3022 Quadrupeds. 



happen to be touching, pecking at it whilst fluttering over it. The 

 fulmars, when able to eat no more, make the best of their way to the 

 nearest ice, where, squatting flat upon it, they sleep until ready for 

 another gorge. The ivory gull, also, when satisfied, makes its way to 

 the ice, to rest and sleep, but takes up its position on the topmost 

 pinnacle of the nearest hammock, when it can only be distinguished 

 by its black legs and bill. The fulmar, graceful as it is on the wing, 

 is the very reverse on its legs ; its walk is awkward and feeble." — 

 Page 6. 



King Duck. "Whilst passing over the Bank we saw immense 

 flocks of ducks, principally the king duck {Somateria spectabilis) . 

 They were literally covering the water in myriads, but were so wild, 

 that we could not get within shot of them." — Page 20. 



Time of Breeding and Period of Gestation of the Otter. — There seems to be some 

 considerable discrepancy in accounts of the otter as to the period of the year in which 

 they produce their young. Mr. Bell says " March or April :" Mr. Jenyns, " March :" 

 and in the ' Zoologist' (Zool. 1901), the pair kept in the Gardens of the Zoological 

 Society (where, however, the male had been but recently introduced), are recorded as 

 breeding in August. Probably it is more irregular in this than most animals, as I 

 have just seen three young ones, taken at Rawworth, probably from their size (about 

 eighteen or nineteen inches long) six weeks or two months old, and therefore born in 

 November. Perhaps some other of your correspondents can give us additional infor- 

 mation on the subject. Is it probable that the female has two broods in a year ? — 

 H. T. Frere; Blofield, January 9, 1851. 



Period of Gestation and Number of Young in the Guinea-pig. — It is strange 

 that no one has yet called attention to the assertion repeated by the two authors 

 mentioned above, and by every writer on Natural History, with whose works I 

 am acquainted, as to the number of young produced by the guinea-pig. They talk 

 about its having from four to twelve in a litter. As far as my experience goes (and in 

 my younger days I have often kept them) this is much too high an estimate. I never 

 remember a litter of more than five, and much more frequently two, three, or four ; 

 often only one. Its time of gestation, too, is put down by Mr. Bell as from twenty- 

 five to thirty days ; it ought to have been six weeks. Now, when such errors, for such 

 I say without question they are, are countenanced by such men, and this in the history 

 of an animal, for learning whose habits we have every opportunity, how great are those 

 likely to be which are committed by less learned men in matters more difficult to be 

 examined. Mr. Bell very properly derides the idea that this animal drives away rats. 

 The fact is, that they seem to have a peculiar attraction for them ; and I remember a 

 case where I got some to keep rats out of the rabbit-hutches, and the guinea-pigs were 

 half eaten by the morning, by the very vermin I had got them to repel, and heartily 

 laughed at I was for my cleverness. — Id. 



White Hedgehog. — On the 19th of October, 1850, T obtained a specimen of this 

 animal, the spines of which were entirely white : it was brought, to me by a rat-catcher, 

 who found it in the parish of St. Faith's, near Norwich. On dissection, I found the 



