MAMMALS Herefordshire is a county which presents conditions favourable to the preservation of mammalian wild life. The development of industrial activi- ties, while it adds to a district wealth and population, yet at the same time tends to rob the ground of nearly everything that is of interest to the student of nature. In Herefordshire no such industrial development has taken place and hence we find that the natural fauna of rural England for the most part survives. Much of the county consists of hilly ground, well wooded ; and here as a rule the wild life is not interfered with except by the gamekeeper. Badgers find shelter here at the present time ; and within the memory of persons now living the wild cat and the marten also were still found there, as well as the polecat, now nearly extinct. Mr. R. M. Lingwood, writing in 1840, describes the polecat as being common, as well as the stoat.^ Of the otter he says ' One or two generally frequent the river Lugg,' and of the hedgehog, ' not very general.' The polecat, destroyed whenever seen, has become scarce since that date. The writer's words might lead us to suppose that the otter and the hedgehog were more scarce at that date than at the present time, but the probability is that the former at any rate is now more carefully observed. With regard to the hedgehog it must be remembered that Mr. Lingwood in this paper describes a part only of the county, the neighbourhood namely of Hereford and of the Fownhope Valley. Probably the hedgehog was then, as it is now, more numerous in the north of the county. The evil repute of the animal in popular estimation leads to its being destroyed at sight ; so that its numbers are likely to be fewer in the neighbourhood of a town. The hare must be named as one of the animals which have diminished in numbers within recent years. The hares have been shot and the rabbits, always numerous, have taken their ground. The aboriginal deer of Herefordshire are extinct and the various deer parks have been stocked by animals imported from elsewhere. Of the bats of the county there is as yet no exhaustive list. Judging by inference from the records of neighbouring and midland counties, we might expect to find the majority of British bats. The existence of the whiskered bat and of Natterer's bat may, at any rate, be assumed without question. The list given below is admittedly incomplete, and further in- formation is required. Herefordshire claims the first discovery by Mr. W. E. de Winton of the British yellow-necked wood mouse, regarding which further information is given below. He says : ' The interesting point about this to my mind is the fact that it is identical with the prevailing form found in Bohemia, Silesia, Eastern Germany and Western Hungary.' ' 'A Short Outline of the Fauna for part of Herefordshire,' Jnnali of Natural Hist. (1840). Mr. Lingwood was afterwards, in 1852, the first president of the Woolhope Club. 149
