88 



MAAIMALIAN NOTES. 



himself that Mr. Southwell's opinion was correct, and purchased the 

 bones and baleen for ^25, which sum was handed to the committee 

 of the Sailors' Institute. 



The species appears to be somewhat rare, or at all events it has 

 not often been satisfactorily determined. It is therefore a most 

 interesting addition to the recorded fauna of Yorkshire ; and the only 

 other county on the east coast of England for which its occurrence 

 has hitherto been recorded is Essex. 



MAMMALIAN NOTES. 

 Black Rat (Mus rattus) at Newcastle.— On the ist August last, 



through the kindness of INIr. John Henry Gurney of Northrepps Hall, I had the 

 opportunity of examining a specimen of Mus rattics which had been sent to him 

 from Newcastle-on-Tyne. Mr. Gurney's correspondent, who is engaged in a large 

 engineering establishment on the Tyne, spoke of the rat sent as one of a race of 

 rats which had established themselves in their works ; from this I imagine their 

 appearance there is of recent date. As it may interest your readers, I append some 

 of the principal measurements of the Newcastle specimen : — Total length, iSyV in.; 

 head and body, 6j\ in.; tail, 7y\ in.; head only, i^-^ in.; ears, in. long; 

 y\ in. wide. Fur long and sooty black, the head long and pointed, the lower jaw 

 much shorter than the upper, the ears rounded and having the appearance of being 

 very large, the feet slender, and their soles conspicuously tuberculated. Although 

 M. rattus is known to occur at Stockton, from which town I have received speci- 

 mens, ]Messrs. Mennell and Perkins (^Nlam. Northumberland and Durham) do not 

 speak of its occurrence at Newcastle, where it could hardly have escaped notice 

 had it been present any length of time ; it seems likely, therefore, that this is 

 another instance of that strange recurrence of individuals of a species long since 

 regarded as extinct in that locality, by which we are sometimes almost startled 

 (as instance the recent appearance of the Wild Cat in Lincolnshire), or it may 

 have been introduced by foreign shipping. A much more likely species to be 

 introduced by shipping is Mus alexandrinus^ which I think is probably sometimes 

 mistaken for M. rattus ; it may, however, at once be detected by its greater 

 proportionate length of tail.— T. Southwell, Norwich, 25th September, 1884. 



Albino Mole in Nidderdale.— Mr. Christopher Beck, of Brimham, 

 has now in his possession a perfectly white specimen of the Mole ( Talpa europcea)^ 

 stuffed, which was taken at that place some time ago. — William Storey, Pateley 

 Bridge, September loth, 1884. 



Harvest-mice in captivity.— I have had for the last three months 

 some Har\-est-mice [Mus viessorius) in confinement, which came from the neigh- 

 bourhood of Beccles. They are wonderfully active, not to say restless, in their 

 movements, and are rarely in their sleeping compartments (of which there are 

 three). Their great amusement is working the wheel in the centre of their cage, and 

 it is almost perpetually in motion ; they appear, however, to have a habit of retiring 

 to their sleeping quarters from about noon until three p.m. each da.y. I find they 

 eat canary and millet seed readily, the latter they seem decidedly to prefer ; they 

 are very fond of a piece of watercress, and thoroughly enjoy grubbing about in a 

 tuft of grass. They are also fond of bread and milk. When I first had them their 

 colour was of a brownish red, but it has gradually increased in orange tint, and is 

 now of a bright orange or fawn colour, the underside being pure white. As men- 

 tioned by Mr. G. T. Rope {Zoologist, viii. 59), the likeness to M2cs Deciunanus on 

 a small scale is very striking ; the ears, unlike those of Mus Musculus, are small, 

 and lie close to the head, scarcely projecting beyond the fur. — George W. 

 Oldfield, London, July 14th, 1884. 



Naturalist, 



