9016 | Sucklers. 
also a wound in one thigh, and I suspect that the stoat first seized it by that part, and 
afterwards changed its hold to the head. It seems rather odd that the moorhen did 
not use its wings as a means of escape; perhaps fright may partly account for this, 
but I have noticed that, when disturbed, they always prefer to hide rather than take 
flight. I brought the moorhen home; it was a bird of the year, but full-grown.— 
W. Jeffery, jun.; Ratham, Chichester, March 5, 1864. 
Otter at Payham Harbour.—On the 2nd instant, a fine male otter was killed in 
Pagham Harbour, after having been shot at, I am told, as many as thirty times: it 
was at last wounded with a bullet, which enabled some men in the coast-guard service 
to knock it at head with their oars. The weight of it is 17% lbs., and its length, 
including the tail, is but one inch less than four feet. It is being preserved for the 
Chichester Museum.—Zd. 
Badger near Melton.—A fine male specimen of the badger (Meles vulgaris) was 
captured near Melton, Norfolk, on Thursday, the 18th inst—T7. E. Gunn; Norwich, 
February 22, 1864. 
Supposed Old English Rat.—I observe that, in the February number of the 
‘ Zoologist’ (Zool. 8945), Mr. Norman expresses doubts as to the identity of the rat 
killed near Beverley with the Old English rat, now so nearly extinct. He bases his 
incredulity on the supposition that, because the rat happened to have been killed in a 
barge on the River Hull, it must have been one of a foreign species, imported with a 
foreign cargo, vid Hull, &c. This supposition is altogether far from the mark: first, 
then, the barge in question, on which the rat was killed, never touched at Hull on her 
voyage, and does not trade with that port: secondly, the cargo on the barge at the time 
of the capture was not a fureign one, but coals shipped at Wakefield, and brought 
from thence direct to Hull Bridge: thirdly, the rat itself has a very faint resemblance in 
some particulars to the “ gaunt,” large-eared, long-tailed foreign rat, which Mr, Norman 
correctly states is frequently met with on ship-board in the Hull Docks. I am per- 
fectly familiar with these rats; indeed I have seen and examined dozens of them: 
any Hull rat-catcher could supply a considerable number of them on a very short 
notice: these rats are of small size, when fully grown seldom exceeding one-third to 
one-half the dimensions of the ordinary Norwegian rat: they are, moreover, of a very 
peculiar colour, viz. mousey, sooty, or slaty black, and of a uniform colour throughout; 
their fur is peculiarly soft, and devoid of the harshness caused by the longer outer 
hairs of the common rat; in texture it more resembles the fur of the mole or of a very 
young rat of the ordinary species: albinoes of this species are not unfreqnently met 
with. The rat in question is certainly not one of this species, being larger and coarser 
in its fur, besides the colour being different, both in shade and uniformity. I have 
compared it with an undoubted specimen of the Old English rat, caught at Knowsley, 
and the two animals appear to be identical. Should it be more satisfactory to the 
Editor of the ‘ Zoologist’ or its readers, I should be most happy to forward the speci- 
men under discussion fur Mr. Newman’s opinion and decision as to its species.— 
W. W. Boulton; Beverley, March 8, 1864. 
Occurrence of the Bank Vole in some numbers in Derbyshire—Last winter I had 
the pleasure of recording the occurrence of six specimens of the bank vole (Arvicola 
pratensis) at Calke Abbey, Derbyshire. During the last twelve months more than 
thirty specimens have been caught in traps set in the gardens and pleasure-grounds of 
the Abbey. The traps were baited with meat, and were placed at the foot of the 
garden-walls and at the edges of ornamental rock-work. Iam convinced that this 
