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2G 
which may suggest further investigation. It is well known that 
shrews attack and devour frogs, and the late Mr. John Edwards, 
of Stoke Holy Cross, informed me that he Avas once a witness of 
such a combat. It is remarkable that though cats Avill not eat 
shreAvs, they are constantly devoured by the barn owl. 
Bank Vole {Arvicola pratensis.) I am not sure that this 
vole occurs in Norfolk ; but I once saAv a vole which was taken 
from a kestrel’s nest at Earlham, and Avhich appeared to me at the 
time, on a cursory examination, to belong to this species, rather 
than to its commoner congener, the short-tailed vole, and I there- 
fore think the point of Avhether this is really a Norfolk species or 
not, worthy of further investigation. 
Harvest Mouse (J/«s messorius.) I have met with this some- 
Avhat local species at Catton, and I have been informed that its 
nest has been taken tAvo or three times amongst tall sedges, on the 
banks of the Waveney, opposite Eeccles. These nests were of 
the usual globular form, and Avere almost entirely composed of 
the leaf of the reed {arundo pliragmites^ 
The Hare (Lepus timidus.) Grey varieties of the common 
hare have been occasionally killed in Norfolk, also specimens of 
the ordinary colour, Avith the face white ; but a still scarcer and 
more remarkable variety is a perfectly black hare, which was killed 
at Denham, in Suffolk, and is in the possession of Sir E. C. 
Kerrison, Bart. 
Babbit {Lepus cunimliis.) Black rabbits have occasionally 
occurred in the neighbourhood of Cromer, and they are also to be 
found, amongst those of the ordinary colour, on Gorton Denes, 
near LoAvestoft, where I once shot one which Avas decorated with 
alternate black and grey markings like a Cyprus cat. 
Black rabbits appear to have existed anciently in Norfolk, as 
they are mentioned in one of the Paston letters, where the Avriter 
applies to a friend for some rabbits to tmm doAvn for stock at 
Oxnead. This curious letter also refers to the practice of Avarreners 
hanging up in terrorem the vermin Avhich they killed — a proto- 
type of the modern “gamekeeper’s gibbet.” 
I'lie above very desultory notes on a feAv of the Norfolk Mam- 
malia may perhaps be of some little service as indicating points 
worthy of further investigation, and have been committed to paper 
in the hope tliat such may prove to be the case. 
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