NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
15 
and surface creatures. Mr. R. A. Sterndale, F.Z.S., in his work on the “ Mam- 
malia of India,” says that moles are not trapped in India, and that their destruction 
in this country is carried on in a spirit of ignorance. Macgillivray, an observant 
naturalist, regarded the mole as a useful animal. I think it was Frank Buckland 
who called attention to the fact that wherever moles have been the grass grows 
afterwards very luxuriantly. Miss Ormerod and Sir Herbert Maxwell have also 
written to the same effect. 
The Board of Agriculture publishes a leaflet on the habits and life history of 
the cockchafer, in which it is stated : “ Moles and shrew mice feed upon them 
(cockchafers), and both of these animals should be protected.” 
Moles, instead of being the farmer’s foes, are really his friends ; and we may 
yet see laws passed to save him from extermination at the hands of his senseless 
persecutors. “ Certain it is that in the present depressed condition of agriculture 
[to quote from an article in the Nineteenth Century by the Rev. Augustus Jessop] 
it is difficult to estimate how much serious mischief is being done by the extermi- 
nation of one of the farmer’s best and most influential friends— the mole.” 
53, Chancery Lane, W.C. Joseph Coli.INSON. 
December 9. 
Squirrels in Scotland. — Last month a number of the Scotsman was sent 
me in which it is stated that a meeting of the Ross-shire Squirrel Club had lately 
been held in Dingwall “for the purpose of devising some means whereby united 
action could be taken among the owners of woods within the county for keeping 
down the spread of squirrels and lessening the destruction caused by the animals 
in the various woods and plantations.” 
The friend who sent me the paper remarked that nearly every tree in the 
county was ruined by squirrels. 
Market Weston, 7 hetford. Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
December, 1902. • 
Long-tailed Field-Mice. — In one of my cucumber frames, filled with 
geranium cuttings, these mice are frequently fount! dead, with their eyes picked 
out, and gnawed about the head. It is impossible for any birds, such as tom tits, 
to enter the frame. What can be the cause of their mutilation and death ? 
Market Weston, Thetford. Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
December, 1902. 
Polecats. — Some little time ago a question was asked in your pages about 
the occurrence of polecats. Two large ones, out of four seen, have lately been 
killed and sent to a local naturalist from the Ely marshes. As the damagq caused 
by these animals to poultry in severe weather is spoken of, they must be far from 
uncommon in some of the fen lands of the Eastern counties, though none of the 
game preservers round here ever seem' to come across them, as far as I can 
ascertain. 
Market Weston, Thetford. Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
December, 1902. 
Grouse. — A friend writes to me as follows about the curious behaviour of 
grouse, which perhaps some one can explain : “ There was a drive going on, and 
the birds, instead of as usual flying low, came over like rocketing pheasants. 
There was an eagle flying over the moor all day, and that was given as a reason 
for the behaviour of the grouse, but it is totally contrary to my experience of 
hawks and game birds.” 
Market Weston, Thetford. Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
Robins. — I have very little belief in the idea that young robins kill the old 
ones, but think it is much nearer the truth that the old birds often persecute and 
kill the young. In my garden a robin in immature plumage was so tame as to 
hop on my knee and chase the flies on my back. Close by there was an old bird 
which used to attack and drive it in all directions. 
Market Weston, Thetford. EDMUND Thos. Daubeny. 
December, 1902. 
