Part II 

 INFLUENCES 



IN the preceding pages the principal vertebrate animal friends and 

 foes of the sportsman, the fisherman, the forester, the farmer, and 

 the gardener have been treated of ; therefore we now take up the 

 threads of the subjects and proceed to notice the influences that 

 the creatures referred to exert for or against the respective pursuits, 

 together with the preservative or repressive measures all-important 

 for their success conjointly, without undue hamper and hindrance 

 to the several co-relative vocations, and in mitigation of the great 

 heart-and-pocket-burnings reflecting discredit, and inconsistent 

 with the interests of the whole. 



CHAPTER VI 

 WILD ANIMALS 



INSECTIVOROUS AND HARMLESS 



BATS. The influence the family Cheiroptera or bats exert is an 

 altogether beneficial one, their importance being apparent when 

 it is stated that there are fifteen or sixteen different species found 

 in Britain, and that they are all more or less feeders on insects 

 which are not friends to any of the animal and vegetable produce 

 crops. Everywhere the bats emerge from their winter quarters 

 contemporaneous with the insect hosts in spring, and are seen 

 hawking for flies and various insects about woods, over waters, 

 round farmsteads, along lanes and streets., some bent on coleopterous 

 pests, others on dipterous insects, and others again preying on the 

 nocturnal Lepidoptera, while others yet again give particular atten- 

 tion to gnats and insects found in low-lying situations. Truly the 

 bats are friends of all useful crops. 



SHREWS. The Soricidse, feeding chiefly on insects and their 

 larvae, some on land and others on water, must be regarded as inno- 



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