36 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



MAMMALIA. 

 An Albino Water- Shrew. — It may be of interest to note that the 

 Natural History Museum has just received a nearly perfect albino of 

 the British Water- Shrew (Neomys fodiens bicolor). The upper surface 

 is completely white except just across the shoulders, but the under 

 surface shows a certain suffusion of brownish. The specimen was 

 sent from " South Hampshire" by someone who did not enclose his 

 name. Should he see this notice, I should be obliged if he would 

 send me his name and address for entry in our Registers. — Oldfield 

 Thomas (Natural History Museum, S.W., Dec. 20th, 1913). 



A VES. 



Status of Blackcap and Garden-Warbler. — Mr. Butterfield asks for 

 the experiences of other ornithologists in regard to the relative abun- 

 dance of the Blackcap and Garden-Warbler." The difficulty in forming 

 a judgment, as he probably recognizes, is that of distinguishing the 

 two birds' songs ; for it is hardly once in twenty times that you get 

 a satisfactory view of the singer. When the Blackcap sings its 

 whole song there should be no doubt as to its identity ; the song 

 ends with a brilliant passage such as never occurs in the Garden- 

 Warbler's. The Blackcap, however, often stops short of this final 

 passage, and then there is less to distinguish it by. But though it 

 is undeniably one of the nicer distinctions among birds' notes, it is 

 still usually not impossible. The Garden- Warbler's song is quieter 

 in manner and more level in tone ; the Blackcap's has more of the 

 effect of sparkle and " cross-hatching" among the notes. If my ear 

 is to be trusted, it leaves me in no doubt about the correctness of 

 Mr. Butterfield's opinion. Wherever I go in early summer I hear 

 more Garden- Warblers than Blackcaps. The fact struck me last 

 May in two such widely separated counties as Northumberland and 

 Sussex. 



The Lesser Whitethroat, curiously enough, is another bird which 



seems to retain an undeserved reputation for scarcity; curiously, 



because its song is so unmistakable that there should be no difficulty 



in estimating its relative numbers anywhere. There are parts of the 



The Zoologist.' 1913, p. 431. 



