5420 Quadrupeds. 



the ' Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette ' of the 6th instant, and would seem worthy of a 

 more permanent record in the pages of the ' Zoologist.' There being so much cir- 

 cumstantial evidence as to names of witnesses, I see no reason to doubt the truth of 

 the story; and, indeed, this strange fascination of animals by the sound of the human 

 voice is hardly more wonderful than the effect sometimes produced by the same cause 

 on birds. A caged bullfinch, for instance, will instantly begin to sing on hearing the 

 voice of a particular individual, though an entire stranger, and this, too, without the 

 sound being heard in song, but merely in the utterance of simple conversation ! Are 

 we, then, to reject as incredible this narrative following? — " Musical Mice at a Concert. 

 — The ' Western Flying Post,' in reporting a concert last week, by Miss Louisa Foote 

 Hay, at Colyton, mentions the following singular circumstance: — Soon after Miss 

 Hay had commenced her first song, * Annie Laurie,' the party occupying the first seat 

 saw a mouse sauntering leisurely up and down close to the skirting of the platform on 

 which she was singing. As the song proceeded the mouse seemed spell-bound ; a lady 

 tried to drive it away by shaking' her concert-hill at it, but the animal had lost its fear 

 of man and would not retire. At the conclusion of the ballad the mouse vanished, 

 but reappeared, bringing with it a companion, when the next song was commenced. 

 At the end of the second song the two mice retreated to their hole, but made their 

 third 'appearance on the boards,' when the singing was again renewed! Eventually 

 six or seven mice came out regularly with every song, and retired when the music 

 ceased. Whilst the melodious tones filled the apartment all attempts to drive away 

 the mice were vain : these most timid members of the animal kingdom were too fasci- 

 nated to be in terror of the human family who actually filled the room ; and though 

 a fiftieth part of the means used to drive them would, under ordinary circumstances, 

 have been sufficient to have scared them away, they now stood, or slowly glided, so 

 entranced by the sacred melody which pervaded the room, that they were heedless 

 of the presence of their natural enemies. How naturalists may explain this pheno- 

 menon we know not, nor shall we swell this article by attempting a solution, but shall 

 simply conclude this strange truth — stranger than fiction — by referring any persons 

 who may doubt our statement to Mr. and Mrs. Kingdon, of Colyton, Mrs. Carew, of 

 Seaton, Mr. Leversedge, of Taunton, and Miss Isaacs, of Colyton, who were in the 

 foremost seat, and who can vouch for the truth of our report." Such is the newspaper 

 account, quantum valeat : what verdict shall we pronounce? — A. R.Hogan ; Corsham, 

 Wilts, November 15, 1856. 



Australian Field Rat. — Just after I had seen Mr. Briggs's anecdote of our long- 

 tailed field-mouse (Zool. 5311), I met with the following passage in the journal of a 

 missionary tour in South Australia by the Rev. D. J. H. Ibbetson, missionary at 

 Burra: — "I had scarcely got a mile on my way before I saw a creature draw itself 

 into a crevice in the dray-track, which appeared to me, at first sight, to be a huge 

 species of the Tarantula, with seven or eight long fleshy legs. I instantly dismounted, 

 and commenced excavating it with the hammer at the end of my whip; when I soon 

 discovered a field-rat with ten young ones, each fastened to a separate pap, and which, 

 she seemed to be able to transport from place to place by this means without inconve- 

 nience. The sight was such a novelty to me, that I cannot omit the mention of the 

 circumstance, as it may prove interesting to those who take delight in studying the 

 habits of these creatures." — The Mission Field, Vol. i. No. II, p. 257. — Arthur Hus- 

 scy ; Rottingdean, November 3, 1850. 



Occurrence of the Barbastelle Bat (Barbastellus Daubentonii, Bell) in Suffolk and 



