NOTES AND QUERIES. 79 



every care lavished on them. A Cat is a delicate animal, with innumerable 

 ailments. It easily becomes ill. It is a cowardly animal — if I may so 

 express myself— and allows itself to die by not struggling against its 

 malady, though at the end it dies hard. When a Cat gets a cold, or 

 pleurisy, or distemper, it loses, through its nose being * bunged up,' all 

 taste and sense of smell. The moment it cannot smell its food it will not 

 touch it, and dies of starvation even with a dish of food alongside it. There- 

 fore a Cat, when ill, must at once be forcibly fed, or it will let itself die. 

 Every one of these 13,994 Cats have passed through my hands, therefore I 

 ought to know something about them." 



Polecats in Wales. — Last November I had two of these animals 

 (Mustela putorius) sent to me from a certain district in Cardiganshire, 

 where they are not so uncommon as is supposed. They were both males, 

 and in excellent pelt. The larger of the two is a beauty, his total length 

 23 in., length of tail 7 in., weight 2 lb. 3 oz. The fur is of great length 

 and thickness. — Oxley Grabham (Heworth, York). 



White Stoat. — Although the winter has been so mild, I procured, 

 during the last week in December, the whitest Stoat [Mustela erminea) that 

 I have in my collection ; barring the black tip to the tail and a few brown 

 hairs round each eye, it is pure white. Its dimensions were — total length, 

 12£ in. ; length of tail, 3£ in. ; weight, 6£ oz. ; female. As will be noticed, 

 the tail is very short, and the black tip only measured half an inch. Now, 

 in my small series of skins, this is the second short-tailed Stoat that I have 

 procured. The assumption would be that they had met with some accident, 

 and part of the member was missing ; but they were both skinned by 

 myself. The tail tapered off to a fine point as in normal specimens, and 

 there was nothing to indicate that any injury had been received. I should 

 mention that the other of these short-tailed Stoats is a male. A friend of 

 mine has a theory that these white Stoats are in several ways different to 

 the common form — more slender in make, fur more silky, &c. — but in this 

 I cannot agree with him. Certain it is, however, that they differ inter se 

 very considerably in the length of their tails, and in the size of the black 

 tip at the end.— Oxley Grabham (Eeworth, York). 



AVES. 



Great Grey Shrike in Warwickshire.— A specimen of Lanius excubitor 

 was taken by a birdcatcher at Harbury Spoil Banks, near Leamington, on 

 Dec. 27th, 1898. It was caught ou the bird-lime, having made a dash at 

 the stuffed decoy Goldfinches fixed upon a bush. Evidently a young bird 

 of the year, as I noticed the markings on the edges of the breast feathers 

 were very distinct. When I saw the bird a fortnight after it had been 



