MAMMALS 



gardens and orchards. It is no doubt often 

 confounded by superficial observers with the 

 last mentioned species, but may easily be dis- 

 tinguished from it, not only by its teeth, but 

 by its larger eyes, longer tail and ears (the 

 latter showing well beyond the fur), and by 

 the warm ruddy tint on the back of adult 

 examples. It is also more lively and rapid in 

 its movements. In the autumn it climbs 

 about the hedges with the greatest ease in 

 search of ripe haws, and the writer once 

 noticed one early in May perched high up in 

 a tall hedge at Farnham, feeding on the tender 

 young leaves of the hawthorn. In the winter 

 the bank vole sometimes enters outhouses 

 where seeds, bulbs, etc., are kept, and es- 

 pecially buildings used for storing apples and 

 pears, from which it is sometimes difficult to 

 exclude it. In an apple-house in the midst 

 of a plantation at Blaxhall, several examples 

 are caught almost every season. A few years 

 ago several were found in a heap of mangolds or 

 beetroot (locally a ' beet clamp ') at Leiston. 

 They had made a nest among the litter with 

 which the roots were covered before being 

 banked up with earth. This little animal is 

 easily tamed, and is very amusing in its ways. 

 One kept for two years at Blaxhall would feed 

 quite readily from the hand. This, as well 

 as several others kept there at different times 

 as pets, had been rescued when quite young 

 from the jaws of a cat. The Rev. F. C. R. 

 Jourdain found twelve skulls of this species in 

 pellets of the barn owl {Strix flammea) at 

 Huntingfield. 



33. Common Hare. Lepm europaus, Pallas. 

 Bell — Lepus tlmldus. 



Common, but not so abundant as it was 

 thirty or forty years ago. At that time, on 

 some of the large estates towards the coast, 

 an enormous stock of hares was kept up, re- 

 sulting in a considerable proportion of under- 

 sized and diseased animals. Some curious 

 varieties have occurred from time to time. 

 Mr. Alexander Clark-Kennedy {Zool. 1869, 

 p. 1558) states that a hare with white and 

 iron grey markings was shot near Easton by 

 the late Duke of Hamilton, in November 

 1868. The head, ears and part of the neck 

 were white, mingled with grey ; the legs, 

 feet, with part of the chest and of the back, 

 white. 



A grey female is reported by Mr. T. E. 

 Gunn {Zool. 1868, p. 1129) as having been 

 killed near Wangford in January 1868. In 

 this example the whole surface of the coat 

 was of a silver greyish hue, suflused with a 

 pale reddish tinge on the head, ears, neck and 

 flanks. 



Mr. H. C. Hudson, taxidermist of Ipswich, 

 informs me that a pale sandy variety, ap- 

 proaching white, was shot in or close to the 

 parish of Woolverstone in January 1893. 



In the Zoologist for 1843, p. 342, there is 

 a notice of a black hare killed at Glemsford, 

 then to be seen in the Sudbury Museum.^ A 

 perfectly black specimen shot at Brome, on 

 the estate of the late Sir Edward Kerrison, 

 Bart., in January 1855, was for nearly half a 

 century a conspicuous object in the Ipswich 

 Museum, but has at last apparently vanished 

 from mortal ken. A third black hare killed 

 at Denham, near Bury St. Edmunds, is men- 

 tioned by Mr. Southwell in an article on the 

 ' Mammalia and Reptilia of Norfolk ' {Zool. 

 1 87 1, p. 2757), on the authority of the late 

 Mr. J. H. Gurney.' Yet another example 

 of this rare variety has been obtained at Bel- 

 champ St. Pauls in Essex, just beyond the 

 Suffolk boundary. The occurrence was re- 

 corded by Mr. G. W. Eagle in the Field, the 

 exact date of which I am unable to supply. 

 That hares are good and bold swimmers is 

 well known. They have now and then been 

 seen crossing the river Ore, below Orford, to 

 and from the long narrow strip of beach be- 

 tween that river and the sea, and have been 

 caught in the water on their passage. 



34. Rabbit. Lepus cuniculus, Linn. 



Abundant everywhere, but especially so in 

 the 'Breck' district in the north-west, and 

 on the light sandy soil stretching along the 

 coast. 



The silver sprig or silver grey variety 

 flourished exceedingly on Thetford Warren 

 from the year 1837 to about 1888; after 

 which time the skins appear to have declined 

 in value. In the middle of the last century 

 20,000 were annually sent to London from 

 this warren alone.^ In 1883 Mr. F. Nor- 

 gate counted on Thetford Warren sixty silver 

 greys in sight at the same time, besides many 

 other rabbits. Mr. S. R. Lingwood, in a 

 letter dated 16 February 1903, writes: *At 

 the present time their skins are of no more 

 value than the ordinary grey, hardly so much. 

 Some 40 or 50 years ago the skin was of 

 more value than the carcase.' The variety 

 appears to be dying out, from repeated crossing 

 with the normal type. A black variety is not 

 uncommon in many districts ; sandy coloured 

 rabbits are also occasionally met with, some 

 of them of a beautiful bright tint inclining 



' This museum is no longer in existence. 

 ' Trans. Norf. and Nor. Nat.Soc. 1869-70, p. 26. 

 ' For this information the writer is indebted to 

 Mr. W. G. Clarke of Norwich. 



231 



