2Q4 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



miles from Penzance, but he added that during the thirty-seven 

 years in which he had been resident in West Cornwall he had 

 never until then seen one alive or dead. It would appear, how- 

 ever, from a subsequent communication by Mr. A. H. Cocks 

 {torn. cit. p. 145) that the Polecat is not quite so rare in Cornwall 

 as Mr. Cornish supposed, for he himself had received a live one 

 from Penzance a few years ago, and had heard of one being 

 obtained in East Cornwall in 1880 on Col. Gryll's property at 

 Lewarne, about five miles west of Liskeard. 



In the Midlands the Polecat is reported to be now very rare. 

 In Leicestershire, for example, it is stated that none have been 

 met with for many years (Zool. 1885, pp. 165, 166), although the 

 Kev. A. Matthews, of Gumley, Market Harborough, writing in 

 1884, did not then consider it as uncommon in his neighbourhood 

 (Zool. 1884, p. 271). 



In Oxfordshire, according to Mr. 0. V. Aplin, it is very 

 scarce towards the north of the county, where of late years only 

 a few solitary ones have been met with ; as at Adderbury, on the 

 banks of the Sorbrook, in 1872 ; on Todmorton Heath in 1875 ; 

 atSoulderninl876; and at Banbury in 1880. In central Oxford- 

 shire, where there are large woods, Polecats are rather more 

 numerous. A taxidermist at Oxford, in Sept. 1885, had no less 

 than eight sent to him for preservation, four of which were from 

 the neighbourhood of Thame. 



In Northamptonshire, in October, 1883, a Polecat was killed 

 near Aynhoe. 



In Warwickshire, as Mr. 0. V. Aplin informs me, an old 

 ratcatcher, in 1883, stated that he had killed one at Farnborough 

 seven years previously, but had seen none since; in 1882 a very 

 fine old one was killed at Watergate in South Warwickshire. 



In Essex, Dr. Laver, of Colchester, remembers it as being 

 frequently met with, but states that it is now becoming very rare, 

 and is in many districts already extinct (Trans. Essex Field Club, 

 vol. ii. p. 167). 



In Suffolk, according to Mr. G. T. Hope, the Polecat has 

 been completely exterminated throughout the eastern part of the j 

 county, and in the west it is very nearly extinct. In March, 1888, 

 one was caught at Mildenhall in a trap set for an Otter (Zool. 

 1888, p. 183). 



Twenty years ago Mr. Thomas Southwell, of Norwich, 



