Ruminantia.
The Red Deer, Cervus elaphus, as recently as 1800, roamed wild over Cannock Chase and Needwood Forest, but is now confined to the areas of the large parks, such as Gopsall and Beaudesert. The Fallow Deer, C. dama, formerly existed in thousands on Cannock Chase, and is now the chief ornament of the parks. The Roe Deer, Capreolus caprea, was also common, but has become extinct. The Wild Cattle, Bos taurus, under the fostering care of the Lords Ferrars, at Chartley, near Stafford, still constitute the greatest curiosity among the Midland mammals. Garner, in his history of Staffordshire, relates that these animals at one time roamed free over Needwood Forest, and how, in the thirteenth century, William de Ferrariis enclosed a thousand acres of high-lying moorland, the turf of which is in the same condition now as then, and within this enclosure the animals are maintained in their pristine purity. At the present time this herd consists of about thirty head, comprising three bulls, the oldest aged nine years, a magnificent beast, with deep chest, black muzzle and ears, black-tipped, wide-spreading horns, and forefeet also flecked with black, the prevailing colour being a rich creamy white. So sensitive are these cattle, as the result of their high breeding, that calves unduly handled are forsaken by their mothers; and older beasts, if subjected to forcible restraint, will often, as the keeper put it to the writer, “just wag their tails and die.” When the calves are with them the cows are dangerous to approach.
Pachydermata.
Before leaving the local mammals, the celebrated red breed of Tamworth Pigs, Sus scrofa, deserves mention as one of the best, most useful, and healthy of the many well-known kinds; but there is no reason to suppose that it, any more than the others, can claim descent from the reputed Wild Pigs of Needwood.
II.—REPTILES.
Sauria.
The Sand Lizard, Lacerta agilis, occurs in Leicestershire and Worcestershire, and is to be met with on Cannock Chase and similar localities. The Viviparous Lizard, Zootoca vivipara, is found in Sutton Park, is smaller and more active than the Sand Lizard, and differs from that species inasmuch as the young are born alive.
Saurophidia.
The Blindworm, Anguis fragilis, is not infrequent, specimens have been obtained at Sutton Park, Merivale, Baddesley Ensor, Beaudesert, the Forest of Wyre and Habberley Valley, near Kidderminster.