95 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Gilbert White and Leprosy. — With reference to my note in the April 
issue of Nature Notes (No. 160, p. 64), if any of our members who live in 
Selborne or neighbourhood know of a case or cases similar to the one described 
by White, viz., marked or scaly thickening of the palms and soles, the information 
would oblige 
77, Upper Glo’ster Place, London , N. IV., George Pernet. 
April 2, 1903. 
Stoats. — A keeper in the North of England states that they never catch a 
male stoat in a white coat, but always females, and that they are two years old 
before they change. I thought that both sexes became ermines in the winter, 
but the keeper is very clear about it. A neighbour has a female that is white. 
What experience have others on this matter ? 
Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
Crows at Montreux. — Referring to the interesting note by my friend 
Captain Daubeny (Nature Notes, April, p. 75), when he speaks of not 
recollecting having seen rooks at Montreux though there were a few crows about, 
&c. This is practically a part of the Montreux neighbourhood and, there are 
numbers of what would pass well enough for rooks both here and in the adjacent 
Rhone Valley, with the same habits, colour, shape, note, size and flight, but so 
far as I have seen without the characteristic whitened beak of the home rook. 
This might be accounted for by difference in the soil. Their croak, or caw, does 
not seem to differ essentially from one of the many notes of rooks, and they may 
be seen in large flocks late in the evening homing towards their roosting places 
in the Chillon Woods, or sometimes earlier singly in the garden trees, but a 
few yards from my windows. All this may of course go to show that I am not 
sufficiently acquainted with the crow as a foreigner. Where I have known these 
birds best at home, they seemed more solitary and to frequent places more 
remote from habitations, but though they seem very like rooks I am not prepared 
to say that the birds I refer to here are not crows. 
While reading the note referred to I wondered whether the “ choiicas'' visiting 
the Hotel Belmont were a kind of chough which I have seen somewhere in 
Switzerland, but where I do not at this moment remember. 
Veylaux, Vand, Suisse, Benwyan, F.G.S. 
Aprils 1903. 
Wildfowl at Euston Park. — Ten days ago I was informed that two 
ruddy sheldrakes had appeared at Euston, and have just been with a brother 
ornithologist to see them. They are both males, and have settled down in a safe 
spot not far from the Hall, alas now in ruins from the recent fire. At a distance 
these beautiful birds remind one of the colours of a golden pheasant, and, when 
flying, the white on their wings, that is very conspicuous, forms a fine contrast. 
During flight, which is rather heavy, they make a querulous noise sounding as if 
it proceeded from some such instrument as a clarionet. These birds spend more 
time on the land than on the water, and are not as shy as the other wild fowl, 
permitting us to approach within about 70 yards, at which distance we obtained 
a good view of them with the aid of a glass, and could see their gorgeous 
colouring to perfection as the sun shone on them. I wish mates could be found 
for them. 
There are unusual numbers of gadwall on the waters at Euston this spring. 
We saw quite 150. This is curious, for in previous years there have been but 
few, eight or ten only : common wild duck were in all directions, some on the 
water, some wandering about in the park, or in the meadows near the stream, 
and had all paired. The gadwall, however, flew about in companies 50 or 60 
strong, and apparently had not begun to settle their matrimonial arrangements 
for the year. They quack like the wild duck, but rather sharper and crisper. 
Their colouring — and the white on their sides as they fly — distinguish them at 
once from that bird, and when flying the wing is more sabre-shaped than in the 
common wild mallard. 
Market IVeston, Thetford, 
March 23, 1903. 
Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
