cold of the glacial epoch, possibly by migrating during ils continuance to Southern Europe. The comparison in size between these two Beavers, at one time contemporaneous, coupled with anatomical characters, seems to preclude the possibility of the larger being a more highly developed race of the smaller. Beavers' bones have been dug up in the lower brick-earths of the Thames, and under the streets of London, and there can be no doubt that at one time the Beaver built its dam on this river and its tributaries as well as on many other English, Scotch and Welsh streams and lakes.[1]
The Hare and Rabbit have pedigrees which extend back to the days of the British Elephants, Rhinoceroses, Lions, and other large quadrupeds, nor do they seem to have been of greater size then than their present representatives, although jaws and skulls of hares have been occasionally met with somewhat larger than the same parts of any living species of the genus.
The Pikas or Tailless Hares of Northern Asia were once distributed over Europe, and several portions of their skeletons have been found in cave-deposits in England, associated with remains of nearly all the large extinct mammals.
The Lemming, still plentiful in Northern Europe, and renowned for its voracious habits, had a representative in England in olden times, as proved by the discovery of its remains in several cave-deposits. The Marmots or Ground Squirrels also had a compeer, as shown by the discovery of its relics in the cave of Fisherton, near Salisbury. The Water Rat seems to have been common, also the Long- and Short-tailed Field Mice and the Common House Mouse.
The Large Horseshoe Bat and the Noctule or Great Bat, both still natives of the British Islands, have left their bones in
- ↑ Fossil remains of the Beaver have been found in Berkshire (Phil. Trans. 1757, p. 112), and in Cambridgeshire (Jenyns' 'British Vertebrate Animals,' p. 34), in Berwickshire and in Perthshire (Neill, 'Wernerian Memoirs,' vol. iii., p. 207). In the ninth century the animal was known by the Welsh as "Llosdlydan" (Leges Wallicæ, iii., 11), and in Gaelic it is still termed from tradition "Losleathen." For some further particulars on the subject the reader may be referred to an article entitled "Beavers, Ancient and Modern," which appeared in 'The Field' of March 22, 1873.—Ed.
