Peacock : Mammalia of Bottesford. 



171 



that he had not seen a Black Rat for over twenty years. 

 He had only killed five or six in his life. These were in the 

 old thatched buildings of Bottesford and Ashby. 



Brown Rat. Mus decumanus Pall. Found too plentifully, as 

 we discover to our cost. In 1869 my father thrashed a stack 

 of wheat in the spring-, from which 162 were killed and two 

 escaped. In 1889-90 there was quite a plague of Rats in 

 North-West Lincolnshire. Some people thought at the 

 time it followed on the exportation of so many Stoats and 

 Weasels from the district to Australia ; but my personal 

 experience is that neither of them prey much on the Rat 

 unless they are pressed by hunger. I have often found 

 them in the same stack. I have seen a Rat kill a Rabbit 

 in the same manner as a Stoat, seizing it behind the ear. 



Water Vole. Microtus amphibius (Desm.). Common on all 

 our becks and drains. It is a grain and plant feeder 

 generally, but sometimes takes to a fish diet. I saw one 

 once in the act of sucking five Water Wagtail's eggs from 

 a nest on the beck bank. A large Trent Eel which was 

 sent to us contained a full-grown Water Rat and a Frog. 



Short-tailed Field Vole. Microtus agrestis (L.). Common on 

 the old grass land about the higher parts of the parish and 

 such places in the neighbourhood. 



Long-tailed Field Vole. Evotomys glareolus (Schreber). 

 Commoner than is generally believed in the woods about 

 Bottesford. 



Hare. Lepus europseus Pall. Would be common all over the 

 district if it were left alone, but it is being killed off rapidly. 

 I found young on 14th February 1890, and shot a doe full 

 of young 3rd November 1886. Hares take drink nearly 

 every day, and during dry weather I have seen them come 

 to the same spot to water early in the morning for days 

 together. They love the stiff clays and clay loams as much 

 as the Rabbits the sand and sandy loams. You cannot 

 stock heavily with both species on the same ground, for if 

 suitable the Rabbit inevitably destroys the Hare. If a Hare 

 gets into an enclosed rabbit warren it is soon hunted to 

 death, first one set of rabbits taking up the chase and 

 then another, till the Hare, obtaining no food or rest day or 

 night, dies of exhaustion. 



Rabbit. Lepus cuniculus L. All over, in every hedge and 

 bank. On the poorest sands to keep warrens would pay 



1901 June 1. 



