Quadrupeds. 3171 



Anecdotes of the Common Fox, (Vulpes vulgaris, Briss.) — I understand that it is 

 an ascertained fact, that the common fox devours shell-fish readily, when pinched by 

 hunger. Our rocky sea-line and deep abrupt ravines, with their patches of heath and 

 furze, in a country far from being generally wooded, afford inviting ground for the set- 

 tlement of this animal ; and accordingly it has always been known as a frequent and 

 by no means welcome visitor along our shores. The two following anecdotes are cur- 

 rent among the inhabitants of Pennan (Zool. 2997), and are reported on their good 

 authority as having happened, the one, something more than fourscore years ago, the 

 other, about thirty years later. An old fisherman, of strict integrity as was ever be- 

 lieved, who lived and died in the above-named village, on going out one calm morning 

 to the rocky beach which lies to the east of the tiny harbour, was somewhat surprized 

 by coming on the body of a fox, not very far out of low-water mark. He wondered, 

 as is said, how Mr. Fox, usually so wary, should have come there ; and on attempting 

 to turn him over, his surprise was increased on finding that he seemed fixed to the 

 beach by the mouth. It was not properly by the mouth, as a narrower inspection dis- 

 covered ; he was held to the rock by the tongue. Endeavouring to detach a limpet, 

 he had succeeded, as is presumed, in raising one edge by the force of his jaw, and at 

 this stage insinuated the point of his tongue, when his hold giving way, the whole 

 power of a full-sized limpet compressed it to the rock: and thus was he bound, like 

 honoured martyrs of a bygone age, to await the choking tortures of the approaching 

 tide. He waited and he perished ; the risen waters waved their crest over him ; and 

 when they retired after triumph, hapless Reynard's remains were there to testify that 

 victory is not always to the strong, nor wily cunning security against misfortune. The 

 other anecdote may be soon told. A fisherman, the grand-uncle of my obliging friend, 

 Mr. West, on coming in from sea one evening, had his boat hauled up on the beach, 

 leaving in it a hand-line baited, with the view of catching " dogs," (Spinax acanthias). 

 One of the hooks had been inadvertently left dangling over the gunwale of the boat. 

 On going out to his boat next morning, what was his marvel when, line in mouth, and 

 hook fixed deep in the throat, lay the lifeless body of a huge specimen of the common 

 fox. I have every confidence in the truth of both the above statements, as made to 

 me by individuals of the highest intelligence and integrity. — Geo. Harris; Manse of 

 Gamrie, Banffshire, May 23, 1851. 



Winter Dress of the Ermine (Mustek Erminea).— The annual assumption by our 

 blood-thirsty little friend, the stoat, of the garb destined by its semblance to be, amid 

 the snowy regions of the North, its protection from enemies and a shield from the ob- 

 servation of its prey, is of more frequent occurrence farther south than is intimated in 

 Mr. Bell's communication (Zool. 3102). Whilst a resident in the valley of Honiton, 

 in Devonshire, in latitude some twenty miles farther south than Selborne, a winter 

 of ordinary severity seldom elapsed without affording me an opportunity of examining' 

 the stoat in various stages of this interesting seasonal change. My own little collec- 

 tion is replete with examples varying from the stoat in its general summer dress, by 

 numerous intergrades up to as pure an ermine, in as far as colour is concerned, as can 

 adorn the fur-countries of the North. When however we compare the quality of the 

 produce of Siberia with our own native ermine, we find ourselves far inferior, and the 

 beneficence of the Creator in adapting the same animal, by modifying the density of 

 its covering, to a widely differing habitat, is beautifully obvious. But what I would 

 here particularly remark is, that of the many stoats I have hitherto had the opportunity 

 of dissecting, in no case in which the subject had so far acquired the white dress as to 



