OCCASIONAL NOTES. 879 
was possible for the Hyzna to reach Britain ?—in other words, 
that the last continental state of our country occurred during that 
interval? TI confess that, in the present state of the evidence, I see 
no escape ; and that the conclusion thus forced on me compels me 
to believe also that the earliest men of Kent’s Hole were inter- 
glacial, if not preglacial. 
rs oe 
OCCASIONAL NOTES. 
-ON THE ABSENCE OF THE WrAsEL FROM InmLAND.—As no Irish-killed 
specimen of the true Weasel is to be seen in any of the public Museums, 
nor any authentic record of its capture in Ireland, it is much to be regretted 
that Mr. Mahoney, who states in ‘ The Zoologist’ for July (p. 290) that it 
occurs in Donegal, did not send you a skin, or better still a specimen in the 
flesh. It is also to be regretted that Mr. Borrer did not shoot the specimen 
he saw hunting about a stone wall near Currawn, in the Island of Achill, last 
November. However, it appears to me that both gentlemen may have been 
mistaken, and that what they took to be Weasels were either young or very 
small female Stoats, which had either moulted or in some other way lost the 
black tip of the tail, and thus bore some resemblance to Weasels. The late 
William Thompson, of Belfast, during the many years in which he was 
investigating the Natural History of Ireland, never met with the Weasel, 
nor did he ever receive a specimen from any of his numerous correspondents 
in nearly every county in Ireland. I well remember asking him if he 
thought it possible it might yet be discovered as a native, but his reply was 
that he was very doubtful on the subject. Dr. Carte, who has been for 
many years Director of the Royal Dublin Society’s Museum, never met 
with a specimen, nor is there one in that Museum. Again, in the South, 
Dr. Harvey, of Cork, a naturalist of great practical experience, has never 
met with, nor been able to obtain for his fine collection of our native fauna, 
an Irish-killed specimen of the Weasel. In a letter which I received from 
him a few days ago he says:—‘I never saw the Weasel in Ireland, and 
I don’t believe we have it. I have had over and over again to prove to 
people that what they thought to be Weasels were in reality Stoats. So, 
like yourself, I have still to look for the pleasure of beholding an Irish 
Weasel.” Such being the experience of Thompson in the North, Dr. Carte 
in the East, and Dr. Harvey in the South of Ireland, there seems very little 
chance of this animal being found to be a native of Ireland.—Roserr 
Warren (Moyview, Ballina). 
BRITISH-KILLED PurPLE GALLINULES.—In ‘The Zoologist’ for August 
(p. 8339) my friend, the Rev. Murray A. Mathew renews his defence of 
