Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/367

Rh Toad attacked by a Weasel.—On May 20th last, while walking by a pond not far from St. Andrews, I came suddenly upon a Weasel, which, on being roused, immediately took refuge in a drain. On coming up to the spot I discovered a Toad, evidently much exhausted, with its hind limbs terribly lacerated. The Weasel had, in all probability, been trying to drag the Toad towards the drain-mouth, as far as one could judge from the marks on the soft ground. The Weasel, from its small size, was evidently a female. Is it not unusual for a Weasel—or any carnivorous mammal—to prey upon the Toad? I can find no allusion to it in Mr. J.E. Harting's article of two years ago.— (St. Andrews, N.B.)

[There is apparently little record of any carnivorous mammal attacking the Toad, especially in Britain, though the American Skunk is reported as not only doing so, but eating that Amphibian as well. If we substitute Frogs for Toads—and it is probable that both frequently come under the same category—the information is not so scanty. In this country the Rat, Weasel, Badger, and Polecat have all been reported to eat, or at least attack, Frogs. Going further afield, we find similar habits ascribed to the crab-eating Mungoose of the Indian subregion, Herpestes urva; the common Raccoon of North and Central America, Procyon lotor; the Beech-Marten of Europe, Mustela foina; the American Mink, M. vison; and the Cape Polecat, Ictonyx zorilla. It seems too much to affirm that where the Frog is eaten the Toad is avoided, without very much further and stronger evidence.—]

Notes from Great Yarmouth.——A very unusual thing in connection with this fish occurred on May 15th. I was asked to go to a cabstand and name a strange fish which had come up out of the salt-water pipes, and which was then swimming about in a basin of water. I found it was a full-grown Lesser Weaver, Trachinus vipera. Our streets are watered with salt-water, sewers flushed with the same, &c, so that many thousand gallons are pumped up weekly. I have before seen Gobies' tails protruding from the pipe-holes at the back of water-carts and pulled them out; but a five-inch fish must have been particularly unfortunate to have been sucked in with the indraught.

—A perfectly white specimen of this fish was brought in on May 24th. Length 15 inches. I have seen albino Brill previously.

—Another specimen of this variety, recorded and figured last month (pp. 275–6), and of the same size, came in on May 28th. It is most remarkable that when a rare or curious fish appears it is seldom a solitary specimen. This was most