the inland position of the county, the only access to which for them would be through London, unknown there, though it is likely that in early days the common seal (Phoca vitulina) and two or three species of the smaller Delphinidæ may have sometimes found their way up the Thames as far as to what is now the southern border of the county of Bucks. I have kept examples of the two species of seal resident in the British Isles in captivity in Bucks, and have found the gray seal (Halichærus grypus), which has been given so bad a character by all previous writers on it, to be a much maligned animal, proving very docile and affectionate, and capable of receiving considerable education. In fact I can confidently recommend the gray seal as by far the most interesting animal I have ever kept, and readily taking to the performance of tricks.]
RODENTIA
20. Squirrel. Sciurus leucourus, Kerr.
BellSciurus vulgaris.
Generally distributed. It seems remarkable however that they are not particularly numerous in the big beech woods of this neighbourhood, where one would have expected them to abound. Perhaps there is no great supply of food there except during the mast season; but possibly also the magpies, and even the jays (which are extremely numerous in these woods), may thin out the young before they leave the dreys. On two or three occasions squirrels visited our garden at Great Marlow, which is more than a mile distant from the nearest wood, except Bisham Woods in Berks, from which it was divided by a double width of the Thames (channel and backwater). In the beech woods they seem to live to a great extent on the bark of crab-apples; one finds small trees of this species completely stripped of bark from end to end. Among several examples which I have kept in captivity were a pair reared in company with a pine marten by a domestic cat. Squirrels breed chiefly quite early in the year, but occasionally as late as April.
21. Dormouse. Muscardinus avellanarius, Linn. BellMyoxui avellanarius.
The dormouse seems to be of general distribution in the county, though from its retiring habits it is comparatively seldom met with. I kept one here for about eighteen months, caught at Turville Grange in 1901, and given me by Miss D. Donald, and other examples have since been seen and caught there; I have two at the moment of writing caught at Danesfield, Medmenham, 2 April. They were in separate nests, about a chain apart, made of moss, under nearly 2 feet of dead leaves. One of them made its escape the same night, but was recaptured on 12 May, having apparently slept through the entire interval. They are fairly well known under the name of sleepy mouse or sleeper.
In the Zoologist, 1885, p. 204, Mr. G. T. Rope quoted a letter by J. B. R. in the Field of 19 April 1884: 'Dormice are not at all uncommon about Henley-on-Thames. A boy who used to live at Nettlebed (a village five or six miles distant), and come to school every day, has brought in scores. This is no exaggeration.' Henley is less than one mile from Bucks and Nettlebed about 2¼ miles, so that this statement refers to the borders of this county. Mr. Rope continued by quoting from a letter by Mr. J. F. Woods, stating that in 1856 and 1857 he took several dormice in the parishes of Great Brickhill and Bow Brickhill, and that they were by no means rare thereabouts at that date. Mr. Rope next quoted from a letter by Mr. F. Hayward Parrott of Walton House, Aylesbury (19 April 1884), who stated that ' Dormice occur in the beech woods on the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, and are locally known by the name of " sleepers." ' In the Zoologist for 1887, p. 463, Mr. F. H. Parrott wrote with reference to Mr. Rope's above quoted article, that ' since then I have ascertained that these little animals are far more numerous in the nut hedges. Towards the end of October last a man in this town had a consignment of five dozen, which were caught in the nut rows on Buckland Common.' One ' had a white tip to its tail.' In the Zoologist for 1901, p. 472, Mr. T. Vaughan Roberts of Watford wrote that, having seen the above account of how plentiful dormice were at Buckland, he went down and interviewed a man who collected them for London shops. Both he and another man told Mr. Roberts that they never found the nest of the dormouse in spring, but always in autumn, when the nuts were beginning to appear. Mr. Roberts's note was written in confirmation of a letter by Mr. H. E. Forrest of Shrewsbury in the same volume (p. 423), stating that he had found near there a nest containing young ' about half-grown ' on 28 August, another containing young
167
