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NOTES AND QUERIES. 



MAMMALIA. 



A Hare with one Ear. — There has just been given to me a very 

 curious Hare, which differs from other Hares in having only one ear. The 

 most careful search failed to discover any traces that there had ever been 

 more than one ear. The place where it ought to have been was perfectly 

 furred over, and although under the skin there was the usual opening in 

 the bone of the skull, no trace of cartilage was to be found there. The 

 animal must have been born with one ear only, or if with both the missing 

 organ must have disappeared at a very early stage in the creature's growth. 

 — Robert Service (Maxwelltown, Dumfries). 



White Moles. — White Moles are pretty often heard about, but as yet 

 I have not seen one. All the so-called " white" Moles I have met with are 

 really of varying shades of fawn, or pale cream, or buff, sometimes with 

 more or less of a rusty red on snout, and under the breast and throat. 

 I have just seen one of the usual pale yellow, or buff, colour with rusty red 

 spots on nose and along the middle line of the abdomen, which was captured 

 in Rerwick by Mr. John Johnstone, who follows his occupation of mole- 

 catcher there. The specimen is intended for the Observatory Museum 

 collection, and was sent to Mr. Truckell, to whom I am indebted for 

 allowing me to examine it while in the flesh, and also for permitting me to 

 make the following extracts from the letter with which Mr, Johnstone 

 accompanied his present : — "I have never got any pure white Moles — they 

 are all cream, some lighter than others. My father got one on Lochside of 

 Lochrutton about twenty years ago, and he used to remark that it was 

 strange none had been got on that farm since either he or my uncle — I forget 

 which — had got some six of these white Moles about thirty years previously. 

 I got one on Lochside about fifteen years ago, and since then I took 

 two others in that neighbourhood ; and I got three, five or six years ago, on 

 Torrs of Auchencairn ; and on the farm of Airds on Balcary estate I have 

 taken some ten or twelve in eighteen years, some years two or three, and 

 other years none. I believe there are several farms in Holywood where 

 cream-coloured Moles are got, but I have never wrought there. As regards 

 other varieties than the cream-coloured ones, — I may say that in the cream- 

 coloured Moles the female is always lighter than the male, — I get one or 

 two occasionally on Barcheskie and neighbouring farms with about the size 

 of a sixpence or less of cream-colour on the belly, and a slight tip of the 

 same on the tail. There are some that have the under fur much lighter 

 than the top fur, but my experience is that they are only got in certain 



