277 
NOTES AND COMMENTS. 
AMERICAN GREY SQUIRREL. 
We have received an interesting reprint from The Iield, deal- 
ing with the ‘ American Grey Squirrel in Britain,’ by Mr. Hugh 
Boyd Watt. He summarises the occurrence of this species in 
this country, and, relating to our Yorkshire station he says : 
“ At Scampston Hall, Rillington, Yorkshire, an experiment was 
made, I am informed, with some brought from Woburn. In 
a letter in Country Life (Oct. 17, 1914; p. 532), Mr. W: H. St 
Quintin stated that about thirty were turned out, and during 
the first year following they could not be found to be breeding, 
but presently they began to multiply rapidly, as many as nine 
young being found in one nest. Within two or three months 
after their introduction one was reported to have been killed 
about seven miles away. They were found to be so de structiv e 
that most of them have been got rid of after three years’ con- 
stant warfare.’ 
HARVEST MICE. 
In connection with the urea of the new British 
Museum catalogue by Mr. Martin Hinton, we are asked for 
information in reference to the distribution of the harvest 
mouse, Mus minutis. The verification is quite necessary, 
not only on account of the uncertainty which has prevailed, 
but also because it is quite possible that modern reaping 
machinery has exterminated him from districts where he was 
well-known a generation ago. Care must be taken not to 
confound him with other mice. He weaves his nest of grass 
about the size of a cricket ball, in common long grass, and is 
known to havesters and gamekeepers as ‘ the little red mouse.’ 
Information should be sent to Mr. W. Lewis Reid, 46 Tytherton 
Road, Trefnell Park, London, N. 
FORMS OF SAND.* 
This pamphlet, which is illustrated by a series of remarkable 
drawings, contains an account of some interesting observations 
made at Redcar in 1882-3 by Sir W. W. Strickland. _ He states : 
“Curiously enough the observations led the observer in those 
days to those very same dualistic and spiritual conceptions, 
which the intolerant religious fanatics were blowing themselves 
purple and apoplectic in endeavouring to impose by dilettante 
spiritualism and a priori dogma and assertions about a God and 
a will of God, which they pretended to know more about than 
anyone else. J have retained the reasoning that led to those 
conclusions as an interesting record of a transient phase of 
mind, long lived through. It seems unnecessary to take the 
* By Sir W. W. Strickland, Bart., B.A. LeMay AR? H. abi 
and Blanchard, 36 pages, Is. 6d. 
ite. an WM 
1915 Sept. 1. ; B.S 5 eS 
