52 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries. 



pleasure of letting one out of a trap ; it was caught by the 

 hind leg, and ran off not much the worse. The hedgehog's 

 little grunt as it runs along a dry ditch in an evening is one of 

 the pleasantest summer sounds. 



The shrew is common, and dead ones are frequently seen, 

 perhaps, as suggested by Mr. J. E. Taylor in Underground^ 

 carried off by an epidemic caused by want of food. 



The mole is plentiful in the lighter land, it does not work so 

 much in clay ; formerly a mole-catcher (as well as a rat-catcher) 

 was appointed every year by the Vestry, but both offices are 

 now abolished. 



The squirrel is another victim to game preserving ; it is shot 

 at whenever seen, its chief crime being that it nibbles off the 

 lead of the spruces. An odd one or two found an asylum 

 about the Rectory grounds, where stood the only beech tree of 

 any size in the parish, which no doubt attracted the squirrels 

 in the autumn. I once, to my surprise, watched a squirrel 

 eating a fungus, which it held in its paw and nibbled as if it 

 were a biscuit. The fact was new to me, but on making 

 enquiry in the Naturalist and elsewhere, I found it was not 

 unknown. 



Rats are among the animals which profit by the preservation 

 of game. An M.F.H. once told me a fox enjoys nothing 

 more than a fine fat rat, which shows that Reynard is of some 

 use besides affording sport. The extermination of hawks, 

 owls, magpies, and jays is also accountable for the great 

 increase in the number of rats. In autumn and winter when 

 the becks and ditches are full of water, they betake themselves 

 to farmyards and stick heaps, and though the farmers may kill 

 hundreds when threshing, it does not seem to diminish their 

 numbers. 



The water vole is a harmless animal and allowed to live in 

 peace by the side of the beck. I have watched a pair of them 

 from a bridge, sitting on the water plants and nibbling away at 

 their evening meal, either unaware or oblivious of my presence. 



We now come to those highly-favoured races, hares and 

 rabbits, which next to pheasants and partridges are most 

 thought of. Their numbers vary according as the season is 

 wet or dry. As many as sixty hares are sometimes shot in a 

 day, and very fine ones they are, weighing 10 or 12 pounds. 

 Twenty hares have been counted in one large field of white 

 clover in winter ; but though farmers complain of having to 

 feed so many, they do not cause so much havoc as rabbits, 



