British animals extinct within historic times : with some account of British wild white cattle / by James Edmund Harting ; with illustrations by J. Wolf, C. Whymper, R.W. Sherwin, and others.

Harting James Edmund, 1841-1928.

Date:: 1880

Credit: British animals extinct within historic times : with some account of British wild white cattle / by James Edmund Harting ; with illustrations by J. Wolf, C. Whymper, R.W. Sherwin, and others. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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$Many places in Wales, says Pennant, still re- tain the name of Penartli, or the bear's head, another evidence of their former existence in our country.^ Our illustrious countryman, John Ray, in his Synopsis Methodica Animalium (a small octavo volume, published in 1693), (pp- 213, 214) that his friend Mr. Edward Llwyd, in an old Welsh MS. on British laws and customs, discovered cer- tain statutes and regulations relating to hunting, from which it appeared that the Bear was formerly reckoned amongst the beasts of chase {E novem quce venantur ferarum generibus tina tantum lafrahilia t esse, ursum, scandentia,\ et phasianum, and its flesh was esteemed equally with that of the Hare and the Wild Boar : Summain sen prcecipuce cestima- iionis fermam esse, ursi, lejwris et apri.^ * Britisli Zoology, vol. i. p. 91 (ed. 1812). t Latrahilia, baitable animals. The term is thus explained by Ray (op. cit.) : Ursns fera latrahilis [baitable] dicitur, quia cum tardigradus sit, nec velociter currere possit, canes eum facile asse- quuntur, contra quos deinde corpore in clunes erecto aliquandiu se defendit; canes autem initio timidi nec propius accedere aut eum allatrant antequam aggrediautur et occidant. See also Stuart, Lays of the Deer Forest, vol. ii. p. 441. t Scandentia, sc., climbers, the marten and wild cat, perhaps also the squirrel. The mention of the pheasant here is remarkable, and we should be curious to discover the date of this MS., if still preserved, and the Welsh equivalent, in Llwyd's opinion, for phasianum. We know from another source (a MS. dated about 1177) that this bird was to be found here in 1059, since it is included in a bill of fare of that date prescribed by Harold for the household of the canons at Waltham Abbey. It would be interesting to know whether the Welsh MS. referred to was an earlier document or otherwise. § In a letter (dated Sept. 14, 1696) from the late Mr. Edward Llwyd, Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, to Dr. Tancred Robinson, F.R.S., containing several observations in Natural History,$