2558 Quadrupeds. 



owner by rail from the latter-named place to Matlock-bridge station, took it into his 

 head to start railway traveller on his own account. Now, master ' Spot ' had a little 

 acquaintance of his own species near the bridge, to whom he was accustomed to pay 

 frequent visits, and finding walking, or rather running, somewhat fatiguing, he 

 adopted rail travelling by preference, and has gone by himself, sometimes once a day, 

 from one station to the other, invariably coming back by the return train, and never 

 once making a mistake by taking the express train, which does not stop at Matlock- 

 bridge station. — ''Derby Mercury.' 



Extraordinary Anecdote of a Fox. — A most singular occurrence has just taken 

 place at Owthorne, near Patrington, in Holderness. On the 10th ult., a fine male 

 fox made his appearance among a flock of lambs, belonging to a widow at that place, 

 and became so much attached to one of the lambs that he could not be driven away. 

 The most extraordinary part of the whole affair is, however, the fact that the lamb 

 also declined to be parted from its strange companion, and now the pair are seen 

 daily, seldom far from each other. — ' Hull Packet.' 



The Hedgehog.— The other day a friend of mine caught a hedgehog, probably 

 about a month old. It was placed on a large grass-plot, in the evening ; and being 

 wishful to know what really was the food of this animal, I kept close to it, as it walked 

 about fearlessly round my feet. It ate grubs and toadstools, and seemed to relish 

 them very much. I captured a young sparrow, nearly fledged, but not able to fly : I 

 placed this before the hedgehog : he turned up his little snout, and, seeing the spar- 

 row running and fluttering, he immediately gave chase and caught him, and began 

 eating it, beginning at the head first, swallowing feathers and all. You hear people 

 Continually crying out against the poor hedgehog for sucking the cows' teats in the 

 fields, and thereby robbing the owners of a quantity of milk. The hedgehog I know 

 is often se«i particularly early in the morning close to the cow's udder : why is this ? 

 Simply because he has come to feed upon the insects which have collected there to 

 suck up the moisture which exudes from the udder and teats. If any of the readers 

 of the 'Zoologist' could give me positive proof of their having seen the hedgehog 

 sucking the teats of a cow, I should be extremely astonished and obliged. — J. M. 

 Jones ; Eccleston, St. Helens, Lancashire, August, 1849. 



[See ' Letters of Rusticus' on this subject, p. 109. — E. Newman.'] 



Food of the Water Vole (Arvicola amphibius). — With reference to the question 

 asked by Mr. Peacock (Zool. 2474), I believe, from some years' observation, that the 

 water vole is exclusively herbivorous, and never varies its diet by carnivorous addi- 

 tions, in the manner in which the Norway rat (which frequently inhabits the same 

 localities) is in the practice of doing when occasion offers. — J. H. Gurney ; Easton, 

 near Norwich, July 23, 1849. 



Gigantic Skeleton of the Extinct Irish Deer (Cervus megaceros). — The largest, 

 and decidedly the most remarkable, skeleton remains of the great horned deer of an- 

 cient Ireland ever discovered, have recently been exhumed at Killowen, in the county 

 of Wexford, the property of Henry P. Woodroffe, Esq. This splendid specimen of a 

 long-extinct animal is perfect in the minutest particular, and has been dug out 

 and restored to form without receiving the smallest injury. It was discovered four 

 feet below the surface of the earth, between vegetable mould and plastic clay. The 

 roots of the black willow and German rush had entwined themselves round the bones, 

 and souk; seeds, ascertained to be wild cabbage seeds, were found in the same bed 

 with the skeleton. Within an area of fifty square yards some smaller skeleton re- 



