frOTES AND QUERIES. l/'O 



1887, which died soon afterwards from injury in trapping her. The second, 

 a male, dug out of a drain on Baron Rothschild's estate at Wadesden, on 

 March 9th, 1888. The third, a young male, caught at Stoke Mandeville, 

 July 13th, 1889. The last two are still alive in my possession, and tame 

 enough to handle. The older of the two has paired with the Ferret, and 

 bred a number of young ones, which are very good workers at rats, especially 

 in stacks where activeness is required. I should very much like to know 

 whether you have ever met with an authenticated cross between a Stoat 

 and] Ferret, also a Weasel and Ferret, which I have been trying for some 

 time to obtain. I hear of several cases, but upon investigation, and after 

 seeing the animals, I can see no signs of such a cross. In the case of a 

 Stoat being the father, would you expect to see any indication of the black 

 up to the tail, or the colour of the coat showing any of the Stoat " ruddiness " 

 about it? Also, in the case of the cross being obtained, would it breed 

 again or be a mule and unproductive? Should anyone like to see these 

 Polecats, I shall be pleased to show them. I have heard of others being 

 shot and trapped in Bucks within the last two years, proving that this 

 animal, in some parts of England at least, is by no means extinct. — 

 J. H. B. Cowley (Callipers, Rickmansworth). 



Albino Water Vole. — As albinism and other abnormal variations in 

 colour, although not uncommon in another member of the genus Arvicola (viz. 

 A.agrestis), seem to be rather rare in A. amphibia, it may be worth while 

 recording that in August, 1888, 1 examined a pure white Water Vole which 

 had been killed on the banks of the Kennet near Newbury, Berks, a short 

 time previously. It had bright pink eyes, and was therefore a true albino, 

 and not merely a white variety. The taxidermist who preserved it told me 

 that he saw another white Vole near the same place shortly afterwards. 

 Lord Clermont, in his ' Guide to the Quadrupeds and Reptiles of Europe' 

 (p. 84), mentions a variety " white with red eyes (albino)"; and Macgillivray 

 (' British Quadrupeds,' p. 264) says he has seen " an albino with yellowish 

 white hair and pink eyes." I have never handled one of the black Water 

 Voles found commonly in the north of Scotland, and also in Cambridgeshire, 

 but I imagine that they should not be considered as melanisms, but rather as 

 examples of a local race of an uncommon but normal colour liable to appear 

 at any time ; like the black Rabbits, which are often found when there has 

 been no admixture of domesticated blood. Examples intermediate in colour 

 between the black and brown Water Voles are found where both forms occur, 

 Macgillivray, it is true, says that the black kind is generally much smaller 

 than the brown ; but he also says, " Some individuals are pure black, but 

 others are blackish brown, and all intermediate tints are observed until we 

 come to the ordinary colour." The Rev. L. Jenyns describes the colours of 

 examples found in the fen ditches of Cambridgeshire, where they were not 

 infrequent, as "sometimes of as deep and velvety hue a3 in the Mole; but 



