A HISTORY OF HEREFORDSHIRE Another rodent, the black rat {Mus rattus) is extinct ; this fact definitely stated by so experienced an observer as Mr. de Winton, as well as by all local naturalists, is of importance. There are other counties in which the black rat is absent, but perhaps none in which we can with more certainty predict the direction of its future re-appearance. Herefordshire is shut in by hills and all new rat immigrants will in certainty come up the banks of the rivers, always the highways of the rat kind. I have much pleasure in acknowledging the very kind assistance I have received from many quarters, in the task of collecting information regarding the wild mammalia of Herefordshire. My thanks are especially due to Mr. W. E. de Winton, of Orielton, Pembroke ; to Mr. H. Cecil Moore, Honorary Secretary of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club ; and to other members of this club. CHEIROPTERA 1. Greater Horse-shoe Bat. Rhtnolophus ferrum- equ'mum, Schreber. This, as well as the lesser horse-shoe bat, according to Mr. de Winton, is plentiful in Herefordshire. 2. Lesser Horse-shoe Bat. Rhtnolophus hipposiderus, Bechstein. Recorded by Mr. R. M. Lingwood as occurring over the kitchens at Sufton Court. ' 3 . Long-eared Bat. Plecotus auritus, Linn. Recorded by Mr. Lingwood. This species, accord- ing to Mr. J. G. Millais,' is the easiest to tame. Mr. R. A. Swayne of Tarrington House near Stoke Edith has had experience in taming this and also bats of other species. Silk-worm moths which had laid their eggs were sometimes given to them for food. Mr. Swayne's sisters also tamed a bat ; and so successfully that it would walk about the table and allow them to stroke it and hold it in their hands. It would come to them and drink milk out of a teaspoon, and was accustomed to fly round the room and catch flies for itself. This bat seems to have enjoyed a greater degree of liberty than Mr.' Millais' pets of whom he cautiously says ' It is advisable to allow them to fly.' That liberty was its undoing, for it flew into the fire and was burnt. This sad fact is noteworthy, suggest- ing a limitation of faculty in the sense organs of the bat's wing. 4. Great or White's Bat (Noctule). Pipistrellus noctula, Schreber. Bell — ScotophUtts noctule. White — Vespertilio altivolans. Recorded by Mr. Lingwood. 5. Pipistrelle. Pipistrellus pipistrellus, Schreber. Bell — Scotophilus pipistrellus. Recorded by Mr. Lingwood ; common. A speci- men was caught on the wing in December, 1839, by Mr. Lingwood. 6. Daubenton's Bat. Myotis daubentoni, Leisler. ' I have a specimen taken at Hereford last year ' (T. E. Kelsall ; Zool. 1889, p. 308) INSECTIVORA 7. Hedgehog. Erinaceus europaeus, Linn. The Rev. S. Cornish Watkins gives the following extract from the Staunton on Arrow Churchwardens' Accounts for 1723 : 'Pd. for 7 Hedgehoggs, s. zd.' He adds ' Hedgehogs are numerous at Kentchurch and a number are trapped by keepers every year in gins baited with the entrails of a rabbit. They are said to be confirmed egg-poachers. One that I kept when a boy would eat dead rats. She was a female that I found in an old quarry at Kentchurch with several young ones.' Mr. Walter H. Steward of Pontrilas says : ' On farms where I have the shooting, hedgehogs used 2 Annals of Nat. Hist. 1 840. Paper quoted above. See also a similar paper by the same author, Woolhope Tram. (iv). 8 Mammals of Gnat Britain and Ireland (1904), i. to be very plentiful. In the last few years we have not seen any ; my keeper says that a very wet season kills them.' Mr. R. A. Swayne finds hedgehogs not especially numerous near Stoke Edith and thinks that gamekeepers destroy them because they are not only guilty of sucking eggs but also eat the newly hatched young of pheasants and partridges. Mr. Swayne recollects that tame hedgehogs kept in a walled garden by his father were successful in rearing young, and adds that they attacked and ate his tame snakes. The Herefordshire country people still believe that hedgehogs suck cows ; and over the Worcestershire border, the Rev. J. B. Hewitt of Upper Sapey Rectory, reports that this statement was made quite recently concerning his own cow ! Mr. J. B. Pilley, assistant secretary to the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club, 150
