A HISTORY OF HEREFORDSHIRE this pool lies at least six or seven miles from the River Wye, and at least five miles from the Lugg, and there is no brook in the valley, only springs and wet ditches with no fish in them. So this otter must have travelled some distance by land. I know of a similar case near Malvern Hill, where the farmer actually saw an otter at the side of the pool during hard weather in winter, but this pool was within a mile of a good trout stream.' Mr. Pilley writes : ' The otter is not uncommon on the Wye and Lugg, especially the latter, and also occurs in the smaller streams. A policeman on duty crossing the bridge over the River Wye in Hereford at about one a.m. one moonlight morning saw two feeding, and watched them for a short time.' A couple of otters were observed by Mr. Edward Pilley, in the summer of 1906, on the brink of the river at the bottom of the Castle Green, Hereford, a much- frequented place. Mr. H. Cecil Moore records that in October, 1 907, a family of six otters were seen to- gether on more than one occasion near the Wye Bridge, Hereford. Again, on 22 October, 1907, an ctter was seen disporting itself in the Wye opposite the ' Saracen's Head ' at the southern end of the Wye Bridge. This species has been observed in many other locali- ties besides those named above. I am informed by the pupils of Mr. J. Lingham Lees, Clyde House School, Hereford, that a tame otter has been kept at Urishay Castle. RODENTIA 20. Squirrel. Sciurus kucourus, Kerr. Bell — Sciurus vulgaris. Found in all large woods through the county, and considered to do much damage. The Rev. J. B. Hewitt says they are very mischievous in young larch and fir plantations. At Putley Court, Ledbury, they are shot on account of the nut plantations. The Rev. S. Cornish Watkins has a record that a nest of young squirrels was found in a hollow oak tree at Kent- church. In this same tree were an owl's nest and a shrew's nest. Mr. R. A. Swayne remarks that the squirrel's nest is very often built in an oak tree. Mr. Watkins continues : ' The earliest date I have for young squirrels is 30 March, 1893, when I found a nest containing two young ones, about three days old, in a holly bush at Kentchurch. This is, I think, abnormally early.' Mr. Pilley remarks that in winter squirrels are seen that have turned grey for the season, and the Rev. S. Cornish Watkins shot one almost the colour of an ordinary wild rabbit on 6 September, 1902. He says ' the tail was yellowish brown and dark grey brown along the centre, and it was rather a small specimen.' The skin is in his possession. 21. Dormouse. Muscardinus aveUanarius, Linn. Bell — Myoxus avellarius. Locally, Seven-Sleeper.' Mr. R. A. Swayne writes : ' Often found by wood- men in cutting down coppice hibernating in a stump of ash or oak.' ' At Colwall this year, in my brother's garden,' says the Rev J. B. Hewitt, ' they took the nuts from the trees like squirrels.' The Rev. S. Cornish Watkins mentions that they are fairly common at Kentchurch, and occur sparingly at Staunton on Arrow. 22. Brown Rat. Mus decumanus, Pallas. Abundant and bold, here as everywhere. [Black Rat. Mus rattus, Linn. This is extinct in Herefordshire. In the neigh- » A dormouse is locally called ' A Seven-Sleeper,' the name being a curious survival of the old legend about * The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus.' The word dormouse, of course, has a kindred meaning (Fr. Dormeuse, the sleeper). Mr. E. C. Phillips remarks that in the adjoining county of Brecon there is a Welsh saying, < As fat as a dormouse.' bouring county of Brecon Mr. E. C. Phillips re- ports that in forty years' experience he has seen one only, and that a dead one found at Llansantf&ead. I find no statement of its occurrence in the precincts of Hereford Cathedral, although its occurrence at Bristol Cathedral is suggestive in view of its possible survival from earlier times. Mr. H. Bolton, Curator of the Bristol Museum, says that one of the three specimens of Mus rattus there is labelled ' Bristol Cathedral.' This may have been a local survival ; or, on the other hand, it may have had an immigrant origin from the city docks. The successive immigrations of rats into Eng- land, where they are not indigenous, constitute an obscure subject. During recent years there has ap- parently been a revival, so to speak, of the black rat (M. rattus), formerly supposed to have been com- pletely exterminated in England by the brown rat (Af. decumanus'). How far this revival is due to the multiplication of a few black rats surviving in out-of- the-way places, and how far it is due to their recent immigration from abroad, is uncertain. The fact that they exist chiefly in maritime places does not entirely exclude the former possibility, for the cliffi and banks of the coast-line afford a secure home for rats, and a few of the former inhabitants may have survived there. Yet when the black rat is observed in seaport towns, the presumption is in favour of an immigrant origin. It is probable that this re-asser- tion of the black rat is an indication in some degree of degeneracy on the part of the fiercer brown rat {M. decumanus). Overpopulation would account for this. So also would its underground habits, for M. decumanus is more especially subterranean in its ways than M. rattus ; and while this fact has helped to establish the supremacy of the species in the past, it may be a possible cause of its decadence in the future. Moreover, an insular race tends to weaken unless con- tinually crossed ; so that in England the immigrant rodent will always tend to supplant the native. This, in fact, is the secret of all successive waves of rodent immigration. The appearance of M. rattus in Herefordshire, working its way in from the coast, is therefore only a question of time. In Worcestershire ' it has already occurred ; but here it is uncertain whether M. rattus was completely extinct before the immigrants came.] 9 V.C.H. JVorc. i, 176. 154
