220 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



' Boger Bonk ' (Badger Bank) by the natives to this day. About 

 the year 1885 a very old specimen was taken in the above locality 

 by some poachers." He also records examples from Broxton 

 (1885 and 1892), Eaton Park (1887), and Oulton Park (1888) ; 

 and informs us (in lit.) that Lord Arthur Grosvenor obtained one 

 at Broxton in March, 1894 ; and that one, which was sent alive 

 to the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, was dug out by the Hon. 

 Cecil Parker at Cotton, near Waverton, in May, 1894. Another 

 example was seen at the same time, but not obtained. The Rev. 

 C. Wolley-Dod, of Edge Hall, Malpas, states {in lit., Aug. 28th, 

 1893), " Badgers are common in the woods in this part of the 

 county " ; and we are informed that they may still be seen occa- 

 sionally at Tushingham-cum-Grindley, in the same district. 

 Colonel Dixon, of Astle Hall, Chelford, writes on March 16th, 

 1894 :— " Within the last few years Badgers have become very 

 plentiful about here. Three or four years back my keepers shot 

 one, and I have seen two that have been killed within the last few 

 years by trains on the railroad ; they and the Foxes seem to live 

 amicably together, often in the same holes, but they make a 

 great mess in the coverts where they have their earths, as the 

 soil here is so sandy." At Lower Peover one was dug out in the 

 autumn of 1891 or 1892, and was kept alive for some weeks by a 

 fishmonger in Knutsford. In the ' Manchester City News ' for 

 Oct. 28th, 1893, an anonymous writer states that several Badgers 

 have been taken during recent years at Minshull Vernon, near 

 Middlewich. Badger Clough, near Disley, and Badger Bank 

 Farm, near Peover, may be cited as place-names connected with 

 the present species. Dr. H. Colley March, of Rochdale, informs 

 us that Brock is known to have been a personal name in Cheshire 

 as far back as 1577, and suggests that Broxton was the stead or 

 enclosure of the man Brock rather than of the animal from 

 which his name was derived. 



Lutra vulgaris, Erxl. ; Otter. — The Otter is still fairly plenti- 

 ful in the Cheshire streams and meres, and is even taken some- 

 times in the polluted waters of the manufacturing districts. One, 

 killed in the river Tame at Reddish Vale on Sept. 14th, 1890, is 

 preserved in the Vernon Park Museum, Stockport. At the present 

 day it is rare in Wirral, and the increased traffic will account for 

 its disappearance from the tidal waters of the Mersey; but it 

 still holds its own, in spite of persecution by fishermen, in such. 



