204 NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
Hairless Specimens of the Brown Rat at Leyton.—
Mr. G. A. Doubleday writes as follows to the Zoologist:—
" At the scientific meeting of the Zoological Society of
London at Hanover Square, on December 1st, Mr. F. E.
Beddard exhibited, on my behalf, a hairless specimen of the
Common Rat (Mus decumanus) which had been captured at
Leyton, Essex. Two other exactly similar individuals had been
caught, and others, in the same condition of nakedness, had
been observed at the same place. The skin was of a slate
colour, and wrinkled into folds all over the body. No cause was
assigned for the peculiar condition of the animal, some of the
members present being of opinion that it was congenital, and
others that it was pathological."
[The late Dr. Bree recorded in the Field (Oct. 5th, 1872, p. 328)
the capture of two hairless rats at Thorpe-le-Soken, Essex. The
specimens were sent to the museum of the Royal College of
Surgeons.].
The Diffusion of Arctic Mammalia.—The following
paragraph appears in the Times of December 19th, 1903:—
"Polar Bears Adrift on an Iceberg.—The Cunard steamer Campania, from
New York, which arrived at Queenstown yesterday afternoon, brings intelligence
that during the last outward passage of the Transatlantic liner Hanover, for
Baltimore, and when the steamer was in latitude 44 54 N., longitude 48 29 W.,
crossing the banks of Newfoundland, a very large iceberg was sighted, the
contour lines of which, as seen from the liner, were high, but very irregular. The
passengers all gathered on the starboard side of the vessel, to view the iceberg,
and telescopes were brought into requisition to get a better view of it. Members
of the crew of the Hanover were the first to discover that on the huge berg
several Polar bears were walking about, but, as the liner got more abreast of
the iceberg, all on board saw with the naked eye six bears moving restlessly upon
it. How the animals got there and their probable fate was the sole topic
of conversation among the passengers during that day. Captain Jacobs, of the
Hanover, stated that the berg was drifting in a S.S.E, direction."
Most students of geology might allow the agency of icebergs,
as a means of the southward diffusion of Arctic mammalia, as a
barely possible influence. Few would regard it as of any
practical importance. Yet here we have an authentic account of
the discovery of six living Polar bears on an iceberg in a
latitude which is not that of Essex but of southern France.—
T. V. H.