MAMMALS As Derbyshire is one of the most central counties of England, the list of mammals is almost necessarily a small one. Moreover the number of resident naturalists is exceedingly limited, so that many oppor- tunities of observing the rarer animals have been allowed to pass. In one respect Derbyshire would appear at first sight to have an advantage over some of her neighbours from a naturalist's point of view in the extent of ground, especially in the north-west, which has never been brought under cultivation. But these moors are the chosen haunt of the red grouse (Lagopus scoticus), and as such fall under the rule of the gamekeeper. Naturally therefore the British representatives of the family Mustelida? are becoming every year more and more restricted in numbers. The marten has already gone and the polecat bids fair to follow, although sixty years ago it was far from uncommon. The otter and badger still survive in certain districts, but it is only owing to the partial protection afforded them. The fox, preserved with religious care in the hunting country of south Derbyshire, is proscribed on the northern moorlands. Here, as everywhere, the smaller mammals hold their own against man better than their larger relations. The smaller rodents are numerous ; no efforts of the gamekeeper can exterminate the stoat and weasel, and the hedgehog, mole and shrews are widely distributed. But in order to realize the changes that have been brought about in our fauna by man, it is necessary to study the records of the past. The moorlands of the High Peak are a fragment only of a vast hunting domain, the great Peak Forest. The boundaries of this district, a part of the primeval forests of Britain, may be roughly defined by the course of the rivers Goyt, Etherow and Derwent to Mytham Bridge and thence to the Wye valley, near Miller's Dale, altogether an area of some forty square miles. Large portions of this district appear to have been wooded, chiefly with oak, especially in the Longdendale bailiwick. Here red deer (Ceruus elapbus), fallow deer (Cervus dama)^ roe deer (Capreolus capreo/us), wild swine (Sus scrqfa), 1 as well as wild cats (Felis catus), bears (Ursus arctos) and wolves (Cants lupus), were to be found within historic times. The number of species treated of in the following list is 33. To these will probably be added the harvest mouse (Mus minutus), which is believed to exist in small numbers in the south of the county. On the other hand, both the pine marten (Mustela martes) and the black rat (Mus rattus] are now extinct, and the red and fallow deer are only kept in a semi-domesticated state. 1 For an account of the re-introduction of the wild boar into Derbyshire (1826-37), see Harting, Extinct British Mammali, p. 97. 150
