ZOOLOGICAL NOTES 41 



ZOOLOGICAL NOTES. 



Polecats (ATustela putorius) at Loehinver. — A gardener, whose 

 cottage is built on the edge of the plantation and faces on to the 

 high road, had two of this year's Herring Gulls tame ; these were 

 both killed one night. Next night he set a rabbit-trap beside his 

 hen-house, and in the morning found a male Polecat caught in it. 

 Thinking the female would come, the trap was set again next night, 

 and another male was captured. Both specimens measured i Sc- 

 inches from tip of nose to root of tail, and the tails were 8 inches 

 long, and were evidently full grown. Last year a Polecat was 

 captured in the same place, but not before it had killed seven hens 

 and five ducks. All the birds were killed in the same manner : the 

 front of the necks clawed, and the back of the necks bitten. — 

 Arthur Beveridge, M.B., Loehinver. 



Notes on Voles as Garden Pests. — I have been much interested 

 in the article of Mr. Adair on the Owl and Kestrel in the vole- 

 infested districts which appeared in the " Annals of Scottish Natural 

 History " for October. There is little doubt that, could the increase 

 of the above, and other predatory birds, be sufficiently secured, it 

 would be the surest and most effective means of coping with the 

 Vole plague. It may not be uninteresting to give my experience of 

 a troublesome visit of Voles to the gardens at Dunrobin Castle on 

 several occasions during the last ten years. I may say that the 

 gardens are surrounded by woods and old pastures, which, in some 

 seasons have a considerable stock of Voles. The first occasion I 

 found them effect a lodgement in the gardens was about 1880, when 

 they cut roads in some tall box edgings, in which they took refuge, 

 and fed at night on the succulent flower-stems of some hundreds of 

 Lobelia cardinalis, which had been newly planted out in a prominent 

 position about the end of May. They found refuge too in some 

 large clumps of Arundo conspicua (a kind of pampas grass), the 

 fleshy stems of which they fed upon. Thinking the damage was 

 being done by the common long-tailed field-mouse, which, like the 

 poor, is always with us, I had traps set of various kinds, with 

 different baits, without getting any of the mice. As there is usually 

 little difficulty in getting ordinary field-mice trapped, I concluded the 

 damage was the work of Voles. A rat-catcher, who happened to be 

 ill the neighbourhood at the time, took the matter in hand, and tried 

 all his stock of poisons and traps unsuccessfully. The difficulty 

 seemed to be, to find a medium which the Voles would eat readily 

 enough to get them to cat the poison with it. I may say I tried 

 dusting the plants with hellebore, rubbing the flower-stems on which 

 they fed with phosphorous paste, a tedious and somewhat dangerous 

 process, but with no success. A chance observation of one of the 



