A HISTORY OF CORNWALL INSECTIVORA 10. Hedgehog. Erinaceui europaeui, Linn. The ' hedge boar ' as it is called locally is common throughout the county, but apparently does not occur at Scilly. 1 1 . Mole. Talpa europaea, Linn. Abundant almost everywhere. 12. Common Shrew. Sorex araneus, Linn. Plentiful and generally distributed ; generally active throughout the winter. 13. Pigmy Shrew. Sorex minutus, Pallas. Bell Sorex pygmaeus. This species does not appear to have been hitherto recorded for the county, but is widely distributed though probably scarce. The first Cornish specimen seen by the writer was in 1 900 at Launceston, where it had been captured alive at the castle. One was brought in the following year by one of the agricul- tural students at Liskeard. F. J. Polkinghorn trapped it twice at Bodmin, and it has been taken three or four times in the Truro district. 14. Water Shrew. Neomys fodiens, Pallas. Bell Sorex fodiens. Numerous and well known throughout the county. CARNIVORA 15. Fox. Vulpes vulpes, Linn. Bell Vulpes vulgaris. Generally distributed in suitable localities through- out the county ; specially common in cliffs by the sea. 1 6. Pine Marten. Mustek martes, Linn. Bell Martes abittum. This species was no doubt common in bygone days, but gradually disappeared as the forests were destroyed. Couch, writing in 1854, believed it was extinct in the county. ' The last specimen I have been informed of,' he says, ' was killed near Liskeard in the first quarter of the present century, and its loss (for it was in ancient times classed with animals of the chase, and its fur was in high esteem) may be ascribed to the change of habits in society, by which the common use of mineral coal was introduced among farmers. Before that time a large number of pollard trees were permitted to grow in the neighbourhood of town- places or farm-yards for the purpose of supplying the house with fuel, and the cavities which most of them contained afforded a safe shelter to these and the others of the weasel tribe. When such fuel became of less importance these hollow trees were gradually cut down or suffered to fall, to the great diminution of the numbers of the weasel tribe." * Somewhere about 1843, however, a pack of foxhounds in drawing Bodethiel Coombe in the Glynn valley near Bodmin, found and killed a marten, and the late Mr. E. H. Rodd, who recorded the fact,* added that in March, 1878, a full-grown marten was obtained in the neigh- bourhood of Delabole Quarries. There is a Cornish 1 Report of Royal Corn-wall Polytubnic Society (1854), pp. 15-6. 1 Zoologiit (1878), p. 127. marten in the museum of the Royal Institution of Cornwall at Truro, but its history is not known. 17. Polecat. Putorius putorius, Linn. Bell Mustela putorius. The polecat or fitcher can scarcely be called rare in Cornwall, as hardly a year passes without a speci- men being recorded from the county. It shows a liking for wild, tangled places, especially near the cliff. During the last seven years the writer has seen specimens from Launceston, from between Boscastle and Tintagel, from near Chacewater, and from the Land's End district, and examples have been reported from Looe and Bodmin. One reported in 1901 from near Gerrans was undoubtedly a domestic cat that had run wild, and mistakes of this kind probably occur from time to time. It is not nearly so plentiful as it was twenty years ago. 1 8. Stoat. Putorius ermineus, Linn. Bell Mustela erminea. Common and generally distributed. In 1901 a pair of stoats bred under Boscawen Bridge in the city of Truro, and they and members of their family were frequently seen on the island below the bridge. In 1904 stoats were seen there for the last time, and recent improvements will of course prevent their re- appearance. White and pied stoats are occasionally met with. Examples in perfect winter pelage are very rare, but a stoat with only a triangular speckled patch of brown and white between the ears and nose and the customary black tip to the tail was caught at Killiow during the blizzard of 1891. Specimens that have assumed a partial winter dress are not un- common. Pied and white stoats are well represented in the Museum of the Royal Institution, Truro. 19. Weasel. Putorius nivaKs, Linn. Bell Mustela vulgaris. The weasel or ' whitneck ' is generally distributed and on the whole common. Winter pelage is less frequently assumed by the weasel than by the stoat, but white and pied local specimens are preserved in the Royal Institution Museum at Truro. 20. Badger. Meles meles, Linn. Bell Meles taxus. This animal is very common and so generally dis- tributed that there are few if any parishes in the county in which it may not be found. In a letter of January, 1906, Mr. J. C. Tregarthen informs the writer that he believes it to be more numerous than ever, and refers to the increasing number of badger- earths each year ; he also remarks that there is hardly a croft which it does not traverse in its beats or in which it has not an earth. The badger is very common in the Fourburrow country, around Scorrier, and in suitable localities throughout the whole of the Truro-Falmouth district. It is very plentiful around Bodmin, Liskeard, Looe, and Launceston. On the north coast it is in places astonishingly abundant. It frequents more especially the woodlands and the cliffs, but often occurs in numbers in deserted mine shafts and works. 2 1 . Otter. Lutra lutra, Linn. Bell Lutra vulgaris. The otter is also plentiful throughout Cornwall, and there is probably not a stream or pond in the 350
