MAMMALS 



Hooker ' tells us that ' Devonshire doth yeild great abundance and 

 varletye of all manner of thinges which the earth or water doth yeild and 

 afford for the use of man. First, horses of all sorts, geldinges, mares, 

 moyles, asses, pigges and hoggs, goate, sheepe, foxe, wolfe, beare, brocke, 

 hares, conye, bull, oxe, cowe, calfe, and all kindes of roother,* otter, 

 wants, doggs of all sortes — the mastiffes, greyhounds, hounds, spaniells, 

 currs, deere, as the stagg and hinde, the buck, and the doe, roe, deare, 

 gray, hedgehoggs, weasel, ferrett, polecat, veyre,^ rats, mice.' The old 

 chamberlain of Exeter is not scientific, but his list is not unworthy of notice. 

 He was acquainted, not only with the domestic animals and beasts of the 

 chase, but with the ' small deer ' of Shakespeare,* then and now in com- 

 mon parlance known as vermin. 



Mammals are well represented in this county, for although there are 

 no forests within its area, there are many small woods, copses and planta- 

 tions in which the few remaining Carnivora and Rodentia find shelter, 

 and there are some parts where the conditions are favourable for the 

 preservation of other families. The coast-line, north and south, and the 

 channels beyond, give us seals and cetaceans, and we include in our list 

 altogether forty-seven species. 



Polwhele, in that wonderful work of his, the History of Devonshire 

 (3 vols. Exeter 1793-1806) — for it must be remembered that it was the 

 work of one man, and he left nothing untouched, imperfect as much of 

 it is — was the first writer to deal with the natural history of the county, 

 and his chapters, more especially those relating to the botany, the birds, 

 and the quadrupeds are interesting, and in some respects, notwithstanding 

 the progress of knowledge, valuable. John Cremer Bellamy in his 

 Natural History of South Devon, W. S. M. D'Urban, in his Sketch of the 

 Natural History of South Devon, and J. Brooking-Rowe, in his Catalogue of 

 the Mammals, Birds, Reptiles and Amphibia of Devon, brought the history 

 of the Mammalia of the county down to a recent period, and Edward 

 Parfit, and others, from time to time contributed to the Zoologist, the 

 Transactions of the Plymouth Institution, and the Devonshire Association 

 Transactions, notes of facts which had come under their observation. 



^ Discourse of Devonshire and Cornwall, Harl. MS. 5827, circa 1580. 



* Roother, i.e. rother, a horned beast (Halliwell). 



* Probably meaning the marten. 



* But mice and rats, and such small deer. 

 Have been Tom's food for seven long year. 



King Lear, act iii. sc. 4. 



335 



