MAMMALS. 35 



consideration of the necessity of collecting and recording 

 data about these creatures before they became utterly lost 

 that led the writer to prepare notes for this volume, though 

 he did not at first contemplate undertaking a book on the 

 whole of our vertebrates. While no attempt has been made 

 to give fossil forms, several Mammals are included that have 

 become extinct since the Roman invasion. A noticeable 

 characteristic of our Mammals is that they are, almost 

 without exception, nocturnal in their habits, possibly from 

 fear of man ; they conceal themselves by day in holes or 

 amongst herbage ; even those which do come abroad by day 

 fly at his approach. This makes the study of their habits 

 in a state of nature one of peculiar difficulty, for there are few 

 naturalists who will spend their nights out of doors for the 

 sake of learning some new fact concerning them. A great 

 deal, however, may be learnt by going to some secluded 

 wood on a fine summer evening and sitting perfectly still. 

 Rabbits, Stoats, various Mice, Squirrels, etc., will soon 

 appear and disport themselves within a few feet of the 

 observer apparently unconscious of his presence, but if he 

 stir ever so lightly they instantly vanish into obscurity ! 

 After a short interval, if he remain quiet, they re-appear 

 from their hiding places and renew their occupations. Birds, 

 too, treated in the same manner will allow themselves to be 

 studied at much closer quarters than in any other way, and 

 that in daylight as well as by night. The late Mr. Beckwith 

 used to say that in studying Birds out of doors a good field - 

 glass was a much more useful weapon than a gun ! All prac- 

 tical field naturalists will endorse this opinion. The nomen- 

 clature adopted in this book is that of Lydekker's " Handbook 

 to the British Mammalia," an excellent manual to which the 

 author is indebted for many details in the following pages. 



