224 NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
It was pure white, with pink eyes, and the flesh was of the usual pale
colour."
Albino Hedgehog at Wickham Bishops.—A few days ago I captured a
peculiar Hedgehog, with light-coloured spines and hair, red eyes, and with pink
feet, nose, and ears—very much like a white rat. Have you met with an instance
of that kind ?—(Miss) J. S. DIXON, Wickham Mills, December 11th, 1895.—
[Albino Hedgehogs are undoubtedly of rare occurrence. Specimens have been
recorded from Norwich, Kilburn, Bedford, Eton, and Scotland. Charles Water-
ton once had a family of milk-white Hedgehogs in his park at Walton Hall. We
cannot find any previous record for Essex of an Albino Hedgehog, and Miss
Dixon's note is therefore of considerable interest.—Ed.]
Black Rat at Shadwell.—"As the occurrence of the old English Black
Rat, Mus rattus, is becoming less frequent every year, it may be of interest to
note that a young one, a female, was caught on the business premises of
Messrs. S. E. Norris & Co., at Shadwell, East London, in February, 1895.
A. D. SAPSWORTH, Woodford Green" (in "Zoologist," xix., p. 105). Mr. T.
Southwell records in "Zool.," xx., p. 143, the occurrence of Mus rattus in great
plenty at Gt. Yarmouth ; he considers them to be a recent importation in grain
ships, which is the more probable inasmuch as one example sent to Mr. South-
well was not Mus rattus but M. alexandrinus, an allied (? hybrid) species.
A Strange Foster-Parent.—"A rabbit belonging to a young man named
Knight, employed by Mr. T. Franklin, butcher, of Market Square, Bishop
Stortford, recently became the mother of eight, but unfortunately died. The
owner placed the family with a cat, which took to them at once in lieu of her own
offspring, and the strange sight can be witnessed of the rabbits obtaining
sustenance from their feline foster mother."—"Essex Herald," October 10th, 1896.
Little Auk (Mergulus alle) at Lawford.—"The Essex County Stan-
dard" recorded, on January I2th, 1895, that "Mr. H. N. Dunnett, on January 1st,
shot on Run Stone a beautiful specimen of the Little Auk, which is being stuffed."
—[During January, 1895, astonishing numbers of the Little Auk were observed
all round the N. and N.E. coasts. Mr. Harting says that "on the 21st of that
month great numbers were observed passing south, both at sea and along the
coast, and many were cast ashore in a helpless condition, exhausted in their
attempts to withstand the stormy weather which has recently prevailed."]
Crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) at Lexden, and Albino Starlings at
West Bergholt.—I lately saw, at Mr. Pettitt's (our local bird-stuffer) a male
specimen of the Crossbill, shot at Lexden on June 2nd, 1895. Mr. Pettitt also
had two Starlings, both true Albinos, with pink eyes. These were shot on June
15th, 1895, at West Bergholt, and were probably birds of the year.—Henry
Laver, F.L.S., Colchester, October 11th, 1895.
Cuckoo with Hepatic Plumage (Cuculus hepaticus, of Sparmann) at
Waltham Abbey.—At a meeting of the Linnean Society on May 2nd, 1895,
Mr. J. E. Harting exhibited and made some remarks on the above, and in "The
Zoologist" (vol. xix., pp. 257-263) he printed some extended details on this rare
form of the female. The bird was shot by a gamekeeper in the grounds of Beech
Hill Park, Waltham Abbey. In "The Birds of Essex," p. 153, two other speci-
mens are recorded, one from Upminster, and the other from Ashdon, in Essex.
Probable Solitary Heron's Nest near Ingrave.—Walking across the
fields this afternoon to Billericay, our dogs put up a young Heron in the brook by
the Qualmstone Spring, between Bluntswell Wood and Bridge Wood, and a