170 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
to be far more numerous than the King Duck, S. spectabilis, 
whilst north of that cape the reverse is the rule. Beyond Cape 
Union, in the Polar Basin, I did not see or obtain a single 
Hider Duck. 
(To be continued.) 
OCCASIONAL NOTES. 
RoE-DEER AND Makvren-cat 1N Dorsersnirne.—In the review of my 
‘History of Glanville’s Wootton,’* the reviewer remarks that it is to be 
regretted I did not give more information about the Roe-deer in the county 
of Dorset. I will now do so. Some were turned out at Milton Abbey, 
about the year 1800, by the first Lord Dorchester, who brought a buck and 
two does over from Ireland. One of the latter died. They were entrusted 
to the care of Mr. William Flower (whose nephew is still alive), who kept 
them until the large woods at Milton Abbey were finished planting, when 
they were turned loose. Another couple were afterwards brought from 
North America. After a few years they increased so much that Mr. Pleydell, 
of Whatcombe, kept a pack of hounds for hunting them. In Melborne 
St. Andrew’s churchyard is a stone to the memory of W. Price, a faithful 
servant of the Pleydell family, who had the care of the hounds, and was the 
first man in the county who hunted a pack for Roe-deer. In more recent — 
times, the late Rev. H. F. Yeatman hunted them occasionally with his 
harriers, the meets for which were advertised in the Dorset county papers. 
Several gentlemen, amongst others my grandfather, used to hunt them with 
greyhounds. ‘The Marten-cat, besides having been killed at Halnest, has 
also been killed at Stock, and the Pine Marten at Blandford. In his 
‘Anecdotes of Cranbourne Chase’ (1818), the Rey. W. Chafin says :— 
“Packs of hounds have even been kept in the neighbourhood of the Chase, 
and hunted there in the proper seasons. There were three sorts of animals 
besides Deer, viz., Hares, Foxes, and Marten-cats. The last-named are 
nearly extinct, owing to their skins being so valuable.” There were several 
wild Deer in Dorset, probably Red Deer, and on the first page of my 
‘ History’ is the account of a white one being killed in the reign of Henry 
the Third.—C. W. Daz (Glanville’s Wootton, Sherborne). 
[The Roe-deer is not indigenous either to Ireland or to North America, 
and we never heard of its being introduced in either country. We venture 
to think, therefore, that our correspondent has been misinformed as to the 
origin of the animals turned out by Lord Dorchester.— Eb. | 
* Zool. 1878, p. 461. 
