68 



to enter into a calculation of comparison with other parts of 

 the kingdom. The commonest of the Cornish Bats are, the 

 Pipestreil, Lesser Horse-shoe and Long-eared, in the order 

 in which they are enumerated ; but their local occurrence 

 depends more on the accident of their meeting with con- 

 genial haunts, than on the mere influence of climate. The 

 latter circumstance, however, produces its effect on the habits 

 of these animals; so that in Cornwall, where what may be 

 denominated severely cold winters do not occur more fre- 

 quently than in cycles of six or eight years, the appearance 

 of the Bat may be witnessed in every week, in an ordinary 

 year. A fall below the 40th degree of the thermometer is 

 the signal for their retreat ; but a slight change to a milder 

 temperature restores them to activity, when not uncommonly 

 they may be seen at mid-day, in search of prey, which might 

 not be obtained at the more usual hours of the evening. 



It may be regarded as another proof of the mildness of 

 the climate, that the Longtailed Field Mouse (Miss Sylva- 

 ticus) breeds at, or even before, the beginning of January; 

 forming its nest at this time in ricks of hay. The Frog also 

 is rarely later than this period in depositing its spawn. 



Of the genus Sorex, Cornwall possesses three species, 

 sufficiently distinguished. These are, Sorex Araneus, Jenyns 

 in the Magazine of Zoology, vol. 2: the front teeth a deep 

 brown through most of their length; Bell's British Quadru- 

 peds, p. 109. Another species, S. Araneus of Duvernoy and 

 Jenyns, Mag. of Zo., vol. 2, Jig. 1, the snout not so long as 

 in the S. Araneus of English Authors : the body and tail 

 longer; ears and tail different, the former being more mem- 

 branous, and very slightly furred ; the teeth brown only at 

 the tips of the lower front teeth ; and so generally of the 

 molars; tail narrow at the commencement; slightly haired, 

 and none beyond the tip. A third species is referred to S. 

 Fodiens of Bell, p. 115 ; S. Bicolor of Jenyns, Mag. of Zo., 

 vol. 2, p. 37; but it differs in some particulars which may 

 require notice. Weight three drams, fifty-six grains; length 

 of the body three inches, of the tail one inch and three 

 quarters. Nose somewhat flattened ; hind feet and toes 

 ciliated, the fore feet less so. Under front teeth purely 

 white; the upper slightly coloured; their crenations not 

 exactly like any in Mr. Jenyns' plate. 



Of Quadrupeds now extinct, but which formerly ranged 

 our hills, beside the Deer, of which the horns are often found 

 in stream-works, and of which examples exist in the Museum 

 of the Royal Institution at Truro, and in that of the Royal 

 Geological Society at Penzance, remains have been found 

 of a large animal of the Ox kind, and which I feel no scruple 

 in referring to the Bonassus described by Pliny, Lib. 8, 

 C. 15, as iu his day inhabiting the north of Europe. A 



