260 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



common fowl they would need much greater exertion of their 

 strength in order to keep themselves on the surface. But as the 

 Ptarmigan, by having the underside of the toes thickly coated 

 with feathers, which can be spread out, and by means of the long 

 and straight claws, — which may be compared with snow-shoes, — 

 are enabled to run easily over the snow, the usefulness and the 

 necessity of the lengthening of the nails is self-evident. In the 

 genus Tetrao (= Urogallus + Lyurus + Bonasa) the lateral horny 

 fringes of the toes render the same excellent service, and may 

 fitly be regarded as a kind of snow-shoes. During the summer 

 this ivhole outfit becomes superjiuous, which may be the main 

 cause of the periodical shedding." It may in this connection be 

 mentioned that the horny fringes in Tetraones, and the thick 

 feathers of the toes in Lagopodes, also moult during the summer, 

 at which time the toes of the latter are almost wholly denuded 

 of feathers. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



MAMMALIA. 



Northern limit of the range of the Noctule in Great Britain. — 

 In 'The Zoologist ' for May (p. 170) attention was directed to the statement 

 in Bell's ' British Quadrupeds ' (2nd ed. 1874, p. 23) that the northernmost 

 locality from which specimens of Vesperugo noctula have been received is 

 Northallerton in Yorkshire, and it was suggested that the species named 

 V. serotinus by Messrs. Mennell and Perkins in their ' Catalogue of the 

 Mammalia of Northumberland and Durham ' was more likely to be 

 V. noctula. The specimen iu question has been fortunately preserved in 

 the Newcastle Museum, and both Mr. W. D. Roebuck and Mr. T. South- 

 well, who have examined it, agree in considering it to be undoubtedly 

 V. noctula. The range of this species northward is therefore considerably 

 extended beyond the limit assigned to it by Bell, and its occurrence in 

 Durham, where the specimen in question was procured, has since been 

 confirmed by the capture of another example in the same county, as 

 reported by Mr. T. H. Nelson. Writing on this subject so recently as the 

 12th May last, Mr. Roebuck says: — " Referring to your remarks at p. 170 

 of ' The Zoologist ' for May, I may mention that when in Newcastle in 

 November, 1884, I was careful to examine the specimen which Mennell 

 and Perkins recorded as V. serotinus in their ' Catalogue of the Mammalia 

 of Northumberland and Durham,' and I came to the conclusion that it was 



