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NOTES AND QUEBIES. 



MAMMALIA. 



An Apparent Instance of the Hereditary Transmission of a Muti- 

 lation in the Domestic Cat. — When lately on a visit to a connection of 

 mine, who lives at Penn Grove, Hereford, I noticed a yellow tom-Cat, 

 apparently tailless, but found that there existed a short stump, scarcely 

 noticeable. On enquiry I learned the following particulars : — His 

 mother was of a tortoiseshell colour, and belonged also to my friend, 

 and was born at the house with a full-sized tail, which was bitten off 

 when she was a kitten of from twelve to fourteen days old. His 

 father's tail was of full length, but was broken in a door, and, though 

 not truncated, became thenceforward limp and trailing. In due course 

 of time the tortoiseshell-Cat gave birth to a single kitten (the above 

 yellow tom-Cat that I saw), which when born had only a mere vestige 

 of a tail as at present. The mother was then lost, so that no particu- 

 lars can be given as to any subsequent progeny she may have had. 

 The owner of these Cats is unaware of there having been any Manx 

 strain in either parent, both of whom, however, as I have above stated, 

 had been provided with the normal appendage ; nor was it known that 

 any Manx Cats had lived in the neighbourhood. Further than this, it 

 is a remarkable fact that I find the yellow tailless tom-Cat to which I 

 refer, son of these two mutilated parents, was the father of three 

 kittens last year by a Cat who is provided with a proper tail, two of 

 which kittens were born without tails, and the third, like its mother, 

 with a tail. — W. F. de Vismes Kane (Drumleaske House, Monaghan). 



Stoat and Ferret Hybrids. — Mr. G. T. Eope will find his queries 

 (Zool. 1906, p. 468) to some extent answered, if he will refer to 

 P.Z.S. 1899, p. 2. Portraits of a specimen (in my collection) are 

 published in ' Eton Nature- Study and Observational Lessons,' by 

 Messrs. M. D. Hill, M.A., and W. M. Webb, F.L.S. (London : Duck- 

 worth & Co., 1903), vol. i. p. 87, from photographs specially taken for 

 that work, under the direction of Mr. Webb ; and these portraits are 

 reproduced in an article by Mr. Webb in a magazine entitled ' The 

 World's Work and Play ' (Heinemann) for April, 1906. In March 



