MAMMALS 



7 February, 1891, an account is given of the capture 

 of a badger in a wood-yard in Thornton Lane ; and the 

 Saturday Herald of 30 May, 1891, reports the capture 

 of another specimen of 40 Ib. weight by Mr. C. J. 

 Isaac, at Loughborough, on 27 May. The late 

 Mr. T. Spencer informed me on 28 August, 1891, 

 of four badgers being caught at Norton by Galby 

 (Norton Gorse), two old and two young ; three were 

 killed, the other, an old one, escaped. Mr. W. J. 

 Horn, writing to me in 1 906, says : ' There is a 

 badger-earth at Thorpe Langton, and there must be 

 others in the fox-coverts, as one reads occasionally of 

 a badger being killed by the fox-hounds so recently 

 as in November, 1906, in Sheepthorns, a fox-cover 

 near Kibworth.' 



Mr. H. Butler Johnson informs me that a badger 

 was caught in the autumn of 1906 in a drain on the 

 Belton Road near Grace Dieu. 



That badgers will live in amity with foxes is 

 vouched for by Col. J. M. Fawcett, who told me 

 (January, 1907) that many inhabit Hungerton Fox- 

 holes, and their hoarse cries may often be heard at 

 night. 



1 8. Otter. Lutra lutra, Linn. 

 Bell Lutra vulgaris. 



Resident, but rare. Harley recorded that, in his 

 day, it was occasionally found on the banks of the 

 Rivers Soar, Trent, and Wreak. He was present at 

 the capture of a female otter and four young ones in 

 the spring of 1817. The young otters were taken 

 from a rude lair, matted with rushes and flags, which 

 the dam had carefully conveyed through a hole and 

 concealed within a decayed pollard willow on the 

 banks of the River Soar near to the upper mills in 

 the parish of Loughborough. On being surprised, 

 the old otter fought the dogs furiously, and was with 

 difficulty overcome. The young, which had attained 

 to the size of a large water-rat, were still blind. 

 'J. B.', writing in the Leicester Chronicle and Mercury, 

 28 February, 1885, mentioned that a large otter, 

 stuffed and in a case, had been at the Narborough Inn 

 for many years past, and was believed to have been shot 

 by the late Mr. W. Sansome. In 1885 I called at 

 the Narborough Inn, when the late Miss Sansome 

 kindly showed me the above-mentioned specimen 

 large, but wretchedly mounted ; it was shot between 

 fifty and sixty years before. The Leicester Museum 

 formerly possessed one killed near Enderby, on 

 28 September, 1849. Mr. N. C. Curzon, of Lock- 

 ington Hall, informed me that a large female otter 

 was killed there in October, 1877. Loughborough 

 seems to have kept up its breed of otters since Harley's 

 time ; for seeing a notice in the local papers as to the 



shooting by the water-keeper of two young otters in 

 the River Soar, near the ' Big Meadow,' Lough- 

 borough, one evening in March, 1884, I sent a 

 telegram on the 22nd to Mr. Dakin, a fishmonger of 

 that town, hoping to get the specimens for the 

 museum, and received a reply : ' Two were killed, 

 but only one obtained. There are more about.' 

 The late Mr. R. Widdowson, writing on 6 February, 

 1885, said ; ' I heard last week of one being seen at 

 Brentingby ; I had one some years ago from the same 

 locality.' Mr. H. Smith, of Burton Street, Melton 

 Mowbray, informed me, in November, 1885, that 

 there were a good many otters in that neighbourhood, 

 both above and below Bishop's Mill.' The late 

 Dr. Macaulay sent me a note given by the Rev. H. 

 Parry, of Tugby Vicarage, of a fine dog otter killed 

 19 December, 1888, in the Eye Brook, between Lod- 

 dington Redditch and 'Tugby Bushes.' Lucas, the 

 keeper at Stapleford Park, appears to have seen several 

 there, and reports that in 1887 he shot a female, and 

 saw as many as five at one time during that year. He 

 also caught one on 8 March, 1889, and saw a very 

 fine one on 7 April of the same year. On 25 April, 

 1 889, a female and two cubs were killed at Narborough 

 Bogs, and were chronicled in the Leicester papers. A 

 female specimen in the Leicester Museum was killed 

 whilst coming from its lair on land belonging to 

 Mr. Hill, on the banks of the Soar, 'Old Nook,' 

 Syston, on 12 August, 1891. Mr. H. Smith, of 

 Mill Lane, Melton Mowbray, obtained a young 

 specimen, about one stone in weight, on 28 January, 



1892, Mr. F. Bouskell informed me that he saw an 

 otter in the canalized River Soar, halfway between 

 Barrow and Loughborough, on 10 April, 1892, 

 when in company with Messrs. S. and W. Harris. 

 Mr. W. Hubbard, grazier, of Brentingby, shot a 

 very fine otter on the River Eye, near Burbage's new 

 covert, in October, 1892." 



The late Dr. Macaulay informed me that there was 

 an otter in the brook at Kibworth on 27 December, 



1893, and the brook being in flood, he thought the 

 animal had probably come up from the Welland, some 

 eight miles below. In 1892 a male otter, and in 1894 

 a female, were shot in the Narborough Bogs, and 

 presented to the Leicester Museum by Mr. J. Taylor. 

 The Rev. Hugh Parry told me that the keeper, 

 Charles Spencer, killed a fine dog otter on 23 April, 



1 894, at Tugby. Mr. T. B. Cartwright, writing 

 circa 1895 from the Mill House, Loughborough, 

 informed me that he had secured two otters shot in 

 the Soar at Loughborough. Mr. F. Crick records a 

 dog otter caught in 1897 by a shepherd and his dog 

 in the small brook running by the golf-links, Cosby. 

 It had killed fourteen young ducks. 



RODENTIA 



1 9. Squirrel. Sciurui leucourus, Kerr. 

 Bell Sciurus vulgaris. 



Resident and generally distributed, and has been 

 seen so near Leicester as in a field close to Aylestone 

 Mill on 24 October, 1885. A curious, though not 

 very uncommon, example, exhibiting malformation 

 of the teeth in this animal, was presented to the 

 Leicester Museum by Mr. R. Wingate, on 18 April, 



163 



1876. In this specimen the upper incisors have 

 become prolonged and curved into a half-circle. 

 No locality is given with the specimen, and I there- 

 fore assume it to have been a caged animal, fed, 

 doubtless, upon food too soft to allow the natural 

 grinding of the teeth necessary to prevent such malfor- 

 mation. A young squirrel caught near Narborough was 

 kept in captivity for about six years, in the family of 

 * Daily Mercury, 12 Oct. 1892. 



