MAMMALS 



steel trap was attacked by a water shrew, The so-called oared shrew, Sorex ci/iatus, is 



which was discovered making violent attempts nothing more than a dark-coloured variety of 



to get a hole through the tough skin of the water shrew, which is not infrequently 



the rat. met with in the summer. 



CARNIVORA 



15. Fox. Vulpes vulpes, Linn. 



Bell — Vulpes vulgaris. 

 An animal wholly dependent for existence 

 in our county upon the sport which he affords. 

 Were foxhunting to go out the fox would 

 speedily go out with it. 



16. Pine Marten. Mustela martes, Linn. 



Bell — Maries abietum. 

 ' Rarely to be found even in places formerly 

 known as his usual haunts,' were the words 

 made use of in 1834 by Sir Charles Hastings, 

 but whether they were intended to apply to 

 the yellow-breasted or white-breasted marten 

 as a Worcestershire mammal I am unable to 

 determine. It is doubtful if the white-breasted 

 marten has been found in the county for many 

 years if at all, no record of it exists; but I 

 can however speak of the yellow-breasted 

 as having been killed more than half a 

 century since at Falke Mill near Evesham. 

 The animal was taken to a bird stufFer in 

 that town, and when preserved remained for 

 many years in the possession of the party who 

 killed it ; but finally, when faded, dirty and 

 dilapidated, it came into the hands of the 

 present writer. That is the latest recorded 

 occurrence of this marten in Worcestershire, 

 but it may possibly still exist in some of the 

 large woods. 



17. Polecat. Putorius putorlus, Linn. 



Bell — Mustela putorius. 

 Formerly not rare in Worcestershire, but 

 now only known in a few favoured localities, 

 in the large woodlands and remote wooded 

 districts, but it is nearly if not quite extinct 

 in the county. 



18. Stoat. Putorius ermineus, Linn. 

 Bell — Mustela erminea. 

 Like the weasel the stoat is distributed over 

 the whole of the county. It is a wild and 

 fearless animal, and not easy of observation, 

 but the occasional assumption of the white or 

 ermine fur in the winter renders it a conspicu- 

 ous object, and as it may be seen at a con- 

 siderable distance, some idea of the range of 

 its operations may be arrived at. One which 

 the author repeatedly observed had a beat of 

 fiilly two miles in extent — rather a wide 



manor for so small an animal. Another stoat, 

 also white, was seen by the author to hurry 

 into a hedge, where it might have been ex- 

 pected to conceal itself ; but it passed straight 

 through, across a lane, into a coppice of several 

 acres in extent on a steep slope, up which it 

 took a straight course and out at the top, with- 

 out so much as a check. The distance 

 traversed in a nearly straight line was fully 

 a quarter of a mile in what might be termed 

 a cross-country run, and how much further 

 could not be ascertained. It is the habit of 

 the stoat to get clear away, and not to skulk, 

 when there is danger. 



19. Weasel. Putorius nivalis., Linn. 



Bell — Mustela vulgaris. 

 This animal is too generally distributed and 

 too well known to need more than a brief 

 notice and to observe that its food appears to 

 consist chiefly of field mice and field voles. A 

 family of three-fourths grown weasels which 

 the author had the opportunity of observing 

 were wholly fed by the parent on these small 

 rodents. Nothing could exceed the restless 

 activity and playfulness of the young ones, 

 clinging to each other and rolling over and 

 over like a family of kittens, but much quicker, 

 and they seemed never to tire of the amuse- 

 ment. The weasel seems to take a regular 

 and circumscribed beat, if we may judge from 

 the habits of one which frequented the hut of 

 an old crossing-keeper on the Great Western 

 Railway near Bretforton, where it was daily 

 seen by the old man, who never molested 

 it, as it destroyed the mice, which before 

 its appearance were in considerable abun- 

 dance. 



20. Badger. Meles meles, Linn. 



Bell — Meles taxus. 

 The badger is a creature whose very exist- 

 ence is due to its fossorial capabilities, for were 

 it not a skilful excavator and able to make a 

 safe retreat for itself, its size and consequent 

 inability to escape observation would most 

 surely lead to its extinction. The badger still 

 remains in some of the wooded localities in 

 Worcestershire and if not in increased certainly 

 not in reduced numbers. It is frequent in 

 some of the detached parts of the county, as 

 at Bleckley and Daylsford, and it is by no 



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