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NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



MAMM ALI A. 

 A Grey Hare. — As we were beating a small allotment ground 

 between here and Milcomb on September 19th last, a Hare got up 

 at my feet. My companion's small boy was walking between us, and 

 we were just wheeling. The Hare went straight for the boy, passing 

 close to him, and went on in that line, so that I could not shoot at 

 it. It was quite grey; not the colour of a wild Eabbit, but more like 

 that of the domesticated variety called the " silver-grey." We could 

 never find it again anywhere round there. Hares do not try to 

 stay long in allotments ; and this one had probably come out of some 

 barley field when it was cut, and was on the move. Although I was 

 told it had been seen, I never heard its fate ; but so many Hares 

 disappear quietly ! This is the only time I ever saw a variety of the 

 Hare in a wild state. — 0. V. Aplin (Bloxham, Oxon). 



Elephant Scratching with Fore-foot. — When the baby Elephant 

 from the Malay Peninsula was exhibited at the Zoological Gardens 

 a few years ago I noticed on two occasions that it employed its fore- 

 foot when scratching itself on the flank. This struck me as a most 

 remarkable action for an ungulate, even for one which, like the 

 Elephant, has limbs of a far less specialized type than the order 

 generally. As far as my observations had gone, mammalia only 

 scratch with the fore-foot when they have the habit of using their 

 fore-feet as hands; thus I have seen Monkeys, Kangaroos, and the 

 Coypu Eat (Myopotamus coy pus) scratch in this way. It would be 

 interesting to know exactly what animals use the fore-foot in 

 scratching themselves, and also when, if ever, the Elephant gives up 

 the habit, if it prove to be a usual one. I have had but few oppor- 

 tunities of observing small Elephants, never having seen in India 

 any individual as small as that above remarked on, or as the one 

 exhibited previously with the King's collection from India. — E. Finn. 



Mouse surviving a Fall from a Height. — The activity of Mus 

 musculus, in comparison with allied species, has been commented on, 

 but its endurance appears at least equally remarkable, in the light of 

 an experience I had when at Oxford, and remember quite vividly, 

 though it was a quarter of a century ago at least. I had caught the 

 Mouse in one of the ordinary live-catching traps, and, thinking to 



