Melanistic _Theories.
On the subject of melanism and black rabbits, letters from Ireland assure me that it is a general belief that black rabbits, with white marks on the cheek, arc the product of a black cat and a rabbit. It is a strange superstition. A mild parallel in Britain is that the darker form of the grey squirrel, which is seasonal as well as hereditny, is the result of a cross with the brown squirrel. There is no evidence whatever that such a cross takes place. In regard to the grey squirrel, Mr. Eric Parker, once editor of the Field, is collecting detailed information about its habits, as he considers it a general danger. One neighbour of mine complains that it skips along the top of the wall of his garden and eats his peaches before they are fully ripe. It is, I think, not generally remembered that Buffon years ago described its raids on the corn in America. My chief complaint is that no nest is safe from it.
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