( 27 ) 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



MAMMALIA. 



Audacity of the Fox. — There is no part of the Oakley country 

 where Foxes are more in evidence than in the numerous woods and 

 plantations in the neighbourhood of Turvey and Stagsden, in Bed- 

 fordshire, where probably a dozen or more litters are reared every 

 season. I have known this locality intimately all my life, and many 

 are the instances of the boldness of Foxes, especially when with 

 young, that have come under my notice, but never previously have 

 I heard of a Fox actually attacking people. In May of 1909 a farmer 

 friend of mine was passing at some little distance from a spinney 

 where a vixen was known to have cubs some six or seven weeks old 

 (into the earth of which a terrier had been sent a day or two pre- 

 viously), when she dashed out from the hedgerow and came straight for 

 him, snarling and snapping, and approaching by a succession of short 

 jumps until within a few feet of him. Having no weapon to defend 

 himself with, he could only keep shouting at the Fox, and backing 

 quickly away from the covert-side in the meantime. The vixen 

 eventually slowly returned into the plantation. Previous to this 

 instance a keeper, whilst gathering ants' eggs for his young Phea- 

 sants, had been somewhat similarly attacked in another plantation 

 some distance away by what may have been a different vixen. — 

 J. Steele-Elliott (Dowles Manor, Salop). 



Albino Pigmy Shrew (Sorex minutus). — Owing to the kindness of 

 one of my naturalist correspondents I have lately received a perfect 

 albino of the Pigmy Shrew {Sorex minutus). This beautiful little 

 creature is quite white throughout, including claws and tail. It is a 

 male, and was taken at Brandon, Suffolk, in October of last year. The 

 only other record that I can find of an albino of this species is 

 by Barrett-Hamilton (' Irish Naturalist,' March, 1895, p. 76), who 

 says : — " Sir Douglas Brooke has an albino example, obtained in Fer- 

 managh." — GoEDON Dalgliesh (Midhurst, Sussex). 



Beaked Whale in Norfolk Waters. — Considerable interest attached 

 to the stranding of a whale at Holme-next-the-Sea, near Hunstanton, 

 on Dec. 13th last. It had been sighted in difficulties in the shallow 



