal crest of bone ... 43 12. Clione limacina. The little Pteropod Mollusc (bright purple in colour) on which the great Whalebone Whales feed. Life size ...... 45 13. Hump-backed Whale {^Megaptera loops) 47 ^^/ Hedgehog rolled up \ Facing 54 y Common Hedgehog (^Erinaceus eiirop(sus) . . • . • | 15. Skulls of Insectivores, to show Teeth. A. Hedgehog (natural size) ; B. Mole (natural size) ; C. Lesser Shrew (2^ times natural size) . . . -5^ 16. Hand of Mole 60 17. Right Foot of Mole 60 18. Plan of the Interior of an Ordinary Molehill 65 19. Plan of a more elaborate Mole " Fortress (after Mr. Lionel E. Adams) . 67 f Common Shrew (^Sorex vtdgaris) . . . . . . . "^ 20,^ The Lesser Shrew {_Sorex minutus) . . . . . . .J- Facing 70 \_ The Water Shrew (jCrossopus fodiens') jxn^ti water . . . .J 21. The Water Shrew {Crossopus fodiens) ........ 74 xiii xiv LIST OF BLACK-AND-WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS AGE 22. Skeleton of a Bat's Hand 78 23. Ears of Bats, to show Tragus, Absence of Tragus, and Development of Antitragus ......... ... 81 ' Long-eared Bat (^Pkcotus auritus) ...... 2^ _ Common Bat hanging by its Thumbs I p^^^^^ g^ Common Bat {^Pipistrelhis pipistrellus) hanging by its Feet ^Bat hanging with folded Wings and Tail .... 25. Bones of a Bat's Leg and Foot 84 26. Serotine Bat ( Vespertilio serotinus) : to show {a) shape of ear ; (J)) naked three-cornered space on under lip ;. (c) remains of sucker disc on the ball of thumb ; (d) point of departure of wing membi-ane from base of toes ; (^) 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 {Pterygistes noctuld) 87 28. Skull of Noctule Bat (i§ times natural size) 88 29. Front of Skull of Noctule Bat, to show separation between incisor teeth and large canines (3 times natural size) 88 30. Head of Noctule Bat (nearly twice natural size) 89 31. Head of Pipistrelle, or Common Bat (^Pipistrellus pipistrellus') . . . -91 32. Head and Foot of Daubenton's Bat 95 33. Head of Bechstein's Bat. Nearly twice natural size 97 34. Head of Common Continental Bat {Myotis myotis). Natural size ... 99 35. Head of Whiskered Bat. (2| times natural size) lOl 36. Ear of Notch-eared Bat (^Myotis emarginatus). Twice natural size . . . 102 37. Head of Barbastelle Bat {Barbastella barbastcllus). Note ear membranes joining over forehead, groove along nose, and eyes fairly close together. Twice natural size 103 38. Nose and Muzzle of Barbastelle Bat (3 times life size) 103 39. A. Ears of the Long-eared Bat (half again as large as natural size) ; B. The Long-eared Bat (life size), showing ears pressed against the sides and tragus erect 105 40. Nose and Muzzle of Long-eared Bat. (3 times natural size) . . . .106 f The Greater Horseshoe Bat (Rhiuolophus fer7-um-equinutn) . • | ^ . /ii -! ,, . . „ s - r Facing 108 ^ 'I The Common Bat {Pipistrellus pipistrellus) . . . . 'J 42. Head of Greater Horseshoe Bat {Rhinolophus ferrum-equinuni), 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 size) . 1 10 44. Nose Leaf of Lesser Horseshoe Bat {Rhinolophus hipposiderus) . Twice natural size. ..........•••• i'2 45. Jaws of Otocyon megalotis (to show four molar teeth in each jaw, etc.) . .114 46. Angle of the Lower Jaw in Otocyon, as compared with the angle of the Jaw in Canis cancrivorus (Crab-eating Dog) and in Wolf . . . • "S LIST OF BLACK-AND-WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS xv PAGE 47. Examples of Fourth Upper Premolar (the Upper Carnassial Tooth) in various Carnivores . . . . . . . . . . . . ■ ^l^ {The Common Fox {Canis vulpes) .......] The Wolf, European Type {Canis lupus) X ^ (British Cave Lion {Felis leo spelczd) .\ British Cave Bear {Ursus spelcEus) j ^^'^'^^ ^^"^ (The Common Otter \ The Common Otter {Lutra vulgaris) . . . . . . . j ' fThe Pine Marten {Mustela martes) \ S'-j The Badger (^./.W^«.) ^Facing 144 52. The Polecat {Putorius fatidus) . Facing 154 53. The Common Stoat {Putorius ermineus). Summer coat . . . Facing 158 54. The Weasel {Putorius nivalis') ........ Facing 162 55. Examples of Upper Canine Tooth in Lion and in two Machairodonts (natural size) 171 56. Gape of Jaws in a British Sabre-toothed "Tiger" {Machairodus cultridens) . 173 (The Ferret, domesticated form of Polecat {Putorius fcetidus) . .\ The Wild Cat (i^.& .«/«.) ]^ Feuing 182 58. Fore Paw and Hind Paw of Common Seal compared with Fore Paw axid Hind Paw of Sea Lion 190 59. Premolars and Molar, Upper Jaw, of Common Seal I9S 60. The Harp Seal (^Phoca groenlandica) ......... 201 61. The Gray Seal {Halichxrtis grypus). Adult and young . . . Facing 204 62. Head of Hooded Seal {Cystophora) 207 63. Wild Rabbits {Oryctolagus cuniculus) Facing 212 64. The Mountain Hare {Lepus timidus). Winter coat in Wicklow Mountains, Ireland Facing 218 , J The Common Hare {Lepus europaus) t s" ' 220 I The European Beaver {Castor fiber) . . . . . . .1 j The Squirrel {Sciurus vulgaris) | 'I The Common Dormouse {Muscardimis avellanarius) . ■ ■ j 67. Molar Teeth of Squirrel, Rat, and Water Vole {Microtus) for Comparison (twice natural size) ........... 238 f Long-tailed Field or Wood Mouse {Mus sylvaticus) . . . .'\ gg J Harvest Mouse {Mus mimttus) I ^^^-^^^ 342 I Red Bank Vole {Evotomys glareolus) j I Black Rat {Mus rattus) J {Brown Rat (^Mus decumanus) 1 Short-tailed Field Vole {_Microtus agrestis) j ^"^'^-^ ^^° 70. Pattern of Enamel and Dentine on Surface of Molar Teeth of African and Indian Elephants 263 xvi LIST OF BLACK-AND-WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE 71. The Mammoth {Elephas pritnigenius') Facing 266 72. Prjevalski's Horse (^Equus przevalskii) Facing 274 73. The Evolution of the Horse's Tail 275 74. Bones of the Hand or Lower Front Limb in Modern Artiodactyles, to illustrate Gradual Disappearance of the Side Fingers ..... 281 (Wild Sow and Young ^ Irish Pig |- Facing 286 Wild Boar {Sus scrofa) j 76, Head and Neck of Roebuck, to show White Markings on Neck and Black Mark across Muzzle 295 77. Examples of Roe Deer's Antlers, Ancient and Modern 297 {Fallow Deer {Cervus davia) 1 Fallow Deer (Unspotted Form) J ^'^'''^ 308 79. Examples of Fallow Deer's Antlers 311 80. The Gigantic Irish Deer (^Cervus megaceros): Antlers and Skeleton. Facing 314 /Red Deer : Stag {Cermis elaphus) "J _ Red Deer: Hind and Fawn |- Facing 320 \ Red Deer : Hinds J 82. Gland Tuft on Hind Leg of Red Deer 324 83. Stag in Early March without Antlers (to show Pedicle of Antlers) . . 325 84. Red Deer's Antler of Pleistocene Period : dug up at Durham (British Museum) 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 Development of the "Cup" or Terminal Fork of the Red Deer's Antlers 333 The Saiga {Saiga tatarica) 1 The Musk Ox (^Ovibos moschatus) j ^"^^"^ ^42 89. Horns of a Ram {Ovis aries), from Achill Island, off the West Coast of Ireland 349 {Highland Sheep {Ovis aries) \ Soa Sheep, St. Kilda {Ovis aries) I Facing 350 Female Corsican Mouflon {Ovis musimon), to show Tail . .1 {Horns of Extinct English Bison {Bos prisctis) .... Skull of Extinct Aurochs {Bos pritnigenius') .... {European Bison {Bos bonasus) from Lithuania .... Head of English Wild Bull, Chartley Breed {Bos taurus) {English Wild Cattle : Bull of the Chartley Breed {Bos taurus) English Wild Cattle : Cow and Calf (Chartley Breed) . 4 - Facing 356 Facing 358 - Facing 362 (Domestic Cattle : Kerry Bull {Bos taurus longifrons) . . .\ Domestic Cattle : Long Horn Bull f ^""""^ ^64 95. Probable Centres of Development and Migration Routes of Primates . . 369 British Mammals CHAPTER I P REFATOR r 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.' Mr. T. McKenny Hughes in 1896 wrote an admirable treatise on the origin of the breeds of domestic cattle. Mr. F. E. Beddard ^ 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. 2 BRITISH MAMMALS has dealt with MammaHa 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 palaeontologist, Dr. Karl A. von Zittel, in his classical Handbook of Paleontology^ 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 aesthetic 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 hyaenas, gigantic Irish deer, beavers, wild boars, and wolves which severally or together made those regions a scene of fascination and wonder even to Palaeolithic 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 aesthetic 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 bihousness, 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 aesthetic 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 aesthetic 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 i8th of this month." 6 BRITISH MAMMALS descend below the level of the water, we derive but little assthetic 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 spelaa, 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 hyaena, 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 araucarlas. 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 GENE1{AL ; AND THE OTQCIN OF THE B1{ITISH MAMMALIA Mammal 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/ 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 ^ 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 Thier, "LaXin fera, Greek ther. 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 ^ 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. lo 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 vertebrae 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 ^ 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 alHed 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 (i) the Marsupials ; (2) the Edentates (armadillos, ant-eaters, sloths, etc.) ; (3) the Whales ; (4) the Ungulates (all hoofed mammals) ; (5) the Sirenia (manatis, dugongs, etc.) ; (6) the Carnivores ^ They originated probably in North America. 12 BRITISH MAMMALS (creodonts, seals, dogs, cats, bears, etc.) ; (7) the %pdents (squirrels, rats, hares, etc.) ; (8) the Insectivores (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. ^ 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. 14 BRITISH MAM MAIS 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 mammahans. 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 palaeolithic 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 J the hunting-dog {Lycaon\ the wolf^ the brown bear, the panda, the glutton^ the striped and spotted hyanas, 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. Note. — 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, ^ 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. i6 BRITISH MAMMALS EPOCHS SECONDARY Period — Triassic (The beast-like Reptiles, A?tomodontla, begin to appear. Mammals of a low, indeterminate, Monotreme type make their appearance in Europe and North America.) „ Jurassic (Birds originate from reptiles at the beginning of this period.) ,, 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 ,, 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.) ,, Miocene (" More recent." Most of sh.^ 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.) ,, 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 orig inates during this period in South- eastern Asia, and spreads westwards towards Britain.) „ 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 „ Prehistoric (The age of Neolithic man ; of the origin of our domestic beasts ; and of most varieties and sub- species of existing mammals.) „ Recent (From the rise of human history, about eight thousand years ago, to the present time.) CHAPTER III Order : CETACE.E. 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 Cetace^e 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 1 8 BRITISH MAM MA IS 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 [Archaoceti) 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), have 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 ^ Whales [Odontocett). The toothed whales include (besides the extinct Squalodonts) the fresh-water Dolphins, or Platanistidc€ (relatively small forms found in the Amazon and the Ganges, but in a fossil state also in Europe and North America), the True Dolphins (^Delphinida), the Sperm Whales {Physeterida\ and the Ziphioid Whales {Ziphiin^). 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 Odontocett. 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 {Jrchaoceti). 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 Odontocett, In the riffht 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, ^ 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 mammas, 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. All that remains of the Whale's Hind Limbs {Bal