214 THE ZOOLOGIST, 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



MAMMALIA. 



Animals eating Yew.— The poisonous properties of the yew referred 

 to (pp. 151, 186) is, at all events in the Midlands, a well-known fact to 

 agriculturists. I can well remember the painful result of a herd of cattle 

 breaking into a spinney of yew trees, and feeding on the leaves. The 

 incident I refer to occurred some years ago in Leicestershire, and, without 

 going into details, it will suffice to state that, out of twenty-five well-fed 

 bullocks, eighteen were dead in the morning. I think the generally 

 accepted hypothesis is, that the leaves have a narcotic acrid effect, acting 

 more on the spinal cord than on the blood ! Mr. FitzGerald's supposition 

 (p. 186) is certainly wrong; but I believe the nature of the case greatly 

 depends on the quantity swallowed, for if taken with, say, three or four 

 times the quantity of their ordinary food, it is said that the foliage of this 

 plant is comparatively harmless. — C. E. Stott (Bolton-le-Moors). 



Daubenton's Bat near Edinburgh.— I have recently examined speci- 

 mens of this probably overlooked species, which were captured at Liberton, 

 near Edinburgh, in July, 1880, and supposed to be specimens of the 

 Pipistrelle, Vesperugo pipistrellus. Daubenton's Bat, Vespertilio daubentonii, 

 has not, I believe, been hitherto recorded for this county. — W. Eagle 

 Clarke (Science and Art Museum, Edinburgh). 



CETACEA. 



Common Rorqual on the Essex Coast. — I had an opportunity of 

 examining the whale which was captured on Feb. 12th, at Holliwell, about 

 four miles from Burnham-on-Crouch, and found it to be a Common Rorqual, 

 Balcenoptera musculus, female, not fully grown, measuring a little under 

 47 ft. in length, and in poor condition. The most interesting feature to 

 remark is the curious asymmetry of colour which appears to be a constant 

 character of the species, and, though unnoticed or unrecorded till of late 

 years, is nevertheless very apparent to a careful observer ; in this specimen, 

 on the left side, the top of the head, the under jaw, and the baleen 

 (so-called "whalebone"), pendant from the upper jaw, being of slaty-black 

 colour; whilst, on the right side, a portion of the upper jaw, about 2 ft. of 

 the baleen in front, and a strip of the under jaw to about 5£ in., were 

 white, whilst the throat was slate-black, extending in an oblique line to 

 the junction of the pectoral fin ; the remaining portion of the throat and 

 under parts being white nearly up to the tail-flukes. This difference of 

 colour on the two sides of the head was first recorded and figured by 

 Prof. G. O. Sars (Christiania Videnskabs Sels, and Eorh. 1880). 



