106 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Death of Mr. Robert Gray.— The name of the author of 'The Birds 

 of the West of Scotland ' will be well known to our readers, who, we feel 

 sure, will hear with regret of his deatli, which took place in Edinburgh on 

 February 18th. The son of a merchant in Dunbar, Mr. Gray early in life 

 entered the service of the City of Glasgow Bank, where he rose by his 

 ability to the position of Inspector of Branches. It was during his journeys 

 tlirough the country in that capacity, and especially in the Western High-_ 

 lands, that he obtained much of the information about birds which he 

 afterwards published in his work above named. From the position of 

 Inspector of Branches he was promoted to be Manager of the West End 

 Branch of the City of Glasgow Bank in Glasgow, which position he occupied 

 until he accepted (about twelve years ago) the post of Superintendent of 

 Branches of the Bank of Scotland. After having filled that appointment 

 for some years, he became Cashier to the Bank at their head office ia 

 Edinburgh, and in that capacity he has ever since been well and favourably 

 known. He was a Vice-President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and 

 Secretary to the Royal Physical Society. To naturalists his name will be 

 best known by his little book ' The Birds of Ayrshire and Wigtownshire' 

 (1869), in which he was assisted by Mr. Thomas Anderson, and his larger 

 and more important work, ' The Birds of the West of Scotland,' published 

 in 1871, and it is to be regretted that he did not live to carry out the 

 project which he had in hand of bringing out a second edition of this, and of 

 publishing, in conjunction with Mr. W. Evans, of Edinburgh, a companion 

 volume on the Birds of the East of Scotland. 



MAMMALIA. 



Dormice in a Garden.- -Some Dormice took up their abode last year 

 in an old Blackbird's nest in this garden. The nest was placed in a thorn 

 bush about eight feet from the ground. The Dormice showed themselves 

 readily on the trunk near the nest on the tree being tapped ; but soon after 

 their discovery they disappeared altogether, owing, I am afraid, to their being 

 too constantly visited. — E. P. Laeken (Gatton Tower, Reigate). 



Bats in Captivity.— On the 17th January I found a dead Vespertilio 

 pipistrellus, without any external injury, in the fork of a laburnum tree, 

 about four feet from the ground. It had evidently come out from its winter 

 retreat and succumbed to the cold. I once captured one of these small 

 Bats in my bedroom on the 27th August, and it lived in captivity for nearly 

 three weeks. I fed it on tiies and moths, the latter of which it i-elished the 

 most. It was very partial to raw meat, which it devoured ravenously when 



