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LTHOUGH Berkshire has no extinct vertebrate fauna peculiar to itself, and apparently only a single species hitherto unknown elsewhere, yet it enjoys the distinction of being the county which first afforded evidence as to the former existence of the musk-ox (Ovibos moschatus) in Britain. The imperfect skull (now in the British Museum) on which this determination was made came from a pit in the lower level drift near Maidenhead, where it was discovered in July, 1855, by the Rev. C. Kingsley and Mr. John Lubbock (now Lord Avebury). It attracted much interest at the time, and during the same year was described by Sir Richard Owen in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London; a note on the age and relations of the deposit in which it was found being added by Sir Joseph Prestwich. Remains of the musk-ox have been subsequently discovered in several other British localities, notably at Bromley, Freshford near Bath, Barnwood near Gloucester, in the Thames Valley at Crayford and also at Cromer.

The county also appears to be the first from which remains of the beaver (Castor fiber) were obtained. This record dates from the year 1757, when a letter from Dr. John Collet to the Bishop of Ossory was published in the Philosophical Transactions, which contains an account of the well-known peat-pit near Newbury, and states that 'a great many horns, heads and bones of several kinds of deer, the horns of the antelope, the heads and tusks of boars, the heads of beavers, etc.,' were disinterred. This account was subsequently fully confirmed by later discoveries, Sir R. Owen stating that from 20 feet below the present surface of the Newbury peat valley a Mr. Purdoe obtained jaws and teeth of the beaver in association with remains of the wild boar (Sus scrofa ferus), roebuck (Capreolus capreolus), goat (Capra hircus), red deer (Cervus elaphus) and wolf (Canis lupus). The goat is of course the 'antelope' of the earlier account. Sir R. Owen doubtfully refers a skull from Newbury to the fallow deer (C. dama). From the same deposits have been subsequently recorded remains of the badger (Meles meles), water-vole (Microtus amphibius), Celtic shorthorn (Bos taurus), extinct wild ox or aurochs (B. t. primigenius) and horse (Equus caballus). Of the aurochs a fine skull from Ham Marsh is preserved in the museum of the Newbury Institution.

Of nearly equal antiquity with the record of remains of the beaver from Newbury is an account of the discovery of tusks and other teeth of the wild boar at Abingdon. These were sent to John Hunter in 1787 by a Mr. W. Jones of Abingdon, accompanied by a letter describing their discovery in a layer of sand accompanied by hazel nuts about ten feet below the surface. Remains of the mammoth (Elephas primigenius) and straight-tusked elephant (E. antiquus) are also recorded by Messrs. Woodward and Sherborn from Abingdon, although the writer has been unable to discover on what authority.

In digging the foundations for new cavalry barracks at Windsor in 1867, there were discovered in a bed of gravel numerous mammalian remains, among which Professor W. B. Dawkins identified a bear (perhaps Ursus spelæus), the wolf, horse, fossil bison (Bos priscus) and reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), the antlers and bones of the latter largely outnumbering the other remains. From Ufton remains of the extinct Irish deer, or 'Irish elk' (Cervus giganteus), are recorded in Woodward and Sherborn's catalogue.

In the communication referred to above Sir J. Prestwich mentioned the occurrence of remains of the mammoth in the same pit at Maidenhead, and likewise that mammalian bones had been obtained by Mr. Blackwell in the Kennet valley at Aldermaston near Newbury.