52 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



game and poultry suffered in full proportion. At this time a 

 subscription was entered into, and applied to premiums for removing 

 the evil. This continued for ten years, when it was found that 

 during that time, in five parishes only, 634 Foxes, 44 Wild Cats, 

 57 Polecats, 70 Eagles, 2520 Hawks and Kites, and 1347 Ravens 

 were killed, besides many which died by poison, or of their wounds, 

 and sheep have since been in perfect safety at all seasons in those 

 parts." 



In Sir Herbert Maxwell's " Memoirs of the Months," first series, 

 1897, p. 76, a list is given of vermin destroyed by the keeper on 

 Lord Malmesbury's estate, Heron Court, near Christchurch, in the 

 year 1852 ; but as this does not relate to Scotland I omit the details 

 here, merely observing that the total for the year amounted to 

 1327 head, and was made up chiefly of Squirrels (220), Jackdaws 

 (210), Hedgehogs (250), and Rats (300), the number of Hawks, 

 Jays, Magpies, and Stoats amounting to less than 100 each. It is 

 sad to find that Woodpeckers to the number of 50 are included in 

 this list, but, as remarked by Sir Herbert Maxwell in commenting 

 on this fact, there is ground for belief that the character of the 

 Yaffle has since been cleared of all suspicion. J. E. HARTING. 



[See "The Vertebrate Fauna of Scotland," vol. ix. p. 165, where 

 Knox's correct List is referred to under Kite. See also, in the same 

 series, in vol. ii. of "A Vertebrate Fauna of the Moray Basin," 

 p. 60. We cannot quote directly Knox's list as authority for 

 "Orange-legged Hobby." J. A. H. B.] 



On the First Occurrence of the Noetule in Scotland. So far 

 the Noetule Bat (Pipistrellus noctula) is not known to have occurred 

 in Scotland. The late Mr. E. A. Alston (" Fauna of Scotland," 

 1880, p. 7) did not credit Sir William Jardine's statement, in the 

 "New Stat. Account, Dumfries" (p. 175), that it had been seen on 

 the Annan in Dumfriesshire. After many years spent in working 

 at our northern fauna I have never heard of a single instance of 

 the existence of any large species of bat until i5th October of this 

 year, when Mr. Charles Eversfield of Deane, whose father had 

 rented the Dalguise shootings and fishings on the Tay in Perthshire, 

 sent me in the flesh a large female Noetule (143 inches across the 

 wings) which he had killed two days previously at that place. Mr. 

 Eversfield has a fair knowledge of our bats, having assisted me to 

 procure specimens on several occasions, and the unusual size of the 

 present example attracted his notice whilst salmon -fishing, so he 

 procured his gun and shot it as it hawked up and down over the 

 river. Unfortunately the specimen was somewhat decomposed by 

 the time it reached me, but I am preserving the skeleton for the 

 Perth Museum. J. G. MILLAIS, Horsham. 



Bank Vole and Water Shrew in Argyllshire. I have to 

 record the occurrence of the Bank Vole (Evotomys glareolus) in the 



