Page:VCH Berkshire 1.djvu/213

 MAMMALS As there is almost no other way of collecting bats, unless their sleep- ing place is found by accident, information as to the presence or absence of a particular species in a given district is hard to be obtained. Recently Mr. J. G. Millais has given special attention to the bats, and has had the advantage of learning much as to the presence of different species in a cave of the chalk on Mr. Heatley Noble's property at Park place. Speaking generally, the fact that a bat has not been noticed or re- corded at any particular place, or that it has only been recorded once or twice, is no guarantee that the creature is not found there, or that it is very rare. It may only mean that no naturalist who has specialized in observing bats has seen it. Very great numbers of bats of various kinds feed above the waters of the Thames in summer when insects abound. The ancient forests of Berkshire were formerly the home of an extensive fauna, and the remains of a great variety of animals have been disclosed. Most of these have become extinct, but the wild boar (Sus scrofa ferox) has been hunted in comparatively recent times. James I. wished to revive the sport of hunting the boar, and turned out * six wild pigs.' Wild boars brought from India were kept in semi-confinement in Windsor Home Park until the year of the accession of King Edward VII. Foxes abound in all parts of the shire, being carefully preserved for the purposes of hunting. Indeed their number is yearly increased by importation from Scotland and Germany. Badgers are by no means uncommon, and have their uses. When some imported foxes in Mr. Garth's country developed mange which spread rapidly and infected the earths, the master after destroying the mangy foxes procured some badgers which effectually cleaned out the earths and removed the disease. Three kinds of deer abounded in Berkshire : the red deer (Cervus elaphus], fallow deer (Cervus dama), and the roe deer (Cervus capreolus), but the old deer have long since vanished from the forest district. The old stock was nearly all destroyed during the Commonwealth period by poachers civil and military. Every inhabitant of the forest made free with them. On one occasion 100 were slaughtered, and it was reported after a survey in 1 649 that ' in the said park there is noe deare.' After the Restoration the forest was restocked, and 1,000 was paid on account to Sir William St. Ravy for expenses of transporting red and fallow deer from Germany and elsewhere. Queen Anne also 167