113 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



leprosy? Most certainly not. For example, leprosy undermines the 

 health most miserably, and always eventually kills the individual affected 

 with it ; whereas leucoderraa exerts no influence whatever either on the 

 health of the oubject of it or on the duration of his life. — B.\lmanno 

 Squire.— [From 'The Times,' in reply to Prof. Flower's letter, printed in 

 ' The Zoologist' for February, pp. C2, 63.] 



Stoats acquiring the Ermine Dress in Mild Seasons. — A Stoat, in 

 full ermine dress, was killed at Brouglitoii on the 19th January last. The 

 whole of the upper parts were of an unusually pure white, with the 

 exception of a very slight tinge of yellow (less than is shown in many 

 made-up furs) at the base of the tail, and a narrow light brown mark on 

 the near fore leg. Mr. Wyatt tells me that he received another a few days 

 before, but tliis had a dark patch on the crown of the head, the part which 

 is, I believe, least often white, the tip of the tail of course excepted. Is it 

 not contrary to the generally accepted opinion for Stoats to change during 

 such mild seasons as the present? I observed the same thing in the mild 

 winter of 1881-:^. They do not all change, for the day I handled the 

 white one — four days after it was captured — I saw a specimen in the 

 flesh which did not show a sign of white on the upper parts. — Olivek V. 

 Aplin (Great Bourton, near Banbury). 



[We should be glad to have some expression of opinion, founded on 

 observation, as to whether the assumption of the ermine dress in the Stoat 

 is the result of a gradual change of colour in the hair, or an actual growth 

 of new hair. Has any correspondent ever kept a Stoat in confinement and 

 observed the changes of colour in summer and winter? What is the origin 

 of the provincial name "lobster" applied to this animal in some of the 

 eastern counties of England ? Can it have any connection with the change 

 of coat analogous to the change of shell which takes place annually in 

 Crabs and Lobsters, and which is well known to the east coast fishermen ? 

 —Ed.] 



Note on the Harvest Mouse. — I may make a few slight additions to 

 Mr. liope's interesting account of the Harvest Mouse. In confinement 

 these mice are very fond of canary-seed, as much so, according to my 

 observation, as of wheat. They also much appreciate a small bone of 

 cooked mutton, especially a bone from a mutton chop after it has left the 

 table ; the fragments of meat attached to the bone are very attractive to 

 the Harvest Mice, and a constant supply of such bones seems to diminish 

 their propensity to cannibalism, to which they are much addicted where 

 several are confined in the same cage, and I think especially during the 

 spring months. I once saw the commencement of the act of cannibalism, 

 at a time when several instances had occurred amongst the Harvest Mice 

 which I was then keeping. The cannibal, a large specimen, was busy 



