260 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



the water is circulated through the mains, which are laid in the principal 

 streets. At certain spots taps are placed along the streets, at which the 

 people can obtain the water. Lady Sophia Palmer, accompanied by Lord 

 Selborne, arrived at the village in the afternoon, and having been presented 

 with a bouquet, pressed a lever, by means of which the ram was set in 

 motiou. Her ladyship subsequently proceeded to the village, and drew the 

 first bucket of water. Lord Selborne, in the course of a brief speech, said 

 the villagers should congratulate themselves upon having a good water 

 supply, which was a useful and valuable gift. Water was one of the most 

 excellent of God's gifts to man. Referring to the difficulties which the 

 people had heretofore experienced on this score, he remarked that if Gilbert 

 White had been asked what sort of memorial should be erected he would 

 doubtless have chosen the most useful and the most unpretentious. The 

 one they had provided would be the one he would probably have liked 

 best. 



MAMMALIA. 



The Indian Antelope : period of Gestation.— At a meeting of the 

 Zoological Society, held on June 5th, Sir Edmund Loder made some 

 remarks upon the period of gestation in the Indian Antelope, based upon 

 observations made upon a small herd of those animals in his own park in 

 Sussex. Three does had produced fawns twice in the year, and the period 

 of gestation was stated to be five months. The importance of these 

 observations may be inferred from the fact that none of the authorities on 

 Indian Mammalia have published any statistics on the subject. Jerdon, in 

 his 'Mammals of India' (p. 277), quoting Elliot, states that "the rutting 

 season commences about February or March, but fawns are seen of all ages 

 at every season," and this statement has been copied by subsequent writers. 

 When statistics in regard to other species can be otained, it will probably 

 be found that in the smaller Antelopes the period of gestation is the same 

 as with the sheep, five months, and not eight, as in the case of the 

 Cervidse. — J. E. Harting. 



The Squirrel in the Southern Highlands.— At Glenrazie Woods 

 recently I noticed some Squirrels skipping amongst the trees, and this was 

 an occurrence of more than usual interest to me, as it gave ocular demon- 

 stration that these pretty little animals had become established to the 

 westwards of the Cree. When my friend Mr. J. A. Harvie Brown published, 

 in 1881, his ' History of the Squirrel in Scotland,' I was unable to furnish 

 him with any evidence that Squirrels had extended any farther westwards 

 in Galloway than Cumloden Park, where the first one was seen in 1783. 

 In 1892 Sir Herbert Maxwell, writing in the * Annals of Scottish Natural 

 History,' stated that Squirrels had been seen at Monreith about 1882, but 

 t-hat it was not till 1889 that he had noticed them himself. They soon, 



