Notes and queries. 423 



The utility of the Weasel in checking the devastation of field 

 mice was never more clearly established than by the evidence 

 which was tendered to the Committee appointed by the Board of 

 Agriculture to enquire into the plague of Field Voles in Scotland 

 in 1892.* In the Minutes of Evidence appended to the Keport 

 of this Committee issued in 1893, will be found numerous state- 

 ments, elicited by cross-examination of the witnesses, which tend 

 to prove beyond doubt that the Weasel is the natural enemy of 

 field mice, and that no greater mistake could be made than to 

 destroy Weasels where mice or voles are numerous, and are 

 likely to become a plague. 



(To be continued.) 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



MAMMALIA. 

 Marten in Co. Westmeath. — Referring to your article on the " Marten 

 in Ireland," in ■ The Zoologist ' for March last, you may be glad to know 

 that 1 have found an entry in an ;old Game-book which has been kept at 

 this house since the year 1814, to the effect that a Pine Marten was killed 

 at Knock-Drin in the winter of 1845-46. Tne exact date is not specified ; 

 but it was on some day between October 23rd, 1845, and January 3rd, 

 1846.— H. C. Levinge (Knock-Drin Castle, Mullingar). 



Dimensions of Otter.— I have read with much interest your articles 

 on the Otter, Lutra vulgaris, which have appeared in • The Zoologist,' and 

 I have noted particularly your remarks on the size and gestation of the 

 same. I have in my possession a dog Otter, which measures from tip of 

 nose to tip of tail 56£ inches. It was killed on the River Derwent, below 

 Cockermouth, about forty years ago, by a man named Thursby, from whose 

 daughter I purchased it. Anyone who would like to see it can do so by 

 calling at my address. — John R. Denwood (Kirkgate, Cockermouth). 



Serotine Bat in Essex. — Nearly eleven years ago I had the pleasure 

 of recording, for the first time in this county, the occurrence of the Serotine 

 Bat (Zool. 1883, p. 173, and Proc. Essex Field Club, vol. iv., p. iv). Since 

 that time the species has not again been met with in Essex, and the record 

 still stands as the most northerly occurrence of the species in Britain. I am 

 glad therefore to be able to add that, about 1 a.m. on Aug. 25th last, a fine 



* See ' The Zoologist,' 1893, pp. 121—138. 



