Notes and Observations 14 Part 2

NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS PIGMY SHREW (Sorex minutus) IN HOUSE. For the second year running a Pigmy shrew was caught in a mouse trap in the attics of this house. j L o N G E ) 0 1 d R e c t o r y > Huntingfield.

BATS FROM SUFFOLK CHURCHES. Düring the winter of 1 9 6 7 / 8 Pipistrelles (P. pipistrellus) were found in the Churches at Boxford, Brundish, and Wilby and two Long-eared bats (Plecotus auritus) and two Natterer's (Myotis nattereri) at Wilby.

P. RACEY, Zoological Society of London.

RECORD LONGEVITY OF DAUBENTON'S BAT. In December, 1 9 6 7 , I visited both sets of caves in Bury St. Edmunds where ringing of bats ceased in 1960.

On 29th December, 1967, I visited Horringer Caves where I found sixty bats, only two of which were ringed:— (a)

Myotis daubentoni (male) No. 1080 ringed seven years previously

(b)

M. mystacinus (male) No. 7784 ringed nine and a half years previously.

In addition to those two species, some Plecotus auritus and M. nattereri were also caught.

The following day, 30th December, 1967, I visited the Glen caves and caught forty-one bats of three species M. daubentoni, M. nattereri, and P. auritus. Again only two bats were ringed both Daubenton males. The first No. 5263 had been ringed ten years two months previously while No. 115 had been ringed for eighteen years two days. This is the greatest longevity recorded for this species although an allied species in U.S.A., M. lucifugus, has been recorded as living for at least twenty-four years.

R. E. STEBBINGS, Bury St. Edmunds..

GREY SQUIRRELS (Sciurus carolinensis) IN CHRISTCHURCH PARK, IPSWICH. In April, 1968,1 saw two Grey squirrels in Christchurch Park, the Park Attendants said that about a couple of dozen had b e e n seen

"

C. W. PIERCE, Needham Market.

(It is much to be hoped that the Park Authorities will take steps to exterminate these intruders. Christchurch Park and the surrounding gardens used to have many of the indigenous Red squirrels and if a little trouble were taken these could probably be preserved.—Ed.)

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135

SICK WATER VOLE (Arvicola terrestris).

In January, 1968, I saw a water vole at Bosmere dragging itself along by its fore feet: its pinkish hind legs, apparently useless, were trailing behind.

C. W.

PIERCE,

Needham Market.

FIELD VOLE (Microtus agrestis) S W I M M I N G .

In April, 1968, in mid-morning, a field vole ran out of some long grass across some fifteen yards of smooth lawn to the edge of a pond some ten yards wide where it disappeared into the rough pondside Vegetation.

A few seconds later it or another field vole swam out from the bank and across the pond to disappear again in rough grass. I was Standing on the bank towards which it swam and moved, in füll view, to the spot towards which it was swimming but it was in no way diverted from its course. I have often seen a weasel hunting in the field from which the vole originally appeared but didn't see one on this occasion.

CRANBROOK, Gt. Glemham.

HARVEST M O U S E (Microtus minutus).

In January, 1968, I watched a harvest mouse climbing about the tops of the reeds in a bed of Phragmites in Aldringham.

Brig d R e i d > Aldringham.

M I T E S FROM VOLE AND BIRDS' NESTS. Mr. K . H. Hyatt of the British Museum (Natural History) has been kind enough to identify the following:—

From Field vole (Microtus): Haemogamasus nidi Michael.

A very common blood-sucking parasite of small mammals.

From House Sparrow's nest: Allothrombiumfuliginosum Herman.

Predatory on small insects, other mites, etc.

From Wood Pigeon's nest: Anystis baccarum (Linn.)

Also predatory.

Mlss M L y n n A l l e N ) Wickham Market.

MOLES (Talpa europaea) AND M O L E D R A I N S . Düring the summer of 1967, a small and very wet heavy land grass paddock was mole-drained. That process consists of dragging through the ground about a couple of feet below the surface a torpedo-shaped iron "mole", two or three inches in diameter, mounted on an iron knife blade. T h e knife blade makes a narrow cut through the soil, the mole a long mole-run-like drainage Channel with tightly compacted sides leading into a ditch or, more usually, a larger Underground drain of earthenware tiles. T h e mole-drains are usually three or four yards apart: the cuts made by the knife close up within a few weeks, the mole drains usually last about seven years in heavy land. T h e process cannot be used in lighter crumbly soil in which the mole drains quickly collapse. Before being mole drained this small paddock lay very wet throughout the

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Transactions of the Sujfolk Naturalists',

Vol. 14, Part 2

winter, so wet that no livestock could use it. The surface was "squelchy" under foot and very few signs of moles were seen.

Conditions were almost as bad in a wet summer: in a dry one the ground baked hard and again was little used by moles, signs of which were abundant in a neighbouring copse and on the adjoining well-drained arable and grassland. The field had not been drained within living memory, indeed probably not for 100 years since the only remains brought up were of two inch horseshoeshaped tiles of the early 19th Century. The change brought about by mole-draining was dramatic. Within a few weeks the soil around the scars left by the knife dried out and mole runs and mole heaps appeared along the length of them. As the effect of the mole-drains spread a few mole heaps, including one large one with a nest in it, appeared on the ground between the scars but even though the field lay reasonably dry through the winter of 1967/8, mole activity since mole-draining took place has been more or less confined to the old scars and so continues at the time of writing (March, 1968). There are abundant signs of mole activity, subsurface runs and mole heaps, along the entire length of the scars (at four yard intervals some three-quarters mile an acre), very little in between.

Since mole runs presumably follow worm activity a strip of ground two feet wide and stretching across three mole drain scars, i.e., twenty-four feet long, was watered in March, 1968, with a Solution of permanganate of potash in water, after cutting the grass short with a lawn mower: nineteen earthworms appeared all within a distance of two and a half feet from the scars, none in the middle.

Two arable fields were mole drained in 1967 on the stubble, when the ground was more or less compacted after harvest. These were in no way comparable with the small paddock: though it was thought that mole draining would pay, the fields were not very wet and had grown reasonable crops. No special records have been kept of previous mole activity on these and adjoining fields since attention was only paid to them when the mole activity on the small paddock was noticed. Before the stubble was ploughed there were some signs of mole activity along the scars made by the knife, none on the stubble itself, by that time compacted not only by combine and trailers carrying grain but also by the tracks of the drainage machinery to such an extent as possibly to be inaccessible T0 MOLES CRANBROOK, Gt. Glemham.

SONCHUS M A R I T I M U S — A CORRECTION. In Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 13, 412, I reported this as having been found on the shore below the cliffs at Felixstowe where other aliens have been recorded.

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I hazarded my own identification of the specimens, stupidly not sending them to Mr. J. E. Lousley, an authority on the Sonchus genus, for confirmation. But he now teils me that the description of this species in Bonnier's French Flora which I used gives insufficient detail from which to determine the plant.

T h e important thing now is to confess my error in claiming Sonchus maritimus as an addition to the British Flora.

JANET C . N . W I L L I S .

SUFFOLK FLORA RECORD CARDS. Miss Willis, Hon. Secretary of the Suffolk Flora Committee since its formation in 1955, has now handed on all Flora Record Cards compiled by our members and others of the B.S.B.I. to Mr. C. J. O. Trist, Chairman of the Committee, with a view to their final incorporation in the forthcoming Flora of Suffolk.

Any further parish records or records of species not previously noted should now be sent to M r . Trist at 14 Northgate Street, Bury St. Edmunds.

CRANBROOK.