NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS BEAVER (Castor fiber). Mr. H. D. Collings sent to me the skull of a beaver found in the Valley of the Waveney near Bungay and apparently thrown out when dredging. It was almost complete save that the incisors and anterior two thirds of both nasals have been broken off recently: the breaks are clean and not mud stained. The lower jaws were not recovered. It is mud stained and there is no evidence of it having been in peat.
It is the skull of a young adult: the enamel foldings on the crowns of the teeth are scarcely worn and some of the sutures not yet completely fused, the sagittal crest not as high posteriorly as in older animals. There is in the British Museum (Natural History) the skull of a beaver from 'Norfolk, from peat bog' of a very comparable size but with 'pre-molars worn flat, sagittal crest high'. Their respective measurements are: Condylo-basal Zygomatic length, mm. breadth, mm. Norfolk 142 106 Bungay 143 102
Maxillary tooth row, mm. 33 33
The beaver was widely distributed in Britain from the pleistocene onward, finally disappearing in the 12th or 13th Century. R O E D E E R (C. capreolus). Mr. H . D . Collings sent to me a right antler of a roe-deer found on a spoil heap from dyke cleaning on the Hundred River at Kessingland. It is still attached to a piece of the right frontal separated from the left frontal and parietal at the suture. All traces of the deposit in which it was found have been washed off. The greatest length from the base of the Coronet is 260 mm., the circumference at the Coronet 135 mm., at the beam immediately above the Coronet 90 mm. The 'pearls', or rugosites, on the inner side of the beam are very pronounced, the largest 15 mm. in length. A modern sportsman would call it a remarkably good head. Both roe and red deer are forest animals and were abundant in Britain from the pleistocene onwards but gradually disappeared with the forest. The red deer survived in the largely treeless 'deer forests' of the Scottish highlands, the roe deer in the Woods of the Scottish lowlands but disappearing from England where it was re-introduced in the 19th Century.
The remains of both are common in post glacial deposits. CRANBROOK.
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
141
OTTER (L. lutrd) has been reported from Wolsey Creek, Reydon, alive 2nd August, 1975, and a crushed and badly decomposed one by the near by-road on 24th August, P. T ä t e ; Aldringham, Brig. D . Reid; Iken, D . Corner; Fiatford, J. Bingley. BADGER (M. meles) Blythburgh, P. T ä t e ; Rendlesham, Miss M . Lynn Allen: in both cases seen from a car, by roadside and alive. COYPU (Myocastor coypus). Gt. G l e m h a m on pond about a mile from nearest stream, Cranbrook. Coypu seem to be spreading: further reports of extensions of territory would be interesting, Ed. GREY SQUIRREL (Sciurus carolinensis) at Rickinghall, P. T ä t e ; at G t . Glemham, increasing in numbers and damaging shoots of walnut and hickory, Medway. Report of status or changes in status, of both red and grey squirrels throughout the county are needed. Ed. A COSMOPOLITAN PSOCID IN SUFFOLK. Emptying a jar of shelled peanuts recently, I noticed a quantity of dust-like debris at the bottom. On examination through a X10 lens, I saw it was teeming with psocids quite unfamiliar to me. So I sent a sample to the British M u s e u m (Natural History) where M r . D. Hollis kindly determined them for me as Lepinotus patruelis Pearman, a cosmopolitan species often found in stored foodstuffs. According to M r . Hollis, these psocids were probably feeding on fungal hyphae, as some of t h e peanuts were mouldy, and not on the peanuts themselves. I submit this record as I have no means of knowing whether this inconspicuous creature has ever been recorded from V . - C . 26, West Suffolk. Incidentally Nayland is not in Essex as the Post Office suggests. E. MILNE-REDHEAD, 43 Bear Street, Nayland, Colchester. 14th April, 1976.