172 Peacock: Mammalia of Bo ttesf or d. 



better than cultivation. From 2s. to 2s. 6d. a couple can 

 be obtained for them. In mild open winters they continue 

 breeding-, but our climate is too damp, and they do not 

 increase much by doing - so ; the damp food kills the young' 

 ones soon after leaving" the nest. Fifty years ag"o the skins 

 were of more value than the flesh to the breeder, and made 

 as much as 15s. per dozen. The skins of the silver-haired 

 variety were then making - 25s. per dozen. A hundred years 

 ago the best skins of this variety were sometimes worth 

 3s. 6d. each. They were sent to Russia. The busbies of 

 the hussars in that country were for many years made of 

 this fur, and caused the great demand. The figures are 

 taken from old account books. The type, black, and 

 silver-haired varieties are still found, but the quality of 

 the latter is not ' pure ' now in the Bottesford district I am 

 told. 



Red Deer or Stag. Cervus elaphus L. Has long- been extinct, 

 but must have been plentiful at one time. We find its bones 

 and antlers in the peat and in the beck, or still embedded in 

 the banks. 



Fallow Deer. Cervus dama L. Has been seen passing- 

 through the parish. An escape no doubt from Normanby 

 or Brocklesby Parks. I have never heard of its bones in 

 the peat. 



Wild Cattie. Bos taurus L. The bones of Wild Cattle are 

 frequently found in the peat and beck. The head and horns 

 are unlike those of any domestic cattle known to me, but 

 have a strong- resemblance to the Chilling-ham breed. The 

 horns take the same sweep as the bulls from that park, but 

 are rather shorter and thicker. The bones are bones still, 

 not fossils. 



Bottle-nosed Whale (Hyperoodon rostratus Chemn.) as the 

 Trent-siders call them, was seen by the Vicar between 

 Amcotts and Keadby in 1877. They were known to be in 

 the Humber at the time, he only saw one, and not more 

 than 15 feet of it, but there can hardly be a doubt as to 

 what it was. A few days after some were in the Ouse he 

 heard. 



Porpoise. Phocaena phocssna (L.). Comes up the river Trent 

 every year after the Salmon. I have seen three shot with 

 rifles. At Butterwick, in 1891, a specimen measured 

 5 feet 6 inches. 



Naturalist, 



