466 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



This is the third Northamptonshire Puffin that has been sent to 

 me as a Little Auk. First Brambling of the season seen near 

 Thorpe, and first Ring Ouzel on Upper Pilton. 



Oct. 18th. First Woodcock of season found and missed by 

 two of our shooting party near Tichmarsh. I had a rumour of a 

 Woodcock from a very credible source on the 2nd inst, but did 

 not record it under that date, as the identity of the bird was not 

 positively proven. 



Oct. 32nd. A female Shoveller appeared on the decoy, but 

 disappeared at flighting time, and had not been seen again up 

 to the day of our departure from Lilford for Bournemouth, 

 October 25th. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



MAMMALIA. 



Mice versus Cockroaches. — Can any of your readers tell me how 

 these two kitchen pests are antagonistic one to the other ? In my house 

 Cockroaches have been very numerous for some few years past, but this 

 year they have quite disappeared before an invasion of Mice. In about 

 two weeks we caught thirty Mice, or even more, but no Cockroaches can be 

 found. Do Mice eat Cockroaches, or only drive them away by their 

 objectionable presence, or by consuming their food '? My house is in the 

 west end of London. A brother of mine, living in a fashionable seaport 

 town, has also noticed this disappearance of Cockroaches before Mice. 

 Has this year been prejudicial to Cockroaches, but beneficial to Mice? — 



J. L. COLLISON-MORLEY. 



Rudolphi's Rorqual on the Coast of Essex. — In an article con- 

 tributed to the ' Rochester Naturalist ' (a publication which has only just 

 been brought to our notice), Mr. Walter Crouch gives an account of the 

 capture last August, in the River Medway, of a specimen of this whale. 

 From this article, which is too long to be quoted in extenso, we extract the 

 following particulars ; — On the 30th August last a female specimen of this 

 Whale, Balceuoptera borealis, Lesson, was observed in Gillingham Reach 

 by some fishermen, and, approaching too near the shore, was driven into 

 shallow water, and as the tide ebbed was left floundering on the mud. It 

 was at last killed, and, a rope being inserted in the lower jaw, as the tide 

 rose in the afternoon it was towed to a small landing stage, at the back of 

 the White House Inn, where it was exhibited for several days, and attracted 

 hundreds of visitors. The carcase was sold by the Deputy Receiver of 

 Wreck (by order of the Board of Trade) on Sept. 1st, and was knocked 



