1U 



THE ZOOLOGIST. 



The question has often been raised, When did the Urus 

 become extinct in the British Islands? The chief supply of 

 animal food in Koman Britain appears to have come from the 

 Eed-deer, the little Celtic Ox, Bos longifrons, and the Pig. I 

 have, however, seen in the north of the island, in excavations 

 thrown out from camps along the wall, fragments of the upper 

 portions of skulls and horn-cores of a great Ox, which, if not 

 Bos primigenius, must have been a very near relative. Far into 

 the historic period, in Denmark and the north land, the horns of 

 the Urus, rimmed with silver, formed the drinking cups of the 

 Vikings.* 



THE IRISH STOAT DISTINCT FROM THE BRITISH 



SPECIES. 



By Oldfield Thomas & G. E. H. Barrett- Hamilton. 



At the request of the American naturalist, Mr. Outram 

 Bangs, we have made an examination of all the specimens of 

 Stoats in the collection of the British Museum, in order to see 

 whether certain markings pointed out by him as distinguishing 

 the Old World Stoat from that found in the Eastern United 

 States were quite constant throughout a series. As the pecu- 

 liarity referred to was simply the relative distribution of the 

 brown and white of the summer coat in an animal which changes 

 to pure white in winter, we were prepared to meet with a con- 

 siderable amount of variability among the specimens examined, 

 and have therefore been much interested to find that, on 

 the contrary, there is a remarkable uniformity in coloration 

 throughout the series, in so far at least as Scotch and English 

 specimens are concerned. Of these we have seen a sufficient 

 number to be able to speak with some degree of certainty. In 

 all of them the white or yellowish-white colour of the under 

 surface commences at the side of the naked nose-pad, passes 

 more or less broadly along the upper lip, extends on the throat, 

 chest, and belly to their extreme outer edges, the line of demarca- 

 tion being straight and well defined. On the fore limbs it passes 

 down to the wrists, and on the hind limbs to the ankles, while 



* As to the use of Bison-horns set in silver as clrinking-cups, see ' The 

 Zoologist ' for January last, p. G. 





