THE MAMMALIAN FAUNA OF CHESHIRE. 17 



M. rattus, L. ; Black Eat. — Possibly lingers in a few 

 places, but is very rare. Is still caught on shipboard in the 

 Birkenhead Docks (F. H. Mills, Zool. 1894, p. 186). There 

 is an old specimen without date in the Grosvenor Museum, 

 Chester, from Aldersey. Mr. Newstead states : — " It is about 

 five years since I heard of the species at Aldersey ; at that time a 

 resident told me it was then fairly common." In the * Man- 

 chester City News ' of Nov. 24th, 1883, J. F. Robinson describes 

 the finding of skeletons of the Black Rat when some repairs 

 were being made at Castle Park, Frodsham. He states that 

 " the skins were reversed and drawn over the skulls," and adds, 

 u This was a proof that they had been murdered by the Brown 

 Rat"; but, as we have known a Barn Owl to treat a Brown 

 Rat in exactly the same way, it is possible that owls were the 

 destroyers. 



M. musculus, L. ; Common Mouse. — A common pest. We 

 have trapped it in roadside-hedges at a considerable distance 

 from houses or farm-buildings. 



M. sylvaticus, L. ; Long-tailed Field Mouse. — Generally 

 distributed and abundant. There is a specimen of a pale buff 

 variety in the Grosvenor Museum, Chester (Newstead). This 

 mouse is very easily trapped. We caught one in Dunham Park 

 only a few minutes after having removed a dead one from 

 the trap. 



M, minutus, Pall. ; Harvest Mouse. — We can say nothing of 

 this species from personal observation, and the evidence of its 

 occurrence in Cheshire is of a meagre and unsatisfactory nature. 

 Byerley says that it is found " not unfrequently in wheat-stacks, 

 barns, and fields," but he gives no actual records, and we have 

 been unable to obtain any evidence in support of his statement. 

 The finding of nests in the reeds on Frodsham Marsh has been 

 recorded in the columns of the ' Manchester City News ' by J. F. 

 Robinson. Mr. Sam Radcliffe, of Ashton-under-Lyne, informs 

 us that some years ago be caught several examples on the pre- 

 mises of a hay and straw dealer in that town, who observed the 

 mice in some straw which he had purchased on a farm near 

 Wilmslow. Mr. Radcliffe kept some of the mice for several weeks 

 in a large fern-case, where a female gave birth to a litter of 

 young ones. 



