203 



NOTES— ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 



ZOOLOGY. 



MAMMAL/A. 



Serotine Bat at Laindon Hills. — A specimen of Vesper- 

 ugo sevotimis was obtained on July 4th, igoo, at Laindon Hills. 

 It was injured, but still alive when I procured it from a man in 

 the parish. How he came by it I do not know. I am obliged 

 to Dr. Laver for confirming my identification of the bat. — Rev. 

 A. Bertram Hutton, The Rectory, Pitsea, December 12th, 

 1903. 



[Dr. Laver says in his Mammals, etc., of Essex, that this is a 

 very rare species in Essex. The only two specimens hitherto 

 recorded are those by Mr. Miller Christy at Saling {Pyoc, 

 E.F.C. iv. p. iv.) and Broomfield [E.N. viii., 162'. According 

 to Sir Harry Johnston {British Mammals, London, 1903), tlie 

 serotine is confined in the British Isles to a small portion of the 

 south of England between Cornwall and Essex. •' Outside 

 England its range is so world-wide as to exceed that of any 

 other bat, for it is found all over temperate Europe, Asia, and 

 North America, also in North Africa, and even, it is said, in 

 parts of South America." The Essex occurrences are inter- 

 esting, as Dr. Laver observes, because they are the most 

 northerly ones hitherto recorded. — Ed.] 



Badgers at Mucking. — It may be worthy of record that I 

 have a specimen of the badger shot at Mucking in the summer of 

 1902. It had been buried, but in spite of the time being August,. 

 I exhumed it three days after interment, and succeeded in 

 preparing the skin in good condition, aided in the unpleasant 

 task by a younger brother. I have taken a photograph of the 

 holt in which the animal occurred. I am assured that four (even 

 perhaps six) badgers were seen in this holt. — Rev. A. Bertram 

 Hutton, The Rectory, Pitsea, December 12th, 1903. 



Otter at Canvey Island. — I have obtained for my collection 

 of mammalia an otter, killed on Canvey Island. I am told that 

 the otter so injured a dog that the latter died in a few days. The 

 otter sat up as though about to spring again, when the man who 

 was with the dog killed it by a blow on the head with a stick. — 

 Rev. A. Bertram Hutton. 



