ON A BLACK VARIETY OF THE WATER VOLE. 287 



at present remains unique, but there is a rumour that this form 

 has occurred near Kendal. 



Yorkshire. — Mr. W. D. Eoebuck says: — " The black variety 

 occurs in a few localities." * 



Lancashire. — Macpherson has seen plenty of Water Voles in 

 the north of Lancashire, but all were brown ones. 



Cheshire. — Mr. King, of Carlisle, informs Macpherson that 

 he once came across a colony of Black Water Voles on the banks 

 of the Cheshire Dee. Mr. Edward Comber sent for Aplin's 

 inspection the skin and skull of a Black Water Vole, which he 

 captured in the winter of 1881-2, close to the village of Parkgate 

 on the Dee, hundred of Wirrall. Although living there ever since, 

 he has never met with another ; but a friend informed him, on 

 May 15th, 1890, that he had seen a Black Vole in a pond about 

 two miles from where the above-mentioned specimen was obtained 

 (in litt. May 6th and 14th, 1890). 



Warwickshire. — Aplin has never met with it in those parts 

 of the southern half of the county with which he is acquainted. 



Buckinghamshire. — Aplin has been unable to hear or see 

 anything of this form in west and south Bucks. 



Oxfordshire. — Aplin has once or twice seen very dark- 

 looking Voles on the banks of the North Oxfordshire streams, 

 where the brown form is very numerous, but he is not aware that 

 the black variety has ever been actually obtained in the county. 

 Mr. C. M. Prior, however, informed him some years ago that he 

 saw a Black Vole on the banks of the Sorbrook near Bodicote in 

 August, 1875. The Rev. A. Matthews never met with it about 

 Weston-on-the-Green (in litt.), nor has Mr. W. H. Warner ever 

 seen it at Standlake, or in the low-lying country on the banks of 

 the upper Isis. 



Gloucestershire. — Mr. H. W. Marsden has made enquiries 

 which, together with those made by ourselves, go to prove the 

 absence of the black form from this count}'. 



Berkshire. — Mr. Warner has not met with it at Fyfield, near 

 Abingdon, nor on the northern borders of the county along 

 the upper Isis. Enquiries made by Aplin in South Berkshire 

 resulted in his not being able to hear anything of it in the 

 Kennet valley. 



* • Vertebrate Fauna of Yorkshire,' p. 14. 



