Quadrupeds. 7879 



I may add that on the 27lh of December, 1861, three little rat-like 

 brown bears were born in the Gardens, ami are still alive and doing 

 well, the paternal honours in this case belonging to the well-known 

 gigantic animal sent a few years ago from Norway. 



E. W. H. HOLDSWORTH. 

 January 8, 1862. 



Weasel fascinating Small Birds. — Returning from church one Sunday mornino:, 

 my aUeuiioi) was drawn to a clump of six or seven small trees planted on the village 

 green. Five sparrows were flutiering ahout, near to the ground, and utteiing loud 

 cries of alarm. T drew cautiously nearer to the place, and saw a weasel in the middle 

 of the clump. He was facing the birds, who seemed to flutter helplessly around him. 

 He suddenly made a spring and snatched a bird, and at the same instant I threw a 

 stone at him, which alarmed him, and he made off into an adjoining farm-yard, retaining 

 his prey in his mouth. I had often heard of the power of fascination possessed by 

 some animals, but never saw anything approaching to it before. — J. Ramon ; York. 



Cream-coloured Mole. — I have in my possession at present a beautiful cream- 

 coloured mole, which was killed, in August last, in a hay-field near this village. 

 A similar one was also caught in Octolier on the farm adjoining; it, however, made 

 its escape, after being a few hours in captivity. — Thomas Thompson; Winlaton, 

 December 7, 1861. 



[I have met with numerous instances of cream-coloured moles, but never with 

 one perfectly white. — E. Newman.'] 



In re Lepnrines. — It is difficult to visit Leadenhall Market, or any other 

 market where living animals are exposed for sale, or any dealer in living 

 animals, or any spot where livin^i animals are exhibited, though not sold, — as in our 

 Zoological Gardens, — without seeing, in considerable abundance, an animal called a 

 leporine; and without hearing, should any inquiry be made, that the said leporines 

 are hybrids between the rabbit and the hare. Again, it is difficult to open the 

 ' Field ' newspaper — which, by the way, is an admirable repertory of sporting and 

 field lore — without lighting on a discussion as to the value, origin and characters of 

 the leporines in question. Now the mind of the true naturalist has not only an 

 inquiring, but almost a doubting turn, and this I fancy more wholesome than too 

 eager a credulity, than such a swallow, for instance, as would gulp a meteoric stone, or 

 such a stomach as could digest the wondrous but circumstantial narrative ihereaneut, 

 when swallowed. Now this sceptical spirit or doubting turn of mind has largely 

 fallen to my own share ; and I do not take on trust that these leporines are hybrids 

 between rabbits and hares, for two reasons ; the Jirst and prima facie reason is that 

 they resemble rabbits and not hares; and the second, that they are extremely fertile, 

 which is very rarely, perhaps never, the case with hybrids between distinct species of 

 either quadrupeds or birds ; instance the mule as a hybrid between horse and ass, 

 and the mule hybrid between canary and goldfinch. Seeing then that appearances 

 and probabilities are equally against the assumption that leporines are hybrids, half- 

 hare, half-rabbit, I may mention another character they possess that is purely a rabbit 

 character. The female or doe makes a cozy nest of hay, and lines it with fleck torn 

 from her own belly : in this nest she brings forth ; and her young ones are boru 



