432 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



S. macrura. — A little party of these were sitting on the big 

 stones of the breakwater at Trondhjem. 



Larus canus. L. argentatus. L.fuscns. 



Rissa tridactyla. — A few of these about the harbour ; more of 

 the Lesser Black-backed Gull than of the others. 



(To be continued.) 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



MAMMALIA. 



The Stoat : Change of Colour in Winter,— Mr. George B. Corbin's 

 statement in the July issue of this Journal (p. 254) in regard to Hampshire, 

 that the change of colour of the Stoat " takes place in a greater or less 

 degree every winter," is true also of Sussex. Pure white examples are 

 rarely met with, there being almost always some of the ordinary colour 

 remaining, especially about the head: a fact which Mr. Borrer tells me he 

 also has noticed, — W. Buskin Butterfield (St. Leonards-on-Sea). 



[See Zool. 1S84, p. 102 ; and 1888, p. 141.— Ed.] 



Dark-tailed Squirrels. — It is not so unusual to meet with dark-tailed 

 Squirrels in August as might appear from the observations of Mr. Oldfield 

 Thomas (Zool. 1895, pp. 103, 150) and of myself (supra, p. 349). At the 

 time of writing I did not bear in mind what Mr. Thomas had written on 

 the subject, or I should have added that although the example I recorded 

 was the earliest to assume the dark tail that I have seen alive, yet I know 

 of many others beiug killed in Sussex in that month. — W. Ruskin 

 Butterfield (St. Leonards). [See p. 401.— Ed.] 



On the Breeding of Sorex araneus. — Bell, in his 'British Quadrupeds, 

 which is still the standard work on the subject, states that the Common 

 Shrew brings forth from five to seven young ones in the spring. I am, 

 however, inclined to believe that it breeds two or three times during the 

 year. I found a nest on July 9th, in a depression in the ground in a 

 hay field, over which the reaper had passed without injuring it. The nest 

 was made of pieces of dry grass and oak-leaves, and inside were finer bits 

 of grass and pieces of oak-leaves, all of which had evidently been bitten 

 into small pieces by the Shrew itself. The young were eight in number, 

 and three-parts grown. Again, on Oct. 1st, when out shooting in a second 

 crop of clover, a round ball of grass caught my eye, and on stooping down 

 to examine it I found that it was a Shrew's nest, built in a tuft of the 

 common dog's-tail grass (Cynosurus cristatus), and formed by bending the 

 pieces of grass of which the tuft was composed, and twisting them round 



