894 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



them, carrying them off to enjoy quietly by himself. We once had 

 here a most useful rat-catching Cat of the ordinary short-haired 

 breed, a member of a family of tortoiseshells, noted for their skill and 

 prowess in that particular line. I one day found her crouching on 

 the ground, devouring what seemed from her manner to bo some 

 unusually choice morsel, and growling over it as a Cat does with a 

 mouse or bird. On going to see what she had caught, I found her 

 eating a very large earthworm. The daughter of this Cat — a fine 

 large tortoiseshell and white, had also peculiar tastes. Though of a 

 quiet home-loving disposition, and not prone at other times to stray 

 far from the house and garden, she had a habit of going off at times 

 to a swampy piece of ground in order to catch and eat frogs. In 

 the spring she would stand at the edge of a pond and eat the frogs' 

 spawn which she dragged out of the water. I have also seen the 

 same Cat feeding on a fungus growing in a plantation near the house 

 which I believe to be Agaricus procerus, the parasol agaric. This 

 species seems to be relished by other animals besides Cats, as it 

 sometimes shows marks of the teeth of small rodents of some kind. 

 This summer (1915) a small and very inconspicuous fungus, which 

 I have as yet been unable to identify, appeared here in a kitchen 

 garden about the strawberry and raspberry beds in particular, and 

 had extraordinary attractions for some of our Cats. It had a 

 rounded cap, and was of a dark smoky brown or dingy grey colour, 

 not unlike that of the soil upon which it grew. For several weeks, 

 in fact as long as any of the fungi could be found, two of our Cats 

 used to go almost daily to search for them, carefully examining the 

 places where they were wont to make their appearance, and showing 

 much excitement at each " find." Curiously enough the other Cats 

 would neither eat nor take much notice of them. — G. T. Eope. 



AVES. 



Albino Pheasant. — For years I have been on the look-out for a 

 true albino Pheasant, but met with no success until last Christmas 

 time, when I fortunately secured a specimen from a local game 

 dealer; it was killed on the Welbeck Abbey Estate. It is a fine 

 male with pink eyes. I might say that a good number of white 

 Pheasants have passed through my hands, but this is the only true 

 albino that I have seen so far, with the pink eyes ; the colours of 

 the eyes of the other white Pheasants that I have examined have 

 ranged from lemon-colour to light brown. I shall be on the look-out 

 this coming Pheasant-shooting season for a female albino, to go with 

 the male already in my collection. — William Daws (Mansfield, Notts). 



