34 



MISCELLANEOUS SHORT NOTES. 



below the ear ; tail cylindrical and covered with thick long hair with 

 alternating rings of black and grey, the tip for two inches black. 

 Ears large, triangular, and erect, directed forward ; eyes large. 

 Canine teeth, long, conical and very formidable, the central portion 

 of the tongue covered with strong horn-like papillce directed back- 

 w^ard. Feet yellowish-grey, lighter than body ; soles black. 



Bullington Wood is remarkable as being the last haunt of the 

 Kite in Lincolnshire; a pair nested there in 1870. The Pine Marten 

 is still found in the district, examples being obtained almost ever}- 

 year. The Polecat is very common. This wood is one of a chain 

 of extensive w^oodlands reaching from Wragby in Mid-Lincolnshire to- 

 near Peterborough, which have never been preserved for game, and 

 where keepers are few and far between, or only occasionally em- 

 ployed. Cats are known to have bred there in a wild state for 

 generations. There is, therefore, no improbability that this cat may 

 have descended directly from the old British wild cat. That it should 

 be a reversion from the domestic race to the wild type is scarcely 

 probable, unless we are prepared to allow for a strong admixture of 

 original blood coming from pure wild ancestors which at no distant 

 period inhabited the district. — 



Badger near Barnsley.— a fine specimen of this scarce mammal wa- 

 taken at ^Yol•tley, on April 22nd, by the Earl of Wharncliffe's keepers. The 

 badger, which was a male, weighing about 35 pomids, was kept for some time in 

 confinement, and ultimately turned out on his lordship's property in North 

 Yorkshire. — WiM. E. Brady, i, Queen Street, Barnsley. 



Etymology of the Words ^ Spurn' and ^ Ravenspurn.'— 



As in the last number of the Naturalist INIr, Cordeaux has given an article on the 

 Spurn, and as the next meeting of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union is in the same 

 interesting locality, a few notes on the etymology of the two towns which origin- 

 ally stood there may not be out of place. These towns were known by the names 

 of Ravenser, and Ravenser Odd. The spelling varied, as we shall see presentl}^ 

 The initial part of the word (Raven) is clear enough. Whether a personal name or 

 not, it arose from the traditional war-standard of the Vikings. The terminations 

 do not seem to have been touched upon by any one, yet they are very expressive. 

 ' Eyrr' is, in Icelandic, 'a gravelly bank.' It is used of small tongues of land 

 running out into the sea. Eyrr is equivalent to Danish 'ore' and Swedish 'or' ; and, 

 curiously enough, we find Ravenser spelt as Ravensore. Then there is an Icelandic 

 word, 'oddi,' which also means a point or tongue of land, frequently used in local 

 names. ^Moreover, the words eyrr and oddi are used together as eyrar-oddi, 'the 

 point or tongue of an eyrr. ' 



If Ravenser meant the gravelly bank on which the Raven standard was 

 planted, Ravens-er-Oddi would be the point or tongue of the said eyrr, and 

 consequently further from the shore, as we know that the town of Ravenser Odd 

 or Ravensrode was placed. Ravenser appears later as Ravenspur — and later stili 

 as Ravenspurn. 1 hen Spurn appears by itself, but both 'n' and 'p' may be 

 accidental accretions from the original Ravens-ei", without calling in any 'spyrian 

 or ' spurnan.' — E. iSlAULE Cole. 



Naturalist 



