MAMMALS 



32. Bank Vole. Evotomys glareolus, Schreber. 



Bell — Arvicola glareolus. 



This species is also very common in the 

 county. It is eagerly sought for by owls as 

 the numbers of skulls in pellets testify. Like 

 the last species and the long-tailed field mouse, 

 it does much damage to garden bulbs. 



33. Common Hare. Lepus europaus, Pallas. 



Bell — Lepus limidus. 

 This is too well known as a common 

 species in the county to call for further re- 

 mark. 



34. Rabbit. Lepui cunicu/us, Linn. 

 Abundant. 



UNGULATA 



[White Wild Cattle. Bos taurus, Linn. 



In the Survey of Holdenby drawn up by 

 Parliamentary Commission in 1650, when the 

 property was broken up, mention is made of 

 'eleven cowes and three calves of Wylde 

 Catell ' which were then valued for sale.] 



35. Red Deer. Cervus elaphus, Linn. 



Though no longer wild in this county, 

 probably some of those now existing may be 

 the descendants of wild ones enclosed at the 

 time the parks were formed. Mr. J. Whit- 

 aker * states that there were red deer in the 

 time of Henry VIIL in Rockingham Park, 

 ' but when they ceased is not known.' The 

 same authority gives the following list : — 



containing 20 red deer 

 .. »oo „ „ 



19 3° »T »> 



Deene Park . 



Whittlebury Park 

 Blatherwycke Park . 



36. Fallow Deer. Cervus dama, Linn. 



In Rockingham there are a small number 

 of wild fallow deer, which wander from one 

 wood to another, jumping the fences at 

 pleasure. The following list of herds is given 

 by Mr. Whitaker : — ' 



* Deer Paris and Paddocks 0/ England, 1 892. 



37. Roe Deer. Capreolus capreolus^ Linn. 

 Bell — Capreolus caprea. 

 Mr. T. George, curator of the North- 

 ampton Museum, has shown me undoubted 

 horns of this species dug up at Danes' Camp, 

 and also a very perfect horn found recently in 

 a brickyard near Northampton. The roe 

 deer was once universally distributed over the 

 island of Great Britain, and remains are found 

 in brick-earth in many places. 



[A short note on the deer may be added. There is reason to think that the last red deer which 

 was wild [i.e. not in a park or enclosure) was shot on Sir Arthur Brooke's estate at Great Oakley some 

 twenty-five years ago. But there is no proof that there has been an uninterrupted succession of wild 

 red deer from the earliest times till within living memory. The one above-mentioned had probably 

 escaped from Deene or Blatherwycke, but as said above these herds are probably the descendants of the 

 wild red deer of Rockingham Forest. Simil.irly, with regard to the fallow deer, it is impossible to 

 prove, though it is unlikely, that the wild fallow deer mentioned above have not themselves or their 

 recent ancestors escaped from Boughton, Deene or Rockingham. There is much difference of local 

 opinion on this point. In Wise's book, Rockingham and the fVatsons, the author says : ' Many persons 

 now living remember the wholesale shooting of the deer and the sale of others and their transportation 

 to happier hunting grounds, and are fond of recounting how their families used to feed on venison when 

 those deer seemed to be no man's property and the forest laws a dead letter.' But it may be taken as 

 certain that the fallow deer now in Boughton, Deene, Rockingham, Blatherwycke, Carlton and Milton 

 parks are the old forest breed of fallow deer, and great pains have for years been taken by the owners of 

 some of these parks to maintain the purity of the breed.] — W. R. D. A. 



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