Field Notes. 



6i 



and collectors. I wonder if any of j-our readers can remember 

 which year this was, and I should be glad to know if any 

 similar arrivals of the Crossbill have been reported in recent 

 years.* — Charles T. Pratt, Cawthorne Vicarage, Barnsley. 



— : o : — 



Otter near Barnsley. — On the 26th December a very 

 hne female Otter was caught on the Hoyle Mill Sewage Farm, 

 Barnsley. It was found with its foot fast in a rabbit trap, and 

 killed, and is being preserved for the Barnsley Naturalists' 

 Museum.- Wm. Barraclough. 



Great Mortality amongst Hares in Nidderdale. — Hares 

 during the latter months of 1907 have been dying in great 

 numbers on several large estates in Nidderdale. Leverets 

 especially seem to have suffered very severely. On one ramble, 

 I came across more than a dozen laid dead. I think, without 

 doubt, that the abnormal wetness of the year has been the 

 cause. The head keeper over one estate considers that the 

 use of patent manures is the cause. It conduces to the growth 

 of a somewhat rank and coarse vegetation, which physics and 

 unduly ' flushes ' the animals. Whatever the cause, there can 

 be no doubt that the mortality has been very great. — R. 

 Fortune. 



mOLLVSCA, 



tieiix (Cepheas) nemoralis, var. olivaceae (Risso.) x 

 monstrosity. — Whilst collecting shells on the Sand Hills at 

 Mablethorpe, I came across a very interesting and beautiful 

 variety of the above ; it was crawling amongst the Buck- 

 thorne near the Pull-over. It was quite perfect, and of an olive 



purple. The body whorl is 20 milHmeters, natural height 

 21 millimeters, extreme height from edge of lip to apex 25 J 

 millimeters. This is a good 10 millimeters above the average 

 height of specimens of this species ; the body whorl is about 

 normal. — F. Rhodes, Bradford. 



* For Yorkshire records see the recently published ' Birds of York- 

 shire.' — Ed. 



1908 February i. 



