Serval in protected areas across its range, and hunting of servals is either prohibited or regulated in several countries. The scientific name of the serval is "Leptailurus serval". It is the sole member of the genus "Leptailurus". The species was first described by German naturalist Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber as "Felis serval". In 1858, Russian naturalist Nikolai Severtzov proposed the genus name "Leptailurus". In the 19th and 20th centuries, some taxonomists inspected serval skins and identified two species on the basis of coat pattern: "Felis serval" (serval), with large, pronounced spots, and "F. servalina" or "F. ornata" (servaline cat), marked
Bucca (mythological creature) in Cornish tin mines, granting wishes in exchange for food (see knockers). Bucca (mythological creature) Bucca is a male sea-spirit in Cornish folklore - a merman- that inhabited mines and coastal communities as a hobgoblin during storms. The mythological creature is a type of water spirit likely related to the Púca from Irish and Welsh folklore and the female mari-morgans - a type of mermaid from Welsh and Breton mythology. Rev W. S. Lach-Szyrma, one 19th-century writer on Cornish antiquities, suggested the Bucca had originally been an ancient pagan deity of the sea such as Irish Nechtan or British Nodens,