NOTES — ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 295 



Individual Variation in AIus sylvatims and its allies "^ considered 

 the form entitled to rank as a sub-species, and gave it the name 

 it now bears, in honour of its discoverer. It is a large wood- 

 mouse, about 4i inches from snout to base of tail. Mr. De 

 Winton thus compares it with Mus sylvaticus : — 



" The general colour of the upper parts is brighter, especially along the sides 

 and legs, and the under parts of almost pure white, excepting the gorget or 

 breast-plate of clear yellowish brown ; this band is about 8 mm. broad, passing 

 across the chest, immediately in Iront of the fore legs, with a cross or longi- 

 tudinal stripe in the centre extending forward about 5mm.. and back along the 

 sternum about lomm., where it is entirely lost, unlike the slight dash of colour 

 so frequently found on the chest oi Mus sylvaticus^ and which varies from the 

 smallest spot on the breast to a decided yellow-brown tinge extending over the 

 whole belly. The richer colouring of the upper parts in Mus flavicollis and the 

 pureness of the white on the underside, with the very distinct line of demarcation, 

 give this mouse a peculiarly striking appearance ; it is almost as beautiful as a 

 squirrel. Its large ears, and wide-open prominent eyes, its long tail and hind 

 feet are fully as much developed in pi'oportion to its size as in Mus sylvaticus^ 

 consequently the measurements are greater." 



Mr. De Winton mentions that, among other structural 

 peculiarities, the taiJ has 30 vertebrae, whereas in ilL sylvaticus 

 there are only 27. 



The original specimens were found around Graftonbury in 

 Herefordshire, but it has since been noticed in several parts of 

 S.E., E., and N.E. England. It is recorded for Bury St. 

 Edmunds, Suffolk, by the Rev. Julian Tuck and Lieut. -Col. E. A. 

 Butler. On the Continent it occurs in Central and Eastern 

 Germany and Hungary. We hope that our zoological members 

 will keep a bright look-out for this handsome animal, and send 

 notes to the E.N. One of the keepers in Epping Forest 

 spoke to my brother some time ago about a mysterious large 

 mouse which had been seen when rabbiting. — W. Cole, 

 Buckhurst Hill. 



Old Record of Mammoth at Walton-on-Naze. — Mr. 



T. V. Holmes has kindly copied the following from the Annual 



Register under date November 30th, 1803 (p. 461) : — 



"By the falling down of a piece of the cliiT, on Walton shore, near Harwich, 

 the skeleton of an enormous animal was discovered, measuring nearly 30 feet in 

 length. Some of the bones were nearly as large as a man's body, and six or seven 

 feet long ; the cavities which contained the marrow were large enough to admit 

 the introduction of a man's arm ; the bones, on being handled, broke to pieces. 



2 Proc. Zool. Soc. (1900), pp. 387-428, pi. XXV. 



