The Zoologist — January, 1867. 553 



No. 15. Adult in Summer. — As in winter, but that the head and 



neck are pure white, the orbits orange-red, and the feet yellow-brown. 



(In collection). 



Harry Blake-Knox. 



Anecdote of the Horse. — A somewhat remarkable instance of the horse's attachment 

 to particular companions came to my knowledge a short time since. A pony which 

 had been working some time in a coal-mine was drawn up and lowered into another 

 mine, but, on finding itself among strange company, refused to eat. It was tried three 

 days, but would not taste any food. It was then taken out and returned to the pit it 

 had come from, wheu it manifested unmistakable signs of satisfaction, and commenced 

 eating and working as usual. — George Roberts; Loflkouse, Wakefield, October 30, 

 1866. 



Rats and Mice. — Rats and mice are numerous in the coal-mines about here. They 

 go down with the oats, straw, &c, which are taken for the horses. They subsist on the 

 horse-food, remnants of candles, and fragments which the miners waste at meal-times. 

 Cats are taken down to assist in diminishing their numbers. Bats (the longeared 

 species) have been found in pits at a depth of one hundred and seventy yards. The 

 longtailed field-mouse and the shorttailed field-vole leave their retreats in February. 

 T observed one of the former inhabiting an old nest of the hedgesparrow in February : 

 it was not torpid ; it left its dormitory and descended to the bottom of the hedge to 

 feed in the middle of the day. — Id. 



Notes on the Mammalia of Norfolk (continued from Zool. S. S. 385). — 



Polecat. — This formerly common species is now becoming rather scarce, owing to 

 the strict measures that are employed in the destruction of" vermin," of which this is 

 considered one of the most prominent agents. An individual or two is occasionally 

 trapped in the game-preserves ; the last example I heard of was a male, obtained in 

 the vicinity of Fundenhall, a few days since. 



Otter. — Two female specimens of the otter were obtained in the vicinity of 

 Harleston, one on the 3rd of August last, and the other on the 2nd of November. I 

 have also received information of the occurrence of two other individuals on Hickling 

 Broad, a few days since. 



Diseased Otter. — In dissecting the first example, mentioned above, I was much 

 surprised to discover nearly the whole of the poor animal's intestines almost entirely 

 covered with large ulcers, some of which measured as much as three inches in diameter. 

 Its body was of course much swollen, indeed so much that it was apparently large with 

 young. I recorded a curious instance of a diseased rat in the ' Zoologist' for 1865 

 (Zool. 9645), and Mr. Alston also mentions several cases of rats and mice (Zool. 9708), 

 but these are all apparently skin diseases. The above circumstance is, I believe, rather 

 remarkable and of very unusual occurrence; I never remember hearing or seeing 

 recorded any similar instance. Perhaps some of the readers of the ' Zoologist' may 

 have met with similar cases of internal disease in animals in ihe wild stale. — T. E. 

 Gunn ; 3 West Potlergale, Norwich, November, 6, 1866. 



The Harvest Mouse and the Cockroaches. — In August, 1865, one of my parishioners 

 brought me a male harvest mouse. I put it into a dormouse-cage, where, after a short 

 SECOND SERIES — VOL. II. E 



