NOTKS AND QUERIES. 408 



if a finger was introduced into a burrow occupied by a Field Vole or Long- 

 tailed Field Mouse it got bitten without hesitation. Shrew Mice never, 

 and Bank Voles seldom, bit, but would scratch when pressed. When 

 outside their burrows none of the species ever tried to bite, and all seemed 

 perfectly friendly with one another. 1 have caught more than one example 

 of this species in South Northumberland also ; but I always found it 

 comparatively rare there. — H. H. Slater (Irchester Vicarage, Welling- 

 borough). 



The Bank Vole in Northamptonshire. — The editorial hint as to the 



desirability of information regarding the Bank Vole, xirvicola glareolus 

 (Schreber) set us at work trapping about Lilford ; and I am glad to inform 

 you that the result of our exertions goes to prove, quantum valeat, that in 

 our district of Northamptonshire the above-named species is about as 

 common as the Short-tailed, A. agrestis (Linn.); in fact both species are 

 very abundant, the former principally frequenting old stone-work, and the 

 cover of shrubs and trees, whilst the latter swarms in our open meadows 

 and pastures. — Lilford (Bournemouth, Nov. 12th). 



Range of the Dormouse in England.— In 'The Zoologist' for J885 

 (p. 204), Mr. G. T. Rope referred to a note in which I mentioned the occur- 

 rence of the Dormouse in the beech woods on the Chiltern Hills, in Bucks. 

 Since then I have ascertained that these little animals are far more numerous 

 in the nut hedges. Towards the eud of October last, a man in this town had 

 a consignment of five dozen, which were caught in the nut rows on Buck- 

 land Common, on the borders of this county adjoining Hertfordshire. 

 I purchased a coufjle from him, the smallest of which had a white tip to its 

 tail. — F. Hayward Parrott (Walton House, Aylesbury). 



BIRDS. 



Swans with white Cygnets. — In the summer of 1885 a pair of tame 

 Swans, belonging to St. John's College in this University, brought off a 

 brood of cygnets, whereof one, when I saw it, a few days after it was 

 hatched, had the down with which it was covered white, slightly tinged 

 with buff. Its feet were pale, and its bill flesh-coloured. The rest of the 

 brood (four in number, if I remember right) presented the ordinary 

 appearance. I took some interest in this white bird, and, at my request, 

 its life was spared when its brethren met their fate. Its first feathers were 

 white with a decidedly buft' tinge, but this gradually disappeared, and in 

 the following spring they were of a pure white all over, while the bill was 

 of a fine orange-pink, and the legs were of a dusky flesh-colour. Hitherto 

 this cygnet had remained with its parents, but as they began to ill treat it, 

 it was removed, and, I believe, given away. Just the same thing hap23ened 

 in the summer of 1886 ; one bird of the brood was white, while the others 



