192 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



MAMMALIA. 



Hybrid between Donkey and Burchell's Zebra. — Just before the 

 mail leaves (April 5th), I want to give you the first information about 

 the birth of a hybrid between a male American tame Donkey and a 

 female Burchell Zebra. I cannot have a photo taken to-day, as the 

 mail leaves in an hour ; but you will have the first print of it. It is 

 very little striped across the hocks and ears, and has a black stripe all 

 along the back. The colour is a rich reddish fawn, lighter under- 

 neath ; it has a white star, and four white feet, like the father. It 

 looks strong and healthy, and is probably of great interest, as it may be 

 able to resist tsetse-fly and horse-sickness. — J. W. B. Gunning (Pre- 

 toria Museum and Zoological Gardens). 



Pine-Marten in Ross-shire. — On the 21st of April last a very 

 beautiful specimen of the Yellow-breasted Marten (Mustela mart.es) was 

 trapped in Eoss- shire. It measured over thirty inches in length, and 

 is of a uniform dark brown colour, except the breast, which is yellow. 

 Some lambs were attacked in the district where this Marten was killed, 

 and the people there think it was the work of this animal (?). It has 

 been sent to me for preservation. — John Morley (King Street, Scar- 

 borough). 



AVES. 



Varieties of Blackbird, Thrush, and Starling. — During last winter 

 I saw no fewer than four Blackbirds (three males and one female) with 

 more or less white in the plumage, all from different localities in tbis 

 neighbourhood ; one of the specimens was peculiarly marked, the head 

 and fore part of the body being white, and the hinder half of body and 

 tail being the usual black. Also a Song-Thrusb, almost wholly white, 

 except a few dark spots on breast, and here and there a patch of the 

 usual pale brown upon different parts of the body ; tail of the normal 

 colour, except the two middle feathers, which are of a dirty white. The 

 appearance of the bird at first sight reminds one very forcibly of the 

 Clouded Magpie Moth (Abraxas idmata), as some of the spots, especially 

 on the side of the neck, are much darker than others, which appear 



