Northern News. 309 
think) of some hundreds of acres of Scots pine in the Sneaton 
plantations, in consequence of a sort of tornado, reduced the 
food supply and induced migration. 
On the credit side of the Squirrel account I ought to mention 
that since their advent seedling hazels have spread in the woods 
in a way that they never did before. 
The Black Rat was common in this house and the drains 
when I was a boy. I have seen three or four trapped together, 
and my earliest associations are as much with black rats as 
with brown. 
Since I have had possession of the property, what appear to 
be hybrids between the black and brown rat have from time to 
time been killed. The last were caught three or four years 
ago; but my servants say that they are still in the house, 
and that those about the kitchen offices are exclusively of this 
sort. They are glossy black on back and hindquarters, dark 
grey on the sides and light brown underneath. 
This kind of rat has long been confined to the house itself 
and the outbuilding next adjoining. The stables, the best 
feeding ground, have, for a great number of years, been 
monopolised by the Norwegian invader. 
The man who has trapped them says (rather oddly), that he 
has found these rats much fiercer when caught than the brown 
rats. 
The Wolf must have survived in this neighbourhood down 
to the fifteenth century. There is an entry of 1395 in the 
Abbey Roll of Disbursements for ‘ tewing’ fourteen wolf-skins. 
(To be continued). 
—_<¢ +—___ 
To the list of papers by the Rev. E. M. Cole, given in our August issue, 
should be added: ‘Roman Remains at Filey’ (‘ Proc. Yorks. Geol. Soc.,’ 
1906), and ‘ Presidential Address to the Malton Field Naturalists’ and 
Scientific Society,’ printed in the Society's Report for 1905. 
In the ‘Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester Literary and 
Philosophical Society’ there is a note ‘On a Confusion of Two Species 
(Lepidodendron Harcourtii, Witham, and L. Hickii, sp. nov.) under Lepzdo- 
dendron Harcourtiz, Witham, in Williamson’s XIX. Memoir; with a de- 
scription of Z. Hickii, sp. nov.,’ by D. M.S. Watson. In this paper the 
author shows that under the one name Williamson really described two 
separate forms, and to the second the name Lepidodendron Hickit is now 
given. 
We are glad to receive the Annual Report of the Louth Antiquarian and 
Naturalists’ Society, and it augurs well for the Society's work to find that 
its rooms are inadequate, and that better accommodation is required. 
There have been several interesting exhibits at the indoor meetings, and 
field work has not been neglected. It also speaks well for the study of 
nature and archzeology to find that the President of the Society, Alderman 
S. Cresswell, has recently attained the age of go years, and was presented 
with an illuminated address. 
1907 September 1. 
