Notes on Mammals. 



People do not generally associate Cuckoos with the moors,, 

 yet all clay was the bird's sweet call in our ears ; and very 

 strang-ely it contrasted with the Curlew's wild notes — music 

 more suited to the great brown wastes of heather. My com- 

 panion, wandering- away from me, told me he had found by 

 the beck a Blackbird's nest with three young- ones, but it was 

 ' a funny blackbird with a white patch on its breast. ' So 

 I g-athered that the bird was a Dipper (often called 'Water- 

 Ouzel'). 



The sun's power was now failing, and the easterly wind was 

 freshening-. It is far from warm on the hig-h moors in May 

 when the afternoon is closing- in, and we were not sorry to 

 crown our ramble with a cup of good hot tea at the sign of the 

 ' Moor Bird.' ^ 



NOTES on MAMMALS. 



Albino Rat near Pocklington.— On the 19th October 1901 a farmer 

 living- near Pocklington- told me that two or three years ago he had seen 

 a white wild Rat (presumably Mus decumanns) on his farm. — William 

 Hewett, York, 18th January 1902. 



Otters in the Grimsby District.— Otters {Luira Intra) have turned up 

 at Swinhope (Louth, Div. 8 by Rev. E. A. W. Peacock's County Divisions). 

 I 'wrote to the Rector (Rev. J. McKim, M.A. ) regarding the same, and he 

 replies: 'The Otters you wrote about are not being molested, at present 

 at anyrate, though the probability of Trout for breakfast will now be very 

 remote. We discovered them quite accidentally, a small terrier, put into a 

 hole at a tree root by the stream, for Rabbits, bolted Otters instead. They 

 were a fine young couple; they swam to the next tree root, where they 

 found safety ; we tried to dig- to them, but the water was too high in 

 the brook.'— Arthur Smith, 5, Cavendish Street, Grimsby, 7th Feb." 1902. 



How do Mammals Drink?— Is there anyone who can say offhand 

 with certainty how all our common mammals drink? I cannot, and I ought 

 to be able. One keen naturalist to whom application was made replied, 

 ' After all the years of rabbit-keeping, and saucers of milk I have given 

 them, it is too stupid to be unable to say w r ith certainty how they drink. 

 But surely it is a matter. of sucking like a horse, only done in a more quiet 

 and high-toned manner. Do rabbits, however, drink in a wild state? Has 

 anyone ever seen them doing so ? I seem to think I have read in a book 

 that they never do more than ' a sort of nibble ' the drops of dew from wet 

 herbage.' Another observer ' who used to keep tame rabbits' says ' they 

 drink with their lips.' I fail to see how any creature can drink in any other 

 way. A third lover of nature and born student says, ' My impression, too, 

 is 'they drink with their lips,' though I cannot speak with any certainty. 

 In very dry seasons, when there is little dew for weeks, rabbits must take 

 water at times surely in a wild state. Sheep are also said not to drink, but 

 they will during droughts. I saw one myself drink out of the hoof marks 

 where bullocks had heavily trampled wet ground.' I can set the question 

 of drinking at rest at least, for through telescopes and field-glasses I have 

 seen sheep, hares, rabbits, rats, voles, and Mustelidre all take water at 

 becks and drains in dry weather. The true carnivora lap. as we all know, 

 and in describing- the action of the horse and the cow we should not get far 

 wrong. What, however, are the right phrases to use for the action of the 

 stoat, rat, or hare ? I am not setting- any natural history puzzle, but asking- 

 for definite information.— E. A. W. Peacock, Cadney, Brigg, r8th Jan. 1902. 



Naturalist, 



