Natural History. 53 



because they are spread more evenly over the country, whilst 

 rabbits keep to one side of a wood or hedge, and eat the corn 

 crops till they look as if they had been mown for a certain 

 distance, besides which they waste so much, never picking up 

 again what they have once let fall. According to the keepers, 

 rabbits are quite scarce at Hatton, and it is true they do not 

 multiply so quickly on clay as on sandy land, but they are 

 carefully preserved as food for any stray fox, and to be mixed 

 with pheasant food when boiled. Now and then a day is given 

 to rabbit shooting, when between 300 and 400 are shot, so 

 they can hardly be considered scarce. A few black ones exist 

 and are generally spared. 



List of mammals : Bat (Pesperugo plpistrellus\ hedgehog, 

 (Erinaceus Europ&us\ shrew (Tor ex tetragonarus\ mole (Talpa 

 Europ<za\ marten (Maries folna\ stoat (Mustela ermlnea\ 

 polecat (Mustela putorius\ fox (Canes vulpes\ squirrel (Scuirus 

 vulgarls\ rat (Mus decumanus\ field mouse (Mm syl*patica\ 

 house mouse (Mus musculus}^ grass mouse (Ar'vicola agrestls\ 

 water rat (Ar^icola amphibia}^ hare (Lepus Europ<zus\ rabbit 

 (Lepus cuniculus\ dormouse (Myoxus cTpellanarius}. 



Reptiles are represented by the slow-worm ( Jf nguis fragllis\ 

 the grass snake (Tropidonotus natrlx\ two sorts of newts, and I 

 once saw a lizard. The frog (Rana Temporarla] is common in 

 and near certain ponds, and the toad (Bup *vulgaris] about 

 gardens. 



THE STORY OF THE LINCOLN GAP. 



By F. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S., 



President of the Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union, being the Presidential Address, 

 deliver ed at Lincoln, 1895. 



PART I. 



A TRAVELLER starting from the Trent side, and jour- 

 neying eastwards across Lincolnshire, might reasonably 

 suppose, as he met with escarpment after escarpment 

 first the Triassic and Rhcetic, then the Oolitic, and lastly that 

 of the Chalk, with, here and there, lesser intermediate ridges 



* Re-published, with alterations and additions, from The Naturalist, 1895, 

 pp. 273-280, by special permission. 



