92 
ZOOLOGICAL NOTES. 
Notes on the Badger. — Mr. Cooke records the capture of a Badger 
( Meles taxus) in Lanarkshire on i8th April, 1890. I am sorry to hear 
of it. The animal is well nigh extinct in the Lowlands now. They are quite 
harmless, the utmost grudge gamekeepers can have against them is because 
they dig young rabbits out of the burrows and eat them. It is also alleged 
that they destroy eggs, and it is quite true that, being omnivorous, they will 
eat an egg if it is offered them ; but they are strictly nocturnal in their habits, 
and by night every decently-behaved game bird is on her eggs. I have suc- 
ceeded in re-establishing them in Wigtonshire, having, some years ago, turned 
out a dog and four bitches. — Herbert Maxwell, Monreith, Wigtonshire. 
"Wild Cat in Shetland. — Several communications have been received 
on the subject of the Wild Cat in Shetland, recorded from "The Zoologist " 
in our last number. The purport of these is that there are no true Wild Cats 
in the Islands ; and the one shot at Bressay is to be regarded as nothing more 
than a specimen of the domestic animal living in a feral condition. 
Daubenton's Bat in Mid-Lothian.— I have recently examined 
specimens of this probal)ly much overlooked species which were captured at 
Liberton, near Edinburgh, in July, 1880, and supposed to be specimens of the 
Pipistrelle {Vesperurjo piplstrellm ), Daubenton's Bat {Vespertilio dauhen- 
tonii) has not, I believe, been hitherto recorded for the county. — \Vm. Eagle 
Clarke. 
Chiff-ChafF in Inverness-shire.— For several years, both by per- 
sonal observation, and through the medium of resident friends, I have been 
endeavouring to discover if the Chiff-Chaff {Phylloscopus rufus) had ever 
been identified in Glen Urquhart, or any of the neighbouring glens that branch 
off Loch Ness. Although rumours more or less confirmatorv of its occurrence 
have reached me, it was not until June, 1890, that all doubts upon the point 
were dissolved and the species actually located. While upon a visit to the 
district, in the above-named month, I both saw and heard a pair in the Pass 
of Inverfarigaig, one of the most romantic of our Highland gorges. They 
were haunting a dense clump of fir trees not far from the spot where Dr. 
Bryce, the geologist, was killed while in pursuit of his favourite science, and 
from the fact of their occurring in June the inference might be drawn that they 
were breeding. Upon this latter point, however, no authentic information is 
as yet forthcoming, more especially as this locality is sparsely populated, and 
the few people who do take any interest in ornithology seem to be unac- 
quainted with the difference between this bird and its congener the Willow 
Warbler [Phylloscopiis trockilus). I may state that having an intimate know- 
ledge of the species in various pans of England there is not the slightest doubt 
of its having been identified as stated above. — Archibald Craig, Edinburgh. 
Lesser Redpoll in Perthshire.— A lesser Redpoll (Linotartijescem) 
