MAMMALS 



As in the case of the birds, the physical features of a county deter- 

 mine to a great extent the number and distribution of its mammals. 

 For the continued presence of the larger mammals there must be quiet 

 retreats in plenty such as a forest or moorland offers ; there must be also 

 the attractions of the pasture-land and the lake. These features in 

 Warwickshire, with its broad cultivated lands, are not sufficiently well 

 marked, and the badger, of the larger mammals, finds it difficult to exist, 

 if it has not already disappeared from our borders. The otter, however, 

 though by no means common, still clings to the Avon, and it is a 

 pleasure to report that it has even become rather more frequent between 

 Evesham and Stratford since the navigation between these places has 

 ceased. Brought into our county from the warehouses of Gloucester 

 and Bristol on board the grain laden vessels which came up the Avon, 

 the old English black rat was reintroduced about forty or fifty years 

 ago, but has again become rare, perhaps extinct. In the distribution of 

 the smaller mammals the Avon also has considerable influence. The 

 meadows about its banks are the haunts of such species as the water 

 shrew and the field and bank voles, and the water vole abounds in the 

 river itself. Of the Cervidcz, or deer, little need be said, as the natural 

 characteristics of the county in no way affect their existence, for they 

 continue under protection only in the parks where they have been 

 introduced and beyond their mere mention need claim no more of our 

 attention than the cattle in the pastures. 



A great many years spent amongst the vertebrates of the valley of 

 the Avon more or less in connection with the Warwickshire Naturalists' 

 Field Club, and a long connection also with the museum in the county 

 town, has made the writer acquainted with a great number of the species, 

 and enabled him to contribute in no inconsiderable degree to the second 

 edition of Bell's British Quadrupeds. With the species in the north end 

 of the county he is much less intimately acquainted, but the deficiency 

 of information is fortunately made up by other observers who have made 

 public the results of their observations. The following may be specially 

 mentioned as supplying valuable information : 



A Handbook of Birmingham., prepared for the members of the British 

 Association in 1886. The parts relating to the mammals and reptiles 

 around Birmingham was written by Mr. E. de Hamel, what relates to 

 the birds was supplied by Mr. R. W. Chase, while the account of the 

 fishes was the work of Mr. G. Sherriff Tye. The whole was under the 

 editorship of Mr. W. R. Hughes, F.L.S., and took in an area of twenty 



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