NOTES AND QUERIES. 25 



Mr. Francis Galton, Mr. John Hopkinson, Mr. R. Meldok, Mr. A. Ramsay, 

 Prof. W. J. Sollas, Mr. G. J. Symons, Mr. W. Whitaker. 



Proposed Museum for Shrewsbury. — In consequence of the removal 

 of the Shrewsbury Royal Grammar School to new quarters on Kings-land 

 (a suburb of the town), it is proposed to utilise the old buildings for the 

 purpose of a county museum, free library, and reading-rooms : and the 

 Shropshire Archaeological and Natural History Society are willing to transfer 

 their valuable and interesting Roman, Archaeological, Geological, Botanical, 

 and Natural History collections to the building. £5000 are required to 

 purchase the place and make the necessary alterations. Efforts are being 

 made to raise this sum by subscription, £'2000 having been already 

 promised. 



Russian Endowment of Scientific Research. — The Emperor of 

 Russia has ordered £2200 to be allotted from the Imperial Treasury to the 

 Russian traveller in New Guinea and the Malay Archipelago, M. Miklucho 

 Maklay, in order to enable him to work up the results of his explorations. 

 His Majesty has also ordered M. Maklay to be informed that the cost of 

 the publication of his book of travels will be defrayed by the privy purse. 



MAMMALIA. 



Food of the Hedgehog. — The Hedgehog is generally described as 

 a purely insectivorous animal, and many persons doubt whether the charge 

 of sucking eggs, sometimes brought against him, is true. I had several 

 sea-birds' eggs sent me last summer from the cliffs about Flamborough, 

 and one or two of these were slightly cracked, a small piece of the shell 

 of one being absent. I placed the box containing them, with the lid off, 

 in the garden about dusk, and going out a short time after noticed a 

 Hedgehog which I had standing on his hind feet with his nose in the 

 box. On seeing me he instantly withdrew, and going up to the box I saw 

 that the damaged egg had the hole considerably enlarged, and some of the 

 yelk was about, evidently done by the Hedgehog's front paws whilst 

 enlarging the hole; the contents, too, had been sucked up. The car- 

 nivorous propensity of this animal also has lately come under my notice, 

 the victim being a young Landrail which I had in my possession. About 

 dusk I was surprised to hear cries of distress, and on going to the place 

 from whence the sound proceeded saw the Hedgehog before alluded to 

 with the Landrail in his jaws, held crosswise. On taking the bird up, 

 I found life to be all but extinct, the teeth-marks of the Hedgehog being 

 plainly visible. — W. Hewett (York). 



The Polecat in Devon. — I very much fear that this animal has 

 become extinct, if not in Devon, at any rate in the Exeter District. 

 I have not seen one alive since 1852. The gamekeepers to whom I have 



