( 433 ) 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



MAMMALIA. 



A Sheep-killing Horse. — One of the cart-horses on a farm here 

 has lately developed an intense dislike to sheep, and savagely attacks 

 these animals when he can get at them. On two occasions he has 

 succeeded in killing his victim, and would in all probability have de- 

 stroyed a third, had he not been driven off by the shepherd. He goes 

 at them with extreme fury, striking with his fore legs, biting, kicking 

 and kneeling upon them. Apart from his strange antipathy for 

 sheep, this horse (a gelding of about seven or eight years old) is a 

 quiet, good-tempered, tractable animal. As is well known, many 

 mares running with their foals show great dislike to dogs, and the 

 same may be said of cows, ewes, and sows when their respective 

 offspring are young. The close affinity between wolf and dog, how- 

 ever, seems sufficient to account for this. But that the sight of an 

 inoffensive herbivorous animal of comparatively small size should 

 have the effect of exciting the rage of an otherwise amiable and 

 well-conducted horse is hard to understand. — G. T. Eope (Blaxhall, 

 Suffolk). 



Additional Notes on Mus flavicollis, Melch. — On Oct. 31st last 

 I trapped a fine female of Mus flavicollis in a house cupboard set 

 apart for household stores. The invading of man's habitation (ante, 

 p. 243) by this mouse is not without significance, and tends to 

 urge a still further claim for its establishment as a good species. 

 True it is that there are many reports on record of M. sylvaticus 

 being taken in houses. Many such reports have been conveyed to 

 me, but on careful investigation all the captures reported were flavi- 

 collis, and not sylvaticus, though without doubt sylvaticus does 

 occur at times in houses. Should anyone sufficiently interested in 

 the matter of the house- loving proclivities of flavicollis wish to in- 

 vestigate the truth of this, let him lay down a few traps where 

 potatoes or other " root " vegetables have been stored in a cellar, and 

 should flavicollis occur in his neighbourhood he is almost certain to 

 trap it there. It may be that in course of time our domiciles will 

 Zool. 4th ser. vol. XIV.. November, 1910. 2 h 



