A HISTORY OF HEREFORDSHIRE a little distance, his coat apparently as dry as if he had been on land the whole time. Looking further along the gutter you would see another. Coming together they would both sink to the bottom without a ripple ; they would play together at the bottom, and if you made the least movement they would scutter up the bank and be lost in the herbage. They were most diiiicult to catch, but I have taken several with the aid of a net in the water. They would sham death for an instant or two on being taken I found a part of the bank much used by these little creatures, and traced a little hole just above the water line and many well-worn runs in the herbage near, with the stems of the grass bitten neatly off. I watched this place patiently and found it was frequented by a pair of shrews, but they only entered rarely from the water. Searching about I found two other holes on the land close by ; I watched these and saw the little fellows carrying dry grass and leaves into one of them. Some little time after I carefully dug a large turf away and there about four inches from the surface was a warm cosy little nest vnth five little shrews in it. They had their eyes closed, and were very tiny mites and looked very comical with their long noses.' The water shrew is believed to have become less frequent during recent years. An angler lately in- formed Mr. Pilley that he rarely sees one. CARNIVORA 12. Wild Cat. Fi/is catus, Linn. Mr. R. A. Swayne considers survivals are little likely, because cats are the most easily trapped of any wild animals ; he says there may be survivals of a half wild cat, interbred with escaped specimens of the domestic cat till it has become merged with it. Mr. Cooke, an elderly gamekeeper, living near Stoke Edith, remem- bers that when he was a boy, some sixty years ago, he trapped in that neighbourhood two distinctly pure wild cats, male and female. They were more or less striped, with tails short but very bushy, long in the legs and much larger than the domestic cat. Their skins were made into mats and worn out. He caught both at about the same time, either on the same day or within a day or two. Mr. E. C. Phillips states that the wild cat, though now extinct in Breconshire, has been killed within the past sixty years near Bronllys, about seven miles from the Herefordshire border. 13. Fox. Fulpes vulpes, lAxni. Bell — Vulpes vulgaris. The churchwardens' accounts of Staunton on Arrow in 1728 record 'Pd. for a fFox l/' (Rev. S. Cornish Watkins). Foxes are numerous, and so bold that they sometimes visit the poultry yards within a mile of the centre of the city of Hereford. There are four packs of foxhounds within the county. Cubs are sometimes imported by the less wooded parts of the county from those parts of it where there is more cover (J. B. Pilley). Mr. E. C. Phillips says that the foxes of the Black Mountains are invariably greyer in colour. 14. Pine Marten. Mustek martes, Linn. Bell — Martes abietum. There are two specimens in the museum at Here- ford, one labelled ' Stanage Park,' the other described as from near Ross (J. B. Pilley). Mr. Walter H. Steward, of Pontrilas, mentions that one was caught by the Pontrilas gamekeeper some years ago. Another was seen a few months after crossing the Dore stream at Pontrilas on a log. Mr. E. C. Phillips states that the pine marten still exists in Breconshire, and was killed a few miles from the Herefordshire border some twenty years ago. The Zoo/i!f!x/ for 1886, pp. 240, 241, gives a list of the martens of Herefordshire by Mr. F. Attwood Mathews, of Pontrilas Court, which may be sum- marized as follows : (a) Dark brown specimen with bronze-coloured throat, caught by keeper Edward Rogers in a vermin trap in a covert called Paradise Brake, at Pontrilas (referred to above) ; (b) Black specimen with white throat caught by keeper Thomas Howard in Lowerhouse Wood in the parish of St. Margaret's, twenty-five years ago (viz. from 1886) ; (c) Darker one, killed in orchard of White House, Hereford, thirty-five years ago (viz. from 1886) ; (d) yellow-throated specimen killed at Urishay Castle long before ; (e) in 1 860 three martens were killed at Whitfield in St. Devereux. None have been seen there since. The writer adds, 'The Rev. G. M. Watkins informs me that Whitlock, the keeper at Kent- church Court, says he had not seen a " marten cat " for twenty years; not since 1866, when one was trapped at Kentchurch, just by the little brook that runs into the River Monnow. His father forty years ago used to kill four or five every year near Mon- mouth, in a large wood called " Whitehill." The last I have heard of was seen just two years ago. In the spring of 1884 Mr. Walter Steward, R.N., was wading in the river Dore when he saw a marten (exactly like the one we sent to the museum, dark brown with yellow throat) crossing the stream by means of a tree which had fallen across and carrying a rat in its mouth.' 15. Polecat. Putorius putorius, Linn. Bell —Mustek putorius. Locally, Fummart, Fitch, Fitchuke, Fitchet. Recorded as common by Mr. Lingwood in 1840. Mr. Cooke, the gamekeeper who trapped the wild cats, states that about sixty years ago as many as five or six were trapped in a day on Stoke Edith estate ; their skins used to fetch 2/. 6d. each (R. A. Swayne). Mr. Pilley writes, ' The last one that I can hear of was killed about eight years ago near Lugwardine, four miles from Hereford. It is described by a local taxidermist, who saw the remains of it, as being about three quarters of the adult size. There are seven specimens in the local museum, probably all obtained in the county. There is little variation in colour, but two are rather lighter than the others.' The Rev. S. Cornish Watkins remembers a polecat being trapped at Kentchurch about seventeen years ago, but has no exact record. Mr. E. C. Phillips refers to the occurrence of the polecat within recent years in Breconshire, and thinks 152
