Queries and Anders, 181 



encrinite, I shall reckon myself singularly fortunate in having 

 obtained possession of it;" tlie only doubt expressed in the 

 letter being, whether it had been previously found in England 

 or not. That it is not what he has there stated it to be, and 

 what I particularly disputed, Mr. Conway himself now ad- 

 mits, and the only difference which can yet be found betwixt 

 his specimen and mine is, that the one is tuberculated and 

 the other smooth ; but, when it is stated that I possess spe- 

 cimens of the bodies, both plain and covered with tubercles 

 of various sizes, yet exactly alike in every other respect, very 

 few indeed will refuse to concede that they must rank together 

 till some better distinction can be found, and it is much to 

 be regretted that a name should have been given to any of 

 them founded upon so very variable a character. 



Having freed myself from the charges brought against me, 

 I beg to conclude with informing Mr. Conway, that it is pro- 

 bable that his curiosity will be gratified, before the end of the 

 year, by the publication of such of my specimens as are of 

 sufficient interest to be inchided in Mr. Phillips's intended 

 work on the Geology of the North and West Ridings of York- 

 shire, — Wm, Gilbertso7U Preston^ Lancashire^ Jan, 20. 1834. 



Art. II. Queries and Anstvers* 



[Notice of a Species of Mouse, possibly an undescribed one^ 

 ^which has abounded in Inverness-shire and Ross-shire.'] — 

 In the May and June of 1832, over a great extent of moun- 

 tainous district, including all the western divisions of Inver- 

 ness-shire and Ross-shire (my enquiries have not extended 

 into Argyle), the shepherds began to observe that their dogs 

 were incessantly killing mice, which they naturally concluded 

 to be what they usually call field mice. They observed that 

 these mice increased as the summer advanced ; and that the 

 grassy parts of the mountains were much destroyed by them, as 

 they seemed, like the cut- worm, or larva of the 71pula graminea 

 [ ? cornicina], to prefer the blanched part of the herbage, among 

 the mosses and decayed matter of former years ; so that these 

 grassy parts became brown. A curious and very interesting fact 

 took place in consequence of, or rather accompanied, this great 

 increase of these mice ; namely, the foxes, early in the summer, 

 finding such a supply of food, which they appear to prefer to 

 all others *, ceased from that time to destroy any more lambs. 



* I have long known that dogs (and, I think, the shepherd's beyond all 

 others) are particularly fond of the Alpine mouse ; and, although I have 

 repeatedly tried, in various quarters, to obtain specimens, it has been in 

 vain, as the shepherds tell me that they only discover them by their dogs, 

 who instantly swallow them. 



N 3 



