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subject, in the hope that other members might follow him in 

 endeavouring fully to work out the suggestions contained in Mr. 

 Wonfor's paper. 



The mammals of the county were not numerous, aud this 

 would not appear surprising when its geographical position was 

 considered, and the fact that for nearly 2,000 years the county had 

 been inhabited by more or less civilised races, and had also been 

 partially under cultivation. The only list of Susses Mammals he 

 could find was that of Dr. Mantell, in the appendix to Horsfield's 

 " History of Lewes," who enumerated the following :— Common bat, 

 eared bat, common squirrel, dormouse, brown rat, common mouse, 

 field mouse, water rat, harvest mouse, hare, rabbit, hedgehog, 

 common shrew, common mole, polecat, weasel, badger, fox, and 

 otter. The latter was stated as being rare, and found on the 

 banks of the Ouse. This made a total of 19. No mention was 

 made of the water shrew, stoat, field vole, and meadow vole, which 

 were found here, or of the wild cat, which, as they had heard at a 

 recent meeting, was a Sussex Mammal, though Mr Newman, in the 

 Zoologid for March, 1875, still expressed a doubt whether the wild 

 cat had ever been obtained in Great Britaiu, and wished for 

 complete particulars respecting any alleged occurrence of that 

 animal. Mr. W. Jeffery, jun., recorded in the Zoologid (p. 9,016), 

 that an otter was shot in Pagham Harbour, on the 2nd March, 18G4, 

 and also in the same journal (S.S., p. 1,253), that there were otters 

 at Burton, near Petworth, in the spring of 1868. 



The porpoise was also omitted from Dr. Mantell's list, shoals 

 of which at times frequented the coast. The appearance of a shoal 

 was considered a sign of a storm. It was said they came in search 

 of food, as the following extract from the Meteorological Diary kept 

 at the Chain Pier, Brighton, showed-" July 4th, 1825. This part of 

 the Channel has presented a mirror-like appearance, save where the 

 surface has been rippled by shoals of mackarel, or here and there dis- 

 turbed by the visible ascent of porpoises, seeking their prey among 

 these delicious and elegant fish." It was not very clear ii-om whence 

 the porpoises came, but his opinion was that if they were a sign of 

 storm, that it was in this way ; a storm drove away the fish on which 

 they fed, aud they then followed, thus an appearance of porpoises 

 on this coast would indicate a storm at a distance, and which might 



