MAMMALS 



Bones of the pine marten occur in the Recent 

 deposits in the caves at Creswell Crags, so 

 that it was probably a regular denizen of the 

 forest-clad district of Notts, but doubtless is 

 now extinct. 



13. Polecat. Putorius putorius. Linn. 



Bell Mustela putorius. 



Possibly still survives in the county, but if 

 so is verging upon extinction. In 1875, ac- 

 cording to Sterland, it still held its ground in 

 Sherwood Forest, and as recently as January, 

 1891, a fine male was captured alive there 

 (L. Buttress in Zoologist, 1891, p. 424). Mr. 

 Whitaker writes me that the last polecat seen 

 at Rainworth occurred about 1876. Mr. W. 

 Rose of Nottingham has seen specimens which 

 were taken at Beeston and East Bridgford ; 

 one was killed near Colwick Hall about 

 1871-2, and two specimens at Bingham about 

 1887. Remains of the polecat have been 

 found in the Pleistocene and Recent deposits 

 in the Creswell caves. 



14. Stoat. Putorius ermineus, Linn. 



Bell Mustela erminea. 



Very common throughout the county. 

 Examples in winter dress are frequently seen, 

 and Mr. Buttress records (Zoologist, 1892, p. 

 310) that a great many white and pied indi- 

 viduals were shot in the neighbourhood of 

 Grove in the winter of 18912, one as late 

 as 28 May. A pure white stoat was seen at 

 Thurgarton on 26 January, 1898. 



15. Weasel. Putorius nivalis, Linn. 



Bell Mustela vulgarii. 



Abundant and generally distributed in the 

 county. 



1 6. Badger. Meles me/es, Linn. 



Bell Meles taxus. 



The badger is not so rare in Nottingham- 

 shire as is generally supposed, but owing to its 

 shyness and nocturnal habits is not often seen. 

 Mr. J. Whitaker, writing in January, 1898, 

 says : ' Badgers are got nearly every winter at 

 Annesley Park, and a few years back two 

 were taken at Newstead.' The Field for 

 5 January, 1889, records a specimen captured 

 on the Aspley Hall estate near Nottingham. 

 The steep right bank of the Trent, where 

 well wooded, as at Kneeton, Clifton and 

 Thrumpton, has yielded several examples in 

 recent years, e.g. at Clifton Grove two were 

 seen on 1 8 May, 1893, one f which was 

 killed and is now in the Nottingham Museum; 

 and one was captured at Thrumpton on 

 9 March, 1898, and sold alive to a Nottingham 

 publican. Five badgers were killed at Bunny 

 in the late autumn of 1897; an adult male 



was run down by a pack of foxhounds at 

 Thurgarton on 17 January, 1898 ; and a pair 

 were caught at Plumtree about the beginning 

 of March, 1900. There is a stuffed specimen 

 in the collection of the Rev. W. Becher at 

 Wellow, which was killed at Fiskerton a few 

 years ago. If protected from useless and 

 wanton destruction this interesting and prac- 

 tically harmless animal would doubtless become 

 fairly common. 



Bones of the badger have been found in 

 the Recent deposits in the Creswell caves, and 

 the animal under its old name of ' brock ' 

 apparently gave its title to the Broxtowe 

 (anciently Brockstowe) estate near Nottingham. 



17. Otter. Lutra lutra, Linn. 

 Bell Lutra vulgaris. 



Sterland in 1875 (White's Worksop, etc.) 

 stated that the otter occurred at intervals in 

 some of the streams in Sherwood Forest, but 

 neither the Rev. W. Becher nor Mr. Whitaker 

 has heard of its occurrence there. The latter 

 writes (under date 14 January, 1898): 'The 

 only otters I have heard of were in the willow 

 beds at Basford some fifteen years ago. I 

 often wonder, with the large quantity of 

 water and lots of fish, we don't have them 

 here.' 



The records of its occurrence in the Trent 

 are fairly numerous, and I have notes of its 

 having been captured or seen within compara- 

 tively recent years at Clifton (several), Wilford, 

 Colwick, Farndon, East Stoke, South Colling- 

 ham, etc. F. B. Whitlock (Naturalist, 1895, 

 p. 329) gives the following instances of its oc- 

 currences in the Nottinghamshire part of the 

 river Soar : one near Stanford-on-Soar about 

 1869; one near Zouch Mills an exceptionally 

 large male a few years ago ; a lair with two 

 old otters and two or more young ones found 

 on an island in the Soar in November, 1894 ; 

 four more, two old and two young, seen in the 

 same place in August, 1895. The late Mr. 

 Lockwood of Aspley Hall near Nottingham 

 possessed an otter which was trapped in the 

 Aspley Woods some years ago. 



The following paragraph appeared in the 

 Nottingham Daily Express of 7 December, 

 1895 : 'A "dog" otter of a large size was 

 shot in the Greet, in the parish of Upton, the 

 other afternoon by Mr. Kinder of Upton 

 Mills. The animal was in beautiful con- 

 dition, and when weighed turned the scale at 

 34 Ib. These animals are now becoming 

 very rare in the district, though they were 

 formerly very frequently met with in the 

 neighbourhood of the little river Greet, well 

 known to anglers for its excellent trout fish- 

 ing.' 



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