We must confess that some objection may be not unnaturally taken to the exclusion from the above catalogue of several other names. For instance, the grounds on which the zebu (the humped ox of India and parts of Africa) is believed by some to be of totally distinct origin from the common ox, are very different in their nature from the considerations which tend to the persuasion that this last is compounded of more than one specific element. Indeed, were it not that we are acquainted with the wild originals of the common and the Chinese geese,-while we are left to guess at the primitive sources of the common ox and the zebu, the two cases would be almost exactly parallel. By far the greatest number of investigators declare in favour of the belief that two, if not three, species of wild ox have combined to form our domesticated breeds of cattle; and all are agreed that the cross between these and the zebu is a perfectly fertile one. The late Mr. Yarrell, in his invaluable and well-known work on British Birds, stated his reasons-and very good reasons they are-for thinking "that one other species at least" besides the grey goose "has had some share in establishing our domestic race;" while it appears from what Mr. Blyth-confessedly the highest authority on Indian, or, perhaps we may say, even Asiatic zoology-says that though a thorough-bred goose may not be exactly a rarity in Hindostan, yet that in various parts of the country whole flocks of hybrids between the common and the Chinese species are profitably kept.

Furthermore, to the above lists might almost be added, among beasts, the cheetah, or hunting leopard, and the otter; and among birds, all the species which are used in falconry,― probably not less than a dozen in number, as well as the cormorants of Europe and China, which, especially the latter, have constantly been thoroughly reclaimed and employed in taking fish; but we do not know of any instances of their breeding in a domesticated state (though it is very possible that, were due facilities granted them, they would do so); we therefore deem it advisable to omit them.

Of reptiles, not one species has suffered domestication; and of fishes, as far as known, only the golden carp. Among the articulata, there are several kinds of silk-worm,-of which we shall have more to say presently, two species of honey-bee, and the cochineal insect. Lower in the scale we do not propose to descend.

Now as regards animals which may be said to have undergone acclimatization as distinguished from domestication, it would be utterly impossible to furnish full lists, for the materials to form them do not yet exist. Even if we were to search through the whole range of zoological literature, the extent of which few but the initiated are aware of, we could not do more than hope to arrive at an approximation; while how near such an approximation would be to the truth, we should, at the end of our task, have no means of ascertaining. Here we will only venture upon safe ground, and mention the species of vertebrates the acclimatization of which in the British Islands may, we think, be looked on as well established. They are the following:

Wapiti.
Fallow-deer.

Eland.

Silver pheasant.

Golden pheasant.

Ring-necked pheasant.
Colchican pheasant.
Japan pheasant.
Capercally.

French partridge.
Californian quail.
Wood-duck.
Canada goose.
Egyptian goose.

Edible frog.
Common carp.

Crucian carp.

We particularly wish, however, to guard any of our readers from supposing we give the above list as infallible. It is a mere matter of opinion almost whether it might not be twice as large. Among birds alone there are some five species of Indian pheasants, and as many of the duck tribe, which have almost as much right to be included in it. Our principal reason for excluding them is, that their introduction to this country is of comparatively recent date; and though there is little doubt of their succeeding, it yet remains to be proved whether they will eventually establish themselves here. Man has nearly done his part in their naturalization, and it will soon rest with themselves alone. Some of our readers may object that we have not also included the Virginian as well as the Californian quail. The former bird had a place in the British fauna assigned to it by the late Mr. Yarrell; but it is indubitable that he did so prematurely, and that the numerous examples which have been liberated in this country have, from some cause or other, failed to maintain their position. Again, others may urge that we have improperly reckoned the edible frog, seeing that Professor Bell gives it rank as an undoubted native; but having equal regard to his high authority and to the circumstances of the case, we consider that the scruples entertained by the late Mr. John Wolley, and the reasons which he brought forward against the Professor's view,* justify us in our opinion.

* See The Zoologist for 1859, p. 6606.

It may be asked, too, on the strength of the old doggerel,-
"Hoppes and turkies, carpes, pickerel and bere
Came into England alle in one yeare,”-

-

why we have excluded the pike from among the introduced fishes. To this we have to say, that the British Museum and other collections contain undeniable bones of this species from the peat of the eastern counties; and we see no reason to suppose that, as in the case of the capercally, our native race has ever become extinct and been restored.

But it is now time to have done for the present with the acclimatized, and to say a few words of the acclimatizers.

The early prosecutors of maritime research, the Spaniards and Portuguese, seem to have soon commenced the practice of stocking their new discoveries with domestic animals, especially in the case of oceanic islands, which they almost invariably found deficient in products supplying fresh meat, that great want of ancient mariners. This was done no doubt with the triple motive of adding to the value of the new countries as places of call for future explorers, of creating natural storehouses, as it were, for the expedition to fall back upon in cases of difficulty, and also of affording a means of subsistence to cast-away sailors. Their prudent example was soon followed by the English, the Dutch, and indeed by all nations who occupied their business on the great waters; and the benefits thus provided have been reaped by many a distressed seafarer besides our childhood's favourite, Mr. Robinson Crusoe. Hogs, goats, and cats were the beasts chiefly used in planting these colonies; of course because they were the species most easily kept on board the confined and inconvenient ships of that period. But presently larger animals were tried; and the Cape of Good Hope, the Falkland Islands, and the vast continent of South America, owe to these pristine navigators the innumerable herds of horned cattle and horses which nowadays form such an abundant source of their wealth. The practice was continued long after the dominion of the seas had fallen out of the hands of the natives of the European peninsula; and on Cook's voyages use ful animals of one sort or another were left at nearly all the places visited, where the chance of their thriving seemed a good The French navigators appear to have been much more

one.

* Though not a case of attempted animal acclimatization, we may perhaps be excused for here reminding our readers that the celebrated voyage of the Bounty was undertaken for the express purpose of introducing the bread fruit tree to the West-Indian Archipelago. Captain Bligh had the satisfaction of at last succeeding in landing a cargo of healthy plants at St. Vincent and Jamaica in 1793. The most sanguine anticipations of the benefits to be derived from it were indulged in, but they can scarcely be said to have been at all realized.

far-seeing; for they by no means confined themselves to stocking their settlements with the most obviously useful animals, but they were fond of introducing any thing they could lay their hands upon, and some even of very questionable utility. Indeed, the success which has, even to the present day, attended their efforts in this respect, entitles the grande nation to be regarded as the great acclimatizing-just as England is the great colonizing-power of the earth.

However, among those who have done most for acclimatization, we must award the palm to a fellow-countrymen. Not one can be ranked, in our opinion, higher than the late Earl of Derby. To most persons, no doubt, the extraordinary menagerie which he formed at Knowsley seemed to be but the hobby of a man who spent an enormous rent-roll in this manner rather than on the turf or in electioneering. Few were surprised that his successor, the present leader of " Her Majesty's Opposition," declined the maintenance of such a costly and apparently unprofitable establishment. But we believe the motive which prompted its founder, was far from being the mere indulgence of a whim. Lord Derby really intended to benefit his fellow-men by applying his own natural taste for, and knowledge of, zoology to the reclaiming of new species that might be useful to them. For more than a quarter of a century he worked on with this object in view; but even with his princely fortune to aid him the progress was slow. A few years longer would have seen important results follow: experiment would have produced its usual consequences; theory would have been reduced to practice. He had already succeeded in breeding the eland in confinementprobably of all wild quadrupeds the one that could be most advantageously domesticated-when death put an end to his aspirations. Unfortunately, of the experience he had so dearly bought, nearly all perished with him. The services of his headkeeper, who was supposed to embody all that hardly acquired knowledge, were secured by the Zoological Society of London; but scarce a recorded observation remains to furnish a guide for those who would follow in his footsteps. By his will he empowered the same Society, of which he was the president, to choose from his menagerie some one group of animals as a bequest, and they wisely selected the newly-founded herd of elands; but all the rest of the collection, brought together with so much trouble, and at an expense so great, was sent to the hammer and dispersed. First in the list of works which head this article we have placed the catalogue drawn up for the sale; it is the most complete, we might say the only, permanent memorial of the magnitude of this wonderful repository of living

beings, the extent of which is shown by the summary which we here extract from its last page:

Of the labours of other private persons in this country or abroad, though some are undeniably great, we do not feel called upon to say much here. The late Marquis of Breadalbane is understood to have attained a fair share of success in acclimatizing several likely species, but we are not acquainted with the particular cases. Certainly it is to him we chiefly owe the successful re-introduction of our extinct race of capercailzies. The exact date when this noble bird ceased to exist in the British islands is not quite clear. Pennant says that a few were still found about 1760 in Ireland, around Thomastown, county of Tipperary; he also adds that he saw a male bird at Inverness which had been killed in the Chisholm's country; and his Tour in Scotland was published in 1769. We do not know that a single indigenous specimen has been preserved in any of our numerous collections.*

About five-and-thirty years ago Lord Fyfe tried to restore this grand species to its former home in the forests of Braemar, but nothing seems to have come of his endeavours. Some ten years afterwards the Duchess of Athol renewed the attempt at Blair; and almost at the same time Lord Breadalbane, through the intervention of Sir T. Fowell Buxton and Mr. Ll. Lloyd, the well-known Scandinavian sportsman, imported from Sweden a large number of capercally, which were subsequently libe

In the Catalogue of British Birds in the British Museum, published in 1850 by Mr. G. R. Gray, we find a hen-bird entered with the remark, "Scotland: from Col. Montagu's collection." We imagine this statement to be erroneous; at least, the careful naturalist last mentioned makes no allusion to such a specimen in his Ornithological Dictionary, published in 1813; while he specifies his having received birds from Norway in a manner which leads us to suppose that they were the only ones he ever examined. Mr. G. T. Fox, in the Synopsis of the Newcastle Museum, asserts (p. 78) that the example in the National Collection was formerly in Mr. Bullock's Museum: this we think possible; but if so, the probability of its having been obtained in Scotland is thereby diminished. The same author says he is unable to make out if the specimen from Mr. Tunstall's cabinet, now preserved at Newcastle-on-Tyne, was really of British capture.