A HISTORY OF CORNWALL 



INSECTIVORA 



10. Hedgehog. Erinaceui europaeui, Linn. 



The ' hedge boar ' as it is called locally is common 

 throughout the county, but apparently does not occur 

 at Scilly. 



1 1 . Mole. Talpa europaea, Linn. 

 Abundant almost everywhere. 



12. Common Shrew. Sorex araneus, Linn. 

 Plentiful and generally distributed ; generally active 



throughout the winter. 



13. Pigmy Shrew. Sorex minutus, Pallas. 



Bell Sorex pygmaeus. 



This species does not appear to have been hitherto 

 recorded for the county, but is widely distributed 

 though probably scarce. The first Cornish specimen 

 seen by the writer was in 1 900 at Launceston, where 

 it had been captured alive at the castle. One was 

 brought in the following year by one of the agricul- 

 tural students at Liskeard. F. J. Polkinghorn trapped 

 it twice at Bodmin, and it has been taken three or 

 four times in the Truro district. 



14. Water Shrew. Neomys fodiens, Pallas. 



Bell Sorex fodiens. 

 Numerous and well known throughout the county. 



CARNIVORA 



15. Fox. Vulpes vulpes, Linn. 



Bell Vulpes vulgaris. 



Generally distributed in suitable localities through- 

 out the county ; specially common in cliffs by the 

 sea. 



1 6. Pine Marten. Mustek martes, Linn. 



Bell Martes abittum. 



This species was no doubt common in bygone days, 

 but gradually disappeared as the forests were destroyed. 

 Couch, writing in 1854, believed it was extinct in the 

 county. ' The last specimen I have been informed 

 of,' he says, ' was killed near Liskeard in the first 

 quarter of the present century, and its loss (for it was 

 in ancient times classed with animals of the chase, 

 and its fur was in high esteem) may be ascribed to the 

 change of habits in society, by which the common 

 use of mineral coal was introduced among farmers. 

 Before that time a large number of pollard trees were 

 permitted to grow in the neighbourhood of town- 

 places or farm-yards for the purpose of supplying the 

 house with fuel, and the cavities which most of them 

 contained afforded a safe shelter to these and the 

 others of the weasel tribe. When such fuel became 

 of less importance these hollow trees were gradually 

 cut down or suffered to fall, to the great diminution 

 of the numbers of the weasel tribe." * Somewhere 

 about 1843, however, a pack of foxhounds in drawing 

 Bodethiel Coombe in the Glynn valley near Bodmin, 

 found and killed a marten, and the late Mr. E. H. 

 Rodd, who recorded the fact,* added that in March, 

 1878, a full-grown marten was obtained in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Delabole Quarries. There is a Cornish 



1 Report of Royal Corn-wall Polytubnic Society (1854), pp. 15-6. 

 1 Zoologiit (1878), p. 127. 



marten in the museum of the Royal Institution of 

 Cornwall at Truro, but its history is not known. 



17. Polecat. Putorius putorius, Linn. 



Bell Mustela putorius. 



The polecat or fitcher can scarcely be called rare 

 in Cornwall, as hardly a year passes without a speci- 

 men being recorded from the county. It shows a 

 liking for wild, tangled places, especially near the 

 cliff. During the last seven years the writer has seen 

 specimens from Launceston, from between Boscastle 

 and Tintagel, from near Chacewater, and from the 

 Land's End district, and examples have been reported 

 from Looe and Bodmin. One reported in 1901 from 

 near Gerrans was undoubtedly a domestic cat that 

 had run wild, and mistakes of this kind probably occur 

 from time to time. It is not nearly so plentiful as it 

 was twenty years ago. 



1 8. Stoat. Putorius ermineus, Linn. 



Bell Mustela erminea. 



Common and generally distributed. In 1901 a 

 pair of stoats bred under Boscawen Bridge in the city 

 of Truro, and they and members of their family were 

 frequently seen on the island below the bridge. In 

 1904 stoats were seen there for the last time, and 

 recent improvements will of course prevent their re- 

 appearance. White and pied stoats are occasionally 

 met with. Examples in perfect winter pelage are 

 very rare, but a stoat with only a triangular speckled 

 patch of brown and white between the ears and nose 

 and the customary black tip to the tail was caught at 

 Killiow during the blizzard of 1891. Specimens 

 that have assumed a partial winter dress are not un- 

 common. Pied and white stoats are well represented 

 in the Museum of the Royal Institution, Truro. 



19. Weasel. Putorius nivaKs, Linn. 



Bell Mustela vulgaris. 



The weasel or ' whitneck ' is generally distributed 

 and on the whole common. Winter pelage is less 

 frequently assumed by the weasel than by the stoat, 

 but white and pied local specimens are preserved in 

 the Royal Institution Museum at Truro. 



20. Badger. Meles meles, Linn. 



Bell Meles taxus. 



This animal is very common and so generally dis- 

 tributed that there are few if any parishes in the 

 county in which it may not be found. In a letter of 

 January, 1906, Mr. J. C. Tregarthen informs the 

 writer that he believes it to be more numerous than 

 ever, and refers to the increasing number of badger- 

 earths each year ; he also remarks that there is hardly 

 a croft which it does not traverse in its beats or in 

 which it has not an earth. The badger is very 

 common in the Fourburrow country, around Scorrier, 

 and in suitable localities throughout the whole of the 

 Truro-Falmouth district. It is very plentiful around 

 Bodmin, Liskeard, Looe, and Launceston. On the 

 north coast it is in places astonishingly abundant. It 

 frequents more especially the woodlands and the cliffs, 

 but often occurs in numbers in deserted mine shafts 

 and works. 



2 1 . Otter. Lutra lutra, Linn. 



Bell Lutra vulgaris. 



The otter is also plentiful throughout Cornwall, 

 and there is probably not a stream or pond in the 



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