242 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
could not gain an inch on the Rat, which held on like a bulldog, with his 
feet firmly placed against a bunch of grass steadily holding on, while the 
Rabbit was exhausting its strength by its violent efforts to escape.— 
toBERT WaRREN (Moyview, Ballina). 
Climbing Powers of the Hedgehog.—I am advised by some of my 
friends to send you a notice of the mode in which Hedgehogs may frequently 
escape from confinement, and of their habits. I obtained a Hedgehog, and 
put it in my kitchen. Every day it is placed in a small back area, about 
twelve feet square, during the day-time. ‘The waste-pipes from the cisterns 
discharge into this area, and the animal frequently lies under these, and, 
as my servant says, “ wallows in the trough like a pig.” IPf he hears any 
noise he at once runs to a corner and rolls himself up. On April 14th the 
servant found him on the top of the partition wall between my area and 
the next. This wall is vertical, height nine feet six inches. The top 
course but one projects one inch, so he must have climbed over this. He 
has been watched in the operation. He climbs by the projecting mortar 
beds, which are rather rough, looking about him frequently to see if he is 
watched. He climbs up the house wall beside the pipe in the corner—an 
ordinary iron rain-pipe; but from the shoulder of the pipe, where it passes 
through the wall, to the top of the partition wall, there is a distance of nine 
inches without any pipe, so up this portion and over the projecting brick 
course he must have climbed by clinging to the wall of the house or the 
partition wall. On April 15th he repeated the ascent, and descended into 
the next area, where he was found the following morning.—Rosert H. 
Scorr (6, Elm Park Gardens).—F'rom ‘ Nature.’ 
Bat brought down by a Cockchafer.—On the evening of May 6th, 
between eight and nine o'clock, as my daughter was walking from the 
College towards the Lodge, along a shaded path, there being full-grown 
larch trees on either side, she was startled by something falling heavily on 
the ground immediately in front of her, and on stooping down to find out 
what it was, was surprised to see a small Bat on its back and underneath 
its wing a Cockchafer, which had evidently been the cause of its downfall. 
On the Cockchafer being removed the Bat very shortly turned over and 
flew off. I suppose the Bat and Cockchafer must have met accidentally in 
the air, the former clinging to the Bat. and thus causing the wing to drop. 
Perhaps the circumstance may be sufficiently unusual to be chronicled. — 
J. H. WitmorE (Queenwood College, near Stockbridge, Hants). 
BIRDS. 
Golden Oriole in the Channel Islands.—In his account of the ‘ Birds 
of Guernsey,’ 1879 (pp. 25—30), Mr. Cecil Smith has remarked upon the 
scarcity of this bird in the Channel Islands, which is the more singular on 
