NOTES AND QUERIES. 17 



Bears in the Tyrol. — The European Brown Bear, it appears, is not yet 

 extinct in Switzerland. Towards the end of May last many distinct traces 

 of Bears were found in the Randena Valley, Tyrol. 



The Moufflon in Hungary. — The Moufflon has taken so kindly to the 

 climate of Hungary that at Ghymes, where Count Forbach has established 

 a colony, they already number 400, and have also spread into other distant 

 properties. The Hungarian Sports Protection Association is on the qui vive, 

 and has laid before the Minister of the Interior proposals for the protection 

 of these animals, close times being suggested as follows : — For rams, Nov. 

 15th to May 15th ; for ewes, from Feb. 1st to Sept. 15th. 



Grey Variety of the Hare in Dorsetshire. — During the past autumn 

 a curious variety of the Hare was killed on the borders of Hants and 

 Dorset, I believe on the estate of Lord Shaftesbury. The ordinary brown 

 colour was replaced by silvery grey, darker on the back and paler beneath, 

 interspersed with darker but white-tipped hairs, giving it a singularly 

 grizzled appearance. It proved to be a male, and not full-grown. — G. B. 

 Cokbin (Riugwood, Hants). 



A Black Variety of the Fox in the New Forest.— Toward the end of 

 July last, just before cub-hunting had commenced in the New Forest, a 

 Fox was seen, which at a little distance appeared to be uniformly black, 

 except the under parts, which were much greyer. Is not this a very 

 uncommon variety in England ? — G. B. Corbin (Ringwood, Hants). 



[It may be safely asserted that black or partially black Foxes in 

 England are very rarely met with, or they would be surely detected by the 

 keen eyes of fox-hunters and duly reported. We do not remember more 

 than one such case to have been previously noticed. This was imported by 

 the late Mr. R. F. Tomes, of Welford-on-Avon, who described a Fox which 

 had been killed in Warwickshire as having all the under parts of a greyish 

 black hue. But in this case, as will be observed, the animal could not 

 properly be described as black, but only partially so. Occasionally Foxes 

 are killed in which the tip of the brush is black. — Ed.] 



Cream-coloured and Black and White Moles. — About the middle of 



April last several cream-coloured Moles were taken in this neighbourhood, 



kq where others have been previously i^et with, and one of them (the finest I 



n have seen of this colour) was brought to me. The man who caught them 



informed me that a short time before he had taken a black and white one^ 



N but this I did not see. — G. B. Corbin (Ringwood, Hants). 



BIRDS. 



Two-barred Crossbill in Surrey. — I am able to record the occurrence 

 of the Two-barred Crossbill (Loxia bifasciata) in this neighbourhood. Two 

 specimens, a male and a female, were killed on Frith Hill, less than three 

 ZOOLOGIST, — JAN. 1890. C 



