Manchester Me^noirs^ Vol. Iviii. (1914), No. 0. 5 



were the skin and partially picked bones of a youni^ 

 Rabbit. The influence of so many Brown Rats as occur 

 round the mere must be far reaching but is difficult to 

 estimate ; there is no question, however, that the Rat is a 

 factor in the regulation of the numbers of many other 

 animals. It is to some extent an alien influence, for it 

 is of comparatively recent introduction. 



AVES. 



A large and varied avifauna inhabits the woods and 

 fields which surround the mere, and the selection of those 

 which can be claimed to be aquatic is exceedingly 

 difficult. Thus the Redbreast and the Hedge Sparrow, 

 much commoner woodland birds than most people imagine, 

 occur so abundantly near the mere that they may easily 

 be responsible for the death of many aquatic animals ; yet 

 it would be absurd to class them as aquatic. Again, in 

 spring, the Willow Wren and Chiffcaff frequently feed in 

 the willows and alders, and even make insect-hunting 

 excursions into the reeds, but it would be hair-splitting to 

 include them and leave out the Garden Warbler and 

 Blackcap, both abundant in Mere Side and Harper's Bank 

 coverts, because we have not actually detected them 

 feeding so close to the water. 



The Rook and Jackdaw are 



Pica pica (Linnaeus), common in the neighbourhood, 

 and the Carrion Crow has 

 occasionally succeeded in eluding the vigilance of the 

 keepers for some little time, but although the two former, 

 at any rate, may sometimes be seen feeding on the fields 

 near the edge of the mere, they can hardly be said to have 

 much influence upon its fauna. On some of the less 

 carefully preserved Cheshire meres, however, the Magpie 

 is a constant waterside visitor, and as the bird, although 



