189 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



MAMMALIA. 



Notes on the Stoat (Mustek erminea) and Weasel (M. vulgaris). — 

 Have any readers of ' The Zoologist ' noticed how much smaller white 

 or pied Stoats are than those of the normal colour ? Nearly all those 

 I have examined in this state have been females. Mr. Lydekker, in 

 his work on the British Mammalia, gives the length of an adult Stoat 

 as — body lOf in., tail 6^ in. Two specimens I have in my collection 

 in winter dress, taken in Surrey, measure, from tip of nose to end of 

 tail, 10^ in. and 11| in. I have also a fine male in summer dress, 

 which measures 20 in. On referring to the Weasel, Mr. Lydekker 

 says : — " Occasionally, though very rarely, the Weasel is stated to turn 

 white in winter, the tail then retaining its reddish hue, although be- 

 coming paler than ordinary." I have the skin of a very small female 

 Weasel, measuring 1\ in., taken in Eussia, which is pure white 

 throughout. — Gordon Dalgliesh (Clairval, Collings Eoad, Guernsey). 



AVES. 



Note on the Sedge-Warbler. — It is well known that the Sedge- 

 Warbler (Acwcephalus phragmitis) is generally to be found in sedgy and 

 marshy localities in the immediate neighbourhood of water or stream. 

 I have, however, noted that about the time of this bird's arrival in 

 spring, viz. about the first half of May, it may be met with not un- 

 usually in dry thickets or hedges, quite remote from any water or 

 marsh. I have observed it then in a garden shrubbery quite a mile 

 from the nearest spot which might be thought suitable to its habits. 

 Last year a pair nested in a small thick copse in this neighbourhood, 

 in a very dry spot, quite half a mile from the nearest water. This 

 copse is on a chalky upland, nearly two hundred feet higher than the 

 valley of the Eiver Beane, where this bird is common. I had heard 

 the birds singing in the thickets for some weeks, and ultimately found 

 their nest in a dense growth of nettles surrounded by hazel and horn- 

 beam scrub. It contained three eggs, and I saw both the male and 

 female close to the nest. — Allan Ellison (Watton ; near Hertford^. 



