NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
(P. pipistrellus) IN SNAPE CHURCH. The usually small colony of pipistrelles were in the Church this winter. Sixteen were removed, tattoo marked with a two perforating the right wing membrane and released in the attics at Great Glemham House in November, 1962. Bats were heard in the usual place on the following Sunday at Snape but the colony was not examined again until 14th March, 1963, when ten, three seven were found. One of these, a was one of those removed to Great Glemham in 1962. MRS. HARRISON, Snape. PIPISTRELLES
YELLOW NECKED MOUSE (Apodemus flavicollis) has been reported from Kettleburgh, two in a larder in February. CDR. O .
SITWELL.
Fox (V. vulpes). A vixen was shot here on 16th February, pregnant with nine young, five in the left horn of the uterus and four in the right. The embryos were all of the same size about twenty-five mm. long and there were no signs that any had been or were being resorbed. CRANBROOK, Great Glemham.
STOATS AND WEASELS (Mustela erminea and M. nivalis) IN SNOW. 3rd January, 1963. I saw three stoats hunting a short Stretch of the Deben river banks.
5th January. On the road between Debenham and Great Glemham I saw three stoats. 19th January. DĂźring a short walk, again by the upper Deben though a mile from the previous place, I saw two stoats and a weasel. 20th January. My terrier chased a stoat up a tree on one side of a small meadow and a few minutes later I spotted either a stoat or a weasel hunting in the tussocky snow-covered grass on the other side. These observations were all made at times when there was snow on the ground so perhaps one should, initially at least, conclude the animals are more visible under such conditions rather than that they are increasing in numbers. The puzzle to me is why they should run about on top of the snow when, as in the case of river banks and old meadows, there are safe and presumably wellpopulated runs beneath the snow. Apart from the last one these
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
303
observations were made at a distance of from ten to twenty feet. Their backs were the usual rieh chestnut colour—I could detect no " winter white " about them. H . G. BARRETT, Winston.
GREY SEALS (Halichoerus grypus). The grey seals on Scroby appear to be having a successful pupping season in 1962. There were ten pups on the sands 5th December, 1962. R . H . HARRISON, Great Yarmouth.
A COMMON SEAL (Phoca vitulina) and three PORPOISES ( P . phocaena) were washed up dead on the beach at Minsmere in January, 1963. H . E. AXELL, Minsmere.