Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/397

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Frog attacked by Weasel, and Toad by Hedgehog.—I was much interested in Mr. Meiklejohn's account of the above, never having had the good fortune to observe the same; but I have twice come across a Weasel devouring a Frog, the last occasion being two or three years ago, in the month of September. I was out Partridge shooting, and on walking down a field to join the other guns, I heard a commotion in a high hawthorn fence. On creeping quietly up, I saw a Weasel almost at the top of the fence, which was about twelve feet high, tearing a Frog to pieces. I watched it unobserved for about half a minute; then it caught sight of me, let drop the Frog, and bolted down into the ditch. This was a large Weasel, and therefore presumably a male. My late father-in-law, some years ago, when going down a hay-field of his in Lincolnshire, heard a curious noise going on, for which he could not account, on the other side of the fence; he quietly got over, and found a Frog held by the hind leg by a Mouse, but, not being a naturalist, he was unable to tell me what species of Mouse it was. In addition to those animals mentioned in the editorial note which attack the Toad, I can add another, viz. the Hedgehog. At my old home in my father's lifetime we had a large walled-in orchard adjoining the garden, where we kept various reptiles, amphibia, birds, and mammals, and amongst the latter were a score of Hedgehogs. We had a lot of common Toads, common Frogs, and about a score each of Natterjack Toads and Edible Frogs, the latter of which I had brought from the Continent. We were considerably annoyed to find dead specimens of all four species lying about, all of them having merely the thighs torn and eaten. A strict look-out was kept for the culprit, and one day, a message being brought that the gardener wished to see me at once, I hurried down, and found that he had caught Erinaceus europæus in flagrante delicto, just finishing off one of my Natterjack Toads.— (Flaxton, York).

[The editorial note to which Mr. Oxley Grabham refers relates principally to the carnivorous mammals which have been known to attack the Frog, and to these may be added the domestic Cat, as recorded in 'The Zoologist' for 1865, p. 9814. A writer in 'Loudon's Mag. Nat. Hist.' vol. iv. (1831), p. 557, states that he had "seen the mouths of Dogs swelled fearfully from worrying Toads."—]

 Strange Occurrence at Durban.—It is reported from Natal that in the early part of June last, at the port of Durban, hundreds of big heavy Salmon were driven ashore on the back beach, it was supposed by Sharks, and subsequently the fish were conveyed to town by the trolly-load. There are, as is well known, no Salmon in the Indian Ocean, and it seemed