NOTES AND QUERIES. 223 



which he supposes to be " still in force in Ireland," and which provides a 

 reward of 5s. to any person or persons who shall take, kill, or destroy any 

 Otter or Marten. He refers evidently to Section 14 of 27 Geo. III. cap. 

 35, but he, and doubtless many others, will be glad to learn that this 

 enactment is no longer in force, having been repealed by 3 & 4 Will. IV., 

 cap. 78, sec. 64. — J. E. Harting. 



Bank Vole in Worcestershire and Shropshire.— During the months 

 of February and March I trapped the Bank Vole freely in the Wyre 

 Forest, which covers a considerable area of both these counties. It has 

 been recorded once before in Shropshire (Zool. 1888, p. 184), at Eyton, 

 some thirty miles distant, but, to the best of my knowledge, not in 

 Worcestershire. If more naturalists would pay attention to the distribution 

 of the mammals within their districts, this species would probably prove to 

 be far from rare, if occasionally somewhat local. — J. S. Elliott (30, Dixon's 

 Green, Dudley). 



Water Vole at a distance from Water. — On March 16th a man 

 here showed me a Water Vole which he had just taken out of a mole-trap. 

 The trap was set in a field situate about half-a-mile from the nearest water 

 where Water Voles are found. — E. W. H. Blagg (Cheadle, Staffordshire). 



[The habit of the Water Vole to wander occasionally to some 

 distance from water was remarked long ago by Gilbert White. In his 26th 

 letter to Pennant he writes : — " As a neighbour was lately ploughing in a 

 dry chalky field, far removed from any water, he turned out a water rat 

 that was curiously laid up in an hybernaculum artificially formed of grass 

 and leaves. At one end of the burrow lay above a gallon of potatoes 

 regularly stowed, on which it was to have supported itself during the 

 winter. But the difficulty with me is how this Amphibius mus came to fix 

 its winter station at such a distance from the water. Was it determined 

 in its choice of that place by the mere accident of finding the potatoes 

 which were planted there ; or is it the constant practice of the aquatic rat 

 to forsake the neighbourhood of the water in the colder months ?" In a 

 previous letter (the 10th to Pennant), White suspects there may be two 

 species of Water Rat, and gives reasons for this opinion. — Ed.] 



Stoats in Ermine Dress. — With reference to my note upon this 

 subject (p. 148) it may be worth while drawing attention to the fact that 

 Pennant (' British Zoology,' 1776, vol. i., plate 7) figures a Stoat in inter- 

 mediate pelage. In this specimen the white of the belly extends part of 

 the way up the sides ; the basal half of the tail has become white, as has 

 also the hind leg and most of the fore leg. It is a very fair representation 

 of the manner in which the change takes place. Pennant writes (p. 91), 

 " With us [in Flintshire] the Stoat is observed to change its colour from 

 brown to white in November, and to begin to resume the brown the 

 beginning of March." — 0. V. Apltn (Bloxhara, Oxon). 



