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THE MAMMALIAN FAUNA OF CHESHIRE. 165 



The forty-four species which now inhabit Cheshire, or visit its 

 estuaries as stragglers, are divided into the following Orders : — 



Chiroptera 

 Insectivora 

 Rodentia ... 

 Ungulata ... 

 Carnivora ... 

 Cetacea 



The Bats as a group have been greatly neglected, and further 

 research will doubtless result in the addition of other species. 

 Natterer's Bat (Vespertilio nattereri) has escaped attention 

 hitherto. It has been recorded from South Lancashire (C. Old- 

 ham, Zool. 1893, p. 457), and its addition to the Cheshire fauna 

 is probably only a question of time. 



All the Insectivora and Rodentia included by Bell in his. 

 1 British Quadrupeds ' occur in the county, but, owing to their 

 small size and retiring habits, several of the species are often 

 overlooked, and are probably more plentiful than is generally 

 supposed. 



Incessant war is waged by gamekeepers against the terrestrial 

 Carnivora, while the Polecat and Marten are practically extinct. 

 In the 'Manchester City News' for Nov. 3rd, 1883, the late 

 J. F. Robinson described a cat which had been trapped some 

 years previously in Delamere Forest, and which he considered to 

 be a genuine Wild Cat ; the evidence he adduces, however, 

 hardly appears to warrant the inclusion of Felis catus among the 

 Cheshire mammals. There is reliable evidence of the occurrence 

 of three Seals, but we do not think that Dr. C. Collingwood was 

 justified (Proc. Liv. Lit. Phil. Soc. vol. xviii. p. 162) in assuming 

 that the pied Seal mentioned by Pennant (' British Zoology,' 

 vol. i. p. 177), as having been taken near Chester in May, 1766, 

 was an example of the Mediterranean Monachus albiventer. Pen- 

 nant's description of the creature is too vague to admit of a 

 satisfactory determination of the species. 



that, at certain seasons, the deer could be driven into them to be taken or 

 inspected, which was called a stabilitio, as the stand where the owner or 

 sportsman stood was called a stabilitura. We never meet with these hays 

 in places which are said to be waste. The haia capreohrum was a hay for 

 roes, and a dimidia haia was half a hay, or a hay unfinished." For further 

 notes on " Eoe-deer hays," see Harting, ' Essays on Sport and Nat. Hist»* 

 1883, p. 41. 



