MAMMALS 



animal, and has left its old breeding haunts 

 in the long stubbles and rears its young in 

 stacks of both hay and corn. Its diminutive 

 size causes it to escape notice, but locally it is 

 still common to the north-west of Brighton. 

 In east Sussex the harvest mouse occurs near 

 Westfield, as we are informed by Mr. Michael 

 J. Nicoll of St. Leonards. 



32. Water Vole. Microtus amphihius, Linn. 

 Bell — Arvkola amphibius. 

 The water vole is common in suitable 

 haunts throughout the county. Examples in 

 the dark ' phase ' have been met with near 

 Pevensey and Chichester. Mr. W. JefFery, 

 jun., in a note to The Zoologist (July, 1 865, 

 p. 9706) records that he shot a full grown 

 specimen near Ratham on May 21, 1863, and 

 a second near the same place on May 22, 

 1865. It remains to add that an albino was 

 obtained near Hurstpierpoint in April or May, 

 1874 {Zoologht, ser. 2, p. 4074). 



33. Field Vole. Microtus agrestis, Linn. 



Bell — Arvkola agrestis. 

 Abundant and widely distributed. A pure 

 white specimen with black eyes was brought 

 to Mr. G. Bristow, jun., from Hollington on 

 July 13, 1893. It was kept for some time 

 alive, bwt on the appearance of a few dark 

 hairs its owner killed it. 



34. Bank Vole. Evotomys glareolus, Schr. 



Bell — Arz'icola glareolus. 

 Common and generally distributed through- 

 out Sussex. 



35. Common Hare. Lepus europaus, Pallas. 



Bell — Lepus timidus. 

 In the north and west of the county hares 

 have undergone sad diminution of late years, 

 but are still abundant on all the large estates 

 near the South Downs. We have seen num- 

 bers at Petworth, Arundel and Dale Park. 



36. Rabbit. Lepus cuniculus, Linn. 

 Very abundant. 



UNGULATA 



37. Red Deer. Cervus elaphus, Linn. 



Red deer were from the earliest times indi- 

 genous to the wooded districts of England, 

 and amongst the first records of history we 

 learn that the Saxon kings hunted deer in the 

 forests of Sussex.* A new era may be said 

 to have arrived after the Norman Conquest, 

 when William, his barons and dependants, 

 hunted for sport as well as for the primary 

 consideration of fresh meat, and there is more 

 than one mention in ancient archives that 

 the king himself loved to hunt the stag in the 

 great forests of oak and beech that stretched 

 from Kent to Hants and from the South 

 Downs to London and its immediate environs. 

 So popular indeed was the pastime that en- 

 closed spaces of forest land in which the chase 

 could be enjoyed were set apart, and these 

 were the origin of our parks. The increase 

 of parks continued until the time of the 

 Commonwealth, when the Roundheads with 

 their desire to make all things equal ruthlessly 

 tore down the fences and allowed the deer to 

 escape. Up to this date a constant destruction 

 of timber had been in progress, the trees 

 being felled for the purposes of iron smelting, 

 and also for glass making and salterns ; and 

 consequently the wild creatures found their 

 haunts more and more curtailed as time went 



1 The ancient forest of Anderida is thus described 

 by the Venerable Bede, who lived about the year 

 731 : 'It is thick and inaccessible . . . and a 

 place of shelter for large herds of deer and swine, as 

 well as wolves.' 



on. At the restoration of Charles II. how- 

 ever the squires were once more in the ascen- 

 dant, and immediately began again to form 

 their deer parks, and many of our best known 

 enclosures have their origin from this date, 

 although some survived the general destruction 

 and were maintained unimpaired through- 

 out these troublous times. It may be men- 

 tioned that owing to the destruction of 

 forest trees Charles II. issued an order 

 that the whole of the forest now known as 

 St. Leonards should be afforested and made 

 into a deer park, a somewhat questionable 

 method of saving the young timber, as all 

 growing copse wood was at once destroyed by 

 the deer that speedily began to increase. But 

 little now remains of the ancient forest of 

 Anderida except the small portions known as 

 the forests of St. Leonards, Tilgate and Ash- 

 down,* whilst a smaller woodland known as 

 Charlton Forest is also generally supposed to 

 have formed a part of it. 



Queens Mary and Elizabeth both hunted 

 wild deer in Sussex, and there is little doubt 

 that a few existed at the end of the eighteenth 

 century in the forest of St. Leonards, which 

 even at that late date was of so wild a character 

 and bore such an evil reputation that travellers 

 to Brighton preferred to make the journey 

 from London by way of Kent, but it is not 

 certain when the last wild red deer were killed. 

 Nowadays the few that are scattered through 

 1 Now only a forest in name. The country 

 about Ashdown is mostly moorl.ind. 

 5 39 



