that state of plumage in which the breast is so prettily varied with dark lunate markings on a white ground.
Almost daily during the month of November I observed one or more Black Redstarts. Black-backed Gulls began to arrive in the first week of December, and will increase in numbers until spring, when their place will be taken by the Lesser Black-backed species just before the breeding season.
OCCASIONAL NOTES.
Hydrophobia from the Bite of a Polecat.—In the journal of Robert Marsham, F.R.S., under the date of 1739, the following curious passage occurs, which, by the kindness of the Rev. H.P. Marsham, I am allowed to make public. Hydrophobia from such a source, in this country, is quite new to me, and even if not altogether unknown, it is at least, happily, of such rare occurrence as to render it worth recording. The passage is as follows:—"This Sumṛ a poor Girl, eleven years old, being order'd by her Father (Short), in Coltishal, to keep ye Birds off his Wheat, ye Child carry 'd with her some Baby-cloths, and a pan of water to wash them; but a Polecat came from ye Hedge, and, as ye Girl thought, wou'd have drank of ye water. She struck at ye Polecat; upon which it seiz'd her Arm, and hung by ye Teeth, 'till two neibours, allarm'd by ye cries of ye Girl, came to her assistance, seiz'd and kill'd ye Polecat. A Plaister was apply 'd to ye sore place, and ye Girl soon became easy and well. But about eleven weeks after this accident happen'd the Girl complain 'd of pain in her Arm, where she had been bit. This pain mov'd from her Arm to her Heart; and she complain'd of great heaviness, and soon had the Hydrophobia in the most dreadful manner, complaining of ye most excessive thirst, yet cou'd not bear ye sight of water; it convuls'd her only to look at it. She expir'd in this dismal manner, after she had been ill three Days. The pain seiz'd her Arm ye day before, and she dy'd ye day after ye full of ye Moon, Oct. 6, 1739. Before she expir'd she desir'd ye People to keep out of her reach; for she fear'd she shou'd bite them. I had this account from Mr. J. Ives, of ye same Town, Landlord to ye unfortunate Father of ye Girl, and by Mr. Negus that attended ye Girl; both Genṭṇ of very good character." Dr. Elliott Coues, in his recently published 'Monograph of the North American Mustelidæ,' republishes two papers which originally appeared in the 'American Journal of Science and Art,' on "Hydrophobia from Skunk-bite." To this book I may refer your readers, as this is perhaps not the place for a discussion on the subject, merely calling attention to the similarity of the symptoms in both cases, and the singularly
