MAMMALS animal, and has left its old breeding haunts in the long stubbles and rears its young in stacks of both hay and corn. Its diminutive size causes it to escape notice, but locally it is still common to the north-west of Brighton. In east Sussex the harvest mouse occurs near Westfield, as we are informed by Mr. Michael J. Nicoll of St. Leonards. 32. Water Vole. Microtus amphihius, Linn. Bell — Arvkola amphibius. The water vole is common in suitable haunts throughout the county. Examples in the dark ' phase ' have been met with near Pevensey and Chichester. Mr. W. JefFery, jun., in a note to The Zoologist (July, 1 865, p. 9706) records that he shot a full grown specimen near Ratham on May 21, 1863, and a second near the same place on May 22, 1865. It remains to add that an albino was obtained near Hurstpierpoint in April or May, 1874 {Zoologht, ser. 2, p. 4074). 33. Field Vole. Microtus agrestis, Linn. Bell — Arvkola agrestis. Abundant and widely distributed. A pure white specimen with black eyes was brought to Mr. G. Bristow, jun., from Hollington on July 13, 1893. It was kept for some time alive, bwt on the appearance of a few dark hairs its owner killed it. 34. Bank Vole. Evotomys glareolus, Schr. Bell — Arz'icola glareolus. Common and generally distributed through- out Sussex. 35. Common Hare. Lepus europaus, Pallas. Bell — Lepus timidus. In the north and west of the county hares have undergone sad diminution of late years, but are still abundant on all the large estates near the South Downs. We have seen num- bers at Petworth, Arundel and Dale Park. 36. Rabbit. Lepus cuniculus, Linn. Very abundant. UNGULATA 37. Red Deer. Cervus elaphus, Linn. Red deer were from the earliest times indi- genous to the wooded districts of England, and amongst the first records of history we learn that the Saxon kings hunted deer in the forests of Sussex.* A new era may be said to have arrived after the Norman Conquest, when William, his barons and dependants, hunted for sport as well as for the primary consideration of fresh meat, and there is more than one mention in ancient archives that the king himself loved to hunt the stag in the great forests of oak and beech that stretched from Kent to Hants and from the South Downs to London and its immediate environs. So popular indeed was the pastime that en- closed spaces of forest land in which the chase could be enjoyed were set apart, and these were the origin of our parks. The increase of parks continued until the time of the Commonwealth, when the Roundheads with their desire to make all things equal ruthlessly tore down the fences and allowed the deer to escape. Up to this date a constant destruction of timber had been in progress, the trees being felled for the purposes of iron smelting, and also for glass making and salterns ; and consequently the wild creatures found their haunts more and more curtailed as time went 1 The ancient forest of Anderida is thus described by the Venerable Bede, who lived about the year 731 : 'It is thick and inaccessible . . . and a place of shelter for large herds of deer and swine, as well as wolves.' on. At the restoration of Charles II. how- ever the squires were once more in the ascen- dant, and immediately began again to form their deer parks, and many of our best known enclosures have their origin from this date, although some survived the general destruction and were maintained unimpaired through- out these troublous times. It may be men- tioned that owing to the destruction of forest trees Charles II. issued an order that the whole of the forest now known as St. Leonards should be afforested and made into a deer park, a somewhat questionable method of saving the young timber, as all growing copse wood was at once destroyed by the deer that speedily began to increase. But little now remains of the ancient forest of Anderida except the small portions known as the forests of St. Leonards, Tilgate and Ash- down,* whilst a smaller woodland known as Charlton Forest is also generally supposed to have formed a part of it. Queens Mary and Elizabeth both hunted wild deer in Sussex, and there is little doubt that a few existed at the end of the eighteenth century in the forest of St. Leonards, which even at that late date was of so wild a character and bore such an evil reputation that travellers to Brighton preferred to make the journey from London by way of Kent, but it is not certain when the last wild red deer were killed. Nowadays the few that are scattered through 1 Now only a forest in name. The country about Ashdown is mostly moorl.ind. 5 39
