Birds. 213 



Note on the keen scent and persevering efforts of the Weasel tribe in pursuit of their 

 prey. A relative of the present First Lord of the Treasury informs me, that a clergy- 

 man of the Church of England and himself were once out in the fields a few miles 

 from Burton, in quest of feathered game, when they suddenly observed a hare, all be- 

 spattered with dirt, and evidently much distressed, to come through a gap in a fence 

 close at hand, and cross the field. In a very short time two stoats {Mustela erminea) 

 made their appearance at the same gap, in hot pursuit of the hare, but overran the scent. 

 Nothing daunted by this reverse, they made a cast in fine style, regained the scent, and 

 continued running on the track whilst in sight of my informant and his friend. Ano- 

 ther gentleman, on whose veracity I can also implicitly rely, tells me that when a boy 

 he was once hiding himself in a bam, waiting for " queests," when he saw a mouse 

 run hastily across the floor, some little while after followed by a \\feasel (Mustela vul- 

 garis) of particularly small dimensions (most probably a female), which carried its nose 

 very low, as if smelling its way, and passing, without any deviation, along the track, 

 entered the hole through which the mouse had previously gone. The poor little mouse 

 thus pursued again made its appearance, and presently after the weasel also, upon the 

 track, as before. This was repeated several times, and from the persevering efforts of 

 , the pui-suer, there is little doubt that the mouse ultimately fell a victim to the keen 

 scent and the rapacity of the weasel. A respectable mechanic also assures me that he 

 was once witness to the fact of a stoat swimming across a brook about two yards wide, 

 in pursuit of a rat which he had just before observed to swim across. — Id. 



Note on the Noctule Bat (Vespertilio noctula). A remarkably fine male specimen 

 of the noctule, measuring fully fifteen and a half inches in extent of wing, was found 

 in the college garden on Easter-eve, with one wing broken. They are rarely seen here 

 so early in the year, but towards the end of June and July they appear in considerable 

 numbers, flying rather low over the streets (in contradiction to White of Selborne's epi- 

 thet of altivolans), and exhibiting great powers of wing. Oxford, from its old build- 

 ings and numerous towers, is a complete nursery of bats ; and 1 suspect the tower of 

 Merton is a favourite haunt of this species, as some years since, when I occupied rooms 

 opposite to it, they frequently, as well as other species, flew through the windows on 

 summer evenings ; but the rapidity and strength of their flight made it very difficult 

 to catch them with a net. On these occasions, they would dash close to my face in a 

 menacing manner, snapping their teeth loudly, instead of showing the terrified timid- 

 ity of the smaller species. -Fredk. Holme ; C. C. C. Oxford^ May 15, 1843. 



Note on the Habits of the Nuthatch. By the Rev. J. C. Atkinson, 



When an inmate of the parsonage at Pakenham (Suffolk) I noticed 

 the occasional visits of a pair of nuthatches [Sitta europcea) to an old 

 mulberry-tree which stood about eight or ten feet from the dining- 

 room window. In order to encourage them frequently to repeat their 

 visits, I put some nuts in chinks in various parts of the tree. In the 

 course of a few days these were discovered and carried off. By re- 

 placing them with fresh ones as soon as removed, the birds soon learnt 

 to pay incessant attention to their new feeding-ground. They were 



