Welsh Journals

NOTES ON THE MAMMALS OF BRECKNOCK bY COLIN MATHESON, M.A., B.Sc., F.M.A. Keeper of the Department of Zoology, National Museum of Wales INTRODUCTION THE word mammal has never passed into everyday speech and has remained more or less a zoologist's term, the exact significance of which is sometimes not understood. Mammals (derived from the Latin mamma, a breast or teat) comprise all the animals that suckle their young. The mammals of Brecknock therefore include all the four-footed beasts with a covering of hair or fur, as well as the bats which are modified for life in the air.1 Very little has ever been written on the mammalian fauna of Brecknock, or indeed on most aspects of its fauna. Apart from two brief lists of species, with short comments, prepared by Cambridge Phillips2 half a century ago, the only published material appears to be passing references to various mammals in works dealing with other subjects. A wide field of opportunity is available to the members of the Brecknock Society to obtain new information on the mammals of the county, the species represented, their habits, their geographical distribution, and their fluctuations in numbers, whether as influenced by human activities or as occurring naturally. Although remains of cave bear, wild ox, and other Pleistocene and Prehistoric species have been recovered from cave deposits in Brecknock, it is not proposed in this paper to deal with these, but to discuss only mammals which live in the county today or have lived there until com- paratively recent times. THE LAGOMORPHS While still commonly referred to as rodents, and formerly classified by taxonomists as simply a sub-division of the Order Rodentia, the hares and rabbits are now regarded as constituting a separate Order (Lagomorpha) which probably evolved separately from the rodents proper, though bearing superficially many points of resemblance to them. 1 The term includes also marine animals, like whales, and terrestrial animals like elephants, in which hair is almost or completely absent; but with these of course we are not concerned here. 2 'The Mammals of Breconshire,' Transactions Cardiff Naturalists'' Society, Vol. 39, 1907, pp. 113-115, and Vol. 42, 1910, pp. 91-92. A short account of Cambridge Phillips' career is given by Ingram and Salmon in 'The Birds of Brecknock', Brycheiniog, Vol. 3, pp. 182-183.