Peacock: Mammalia of Bottesford. 



least I found one. or two of these below. By cutting- off 

 and eating- the leading shoots of young trees they are most 

 destructive in new plantations, and have to be kept down 

 by g"un and trap. They also visit the spots where corn is 

 thrown down for game. I have also seen them eating- 

 wheat from the ear. They eat the eggs of the Ring- Dove, 

 but whether all Squirrels do this I cannot say from ex- 

 perience, though there is an almost universal belief in 

 Lincolnshire that where Squirrels are shot down the Wood 

 Pigeon increases. They used to visit the manor garden to 

 attack the Victoria plums ; my sister Mabel once surprised 

 one thus employed. It made off and took refuge in a larg'e 

 tree, and when it imagined itself quite secure, to her 

 astonishment, it wag-ged its tail rapidly like an excited 

 terrier dog. I have never seen a reference to this gift in 

 print. Was it a personal peculiarity ? I have seen five 

 young tog-ether in a nest in the Snake Plantation ; this is 

 not common. 



Harvest Mouse. Mus minutus Pallas. Very rare indeed. 

 I have only heard of it once and seen it once. Many years 

 before I was born, the nest old and young- were taken on 

 some light sandy land at Bottesford Moors. On the same 

 part of the farm I saw a nest with female and young in 

 a wheat-field in 1887. 



Long-tailed Field Mouse. Mus sylvaticus L. Very common 

 in the district, and at times, when owls and hawks are 

 killed down, increases in numbers; in fact, at these periods 

 they do a great deal of harm. They eat insects as well 

 as grain and nuts. I have watched them burying acorns in 

 the meadow fields. They seem to forget where they place 

 them, as I have known several of these mouse-planted 

 acorns grow. 



Common Mouse. Mus musculus L. Much too common. 

 I have seen them white, cream-coloured, and fawn. My 

 sister Mabel saw a beautiful buff variety, which was killed 

 by a cat amongst apples stored on the floor of the manor 

 carriage-house. Colour forms increase when a species 

 multiplies rapidly, or is exposed to unnatural conditions. 



Black Rat. Mus rattus L. Now quite extinct, I fear, in 

 North-West Lincolnshire. I have never seen one. But the 

 late Brownhead Johnston, of Ashby, who was rat-catcher 

 for this neighbourhood for over fifty years, said in 1876 



Naturalist, 



