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 MAMMALS steel trap was attacked by a water shrew, The so-called oared shrew, Sorex ci/iatus, is which was discovered making violent attempts nothing more than a dark-coloured variety of to get a hole through the tough skin of the water shrew, which is not infrequently the rat. met with in the summer. CARNIVORA 15. Fox. Vulpes vulpes, Linn. Bell — Vulpes vulgaris. An animal wholly dependent for existence in our county upon the sport which he affords. Were foxhunting to go out the fox would speedily go out with it. 16. Pine Marten. Mustela martes, Linn. Bell — Maries abietum. ' Rarely to be found even in places formerly known as his usual haunts,' were the words made use of in 1834 by Sir Charles Hastings, but whether they were intended to apply to the yellow-breasted or white-breasted marten as a Worcestershire mammal I am unable to determine. It is doubtful if the white-breasted marten has been found in the county for many years if at all, no record of it exists; but I can however speak of the yellow-breasted as having been killed more than half a century since at Falke Mill near Evesham. The animal was taken to a bird stufFer in that town, and when preserved remained for many years in the possession of the party who killed it ; but finally, when faded, dirty and dilapidated, it came into the hands of the present writer. That is the latest recorded occurrence of this marten in Worcestershire, but it may possibly still exist in some of the large woods. 17. Polecat. Putorius putorlus, Linn. Bell — Mustela putorius. Formerly not rare in Worcestershire, but now only known in a few favoured localities, in the large woodlands and remote wooded districts, but it is nearly if not quite extinct in the county. 18. Stoat. Putorius ermineus, Linn. Bell — Mustela erminea. Like the weasel the stoat is distributed over the whole of the county. It is a wild and fearless animal, and not easy of observation, but the occasional assumption of the white or ermine fur in the winter renders it a conspicu- ous object, and as it may be seen at a con- siderable distance, some idea of the range of its operations may be arrived at. One which the author repeatedly observed had a beat of fiilly two miles in extent — rather a wide manor for so small an animal. Another stoat, also white, was seen by the author to hurry into a hedge, where it might have been ex- pected to conceal itself ; but it passed straight through, across a lane, into a coppice of several acres in extent on a steep slope, up which it took a straight course and out at the top, with- out so much as a check. The distance traversed in a nearly straight line was fully a quarter of a mile in what might be termed a cross-country run, and how much further could not be ascertained. It is the habit of the stoat to get clear away, and not to skulk, when there is danger. 19. Weasel. Putorius nivalis., Linn. Bell — Mustela vulgaris. This animal is too generally distributed and too well known to need more than a brief notice and to observe that its food appears to consist chiefly of field mice and field voles. A family of three-fourths grown weasels which the author had the opportunity of observing were wholly fed by the parent on these small rodents. Nothing could exceed the restless activity and playfulness of the young ones, clinging to each other and rolling over and over like a family of kittens, but much quicker, and they seemed never to tire of the amuse- ment. The weasel seems to take a regular and circumscribed beat, if we may judge from the habits of one which frequented the hut of an old crossing-keeper on the Great Western Railway near Bretforton, where it was daily seen by the old man, who never molested it, as it destroyed the mice, which before its appearance were in considerable abun- dance. 20. Badger. Meles meles, Linn. Bell — Meles taxus. The badger is a creature whose very exist- ence is due to its fossorial capabilities, for were it not a skilful excavator and able to make a safe retreat for itself, its size and consequent inability to escape observation would most surely lead to its extinction. The badger still remains in some of the wooded localities in Worcestershire and if not in increased certainly not in reduced numbers. It is frequent in some of the detached parts of the county, as at Bleckley and Daylsford, and it is by no [75