The long-tailed field mouse or wood mouse, Apodemus sylvaticus, is found over nearly the whole of the British Isles. It is a variable species, and scientists have divided it into a number of sub-species, of which the type is very common in the Box Hill region of Surrey where I live. Another mouse which some specialists regard as a sub-species and which is known as the yellow-necked field mouse, A. flavicollis, is said to occur in the district though I have never seen one. It would be interesting to know more about the distribution of these mice and amateur naturalists could make useful observations on their ecology.

In a foreword to the report, Mr. R. Dreschfield, the chairman, writes: “The tragic loss of Ken Beaton has marred a year of great progress in the parks: a year graced by the visit of Her Majesty the Queen to the Queen Elizabeth Park. The foundations laid by Ken Beaton and the honour of Her Majesty's visit will stand us in good stead for many years to come and will be an inspiration for us to make our two parks second to none.

From earliest times man has taken an interest in animals, but our ancestors were mainly concerned with hunting them. The oldest documents dealing with hunting laws date from the eleventh century. In Russia hunting was never a privilege, the prerogative of princes or state, but the state was always concerned with the products of the chase. One of the first reserves was made in the seventeenth century to protect the eyries of the gyr falcon, much in demand for falconry. An early government monopoly in fur trading guaranteed some measure of protection for fur-bearing animals.

Cheshire is a county of varied character. On the east the moorlands bordering Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire rise at one point to over 1,900 feet; then comes the fertile plain, which includes the Forest of Delamere and many large parks; further west is the peninsula of Wirral, bounded on either side by the estuaries of Mersey and Dee, and culminating in a short coastline and the three islands of Hilbre.

It is of great interest to have confirmation from so experienced an observer as Dr. Peter Delap of apparent antipathy between roe and fallow deer in Lakeland, more especially as he suggests that the dominant species there is the roe. In every instance which I have investigated in the south where the two species have come into territorial collision, the successful contestant for “living-space” has been, in the long run, the fallow.

Suffolk is probably better known for its famous domestic “trinity of breeds”, the Suffolk Horse, the Red Poll Cow and the Suffolk Sheep, than for its wild mammals, though some of these last are interesting as being apparently at the extreme end of their geographical range. Everywhere it is one of the most highly keepered and over most of its area one of the most highly cultivated of all English counties, though there is a considerable acreage of light sandy heaths along the east coast and in the Breckland on the north western border, heaths now largely covered by the coniferous plantations of the Forestry Commission. Even on the better land there is a fairly considerable acreage of mixed deciduous woodland in private ownership, most of it planted during the first half of the nineteenth century as pheasant coverts.

In Oryx, November, 1955, there is an interesting note by Mr. E. O. Shebbeare—“Weapons of the Great Indian Rhinoceros”—indicating that this rhinoceros uses a pair of “tushes”, in the lower jaw, as its weapons of offence, and he asks the question whether the African rhinos actually use their horns as weapons.

At a meeting on 4th January, 1955, the Council considered the Report of the Committee on Close Seasons for Red Deer in Scotland. The attitude of the Society towards the Report was defined as follows:—

1. The Society supports the majority report of the Close Seasons Committee with its recommendations for close seasons, classification of deer as game, formation of regional Deer Control Boards, restrictions on the acceptance and release of venison into and out of cold storage during the close season, appropriate fines for offenders and the extermination of marauding deer and of deer which have moved into areas where they cannot be tolerated.

The Faunal Area of Lakeland comprises Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire North of the Sands. Relatively well defined, mainly by sea coast and lengthily by the Pennines, it originates in the central mountain mass cradling many broad waters, which is the Lake District of universal appeal. This lake and fell region and its surroundings extending to about two-thirds of the whole area, is the Lake District National Park, the first park to be designated by the National Parks Commission. During the present century, the National Trust has acquired many properties with a view to preserving their natural amenities. On the other hand, towns and villages have spread apace, following upon all those human enterprises which, through the ages, have transformed the land into its present state. Besides agriculture there are, for example, the sheep-rearing industry, with its effect on hill vegetation and bygone mining activities to which so much of the native tree growth was sacrificed. Now the work of the Forestry Commission is bringing a new aspect to parts high and low between the northern and southern limits of the area. Some older features remaining to be considered in relation to the wild animal life are the varied tree plantations on the landed estates, together with well wooded river valleys and still extensive birch and pine-fringed peat mosses. Sweeping though they have been down the centuries, the surface changes in Lakeland have had far from a completely adverse effect on the native mammals. While for some the fells have perhaps meant salvation, there are two of the most ancient residents which, from mere survival, have rather astonishingly increased and spread.

We shot or otherwise took over 100 foxes in this area during the spring. I opened a great many of them and, apart from a few odd ones, the diet appeared to have gone over to the same as the badger, omnivorous. There is no doubt that foxes are eating quite a lot of vegetable matter where the rabbits have disappeared due to disease, but I have never seen better and healthier foxes than of late, with two exceptions, which, of course, one normally expects, for there are always odd wasters in all species of animals and birds. Those which had full stomachs have invariably contained poultry and/or game, and once a coot, but by far the greater number had empty stomachs with intestines usually full of faeces, mostly vegetable matter. From this I deduce that their varied diet goes through them quickly but is ample to keep them in first-class order. The one exceptional stomach, of a vixen, was full of grass! There has been no case of malnutrition or food-crazy foxes, they are behaving quite normally.

Roe-deer frequently bear twin fawns. My own observations in Northumberland during the past twenty years, however, led me at first to believe that single fawns were more usual in this part of the country. I was rather surprised, therefore, to learn that the Hancock Museum in Newcastle upon Tyne had received a number of roe fœtuses, during the early months of the past three years, all of which proved to be twins, in each case a male and a female.

The following note on the Great Indian rhinoceros appeared in The United Services Journal, November, 1849. Though it bears out Mr. Shebbeare's opinion, given in the last Oryx, that in general this rhinoceros uses his “tushes” not his horn in attack, it does also suggest that the horn may sometimes be of use as a secondary weapon.

The following information has been received from U Tun Yin, Burma Civil Service (retired), and Maung Gale, Divisional Forest Officer, Shwebo.

For a map of Burma, see “Wild Life Preservation in Burma”, Oryx, Volume III, No. 2.

There is little in Tyneside to attract a naturalist in search of mammals however much it may appeal to students of the Industrial North. The “denes”, steep thickly-wooded clefts enclosing the streams, right up to the outskirts of Newcastle itself, still harbour a few red squirrels: the grey is absent. It has crossed the Wear into County Durham from liberation areas in Yorkshire but so far it has failed to cross the Tyne. Tyneside with its busy shipyards and its grimy ring of coalmines is, however, only one small corner of Northumberland. It is true that opencast operations have extended the black area: they certainly make a sorry mess of the countryside. But away beyond all this in a vast sector between north and west stretches the real Northumberland, the fifth largest county in England, a land of hills and moors, woods and farms, still much as it was before the industrial ravaging of Tyneside.

The ring shown in the accompanying photograph was made in mid-July by a roe doe and her twin fawns. The site chosen for their play was an old flint excavation near Brandon in Suffolk. During the early nineteenth century individual miners extracted flint by digging vertical shafts which were later filled in. A large number of crater-like pits and mounds of excavated earth remain and it was around the rim of one of these pits and its nearby mound that the deer chose to train its young. They were observed on several occasions circling rapidly. So frequent were these amazing displays of agility that a track was worn down to the chalky soil.