458 SJiort Commimications ; — 



live stock for several days, is a fact which I could not have 

 believed, had it not been thus established by the testimony of 

 a most respectable witness, on whose accuracy I can place 

 implicit reliance. — E, S,, F.L.S. 



[This account remhids one of that in VI. 206., by W. L., 

 of a polecat, out of whose larder " he poked out, and counted 

 carefully, forty large frogs and two toads .... all and every 

 one of them alive, but merely so ! " See VI. 206.] 



The Water Rat {Mus amphibius L., Arvicola amphibia 

 Fleming). — On Feb. 28. 1829, one was brought to me that 

 had been taken in a mole-trap, under ground, more than a 

 mile from any river. I have also been informed of the water 

 rat's being dug out of the ground in a potato field. No 

 motive can be supposed to have brought the water rat into a 

 mole creep, but in search of the mole to devour it. The 

 weasel also pursues the same prey. — J. Couch, Polperro^ 

 Cornwall, May 29. 1834. [The fact of a handful of mangled 

 remains of earthworms, being, as I have noticed in V. 4-90., 

 found in the run of a water-rat, suggests it to be possible 

 that the water rat, in the above case, was but seeking earth- 

 worms in the mole's run.] 



Birds. — Of the Great Bustard {O^tis tarda L.,Jig. 58. $ ), 

 three females resorted, last spring, to Great Massingham Heath, 



Norfolk, for incubation. Their 

 eggs consisted of two pairs and a 

 single one. These were taken away, 

 under the impression that, as there 

 was no male bird, they were good 

 for nothing. I have one of the pairs. 

 Does the male associate with the 

 female during the period of incu- 

 bation ? Bewick says that " the 

 male is said to live apart after the 

 females have been impregnated." 

 Is this the case ? If it be, it may 

 be well, should female bustards again visit the same place, not 

 to deprive them of their eggs. A correspondent, in VI. 513., 

 states that the last bustard seen at Icklingham " was a hen 

 bustard, sitting on six or seven eggs." Is he correct in stating 

 that there were so many eggs ? I have always understood 

 that the number of a bustard's eggs never exceeds a pair. — 

 «/. Z). Salmon. Stoke Feny, Norfolk, Dec. 28. 1833. 



Of the Little Bustard (O^tis Tetrax L.), a fine individual 

 has been recently killed in this neighbourhood. It has been 

 preserved; and the specimen is deposited in the valuable 



