226 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 

MAMMALIA. 
Otters destroying Moorhens.—While fishing a few weeks since on 
a river in Westmorland, I happened to remark to the river-watcher 
that I noticed a great diminution in the number of Water-hens 
(Gallinula chloropus), and that now I did not see more than one where 
a few years ago I could count twenty. He told me that Otters (Lutra 
vulgaris) had recently taken to killing them, and showed me the 
mouth of a drain which was thickly covered with their feathers. 
This river is well stocked with trout, but contains few coarse fish or 
eels, which may possibly account for the changed habits of the 
Otters. I should be greatly interested to learn whether any of your 
readers have noticed a similar destruction of these birds on other 
streams.—R. H. Ramsporuam (Elmhurst, Garstang). 
AVES. 
The Songs of Chiffchaff and Willow-Wren.—Col. Meyrick’s note 
(ante, p. 190), headed ‘‘Mimicking Song of Chiffchaff,” is very inte- 
resting. After describing the Chiffchaff as finishing its normal song 
with an exact reproduction of the song of the Willow-Wren, he asks 
whether there is any other possible explanation of its having the 
song of the two species, besides that of mimicry. I think it just 
possible that these two closely allied species had originally one type 
of song, that this was rather the Chiffchaff type than the Willow- 
Wren type, and that the Willow-Wren’s notes have been added in 
the course of ages, just as the Lesser Whitethroat seems to have 
added its loud high notes to the normal Whitethroat song, which it — 
still constantly utters in a subdued tone, before indulging in its own 
peculiar performance. This idea occurred to me as the result of 
hearing, on April 13th, 1897, as recorded in my diary, a Willow-Wren 
(apparently just arrived) singing but a few notes, and those notes 
curiously like the notes of the Chiffchaff. It may not be easy for 
anyone familiar with the two songs to imagine how this could be, 
but it undoubtedly was the fact that the bird was a Willow- Wren, 
