MAMMALS 



the inland position of the county, the only 

 access to which for them would be through 

 London, unknown there, though it is likely 

 that in early days the common seal (Phoca 

 vitulina) and two or three species of the 

 smaller Delphinida may have sometimes 

 found their way up the Thames as far as to 

 what is now the southern border of the county 

 of Bucks. I have kept examples of the two 

 species of seal resident in the British Isles in 



captivity in Bucks, and have found the gray 

 seal [Halichoerus grypus), which has been given 

 so bad a character by all previous writers on 

 it, to be a much maligned animal, proving 

 very docile and affectionate, and capable of 

 receiving considerable education. In fact I 

 can confidently recommend the gray seal as 

 by far the most interesting animal I have 

 ever kept, and readily taking to the per- 

 formance of tricks.] 



RODENTIA 



20. Squirrel. Sciurus /eucourus, Kerr. 



Bell Sciurus vulgaris. 



Generally distributed. It seems remark- 

 able however that they are not particularly 

 numerous in the big beech woods of this 

 neighbourhood, where one would have ex- 

 pected them to abound. Perhaps there is no 

 great supply of food there except during the 

 mast season ; but possibly also the magpies, 

 and even the jays (which are extremely 

 numerous in these woods), may thin out the 

 young before they leave the dreys. On two 

 or three occasions squirrels visited our garden 

 at Great Marlow, which is more than a mile 

 distant from the nearest wood, except Bisham 

 Woods in Berks, from which it was divided 

 by a double width of the Thames (channel 

 and backwater). In the beech woods they 

 seem to live to a great extent on the bark of 

 crab-apples ; one finds small trees of this 

 species completely stripped of bark from end 

 to end. Among several examples which I have 

 kept in captivity were a pair reared in com- 

 pany with a pine marten by a domestic cat. 

 Squirrels breed chiefly quite early in the year, 

 but occasionally as late as April. 



21. Dormouse. Muscardinus avellanariw, 



Linn. 



Bell Myoxui avellanarius. 

 The dormouse seems to be of general dis- 

 tribution in the county, though from its re- 

 tiring habits it is comparatively seldom met 

 with. I kept one here for about eighteen 

 months, caught at Turville Grange in 1901, 

 and given me by Miss D. Donald, and other 

 examples have since been seen and caught 

 there ; I have two at the moment of writing 

 caught at Danesfield, Medmenham, 2 April. 

 They were in separate nests, about a chain 

 apart, made of moss, under nearly 2 feet of 

 dead leaves. One of them made its escape the 

 same night, but was recaptured on 12 May, 

 having apparently slept through the entire 

 interval. They are fairly well known under 

 the name of sleepy mouse or sleeper. 



In the Zoologist, 1885, p. 204, Mr. G. T. 

 Rope quoted a letter by J. B. R. in the Field 

 of 19 April 1884 : 'Dormice are not at all 

 uncommon about Henley-on-Thames. A 

 boy who used to live at Nettlebed (a village 

 five or six miles distant), and come to school 

 every day, has brought in scores. This is no 

 exaggeration.' Henley is less than one mile 

 from Bucks and Nettlebed about 2^ miles, 

 so that this statement refers to the borders of 

 this county. Mr. Rope continued by quot- 

 ing from a letter by Mr. J. F. Woods, stating 

 that in 1856 and 1857 he took several dor- 

 mice in the parishes of Great Brickhill and 

 Bow Brickhill, and that they were by no 

 means rare thereabouts at that date. Mr. 

 Rope next quoted from a letter by Mr. F. 

 Hayward Parrott of Walton House, Ayles- 

 bury (19 April 1884), who stated that 

 ' Dormice occur in the beech woods on the 

 Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, and are 

 locally known by the name of " sleepers." ' 

 In the Zoologist for 1887, p. 463, Mr. F. H. 

 Parrott wrote with reference to Mr. Rope's 

 above quoted article, that ' since then I have 

 ascertained that these little animals are far 

 more numerous in the nut hedges. Towards 

 the end of October last a man in this town 

 had a consignment of five dozen, which were 

 caught in the nut rows on Buckland Com- 

 mon.' One ' had a white tip to its tail.' 

 In the Zoologist for 1901, p. 472, Mr. T. 

 Vaughan Roberts of Watford wrote that, 

 having seen the above account of how plenti- 

 ful dormice were at Buckland, he went down 

 and interviewed a man who collected them 

 for London shops. Both he and another 

 man told Mr. Roberts that they never found 

 the nest of the dormouse in spring, but always 

 in autumn, when the nuts were beginning to 

 appear. Mr. Roberts's note was written in 

 confirmation of a letter by Mr. H. E. 

 Forrest of Shrewsbury in the same volume 

 (p. 423), stating that he had found near there 

 a nest containing young ' about half-grown ' 

 on 28 August, another containing young 



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