286 Fi^ld Notes. 



mixed with Polytrichum formosum, Dicranum scoparium, 

 Thuidium taniariscinum, and Hylocomium iriquetrum. — J. 

 R. Simpson, Marion Crescent, Selkirk. 



o:- 



MAMMALS. 



Early record of the Marten in Yorkshire. — Bingley 

 in his Memoirs of British Quadrupeds , published in 1809, p. 189, 

 writes: — 'The Martin {sic) produces young ones more than 

 once in a year ; generally in the spring and autumn. The 

 younger females do not bring more than 3 or 4, whilst those 

 of more advanced age have 6 or 7 at a litter. The female 

 makes her nest in the hole of a decayed tree or wall, in the 

 cleft of a rock, and sometimes in a deserted rabbit burrow. 

 A Martin which had been shot on the moors above Holmfirth 

 in Yorkshire, having escaped into its retreat in the ground, 

 was dug out, and at the further end of the burrow there were 

 found as many feathers, feet and bones of grouse and other 

 birds as would have filled a couple of Winchester bushels. . . . 

 This animal is not uncommon in many of the southern parts 

 of Great Britain and Ireland. Its usual habitation is a lodge 

 formed in the hollow of some decayed tree in a wood ; but in 

 mountainous countries it resides only amongst rocks. Hence 

 in most parts of Wales it has the name of Bela graig, or Rock 

 Martin.' — H. E. Forrest. 



Polecats in Shropshire and North Wales. — On 2nd 

 April, 1921, a fine male Polecat was trapped on Clunbury 

 Hill in South-west Shropshire, where another had been caught 

 about mid-March, 1917. In the neighbouring county of 

 Montgomery a large one, weighing 3I lbs., was killed by a 

 sheep-dog, after a fierce tussle, in October, 1920. In that 

 same year, no fewer than nine were trapped on the Llandinam 

 Estate of Major David Davies, M.P. I am indebted to Miss 

 Frances Pitt for this last record, and she also tells me that 

 another example of the curious erythristic variety (which I 

 ■described in The Zoologist, 1904) was obtained at Crosswood, 

 Aberystwyth, in November, 1919. A Polecat was recently 

 sent in to a Shrewsbury taxidermist from Llanllugan, near 

 Newtown, Montgomery, where the tracks of one had been 

 seen in the snow, January 3rd, 1918. It appears from these 

 recent records that the Polecat is holding its own fairly well 

 in Montgomeryshire and the neighbouring parts of Shropshire, 

 and is less rare than is commonly supposed. About ten years 

 ago I saw a number of Polecats — three in the flesh — in the 

 shop of Mr. Jeffreys, taxidermist, Caermarthen, who told me, 

 in reply to my enquiry, that he had between 30 and 50 every 

 year for preservation ! From other sources, too, I learnt 

 that the Polecat is still fairly common thereabouts. Next 



