NOTES AND
OBSERVATIONS
RECORDS. We have had some useful additions to the parishes being recorded for wild flowers and further records for parishes partly surveyed for one season only and it is interesting to have some rarer species discovered in new places, such as Silene otites and Baldellia ranimculoides in East Suffolk and to learn that Crithmum maritimum recorded by Hind, in 1889 for only one spot has now been found in two others. The rare Verbascum virgatum Twiggy Mullein or Large-flowered Mullein still occurs in West Suffolk—hitherto we have had only two records of it, both in East Suffolk. PARISH
GRASSES. Some of our botanists who have done considerable records of wild flowers in their own and neighbouring parishes have excused themselves from doing the grasses, saying that C.T.W, make them too difficult. I am going to rob you of that excuse. Mr. Boreham has lately told me of an excellent and easy book to use—I should have heard of it before—GRASSES by C. E. HUBBARD in the Pelican Series, price 5 /-. A few who have used this book and found identification easy have only done small parts of the county and as a whole our records lack grasses. I read in Hubbard that there are about 160 species of native or naturalised grasses in the British Isles and Mr. Simpson says we could easily find 50 to 70 species in most parts of the county. You good people who have recorded about 400 species of other plants in your own and neighbouring parishes do, please, add another 50 or so. This book has füll page illustrations of 152 species with parts of each plant enlarged for easy identification. All you need besides is a small lens and a large darning needle to open out the flower. J. C. N .
WILLIS.
ROADSIDE VERGES. It is disappointing to have so little response to my appeals to members to report the exact sites of rare or beautiful flowers that they would wish to be preserved. Roadsides are important for preservation now that Agriculture and Forestry have invaded the age-old homes of native wild flowers. These often survive only on the verges.
The County Surveyors of both East and West Suffolk are sympathetic. They have lent me large road and footpath maps on which to star spots of special interest. I shall be ashamed to send them back with only the six marks I have at present, because botanists won't bother to write. J. C. N .
WILLIS.
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NOTES AND OBERVATIONS
ANOTHER AMARANTH. T h e Dowager Lady Cranbrook writes that this year (1961) she has Amaranthus hybridus vor. chlorostachys (determined by Dr. S. M. Walters) all over her kitchen garden where she has never seen it before. These are about 150 plants in a waste bit of the garden. She had had A. retroflexus there and elsewhere for some 15 years and last year there was a splendid plant 3 foot high at the front door, but this year not one was to be seen.
She cannot account for its sudden appearance for she has had no manure or dressings brought in except some stuff from the Maltings at Snape. It is a huge branching plant with green inflorescence {chlorostachys). ULMUS CARPINIFOLIA Gled. x FLOTH, Druce. Mr. Simpson has found several specimens of this hybrid Elm at Otley recently in an old wooded area. He recognised carpinifolia as one parent and sent specimens to Kew for confirmation. This is the first record of this hybrid in Suffolk. STINKHORN (Phallus imperialis, Schulz). Mr. Simpson found this on a sand-dune at Minsmere last year. There were at least a dozen specimens with a stränge unpleasant smell and pink volva.
GRASSES. Mr. Boreham sends some extracts from an old book he possesses, Hortus Gramineus Woburnensis, 1828 by George Sinclair, F.L.S., F.H.S. It catalogues 1,500 species of grass including 150 British, with fine colour plates. Lolium perenne Russellianum, Ray grass or Rye grass, first cultivated by Benjamin Holdich from seed obtained from a rieh fen pasture pointed out to him oy the Duke of Bedford. Ray grass appears to have been cultivated before 1677. Besides which red clover, sainfoin, spurrey, trefoil and nonsuch (black medick) were the only plants then cultivated as grasses or termed such (" Grass, any green herbage affbrding food for cattle and other animals". Webster). Dactylisglomerata. Cock's Foot. T h e superiority of this over ray grass was proved by its extensive cultivation, the Earl of Leicester being the first to persevere in its culture at Holkham. An appendix lists the best grasses for plait, mainly for straw bonnets—a manufacture among the females of the labouring classes which, may be, saved the disappointment caused by cultivating a grass not adapted to the soil or not calculated to
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
63
afford the finest straw for intextion. T'oa angustifolia, a straw very long and fine and clear, superior to Poa pratensis of which Miss Woodhouse's celebrated bonnet was made. Miss Woodhouse, a daughter of a Connecticut farmer, presented a straw bonnet to the Society of Arts of London in 1819. SOLITARY W A S P . Four females of the beautifully marked fivespot Solitary Wasp (Sapyga quinquepunctata, Fab.), were observed upon the south wall of my house at Cornfield Road, Bury St. Edmunds around 12 noon (G.M.T.) on 22nd June, 1961. Length of specimen taken 11 m.m. Shuckard wrote of it in 1837 : it is found almost everywhere in spring, and towards midsummer. Edward Saunders, 1896, remarks : Common in places, although I have rarely seen it, and records it for Bury St. Edmunds (Swale). This is the first time that I have seen it and it probably is much rarer today. H E N R Y J.
BOREHAM.
BAT CAUGHT ON T R O U T F L Y . When fly fishing this summer at about 9.15 p.m. I hooked a small bat. I reeled in and as the bat hung quietly on the end of the cast it feil off into the water. It then swam away across the stream to the other bank using its wings most efficiently as oars. It was too dark to see what happened when it reached the other side. F. G. M. WESTROPP, Glemsford.
NOCTULE ( N y c t a l u s noctula) COLONY. There is a colony of noctules at Hill House, Higham every winter but towards the end of May they leave, returning the following autumn. D. D. JONES, Higham.
SEROTINE BAT'S CRUISING SPEED. Serotine bats (Eptesicus serotinus) (Trans. S.N.S. Vol. XI pt. v, p. 453) in fine weather frequent the main road between Mariesford and Wickham Market from mid June to mid July for an hour or so after sundown. When driving a car over the hill from Mariesford at 10.15 on 4th July, 1961, I saw two of these bats hawking the hedges either side of the road. As I passed the milestone one bat stopped feeding and flew off towards the five cross roads keeping over the centre of the road at a steady height of about nine feet and I was able to keep pace behind it with my speedometer remaining at 22 m.p.h. until it reached the five cross roads where it began to hawk over the hedges again. T h e speed of 22 mp.h. was maintained over a distance of J of a mile. M. L . L Y N N A L L E N , Wickham Market.
64
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
RED SQUIRREL (Sciurus vulgaris). A warrener who came to see me last night (7th September, 1961) said that he'd spent since Monday—the last three days—pigeon poking in these woods. Düring these activities he and another had poked down a number of newly built squirrel dreys. The dreys, several occupied at the time of disturbance, were nearly all built in young Douglas firs and stood about 15 ft. high. The twigs used for their framework were still flexible or not properly dead and the grasses and moss linings still had a green touch about them ; they were not dried up. He was convinced that the dreys had been built in the last six weeks. They seemed to be designed for winter quarters on the basis of one per squirrel. In no instance did two reds pop out of a single drey. Breckland squirrels seem to make use like some birds of any available huilding material. One of the new dreys, poked down yesterday or the day before, and built in a Douglas beside the Fishponds Road, Brandon, has some pieces of sandbag woven into it. A . J. FORREST, Brandon.
I have never seen a grey squirrel here, right on the Essex border, but there are plenty of red ones and occasionally a black one. D . D . JONES, Higham.
B A N K VOLE (Clethrionomys glareolus) EATING MAGGOTS. I have a maggotry here to feed my birds and noticed recently that supplies were disappearing daily from the tin, in a building in which I kept them. I suspected a tit but was surprised in the end to find the culprit to be a bank vole. He was making a serious hole in my supplies. W . H. P A Y N , Härtest.
T A M E WEASEL (Mustela nivalis). In June I was lucky enough to catch a young female while out for a walk. In the two days whilst I had it I was amazed at its vocabulary, it chattered incessantly. It took bread and milk from a spoon from the beginning, and ran all over me and curled up on my lap. It is still extremely tame, and rushes all over the place chattering, rolling and playing with anything that moves just like a kitten, follows its present owner everywhere, and sleeps in his shirtsleeve. She is now weaned of course, but is friendly to everyone and has never attempted to bite. Miss A. L. COOPER, Pettistree.
65 JAPANESE BEETLE (Copillia japonica). Found 7th August, 1961, at Mildenhall U.S.A.F. base on an aircraftflownfrom New Jersey, U.S.A. This beetle is about ^ inch long and dark red brown in colour. It destroys turf and ornamental shrubs. A specimen was sent to the N.A.A.S. following which, the plane was fumigated and several more dead specimens were recovered. NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
P. J. O. TRIST. FLAMINGO AT CATTAWADE. Mr. Richardson reports having seen a Flamingo near the bridge at Cattawade on Sunday, 12th November, after another member, Mr. Patrick Dudding, had told h im of it. He went there again on November 16th but could find no trace of it. Someone had rung up the Zoo to ask if one had escaped from there. It was not theirs. 1 asked Miss Vulliamy if it might be a survivor of the pair the late Mr. L. Hastings Vulliamy had for some year on his ponds at Cauldwell Hall. She replied that the last one had been savaged by a greyhound and had died. The other had escaped earlier, its wings not being properly clipped and had electrocuted itself on the trolley-bus wires. In answer to an enquiry in the E.A.D.T. of 16th November whetherflamingoscould survive an English winter and fend for themselves in the wild, Miss Vulliamy thinks it unlikely. The ponds at Cauldwell Hall were fed by a warm spring and there was a good current running through them which kept them from freezing over so that the birds were able to plunge their heads down to the bottom for grubs and things even in winter. Mr. Vulliamy supplemented this with extra food and I remember seeing aflamingoWalking with him to the hut to get it and back to the trough by the pond where he poured the food out. J. C. N. WILLIS. PĂœBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
A large illustrated volume from the Museum of Natural History at Bucharest of their exhibits—wild animals and fossils, also their Centenary Illustrated History. An illustrated monograph on Entomology of the Museum of Fauna at Dresden. From the Polish Academy of Science, Warsaw, the Diptera of Poland, Fragmenta Faunistica, Annales Zoologici and Memorabilia Zoologica. Acta Zoologica from the Academy of Science at Cracow. Published papers on zoology and botany with references to ecology and phylogeny from the Senschenberg Nature Research Society, Frankfurt-on-Main. Les Migrations des Oiseaux. J. Leclerq and W. Delvingt, Institut Agronomique, Gembloux, Belgium.