392 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



examples of the little flea, Typhlopsylla gracilis^ Taschb., and 

 I have seen baby Moles spotted all over with their bites ; but 

 if you would fully understand what the Mole has to endure 

 in this way, dig up his snug grassy or mossy nest and shake 

 it over a sheet of white paper. Besides scores of the said 

 T. gracilis you will probably find several giant fleas, 

 Hystrichopsylla talpce, Curt., truly a formidable looking 

 Pulicid. Numbers of the Mites Gamasus terrihilis and 

 Hcemogamasus hirsutus will likewise be seen running to 

 and fro, and the more minute, and consequently less easily 

 detected Grlycyphagus platygaster and G. crameri will most 

 likely also be there. Several kinds of beetles, too, have a 

 way of taking up their abode in Moles' nests. 



Wild Cat {Felis catns, L.). 



In October 1892 the late Thomas Gordon, banker, 

 Edinburgh, informed me that his father, who lived at 

 Temple, shot a Wild Cat in Arniston Glen in 1830, and 

 that its stuffed skin remained in the family " till a few years 

 ago," when it was destroyed. Like so many other so-called 

 Wild Cats, it possibly was only a domestic cat run wild, but 

 Mr Gordon would not hear of this suggestion. (See my note 

 in Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist., 1897, p. 122.) 



Fox (Canis vulpes, L.). 



On 8th ISTovember 1900 I saw a Fox cross the road close 

 to the tramway terminus, Morningside, Edinburgh, and 

 leisurely proceed westwards through the fields at Greenbank. 

 He evidently had come from the Braid Hills, and was 

 making his way to Craiglockhart. 



Otter [Lvira Intra (L.) ). 



Besides the Tyne and other rivers which they habitually 

 frequent, Otters turn up from time to time in unexpected 

 places. In 1867 a writer using the pseudonym " Umbra," stated 

 that he once encountered a "sea-otter" in the cave at the 

 Bass Eock {Eotch Pot, 2nd ed., p. 190). In March 1894 

 a large male Otter, weighing about 22 lbs., which I afterwards 



