NOTES AND QUERIES.

The Manuscript of White's 'Selborne.'-The sale by auction of this manuscript, announced in our last number (p. 147), took place in London, at the rooms of Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge, on the 26th April last. It was put up at £100, and the bidding having advanced gradually to £294 (or two hundred and eighty guineas), it was knocked down for that sum to Mr. J. Pearson, who, it was understood, purchased it on commission for Mr. S. M. Samuel, of No. 6, Palace Court, W.

MAMMALIA.

Irish Hare turning white in Winter.--I was surprised to see the discussion of this subject in the pages of The Zoologist,' as I imagined that most people had now learnt that the often-repeated statements in Natural Histories, such as that "in Ireland, doubtless owing to the mild climate, the Mountain Hare does not turn white in winter" (vide Lydekker, Brit. Mammals, pp. 226–7), are not true. Ever since the time of William Thompson (Nat. Hist. of Ireland, p. 28) it has been known to Irish naturalists p.2 that the Irish Hare can and often does undergo a considerable change in winter; the amount of the change, no doubt, depending on weather and other conditions; and the late Mr. A. E. Knox has stated that Irish Hares introduced into Petworth Park, Sussex (as I am informed by Prof. Newton), kept up their former habit of turning white in winter for several seasonsa fact which I have also noticed myself in the case of Mountain Hares from Wicklow when turned down on the lowlands of Wexford. I have for years been collecting information on this and other matters relative to the Irish Hare, and have even taken the trouble to collect facts by means of a circular sent round to many game-preservers, or their keepers, in Ireland, and I have not the slightest doubt that some Hares which have turned nearly quite white are to be found every season in Ireland. Pure white Hares are no doubt rarer, but have certainly been recorded (vide Thompson loc. cit. and G. H. Kinahan in 'Land and Water,' March 3rd, 1891), but it seems to me that the really important point to notice is not whether any Hare has ever turned quite white in Ireland in winter, but that in Ireland it is the exception for a Hare to do so, or even to turn nearly white, whereas in Scotland it appears to be the rule. I may add that in mountainous parts of Ireland even leverets can partially undergo the winter change, as evidenced by a leveret in my own collection which was sent me by Mr. John Hunter, of Wooden Bridge, Co. Wicklow.-G. E. H. BARRETTHAMILTON (Trinity College, Cambridge).

In addition to the evidence already adduced on this subject (pp. 104, 149), I may state that in February, 1894, I saw a perfectly white Hare

near the top of Derryclare, one of the mountains known as the Twelve Pins, in Connemara, where I was told at the time that this was not uncommon, and that a few years previously two entirely white Hares had been seen on Cashel Hill. -- G. H. CATON HAIGH (Grainsby Hall, Great Grimsby).

The Irish Stoat.-What is a barbarous name? It is surely somewhat late in the day for the Editor of The Zoologist' to protest against the use of native names for animals. According to the arguments put forth against Assogue, &c., in the editorial note to the description of the Irish Stoat in last month's Zoologist' (p. 129), we should not use Wapiti" nor "Kudu," and so on. In fact, about one half of the names in general use for animals are not real original English words, but engrafted native names, adopted from every language under the sun, and none the worse on that account. Indeed native names are the best colloquial terms possible when properly applied, and English compounds the most clumsy and unsuitable, besides being generally uncertain in their application, and nearly always involving a false or doubtful assumption about affinity. The mode of spelling is of course a different question, on which opinions may be very naturally divided. To me it seemed that Easóg is too strange-looking and unpronounceable a word for any Englishman to adopt, while Assogue would perhaps have a chance of surviving, and we should then have the convenience of three names for three species. I may add that I am personally entirely responsible for the name proposed, as my colleague, Mr. Barrett-Hamilton, was at the time of writing the paragraph beyond the reach of consultation. Like the Editor, I should certainly not "admit that the spelling of an Irish name as it is pronounced makes it English." What makes it English, as in the case of Wapiti, Kudu, Antelope, and others, is its use by English people in English books.-OLDFIELD THOMAS.

[Mr. Thomas seems to have misunderstood the drift of our remarks (p. 129). Our objection was not to the use of the native name Easóg, which is on a par with Wapiti and Kudu as above quoted, but to assogue, which is neither Irish nor English, and hence in our opinion "barbarous." -ED.]

Polecat in Cambridgeshire. The following is from the Ipswich Journal' of Feb. 23rd, 1895, and may perhaps be worth publication in The Zoologist,' if only to show that the Polecat is not yet exterminated on the Cambridgeshire and Suffolk borders: -" At Isleham, in the Cam bridgeshire Fens, a Polecat was found by the lock-keeper with its feet frozen to the top of the lock-gate. It had evidently stopped on the gate to watch some object of prey."-G. T. ROPE (Blaxhall, Wickham Market).

Food of the Bank Vole.-When staying at Chollerton, on the North Tyne, for a few days after Christmas, I noticed under a hawthorn hedge a

number of little heaps (in some places an inch in depth) of haw-pips and haw-rind, in many cases at the mouths of small holes in the bank, in other cases in the grass close to a network of runs which extended all over the hedge-bank. The pips were gnawed in on one side and the kernels extracted. Being anxious to ascertain what species of Mouse was responsible for this, I set a few small traps at the mouths of these holes and captured four specimens of the Bank Vole, Arvicola glareolus. Bell states that the food consists of fruit and roots, carrion, insects, worms, and snails; and in confinement some Bank Voles he possessed showed a partiality for gooseberries. It seems to me that, from the nature of its haunts, the fruit of the hawthorn (both kernel and mesocarp) forms a very much larger portion of its diet than has been hitherto suspected. In his description of the Bank Vole, Bell mentions that it is a good climber. It would be interesting to ascertain whether this little rodent climbs the hawthorn for the haws, and whether its tail is prehensile. No doubt a few berries which had fallen would be scattered about under the hedge, but in the case which came under my immediate notice the quantity of fragments of those eaten was so considerable as to suggest that the little fellows had had many a climb to obtain their food.-JOHN H. TEESDALE (St. Margaret's, W. Dulwich). [The Bank Vole is an expert climber, but the tail is not prehensile in this or any other species of Vole.- ED.]

Note on the Long-tailed Field Mouse. It may be well to place on record the occurrence, at Ashford, Kent, of the Mouse described by Mr. de Winton (Zool. 1894, p. 441) as Mus flavicollis. I caught a specimen answering to his description in a hollow hazel-stump in which I had previously taken the typical Mus sylvaticus. In the flesh this animal appeared strikingly different from the common form.-G. H. CATON HAIGH (Grainsby Hall, Great Grimsby).

[The fact of this specimen having been found in a hole from which a typical Mus sylvaticus had been taken somewhat conflicts with Mr. de Winton's view that the two forms do not associate, and we must confess that we are not yet assured of their specific distinctness. We may add that on March 12th last we received a specimen of the so-called flavicollis from the neighbourhood of Malvern. The head and body measured 4 in., the tail 34 in.—ED.]

BIRDS.

Notes on the Grouse.-Mr. Macpherson assures me that I am mistaken in attributing to him (p. 107) an opinion that Red Grouse do not migrate seasonally. Looking again at the passage to which I referred (in "The Grouse," Fur and Feather Series) it seems a natural interpretation to put upon his words, but I of course express my regret that I have misunderstood him.-HENRY H. SLATER (Thornbaugh Rectory, Wansford).

The Little Auk in Scotland.-I see in the April number of 'The Zoologist' (p. 151) a notice of the paper I read last month to the Natural History Society of Glasgow. Most unfortunately the report in the press on which your notice is based was very inaccurate, but I did not think it necessary to correct it, as I trusted to the circulation of the paper as a reprint among those interested to set it right. I send a copy herewith. You will see from it (1) that through Mr. Eagle Clarke I knew of the occurrences in the Outer Hebrides; (2) that the Ayrshire occurrences were well known to me, as I had collected the information, and in turn had passed it on to Mr. Clarke; (3) that while agreeing that some of the specimens found in East Clyde came via Forth, I cannot believe that those occurring so commonly in the immediate vicinity of Oban and Islay reached there from such a source. As regards their frequency in the line of the Great Glen, Mr. Bisshopp, of Oban, had twenty-six birds, chiefly brought to him by boys who had found them near that town; while in Islay they became common all at once "every where on the coast, and even far inland.” To this there was no parallel in the Clyde faunal area, and the vastly greater population and the general interest which the press notices of the Little Auk excited would doubtless have led to their being observed. It is not unusual for a few birds of this species to be met with in ordinary winters in Argyllshire or Ayrshire. It would be idle on the part of any one to insist that they come via Forth.-JOHN PATERSON (83, Cumming Drive, Glasgow).

[Having received by post a long and detailed printed report of the meeting at which the paper in question was read, we naturally concluded that it was duly authorised.-ED.]

Manx Shearwater in Carnarvonshire:-In the early part of June, 1893, I visited the locality in Carnarvonshire where Mr. Coward found the dead bodies of the Manx Shearwaters, as described (p. 72). As the greater number of the bodies were lying at the mouths of rabbit-burrows on the top of a grass-covered sandy cliff, I fail to see how the birds could have met their death by being driven by strong winds against the cliff, as suggested by Mr. J. H. Gurney (p. 110). The conclusion I came to was similar to that arrived at independently by Mr. Coward, viz., that men, ferreting for rabbits, had come across the Manx Shearwaters in the burrows, and slaughtered them. I am satisfied that the natives of that part of Wales who collect sea-birds' eggs had not up to that time found out how and where to obtain the eggs of the Manx Shearwater, for I used to join them in their egg-collecting expeditions, and they allowed me to act as one of themselves, sometimes at one end of the rope, sometimes at the other, this leading to awkward situations sometimes, as only one of their number could speak English, and I am ignorant of Welsh. I questioned them closely, through the interpreter, as to the "Mackerel Cocks," but they appeared to be quite ignorant of their nesting-habits. Moreover there is in

those parts a local dealer in eggs, to whom the collectors bring their spoils. He had never received any Manx Shearwaters' eggs. When in the shop of Mr. Rawlings, chemist, of Barmouth, I saw some eggs of the Manx Shearwater, which he informed me had been taken in 1893 at Bardsey Island. From what I saw for myself, I quite agree with Mr. Coward that the Manx Shearwater does breed on that part of the mainland of the coast of Carnarvonshire, and before seeing Mr. Coward's article I had intended to re-visit the spot, and endeavour to discover a living Manx Shearwater and its egg in one of those rabbit-burrows, and then communicate the fact to The Zoologist.-E. W. H. BLAGG (Cheadle, Staffordshire).

In the March number of The Zoologist' (p. 110), Mr. Gurney suggests that the Shearwaters which we found dead on the cliffs of Carnarvonshire had been killed by being dashed against the cliffs. This I feel certain was not the case, for the birds were lying on the soft turf-slope close to the holes in which they evidently had been breeding, and not only were their necks broken, but in many cases the heads were torn off, and lay some distance from the bodies; and in other cases the heads were twisted completely round, and loose feathers from the necks lay beside them. Several birds killed in the same manner lay in a field on the landward side of a turf-wall, and, as I mentioned, one bird was dead in a hole that had been dug out with a spade. The interest of the occurrence, of course, lay in the fact of their breeding on the mainland, not in the fact that they had been killed there by some person or persons unknown.-T. A. COWARD (Higher Down, Bowdon).

Hen Harrier in Sussex.—It may interest some of your Sussex readers to know that on March 21st I received a good male Hen Harrier in the flesh from Balcombe, Sussex, with the information that the bird was killed there on March 19th by the sender, who had never seen one like it before, and did not know what it was. I have hardly any personal acquaintance with Sussex, but the Hen Harrier has become so rare over the greater part of England that I consider this occurrence as worthy of record.-Lilford (Lilford Hall, Oundle).

Distribution of the Pomatorhine Skua in Summer.-Referring to Col. Feilden's note on this subject (p. 172), I may state that on the 25th July last I was midway between the Färoes and Iceland in the Danish mailboat Thyra,' and my log contains the following entry :-"A surprising number of Richardson's Skuas round the ship, mixed with a larger species (probably Pomatorhines, but none of these came quite close enough to me for identification) in the proportion of about six to one. Sometimes a flock of some seventy individuals together. This lasted till the afternoon." The Pomatorhine Skua has never been known to breed in Iceland, where Richardson's Skua is abundant and everywhere distributed. I should be