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NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



MAMMALIA. 



Status of Dormouse. — For the furtherance of my book, ' A History 

 of British Mammals,' I should be very glad to receive information on 

 the status of the Dormouse in the following counties : — Dorset, Wilts 

 Monmouth, Pembroke, Eutland, Huntingdon, Northumberland. — 

 G. E. H. Baeeett-Hamilton (Kilmanock, Campile, Waterford, Ire- 

 land). 



AVES. 



Distribution of the Linnet in Britain. — In answer to Mr. Eussell's 

 query about the Linnet {ante, p. 29), I may be allowed to add a 

 further remark or two beyond the answer required. The bird is a 

 very well-known migrant, and is so described by many writers ; 

 without going any farther, I can mention Cordeaux, Gatke, Mac- 

 gillivray, Montagu, Newton, and Seebohm. In Gilbert White's time 

 matters were rather different in the locality of Selborne to the state 

 of affairs at present obtaining in other parts of Surrey, for he says 

 that there were " in winter vast flocks of Common Linnets ; more, I 

 think, than can be bred in any one district." It is, of course, possible 

 that he made the mistake of confounding the Twite with the Linnet, 

 for I cannot find the smaller bird mentioned in his letters ; and, as 

 we know, he was unaware of the existence of the Cirl Bunting, which 

 is to-day common near Selborne. 



I should like to again draw attention to the curious fact that the 

 Common Linnet is absent as a breeding species, and rare in winter 

 throughout great tracts of country on the western slopes of the Pen- 

 nines. Mr. W. Greaves does not describe the species in his ' Verte- 

 brate Fauna of Hebden Bridge,' and tells me that he has never 

 succeeded in identifying a single bird in his locality, nor heard of one 

 being taken by birdcatchers. I might say here that I have noticed 

 the bird on one occasion at Walsden, a few miles away. Mitchell, in 

 his ' Birds of Lancashire,' has a little to say on the curious rarity of 

 the species in certain localities, and I can testify that his remarks 

 hold good not only for South-east Lancashire, but for the adjacent 

 parts of Yorkshire, Longdendale in Cheshire, and parts of Northern 



