222 The zoologist. 



minority, seeing that this sex, in variability of every description, 

 is less inclined to depart from the mean.* 



2. S. atra, Laur. — I would not refer to this strictly alpine 

 species, but for misleading accounts of its existence in the 

 Schwarzwald and elsewhere, which anyone interested in the fauna 

 of the country is sure to hear. These may be safely attributed 

 to errors of identification with Triton alpestris in its terrestrial 

 costume. 



The nearest point of its occurrence on this side of the Rhine 

 is the neighbourhood of Isny, in the extreme S.E. of Wurttem- 

 berg, and within the Bavarian alpine system (Leydig). 



A number of specimens were liberated, in 1876 (cf. Zeitschrift 

 fur Wiss. Zoologie), near Wildbad and Freiburg, in the Black 

 Forest, but nothing more has been heard of them. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



MAMMALIA. 



Badgers near Scarborough. — On April 15th a pair of Badgers were cap- 

 tured alive at Flixton, a small village on the Yorkshire Wolds, some six miles 

 from Scarborough. On digging down to the nest a mass of moss and dry 

 grass sufficient to fill a wheelbarrow was found, in which the Badgers were 

 curled up asleep. Both were secured uninjured ; but the male, a fine 

 animal weighing 26 lbs., was afterwards killed, and has since been stuffed. 

 The female has been kept alive, in the hopes of securing a litter of young 

 ones. Whilst digging down to the nest a very perfect skull of the Badger 

 was unearthed, which had evidently lain there a considerable time. — 

 William J. Clarke (44, Huntriss Row, Scarborough). 



Polecats at Scarborough one hundred years ago. — A friend of 

 mine, while going through the Archives of Scarborough, a short time ago, 



* Such, at least, is the result of statistics, so far as they have been pub- 

 lished with respect to man, and my own observations agree in giving a 

 considerable preponderance to males. This can be well seen among the 

 manufacturing population of Lancashire, where the phenomenon is not rare, 

 especially among children. The mortality here during growth is doubtless 

 increased by bad nutrition, unhealthy surroundings, and overcrowding, 

 which, besides favouring aneemia and other diseases, are not calculated to 

 alleviate the ordinary evils associated with albinism : defective sight, photo- 

 phobia, nystagmus, &c. 



