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 A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE who examined the specimen, a weasel, pure white even to the extremity of the tail, was captured near Leicester. Bell, in his British Quadrupeds, remarks on the rarity of such variation in the weasel ; and Harley states that the white specimen above noticed is the only one of the kind he ever met with. It might be supposed that Harley had possibly mistaken a small stoat for a weasel, but he adds that 'the stoat its congener becomes white in the dreary season of the winter, throughout, save the tip of its tail, the hair of which generally remains black. The change of dress and the variegated exterior of the weasel is certainly of less common occurrence, if not very rare.' I pur- chased from Ludlam, a bird-stuffer, a purely white specimen, said by him to have been killed at Tooley Park, Earl Shilton, in August, 1870, by a Mr. Jacques. I cannot, however, get confirmation of this, so give the note for what it is worth. One a male was killed by a dog at a rick at Aylestone Mill on z Octo- ber, 1885, and was purchased for the museum on account of a slight variation, the upper surface of the left paw being white. Mr. W. Whitaker, of Wistow, informed me, in January, 1886, of a light yellow variety killed by a cat at Market Bosworth, and in the hands of the bird-stuffer there, to whom I wrote for details, only, unfortunately, to find that he had died. Pinchen received a white one on 14 December, 1889, procured, he believes, at Cropston. Mr. Horn wrote to me that on 22 May, 1905, he saw a weasel carrying something in its mouth ; and upon chase being given, it promptly went to ground in a mole-run, dropping its burden, which proved to be one of its young, naked and blind. 1 7. Badger. Mela meles, Linn. Bell Meles taxus. Locally Brock. Resident and generally distributed ; apparently more common than formerly, for writing of this animal (1840-50) Harley appears to have found it rare. He wrote : ' Formerly well distributed over the county, abounding in most large woods, especially those verging on the forest of Charnwood. The woods of Gopsdl and Oakley also bore marks of its retreat, even till a very recent date. Used also to occur at Mere Hill Wood, near Loughborough. Not common.' His opinion as to its scarcity is shared up to the present by most observers, but probably the animal is more common than generally supposed, owing to its retiring, nocturnal habits. The Leicester Museum possessed two specimens marked ' Leicester- shire,' presumably those recorded in the donation- book, one as having been presented by Sir A. S. Hazlerigg, bart., on 22 August, 1849, and the other shot at Keythorpe Hall, and presented by Lord Berners on 2 April, 1 860. The Rev. Andrew Matthews, M.A., rector of Gumley, forwarded a half-grown living speci- men a male to the Leicester Museum on 28 June, 1884. It was taken alive by a farm servant in the parish, who found it asleep, and cleverly contrived to get its neck between the prongs of a fork, pinning it to the ground whilst he tied its legs together, when he carried it home in triumph.' Mr. H. S. Davenport wrote in 1885 : 'Badgers are bred in Owston Wood ; Ram's Head at Keythorpe ; and Sir F. Fowke's spinneys at Tilton-on-the-Hill, most years.' The late Mr. R. Widdowson wrote in 1885 : 'A great many instances Zool. (1884), p. 271. of badgers being killed within a few miles of us within the last year or two : have had two from Hoby. A friend residing at Eaton, near Waltham-on-the- Wolds, had about four months ago three within a week ; two were young.' Mr. W. Ingram, writ ng in 1885, says : ' Badgers breed in our woods, but are rarely found away from their earths. I have known of but two instances of badgers being found above ground by the foxhounds and killed. Keepers tell me that they occasionally see a family of badgers returning to their lair, trotting in a line behind a leader just before daybreak!' Mr. John Hunt informed me, in 1885, that badgers formerly bred or were found at Scraptoft, and Mr. J. A. Gill afterwards corroborated this by telling me that twenty or more years ago they bred in the ' Hall Gardens,' Scraptoft, and he remembered two being caught one moonlight night by men posted in yew-trees over their burrows. The badgers having been watched out, their holes were 'bagged,' the animals being afterwards driven out of the adjacent spinneys into these traps. Col. F. Palmer told me that there was generally one laid up in Owston Wood, or in the plantation near Launde, and a young one, dug out about 1886, is now mounted and in his posses- sion. A male badger was presented to the Leicester Museum on 1 8 June, 1886, by Mr. C. E. Bassett, of Ullesthorpe, who gave the following details : ' The badger was captured in a dry brick culvert on Whit- Thursday ; it had been lying in a sand-pit for some time, and finding it had moved, we tried to draw it with terriers, but although they faced it well, it repeatedly drove them out. It was shot at last whilst passing by a hole in the top. The female and, I believe, young ones are still about.' Mr. Geoffrey Ellis recorded one taken at 'The Brand,' near Leicester, at the end of March, 1887. The Leicester Journal, dated 22 April, 1887, men- tions the capture of a badger at Marston. Jelley, bailiff to the Rev. F. Buttanshaw, informed me that a large male was killed at Gumley, on I 5 September, 1887. Mr. H. L. Powys-Keck, of Stoughton Grange, informed me in 1888 that badgers had been caught twice in Swadborough Spinney, on his estate, but not of late years. The late Dr. Macaulay told me that he was sure they bred or were found at the Laughton Hills, and his assertions were afterwards proved correct by Johnson, the keeper, sending me on 30 August, 1885, a very fine female, which I purchased for the museum. Soon after this I saw, in the sale-rooms of Messrs. Warner, Sheppard and Wade, a stuffed badger in a case, on the back of which was inscribed : ' This Badger caught at Laughton, 1849, Jno. Moxon.' Since then I have purchased for the museum a male badger, which was killed in Mr. J. Perkins' plantation at Laughton Hills, 9 May, 1887 ; and three female specimens, also killed at Laughton, on 27 and 28 May, 1887, and 23 May, 1888, respectively, the first of these being much younger than the others. One was shot at Illston, near Burton Overy, in 1889, and was preserved, and in the possession of a Mr. Bowles of Oadby in 1889. It was reported in the Daily Mercury of 8 February, 1892, that Mr. Mammatt, of Prior Park, Ashby, had killed a fine young badger in Staunton Park, which had been sent to a taxidermist to be stuffed and mounted. On being written to, Mr. Mammatt re- plied that he saw the badger, which was a female, drawn on 3 February, but that he did not kill it himself. In the Leicester Chronicle and Mercury of 162