OBSERVATIONS.. 



85 



human calvaria and bones ; some bronze 

 objects ; two large idols of Eengier sand- 

 stone, of very rude and unskilful work- 

 manship, one having but four fingers on 

 each hand ; and two large trunks of trees 

 excavated into canoes, and still containing 

 part of their ballast, consisting of frag- 

 ments of rocks known to occur round 

 Bamberg. These canoes are the best proof 

 of an ancient lake-basin, whose banks had 

 been inhabited, having once occupied what 

 is at present the valley of the Main. 

 Many of the fossil bones in question are 

 sawn asunder lengthways. Among them 

 have been found a Stromhus of a recent 

 species, and a perforated Cardium edule, 

 (probably procured in the way of exchange- 

 trade) ; and, among other vegetable remains, 

 a great number of hazel nuts. Subsequent 

 diggings have proved the strata in question 

 to be very extensive, and to be everywhere 

 immediately overlaid by peat, and, above 

 this, by alluvial sands. Can this be the 

 prelude to the discovery of the long-sought 

 anthropolite ?"E. Foxton Firey, M. R. A. S. 

 &c., Grewelthorpe. 



Meles Taxus in HarJcfall, Grewelthorpe. 

 — I am glad to be able to record in the 

 pages of the "Naturalist," th stthe Badger, 

 a very innocuous but much maligned and 

 : persecuted carnivorous mammal, is rather 

 prevalent in this part of the country, where 

 it seems to enjoy its exemption from the 

 persecution under which the rest of its 

 brethren are elsewhere suffering, though 

 there can be no doubt that its rapid disap- 

 pearance from various localities in which it 

 ihad, previously, been frequently seen, is 

 mainly to be attributed to the persistent 

 cruelty to which it is almost everywhere 

 i subjected. The geographical distribution 

 of the Badger in this country has, of late, 

 j become extremely circumscribed, and un- 

 less local preservative measures are institu- 

 ted for its protection, I am afraid the date 

 of its final extinction from amongst us is 

 \ not far distant. In former years the Badger 

 was far more abundant in Hackfall, a beau- 

 tiful wooded demesne belonging to Earl 



de Grey and Ripon, through which the 

 river Ure winds its tortuous course, than 

 what it is at the present day. Some three 

 or four years since, (the precise date has 

 totally escaped my memory) one of the 

 keepers succeeded in capturing, by means 

 of traps placed in the vicinity of their 

 subterranean excavations, from whence 

 they issue on crepuscularian errands along 

 the wooded banks of the stream, two re- 

 markably fine specimens of Meles Taxus. 

 Since then, I believe, the keepers have- 

 been instructed to preserve them carefully 

 in their present retired haunts in Hackfall^ 

 w^here it is to be hoped they will long 

 remain as * ' living representatives amongst 

 our indigenous mammalia." The Badger 

 is said to dig up wasp's nests, and Buffon, 

 who mentions the epicurean propensity, 

 attributes it to the animal's fondness for 

 honey, but as wasps do not collect honey, 

 what becomes of the great French natura- 

 list's inference ? A short time since I 

 observed some black varieties of the com- 

 mon wild rabbit ( Lepus cuniculus j in a 

 wood near Azerley, and last summer they 

 might have been seen abundantly in the^ 

 neighbourhood of Laverton, both villages, 

 being only about two miles from the place- 

 where I reside. — Edwin Foxton-Firby^ 

 M.E.C.S., Grewelthorpe. 



Albino Skylark. — On the 5th inst. , whea 

 taking a constitutional walk with a friend 

 along the banks of the Ouse, we had occa- 

 sion to cross the Ings at Riccall, a village 

 about three miles north of Selby, where 

 we discovered the nest of a skylark Alauda 

 arvensis ; it contained four young ones, and 

 to my surprise one of them was perfectly 

 white with pink eyes, a beautiful little 

 creature, which seemed very happy with 

 its three companions all the usual colour. 

 It appeared to me they would be three or 

 four days before they would take off. My 

 friend who lives near the place, assures me 

 he will exert himself to secure and keep 

 alive the white one uxitil it is suflficiently 

 feathered to T^e stuffed side by side with 

 one of its companions,, — T. R.., Wakefield. 



