Observations 1 Part 2

140

OBSERVATIONS.

gating anything at all uncommon.

Horribly few of the English provincial museums possess really good collections of the smaller invertebrata : e.g. not one in Suffolk could show you an example of the Bed Bug (Cimex lectularius, Linn.). It was easy, therefore, while cohecting Pliocene Fossils here, and both Eocene and Oligocene ones elsewhere, this year, in pursuance of our article upon another page, to put aside a bycollection.

In the case of Fossil Shells the word greed cannot exist, for the strata go back into the earth for untold distances and you not infrequently gaze at a cliff-face thirty feet in height that is füll of them ! The result was that Mr. Elliott, Mr. Doughty, Mr. Engleheart, Mr. Fowler and ourseif have presented no less than 1697 named specimens to the St. Edmundsbury, Thetford and Ipswich museums from the Suffolk Naturalists' Society. Members as a whole would do well to cast their bread upon the waters in this way.

MOLLUSCA.—The Fresh-water Snail, Aplexa (Flem. Moll.

1828 nec Aplexus, Gray, Moll. 1840 non Aplecta, Guen. Lepidoptera 1837) hypnorum, Linn., is a very local species in eastern Suffolk and apparently unnoticed in western.

Mr. Edward A. Ellis of the Norwich Museum took two or three dead shells at the Latimer Dam in Kessingland during November 1925, but nous autres have searched there in vain.

The only other Mollusc of note recorded in the local Press this year is a young Octopus (presumably Sepia officinalis), captured on 18th June while trawling in Holbrook Bay of the River Stour by H. and W. Quantrill, at whose home in Lower Holbrook it was later exhibited.

This Cephalopod, though stated to be of rare occurrence there, has been observed from Felixstow to Yarmouth.

To this kind of free-swimmer the condition of the bottom seems of small account; but Mr. Doughty is doubtless correct in saying (in lit. 19th Feb., 1930) that the probable scarcity of the larger CRUSTACEA upon this coast is due to the fact that " our sea-bed is all so bare of seaweed and so shifting in its character that such things will not live where they are continually being turned out of house and home, and there are no cosey rock-crannies or holes for them to shelter in." Our own experience goes to show that such is likely to be no less true of smaller Crustacea also.

ARACHNIBA.—Last year we announced a False-scorpion seu Chelifer new to Suffolk ; this year we can bring forward a second, equally novel to us, in the species Chthonius orthodactylus, Leach. One example had fallen into a sand-pit at Gisleham on 6th August 1930, and three more were found in the same Situation on 15th September, showing it probably not rare in that district : when alarmed, the creature springs backwards with

OBSERVATIONS.

141

astonishing agility.

With it in the pit were several Spiders (Oxyptila praticola, Kch.), Harvest-men (Nemastoma sp.) and Acaridea of the family Oribatidae ; while another Phalangidea, Platybunus triangularis, Hb., was common during early October in Blythburgh woods.

In a similar pit on 27th June we discovered an uncommon Thomisid spider (Xysticus robustus, Hahn), sitting quiescently with his back to the sand-wall and protected in front by the body of a Weevil (,Strophosomus lateralis, Payk.), which was firmly grasped by the falces and quite dead.

In the course of forty years' collecting we have never before found any Rhynchophora slain by Arachnida ; the phenomenon must be very rare, apparently because a Weevil's integument is normally too hard for Spiders to pierce. In the present case, which occurred at Matley in the New Forest, the grip was upon the soft skin between head and thorax.

E X O T I C S P I D E R S . — A specimen of the Trap-door Spider (.Mygale sp.), 1| inches in length and red-brown with very hairy legs, was taken among Jamaica Bananas in Needham Market during 1918 by Mr. Platten.

A second specimen of the same species, two inches in length (Local Paper, Ist Nov., 1930), has recently turned up in a case of West Indian Bananas in Ipswich.

To this genus of Theraphosidse belongs the Bird-eating Spider of South America (M. avicularia), that is the largest in the world and three inches long ; it preys upon Insects, Humming-birds and even sometimes Finches.

ENTOMOLOGICAL J O T T I N G S . — M r . Platten writes in January : " During last summer a hive of Bees [Apis mellifica, Linn.) ' swarmed ' and the swarm flew away, Coming to rest on a wildrose hedge ; there they stayed for only a few hours, but long enough to begin building a nest. This comb was given me to be photographed, as enclosed ; the remarkable point being the extent of work displayed in so short a period.

In the course of last year I boxed a good many of the moths that I happened to see in the vicinity of Needham Market, including the enclosed Clearwing which was bred from applewood.

It may be well to record that among them were the Lime Hawk (Smerinthus tilice) ; one male Emperor (Saturnia carpini) ; many Ermines (Arctia mentlirasti) ; Pcecilocampa populi ; Orgyia pudibunda ; the birch Hook-tip (Platypteryx falculä) ; Puss (Dicranura vinula) ; Notodonta camelina ; Diloba ccsruleocephala ; many Axylia putris, mainly at light; Mamestra brassicce ; Triphcena pronuba ; Noctua plecta, uncommon ; Taniocampa stabilis, instabilis and gothica; Xylocampa lithoriza ; the Peppered moth (Amphydasis betu-

142

OBSERVATIONS.

laria) and its black form, Doubledaiaria, which is so rapidly increasing in Suffolk that it has become fully as prevalent as the typical form ; with Cidaria miata and other Geometers." [The interesting Clearwing is Sesia myopiformis, Bork.—ED.] The Hon. Secretary on 14th April answered a letter in the local Press on " A Web Nest of Wasps " : of no scientific value.

The Marsh Cudweed (Gnaphalium uliginosum, I..) is an ' herbaceous perennial in moist places, often cart-tracks in woods, flowering during July and August; frequent in all the districts' of Suffolk, says Hind.

At the roots of this plant, always growing along cart-tracks where the water from the rest of the ride has congregated, we have invariably discovered in the New Forest, the tiny Beetle (Nanophyes gracilis, Redt.) whose foodplant has not hitherto been determined though several erroneous ones are suggested in Fowler's British Coleoptera and its Supplement.

No reason emerges why it shonld not also occur in similar situations in Suffolk, since its pabulum abounds with us and we have here numerous excellent Substitutes for the Middle Eocene Bagshot-sands of the New Forest.

We found the method of obtaining the Weevil, so small as to become practically invisible when lying ' doggo ' with his legs tucked tight against his body, was to lie flat along the cart-track and smoke the herbage growing in it with a common bee-keeper's fumigating bellows : tobacco is equally effective, but rather exhausting in persistency.

The undoubted force of the human eye, that causes trunk-sitting moths to fly awav, has no power to raise Nanophyes; but smoke compels him to uncurl and sedately tramp along with a curiously elephantine tread, which movement at once attracts the watcher's attention.

With him always occurred the Bug, Cymus claviculus, Fall., so commonly as obviously to feed upon the same plant.

T H E B E E T L E S ' DINNER.—No coleopterist ever passes an odd bone lying in the country without searching it for the numerous beetles that live upon Carrion, no matter how odoriferous soever that bone may have become.

A list of thirty-one species of animals, ranging from Worms (Lumbricus terrestris, L.) to Horses, from which beetles had been taken, for the most part in Suffolk, was published in the Entomologists'Month. Mag. 1907, p. 51, along with the scavengers' names.

Many species of beetles are found nowehere eise, hence it behoves one to ' lay down ' such bone-traps for future investigation.

In this way it came about that our landlady did up two neat paper parcels, one comprising a couple of juicy marrow-bones for us to place in the woods, pro bono Coleoptero, the other containing her carpenter-husband's midday meal.

But the day was unpropitious and we foreswore the woods, leaving the parcel at our

OBSERVATION S.

143

lodgings.

In due season the husband, with an appetite duly whetted by a long July morning's work, gave himself up to the pleasures of the table.

Judge, then, of his feelings (and langugage) upon finding the parcelstransposed: "hewasnodog that he should eat bone "—and so he later told her, forcibly !

P I N E H A W K MOTH.—Nearly a dozen imagines of this very local insect have been captured since our last issue by Bishop Whittingham, Mr. Wiltshire, a friend of Mr. Carley and Mrs. Hervey; but there is not the least indication that the species is spreading in Suffolk. All occurred during the last three weeks of J u l y ; and one female laid a number of eggs which were generously distributed, causing no small stir among our Lepidopterists : indeed, such rose to a considerable tumult when all were found to be infertile !

Exception, however, proved the rule and Revd. Arthur Waller had the satisfaction of seeing his single larva go to earth on 8th September.

Mr. Carley's imago was sitting in perfect condition about seven feet from the ground upon a Scots Pine trunk on 7th July (in lit. 8th Sept., 30).

Several additional localities have been published this year (Entom. lxiii, pp. 1 & 185) : a pair taken at Tunstall in Staffs during 1880 ; two males at St. Annes on the Lancs coast in June, 1908 ; one at Bournemouth in July, 1929, and others in Dorset (cf. 1. c., p. 207) ; and the New Forest was ringing with its acquisition of this flne Sphinx (Hyloicus) pinastri, Linn., in the summer, for a male had turned up at its western extremity in 1929. But the record of most interest to us is a Suffolk male in Baker of Battisford's collection, now in the Hill Museum : apparently never published.

Fifty years ago, soon after the Hawk's introduction as British

by Stainton, upon the strength of a specimen taken at south Tuddenham vicarage (EMM. 1877, p. 67), " Dr. Hele and two or three of the Aldeburgh Vicar's sons named Thompson found some of them where was the clump of Firs," later cut down during war-time, writes Dr. Mark Taylor (in lit. 26th Jan,. 30). " Hele got three caterpillars out of the eggs laid, and the next year reared a large number of the moths.

When he had these caterpillars just hatched, he asked me to come and see them.

At the time he had a tame Golden Eagle ; the bird followed him into the room, flapped its wings and upset the tumbler, under which were the tiny things, on to a thick Turkey carpet of the exact hue of the larvEe. We had no end of a hunt, but eventually found them unhurt.

Hele was the first man to use a rod for sea-fishing, casting off the reel in those parts ; and about 1879 he landed two Cod (Gadus morrhua, Linn.), of over twenty pounds each, off the old Fort at Slaughden.

I saw a remarkable show of Sea-mice (Aphrodita aculeata, Linn., a mesobranchiate Annelida) once on the north beach ; a wreck had come ashore

144

OBSERVATIONS.

and, in the little bay formed on the sheltered side, were literally bushels of them. I had seen odd ones before, but never such masses.

Unfortunately, we had no scientific guidance in those days. I am afraid all my old haunts near Aldeburgh are gone : I could walk now to the best trees for Poplar (Smerinthus populi) and Puss (Dicranura vinula) caterpillars, and to some poplars where we got Hörnet Clearwings (Trochilium apiformis, Cler.)."

We have heard of the occurrence of but a single, freshlyemerged Colias edusa, F., this year in Suffolk ; it was seen Aying on 26th September, by Major B. N. Glossop in Waldringfield.

Vanessa Atalanta, L., has been unusually abundant throughout east Suffolk this autumn ; the last was noticed on 21st October at Eye. At Needham Market Mr. Platten reports V. polychloros, L., on the l l t h June and Chcerocampa porcellus, L., two days earlier.

ICHTHYOLOGY.—" Two specimens of the Red Band-fish {Cepola rubescens, Linn.) have been taken at Southwold.

One of 16f inches in length was washed up on thebeach near the pier, alive and in perfect condition, on 14th January, 1930 ; its colour was salmon-pink with a very definite shading to purple-red upon each side of the tail-end, but not end of tail ; about this specimen was no yellow tinge, and the pink faded to almost white on the lower part of the abdomen : I have it in pickle, but unfortunately it has quite lost all its colouration.

The second specimen, which I personally did not see, was also found washed ashore about the same t i m e " (Dr. Collings, in lit. lOth December, 1930). It has not hitherto been recorded from our county ; but in December, 1897 Day, who gives about fourteen British instances of its occurrence, says two examples of 12| and 10f inches in length were taken by a shrimp-trawl in Plymouth Sound.

The species has a low, compressed and strongly elongate body, usually of red splashed with yellow ; and its ränge does not extend northward of Scotland.

It is not generally realised that just about eighty per centum, of the Herrings (Clupea harengus, L.) that are landed upon the British coast, is brought into Lowestoft and Yarmouth. The former's District Inspector of Fisheries stated at Norwich in October that this fish bears a very exact register of its age upon every scale of its body.

The individual naturally expands as it grows, and such inflation is covered by a corresponding expansion of the scale's superficial area. Growth is checked during winter, and each check is indicated by a definite ring around the scale's circumference. Hence, the fish's age is at once ascertained by merely counting the number of these

OBSERVATIONS.

rings in just the same manner as a tree-trunk's. In this way it became piain last year that the majority of these two ports' Herrings ranged from three to ten years old, most of them from four to six, for 1921 and 1924 showed exceptional propagation.

The season opened with a scarcity of these Fish last year, but by early November the catch had become unusually good.

Similarly, this year April showed the trawled fish at Lowestoft to total nearly thirty-thousand hundredweights against fortyone last year, though foreign vessels brought in 262 against 208, comprising besides Herrings, Whiting (Gadus merlangus, L.), Haddock (G. ceglefinus, I„), Cod (G. morrhua, L.), Piaice (Pleuronectes platessa, L.), Dabs (P. limanda), Gurnards {Tngla spp.), Sole (Solea vulgaris, Quen.), Turbot {Rhombus maximus, L.), Brill (R. Icevis, Rond.), Rays (Raia spp.) and Skate (R. batis, L.).

By August the dearth of Herrings had become more acute than had been experienced for forty-one years, and the Scots fisheries were reputed to have lost a hundred-thousand pounds : ' the majority of boats has not earned running expenses ; there IS no previous parallel to such a sudden disappearance, which is attributable to innumerable small Cuttlefish ('Sepia sp.) that recently invaded the North Sea.' Nor had matters mended by mid-September, when the Ministry of Fisheries showed a decrease for the fifth successive month, and the total wet fish at Lowestoft to be 21|-thousand hundredweights against just over twenty-six in 1929 : these consisted of the above species, with the absence of all Brill.

FOUR MORE STURGEONS.—A " royal Sturgeon [Acipenser sturio, Linn.] was landed at Lowestoft yesterday by the local steam-trawler Eudocia. It was over six feet in length, weighed about seven stone, and was bought by Arthur Evans Fisheries " (Local Paper, llth March, 1930). " A royal Sturgeon was landed at Lowestoft yesterday by the local trawler Athelstan.

It was over eight feet in length, weighed between twelve and thirteen stone. This is the third Sturgeon landed at the port recently, and by far the largest " (loc. cit., 27th March, 1930). " A royal Sturgeon was landed at Lowestoft yesterday by a trawler.

It was two feet in length and weighed about two stones " (I.e., 28th May, 1930). These make six speeimens in two years, actually recorded ; one wishes the locality of capture could be more exactly indicated, for most probably it was well beyond the three-mile limit.

ORNITHOLOGY.—" The unusual sight of three Wigeon (Mareca Penelope, Linn.) was witnessed on the River Gipping at Needham Market on 21st April last. Three days earlier there passed over the town nine Geese that were brownish-grey and smaller than

146

OBSERVATIONS.

the domestic kind, with black nails on the beak : what kind were they ? [Members will kindly reply.] They were Aying very low, at midday ; in fact, so low that I could see the beaks quite distinctly.

They tried to alight behind my garden but, upon catching sight of me, rose higher and passed on " (E. W. Platten, in lit. 28th April, 1930). Our'Member, Mrs. Fearon of Butley Ferry, supposed a flock of fifty Bean-Geese (Anser segetum, Gmel.) recorded on 26th November from Orford to be identical with one of thirty-nine individuals in her vicinity on 21st.

Flying above, below and in-and-out of its lines, commanding and altering them, were three marshals.

Over her house they formed a phalanx, but soon spread into a horizontal line, keeping amazingly equidistant.

A humming sea-plane caused an instant diversion : the off half of the line turned right in file, and shot forward like a rocket's tail; the other half hesitated before following, when a close mass was formed, later deploying into the original phalanx and so still hurrying towards Hollesley (Local Paper, 28th Nov., 1929). " The only interesting occurrence at Fakenham last year was a visit from four Whooper Swans (Cygnus mitsicus, Bech.) on 21st March, of which one was in immature plumage. I have been watching a pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers (Dendrocopus major, Linn.) at work on a Beech on my lawn in September: the cock-bird did most of the work and got right into the tree, but unfortunately Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris, Linn.) took possession of it as soon as the hole was completed, and drove the Peckers away " (Revd. R. B. Caton, in lit. 27th Dec., 1929). " At the present moment we have a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (D. minor, Linn.) almost daily at a tree in the garden of Bentley Park.

It works for two or three hours, about nine o'clock ; it came last year, and has appeared again during the past two or three weeks. I had a Hoopoe (Upupa epops, Linn.) on the lawn here on Ist March, 1910, but it was gone after a few minutes " (Hugh Turner, in lit. 22nd Jan., 1930). There is no record of the Hoopoe's nesting in Suffolk, though it certainly occurs in spring and not, as stated in John's book on Birds, in autumn ; for Mr. Woolnough has seen it several times in spring, and another is recorded near Polstead Park late in June, 1930 (Local Paper). There was seen by one D. Warde, on the Ouse River near Brandon in Suffolk upon 13th January, 1906, a Crane (Grus communis, Bech.: teste Country Side 1906, p. 123) : the third specimen noted in our County during the past Century.

MONTAGU'S H A R R I E R . — T w o or three years ago the late Henry Miller, noticed in our last Obituary, gave me the account of his discovery of the nest of this Harrier (Circus cinerascens, Mont.) early in June, 1886, when he, the late J . H. Knights and Edward Bidwell were returning from a Birds-nesting expedition

OBSERVATIONS.

147

at Nacton, and looking for eggs of Stone Curlew {(Edicnemus scolopax, Gmel.) on the heath. The big Hawks' presence attracted their attention, causing search for the nest.

As a glory of the Past, no harm can be done by now stating that the site was between Bixley decov and the Bucklesham road, nowadays being built upon and almost on the ground occupied by the later golf-course.

The nest was among rather tall heather, within about a hundred yards of the road.

At first they took only one egg, which is now in the University Museum at Cambridge • but, supposing the nest's proximity to a public way would certainly lead to its spoliation, the other two eggs were secured the next day and went into Knight's collection, which was presented by his widow some three years ago to Ipswich School, where both these eggs are still preserved : " As this is probably the last occasion upon which a Harrier nested anywhere near Ipswich, it seems of interest to perpetuate the record (T. G. Powell, in lit. Ist Jan., 1930). The last-known Suffolk nestings were' at both Dunwich and Westleton in 1889 (Zoologist 1890, p. 77).

F A L R O N E S ' FIGHT.—Near the spot where I saw Roe Deer a few days ago in Suffolk Breckland, I was so fortunate as to witness a Rough-legged Buzzard {Buteo lagofus, Gmel.) attacked by a male Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus, Tun.), Ihe combat took place but a very short distance above my head and so near were the birds, I was able to follow every movement of both through my binoculars.

The Falcon stooped again and again above the Buzzard, until the latter threw up the sponge and sought refuge amidst neighbouring trees, whereupon the victorious Falcon flew away.

It is, despite the Victoria History's account, the first Peregrine I have ever seen, though this species of Buzzard is frequently met with on the Rreck (H. Andrews, in lit, 27th Jan., 1930).

SCOTERS' O R D E R OF A L I G H T I N G . — O n 12th January last I happened to watch a flock of at least two hundred Scoters {(Edemia nigra, Linn.), Aying in very close formation at Gorleston due south towards Lowestoft. Suddenly the bird in the rear dropped into the sea and the whole flock proceeded to do likewise, working from back to front, so that the last bird to alight was the leader. One had always imagmed that the leader of a flock dictated its movements and commumcated his Orders, in some way which is not known to us.

It occurred to me that, although I had no recollection of the fact, possibly there was a very strong wind blowing and the leader did not want to wheel round, as birds object to having their feathers ruffled and blown about by a beam or following current of air ; and accordingly he gave the order, in the way we know not,

148

OBSERVATIONS.

for the rear bird to drop into the water and the rest to follow suit.

It may be remembered that last winter were an exceptional number of due south gales, instead of the usual south-west ones.

Again on 21st January I saw what, no doubt, was the same flock Aying south towards Lowestoft; the day was absolutely calm and still. As I watched, the leader wheeled to the west i.e. towards the shore, and dropped into the water ; the whole flock, working from front to back, dropped into the water over the heads of each other, so that the bird was nearest the shore that had been at the rear and was the last to alight. Now, if this be their customary method of alighting, the previous manoeuvre seems to require some other explanation than that suggested above, as it would have been perfectly simple for the leader to have dropped into the water and the others to have followed suit over his and each others' heads, without in any way changing their direction. I regret that I was unable to make further observations, though constantly on the shore.

The flock would certainly ränge from Winterton to Corton, quite possibly from Sheringham to Southwold, and I can do nothing unless it is in my immediate vicinity and something happens to put it up by passing through the Roads.-—C. G. DOUGHTY. OTHER B I R D N O T E S . —Habits of Crossbills (Loxia curvirostra, Linn.), at Broom Hill Park in Ipswich last spring, were noted by a correspondent (Local Paper, 8th April, 1930) ; the species was common during the winter and spring of 1909-10, when on 23rd April thirty were noted in Fritton and Beiton woods (Trans.

Norfolk Nat. Soc. ix, p. 193).

A red specimen was killed on 5th January 1899 by a boy, who knocked it with a stick out of a bush at Burgh Castle (loc. cit. vi, p. 488). The fact seems worth perpetuating that a young Pigeon (Columba palumbus, Linn.), hatched in March 1930 by a member of the Ipswich Flying Club, was liberated alone at Banff railway-station at 9.45 a.m. on 12th September, upon which day and the two succeeding ones heavy rain feil with very short visibility, and arrived at its loft in Ipswich at 3.50 p.m. on 15th September, a distance of 415 miles : this is claimed to be an unrivalled achievement, of attaining which the same Club had thrice previously failed and that with Birds flying in Company and more propitious weather (Local Paper, 17th Sept., 1930).

A ' pure white ' Rook (Corvusfugilegus, Linn.) and a " magpie-coloured " Sparrow (Passer domesticus, Linn.) were noted in early January at Needham, by Mr. Platten ; such albinism is no casual freak or winter plumage as used to be supposed, but is due to the bird's diseased liver draining pigment from its feathers, as was pointed out on 27th of last May in the case of a white Ipswich Blackbird (Turdus merula, Linn.).

OBSERVATIONS.

149

An Osprey (Pandion haliaetus, Linn.), which is rarely seen so far inland, was shot " and thought no more about," in mistake for a Hawk, at Weybread on or about 15th September last by a milier, who was summoned under the 1927 Birds Act but dismissed.

The specimen was identified by Dr. Maidment there, and is in the Norwich Museum (Local Paper, 24th Oct., 1930). A Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo, L.), was Aying up and down Felixstow pier on 7th November last (I.e. 8th); it is an autumnal visitant that has not nested in Suffolk since about 1825, though we have seen it abundantly off the Irish coast. Speciniens are reported from Breydon Water on 22nd August, 1899, and 6th August, 1905 (Tr. Norf. Nat. Soc., vii, p. 66 and viii, p. 319).

SUFFOLK M A G P I E S . — I n view of its increasing local rarity, noted in our last Transactions, we are glad to record the occurrence of Magpies (Pica rustica, Scop.) this year, of which two were observed at Nayland-Stoke in April by Mr. Engleheart and a nest was found about the same time at Semer by Mr. Andrews.

The Birds were by no means rare in the woods around Peterborough in Northants during late May, as five of our Members present can attest.

SPRING M I G R A N T S . — T h e Revd. Julian Tuck had " seen no Swallows (Hirundo rustica, Linn.) or Martins (Chelidon urbica, Linn.) up to l l t h April; " but Swifts (Cypselus apus, Linn.) which usually arrive during the first week in May, were seen at Barton Mills on 28th April and at Ipswich on 6th May (Local Paper). Our Member, Mr. Powell, observed a small party of eight Dottereis (Eudromias morinellus, Linn.) in mid-May Walking briskly about and feeding on Sutton Walks, doubtless en route for their northern breeding grounds; with us the species is an uncommon spring and autumn migrant.

The Local Paper on 3rd June published the following dates of common migrants' advent this year : — Datdias luscinia, L., April 9th ; Sylvia cinerea, Bech., May I s t ; S. atricapilla, I,., May 14th ; Phylloscopus trochilus, L„ April 22nd ; P. rufus, Bech., April 4th ; Anthus pratensis, L., April 29th ; Muscicapa griseola, L., April 24th ; Hirundo rustica, L., April 28th ; Chelidon urbica, L., May I s t ; Cotile riparia, L „ May 15th ; Cypselus apus, L., May lOth; Cuculus canorus, L., April 23rd ; and Turlur communis. Selb., May 14th. " O I L POLLUTION AND S E A B I R D S . " — I was much interested in Mr. Doughty's account of Kay Robinson's views with regard to oiled Sea-birds ; I never heard of them before and wonder what other observers on the coast think, for we inland folk have little knowledge of such things (Revd. R. B. Caton, in lit. 27th

150

OBSERVATIONS.

Dec., 1929 ; cf. Trans. Suff. Nat. Soc. i, p. 16). Upon this subject we have been favoured with the following communication. " To the Editor, " Transactions of the Suffolk Naturalists' Society. " Sir.—It seems a pity that, at a time when efforts are being made to cope with the oil menace to birds and fishes, and when public opinion is being roused to an endeavour to get made compulsory the use of Alters on oil-carrying and oil-burning ships, doubt should be cast on the actual destruction of the birds by oil.

Yet this, in effect, is what Mr. Chester G. Doughty does in his paper in Vol. i, Part, i, of our ' Transactions,' quoting the late E. Kay Robinson to advance opinions of his own.

E. Kay Robinson, it must be remembered, put forward the opinion cited many years before the oil trouble had reached its present magnitude ; and it is doing the memory of a great naturalist less than justice to imply that he would have closed his mind to the ever-accumulating evidence.

No one who has seen the oil floating on the surface can doubt that birds, including diving birds, can be caught in the floating filth whilst asleep and become smothered with it.

I have seen oiled birds on Suffolk and other beaches, and entertain no possible doubt as to what caused their death.

Sometimes a Guillemot or other bird may be seen at rest on the beach in a more or less torpid condition, with little or no oil apparent upon its plumage : in this case the victim has swallowed the stuff, probably in an endeavour to clean its plumage, and is suffering from internal poison.

At other times an oiled bird with the oil apparent enough has come into my hands while still füll of vitality, thus disposing, once and for all, of any idea that birds come into contact with oil only when dead or already seriously disabled.

The still-vigorous birds, which yet have feathers too clogged with oil to permit them to fly or dive, are obviously freshly oiled victims that have not been yet rendered weak by starvation which, however, is inevitable.

Yours faithfully, 30th September, 1930.

P H Y L L I S M.

CLODD."

BATRACHIANS AND REPTILES.—Natterjack Toads ( B u f o calamita, Laur.) are common enough adown the length of our juxta-marine area ; we have seen them even in the salt-marshes

OBSERVATION S.

151

among crustacean Sand-hoppers (Talitrus locusta, Linn.) and on 17th September 1930 in Wangford Wood, beside John Kirby's River Wang. At Beiton they were extremely abundant during June 1902 (Tr. Norf. Nat. Soc. vii, p. 568) ; but inland Suffolk can boast very few localities for the species, and further distributional records are needed.

It is of unusual interest to hear last March of two coalesced, but disjointed, vertebrae of an Ichthyosaurus (teste Engleheart), possibly of-the species I. communis ; these were shown us by our Member, Mr. Fowler, who obtained them from a brick-pit of glacial-gravel in south Pakefield. Their mahogany colouration suggests that they had been washed, from peat above chalk, into the overlying boulder-clay.

B R U S H E R MILLS.—Ireland (of course on account of Saint Patrick !) never did, and England never again will, need such a man as old Brusher Mills. Though dead this quarter-century, his memory is verdant as ever among the New Foresters, including my garrulous landlady there.

Hirn in the flesh we ourseif füll well remember in both May 1895 and August 1901, a forceful but somewhat disreputable figure who passed with a Stack of leafy boughs surmounting his back along the roads and, o' nights, lay out under the green-wood tree in a bowry built of branches in Gritnam Wood. Füll many a pleasant yarn we had in thosebalmy, far-gone days when the sun was ever shining, over our pipes amid the sweet sylvan solitudes, where alone he represented the great unwashed!-—He died on Ist July, 1905, at which time he was computed to have slain in the previous five-and-twenty years no less than five thousand Adders (Vipern berns, L.), and despoiled the Forest of thirty thousand of the beautiful, harmless Snakes (Tropidonotus natrix, L. and the rarer coronella), of which 26,000 went to the London Zoo, says the Country Side, 1905, p. 199, where is his photograph. And yet some of us there wear gum-boots !

H I S T O R I C MAMMALS.—There can be no doubt, judging from the innumerable instances of the embodiment of animal-names in both his place and personal-names, that the jolly old AngloSaxon was as good a Nature-observer as the best of us in this artificial age.

Though his muniments have now become too sparse to help us much, his legacy to mediaeval descendants furnishes a very great deal that might advantageously be twined into quite a good ancestry of British animals of the larger sort.

Here is work to the hand of any one whose eyes will not stand the microscope's strain : exhume their dry bones from musty chroniclers, monastic chartularies and State papers backwards from the Tudors, beginning with the Fens' peat, whence have been dug skeletons of Reindeer, Wolf, Beaver, wild Goat, fen

152

OBSERVATIONS.

Ox, wild Boar and Bear.

All these, along with the Narwhal, an extinct Whale (Phy seter macrocephalus), southern Right Whale, Cave Bear, Walrus, bearded Seal, wild Horse, Irish Elk and the splendid Auroch, were certainly British in Pleistocene times and no reason emerges for supposing them not still here immediately before the Norman conquest.

What a group they make !—a full-grown Greenland Whale weighs as much as eighty-eight Elephants or 440 Horses, i.e. 224,000 pounds.

Early domestic animals are but little less fascinating and might well be included :—King Richard I wrote to Abbot Samson of Bury for ' some dogs' (Jocelin de Brakelond).

Wolves were abundant in the New Forest during the twelfth Century ; and in the Book of St. Albans, written about 1481, wolf-hunting is still mentioned as a royal and noble sport (Country Side 1905, p. 83).

In Henry VI's reign, Sir Robert Plumpton held one bovate of land, called Wolf-hunt Land, by the service of winding a horn and chasing and frightening wolves in the forest of Sherwood (I.e. 69), though no origin of the custom is vouchsafed.

BATS.—The Serotine Bat (Vespertilio serotinus, Schreb.) was first seen in Suffolk about 1920 Aying a half-hour after sunset, along with Pipistrelles and Noctules, beside tall trees lining the Oulton road in Lowestoft; but it was not secured tili 3rd October, 1926, when an injured one was picked up there.

It is known, north of the Thames, only from Essex ; and differs from the Noctule in its broader wings, attenuate tragus, and the extent of the tail beyond the interfemoral membrane (Trans.

Norf. Nat. Soc. xii, p. 264). " Are our Members interested in small Mammals ?

There are several which require investigation.

Some years ago I established the fact [ut supra] that there is a small colony of Serotine Bats close to the town of Lowestoft, and this is a considerable extension of ränge of this bat northwards.

It would be valuable to learn if there are other colonies in Suffolk, as mine is the only one recorded so far.

The Barbastelle Bat (Barbastella barbastellus, Schreb.) is another apparent rarity; the late Prof. Newton recorded it in west Suffolk many years ago, and I found one speeimen in or about 1913 at Lowestoft : few others are known here. Natterer's (.Myotis Nattereri, Kühl) and Daubenton's (M. Daubentoni, I.eis.), too, are bats whose distribution is little known : perhaps some Members would like to take these questions up, and I shall be glad to assist at any time in identifications. Winton's Field Mouse (Mus sylvaticus, L., var., Wintoni—cf. Tr. Norf.

Nat. Soc. vii, p. 722), the British representative of a widely spread species in Europe, is found here and there in England.

In Suffolk I know of it only from Tostock : surely it must occur in other places."—Claud B. Ticehurst, in lit. 13th Oct., 1930.

OBSERVATIONS.

153

Last April the Society was asked for a method of ridding Newbourn church of the Bats, with which it was pestered. The question was brought before our May Meeting, and an answer returned that all doors and windows should be opened before the bats' dusk flight, and closed before that flight concluded ; the animals naturally fly towards the light outside, and thus cannot return.

In the present case, however, the church afforded other orifices whereby the bats were enabled to enter again.

Will some Member supply a permanent remedy ?

Never forget that Bats devour Death-watch Beetles.

A L A T E W H I T E STOAT.—It will interest the Society to know that so late in the year as to-day, 13th March 1930, we saw a Stoat (Putorius ermineus, Linn.) in its white winter dress upon the marsh near Butley Ferry.

Any change to white is of rare occurrence in counties so far south as Suffolk ; and, even in the more northern ones, it is usually exchanged for the summer coat earlier than the middle of March.

We watched the conspicuous animal running for a long distance, until it went to earth in a hole alongside a large mole-heap.

No more of it was black than the normal tail-tip and a small collar-mark on the neck.

A remarkable fact is that our usually keen terner picked up no scent at the hole ; surely the paler colour cannot have lessened its smell!—Mrs. Fearon. [Three days later we ourseif observed a specimen, in füll summer für, traversing our paddock at Monks' Soham.—ED.] O T T E R S AND T H E I R HOUNDS.—Two jolly little Otter-cubs of a dozen weeks old were slain out of hand on 6th October, 1929, simply because they were found in the cellar of a Needham house, whereas they might quite easily have been treated as rational (or, at the least, intelligent) beings, reared by hand with perfect impunity, and become tractable pets.

Otters (Lutra vulgaris, Bell) will not infrequently abandon their marshy haunts in flood-times and seek higher ground, which seems the explanation of these cubs' presence nearly two hundred yards from the River Gipping.

But so persecuted are the animals that one often passes within a few yards of them without being conscious of their presence : the last we came across was merely posteriorly visible, as he dived into the Deben at Brandeston and took the water, after we had nearly stepped upon him. We have small sympathy with the difficulties being experienced in reorganising the E.Counties Otter Hounds, the mastership of which was taken up by Sir Edward Edgar after the war. Last June his successor, who had erected kennels in Woolverstone Park, resigned on account of ill-health ; and the new master will build others at Polstead. But the pack must be run, we rejoice to hear, in a much less lavish style than heretofore.

154

OBSERVATIONS.

RODENTS.—Our President and we discovered the nest of a Wood Mouse (Mus sylvaticus, Linn.), in Bentley Woods during early June containing several furred but still blind young, that was at the astonishing height of nearly two feet from the ground in an old birch stump ; and during September a Field Vole (.Microtus agrestis, Linn.) was running among saline herbage, growing actually on the beach at Easton Bavents.

Last year Mr. Andrews had the good fortune to witness a curious black variety of the Water Vole (M. amphibius, Linn.), paired with the common brown form, at Fornham ; " a dirty-white Water Vole was shot at Burgh Castle on 18th October, 1899, and is now in the Yarmouth Museum " (Trans. Norf. Nat. Soc. vii, p. 68).

Early last January I saw a variety of the common Hare (Lepus Furopceus, Pall.) on the Breck near Bamham.

It was of a smoky-grey colour with a nearly white collar or gorget over the throat and front, extending up almost to the nape of the neck.

It was in Company with some other Hares of the normal colouration.

In our last ' Transactions ' I see a note on the distribution of Black Rabbits (L. cuniculus, Linn., var. niger) : Annually for several years I have noticed some in Ickworth Park, particularly near the Mordebois gate. There is one especial bury there in which I have always seen a family of entirely black specimens, up to five young ones at a time ; these I failed to observe last year, though then two adult black ones were found at some distance (continues Mr. Andrews, in lit.

27th Jan., 30).

At a lecture in Ipswich on 18th January last, Montagu A. Phillips, F.L.S., asserted it to be an ill-known fact that the Rabbit did not exist in England before the Norman conquest, and was in all probability indigenous to north Africa (Local Paper, 20th). On the contrary, my friend Dr. Scharff of the Dublin Museum believes it to have devolved from North American forms, and to have migrated eastward across the Atlantic by the now lost land-bridge via Spitzbergen ; and, so far from the recent introduction specified, fossil-bones of our very Rabbit have been unearthed in Pleistocene deposits of Devonshire, Yorkshire, Ireland and elsewhere in Britain (Johnston's Brit. Mam. 214).

Cave such place-names as our Coney Weston, wherein the affix means not conv a rabbit but the Old Norse konung a king.

DEER.-—" I have thrice seen the Suffolk Roe Deer (Capreolus caprea, Bell), mentioned last spring. Before Christmas I saw a buck with the doe and young deer, but last week only the latter two were present.

However, a slot a day or two old left by the buck showed he was still in the vicinity, possibly keeping aloof while shedding his antlers.

In the spring of 1929 I witnessed an adult Fallow doe (Cervus dama, Linn.) cross the road

OBSERVATIONS.

155

from Livermere Thicks and enter the coverts surrounding the Park there ; also, I have been informed that two or three are running wild in the neighbourhood.

Fallow Deer used to be kept in the Park many years ago, I believe : is it possible that they are old Deer which escaped then, and have been in the vicinity ever since ? " (H. Andrews, in lit. 27th Jan., 1930).

A hundred and twenty head are stated to have been in this Park in 1892 ; some broke out, and the residue was dispersed, in 1915 ; ' but one or two are still seen around Livermere.'— Farrer's 1923 Deer Parks of E.Anglia.

After collecting there annually since 1892, we were greatly astonished to observe the first Deer that we have ever seen in a wood within five miles of Ipswich on lOth May last.

We were strolling quietly though a Clearing when, upon a slight rise covered with sparse scrub about a hundred yards from us, we beheld two Fallow does at gaze.

Thus they continued tili, seeing us approaching though with no obviously malign intention, they trotted gently off into the dappled sunshine behind the rise.

Whence came they into this unfenced wood ?

Few Suffolk parks have been restocked since the general deerslaughter of 1915.

Epping Forest has been suggested to us, since such Deer are supposed to traverse fifty miles in no more than a few hours. Edmund Farrer, F.S.A., (in lit. l l t h June, 30) considers they " must have broken out of Woolverstone.

I know nö other park near ; and, as you have been often where you saw them, I expect they went home.

One day a few years ago I was Walking along the road towards Diss, and I saw a Fallow buck jump back into the parkat Redgrave, rightin front of me : he had been out, and got tired of it. There is a small herd at the Crisps' house in Playford but, beyond a few at Orwell Park, no others nigh Ipswich." None were apparent on 5th June in the same wood.

T H E COMMON SEAL.—Early in September, 1905 a thorough colony of no less than sixty old and young Seals of the commonest kind (Phoca vitulina, Linn.), had established itself within forty miles of Suffolk upon the Long Sand in the middle of the Wash (Country Side i, p. 308). And ' quite two hundred common Seals were frequenting the Wash ' by May 1910 (Trans.

Norf. Nat. Soc. ix, p. 194).

So well, indeed, did this locality suit the colonists that by last year the Ministry of Fisheries was paying ten shillings to everyone who shot a Seal, upon the plea that it destroyed great numbers of fish. Fortunately this reward was not doubled upon application ; for, between midJune, 1929 and the end of February, 1930, no less than 284 specimens had been slaughtered, of which twenty stomachs were despatched tö the Lowestoft laboratory for analysis : result apparently secret.

At a meeting of the Eastern Sea

A fevv hours' vvork of Apis mellifica at Needham M a r k e t .

Photo b y F. YY. Platten.

OBSERVATIONS. 156 Fisheries last April, however, what the Seals destroyed and not what was actually devoured was cited as the menace to fishermen, since they had the nous to ' invariably ' select the bestfish; it was suggested that the Seals should be blown up by means of pipe-mines ; but the conference would seem to have closed with the " further consideration" of Butterscotia's ' Great Seal.'

These handsome fellows' life is not a happy one : They are enticed by Eskimos who lie at the edge of ice-floats and whistle low, plaintive notes, which cause the animals to approach ; in order to listen the better they raise themselves high in the water, then slowly wag their heads to and fro in time with the rise and fall of the whistling ; and so thoroughly absorbed do they become that the whistlers are able to club them to death with the greatest ease, and cruelty. Even on the Liffey in Dublin Bay, sharpshooters were being employed in August, 1930 to exstirpate large colonies that were said to be playing havoc in the estuary with ' fresh-water ' fish. One of these quite harmless felows—we ourseif have had great fun while swimming among numbers of them, on the Cläre Island coast of west Ireland—that was young and about four feet in length, was found lying upon the beach near Landguard point in Felixstow on 21st August last by a silly man, whom it' attempted to bite': so, of course, he killed it! (Local Paper, 23rd). But better days are coming soon : A ' white Seal,' sighted byfishermenoff Cobbolds Point there on 7th March last and pursued by a pothunter with a gun, had vanished before the latter's arrival and was later seen going strongly towards Bawdsey (I.e. 8th). We are delighted tofinda bill before Parliament last April providing a close season for the Grey Seal (Halicheerus Gryphus : cf.

Norf. Nat. Soc. 1884, p. 671 and vii, p. 570), which is recorded from Breydon Water, to extend from Ist October to midDecember, just when these Trichechidse are commonest on the east coast of Suffolk.

The extent of records this year is decidedly satisfactory just so far as East Suffolk is represented; but what of the West half of our County ? A glance through the above ' Observations' at once displays the latter's disparity, and we trust that our Members there, along with the Local Secretaries—Miss Garden, the Revs. R. B. Caton, J. S. Pratt, Trevor Waller, Dr. Clouston, Mr. Engleheart and Mr. Harwood—wil see to it that the avoirdupois be more nicely balanced during the coming year.