454 THE ZOOLOGIST. 





absent from all the Western Islands with the exception of Islay, 

 but even there the fact of its occurrence has not been confirmed 

 by the enquiries instituted by Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Buckley. 

 In Skye, nevertheless, it appears to be well established. Mr. H. 

 A. Macpherson, who is familiar with that island, has seen it 

 trapped in a district where it is more numerous than the Stoat.* 



In Shetland, according to tradition, the Weasel is said to 

 have been introduced many years ago, out of revenge, by a falconer 

 " who bad been denied his hawk-hens." t 



In Orkney, on the other hand, Messrs. Harvie-Brown and 

 Buckley, in their ' Vertebrate Fauna of the Orkney Islands,' have 

 not been able to adduce any evidence of its existence. 



In the accompanying plate (Plate IV.) we give a portrait of 

 the little Harvest Mouse (Mus messorius), which in the corn-lands 

 of England, particularly in the South, often falls a prey to the 

 Weasel. In a future number we propose to give some account 

 of it. 



ON THE ATTITUDES OF A LITTLE BITTERN OBSERVED 



IN CAPTIVITY. 



By A. F. Griffith, M.A. 

 (Plate III.) 



A young male of the Little Bittern, Botaurus minutus, was 

 caught alive on the morning of Sept. 3rd, in a stable at Hove, on 

 the outskirts of Brighton. It was first seen about daybreak 

 flying round an enclosed yard. Later on it was observed sitting 

 motionless in a stable which leads out of the yard, and was there 

 caught, after causing its captor some misgivings from the uncanny 

 way in which it kept its long neck, head, and beak bolt upright, 

 with its bright yellow eyes always turned towards him, but other- 

 wise motionless. When he at last plucked up courage to lay 

 hands upon it, it lunged out viciously with its beak against his 

 hand. He then took it to Messrs. Pratt & Son's, where I saw it 

 the same afternoon. 



We placed the bird under a large glass shade, where we could 

 observe its movements at very close quarters. First it stretched 

 out its left wing downwards to touch the ground, craning its long 



* Cf. ' Zoologist,' 1884, p. 381. 



f Cf. Sibbald's 'Zetland,' p. 22; Low's 'Fauna Orcadensis,' p. 29; and 

 Baikie and Heddle, ' Hist. Nat. Orcadensis,' p. 11, 



