180 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



every gradation of tint may be found in different individuals between 

 this uniform rich black and the reddish brown which more ordinarily 

 prevails" ('Observations in Natural History,' p. 76). I have once or 

 twice seen very dark-looking Voles on the banks of our North Oxfordshire 

 streams, but I am not aware that the black variety has ever been actually 

 obtained in this county. Mr. C. M. Prior, however, informed me some 

 years ago that he saw a black Vole on the banks of the Sorbrook near 

 Bodicote in August, 1875. The Water Vole always looks lighter coloured 

 and redder in summer than in winter; this difference is owing to the 

 absence in the former season of the long dark-tipped hairs which give a deep 

 brown cast to the fur in winter. It would be interesting to ascertain the 

 exact distribution of the black race in Great Britain. A somewhat analogous 

 variety of A. agrestis is on record (Zool. 1886, p. 332). — 0. V. Aplin 

 (Bloxham, Oxon). 



CETACEA. 



White -beaked Dolphin on the Norfolk Coast. — On October 7th, 

 1887, when shooting in the harbour near Cley, Norfolk, I came across a 

 Porpoise stranded on the mud near the mouth of Morston Creek. It was 

 rather " high," and the head, which I cut off, smelt so horribly that I had 

 to tow it behind the boat and leave it near the harbour-mouth for the night. 

 However, it was brought safely up to Cley the next morning. As it was 

 not clean when I came away I left it there, and found the next year that 

 only the lower jaw and apart of the upper had been saved. A man who saw 

 the carcass five days before I found it described the colours as dark blackish 

 grey above and white beneath ; it was about three or four feet long. As 

 my acquaintance with cetaceans is very limited, I was unable to determine 

 the species satisfactorily from the books I could refer to. I have therefore 

 recently submitted the remains to Mr. T. Southwell, of Norwich, who kindly 

 writes that they " unquestionably belonged to a White-beaked Dolphin, 

 Delphinus (Lagenorhynchus) albirostris." Mr. Southwell has recorded 

 several occurrences of this Dolphin on the Norfolk coast (Trans. Norf. Nat. 

 Soc. vol. iv. p. 120), and remarks in his letter, " This species seems very 

 partial to the east coast in its spring and autumn migrations." On Sept. 

 24th, 1888, I found a Common Porpoise, Phoccena communis, stranded on 

 Cley beach, and the same day, when out in a boat about a mile and a half 

 off shore, saw a small school of them plunging along and occasionally tossing 

 themselves half out of water. — 0. V. Aplin (Bloxham, Oxon). 



BIRDS. 



The Breeding of Pallas's Sand Grouse in Moray.— It will be in 

 the recollection of readers of this Journal that at the last meeting of the 

 British Association held at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in September, 1889, 

 Prof. Newton exhibited a newly-hatched chick of Pallas's Sand Grouse, 



