MUIRHEAD'S MYSTERIES: FLEET FOXES? ER,NO,DUMMY,FORTEAN FOXES!

Richard Muirhead is an old friend of the CFZ. I have been friends with him for 40 years now, since we were kids together in Hong Kong. He is undoubtedly one of the two best researchers I have ever met; he and Nigel Wright both have what Charlie Fort would have no doubt called a wild talent: a talent for going into a library, unearthing a stack of old newspapers, and coming back with some hitherto overlooked gem of arcane knowledge. He is now sharing those archives with us on an almost daily basis.

Dear folks,

Here`s another selection of notes from Muirhead Archives in Muirhead Mansions. Actualy 'Fortean foxes' is a bit of a misnomer because I am only looking at odd colouration in foxes today, not the whole range of Fortean possibilities in foxes. I hope you enjoy the following and if you have any more observations please can you contact Jon or myself? Thanks.

I found a note in a book called The Sedgefield Country in the Seventies and Eighties (and that meant the 1870s and 1880s) about a male blue - yes blue - fox in Mainforth-whin, in what I thought was the West Country. But I have just done a Google search on the names Sedgefield and Mainforth-whin and I could only find a Sedgefield in Co. Durham, once Tony Blair`s constituency. This is the only instance of a blue fox in Britain that I am aware of. The next time I go to the Bodleian Library in Oxford or the British Library I will try to look at this book, which I found in a charity shop in Taunton earlier this year.

Some time in 1995 Jan Williams (through whom I 'rediscovered' Jon after our time in Hong Kong) wrote to me about albino foxes and other things:

“A pure white fox was killed in 1887 by Taunton Vale Hounds in West Somerset.” This is in Man and Beast by Ron Freethy (?) Blandford 1983.(1)

In Country Sportsman 1949 (page number unknown) there is a story: `Albino Foxes In Northumberland A Strain That Persists Around Rothbury`

`In the year 1937 a white fox was killed in the grounds of Brinkburn Priory almost within sight of the River Coquet by the Percy Hounds. The mask is now believed to be at Alnwick Castle*, the property of the Duke of Northumberland. In the spring of the same year,Richardson, a keeper on the Cragside Estate further west along the Coquet Valley, dug out a white vixen which had two cubs of normal colour. On Tuesday,15<sup>th</sup> 1938, the Morpeth Foxhounds, whilst hunting in the east part of their country, roused and quickly killed a pure-white fox. The mask, beautifully mounted, is now at Meldon Hall. The tips of the ears and brush are black, the eyes yellowish and lighter than the eyes of a normal fox, and there is none of the pink colouration one associates with the true albino….Later in the season another white fox was reported as being seen by the rabbit catcher at Paxton Dene, but no further trace of it was found. This outcrop of albinism naturally caused a good deal of local interest and there were many wild and fantastic theories as to the cause of this phenomenon. One of the most popular was that these white foxes had all been fathered by a silver dog fox which, by a strange coincidence,had escaped early in the spring of 1937 from a silver-fox farm in the neighbourhood of Capheaton,not very far,as a fox will travel,from the Coquet banks….In 1947 the keeper at Linden Hall, which lies about a mile north of Paxton Dene, reported having seen a white fox in the Dene. This man`s evidence can be taken as reliable…..The seed of this white breed, I feel sure, originated somewhere amongst the rocky, rhododendron-grown hills above Rothbury and, from time to time ,it keeps cropping up as it is handed down from father to son.'(2)

* Coincidentaly I will be at the Franciscan friary in Alnmouth near Alnwick in mid-November so I will see if I can see the mask at the Castle.

Jumping forwards 38 years to The Mail on Sunday August 30^th 1987, `Lair of the little white foxes` by Dr Brendan Quayle, which told of with two white cubs, one of which was shot the other “booted to death”(3). 'According to David Bellamy* the birth of an albino or white-skinned specimen of a wild or even domesticated creature, unless specially bred, is very rare.' (4) One fox was shot. The story continued concerning the killing of the other fox: '…It was two teenage sons of a local farmers who killed the other white cub and one of its red brothers from the same litter. "Why did you do it?" I asked them bitterly this week. "Foxes are vermin and we were worried they were going for our geese," they told me.'(5) Quayle speculated their white pelts would end up at a taxidermist.

* I wrote to David Bellamy four or five months ago about this story but received no reply. The above incident was in the Border country between England and Scotland. Perhaps the same location as in the Country Sportsman article?

According to Roger Burrows in A Complete Study of The Red Fox (1988) :

'There are records of white, presumably albino, foxes from Dartmoor, and at least five records of them from Whaddon Chase.”… “Russian authors mention blue and silver foxes as being present in the northern of the red foxes` range, so not all the blue foxes in northern Europe need necessarily be descended from the feral North American form.' (6)

The Wild About Forum on the Net reported an eyewitness sighting of a white fox near the Wirral. This was on May 2^nd 2006. 'Lemming' thought it was a dog but later: '..This morning I saw it streaking across the field in front of my house, grabbed my binoculars and saw it was a white fox. White from head to hind legs then it turned a peachy colour. How lovely!!! Just wanted to share my sitings with you all.' (7)

On the same Forum in September 2007 there was some interesting communication about black and other coloured foxes. On September 22^nd John (in Coventry) said: 'I have just had a shock. I was looking out of my bedroom window and a scrawny looking Black Fox walked past my Bungalow…I have never seen a Black Fox before and must admit that I didn`t know they could be that colour. It wasn`t a full on black but dark enough to be able to pass for black.' (8)

C C replied giving instances of a black one in Maesycmmer near Caerphilly and one on September 21^st 2007 'on the fields by Carmarthen Bay' with 'a black stripe down back, with a stripe running down shoulder blades.' (9) C C saw three silver foxes in the past four years in Carmarthen.

Finally, on September 18^th 2008 a newspaper website reported the sighting of a black fox on the outskirts of Chorley, Lancashire: Mr Hehir, from Preston, Lancashire, was walking in a cemetery with a friend when he spotted the animal among the gravestones…..Country villagers traditionally told stories of how the fox was as 'black as night, so that it could live in a man`s shadow and never be seen.' (10)

1.Letter from Jan Williams to R.Muirhead c.1995.

2.Country Sportsman 1949.

3.The Mail on Sunday August 30^th 1987 `Lair of the little white foxes`.p.13

4.The Mail on Sunday Ibid p.13

5. The Mail on Sunday Ibid. p.15

6.R.Burrows. A Complete Study of The Fox. (1988) pp71,73

7. http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/ May 2^nd 2006

8.www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk September 22^nd 2007

9.Ibid September 22^nd 2007

10. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ September 18^th 2008.

That`s all for today,friends. Tomorrow: `Talking Turtles.`

MORE ON PYGMY WEASELS

On the forteana newsgroup, Merrilly Harpur wrote:

'Hi Jon, re:

I read Richard's material on pygmy weasels with great interest. When I was researching my book Pig Overboard (Robson Books, 1980s), a collection of strange (highly fortean) letters to 'The Field' magazine, I came across a long correspondence about pygmy weasels, poss. new species etc. As far as I can recall the correspondents were in East Anglia and Dorset, and claimed the country people called the miniature weasel a 'miniver.' Wish I could remember more - will search my files. The copies of The Field I examined were from about 1950 to 1975. They were a fantastic treasure trove - wonder if they still exist.

Merrily'

This rang a bell in my increasingly mangled synapses, so I had a look at Appendix 4 of my Smaller Mystery Carnivores of the Westcountry, which I reproduce here in full:

THE IRISH STOAT, THE PYGMY WEASEL, & MUIRHEAD’S MYSTERY MUSTELIDS
(Many thanks to Richard Muirhead for his tireless research)

It is generally believed that only one species of weasel, (M.nivalis) and one stoat (M. erminea) exist in the British Isles. Within recent historical times, however, it was widely believed that there were two species of weasel and two species of stoat within these islands. In the absence of compelling evidence to the contrary, I am prepared to concur entirely with the currently held view, but in the interests of scientific completeness, and also because, even as I write, the Centre for Fortean Zoology and its representatives are regularly approached by members of the public who believe in one or both species, I present here, the sum total of our records on the subject.

Richard Muirhead has spent some months investigating reports of dwarf weasels from various parts of the country, including the island of Anglesey and parts of Cumbria. The idea of such an animal is not particularly new. Writing in 1989 Sleeman noted:

“The frequent existence of a second litter, coupled with the difference in size between the sexes are the factors that give rise to stories about two types of weasels; ordinary and pygmy weasels existing side by side. In some rural areas such weasels are called ‘minivers’. (1)

Richard has discovered that these creatures are still widely believed to exist and in some areas are known as ‘Squeazels’. (2) The details of the Anglesey animals are obscure, (3) but it appears that they are lighter in colour than one would expect and have been reported as being white.

Richard Muirhead writes:

“From a letter I received on the 28th July it appears that they live on Anglesey, in the valley area near Holyhead. They have also been reported from Cumbria, Shropshire and Yorkshire. They eat pheasant chicks and inhabit mole holes, hence the nickname of ‘squeasels’. They were caught, in the 1920s and 1930s, in the areas surrounding Church Stretton, Craven Arms and
Ludlow in Shropshire. They are, according to my correspondent still seen, near a farm near Llanfair near Valley. (NB LL65 2HF).

There appear to be two types. They are of identical size but one is quite a light colour and some are much darker. The darker animals are rarer. They inhabit areas like stone walls. My informant saw an old one with some babies recently”. (4)

These colour variations do not seem to be consistent with those generally reported from either young or female weasels of the normal race. (5) The hunt continues.

It is generally agreed that the stoat (Mustela erminea) is found all over the British Isles, and unlike the weasel (or probably the polecat, although this is uncertain) is found in Ireland. Some reports, however, refer to a separate species, the Irish stoat (Mustela hibernica) and it is interesting to note that there seem to be several different opinions as to what exactly it is, and if in fact, it exists.

It is unclear whether or not it is believed that both the ‘normal’ species of stoat and the ‘Irish’ variety co-exist in Ireland, or whether or not only the disputed species is found. Sleeman (1989). (5) refers to an animal the size of an ordinary weasel (Irish stoats are often referred to as ‘weasels’ although true weasels are confined to the mainland) on which the dividing line between the reddish upper parts and the white belly is much less well defined than on the mainland animal.

Praeger, (6) in 1950, wrote:

“The Irish stoat (Mustela hibernica) is now considered a different species from that found in Britain, on account of its smaller size and darker colour with less ‘whitish’ underneath; the lips and rims of the ears are dark, while in the English stoat they are light-coloured. Also the white winter coat, assumed by the animal in the colder parts of the range, and frequently in Britain, is
scarcely ever seen.

‘Common as the animal is in Ireland’ writes Thompson, ‘I have never seen or heard of a white one being taken in winter. Towards the end of our most severe winters in the north, I never saw any change of fur in these animals. Yet, in the part of Scotland closest to Ireland, where the difference of climate from that on the opposite coast must be most trivial, the stoat becomes white every winter’. This active and daring little animal is common throughout Ireland,
where it is usually called ‘weasel’ (which is ‘Mustela nivalis’), and is sometimes also mistaken for the polecat (Mustela putorius); but neither of these relations of the stoat is found in Ireland. It is interesting to note that the Isle of Man is colonised by the Irish, not the English stoat (Mustela erminea stabilis)”.

I discovered an interesting codicil to this story. In 2002 when the CFZ were actively engages hunting for a giant catfish in the Martin Mere wildfowl reserve (see my book The Monster of the Mere for details), the head naturalist there, the late Pat Wisniewski, told me that the Irish stoats were also to be found at Martin Mere. This is particularly interesting, not only because the western portion of Martin Mere has a singular wildlife of its own, but because I also saw a young stoat of normal size and shape there. It appears that both races peacefully co-exist there, although, as far as I know, there is no data available on whether they interbreed.

Moffat (7) also confirms that Irish stoats are known as ‘weasels’. There is some confusion here because he seems to refer to the Irish stoat as being distinct only at a subspecific level, although other references cited are convinced that it is a distinct species. Praeger refers several times to Thompson’s classic 1856 work on Irish Natural History, (8) but elsewhere Thompson and others (9) collect a few records of the white winter colouration, which suggests that this variety of stoat, whether or not it is distinct at a specific level, is less prone to this mode of protective colouration than is its English counterpart. This is valuable corroborative evidence for a degree of speciation.
Thompson’s book also, incidentally, contains the original reference to the Antrim beech marten specimen referred to in the main text of this book, but Thompson seems to suggest that the beech marten is by far the rarest of the two marten species living in Ireland. The final record we have of the Irish stoat is so different that, again, it appears to refer to another animal altogether. Scharff (1922) writes: (10)

“Related to the Marten is the Irish stoat (Easog), commonly called ‘weasel’ in Ireland, an animal quite distinct from the British stoat, and even more so from the true weasel. It is unknown outside Ireland, and is much larger than the weasel. It differs from the English stoat in having the ears and upper lip dark in colour, and in so far as it rarely turns quite white in winter”.
We, therefore, have a weasel-sized animal with stoat colouration, a dark, stoat-sized animal
that may or may not turn white in the winter, and an animal half-way between the weasel and the stoat in size, which sometimes turns white in winter, but sometimes doesn’t.

When you also consider the mystery of the Antrim beech marten and the disputed question
of whether or not there is an indigenous population of polecats, the only thing that remains clear is that there is a lot of work still to be done regarding the precise speciation of the Irish mustelidae.

Other references to the Irish stoat occur in The Irish Naturalists Journal Volume 1, numbers 8 (p. 150 – 1), 11 (p. 219 and p. 271), Volume 2, (p. 44 and 73), and Volume 4 (p. 64).
Richard Muirhead has unearthed several other reports, which appear to refer to anomalous
or in some cases, mysterious mustelids. These, I have not been able to either research or confirm, and as he has provided the rest of the material in this appendix then, again, in the interests of completeness, they should be included here.

He has a brief record of ‘reddish’ polecats which are reported quite regularly from several locations of the Cardiganshire plateau. Amongst other odd coloured mustelids, are an peculiar animal on display in the window of a butcher’s shop in Stockbridge, Wiltshire. (See left)

It was supplied by a local taxidermist. When approached for details of mustelids he had encountered, Muirhead discovered that although he didn’t believe in the existence of a pygmy variety of weasel, he had come across one albino specimen, and although he had never encountered pine martens in the area, he described an animal he called a ‘corn marten’, which he said was now very rare, and “paler than a normal marten”.

Cryptozoologists in future years may well have yet another animal to consider; the CORU marten. Richard Muirhead wrote to a Wiltshire newspaper appealing for information about the corn marten, as described above. The newspaper misprinted his request, and so an appeal went out to several thousand hapless Wiltshire men and women for information on the CORU-marten. It is frightening to think quite how many zoological mysteries may have no more substance than a spelling mistake such as this one!

When one considers quite how many ‘animals’ are given considerable coverage in books on cryptozoology, purely on the basis of one uncorroborated sighting or newspaper story, the story of the ‘Coru-marten’ is, perhaps, of more significance than it would otherwise have seemed.
It seems appropriate that for the final animal in this book, we return to Devonshire for
one final mystery animal from the pages of Richard Muirhead’s notebooks. (11) (12)
A 1923 report describes a mustelid which is “not a polecat”, said to live in Devon in
about 1900. It is described as greyish with a remarkably broad head, and Muirhead says
that its identity was a “complete mystery” to the local people who encountered it!


1. SLEEMAN P Stoats and Weasels, Polecats and Martens (1989).
2. MUIRHEAD R conversation November 1995.
3. Unnamed article in Country Life 1975 via R. Muirhead.
4. MUIRHEAD R pers. corr. to JD 29.7.95.
5. SLEEMAN P Stoats and Weasels, Polecats and Martens (1989).
6. PRAEGER R.L. Natural History of Ireland p.73 (1950).
7. MOFFAT C.B. The Mammals of Ireland (Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy
Vol. 44 (b) p. 61 – 128. (1938).
8. THOMPSON W. The Natural History of Ireland (4 Vols, Bohn, London 1856).
9. The Irish Naturalist (March 1895).
10. SCHARFF R.F. Guide to the collection of Irish Animals. (Dublin, Stationers Office;
1922).
11. MUIRHEAD R. pers. corr. to JD 21.2.95.
12. GORDON Wildlife of Devon (1923).

RICHARD MUIRHEAD: The poems of John Milton and Cryptozoology

The poems of John Milton, such as Paradise Lost, On The Morning of Christ`s Nativity, Samson Agonistes and Comus are well known. Perhaps less well known except by those who have made a serious study (I do not include myself here) of these poems is the occasional reference to cryptids, in particular sea monsters. I have only read the first few pages of Paradise Lost (1667) but very soon after Satan and his angels are thrown out of heaven after their rebellion against God, we have Milton portraying the following gloomy scene: (The spelling throughout is kept to my texts)

Thus Satan, talking to his nearest mate,
With head uplift above the wave, and eyes
That sparkling blazed; his other parts besides
Prone on the flood, extending long and large,
Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge
As whom the fables name of monstrous size,
Titanian or Earth-born, that warred on Jove,
Briareos or Typhon, whom the den
By ancient Tarsus held, or that sea-beast
Leviathan, which God of all his works
Created hugest that swim the ocean-stream.
Him, happly slumbering on the Norway foam
The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff,
Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell
With fixed anchor in his scaly rind,
Moors by his side under the lee, while night
Invests the sea,and wished morn delays.
So stretched out huge in length the Arch-Fiend lay etc,etc
Chained on the burning lake;……(1)

This theme of a boat stranding on the huge back of a sea-monster also comes up in the story of St. Brendan The Voyager, alleged to have sailed to N. America a few hundred years after Christ`s life.

`Milton`s great theme, set out in the opening line -`Of Man`s First Disobediance`- hails acts of human choice as the focus of the entire poem. Adam and Eve`s story is interwoven with those of God, Satan, angels, and all of subsequent human history. This first edition appeared during a brief window of loosening of censorship - after the Fire of London and during a political upheaval - its undistinguished quarto format disguising the potentially incendiary ideas within`(2)

The poem On The Morning of Christ`s Nativity (1629), written when Milton was about 21, developed this theme before his classic Paradise Lost was written, but in a far less profound manner:

He feels from Juda`s Land
The dredded Infants hand,
The rayes of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyn;
Nor all the gods beside,
Longer dare abide,
Not Typhon huge ending in snaky twine:
Our Babe to show his Godhead true,
Can in his swaddling bands controul the damned crew. (3)

This poem later develops the theme of the music of the spheres, which is something I am also interested in. My mother bought me the book English Poetry (see reference 3 below) when I was mentally ill in hospital about 10 years ago, which created a strange version of On The Morning of Christ`s Nativity in my mind on reading it as you can imagine!

The illustration is a portrait engraving of John Milton aged 63 by William Dolle for the second edition of Paradise Lost (1674) held in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

(1) The Poetical Works of John Milton. London and New York (1891)
(2) Citizen Milton An Exhibition Celebrating The 400th Anniversary Of The Birth of John Milton. S.Achinstein.Oxford (2007)
(3) English Poetry. Selected by Kenneth Muir. London (1941)

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: A WHITE HARE IN DEVON AND THE REMAINS OF A HUGE BIRD OFF SIBERIA

I have today come across two new stories from the Macclesfield Courier
and Stockport Express or Cheshire General Advertiser.(MC & SE or CGA)
The first story is about a white hare from Devon,the second is far more
controversial, an account of the remains of a huge bird found on an
island in Arctic waters off the north coast of Siberia. Both stories
are from 1811. A Google search for the name "Hedemstrotni" found
nothing,but "New Siberia" does exist and it was discovered c.1806. Huge
birds have been reported from North America but I was unaware of any
from Siberia. Make of this what you will....

" A white hare was killed last week at Puddington, Devon by the Rev Mr
Hole`s harriers. A similar instance occured about 50 years ago in the
same parish." MC & SE or CGA October 26th 1811

"Hedemstrotni; the Russian naturalist,who recently examined the newly
discovered Island called New Siberia in the Icy Ocean found on it three
birds claws a yard in length; and the roving Jakute (?) related that
they had sometimes found feathers,the barrels of which were capable of
of admitting a man`s clenched fist. MC & SE or CGA. November 9th 1811.

Could "Jakute" now mean Yackut,i.e. of the Russian region now known by
that title?

GUEST BLOGGER RICHARD MUIRHEAD: CRAZYNESS AND CRYPTOZOOLOGY IN NORTHAMPTON,1997

As regular readers will know, Richard is one of my dearest friends, and furthermore someone I have known since 1970 when we were children together in Hong Kong. He is a natural polymath, and one of the best researchers I have ever met. What people may not know is that we have something else in common - we both suffer from mental health issues, and in Richard's case his problems were so bad that they landed him in hospital. I have always been open about my own battle with a bipolar illness, and I would just like to say how proud I am of Richard for `coming out` on such a public forum as this. Well done mate...

One fine mid summer afternoon in early August 1997 I was sitting at a computer in the Bodleian Library in Oxford,doing research for my MA dissertation. As I was sitting there a strange series of thoughts entered my head and I ended up believing I was the Antichrist. (I was and am not, I am a Christian.) So this delusion got worse and worse until that evening I was put in an ambulance, sedated, and taken to the main psychiatric hospital in Northampton,(because there were no vacancies in Oxford.) Coincidentally, this is where the “peasant poet” John Clare, more famous for his nature poetry, was also a patient. His harrowing poem `I am` about the alienation from those around him that his illness brought to him has inspired me down the years.

I am: yet what I am none cares or knows,
My friends forsake me like a memory lost;
I am the self-consumer of my woes,
They rise and vanish in oblivious host,
Like shades in love and death's oblivion lost;
And yet I am, and live - like vapors tossed

However, I digress.

So I arrived and almost immediately there were cryptozoological stories to investigate. There was a picture above my of a vase of flowers, a reprint of the 18th century horticulturalist Robert Furber`s Twelve Months of Flowers, 1730, picture for March. At the bottom, beneath the vase was a pair of animals that looked like a kind of Tatzelwurm. Jon discussed it with the other members of the CFZ, then at Exeter and they decided it was an early depiction of a dolphin.

Whilst in hospital (which was luxurious by the way) we began to talk about black squirrels in Britain.

She gave me the address of a female friend she had who lived in Cambridgeshire. Moreover this lady had photos of black squirrels. Sure enough,when I wrote to her she passed on one of her photos which was later published in British Wildlife, December 1998 along with my essay on the subject.

After a week or two in the psychiatric hospital,I was allowed to go into Northampton accompanied by a nurse. I was in Northampton until early September until shortly after the death of Princess Diana in Paris.

On one occasion I went to the local studies library and in one or two days. It turned out to be the most productive, or - at least - one of the most productive short term periods of cryptozoological research in my life. The library was a delightful old building, and the animal stories below were found by using a card catalogue system. As a qualified librarian I was taught that with the advent of information technology, this is not considered the most time efficient method of searching! But I can see no harm.

Below, in date order, are most of my unusual animal stories from Northampton. A few have been left out or abbreviated, due to their comparatively uninteresting nature.

HORNED HORSE. Northampton Mercury. June 27th 1795. Nearly all the cuttings are abbreviated “N.Merc”,so I presume that means “Northampton Mercury.”

When I first read those words “Horned Horse” I first thought “is this some kind of unicorn?”.Then I found out this was actually a gnu. “The following singular accident took place agout a fortnight since, on the Chester road, near the sand house,a short distance from Brick-hill-A Caravan in which were a Leopard, a Bison(or Buffalo) a Horned Horse, and several smaller wild beasts,owing to the axle-tree breaking,was pitched on one side….etc”

LOCUSTS. Northampton Mercury. September 26th 1857.

This is one of my favourite entomological anomalies.” A locust was found in Adam and Eve street,Market Harborough on Sunday last,while the Rev.J Clifford was preaching in the open air. A servant in the employ of Mr H.Foster took it home with him;it measures more than two inches in length.One was seen on Friday last in a field of turnips in the parish of Cobourn,near Caistor. Its prescence was known by a skip of four or five yards,and on arresting the attention of the beholder impressed him at first that it was a small rising from the ground. A locust was found in St Paul`s street, Stamford, a few days ago; a dog was playing with it at the time. It survived several days.” Note the coincidences: Adam and Eve and St.Paul. Locusts in the Bible are a symbol of God`s judgement.

SHOWER OF SNAILS. Northampton Mercury. June 19th 1858.

“Shower of Snails-After the storm,on Saturday last,myriads of small snails appeared on the high lands north of Stamford and in some cases covered whole patches of vegetation. They now abound on the tombstones at the cemetery,and the lodge-keeper is firmly of the opinion that they descended with the deluge-like rain which fell on Saturday.”

Fort mentions a fall of snails in The Book of The Damned: In Cornwall,near Redruth,on July 8th 1886.This is in Science Gossip 1886-238.(1)

LOCUST. Northampton Daily Chronicle(?) August 22nd 1901

“Another locust,this time a South African one:

A fine specimen of the South Africa locust was found in Derngate,Northampton, by Mr Frank Bex this morning. Mr Bazeley,Sheep Street has it on view in his window.”

AN INDIAN MONGOOSE. Northampton Daily Record (?) September 28th 1904

“A Rare Animal. Whilst out rabbit-shooting on Tuesday last week,at Mr Banks` lime kilns,near Moulton Park.Mr W.Parbery ,of the Old Five Bells Kingsthorpe,was fortunate enough to secure a rare natural history specimen. There was a good deal of speculation as to what the animal was but through the kindness of Mr T.J.George and others it has been found out to be an Indian mongoose. The animal,when “bolted” by a ferret (which was muzzled) showed fight,but was soon despatched. It is supposed that the specimen (which is being preserved) had escaped from confinement.”

CAT FEEDING CHICK. Northampton Daily Chronicle. September 23rd 1905.

“Anomaly In Natural History. Your readers may be interested in the following anomaly in natural history:- Mrs Jackson (wife of Mr Smyth`s gamekeeper)put a lame chicken into the basket of her cat with one kitten to nurse. The cat took kindly to her charge,keeps it warm under her;treats it exactly as she does her kitten,licking it clean,etc., and if the chick is taken out of the basket carries it back in her mouth. The chick is doing well,and will soon be independent of its strange fostermother”. J.T.BARTLETT.

A GAZELLE. Northampton Mercury. May 14th 1909.

This gazelle was supposed to have escaped from a travelling menagerie. This is the usual explanation given in early 20th century British newspapers for exotic animals found or shot in the countryside. But in this story about a gazelle there is a twist: The gazelle was thought to have been being suckled by a cow belonging to a farm owner,Mr Charles Kingston! I will quote from parts of the cutting: My own comments in brackets.

“No little excitement was caused in the village (of Caldecote) on Monday (i.e. the 10th) when it became known that a young gazelle had been shot on Uplands Farm. It appears that for some considerable time the occupier of the farm,Mr Charles Kingston,had been at a loss to understand the reason why one of his best milch cows was yielding so little milk….Mr Kingston, on receiving information,* set off with his man and two lads to stalk the intruder,and after an exciting time got in a favourable position for a shot and brought his quarry down. Several people who have been in South Africa are of opinion that the animal is a young gazelle. How it came to Caldecote can only be conjectured, but the field where it was found lies close to the main road,and it is possible that it may have escaped from a passing menagerie……Judging by the time when the milch cow unaccountably failed to yield her usual supply of milk Mr Kingston thinks that the gazelle must have been on the farm for the greater part of the winter and suckled by the cow."

ANOTHER LOCUST. Northampton Mercury. September 24th 1909

An Unwelcome Visitor - A remarkably fine specimen of the locust was captured on Thursday, in a bean field belonging to H.B.Whitworth,Esq., near the Northampton toll-gate, on the Kettering-road, by a lad named John Roughton,the son of Thomas Roughton, of 111, Market street, in whose possession it remains.

A KANGAROO. Northampton Mercury. April 26th 1912.

"Some residents at Ravensthorpe have had a fright. An uncanny creature was seen in the twilight of Tuesday(i.e. the 23rd ) looping along a field. No one knew what it was, and by night the description approached the following picture from an old writer:- The ouglie devel, with hornes on his head, fier in his mouth, a huge tayle, eies like basons, fangs like a boar, claws like a tiger, a skin like a bear, and a voice roaring like a lion.

But it was not so bad as that. Early the next morning the mystery was exploded. A kangaroo was captured on the Guilsborough road near Marrowell Cottage, the residence of Mr.William Clarke,East Haddon. Mr Clarke discovered the unusual animal entangled in some pens. He and his sons secured it and took it to the Crown Hotel where it was placed in the stables. The animal evidently had recently escaped from some menagerie or private collection".

A TASMANIAN CAT (sic). Northampton Mercury. July 19th 1912.

Now this is very interesting. As you can see from the photograph this animal in question is not a cat,but what looks like a ring-tailed lemur. Nor are these lemurs native of Tasmania, but Madagascar. So why does the text refer to “a Tasmanian cat”? Were there ever colonies of ring-tailed lemurs in Tasmania in the early 20th century or something similar and, if so,what became of them? Could a CFZ Australia member reading this look into it?

“The photograph is of a Tasmanian cat found on the line near Weedon,and given by the railway officials in charge of Mr B.Southgate,of the Horseshoe Inn,Weedon,until the owner can be found. Mr Southgate is making use of the opportunity by collecting for the Northampton Hospital".

SIAMESE WILD CAT. Northampton Daily Chronicle. October 10th 1916.

Now here is another strange one. The piece doesn`t seem to be referring to a domestic cat,but when I Googled “siamese wild cat –images” I only came up with images of domestic cats or hybrids. Please can any one tell me what “siamese wild cat” would be referring to in 1916? Furthermore, a cat,or most cats are bigger than stoats,(see below),so do we have here a cat a similar size to a stoat?

“The other night Mr Knight,a farmer of Chalveston,saw what he thought to be a stoat attacking one of his ducks. He shot and killed it,and then discovered the animal to be one of a species that he could not recognise. (emphasis mine).On taking to Mr H.H.Bryant, taxidermist,of Wellingborough,h owever,that gentleman was able to recognise it as a Siamese wild cat. How the animal, which, though small, is powerful and dangerous got in this locality is unknown, but probably it had escaped from a private collection.

GREY AND RED SQUIRRELS. The Times February 7th 1929.

This is the only item from a non provincial newspaper,nevertheless I include it here because I found it in the Northampton library and because, even though it is 80 years old, it is an early example, seemingly sincere of a certain belief about grey squirrels.This is only a very small extract:

“A few years ago my two elder sons saw a grey squirrel leave a red squirrel`s nest in a tree close by our house, Iridge Place,near Etchingham, in Sussex. One climbed up and found in the nest a dead red squirrel, warm and bleeding.”

Not only did I enjoy myself with these cuttings which now have a wider viewing nearly 12 years on but Richard Freeman of the CFZ visited me and we had a drink at town centre pub and went to a second hand book shop where Richard found a book on animal mysteries. I bought On Safari by Armand Denis which has a photo of the remains of a four tusked elephant and a book called Birth of Toads by Elvig Hansen.

(1) C.Fort. Book of the Damned in The Complete Books of Charles Fort.Dover Publications,Inc. New York.1974.p92.