British Animals Extinct Within Historic Times

sitated a much briefer treatment of the subject in the journals referred to than is here attempted, and to these essays, now presented to the reader in a consolidated form, considerable additions have been made.

That the subject admits of still further amplifica-
tion the author is well aware ; but “ars longa vita
brevis est,” and the materials at present collected
have already assumed such dimensions, that it has
been deemed preferable to offer them to the reader
in their present form, rather than postpone publica-
tion indefinitely, in the hope of some day realizing an
ideal state of perfection.
Should the present volume pave

the
way

for future research on the part of others, the Author will be amongst the first to welcome the result of their labours. He has already to acknowledge his indebtedness to Dr. J. A. Smith and Messrs. Edward Alston, J. A. Harvie Brown, and J. P. Hoare, whose taste in the same line of research has prompted them to favour him with several interesting communications, which have been embodied in the following pages ; while to Dr. Smith he is especially obliged for the use of four woodcuts which were prepared to illustrate papers of his own in the “Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.”

In regard to that portion of the present work which treats of the ancient breed of wild white cattle, it may be thought, by some, a little presumptuous on the part of the writer to deal with a subject on which an entire volume has been so recently and so ably written by the late Mr. Storer. But it should be stated that almost all the materials for this portion of the book were not only collected long before Mr. Storer's work was published, but were on the eve of being incorporated in an important essay by Mr. Edward Alston, which was nearly ready for the press

when Mr. Storer's volume appeared. It would be ungenerous, however, on the part of the writer were he to withhold an acknowledgment of his indebtedness to Mr. Storer's work for many useful additions to his own (each, in fact, containing something which the other had not), and in particular for several details of the former extent of ancient forests, which have been embodied in the Introduction.