72 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 

MAMMALIA. 
Mus rattus at Yarmouth. — Recently I have met with a few 
examples of Mus rattus (the Black Rat), several of them, owing to 
the closing of some adjacent dilapidated houses, having found their 
way to a sail-loft, where the fat used in making the sails supple for 
sewing has been the attraction. This same loft is invaded at intervals 
from some adjoining maltings. On the afternoon of Dec. 30th, 1911, 
I was asked to call in at a smithy in the heart of the town to see a 
Rat unusually marked. The specimen, a three-quarter grown MV. 
rattus, was distinguished ,by what looked to me, in the rather dim 
light, and by artificial light, a pure white line running from the nape 
of the neck to the slope of the posterior ; all four legs and the belly 
were also white. JI noticed the poor beast, in its endeavours to 
escape, had chafed the skin off its nose. Filling an iron bath at the 
tap, I plunged the cage under water, when the unhappy creature was 
speedily drowned. I dispatched the carcase, still wet, to Dr. Tice- 
hurst, of Lowestoft, who assures me that what I assumed to be white 
was really a pale lemon, very like the ‘‘ white” on a discoloured 
Ermine.—A. H. Parterson (Ibis House, Yarmouth). 
AVES. 
Nocturnal Redwings.—Perhaps I may be permitted to reply now 
to one or two comments on my Redwing paper in the last volume of 
‘The Zoologist.’ Mr. Warren’s note (p. 429) is too obviously valuable 
to need much comment; unfortunately, I can see no present use for 
it, and must be content to file it for further use. I think I must 
refer Mr. Booth back to my first note; we are still lacking proof that 
these calling birds ave migrants in the usual sense of the word. Of 
course the word ‘‘ migrant’ is most inconveniently vague. From the 
Sparrow-Hawk beating its daily round with clockwork regularity, 
the Gull returning to sleep each night on its lake, or the Cormorant 
on its tower or cliff; from the punctual autumnal migration of the 
Grouse from heather to barley, or the irregular movements of frozen- 
out Grebes—from all these, to the Grey Plover or the Cuckoo, the 
