vihe JJomtq Naturalist: 



^ y 



A Penny Weekly Magazine of Natural History. 



No. 78. 



MARCH 19th, 1881. 



Vol. 2. 



MAMMALIA. 



A RECENT ii mnber of the Feuille 

 des J dunes Saturalistes contains 

 I most interesting article on the 1 ss< r 

 Mammalia of France, which has called 

 onr attention to the fact, that the 

 Mammalia found in our own country 

 are very little studied. Why is this so ? 

 Is it that the larger species are too 

 large for preservation in any but the 

 museums of our chief towns, or that 

 the smaller species are so retiring in 

 their habits that they are seldom .seen, 

 and opportunity of studying their 

 habits rarely obtained. Still we think 

 there scarcely ought to be the amount 

 of ignorance that generally prevails in | 

 reference to this portion of our native 

 wild animals. Mammalia stand first | 

 in rank, yet how few professed natur- 

 alists have any idea how many species j 

 are wild in this country, or how many j 

 arc truly native. Will the reader of 

 this article, before he goes any further, 

 count over the number of wild animals 

 that he knows exist in this country, 

 and how many of them he would j 

 know at sight. " Rats and Mice," ; 



"Yes, two;" Rabbits and Hares," 

 "Yes, four;" Water Rats," "five;" 

 "Hedgehogs," ".^ix;" "Field Mice," 

 " Yes, but do you know the field mouse 

 from the house mouse." 14 I think so, 

 the field mouse is browner in color, 

 and has a long nose." ,4 Seven, go 

 on." " Weasels and Polecats," "Yes, 

 but do you know one from the other." 

 " I doubt not. I have an idea the 

 Polecat is the larger of the two, but if 

 I only saw'one I should have no idea 

 which it was. I never saw either at 

 large to my knowledge, but I know the 

 Hedgehog." "Very well, eight." "The 

 Squirrel," " nine." A long pause, and 

 then confession that less is known on 

 the subject than should be. The above 

 is not imaginary, but a bona fide con- 

 versation with one who knew most of 

 the birds of his neighbourhood at sight, 

 is fairly well up in Entomology, and 

 knows as many wild flowers as most 

 of people who have not studied Botany ; 

 but who, living in a tow T n, had seen 

 but little of our native mammals in 

 their chosen haunts, of course he knew 

 the names and something of the history 

 of a great many more species than he 

 could name at sight. We happened to 



