NOTES AND QUERIES. 227 



specimens from the south-western parts of Scotland, Galloway, the Lake 

 region of Cumberland, Anglesey, Cornwall, and the Scilly Islands, will be 

 most gratefully accepted. Should Stoats from any of these localities show 

 an approach to the Irish form, it will render it probable that the latter 

 should be looked upon as a geographical subspecies, well marked in its own 

 locality, but grading elsewhere into another form. No British specimens 

 as yet seen, however, have shown the smallest tendency to such approach. — 

 Oldfield Thomas (Natural History Museum). 



Bank Vole in Bedfordshire. — I have often noticed Voles frequenting 

 hedgerows in Bedfordshire that I suspected were of this species, and in 

 April last, whilst spending a few days in that county, I was able to confirm 

 my views by trapping several specimens in different localities. — J. S. 

 Elliott (Dixon's Green, Dudley). 



Food of the Bank Vole. — A propos of the remarks on this subject by 

 Mr. Teesdale (p. 186) I may mention that, in the autumn of 1869, during a 

 short visit to Hampshire, I noticed in the cornfields near Alresford a 

 number of heaps of the carpels of Ranunculus repens, many of which con- 

 tained a good handful. All the carpels had a minute semicircular piece 

 bitten out of the margin. In every instance of the many I examined the 

 seed had been extracted, and although the sides of the carpel had obviously 

 been opened, they were not separated from each other, but had firmly come 

 together again. I had no doubt that the seeds had been eaten by mice, 

 but could not determine to what species they belonged. The exceeding 

 delicacy of this operation seemed to indicate that it was one of the smaller 

 kind, e. g., the Field Mouse, but there were no holes of these in the imme- 

 diate vicinity of the heaps, which were most numerous near the outside of 

 the field. It is possible that they were brought together by the Bank Vole, 

 but it seems unlikely that it would eat such small seeds, or that it would 

 deal so cleverly with them. It would be interesting if some resident in 

 that district could solve the question. — John Lowe (4, Gloucester Place, 

 Portman Square). 



BIRDS. 



Rooks in London. — Some time ago I had to report (Zool. 1889, p. 27) 

 the almost total disappearance of Rooks from the West End of London. 

 1 think I may now state that they have not quite deserted that part 

 of London, although their behaviour has been somewhat erratic. The birds 

 left Kensington Gardens for the simple reason that their nesting trees were 

 cut down. They resented the insult, and though there were plenty of 

 available trees close by, they forsook the locality until 1892, when a solitary 

 nest was built in the south-western corner of Kensington Gardens. In the 

 following year, however, a strong colony took up their quarters in the trees 

 bordeiiug the Bayswater end of the Broad Walk, that is, the north-western 



