222 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



period of twenty years. Secondly, Mr. Coward's words — " the Hares 

 were still in their white winter pelage, though most of them had already 

 patches of brown about the head and flanks " (in March, 1899) — seem to 

 imply his surprise that the mild weather had not the effect of causing the 

 Hares to reassume their darker pelage. Now it is my experience that, 

 whatever be the cause and date of the assumption of the winter coat, once 

 assumed it cannot be thrown off until the regular annual moulting time — 

 in my experience the first week of May. Thus I have already recorded 

 the incongruous spectacle of a Hare of Scotch blood browsing the flowery 

 pastures of late April in the South of Ireland, the while clothed in a con- 

 spicuous livery of white. And the same thing happened in the case of a 

 Hare kept captive at Cambridge. The patches of brown seen by Mr. 

 Coward were not then, as his remarks would imply, the advance guard of 

 the dark coat of summer, but the rearguard of that of the previous sum. 

 mer, to which the winter change had never extended. Before concluding 

 this short note, 1 should like to mention (what, indeed, has been partly the 

 cause of my having written) how grateful I shall always be for any informa- 

 tion which may tend to throw light upon the interesting question of winter 

 whitening in animals. — G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton (Kilmanock, Arthurs- 

 town, Waterford, Ireland). 



AVES. 



Curious Accident to a Young Mistle- Thrush. — A friend of mine in 

 Hampstead caught a young Mistle-Thrush (Furdus viscivorus) in his garden, 

 which was not old enough to fly, and put it into a cage to preserve it from 

 Cats. On handling the bird the first time he noticed what appeared to be 

 a skewer sticking out about half an inch near the left shoulder, and which 

 was apparently securely imbedded. When examining the bird I found 

 that a twig was firmly fixed, and upon pulling out the same with some 

 effort it proved to be an inch and a half in length, and an eighth of an inch 

 in diameter. The point was stuck into the membrane of the left wing 

 close to the bend, and penetrated nearly half an inch below the skin. The 

 bird did not appear to suffer any pain, though quite a deep hole was left 

 where the twig had been. The piece of stick is before me as I write, and 

 is clotted with some little blood, and a number of small feathers are 

 adhering to the larger half. Had the bird not been relieved from the 

 stick it is conceivable that the latter would have become even more firmly 

 imbedded, and ultimately prevented the use of the wing altogether. The 

 outer end of the twig has apparently been broken off, which tends to show 

 that it may have been considerably longer when first it came in contact 

 with the bird. One solution as to how the bird became transfixed is that 

 it may have fallen out of the nest on to a small branch with an upturned 



