MAMMALS 



and is doubtless scarce ; though I have lately 

 seen it myself a very short distance north of 

 the Tyne. 



Mr. W. Backhouse found it at St. John's, 

 Weardale, 800 feet above sea level [Trans. 

 Tyneiide Nat. Field Club, iv.), and Mr. J. 

 Cullingford has had the nest recently from a 

 cornfield close to the city of Durham. 



29. Water Vole. Mkrotus amphibius, Linn. 

 Bell — Arvicola amphibius. 



Common along all the streams. 



30. Field Vole. Mkrotus agrestis, Linn. 

 Bell — Arvicola agrestis. 



Very abundant. A quiet observer may 

 often see it sitting at the entrance to its burrow 

 in a hedge bank. Mr. V. A. Reppon records 

 the killing of a black field vole in his park at 

 Frosterley in 1889. 



3 1 . Bank Vole. Evotomys glareolus, Schreber. 

 Bell — Arvicola glareolus. 



The bank vole is doubtless as common in 

 the coujity of Durham as elsewhere ; for 



Mr. R. L Pocockhas shown {Zoologist, 1897) 

 that its supposed scarcity was due to the fact 

 that it is not to be trapped in the same way as 

 the field vole. Before this became generally 

 knovVn the bank vole was sometimes recorded 

 as a comparative rarity from the county. The 

 Rev. H. H. Slater [Zoologist, 1887) had, how- 

 ever, found it to be by no means scarce in the 

 eastern district. 



32. Common Hare. Lepus europaus, Pallas. 

 Bell — Lepus timidus. 



Hares are as numerous in many parts of the 

 county as in other similar districts in England, 

 though they seem to me to be hardly so abun- 

 dant on the whole as in Yorkshire. They 

 are naturally rather scarcer on the higher 

 moorlands. Mr. R. Lofthouse mentions 

 that they show a particular fondness for the 

 reclaimed land about the estuary of the 

 Tees. 



33. Rabbit. Lepus cunlculus, Linn. 

 Very numerous in all suitable places. 



UNGULATA 



34. White Park Cattle. Bos taurus, Linn. 



Herds of white cattle, such as the one still 

 maintained at Chillingham in Northumberland, 

 were formerly kept at Bishop Auckland and 

 Barnard Castle. A manuscript of the year 

 1635, quoted in the Annals of Nat. Hist. 1839, 

 describes the park at Bishop Auckland as 

 ' a daintie stately parke wherein were wild 

 bulls and kine, wch had two calves runers ; 

 there are about twenty wild beasts, all white, 

 will nott endure yo'r approach, butt if they 

 bee enraged or distressed, verye violent and 

 furious; their calves will bee wondrous fatt.' 

 The Barnard Castle herd is alluded to by 

 Mr. J. Watson in the Naturalist for 1887. 



35. Red Deer. Cervus elaphus, Linn. 



The former abundance of the red deer in 

 the district is proved not only by old chronicles 

 [e.g. Leland's Itinerary, quoted by Mennell 

 and Perkins), but also by the numerous remains 

 found in all parts of the county in peat bogs, 

 river beds, caves and ancient camps. The 

 descendants of the original wild red deer of 



Weardale were maintained in the bishop's park 

 at Stanhope until about 1 640 ; in Teesdale 

 they were preserved to a somewhat later date, 

 for four hundred are recorded to have perished 

 there in the snow in 1673 (Egglestone's 

 Stanhope"). 



Well preserved antlers and bones of red 

 deer from Hartlepool, Whitburn Cave, and the 

 bed of the Tyne, amongst other places in the 

 district, are in the Newcastle Museum. 



36. Fallow Deer. Ce?-vus dama, Linn. 



This is an introduced species kept in some 

 of the parks. 



37. Roe Deer. Capreolus capreolus, Linn. 

 Bell — Capreolus caprea. 



Apart from the known fact that the roe 

 deer was once generally distributed in England, 

 there is definite evidence of its former presence 

 in the county of Durham. Its remains were 

 found in the Heathery Burn Cave, near Stan- 

 hope, and in the Whitburn Cave on the coast. 

 Bones from the Whitburn Cave are in the 

 Newcastle Museum. 



CETACEA 



38. Cachalot — Sperm Whale. Physcter mac- 



rocrphalui, Linn. 



Mennell and l*erkins allude to the bones of 



a young cachalot deposited in the crypt of 



Durham Cathedral, and state that the animal 



was ' stranded near Hartlepool and sent to the 

 Bisiiop of Durham in the days when he 

 claimed "Jura Regalia" within the limits of 

 the See.' Canon Tristram informs me that 

 some of the bones still remain, and that it was 



ig6 



