Natural History Society

(b) How bright these glorious spirits shine (c) Antiphon (from 5 Mystical Songs) ... Alan Gray (1855-1935) Francis Jackson R. Vaughan-Williams (1872- ) P.J.R.M.

THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY

President: D. K. CREWS, Esq., M.A. Hon. Secretary: R. J. GIBSON.

The first meeting was an informal one and was held on 13th May, in the Rise Garden, when the Committee was elected and the programme suggested for the term. On Mr. Crews' suggestion it was decided to have official meetings once a fortnight, and on alternate Saturdays to hold informal meetings, when members would set themselves some task to perform, and this programme was more or less adhered to. Only the formal meetings will be described here. On the alternate Saturdays members did such tasks as : organising the school egg collection, attending to the aquaria and animals, looking for a bumble bees' nest to set up an observational bee-hive, etc. A membership fee of 3d. was decided upon, membership cards being given out later.

On 20th May a visit was made to the gulleries at Skipwith Common, permission kindly being given by Mr. Claude Thompson. They are situated south of the village, and a distance of over ten miles from the School. Over forty members went. The majority went by bicycle, and set off from School at 4-45 p.m., but even so, many were late back. The journey took about an hour. On arrival bicycles were left in some derelict R.A.F. huts, and the party split into groups. The gulleries consisted of two fairly large marshy ponds. It had rained hard the two previous nights and the going was very wet. Besides the black-headed gulls and their nests, there were seen also a teal's nest with eggs, a whitethroat's nest and egg, wood-pigeons' nests and a jay. Mallards were seen and a young teal was caught. Many rabbits were seen in the drier parts of the common. Other objects of interest were also found.

On 27th May a small exhibition was held of the various things obtained from Skipwith Common at the previous meeting in conjunction with some of the exhibits in the lab. Members afterwards split into sections to dissect frogs, etc.

On 3rd June an excursion was made to Askham Bog. We started at 5-15 p.m., so we had about one and a half hours there. Having arrived, we split up into parties. Mr. Crews described how Askham

Bog was protected under the Yorkshire Naturalists' Trust, of which the School is a life member, and is closed to the public. Those who had been before went off with their own parties; 14 went off with Bird, J. R., to look for the Royal fern. Those who had not been to the bog before remained with Mr. Crews, who explained the history of the place—how it is the only remnant of a much larger bog in the Vale of York and is partly the result of glaciation in late Pleistocene times. Several interesting specimens were found. Seven clumps of Royal fern were found, a grey squirrel was seen, an old wren's nest was brought back, and a wood-pigeon's nest with eggs was found; also some water-fleas were netted for the school fishes.

On 1st July the meeting was held on the Ings, the party meeting near Ings gate and carrying on to near the jetty. From the top of a haystack we received details of the competition, a prize being offered for the best or most interesting exhibit found within a 500 yards radius of the haystack. The party had to re-assemble at the haystack at 7 o'clock. Mr. Crews remained aloft with field glasses. The most interesting specimens found, by popular vote, were brought by Patterson and Brooks, who had found a thrush's nest with a broken egg in it, and caught some small fish fry from the river, and a meadow brown and ladybird and ladybird larvae. The prize, a book on British birds, published by the Ministry of Agriculture, and suitably inscribed, was given to Patterson. Many varieties of flowers were found. De Little and Dunn arrived too late for the judging, having found a skylark's nest, empty, quite near to the stack, some tansy beetles and some flowers.

On 8th July a general meeting was not held, but there was an unorganised forage for exhibits for the vivarium. Members set off in their own time, most of them to Strensall Common to look for snakes and lizards. Several interesting finds were made, but no snakes seen, and although some lizards were seen, none was caught. De Little and Dunn caught a long-tailed field mouse, which is still thriving in the laboratory.

On 22nd July a visit was made to the York Natural History Museum. As Mr. Wagstaffe has left, Mr. Wentworth kindly opened the Museum for us and accompanied us. We were very impressed with the collection of fossils, insects, birds, fishes, and animals. Mr. Wentworth also took us into the students' room, where we saw the two great auks, an extinct bird, of which only five specimens exist in England, and we also saw the Ellis collection of beetles, the best of its kind in England. We were amazed at the minute labelling of these thousands of beetles. This was the last meeting of term, and apart from the small attendance, a most satisfactory and interesting one.