244 
ST. ALBANS AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 
although we may say with certainty that particular animals were 
formerly common and generally distributed, no actual evidence 
exists, or at the best we have to rely upon a vague reference in 
some old book, the chance discovery of some bones, or a stuffed 
specimen whose history is mainly a matter of conjecture. 
We know almost nothing of the wolf, wild boar, wild cat, and 
deer, which disappeared in mediaeval times, whilst the recent 
discovery of antlers of the red deer and roe in alluvial deposits 
of the Colne Valley, near Watford, interesting though it is, 
furnishes but meagre evidence of the then state of things. 
Until quite recently the marten was, no doubt, abundant in 
the wooded district about St. Albans, but it has gone utterly, 
and the only evidence of its former existence in Hertfordshire is 
the record of one that was killed in Oxhey Woods in 1872. 
The polecat, too, has become extinct in our own time; one 
in the County Museum which was killed a t No-Man’s Land about 
the year 1847, is one of the few known Hertfordshire specimens. 
The badger and otter, if they still occur in the district, are 
extremely rare. Most of the mammals which are still to be 
found are either nocturnal or crepuscular in habit, and are 
therefore apt to be overlooked, but a careful investigation would 
probably show that other species than those of which we have 
actual knowledge occur. 
Bats are frequently seen but seldom identified. The pipis¬ 
trelle and long-eared bat abound, but it is unwise to conclude 
that every small bat one sees is referable to one or other of 
these. Haubenton’s bat has been observed flying over quiet 
reaches of the Colne near Munden and elsewhere. The barbas- 
telle has been taken just beyond the confines of the district, and 
the lesser horseshoe is recorded for the county without precise 
locality. Both of these, as well as the whiskered and Natterer’s 
bats, probably occur in the neighbourhood of St. Albans. The 
high-flying noctule is common. 
The hedgehog is often encountered at dusk, and the presence 
of the mole is proclaimed everywhere by the hillocks it casts up 
in its subterranean wanderings. The “fortress” in which it 
dwells is a conspicuous object in spring in the low-lying 
meadows of the river-valleys. Cream-coloured examples of the 
mole have been trapped on several occasions in the district. 
The common shrew occurs everywhere in hedge-banks and 
similar places. There are albino specimens in the County 
Museum, captured at Symond’s Hyde in 1908 and at St. Albans 
in 1910. The water-shrew is not uncommon in watercress beds 
and small streams, but there is as yet no definite record of the 
lesser shrew. 
Among the Carnivora the fox lives by sufferance, tolerated 
and even fostered in the interests of sport. The weasel and 
stoat still maintain a footing in spite of relentless persecution 
by the game-preserver. Even if it were not illegal and public 
opinion countenanced it, the cruel sport of badger-baiting would 
