WEATHER
REPORT
MAY, 1957.-—The first week of the month produced a cold northerly type of weather with sleet and hail showers on the 6th and 7th. A screen minimum temperature of 29° was recorded on the 7th and a grass minimum temperature of 19°. Thereafter weather was unsettled with a south westerly type of weather and higher temperatures until the 20th. Henceforward, apart from a break on the 23rd/24th, a bright dry north easterly regime set in with good sunshine but high winds. Rainfall was 1.70 in., sunshine 200 hours and the mean temperature was 50.5°. The temperatures were on the low side, while rain and sun were near the normal. JUNE.—The most outstanding feature of this month was the heat of the last four days. Maxima were 81°, 87°, 90° and 91°. Another prominent feature was the period llth/21st| inclusive where a north easterly type of weather brought long hours of sunshine and warm weather, at any rate until the 19th. (A maximum temperature of 80° was recorded on the 18th.) In this period 148 hours of sun were recorded. T h e total rainfall was 2.10 in. of which 1.37 in. feil on the 9th and lOth during thunderstorms and heavy rain. The sun total was 276 hours—the highest since 1950. The mean temperature was 59.2°, average 1902 - 41 being 58.6°. JULY.—A very unsettled month with frequent and sometimes heavy falls of rain and thunderstorms. The wärmest weather was in the first week, the temperature reaching 81° on the 4th and 80° on the 6th, the month being generally on the warm side, however. The rain total was 2.78 in. and the sun total 181 hours. The mean temperature was 60.3°. The rainfall is high and sunshine low, though not severely so. The mean temperature is slightly high.
AUGUST.—The first week was anticyclonic pleasant summer weather. Thereafter there was a complete reversal and the remainder of the month was unsettled and wet. Rainfall was recorded on 14 consecutive days (measurable). The total rainfall was 2.59 ins. (av. 2.28) and sunshine amounted to 177 hours (av. 184.1). The mean temperature was 60.6° (av. 1902 — 41 : 61.2°). The highest temperature was 75° on the Ist and 7th. SEPTEMBER. Although rain feil on several days in the early part of the month there was no quantity until the lOth, when .58 ins. feil. Generally unsettled conditions prevailed and there was a very wet spell round the 23rd. 1.48 ins. of rain feil in the period 21st /25th inclusive. Sunshine was very low at 106 hours, the
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WEATHER REPORT
average 1903-54 being 145 hours. Rainfall was 2.75 ins. which is very high, the average being 1.82 ins. The mean temperature was 55.6° and on the low side. An unpleasant month. OCTOBER.—The first fortnight of this month produced some glorious autumn weather with light winds and considerable early morning fog. Thereafter conditions became unsettled although the period 19th /25th inclusive was rather better. Rainfall was 1.67 which is low, sunshine 100 hours, a little below the average. The mean temperature was 52.1° (av. 1902 - 41—50.6°). The maximum temperature was 65° on the 6th.
BOOK REVIEW The late Adolf Hitler's success was in large part due to his realization of the fact that any Statement if repeated again and again with conviction is ultimately accepted as an Eternal Truth, and this book* shows how honest naturalists can as easily so delude themselves and each other as dishonest politicians can a simple minded electorate. Naturalist after naturalist has repeated the Statement that shrews are delicate, nervous and highly strung, liable to be killed by fright or any sudden shock, each in turn so explaining the dead shrews found in " catch alive " traps : each in turn having in fact, as Dr. Crowcroft shows, starved the poor creatures to death, a shrew's food requirements being so high that it cannot survive for more than a very few hours unfed. The author obviously has an affection for his shrews and takes enormous trouble to avoid such disasters. One of the nicest passages is the account of a long search for a missing trap which when found contained an expectant mother who eventually presented her captor with a family of baby water shrews : a true story of virtue rewarded. Dr. Crowcroft is the only modern zoologist who has made an intensive study of the British shrews and this stimulating little book is the result. Step by step, in simple language, he gives an account of the behaviour, reproduction, growth, prey, enemies, life cycle, etc., of the shrews, of the problems involved and how they were resolved, using in most cases the simplest of apparatus—combined with infinite patience and pains. The instructions on trapping and on keeping shrews in captivity are useful but this book should be read by all naturalists not only those primarily interested in shrews: the problems involved and the methods used are, mutatis mutandis, applicable to the study of almost any species. CRANBROOK.
*" T h e Life of the Shrew " by Peter Crowcroft. Max Reinhardt.
15/-.