314 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



NOTES AND Q U E E I E S. 



MAMMALIA. 



The Lesser Shrew in Yorkshire. — Referring to Mr. George Bolam's 

 note (ante, p. 276), I think it wise to add a few words on the status 

 of this small mammal, lest it may be considered to be much more 

 numerous in this district than it really is. x\lthough Mr. Bolam 

 may have taken "upwards of a dozen " specimens during the last two 

 years in the neighbourhood of Ilkley by persistent and often by 

 almost daily trapping, it is really a rare animal here, more especially 

 compared with the extreme abundance of its congener, the Common 

 Shrew, or even with the Water Shrew. I can state this from my 

 own experience, both in Wharfedale and in Airedale ; in fact, I gave 

 up systematic trapping chiefly from the havoc I wrought amongst 

 the innocent Common Shrews. It became nauseous to me to turn 

 out two or three of their dead bodies each time that I visited my 

 traps, and I only took one Lesser Shrew during the whole time. 

 For the past eighteen months Mr. Bolam has promised to catch 

 a Lesser Shrew for me, but has only sent in such common things as 

 Field-Mice, Voles, and Shrews, although I am aware tliat he has sent 

 three Lesser Shrews to the Keighley Museum during that time. Mr. 

 Bolam is scarcely accurate in saying that previously only a single 

 specimen had been obtained in the "immediate neighbourhood of 

 Ilkley" {viz. at Bolton Abbey, six miles away), because during the 

 last three years I have examined specimens from Addingham and 

 from Denton, neither place being more than two miles from Ilklej'. — 

 H. B. Booth (Ben Rhydding). 



AVES. 



Swallow's Curious Nest. — On July 24th I was punting up Speeney, 

 a tributary of the old River Chelmer (now Chelmer and Blackwater 

 Navigation), between Beeleigh and Ricketts Locks, with my son and 

 daughter, when I found a nest in the outside branch of a pendent 

 maple-tree hanging over mid-stream, over twenty feet from each 

 bank. It looked like that of a Thrush, but I was surprised to find in 

 it four Swallow's eggs of the usual spotted type, and both parent 



