THE MAMMALIAN FAUNA OF CHESHIRE. 217 



Hawks/ 1614, had written : — ' Have not wilde stags by watching 

 and manning been driven like cattel upon the way ? What is it 

 that man cannot effect if he will thereunto apply himself.' " 



Cervus dama, L. ; Fallow Deer. — Such works as Ormerod's 

 * History of Cheshire' contain many references to this species, 

 which was abundant in mediaeval times. Mr. J. Whitaker (op. cit.) 

 mentions ten parks in which herds of semi-domesticated Fallow 

 Deer are now kept, viz. : — Tatton (Lord Egerton), 500 to 600 

 head ; Eaton (the Duke of Westminster), 300 ; Oulton (Sir Philip 

 Egerton), 250; Cholmondeley (the Marquis of Cholmondeley), 200 ; 

 Garden (Mr. J. H. Leche) ,160; Doddington (Sir Henry Broughton) , 

 150 ; Adlington (Mrs. Legh), 70 ; Dunham (the Countess of Stam- 

 ford), 70; Lyme (Lord Newton), 35; Beeston (Lord Tolle- 

 mache), 20. 



Order Carnivora. — Family Canid^. 



Canis vulpes, L. ; Fox. — Strictly preserved throughout the 

 greater part of the county, and consequently a great pest to the 

 game-preserver and farmer. On the Longdendale moors Foxes 

 are very destructive to the brooding Grouse, and, as the country 

 is not suitable for hunting, great numbers are killed by the game- 

 keepers. Between thirty and forty were destroyed on these moors 

 in the winter of 1893-94. 



In 1890 a vixen reared her litter on an island in Chapel Mere, 

 Cholmondeley Park, Malpas, and was obliged to cross more 

 than twenty yards of water each time she fed her family. When 

 the cubs were old enough to leave their dam she was seen to swim 

 to the shore, carrying them one by one in her mouth (C. Macdona, 

 * Field,' July 26th, 1890, p. 160). Mr. R. Newstead (in lit.) 

 refers to the Fox's partiality for eggs, and states that he has 

 known eggs to be carried away and buried in the earth without 

 being broken. In the accounts of the Chapel-wardens of Holmes 

 Chapel we find that in 1717 and 1722 one shilling was paid for a 

 Fox's head to Joseph Mien (T. Worthington Barlow, ' A Sketch 

 of the History of the Church at Holmes Chapel, Cheshire,' 1853). 

 Family MusTELiDiE. 

 Martes sylvatica, Nilsson ; Marten. — Practically extinct in 

 Cheshire. Byerley records two. The first was killed early in the 

 forties, in the township of Whitby, by a gamekeeper (Robinson), in 

 the service of the Marquis of Westminster. The second, trapped 

 at Hooton in Wirral a few years later, was sent to Mather, the 



ZOOLOGIST, THIRD SERIES, VOL. XIX. JUNE, 1895. S 



