OCCASIONAL NOTES. 3897 
offspring of a male Polecat and female hybrid. ‘The female animal in 
question has a coat which is, I think, undistinguishable from that of a 
pure Polecat, the hybrid specimens being a little lighter and yellower than 
she is, though far darker than the comparatively speaking yellow and rusty- 
looking ‘‘ Polecat-ferrets.” The contrast between the black and white on 
the face is as well marked as in a pure Polecat; her nose is, however, sharp 
and the tail tapering like an ordinary Ferret’s. She is a small animal— 
i.e., would be considered rather small for a Ferret. After a gestation of six 
weeks she produced (May 22nd) five young, one of which opened its eyes 
when four weeks old, the last of the litter being six days later. This period 
of gestation agrees with that of Ferrets, and would appear from Lilljeborg 
(who quotes Nilsson and Melchior), Blasius, and Giebel, to differ from that 
of the Polecat, which is stated by them to be two months or nine weeks. 
Four of my young ones are a shade lighter colour than the remaining one, 
which appears to be exactly of the colour and markings of a Polecat, and 
while the four are up to the present time tolerably well behaved, the latter has 
already developed the true temper of a Polecat. I believe Mr. Borough has 
worked some of his hybrids, but those which I have cannot be worked. My 
hybrid males breed freely with common Ferrets —ALFrep Henreace Cocks 
(Great Marlow, Bucks). 
Rep-LecceD Parrripge in Guernsey.—In reference to the note on 
the Red-legged Partridge in Guernsey in the June number of ‘The 
Zoologist’ (p. 257), I write a line to say that I omitted this bird from my 
‘ Birds of Guernsey,’ as I always considered both it and the common Grey 
Partridge introduced birds in the Channel Islands, especially within my 
district; and that I believe the Red-leg, even as an introduced species, is 
quite extinct in Guernsey, though I understand a few still exist in Jersey, 
at all events as occasional visitants from the French coast. I am well 
aware that in Guernsey the Red-leg was frequently called the « Guernsey 
Partridge,” and I have no doubt it was the Partridge of the Guernsey 
market; and probably in olden times, when a considerable amount of game 
was preserved both in Guernsey and Herm, it may have been the Partridge 
of those islands, though it is difficult to say which was the Partridge alluded 
to in the passages I quote below. I do not think the Red-leg exists at 
present even as an inmate of Mr. Maxwell's preserve in Herm—he only 
preserving, as far as I remember, Pheasants and Grey Partridges. If the 
Red-leg ever visits any of the islands included in the ‘ Birds of Guernsey’ as 
a straggler it would no doubt be Alderney, the nearest to the French coast ; 
but I have never seen one there, nor did any of the shooters there tell me 
of their having shot any. As to the existence of Partridges and Pheasants, 
as well as other game and fish, in Guernsey and Herm, it may be interesting 
to quote the following passage from the instructions given by George Lord 
