An Old Ipswich Naturalist of 1850

AN OLD NATURALIST.

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AN OLD IPSWICH NATURALIST. This model of rock is intended to shew The parts which the birds take for nesting As their nature may be, some high and some low, While some on the waters are resting.

[Attached to a Sea-rock Model.]

To take up their eggs from such rugged rough rocks As at once by the model are seen, To prevent any danger, to which they're not stränge, I invented this simple machine.

[The Oologists' Forceps.]

THE above lines are scribbled in the middle of a small quarto volume of blank hand-woven sheets, bound in paper-boards with a worn leather back. The volume came into my possession only a year or two ago, and is valuable in the direct evidence it bears upon the loss of a few of our handsomest species, e.g., the Purple Emperor, that we have suffered during the past Century.

Inside the cover is pasted the printed card of " R. J. Ransome, Ipswich," obviously the author, though the caligraphy of 1846 is puerile and that after 1857 mature.

The first part, headed " ENTYMOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS " opens with descriptions of " Poplar Hawk Moth " (Sphinx Popularis), found on poplars and willows on which it feeds ; Lime Hawk Moth (Sphinx Tiliee) [followed by the coloured figure of the Beetle (Calosoma sycophanta), cut from Kirby and Spence's " Introduction to Entom.," 1822, pl. i., flg. 1] ; Bindweed Hawk Moth (Sphinx Convolvuli), which Sphingidae were evidently taken about Ipswich. Humming-bird Hawk Moth (Macroglossa Stellatarum, [with a very fair original coloured flg.] ). The above insect this year are remarkably plentiful and I have been fortunate enough to secure three good specimens one of which I caught myself. They fly very swiftly and are very difficult to catch.

This insect is very fond of sipping the juice of the verbena. lOmo 8. 1846.—It has been observed by naturalists that such a year for birds has not been for several years : the same remark refers to rare insects as an example in the vicinity of Ipswich there have been caught atvarious timesFanessaAntiopa, Argynnis Adippe, Sphinx Convolvuli, Macroglossa Stellatarum, etc. lOmo 8.1846.—Follows a List of English Butterflies; those asterisked, evidently as in the author's collection, are:— Papilio Machaon, Pontia Brassicae and Napi and Cardamines, Nemeobius Lucina, Melitaea Ephrosyne, Argynnis Lathonia and Paphia, Vanessa Polychlorus and Urtica and Io, Antiopa

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AN OLD

NATURALIST.

and Atlanta, Cynthia Cardui, Apatura Iris, Limenitis Camilla [now called Sibylla], Hipparchia Megsera and Pamphilus. [whence the absence of ubiquitous species indicates how little attention had been given to taking such things as Queen of Spain and Burgundy Fritillaries, Camberwell Beauties and Purple Emperors, in those days !]•—Yr 1846 Notices of various insects caught during this summer. 8mo 31 : At our former residence was caught by my sister a specimen of Vanessa Antiopa.

Shortly afterwards was brought me a specimen of Sphinx convolvuli.

9mo 19 : Had brought me by my brother one Macroglossa stellatarum caught off the verbena. 9mo 24 : A specimen of deaths head moth [Acherontia Atropos] crawling about potatoes some days before was brought me from Aldbro.

Also about this time was caught at the same place a true locust [this is not improbably the actual specimen exhibited in Ipswich Museum (in June, 1908), which is labelled " Acridium migratorium.

Ipswich, 1850."] most likely blown over by some gale with some others.

9mo 29: Another of the locusts was brought me by S. Perry. lOmo 1 : Caught at Rushmere off verbenas a Macroglossa stellatarum. lOmo 9 : Agreeably surprised on my return from work to find a poor woman had brought me a Sphinx Convolvuli which she said had flown into the house. l l m o 4 : A. Greenwood of Chelmsford informs me that a specimen of Vanessa Antiopa was just caught near that place.

2nd month 17, 1847, found in our garden a Vanessa Io. [Follows a lacuna.]

Entymological Observations, 1857.—July 9th, a specimen brought me of Privet Hawk Moth (Sphinx Ligustri).

July 15th, And of the Oak Egger Moth [Bombyx quercus, Linn.].

—1858 : This year has produced a number of insects which if not actually rare are by no means common every year in this locality.

The following were among them :—6 Acherontia Atropos, 2 Sphinx Tiliee, 1 S. Ocellata, 4 S. Elpenor, 3 S. Ligustri, Mullien moth [Cucullia Verbasci, Linn. ?], all larvas.

The Promissa, Nupta, Broad bordered Yellow underwing and Small broad bordered [Triphcena fimbria, Linn, and T. janthina, WV.] have been taken [and a really excellent water-colour drawing of the now certainly extinct Catocala promissa, WV., is inserted] in great numbers in Old Hall Wood near here.

H. Mee,* E. Horrex and I have between us captured at least fifty of each of these usually rare insects. The large Footman [Lithosia quadra, Linn., now extinct there] has also been taken in the same wood this Autumn.

Apatura Iris has been taken several times this year in the same locality and Purple and White Hairstreaks [Thecla quercus and W-album] also.

This day, *Cf. our notice of Harry Mee, in " Suffolk Entomology " (Suff. County Handbook 1909, pp. 424-6).—Ed.

AN OLD NATURALIST.

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September 2nd, I have taken three Macroglossa stellatarum over a verbena bed in my garden.

1859 :•—Among the rarest captures made this year was Acronycta Alni which was taken in Old Hall Wood in the early part of May. The Acherontia Atropos and Sphinx Convolvuli were very abundant, and the year throughout has been tolerably rieh in rarities in this locality.

1860, February 18th :— Took in Bentley Wood or, rather, Old Hall Wood 1 Phigalia Pilosaria, 4 Hybernia Leucophearia, 4 Chimatobia Brumata [more likely H. rupicapraria, WV., in that month] and three speeimens of a Tortrix or Tinea inside the Bucks Horns public house at Belstead.

[Nothing is later.]

The second part, headed " ORNITHOLOGICAL N O T E S , " is all too short.

1855 Sept. 3rd :—This day was brought me a fine speeimen of the Osprey [Pandion halieetus, Linn.] which had been shot a few days previously at Felixstowe ; it was a female bird and in füll summer plumage.

Sept. 7th :—A speeimen of the common Guillemot [Uria troile, Linn.] was shot by Mr. Piper at Felixstowe ; it was a young bird and of imperfect plumage, Sex unknown.

1856 Sept. 23rd :—This day was given to me a young speeimen of the razor bill, Alca torda, which had been shot a day previously in the river Orwell by a man named Smith, a painter in Ipswich.

The volume incorporates a page of " Receipts for preparations used in Taxidermy," and ends with a printed obituary of The Late William Yarrell, clipped from the Literary Gazette.

It will be remembered that this great Naturalist died in 1856 at Yarmouth.

Ransome's interest in him doubtless arose from the former's presence at the Ipswich Meeting of the British Association in 1851, as is shown among the lithograph portraits now, it is believed, in the free library there.

[ROBERT JAMES RANSOME of Ipswich was an engineer, and the grandson of that Robert Ransome who founded the existing agricultural-implements ironworks in Ipswich during 1789. " Our former residence," of the 1846 MS. above, was in St. Peters Street, where his father lived in 1844 ; the new one was likely Stoke Hall, where our subject passed the latter part, at least from 1874, of his life and which in 1914 was converted into the Palace repudiated by Bishop Hodgson.

Our author continued to take considerable interest in Natural History throughout his life, and accorded especial attention to Moths and Fishes. In pursuit of the former he spent innumerable lonely nights in Suffolk woods and plantations, which resulted in much Lepidopterous booty but also the chronic hoarseness that subsequently characterised him : what is become of his

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BIRDS' NESTING.

collection we know not. As regards the latter, he was one of the founders of the " Ipswich Angling Preservation Society," an association arising from Mr. W. K. Tickner's sly introduction to Ransome of a Gipping-poacher, anxious to dispose of a whole barrow-load of coarsefish,spoil of his too-comprehensive drag-nets. Such traffic was naturally anathema to any honest angler, hence the preventive Society resulted from the ire of Robert James.—FRANK WOOLNOUGH.]

BIRDS' COMMUNAL NESTING, ETC.

BY THE REV. CHRIS. GREAVES, M.A.

are a typical East Anglian bird and their wing-spread, when Aying, always attracts attention. I often wonder whether they are (1) upon the increase, (2) no more than holding their own, or (3) actually diminishing ? Such questions are difficult to answer in the absence of any series of observations, such as I hope the Suffolk Naturalists' Society will establish. But, meanwhile, I am glad to think that in general thisfinebird (Ardea cinerea, Linn. ; locally always called Harnser*) is not diminishing in numbers ; for some kindhearted land- or park-owners are their very good friends. On the other hand, I visited the Reedham Heronry in Norfolk, where there is a large Rookery mingled with the herons, a score of years ago and again this year ; and Ifind,by a computation of the nests, that here the latter have certainly diminished.

Local farmers attribute this falling off to the augmented number of the Rooks (Corvus frugilegus, Linn.), who " bore them and occasionally rob their nests of eggs or young birds.

However, I cannot say that I concur in considering this the main reason for diminution there. The Heronry at Walberswick in Suffolk appears to be adding to the number of nests, visible last September ; I am told that one, probably of about the same size, exists near Aldeburgh ; and certainly that at Ufford has, from my own Observation, increased within the last three years.

I am of opinion that Plovers or Lapwings (Vanellus vulgaris, Bech.) are much less numerous than was the casetwenty years ago ; but, now that it is illegal to seil their eggs [unusually abundant on a heath to the north-west of Bury early in May, HERONS

*On 6th April, 1929, we found a fully-grown specimen of this bird, lying in a pasture of the Brandeston marshes, where the species is not uncommon singly. It had been dead a füll month, perhaps killed by our unusually severe spring ; in it were several of the large Burying Beetle, Necrophorus humator, Fab.—F.d.