( 111 ) 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



MAMMALIA. 



Variety of the Badger. — I have just seen, in my brother's posses- 

 sion, a variety of an adult male Badger, taken at Broxton, Cheshire. 

 The black in the type is replaced by a rich fawn, and the grey is 

 faintly tinged with the same colour. Eyes and irides dark pink ; 

 nails brownish black. — Alfred Newstead (Chester). 



Grey Seal (Halichcerus grypus) in the Dee : a Correction. — On 



Feb. 20th last I examined a Seal (which was captured in the Dee 



at Chester on Nov. 19th, 1905), in the Grosvenor Museum, Chester. 



I was struck by its flat head, broad muzzle, dark pelage, and the 



comparatively wide space between its nostrils. Feeling sure that its 



label — Common Seal {Phoca vitulina) — was erroneous, I extracted 



some of its teeth, premolars and molars, and found that they had the 



simple crowns, and the premolars the connate roots of Halichcerus. 



I compared these teeth with the description and plate in Owen's 



' Odontography,' and with the grinders of a Common Seal and the 



Grey Seal which was captured at Warrington in 1908. I am satisfied 



that the animal has been incorrectly identified, and that it is a young 



Grey Seal. Unfortunately the error has been perpetuated in Forrest's 



'Vertebrate Fauna of North Wales,' p. 42, and in the 'Vertebrate 



Fauna of Cheshire,' p. 42, for which Mr. Oldham and I are responsible. 



I wish to draw attention to this correction, which supports my belief 



that the Grey Seal, being probably resident, is of more frequent 



occurrence on the coast of North Wales, and consequently in Cheshire 



and Lancashire waters, than the Common Seal. — T. A. Cowaed 



(Bowdon, Cheshire). 



AVES. 



Man Mobbed by a Ring-Ouzel (Turdus torquatus). — When cross- 

 ing one of our local moors some time ago I could hear at a distance 

 the scolding notes of a Ring-Ouzel, which increased in violence as I 

 approached. Whilst still at a respectable distance, on my making a 

 pause, the bird — a female — came and dashed at me with some vigour. 

 Presuming it had a nest or fledged young, I started off in the direction 

 where it was first seen. No sooner had I commenced my journey 



