MAMMALS 



RODENTIA 



25. Squirrel. Sciurus leucourus, Kerr. 

 Bell — Sciurus vulgaris. 



Abundant in all our thicker woods. 



26. Dormouse. Muscardinus avellanarius, Linn. 

 Bell — Myoxus avellanarius. 



Local. Colonies occur here and there in 

 woods in the western and northern districts of 

 the county. 



27. Common or Brown Rat. Mus aecumanus, 



Pallas. 

 Too abundant. 



28. Black Rat. Mus rattus, Linn. 



The black rat occurs from time to time in 

 various parts of Lancashire. A few find sanctuary 

 in Walney Island (Macpherson, Fauna of Lake- 

 land^ p. 81). One was caught in Liverpool in 

 1896. 



29. House Mouse. Mus musculus, Linn. 

 Abundant. 



30. Wood Mouse or Long-tailed Field Mouse. 



Mus sylvaticus, Linn. 

 Generally distributed. 



31. Harvest Mouse. Mus minufus, Pallas. 

 Very sparingly distributed ; once abundant in 



fields and ricks, but the use of reaping machines 

 has destroyed the nests and young so that now 



the species is almost extinct. Advertisement 

 extensively made recently for specimens brought 

 not a single favourable reply. There is a speci- 

 men from Halsall Moss, Southport, in Owens 

 College Museum, Manchester University. 



32. Water Vole. Microtus amphibius, Linn. 

 Bell — jirvicola amphibius. 



Common. 



33. Field Vole, Microtus agrestis, Linn. 

 Bell — jirvicola agrestis. 



Fairly common, and generally distributed. 

 More abundant in some years than in others. 



34. Bank Vole. Evotomys glareolus, Schreber. 

 Bell — Arvicola glareolus. 



Locally, Red Field Vole. 

 Fairly common locally. It lives on the 

 margins of thickets, and winters among heaps of 

 turnips. 



35. Hare. Lepus europaus, Pallas. 

 Bell— i^«/ timidus. 



Abundant, but diminishing in numbers. 



36. Rabbit. Lepus cuniculus, Linn. 



Very abundant ; extensive warrens exist along 

 the sea coast. Melanistic varieties are not 

 uncommon. 



UNGULATA 



37. Red Deer. Cervus elaphus, Linn, 



The red deer, indigenous and abundant in 

 England from prehistoric times, was from the 

 Roman period down to the fifteenth and sixteenth 

 centuries widely distributed in Lancashire (as in 

 other counties) upon the wooded heights and 

 vales of the Fells and in the forests of the 

 lowlands. After the middle of the seventeenth 

 century the herds in their wild state became 

 fewer and fewer, and those now existing, though 

 probably retaining some of the blood of their 

 feral ancestors, are all preserved and largely 

 winter-fed. 



38. Fallow Deer. Cervus dama, Linn. 



The fallow deer, though in prehistoric times 

 indigenous to England, is at the present day to 

 be found — in Lancashire, at all events — only con- 

 served in private parks. 



39. Roe Deer. Capreolus capreolus, Linn. 

 Bell — Capreolus caprea. 



There are at the present day, it is supposed, no 

 truly indigenous roe deer in Lancashire, unless 

 those in the woods of Higher Furness may be so, 

 since it is believed that in some districts of 

 Cumberland a few descendants of indigenous 

 herds still survive. 



CETACEA 



40. Common Rorqual. Balcenoptera musculus, 



Linn. 

 Remains of this species have been obtained on 

 the coast (Silloth excavations, Proc. R. Phys. 

 Soc. viii. 336). 



41. Hump-backed Whale. Megaptera boops, 



Gray. 

 An occasional visitor. A specimen in the 

 Lord Derby Museum, Liverpool, was stranded 



on a sandbank near Speke, many miles up from 

 the mouth of the Mersey, on 17 July, 1863. 



42. Bottle-nosed Whale. Hyperoodon rostratus, 

 Chemnitz. 

 An occasional visitor. A specimen now in 

 the Nottingham Museum was stranded near 

 Speke, some distance up the River Mersey, in 

 1 88 1. Examples have been taken stranded in 

 Morecambe Bay (in 1887) and at Cocken-in- 



209^ 



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