421 
M. decunianns. Number two, receiveJ on ^larch 27tli, also resembled 
M. alexandrimiSy in having the upper jaw much longer than the under, 
but the head and body were much longer and the tail shorter. The 
feet were strongly tuberculated, eyes large, bright, and black. General 
colour slate black, hair long and coarse, a somewhat triangular or heart- 
shaped spot of white on the chest, and the fore feet white. The third, 
received on May 9th, closely resembled number two, but was even more 
robust. Numbers two and three appeared identical with Thompson’s 
Mus hiberniciis (Nat. Hist. Ireland, vol. iv. pp. IG — IS). But for 
I\I. de risle’s assurance that he could not induce M. rattus (which he 
considered specifically the same as M. alexandrinus) to interbreed with 
M. decuriamis, one would be strongly inclined to regard these rats as 
hybrids between the Alexandrine and our native Rat, more especially from 
the fact of their occurring so soon after an undoubted individual of the 
former species had been captured in the same locality, and it may be, that 
under more favourable conditions than thuse to which .M. de I’lsle's Rats 
were subjected, the result would have been different. I have added 
to the above table the corresponding measurements of M-us hibernicus as 
given by Thompson, also of numbers one and three referred to above. — 
T. Southwell. 
HITE-BEAKED DOLPIIIN' (D. ALDIROSTRIs) AT VaRMOUTII. 
On 13th Sci)tembor, 18S1, throiigli the kindness of Mr. de Caux 
of Yarmoutli, I had the opportunity of examining a very young 
specimen of the White-beaked Dolphin fDelphiiius olblrostris) 
which liad been taken in the nets of the ‘Two Brothers,’ about 
forty miles off the Norfolk coast, on Saturday, 10th September. 
It will bo remembered that this species has now been met witli 
several times on the coast of Norfolk (See Trans. N. & N. Nat. 
Soc. vol iii. p. 149), but the chief interest in the present individual 
is its extreme juvenility, appearances indicating that at the time of 
its capture it had not long enjoyed a separate existence. Its 
captors say that it died almost immediately upon striking the net 7 
and that its mother, which accompanied it, swam round and round 
the boat for two hours, occasionally leaping quite out of the water, 
in evident distress at the loss of its little one. In outline and 
colouration this specimen scarcely dilfered from ?»Ir. Clark’s figure 
(Proc. Zool. Soc. 1876, p. 679), except that the patches of lighter 
colour near the pectoral and dorsal fins were scarcely observable, 
and the oblong patch on the posterior half of the body was much 
less distinct. On the white portion of the upper jaw, about 
midway between the lip and the line where the black colour 
commenced, were four soft bristles on each side, about one inch in 
\ OXi. nil T? 1? 
