434 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



produce a fine and large species of house-mouse evolved from de- 

 scendants of the Yellow-necked Field-Mouse. It is said, and pro- 

 bably with truth, that the House-mouse (Mus musculus) originally 

 came from Asia, and in course of time spread its way throughout the 

 world wherever man has gone. This mouse under various climatic 

 influences has so diverged from the type that its many variations 

 have received specific names, as Mus gentilis, Brantz., M. muralis, 

 Bar.-Ham., M. flavescens, Fisher, &c. On the North Bull, Dublin 

 Bay, there is to be found a house-mouse which, contrary to M. flavi- 

 collis, has forsaken man's habitation to lead a feral life (Journ. Linn- 

 Soc, Zool., vol. xxvi. pp. 465, 473). In the directions given to nume- 

 rous collectors of natural history specimens, all small mammals are 

 wanted except those taken in houses. If, as we see to be the case in 

 our British field-mice, other species take to a semi-domestic life, it 

 will behove the collector of the future to give his attention as much 

 to the house as to the field whilst engaged in trapping small mam- 

 mals. I have in my possession a M. musculus mouse, which I took 

 in a farm-building, so remarkable in colour — a bright yellowish fawn 

 — that had it been taken abroad would certainly have led to a 

 suspicion of its being a new species. The measurements of the 

 house-trapped flavicollis mentioned above were : Head and body, 

 100 mm. ; tail, 111 mm. ; hind foot, 12 mm. ; ear, 14 mm. — Gordon 

 Dalgliesh (Midhurst, Sussex). 



Intelligence of a Squirrel. — Eeferring to Mr. Dodsworth's article 

 (ante, p. 361) on "Mental Powers of Animals," I may mention that 

 in 1908, when passing a group of pine-trees in Bingley Wood, one of 

 which contained a nest which could not have been long built, and 

 thinking possibly it might be a Squirrel's drey, I gave the bole of the 

 tree a vigorous kick, and afterwards I took hold of the tree with both 

 hands and gave it a most violent shake, when in a few moments a 

 Squirrel fell almost at my feet in a state of trepidation. Both of us 

 for some moments were facing each other and motionless, after which 

 I made a pretence of seizing it, but never for a moment thought of 

 touching the animal, since I remember very well a person in North 

 Yorkshire who once seized one under similar circumstances, and was 

 bitten in a most vicious manner. The Squirrel no sooner saw me 

 spring towards it than it made for a birch-tree forming part of a 

 group which thinned out and ended in a solitary tree on a heath. I 

 followed close after, shaking the trees in its rear, thus forcing it 

 forward towards the solitary tree. This I did with success until the 

 Squirrel was nearing the tree in question, when it at once appeared 



