203
NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
ZOOLOGY.
MAMMALIA.
Serotine Bat at Laindon Hills.—A specimen of Vesper-
ugo serotinus was obtained on July 4th, 1900, at Laindon Hills.
It was injured, but still alive when I procured it from a man in
the parish. How he came by it I do not know. I am obliged
to Dr. Laver for confirming my identification of the bat.—Rev.
A. Bertram Hutton, The Rectory, Pitsea, December 12th,
1903.
[Dr. Laver says in his Mammals, etc., of Essex, that this is a
very rare species in Essex. The only two specimens hitherto
recorded are those by Mr. Miller Christy at Saling (Proc,
E.F.C. iv. p. iv.) and Broomfield (E.N. viii., 162. According
to Sir Harry Johnston (British Mammals, London, 1903), the
Serotine is confined in the British Isles to a small portion of the
south of England between Cornwall and Essex. "Outside
England its range is so world-wide as to exceed that of any
other bat, for it is found all over temperate Europe, Asia, and
North America, also in North Africa, and even, it is said, in
parts of South America." The Essex occurrences are inter-
esting, as Dr. Laver observes, because they are the most
northerly ones hitherto recorded.—Ed.]
Badgers at Mucking.—It may be worthy of record that I
have a specimen of the badger shot at Mucking in the summer of
1902. It had been buried, but in spite of the time being August,
I exhumed it three days after interment, and succeeded in
preparing the skin in good condition, aided in the unpleasant
task by a younger brother. I have taken a photograph of the
holt in which the animal occurred. I am assured that four (even
perhaps six) badgers were seen in this holt.—Rev. A. Bertram
Hutton, The Rectory, Pitsea, December 12th, 1903.
Otter at Canvey Island,—I have obtained for my collection
of mammalia an otter, killed on Canvey Island. I am told that
the otter so injured a dog that the latter died in a few days. The
otter sat up as though about to spring again, when the man who
was with the dog killed it by a blow on the head with a stick.—
Rev. A. Bertram Hutton.