190 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



and hedges. Some time ago Mr. J. Graham, of Raglan, showed me a 

 perfect ' rattery ' in a tliorn-hedge in the village. There were from fifteen 

 to twenty large nests, into which it was necessary to insert a pitchfork to 

 eject the occupants, in order to show that they were not birds' nests." 

 The habit of feeding iipon Crustacea is confirmed by another observer in 

 New Zealand, who writes: — "Wild Ducks were particularly numerous in 

 this district (Lake Taupo, North Island) on my arrival here : you saw them 

 by dozens — you hardly see them now by twos. I have no doubt we owe this 

 to the Norway Rat. There is a place on the Waikato River, some twenty 

 miles below Taupo, where the chiefs occasionally assembled to act out two 

 important matters — to discuss politics and eat kouras (crayfish). A few 

 years after the Norway Rat fully appeared, the kouras were no longer 

 plentiful, and as the New Testament made Maori politics rather unnecessary, 

 the usage of meeting no longer exists. The natives assured me that the 

 Norway Rat caught the crayfish by diving. Rowing up the rivers you see 

 the little deposits of shells. Upon enquiry I found they were the selections 

 of the Norway Rat, who, by diving for these fresh-water 2>iTpiSi provide a 

 Idnaki (relish) for their vegetable suppers." I have elsewhere commented 

 upon the observed fact that Rats will greedily devour snails, and in this 

 way may do some good in gardens where snails are numerous (' Rambles in 

 search of Shells,' 1875, pp. 73, 74). In the case referred to, however, they 

 were apparently impelled to this change of diet from necessity rather than 

 from choice, tlie Rats in question belonging to a colony which had taken up 

 their quarters in some new houses while in course of erection, where there 

 were no larders to visit. They were observed to climb the hollyhocks in 

 the garden, clear off several snails, bring them down in one paw, like an 

 armful, and run with them on three legs to their holes. — J. E. Habtinq. 



Marten Cat in Breconshire. — This animal is so rare in Wales at the 

 present time that it may be worth while noting that one was seen in a 

 large wood near this town in September last. Attention was drawn to it 

 by the noise made by five or six Jays, who were evidently mobbing some- 

 thing, and my informant, who got within twenty yards of it, described it 

 so minutely to me as to leave no doubt in my mind as to its identity. In 

 past years the Marten was common here, and I know of four stuffed 

 specimens killed in this county within the last thirty years, and doubtless 

 many others have been unrecorded. I have also the very much torn skin 

 of a Marten killed some twenty years by the late Mr. Gwynne Vaughan's 

 hounds near Llanwrtyd, in this county. The old rough Welsh hound 

 hunts it with great keenness and determination, and in former years it was 

 its legitimate quarry. — E. Cambbidge Phillips (Brecon, S. Wales). 



Common Rorqual at Skegness. — Seeing the usual announcement of a 

 " Greenland Whale " having been stranded at Skegness on April 3rd, I 



