12 NOTES ON SOME OF OUR BRITISH MAMMALS. 
I am glad to find that the Badger (Meles taxus) is still 
far from extinct in this neighbourhood, and have heard of 
its occurrence so near to Burton as Branston, Walton, 
Croxall, and Rolleston. A large specimen was killed at 
Rolleston last year, and is now in the collection of Sir 
Oswald Mosley. 
The Otter (Lutva vulgaris) still occasionally favours the 
Trent and the Dove with his presence, coming sometimes 
as near to Burton as Walton. Although so terribly des- 
tructive to fish, I trust it may be long before this fine 
animal disappears from our list. 
Coming now to the Rodents, we find the Squirrel 
(Sciuvus vulgavis) abundant in plantations and woods, espec- 
ially at such places as Drakelow, Bretby, and Bagot’s Park, 
and at the first named place I have come across its hoards of 
nuts, &c., in holes at the roots of trees. The Dormouse 
(Muscavdinus avellanavius) is reported both by Dickenson and 
Sir Oswald Mosley. 
Of the Mice and Voles, family Muridae, the dainty little 
Harvest Mouse (Mus minutus) can, so far as I have yet 
found, be admitted to our lists solely on the following note 
by Mr. Brown: 
‘* When a boy, a school-fellow, on whose word I could 
rely, described so accurately the nest of the harvest mouse, 
informing me of one he had found in a field on Waterloo 
Mount, near Burton, that I am satisfied the species belonged 
to our Fauna at that time, if not at present.” 
The Wood Mouse (Mus sylvaticus), the House Mouse 
(Mus musculus), and the Brown Rat (Mus decumanus), are all 
abundant, sometimes far too much so; whilst the Brown 
Rat takes more freely to the water near Burton than in 
any other district with which I am acquainted. The Black 
Rat (Mus vattus) was very early driven out by this fierce 
interloper, for Dickenson says that it had become extinct 
in his time (1798), and as the earliest possible date of the 
