MAMMALS 



Five species owe their position in our list to the agency of man, 

 viz. the rabbit, the fallow deer, the black rat, the brown rat and the blue 

 hare. The last species has only become naturalized during the last 

 twenty years, a previous attempt to introduce it having resulted in failure. 



Previous authorities on the mammalia of Derbyshire are somewhat 

 few. Dr. Charles Leigh's Natural History of Lancashire, Cheshire and the 

 Peak in Derbyshire (1700) contains little of value. A few notes on mam- 

 mals occur in the shooting diary of the Rev. F. Gisborne (1761-84), 

 published in the Journ. Derb. Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc. for 1892. James 

 Pilkington in 1789 gave an all too brief list of mammals in his View of 

 the present state of Derbyshire, and Stephen Glover in the History of the 

 County of Derby (1829), i. 1309, furnished a more ambitious list. 

 In 1863 appeared a work entitled The Natural History of Tutbury, by 

 Sir O. Mosley. This useful work contains a chapter on the mammalia 

 of the district and a good annotated list of the fauna of Burton by Mr. 

 Edwin Brown. 



Mr. J. J. Briggs contributed a paper on the mammals of the Mel- 

 bourne district to the Zoologist for 1848 (p. 2278), and a series of articles 

 (incomplete) on the ' Fauna of Derbyshire ' by the same writer also 

 appeared in the Reliquary (vol. i. 1861), and at various times short 

 notes on the natural history of the county have appeared in the Field, 

 Zoologist, Naturalist and other papers. 



For information respecting recent cave deposits the papers of the 

 Rev. J. Magens Mello, Messrs. John Ward and Rooke Pennington may 

 be consulted. 1 



In conclusion I have pleasure in acknowledging the assistance which 

 has been rendered to me by the following gentlemen : Messrs. W. Storrs 

 Fox, G. H. Storer, L. E. Adams, C. Oldham, T. A. Coward, R. Hall, 

 J. J. Baldwin Young and W. Boulsover. 



CHEIROPTERA 



1. Lesser Horseshoe Bat. Rhtnolopbus hippo- Diary 'of the Rev. F. Gisborne (Journ. Derb. 



siderus (Bechst.). Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc. 1892, p. 206) under 



Not a rare species, but of somewhat partial the date February 1 6, 1776 : 'Mr. Rodesgavc 



distribution, being apparently confined to the me a long-eared Bat which w d - 3^ drachms.' 



limestone districts. Sir O. Mosley and Mr. Like the pipistrelle, it is often seen in the 



E. Brown (Nat. Hist. of Tutbury, pp. 31, 85) neighbourhood of buildings, and not infre- 



have recorded specimens from Matlock and quently makes its way through open windows 



Dovedale. At the present time it is found into rooms when attracted by lights burning 



in fair numbers, chiefly in limestone caverns at night. Contrary to the usually received 



and old lead workings at Matlock and in the opinion, remains of this species and the pipi- 



surrounding country, even as far as the Peak strelle rarel 7 if ever occur ln P ellets of the 



district. It appears to be absent from the white d brown owls ( Strix flammea and 



Trent valley and the basin of the lower Syrmum aluco], although I once found a dead 



j) ove< long-eared bat with a broken wing under a 



white owl's perch. On the whole it appears 



2. Long-eared Bat. Plecotus auritus (Linn.). t o be rather less numerous in the south than 

 A commonly distributed species over the the pipistrelle. Mr. G. H. Storer describes it 



greater part of the county, but rather local in as being more delicate in confinement than 

 the north. It is mentioned in the ' Shooting either the noctule or pipistrelle. 



1 See Journ. Derb. Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc., Reliquary and Journ. Geol. Soc. 



