A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE 



terrier and a dachshund I need hardly say 

 unsuccessfully. 



According to Sir Oswald Mosley, otters 

 were formerly hunted in his district but never 

 with much success, and the sport has been 

 discontinued for many years. 



In Plot's time the otter must have been 

 common in Staffordshire, for at Ingestre the 

 worthy doctor was regaled with a dish of 

 ' potted ' otter, ' so well ordered by the cook,' 

 he remarked, ' that it required a very nice 

 palate to distinguish it from venison.' 



RODENTIA 



20. Squirrel. Sciurus leucourus, Kerr. 



Bell Sciurus vulgaris. 



Generally distributed in plantations and 

 woods. 



Muscardinus avellanarius, 



21. Dormouse. 



Linn. 



Bell Myoxus avellanarius. 

 Not rare in the wooded portions of the 

 county, but owing to its retiring habits seems 

 to be much less common than is really the 

 case. Mr. James Yates writes me that he 

 has seen the dormouse amongst hazels at 

 Oakamoor, and at Keele he knew of a farmer 

 who had taken several from a nest. These 

 dormice were examined by Mr. Yates as 

 well as the nest originally built by a wren 

 which they had adopted as their home. 



22. Harvest Mouse. Mus minutus, Pallas. 

 Occurs in cornfields and in rough marshy 



places. Mr. Yates, in the letter referred to 

 above, writes as follows concerning this 

 species : ' I have found the nest of the harvest 

 mouse in many places at Keele, Horsley, 

 Alton, etc., but I have never seen the nest 

 fixed on corn-stalks. It has always been in 

 very coarse grass or sedges ; in particular in 

 tussocks of Carex paniculata. The nest is 

 woven into a dense mass and it is very diffi- 

 cult indeed to find the entrance.' To this I 

 may add that the entrance always I believe 

 in the side is frequently carefully closed by 

 the mice, and although I have seen the nest 

 built amongst corn, it is also sometimes affixed 

 to brambles and even thistles as well as to the 

 plants mentioned above by Mr. Yates. The 

 notion that this species is confined to corn- 

 fields is quite erroneous. 



23. Wood Mouse or Long-tailed Field 



Mouse. Mui syfvaticus, Linn. 

 Common in fields and gardens. 



24. House Mouse. Mus musculus, Linn. 



25. Black Rat. Mus rattus, Linn. 



The black rat was probably very early 

 driven out of Staffordshire by the brown rat 



and totally exterminated, for Dickenson says 

 that it had become extinct in his time (1798), 



and as the earliest possible date of the arrival 

 of the brown rat in this county is 1728, the 

 latter must soon have entered upon a warfare 

 of extermination against the creature it found 

 in possession. 



26. Brown Rat. Mus decumanus, Pallas. 

 Far too abundant, and in the valley of the 



Trent almost as amphibious as the water vole 

 taking up its residence in the river banks, and 

 feeding indiscriminately on dead fish, frogs 

 and farmer's produce. Brown says that 

 previous to 1852 the 'numbers that were 

 found in the drains in our meadows were 

 perfectly frightful,' but that the great floods 

 which prevailed at Burton in that year con- 

 siderably thinned their ranks, and they have 

 never occurred in such numbers since. 



27. Field Vole. Microtus agrestis, Linn. 



Bell Arvmla agreit'u. 

 Abundant. 



28. Bank Vole. Evotomys glareolus, Schreber. 



Bell Arvicola glareolus. 



Apparently much less common than the 

 last-named species, but has probably been 

 confused with it in many parts of the county. 

 It has been reported from the northern 

 district, and I have myself also found it at 

 Tutbury and Horninglow in the east of the 

 county. 



29. Water Vole. Microtus amphibius, Linn. 



Bell Arvicok amphibius. 



Common, and generally distributed. 



30. Common Hare. Lepus eurap&us, Pallas. 



Bell Lepus timldus. 



Common, and frequently attaining to a 

 large size and heavy weight. 



31. Mountain Hare. Lepus timidus, Linn. 



Bell Lepus variobiRs. 



Introduced in the county. Mr. Masefield 

 in the North Staffordshire Naturalist's Field 

 Club Report, 1895, xxix. 46, says: 'Sports- 

 men have reported to me last season that 

 several mountain hares (Lepus variabilis) have 



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