OGCASIONAL NOTES. 461 
and not from the rostrum to the abdominal segments; but owing 
to the variation in size in different localities, to which we have 
already referred,—and which may possibly be due to more or less 
favoured conditions,—there appears to be some necessity for a 
kind of sliding scale to meet this variation. 
(To be continued.) 
OCCASIONAL NOTES. 
Scarcity oF tHE Bapcer In SurroLK:—I am sorry to have to record 
the death in this county of a Badger, which was trapped in a wood at Great 
Bentley, near Ipswich, and was afterwards found and killed by some 
labourers, it having dragged the trap and chain a considerable distance. 
This animal must be on the very verge of extinction in Suffolk, though 
existing in a few localities, as a rare animal, within the memory of man. 
It is a great pity that this should be the case, as a few of these interesting 
animals would surely do but little harm in many large woods, especially 
where Foxes rather than Pheasants are preserved, and would be a source of 
great interest to many. The present deplorable system of extermination 
which for years has been carried on by gamekeepers against so many 
species of birds and animals, many of them certainly doing more good than 
harm, is tending rapidly to diminish our list of carnivorous and partially 
carnivorous mammals, at any rate in this district; and the corresponding 
increase of animals really noxious to man, when allowed to multiply to 
too great an extent, as rats, mice, and moles, is equally apparent; whereas 
if a certain proportion of their natural enemies were allowed to live, their 
numbers would soon be reduced without the aid of that most objectionable 
and then unnecessary personage, the professional rat-poisoner, the victims 
of whose skill are far from consisting exclusively of rats and mice.—G. T. 
Rope (Blaxhall, Suffolk). 
Foop or THE SuHort-rarLeD Frexp Mouse.—Noticing the large 
amount of food consumed by a Short-tailed Field Mouse, Arvicola agrestis, 
which I am keeping in a cage, I determined to weigh the quantity supplied 
and eaten in twenty-four hours. Just now I am giving it clover, and find 
six drachms (apothecaries’ weight) to be barely sufficient to last it twenty- 
four hours, and as the little creature does not, I suppose, much exceed an 
ounce in weight, the consumption is enormous ; and one can quite under- 
stand that where they are very numerous they might eat up all the herbage, 
