Page:VCH Essex 1.djvu/292

MAMMALS The highly cultivated condition of the county of Essex has been unfavourable to the continued existence of several of the larger mammals, though Epping Forest has been a haven of refuge for some species that would otherwise have been extinct. The list of Essex mammals (forty-eight in number) compares, however, very favourably with the total number of recognized British mammals, viz. seventy-two forty- five terrestrial and twenty-seven marine. Of bats the list is larger than those of most counties, for we have eight out of the sixteen described by Bell, who credits Essex with one species, the greater horse-shoe bat, apparently in mistake. This bat does not exist anywhere in the county, certainly not in the locality Bell men- tions. If it did exist some later record would be found, for it could hardly escape observation either on the wing or when in the hand, its characters being so very distinct and unlike any other of the family. The badger, marten and polecat are now rare, especially the last two, yet up to the present time individuals have continuously existed. Evidence satisfactorily shows that in the earlier part of the nineteenth century all of them were fairly abundant. Deer, in a wild condition, exist to-day in very few English coun- ties. Yet in consequence of the survival in Essex of the virgin woods of Epping Forest, we are enabled to claim these interesting animals as members of our fauna, as they have undoubtedly been from time imme- morial. Fallow deer remain until the present time ; red deer were known until the early years of the nineteenth century, when the surviving members of the wild herd were removed to Windsor, but stags lingered in the Forest at least as late as 1827 (Proc. Essex Field Club, i. p. xlviii.). A few red deer have since been re-transferred to the forest in the hope of restoring the original stock, but they proved so destructive to the crops of the neighbouring farmers that they had to be destroyed. A herd was also introduced into Weald Park between twenty-five and thirty years ago. Roe deer, which appear to have been by no means rare in late mediaeval times, became extinct for many years ; but this species has also been re-introduced from Dorsetshire and is doing well. Wild swine (Sus scrqfa) appear to have existed in Essex until the sixteenth century, if not later. Amongst the muniments of Colne Priory is this passage : 'The surveye of the Lordshipps and Manors of Earls Colne and Colne Priory, parcels of the possession of Richard Harlackenden, made in anno domini 1598 by Israel Amyse, Esq., Chalkney Wood this wood in tymes past was impaled and the Erles of Oxcnforde in former times (for their pleasur bredd and maintayned wilde 254