NOTES AND QUERIES. 109 



Buckley's ' Vertebrate Fauna of Argyll and the Inner Hebrides' (p. 17), is 

 very much to the point : — " On the island of Soay, amongst many inhabited 

 holes of the Storm Petrel, a most interesting Otter's resting-place was 

 discovered, and with a spade was laid open for inspection from end to end. 

 After cutting away the earthy peat and close turf of an almost cheese-like 

 consistency throughout the whole length of the tunnel, laying back carefully 

 each square or parallelogram of sod, we measured the length, and found it 

 just fifteen feet. The tunnel was in average size throughout about one foot 

 in diameter, except just at the far end, where it decreased to about four 

 inches. Here and there it was widened out into most evident circular or 

 oval chambers, and the sides and roof were smooth and glossy, rubbed and 

 polished by the passage to and fro of the animal's fur. The habitation had 

 a cunning and gradual incline upwards into the peat bank from the entrance. 

 The latter was simply an uneven, rough, grassy-edged and semi-concealed 

 doorway in the face of the peat slope. The passage led into and out of 

 these larger chambers over little ridges or elevations across the floor of the 

 passage. Though the walls of peat were damp, smooth, and glossy, and 

 even slimy to the touch throughout both passages and chambers, yet water 

 could not lie in the hole, unless just at the aforesaid ridges, which inter- 

 sected the entrances of the tunnel below each chamber. Near the entrance 

 of the hole, and about two to three feet from it, was evidently the family 

 1 kitchen-midden ' of the Otters, consisting of a very considerable heap of 

 the domestic 'rejectamenta,' not less than five or six inches in height and 

 nine inches in width. This occupied a side chamber made to one side of 

 the tunnel. Harvie Brown gathered up a handful of this material, which 

 on examination was found to consist of fragments of shells of mollusca, and 

 upon a more minute examination afterwards, remains of fish, lobster-shells, 

 and the hair of some small mammal were identified. It is much to be 

 regretted that we did not have a photograph of the place taken on the spot, 

 laid open as it thus was to the light of day, and the internal economy of the 

 Otters' home displayed." 



Food of the Badger.— On Jan. 18th we caught a Badger in a trap 

 with a Wood Pigeon in its mouth. I know that a Badger will take young 

 birds and rabbits, but I did not imagine that it could capture so wary a 

 bird as a full-grown Wood Pigeon. — (Sir) John Dillon (Bart.), (Lismullen, 

 Navan, Co. Meatb). 



Unusual abundance of the Bank Vole in 1893.— The remarks by 

 Mr. Oldfield Thomas in ■ The Zoologist ' for February (p. 54), on the 

 unusual abundance of the Bank Vole during the past year, have been to 

 6ome extent confirmed by my own experience in trapping near Macclesfield. 

 I commenced trapping about four months ago, October to February, and 

 during this period I found Mus sylvaticus decidedly the commonest species. 

 Next in order of frequency I found Microtus glareolm and (some way below 



