Page:VCH Staffordshire 1.djvu/196

MAMMALS Thirty-six species of mammals may be included in the fauna of Staffordshire as still, or very recently, living more or less in a state of nature within the borders of the county. Of the Cheiroptera or bats 7 species are recorded, the rarest being Natterer's bat (Myotis nattereri) of which one instance only is known. The whiskered bat (M. mystacinus) has of late years proved to be more abundant in the county than was formerly thought to be the case, especi- ally in the north. In other districts it may possibly be confounded some- times with a black variety of the pipistrelle. All five British species of Insectivora are represented in Staffordshire, the hedgehog, mole and common shrew abundantly, whilst the pigmy shrew and water shrew are more local in their distribution. The genuine wild cat and the wolf have, of course, long been ex- tinct in the county, although the latter continued abundant even in the reign of Edward II. The fox, the weasel and the stoat still abound, but the pine marten became extinct about fifty years ago, and the last pole- cat seems to have been killed about 1884. The badger, on the other hand, is still far from rare in the wilder parts of Staffordshire, and, thanks to the humane preservation that is afforded it at the hands of a small but, we are glad to note, increasing number of landowners, may probably long remain so. The outlook for the otter is not so bright, but it still occurs in most of our rivers, particularly in the Dove, where as I learn from the Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain, protection is afforded it ' by a few riparian owners, particularly Capt. H. E. Clowes of Norbury, and Mr. A. C. Duncombe of Culwich.' On the upper waters of the Dove otters are shot down relentlessly, and Mr. Jourdain considers that 'probably most of the otters that are seen on the Dove and Trent are wanderers from the protected length.' The rodents are well represented perhaps too much so, the brown rat especially being, sixty years ago, quite a scourge in the valley of the Trent. This happily is no longer the case, but it is still far too abundant and in some districts is almost as amphibious as the water vole. The black rat appears to have been early exterminated, as John Horatio Dickenson in his ' Sketch of the Zoology of Staffordshire ' in Shaw's History says that it had become extinct in his time (1798). The mountain or ' Scotch ' hare has been recently introduced into the moor- land districts of the county, but Staffordshire has long been noted for the large size and weight of its indigenous ' brown ' hares. 162