8872 Sucklers. 
to relieve the poor animal I frequently tried to drive the flies off by 
touching them with the point of my whip. Instead, however, of flying 
away they would run along sideways, like a crab, taking no further 
notice of the whip. 
Here my notes must end. I trust the perusal of these cursory jot- 
tings may induce other readers of the ‘ Zoologist’ to give us occasion- 
ally an extract or two from their note-books relating to Natural- 
History experiences on the Continent. 
GEORGE NORMAN. 
Hull, November 23, 1563. 
Supposed Capture of the Old English Rat near Beverley—Two days ago wy friend 
Mr. John Stephenson, of the Hull Bridge House, Beverley, brought to Mr. Richard- 
son, birdstuffer, &c., of this town, a very peculiar looking rat. [ saw it, and believe 
it to be a very first-rate old specimen of this now scarce animal. It had been killed 
by a dog in a barge lying on the River Hull, close to the Hull Bridge. It was a 
female. In colour it was very dark, many shades darker than the ordinary rat, and I 
- should describe it as a grayish black above, lighter on the sides and belly. Its ears 
were unusually large, and its whiskers very black. The tail was unusually long in 
proportion to the body, and almost black in colour. The fore leg appeared to me un- 
usually short, but as I have not specially observed quadrupeds, my own favourite study 
being that of Ornithology, I may be mistaken in this last point. Unfortunately the 
animal had just been skinned when I first saw it, so that I could not ascertain the 
precise weight. Its measurements were as follows. Total length from tip of nose to 
tip of tail, 17 inches. Length of tail, 9 inches. Length of fore-leg from toes to 
shoulder, 1% inch.— W. W. Boulton ; Beverley, October 23, 1863. 
The Otter in Salt Water—Having seen but little of the otter in England, I am 
much interested by a statement on good authority, which lately appeared in these pages 
(Zool. 8801), that it rarely frequents salt water, for, oddly enough, here it is the ex- 
ception to find one in fresh. Upon nearly all of our rocky coasts there are deep caves 
and fissures inhabited by these animals, most of which are some miles distant even 
from the mouth of a burn of any size. The Shetlanders believe that the “sea otter ” 
is quite a distinct species from the smaller one which occurs in the lochs, but this, it 
need scarcely be said, is ‘an error,—the fact is that those which appear in the lochs and 
burns are usually killed before they arrive at their full growth, while those which take 
up their abode upon the coast, where the inaccessibility of their retreats secures them 
from persecution, sometimes attain an enormous size. Dr, Edmondston has seen a 
skin six feet in length, “dealer’s measure” (i.e., exclusive of two-thirds of the tail), 
and I myself have seen specimens taken in Yell and North Mavine, measuring very 
little less —Henry L. Saxby; Baltasound, Shetland, November 11, 1863. 
The Grand Migration of Seals——Few things are better calculated to strike the 
observer of nature than the power of varivus animals to carry out extensive and sus- 
tained exertions in the course of their periodical and oft-repeated migrations—extensive, 
inasmuch as some of these are continued over thousands of miles, and sustained con- 
a a 
