16 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



just after daybreak on Hickling Broad; but it being the day 

 appointed for the Coot-shooting, I did not like to disturb them 

 by firing at the fowl. The Coot-shooting was almost a failure, 

 as there were hardly boats enough to surround the birds, and 

 consequently but few were killed. I had left half-a-dozen wooden 

 decoy ducks on the Sounds [at Potter Heigham] , and they were 

 carefully approached by two different boats during the afternoon, 

 receiving in all the contents of no less than twelve barrels, and 

 being so severely peppered that they had to be taken home to 

 be repaired 



[The specific characters which distinguish the White-billed Northern 

 Diver from the closely-allied Colymbus glacialis have been pointed out by 

 Mr. Saunders in his 'Manual,' and in greater detail by the late Mr. Seebohm 

 in 'The Zoologist/ 1885, p. 144 (wrongly cited by Mr. Saunders as 1884, 

 p. 140). Not only is there a difference in the colour of the bill, which has 

 suggested the trivial name " White-billed," but the head and upper neck 

 are glossed with green, while the lower neck is tinged with purple (the 

 reverse being the case with the Great Northern Diver), and the white 

 streaks on the upper throat- band are 6 in number with 10 on the lower 

 one, instead of 12 on the upper and 18 on the lower as in Colymbus glacialis. 

 It is also said that in the summer plumage the white spots on the scapulars 

 are larger in the White-billed species, while those on the flanks and upper 

 tail-coverts are smaller than in the allied species. Specimens of the rarer 

 bird have been obtained on the coasts of Suffolk and Northumberland, the 

 Suffolk specimen being figured from a photograph in Babington's ■ Birds 

 of Suffolk.' This example, however, being in immature plumage, the 

 distinctive characters, seen only in the adult, are not apparent. — Ed.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES 



MAMMALIA. 



The Harvest Mouse in Lancashire.— The wording of Byerley's remark 

 in his ' Fauna of Liverpool,' referred to (Zool. 1895, p. 419), is as follows : — 

 " Not unfrequent in wheatstacks, barns, and fields." A large proportion of 

 Byerley's records for other species are from the Wirral district of Cheshire, 

 and many of his records want verification. Though it occurs sparingly in 

 Lancashire and Cheshire, it is certainly not as plentiful as might be 

 inferred from Byerley's remarks. A short time since I came across a 

 report of the Council of the Manchester Natural History Society for 1 864, 

 which mentions the gift, by J. Glover, Esq., of a Harvest Mouse and nest 



