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NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Churchwardens' Accounts at Dry Drayton, Cambs. — I forwarded 

 you some statistics concerning the Moles, Sparrows, Polecats, &c, killed 

 towards the latter end of the last century in my old parish of Dry Drayton, 

 Cambs. I applied some months since to one of my former parishioners for 

 more recent evidence as regards the occurrence of these animals, and have 

 just received his reply, from which I subjoin extracts: — "We have not 

 destroyed any quantity of Sparrows the last ten or fifteen years ; but I see 

 by reference to an old book of my father's that a portion of the money 

 received for the letting of roadsides was applied to buying Sparrows, and 

 as much as £7 and £8 was so spent, the price being a halfpenny each, and 

 eight eggs for a penny, so that a great many were thus destroyed. The 

 Stoat, Mustela erminea, is not at all numerous, though I have killed several ; 

 and as to Hedgehogs, I should think during the last ten years my little 

 dog " Dot" has killed as many as 200, some very large ones. The Polecat, 

 M.pntorius, has not been seen here for some time, but Willmot says that he 

 caught some here in 1860 or thereabouts in the Blackthorn. Two were 

 taken at Moor Barns, near Madingley, about three years ago, by Mr. G. 

 Bull while ferreting rabbits." "Blackthorn" is a spinny of several acres 

 in extent on Dry Drayton glebe, and Madingley is the adjoining parish to 

 Dry Drayton. " There have been a great number of Moles killed here 

 during the last ten or twelve years. I have had five dozen caught since the 

 1st February last, and John Willmot is always employed by Mr. Papwith 

 and Mr. Rutter. I should think there have been from 150 to 200 per annum 

 killed ; they have been very numerous, but such a number has thinned them 

 a bit." You may possibly find some of these statements worthy insertion 

 in ' The Zoologist.'— F. A. Walker (Cricklewood, N.W.). 



MAMMALIA. 



The Fox in Australia. — Notwithstanding the serious lesson taught by 

 the introduction of the Rabbit into Australia, the colonists there have not 

 learned wisdom from the past, and are only now beginning to realise the 

 error which has been committed by the subsequent introduction of the Fox. 

 An Australian contemporary now writes as follows: — " The introduction of 

 Foxes into Australia was a grave mistake. They have already spread over 

 a wide area in this colony, and have been and are most destructive both to 

 lambs and poultry. In some localities the farmers, I am informed, cannot 

 keep poultry, and for years past on some pastoral estates it is well known 

 the rearing of lambs has had to be abandoned. Foxes attain greater size and 

 strength here than in England, and the mild climate is highly favourable in 



