NOTES AND QUERIES.
MAMMALIA.
The Food of the Water-Vole.—There has been, I believe, much discussion as to whether the Water-Vole (Arvicola amphibius) will eat animal food or not. Most writers on natural history agree to their being entirely vegetable feeders. The Rev. J.G. Wood, among others, says:—"I never yet saw the true snub-nosed, short-eared, yellow-toothed Vole engaged in eating animal food, although the Brown Rat may often be detected in such an act." I myself have twice caught the Water-Vole in the ordinary steel rat-trap baited with meat, which I think proves that the Water-Vole will at times partake of animal food if it can get it.—Gordon Dalgliesh (Inglefield, Milford, near Godalming, Surrey).
AVES.
Breeding of the Lesser Redpoll (Linota rufescens) in Somerset.—It is only during recent years that the Lesser Redpoll has been recorded as a species which breeds in Somerset. Of late, however, several nests of this bird have been found, and it is probable that at the present time the species breeds regularly in many parts of the county. I am not aware that any nest has been recorded as found in the county before the year 1888, but in that year the Rev. T.W. Allen informs me that he found a nest on the Blackdown Hills, near Wellington, and that he knew that two more nests had been found more recently in the same district. This species has also bred in the neighbourhood of Frome, for the Rev. M.A. Mathew has recorded (Zool. 1897, p. 423) that nests and eggs have been taken, and a brood of young birds seen, near Buckland Dinham Vicarage, between the years 1888 and 1897. Mr. C.F. Henderson, of Flax Bourton, near Bristol, has informed me in writing that the Lesser Redpoll has nested frequently in his neighbourhood since the year 1892. In one season he knew of four nests within a small area. In the pages of 'The Zoologist' for 1894 are several notices of the breeding of the Lesser Redpoll in Somerset (vide pp. 228, 265, 304, 305). From these records it appears that observers noticed that the species nested in several localities near Bath in 1893,
