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THE MAMMALS OF FLANDERS. 

 By Captain Philip Gosse, R.A.M.C. 



Much has been written and published about the birds seen in 

 the fighting area of Flanders since trench warfare began ; but 

 little, if anything, about the mammals, except for occasional 

 references to the plague of Rats in the trenches. 



Coming out to Flanders last August with a field ambulance, 

 I found much time on my hands, as the medical work naturally 

 depends largely on the amount of fighting that is going on. 



So, with the help of a dozen traps and some skinning 

 appliances, I spent most of my spare time collecting small 

 mammals. 



The country, which seems to abound with small animals, 

 particularly Shrews, is low-lying, level, highly-cultivated land, 

 intersected with ditches, many of them having water in them 

 the whole year round, to judge by the rushes and water-weeds. 



There are no woods nor coppices, and most of the trees are 

 pollarded willows, many of them hollow. 



As far as I know the only two small mammals, besides Bats, 

 of which I was unable to procure specimens, are the Garden 

 Dormouse, Eliomysquercinus, and Water- Vole, Arvicola amphibius. 

 The former is common in the orchards and gardens, according 

 to the inhabitants, and the latter I have often seen in the 

 river Lys. 



On one occasion, a friend tells me, a German shell hit a 

 hollow pear-tree in an orchard, and several Eliomys quercinus 

 were picked up afterwards, having evidently been hibernating in 

 the hollow tree. 



Lt.-Col. Tweedie also describes how he found one asleep in 

 the thatch of a shed, which woke up sufficiently to bite his finger, 

 and then went to sleep again. 



The kind of trap used was mostly the all-wire back-breaking 

 type recommended by the Natural History Museum authorities. 



