388 NOTES AND COMMENTS [December 



British Mammals. 



The mammals in Britain are so few compared with other components 

 of our fauna, that one naturally expects great accuracy in the descriptions 

 which experts furnish. There may be better things than great accuracy, 

 but it is at least a preliminary essential, and it is by no means always 

 realised even in regard to British mammals. Which is disappointing. 

 Without ourselves claiming any infallibility we may illustrate our 

 disappointment — made keener by our gratitude — by referring to a well- 

 known handbook which seems to us to require a second edition. The 

 author says that the common squirrel has a head and body about 8^ 

 inches in length, but every squirrel-catcher knows that a full-grown 

 squirrel has a head and body about 10 inches in length. The picture 

 given of the common (?) squirrel shows an animal with a tail longer 

 than the head and body ! 



Of Mus sylvaticus the author says that it has a head and body about 

 4^ in. long ; the fraction suggests great accuracy, but a full-grown 

 specimen in Elginshire often has a head and body 4^- in. long. Of 

 Mus flavicollis it is said " head and body 4^- in. long," while of the field 

 vole it is stated " length of head and body about 3^- to 4^ in. long," 

 which surely suggests that field voles vary greatly in size, while field 

 mice do not. Which is not the case. It is possible that the alleged 

 species Mus flavicollis may be distinct from smaller varieties of the 

 wood-mouse found in England, but in Scotland there are abundant 

 intermediate forms, some of them as " large and handsome " as Mus 

 flavicollis. 



We may be making some mistake, but we are puzzled elsewhere, 

 as when the author says " with the exception of the mouse-coloured bat, 

 the Noctule is the largest of the British members of the order," and 

 gives the length of its head and body as about 3 inches. But he 

 states the length of the head and body of the mouse-coloured bat at 

 2|- inches. 



The author gives twenty-six pairs of teeth as the maximum in the 

 common porpoise, but a male's skull in our possession has thirty pairs 

 in the upper jaw. Of Sowerby's whale the author says " general colour 

 white above and black beneath," but he must have seen the beast belly 

 uppermost, for, when white is present, it is beneath, not above. The 

 adults of both sexes which we have seen in the flesh had no white 

 whatever, not even " white vermicular streaks." It is remarkable that 

 one very distinct species of Cetacean is left out of the handbook 

 altogether, though, judging from the number of skulls in collections, it 

 is not the rarest one. It is needless to say that we make these 

 remarks in no cavilling spirit, but merely to show that even in the 

 works of experts the standard of accuracy is still not quite high enough. 



