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MAMMALS RODENTIA 25. Squirrel. Sciurus leucourus, Kerr. Bell — Sciurus vulgaris. Abundant in all our thicker woods. 26. Dormouse. Muscardinus avellanarius, Linn. Bell — Myoxus avellanarius. Local. Colonies occur here and there in woods in the western and northern districts of the county. 27. Common or Brown Rat. Mus aecumanus, Pallas. Too abundant. 28. Black Rat. Mus rattus, Linn. The black rat occurs from time to time in various parts of Lancashire. A few find sanctuary in Walney Island (Macpherson, Fauna of Lake- land^ p. 81). One was caught in Liverpool in 1896. 29. House Mouse. Mus musculus, Linn. Abundant. 30. Wood Mouse or Long-tailed Field Mouse. Mus sylvaticus, Linn. Generally distributed. 31. Harvest Mouse. Mus minufus, Pallas. Very sparingly distributed ; once abundant in fields and ricks, but the use of reaping machines has destroyed the nests and young so that now the species is almost extinct. Advertisement extensively made recently for specimens brought not a single favourable reply. There is a speci- men from Halsall Moss, Southport, in Owens College Museum, Manchester University. 32. Water Vole. Microtus amphibius, Linn. Bell — jirvicola amphibius. Common. 33. Field Vole, Microtus agrestis, Linn. Bell — jirvicola agrestis. Fairly common, and generally distributed. More abundant in some years than in others. 34. Bank Vole. Evotomys glareolus, Schreber. Bell — Arvicola glareolus. Locally, Red Field Vole. Fairly common locally. It lives on the margins of thickets, and winters among heaps of turnips. 35. Hare. Lepus europaus, Pallas. Bell— i^«/ timidus. Abundant, but diminishing in numbers. 36. Rabbit. Lepus cuniculus, Linn. Very abundant ; extensive warrens exist along the sea coast. Melanistic varieties are not uncommon. UNGULATA 37. Red Deer. Cervus elaphus, Linn, The red deer, indigenous and abundant in England from prehistoric times, was from the Roman period down to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries widely distributed in Lancashire (as in other counties) upon the wooded heights and vales of the Fells and in the forests of the lowlands. After the middle of the seventeenth century the herds in their wild state became fewer and fewer, and those now existing, though probably retaining some of the blood of their feral ancestors, are all preserved and largely winter-fed. 38. Fallow Deer. Cervus dama, Linn. The fallow deer, though in prehistoric times indigenous to England, is at the present day to be found — in Lancashire, at all events — only con- served in private parks. 39. Roe Deer. Capreolus capreolus, Linn. Bell — Capreolus caprea. There are at the present day, it is supposed, no truly indigenous roe deer in Lancashire, unless those in the woods of Higher Furness may be so, since it is believed that in some districts of Cumberland a few descendants of indigenous herds still survive. CETACEA 40. Common Rorqual. Balcenoptera musculus, Linn. Remains of this species have been obtained on the coast (Silloth excavations, Proc. R. Phys. Soc. viii. 336). 41. Hump-backed Whale. Megaptera boops, Gray. An occasional visitor. A specimen in the Lord Derby Museum, Liverpool, was stranded on a sandbank near Speke, many miles up from the mouth of the Mersey, on 17 July, 1863. 42. Bottle-nosed Whale. Hyperoodon rostratus, Chemnitz. An occasional visitor. A specimen now in the Nottingham Museum was stranded near Speke, some distance up the River Mersey, in 1 88 1. Examples have been taken stranded in Morecambe Bay (in 1887) and at Cocken-in- 209^ 27