Observations 3 Part 1

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OBSERV ATIONS.

OBSERV ATIONS. " W h e n pliant Nature any form receives T h a t precept teaches or example gives, T h e yielding mind with virtue should be graced : F o r first impressions seldom are effaced."

GEOLOGY.—The late Searles V. Wood states, at p. 198 and again in the Synoptical List at p. 203 of his Supplement to the Crag Mollusca, that Cassidaria bicatenata, Sow., does not occur at Walton-on-Naze. As he attaches certain significance to its absence from this locality, it is obviously advisable to place upon record the fact that I found a specimen of C. bicatenata there in April 1926. It happened to be in poor condition, very defective about the lip, and of the thicktness of blotting-paper. I f the shell had not been tightly packed with sand and comminuted shells, it must long ago have disintegrated beyond recognition, except by such an expert as Mr. Wood.—C. G. DOUGHTY ; August 1935.

CORALLINE AS FACING-STONE.—I s e n d y o u a r e c e n t l y o b t a i n e d

photograph of Wantisden church, as it may be of our Geological Members. T h e towers of this and churches are totally constructed externally of the Coralline Crag. This view will illustrate your details

interest to Chillesford local hard at Proc. ii,

p. c i x , i n o u r T r a n s a c t i o n s . — F R A N K A . GIRLING ; 3 0 DANGEROUS

DEDUCTIONS.—At

a

Meeting

of

the

May. Geological

Society on 23 January last Sir A. Smith Woodward thought that the theory of Continental Drift helped to explain the known distribution of ea/ly land faunas. However, so many instances of nearlv parallel evolution had now been recognized by Palasontologists that the evidence of fossils needed careful examination before used to indicate former land connexions.

For example, the horned Tortoise, Miolania, of the Australian region was so similar to Niolamia from Patagonia that these two fossils might be supposed to prove the former existence of an antarctic continent, uniting Australia and South America [the same may be said, also, of their Insects] ; but they were only extreme foims of a Chelonian suborder which was almost universally distributed in past ages, and therefore they might have onginated independently. T h e little Mesosauria, found in the PERMIAN of Brazil, seemed to be so essentially identical with those

OBSERVATION?.

of the L O W E R KARROO formation of South Africa that they had actually been quoted as proof of a former direct connexion between America and Africa ; but, in the COAL MEASURES of both North America and Europe, there were possible ancestors from which they might have derived in different directions. In Brazil, in somewhat later formations, there were also Dicynodonts, which were specially characteristic of the South African KARROO ; but typical Dicynodonts had lately been found in Arizona, and had long been known from both Europe and Asia; so that these, again, might be independent immigrants from the north. T h e recent discovery in Brazil of numerous large Rhynchosauria, which had not hitherto been met with in South Africa, favoured the supposition that the two early MESOZOIC faunas in question did not live on one continuous land area. It is not enough, therefore, merely to compare lists of fossils when former changes of land connexions were being discussed : the precise relationships of each fossil needed first to be determined so far as possible.

BOTANY.—We had a lovely run to Bury and Cavenham on 19 April last, and managed to find a fair number of plants of Grape Hyacinth (Muscari racemosum, Mill.), in flower; also extensive patches of Claytonia perfoliata, Don. : we had lunch on the heath and reached home early in the evening. In May we had a fortnight in the Gairloch and Ullapool district of Ross, and photographed nests of Gulls (Larus marinus, L.) and Eider Duck (Stomateria mollissima, L.) among others; I brought back over a hundred beetles, mostly Otiorhynchus blandus, Gyl., but both Telephorus obscurus, Lin. and T. Darwinanus, Shp., were new to me. We passed through heavv snow on the way up from Blair Atholl to Inverness, beyond which the weather was warm and sometimes even hot. We are hoping to go to the Manorbier district of Pembroke this week.—GEO. E. F R I S B Y , Gravesend ; 16 September.

Smyrnium Olusatrum, LINN.—The Pagets describe, in their 1834 ' Sketch of the Natural History of Yarmouth,' Alexanders as occurring in " hedges, Beiton, etc. ; but rare." Since their time this plant has become one of the very commonest in that district; its large dark-green shining leaves are the first real indication of our somewhat belated local spring; and one can find country roads where, for a good half-mile, the hedge-bottoms on both sides are literally smothered by it. It does not occur where the hedges are very dry and, later in the year, you will find the Hare-bell; nor does it grow in every apparently suitable locality : for instance, it was found abundantly last April beside the road east of Ormesby St. Michael church; but, after a total break of about two and a half miles north-west, two or three plants only were noticed on each side of the road, and then no more were seen for some five miles, when they were again found

OBSERVATIONS.

75

in plenty in the vicinity of Catfield church. Similar sporadic distribution is observable southward within five miles of the coast right down to Bawdsey. [It is u n k n o w n on the Boulderclay of central Suffolk, though general on gravels.—Ed.]. I t would be interesting to know what has led to the great dissemination of this plant or, perhaps even more so, why it was rare in the Pagets' days. Apparently it is not indigenous to EAnglia; but, even if brought into the district as a p o t - h e r b , such introduction m u s t have occurred very many years, probably centuries, before the Pagets were born. It would seem to be a plant eminently capable of holding its own in the struggle for e x i s t e n c e . — C . G . DOUGHTY ; A u g u s t

1935.

THORN APPLES.—Datura stramonium, Linn, (supra Trans, ii, p. 208),' seems to have been introduced into E u r o p e about t h e end of the sixteenth Century; and probably was extensively grown for medicinal purposes. Its seeds have very remarkable powers of vitality, when buried in the ground : hence it sometimes appears freely where land that has lain long undisturbed is brought into cultivation, especially near towns and villages.— CHARLES NICHOLSON, TresiUian, near T r u r o , C o r n w a l l ; 22 J a n .

PROGRESS OF E L M D I S E A S E . — N o w I a m s e n d i n g a p h o t o g r a p h

of further sad havoc : more Elms are dead at Badley church (Trans, ii, p. 279). Here show the füll foliage of other trees taken in mid-July and a leafless filigrane of Elm-branches in front of the west tower. I t is very pitiful.—E. W . PLATTEN. A LARGE DANDELION.—Last July I noticed a plant that at first I took to be a dock, growing among Ragwort, Artemisia and other tall weeds at the edge of a turnip-field abutting on the Marine Parade at Gorleston. Closer inspection showed it was an example of Taraxacum officinale, Web., with about twentyfive leaves, all of abnormal size and growing almost erectly.

I took h o m e what appeared to be the three longest of these leaves and found t h e m to measure Yl\, \7{ and 1 7 | inches respectively.

This prodigal production of foliage seems to have almost exhausted its energies, as it had produced apparentlv only one flower.— C. G . DOUGHTY; A u g u s t

1935.

CCELENTERATA.—Specimens of the following Jellyfish, of the order Semaeostomeas, were taken in Southwold harbour during A u g u s t 1935 : Chrysaora isosceles, L i n n . , of the family Pelagiidae, on t h e ~th ; and /Equorea Forskalea, Per.-Les., of the family /Equoridae, a species NEW to Suffolk. I may add that the Sabellarid W o r m , Sabellaria alveolata, Linn., was quite common at the shore-end of the harbour-pier at the same time, when specimens of t h e beautiful Molluscan, Pholas Candida, L i n n . , were discovered t o be boring into a l u m p of chalk at the m o u t h of the River Blyth.— D. W.

COLLINGS.

76

OBSERVATIONS.

ARACHNIDA N E W TO S U F F O L K . — I had the pleasure of discovering Areneus quadratus, Clk., commonly on the Sea Aster (A. tripolium) in salterns to the south of Southwold on 15 September last. They had done great execution among the numerous Diptera frequenting these flowers; and the specimen kindly determined by Dr. Randell Jackson was an adult female of great size.—GRACE WATSON. [ M R . GEORGE BAKER found the same species at Reydon during September, named by Dr. Jackson, a just-adult female. We noticed A. umbraticus, Clk., female in Monks Soham museum in late July and a pair on ' sugar ' beside Fritton Lake in mid-August.—Ed.] LARGE HOUSE SPIDER.—The giant Tegenaria domestica, Walckfenaer in Histoire abregee des Insectes des environs de Paris; 1802], second in size to only T. atrica, Kch., the largest Biitish spider (cf. Trans. 1934, p. 285), was found in a building at Wenhaston near Haiesworth on 1 October. It lurked at the end of a tunnel in a huge and finely-spun web.—E. A. ELLIS. Domestica falls as a synonym of T. parietina, F. de P. Schrank, Enumeratio Insectorum Austriae ; 1781. T h e species is widely distributed in Suffolk ; the last we observed alive was on a wall inside Ipswich Museum !—Ed.

GOSSAMER.—At Wenhaston on 15 August I saw three or four fair-sized bushes of Dwarf Furze (Ulex nanus, Fst.) completely covered with a gauzy film of webbing, in which were literally thousands of tiny red Spiders. T h e bushes looked quite grey at a little distance, and were easily discernible. Whether the creatures were adults or merely swarms of youngsters I do not know, but the conspicuous phenomenon seems worthy ofmention.

They were alongside a very rough lane or driftway, through a small heath, that ends in a farm on Blowers Common.— ERNEST R .

LONG.

A SPIDER'S HEFTY VICTIM.—On the evening of 1 October last I noticed, in a back lane in Gorleston, a curious shrouded corpse in a Spider's web. It proved to be a specimen of Cleortus sulcirostris, L., about the largest British weevil-beetle; and one would imagine the Spider had had a good struggle to secure him.

T h e Spider appeared to be the large one [Epeira diademata, Clk.], whose webs are such a conspicuous feature of our gardens in autumn.—C. G. DOUGHTY. IMPORTED A R A C H N I D . — A pale, smooth Spider with extremely long legs was found here last month ; it has been determined by the British Museum as Heteropoda venatoria, Linn., a species distributed throughout tropical and subtropical America, and frequently recorded as imported to England in Bananas from the West Indies.—GEORGE BAKER, Reydon ; 1 9 November 1 9 3 5 .

OBSERVATIONS.

77

CRUSTACEA CORRECTED.—Dr. Robert Gurney, M . A . , D.Sc., F.L.S., has been so good as to point out that Hippolyte Thompsoni, Bell (Trans, ii, p. 270) falls as a synonym of Paladina brevirostris, Rath. (p. 271). That Pandalus Montagui never occurs in brackish water: " I have trawled it in the Orwell at Pinmill." T h a t Leander adspersus, Rath., is the correct name forPalanmonLeachi, Bell; and Macromysis flexuosa, Müll., for Mysis Chamceleon, Thomp. Mysis inermis, also, belongs ot the genus Macromysis; but Mysis vulgaris belongs to the gerius Neomysis. T h e last species is " the common Mysid of the estuarine region in all the east coast rivers. It is not really a marine species. Macromysis flexuosa overlaps and replaces it towards the sea." T h e above mergence of Hippolyte Thompsoni robs us of one kind, but this is restored by the additional record of Macromysis Slabberi, van Beneden, which Gurney states to be " an estuarine Mysid found in Breydon " Water (in lit. 22 Jan. 1935).

T w o SOUTHWOLD S H R I M P S . — A goodly number of specimens of the Smooth Hermit-crab (Anapagurus leevis, Thomp.) were taken in a shrimp-trawl off Southwold during the summer of 1935 : they were all in shells of the Whelk, Buccinum undatum, L.— I obtained several examples of the pretty Shrimp, Hippolyte varians, Lch. (Trans, ii, 270), from the Southwold harbour-pier on 5 September last, and have kept them alive in aquaria for several days : their colour varied according to the amount of admitted light, but the prevailing tint was a beautiful bright green.

The Ditch Prawn, Palamonetes varians, Lch., is very abundant in the model-yacht pond here.—D. W. COLLINGS : 10 October.

AMPHIPOD N E W TO SUFFOLK.—The water, standing in shallow muddy pools of the Bure ronds near Yarmouth, had become so warm in the sun of 22 February 1934 that great numbers of the Ciustacean, Corophium grossipes, Fab., were Coming out of their burrows and swimming about.—E. A. ELLIS.

MYRIAPODA.—" One morning in 1850 I was in London making careful microscopic drawings of Limnoria [lignorum, Rath., an Isopod Crustacean] and Teredo navalis, [Linn., the molluscan Ship-worm,] two worms found in the submerged wood piling in harbours : the latter forms a beautiful pearly shell within the hole made in the wood. T h e drawings were for a lecture, on destruction of wood by worms, to be delivered at the Institution of Civil Engineers in Great George Street, Westminster.

Very fine worm-eaten wood had been sent from Lowestoft Harbour, quite saturated with salt water; in order to get the best specimens I could, I split the block of worm-eaten wood, when out rolled the largest Centipede I ever saw in this country.

This must have been a Marine Centipede, although I never heard of such a thing, for no ordinary creature of this kind would have

78

OBSERVATIONS.

taken up its quarters in salt water and in the very heart of a sodden piece of timber. There was the Centipede ; but how it got there and ot what pecuhar species it was, I must leave to others to decide' [Follow expenences with giant Asiatic Scolopendrids.1 On going into my bathroom at Herringfleet one evening after dark I was Startled by observing a long track of phosphorescent light across the boarded floor. This luminous mark would flash in a long line of dots one second, then assume the appearance of a thin hne in another, again changing to dot-and-dash, as if a wet lucifer match had been rubbed across the floor and gave out an irregulär fire. On lookmg further, I discovered something perfectlv luminous, moving at the far end of the chain of light, depositin a fiery wake as it advanced. I obtained a light and found what Wood s edition of Routledge's Natural History [mislcalls an Electric Centipede (Arthromalus [Newport 1844] longicornis |Leach = Geophilus flavus, DeG., which species seldom or never emits light and differs from the luminous G. carpophagus, Lch of Trans, n, p. 100, in its longer anal legs and antenn», and paler rufescent colouration : also in its peculiar ball-and-socket articulation of the anterior sternal plates.—Ed.]). Wood states that this species IS very common in parts of England : all I can say is that I have never met with one before or since in the Eastern Counties, or know anyone who has done so. I believe, from drawmgs I have seen, that the specimen I saw was a very fine one indeed, for it must have been nearly two and a half inches in length '* (H.M.L.'s Rough Notes on Nat. Hist. of E Count ed. 1887, p. 95).

Polyxenus lagurus, L I N N . , AGAIN.—An animal was taken while rambling across a window-pane of Monks' Soham House at 11 p m on 4 August last, evidently attracted there by light indoors which proved to be a 3-mm. specimen of this Milliped, on the identical pane as the 1931 example recorded at Trans, i, p. 227. T h e species may be of frequent occurrence, but certainly I have not seen it during the interim: old Samouelle says in 1819 (Entom Useful Compendium, 115) that " in Britain it is found in profusion beneath the bark of trees " ; but Webb's 1906 pamphlet gives it a very different habitat, under oyster-shells near the sea-shore It may be observed that this pamphlet enters Leach as the author of the Centiped Stigmatogaster (not in Scudder) subterraneus ; but the same kind, Scolopsndra subterranea, had alreadv been earlier described by Shaw in Trans. Linn. Soc. 1789 ii p 7 — CLAUDE MORLEY.

'

G I . O W - W O R M Q U E R I E S . — I am always sorry that I cannot attend the Meetings of the Suffolk Naturalists, but it is rather a far cry from Hampshire. Perhaps one of our Members can enliahten me about two matters, on both of which I have vainlv sought

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79

Information, but which I should dearly üke to know. 1. What do Glow-worm larvae feed on when first hatched ? I had a large quantity, that had emsrged from eggs laid by a pair I kept for a time ; but I could not find out what to give them to eat, so had to let them go when they began to die off. [Snails, about the last thing you would expect! Westwood in 1839 (Mod. Introd.

Entom. i, 250) does not appear to have been superseded : " T h e larva feeds as does also the perfect Lampyris noctiluca, Linn., upon small molluscous animals, especially those of the genus Zonites, and not upon leaves or grass as supposed. DeGeer was lead to believe, indeed, from the structure of the mandibles, that it was carnivorous ; but only recently his supposition has been proved correct. It is not difficu.lt to rear this larva, but it is necessary to provide it with moistened earth and fresh food from time to time. It is stated (Bull. Soc. Phil., Feb. 1826) that they will devour Snails, even in a putrefying State ; and a peculiar apparatus is described for the first time, a kind of houppe nerveuse that is composed of seven or eight white radii beneath the abdominal apex, assisting not only in locomotion but as an instrument to cleanse the head from slime that is left by the Snails, forming their repast. It attains füll size in April, from the commencement of which period until it assumes the perfect State fifteen days only are needed, eight of which are passed in the pupa State : the shortness of this State may be, perhaps, accounted for by the great similarity between larva and female, little change being required in the Constitution of these states." Fowler (iv, 130 & vi, 276) adds nothing in this connection.—Ed.] 2. Do Glow-worms swarm, i.e. collect together ?

Twice I have seen a bank positively alive with them : the first time many years ago in the New Forest, and again here at about 9 p.m. on 21 September 1933. All were females or larva; which are pretty plentiful here ; I often see isolated specimens and males are quite a nuisance in spring at light, but I have only twice seen females en masse, totalling on each occasion quite a hundred of them. Why were they doing it ? [We have never heard of such gregariousness, and suspect it caused by nothing beyond copious food-supply. If the banks were damp, scrubby and backed by an old wall, no more favoured habitat for Snails is conceivable. In such a Situation Phosphcsnus hemipterus, Geof., was first taken in Britain (EMM. v, 70).—Ed.]—ETHEL F. CHAWNER, Leckford, Hants ; 21 November 1935.

LUMINOUS B E E T L E . — " That was almost dark and we were dropping up on the last of the tide with hardly a breath of air, when a great ball of fire came across the [Herringfleet, presumably] marshes and straight for my wherry. It banged against the mainsail, and feil on the deck. It was a big Beetle all afire, and shining all over: a big ball of fire, about the size of the great

80

OBSERVATIONS.

Beetles that fly about at night. It appeared to be formed of fire " : a queer story told me in 1884 by the master of my yacht, formerly a wherryman. The fire-beetle was not [the exclusively neotropical!] Cucujo Pyrophorus luminosus, Iiiig., but six times the size of the small Glowworm. It is just possible this Beetle had been feeding on decayed fish and, if so, that may account for its luminosity. (H.M.L.'s Rough Notes on Nat. Hist. of E. Count. 1887, p. 101).—If the light were phosphorescence from such Carrion, the Beetle in question must from the indicated size of three inches have been some Necrophorus, which genus is not known to shine ; Necrodes hardly fills the dimensions and is very rare here. Stag Beetles, Lucanus, do not occur in the Broads; so such large crepuscular ones seem confined to Geotrypes and Melolontha, which are confused as identical ' the May-bug or Dor-beetle with reddish-brown wing-cases sprinkled with whitish d u s t ' in 1774 by Oliver Goldsmith (History of Earth & Animat.

Nature, 1834 ed., p. 642), who gives the detailed ecydsis of M. vulgaris, Fab., the Cockchafer, and adds that " the inhabitants of Norfolk went into the practice of destroying rookeries; but, in proportion as they destroyed one plague, they were pestered with a greater. For these Insects multiplied in such an amazing abundance as to destroy, not only the verdure of the fields but, the roots of even vegetables not yet shot forth : one farm in 1751 was so injured that the occupier was not able to pay his rent, and the landlord was content to, not only lose his income for that year but, give money for the farmer's support." This is quoted

by Shaw and coeval authors.

MULTITUDINOUS LADYBIRDS.—A stunted example of the Thistle Carduus lanceolatus, Wil., on 11 October was eking out the last days of its precarious existence upon scanty mould that had been deposited by wind-currents between the oak of an encircling seat and the brickwork (wantonly defaced throughout by vandals' graphs, dated 1866-1928) of the ugly and uninscribed obelisk that rises some fifty feet from an artificial mound, beside a pond, upon the highest point of the totally boulder-clay Helmingham Park. Upon one only of its leaves, that was two inches long by a half-inch broad, I noticed an object very like a snake's black-and-yellow skin. But, upon looking nearer, I found it to consist of a closely-packed mass of the pretty Ladybird Micraspis sexdecimpunctata, L., a common British kind that is said to prefer marshy situations, as unlike the present as one can imagine, and vaguely to subsist upon Aphid Plant-bugs. The leaf they covered had been distorted and twisted, obviously by the suction of some Aphid, presumably Siphonophora olivata, Buck., of which no trace (naturally, among so many devourers) remained. It is well known that at least certain kinds of Ladybirds do hibernate gregariously (cf. Hippodamia mutabilis, Proc. post); but

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81

I have always swept M. 16-punctata singly, so the present assemblage seemed of sufficient interest to be worth counting : with the exception of some fifty that dropped among long grass, I succeeded in boxing the entire congregation and subsequently found, on the study table, that they totalled 381 beetles ! They were disappointingly constant in coloration : the thoracic markings varied merely in extent; all had the four inner circular spots, slightly variable in size, along the elytral disc alongside the outer one at base with unilinear ones, of which the basal is rarely discreted, behind i t ; in but one instance was the second discal spot connate with the lateral line. Nothing approaching either a paler form (var. 12-punctata, L.) or one with black elytra (var.

Poweri, Ws.) was among them : which argues that a uniform menage produces uniform type.

REDISCOVERY OF A LADYBIRD.—Some time during 1800-50 William Kirby, F.R.S., took two examples of Scymnus pulchellus, Hbst., which after his death were published as new to Britain in 1863" (Proc. Ent. Soc., 2 Nov.). He was for long rector of Barham and pretty surely had found them in the adjacent Coddenham for, with the exception of one specimen from Kent (Ent. Annual 1864, p. 72), S. pulchellus was not again taken in Britain tili May 1894, when Fred. Fox beat some 2-300 from only the south side of a single Scots-pine there (EMM. Mar. 1895, p. 75 and p. 174 ; Nat. journ. July 1896). Knowledge of his locality, however, died with him on 18 May 1897 ; and the Ladybird has been since recorded only from Antrim. On 16th of last September, in a stiff south breeze after heavy rain, I was so fortunate as to beat a half-dozen, and on 20 October Mr. Doughty took more, of this Ladybird out of thick ivy enveloping one old elm-tree in the hedge-bank of a grass-grown sunk lane at Frostenden near Southwold. They feil singly from different sides of the tree, but all at about five feet from the sandy ground ; surrounding and similarly ivy-mantled trees produced none.

Fowler quotes May to September as its perfect life-span ; but Fox took it so late as 15 November in 1895 and gave me the specimen, with which the Frostenden ones agree ad amussim.

The mature insect has all the femora black, excepting the anterior internally : not only basally (sec. Rye) or only the posterior pairs (sec.Fowler). Onaccountofthe Aphidivoroushabitof both beetles and their larvse, pine or ivy doubtless affords no more than secure shelter and so plays but a small part in their economy. One of the above is gone to the British Museum, which did not possess

t h e species.—CLAUDE MORLEY.

A NEW WARE-HOUSE PEST.—Last July I found some Beetles that seemed to have come out of grain, such as wheat, maize, etc., in a shop at Blackwater near Southwold ; and in September was

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OBSERVATIONS.

able to give a living specimen from the same source to our Hon. Secretary for examination. He teils me it is the cosmopolitan ware-house pest, Bruchus (Acanthoscelides) obtectus, Say who first described it from North America in 1831 ; but adds that it has been found under various names in Madeira, the Azores, etc.

It is NEW to Suffolk ; and has been so comparatively recently recognised as an importation into Britain (cf. EMM. 1920, p. 99) that it is contained in none of our Standard Beetle-books.— GEORGE J. BAKER ; 10 October.

Melasoma populi ESTABLISHED.—I am very glad to be able to go further than confirming the late Mr. Kirkby's valuable record of one specimen of this conspicuous Beetle at Redgrave two years ago (Trans, ii, p. 180) by the discovery of at least sixty individuals in Redgrave Fen on 28 July 1935, the very day it occurred so profusely in Somerset during 1933. In the present case all were feeding upon Aspen and within the very limited area of a few yards of each other.—FRANCIS W. SIMPSON ; 7 August.

•

T w o WEEVILS N E W TO SUFFOLK.—Ceuthorhynchus verrucatus, Gyll., is local in Britain, confined to a half-dozen localities immediately on the south coast and only Southend on the east; Dr. Blair vainly searched for it at Dunwich in September 1933 ; and abroad it is noted in 1906 from southern Russia and southern France. An hour's close scrutiny on the ground-sheet of Glaucium luteum plants between the sea and broad near Covehithe on 11 September last, in hot sun after dry weather, revealed merely Cryptopleurum atomarium, F., Ptenidium pusillum, Gyl., Coccinella W-punctata, L., Rhizobius litura, F., Lathridius nodifer, Ww., fuscula, Hum., etc., Cryptophagus affinis, Stm., Atomaria fuscipes, Gyl., Apion miniatum, L., a dead Sitones hispidulus, F. and small Myriapod Geophilus sp. Here also on 16th, after heavy rain the previous day, were only the same common beetles in the course of hours' work in stiff south-west breeze, in addition to Calathus mollis, Msh., Myllana sp., the bugs Stygnus arenarius, Hah., Piesma capitata, Wlf. and a Braconid-fly Blacus sp.; but at the same time a Situation two hundred yards further north showed the desired C. verrucatus (NEW to EAnglia: cf. Essex Nat. xiv, 1905, p. 61) sparingly among dead leaves at the roots of every Horned Poppy, thus extending its known British ränge some seventy miles northwards : a füll series was secured here and later at Southwold. In captivity the species is distinctly sluggish, shunning all light and clinging closely to every stray fulcrum; yet no less inactive than most kinds of its genus. At the sheet one sometimes has to wait a quarter-hour before its legs are extended and it begins to move ; nor does tobacco-smoke appear to incommode its senses. With it occurred a male Apion Curtisi, Walt, (NEW to Suffolk) on the beach at Southwold on 26th.—

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I had deliberately set out to track down the first of the above weevils in its proper haunts, and was much gratified by success ; but what was my astonishment upon casually sweeping at the same time a splendid male of Colon dentipes, Sahl. (NEW to Suffolk), on 13th ! He was on some weeds in a dry ditch bordering the wood to north of Frostenden brick-fields just before dusk.— CLAUDE MORLEY.

A LAKE-SIDE BUG.—For years I have searched for Ischnodemus sabuleti, Fall., without success; but on 11 May 1935 I had a walk in Windsor Great Park as I wanted exercise and, of course, could not resist examining the likely-looking banks of a lake there : the Old Adam of collecting instinct asserted itself, and getting a thing I had so long wanted certainly assisted my recovery to health.

For I Struck the Ischnodemus in some numbers, Walking near the water's edge. T h e developed form, with long wings was very scarce and these were mainly damaged, as possibly they had gone through the winter while the brachypterous ones had but recently emerged, for there were plenty of larva; in all sizes present.

—ERNEST C. B E D W E L L ; 13 May. [Congratulations are due to our Member upon his success, after forty years' wrestling. This species is so rarely met with that we suspect his discovery is new to Berkshire. Saunders (Heteroptera of Brit. Isles, p. 75) knew of it from only Folkstone and Merton, in Surrey or Devon ; we possess an example taken many years ago in Epping Forest by the late Mr. E. A. Newbery ; and it is quite unknown throughout EAnglia.—Ed.] BIRD-LICE AND - F O O D FROM BREYDON W A D E R S . — I am sending you three small packets, containing (1) Lice from a Bartailed Godwit, Limosa Lapponica, L . [32 specimens of Docophorus limosi, Denn.] ;(2) Lice from a Knot, Tringa canutus, L. [38 specimens of D. canuti, Denn.] ; (3) Lice from a Greenshank, Totanus canescens, Gmel. [two specimens of Trinoton lituratum, Nitz.— Ed.] ; along with a fourth packet containing the stomach-contents of the above Greenshank [almost entirely composed of the wings and harder parts as well as many very conspicuous eggs of some Daddy-longlegs, Tipula sp.; but there are a few debris of other smaller Flies, at least one Beetle Sphceridium scarabeeoides, F., a small Crab or similar crustacean, etc.—Dr. Blair]. I expect they will be of interest to you. All are from the Suffolk side of Breydon Water in the course of last September.—F. C . COOK ; Lowestoft, October 1935.

A N INTRODUCED WASP.—On the 6 September last Mr. Chester Doughty boxed a Wasp that was Aying upon the window of a bus, travelling through Gorleston streets. It is a neotropical species (^olistes crinitus, Feiton) that constructs a paper-nest, consisting ot a single exposed comb which is attached to walls, posts, window-

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frames, etc. I possess a specimen that was captured on shipboard off El Carmen Island on the south of Mexico Gulf on 3 July 1912. T h e sole previous occurrence of Polistes, thought

by Fred. Smith to be P. biguttatus, Hai., is that of several specimens at Penzance during 1866 (Entom. Annual 1868, pp. 87 and 96). How the present individual reached Suffolk alive is obscure : possibly in a bunch of fruit.

A N INTERESTING BEE, Macropis labiata, FAB.—The rediscovery of this extremely local insect by our Members on 16 August last in Catfield marsh, Norfolk, suggests its possible occurrence in boggy parts of north Suffolk, where it is at present unrecorded.

The kind of environment needed is illustrated by the Catfield plants : Mentha hirsuta, skullcap, Scabious, Spiraea ulmaria, Water Ragwort, Great Spear-wort, Angelica, Cicuta virosa, Waterlilies, Parnassus-grass, Hard-heads, Eupatorium, Purple and Yellow Loosestrife, to the flowers of which last alone the Bee is usually attracted. In Norfolk it was first noticed at Brundall in 1874 and 1879 (Bridgman, Tr. Norf. Nat. Soc. ii, 62, 123, 277, 633); later it was found to be of somewhat broad distribution in the Broads, and (EMM. 1904) both sexes were taken even at Kings Lynn by Atmore. Elsewhere it is known as British in only Hants, Surrey and possibly Devon. In the New Forest it was discovered before 1842 by Walton, but does not seem there again taken tili 1901 ; since then I have seen both sexes continually at flowers of Lysimachia in one boggy spot there, where it first appears on 16-20 July according to the season and extends to 9 August. Nothing is known of its life-history in Britain though W. H. Tuck in July 1900 told me that it " breeds in stems of the Common Reed " ; and, on the Continent, another Bee called Epehoides csecutiens, usually found at Lythrum-flowers, is inquiline upon it, presumably in such stems. Tuddenham Fen is a likely locality for this rarity.—CLAUDE MORLEY. STEEL-BLUE H O R N T A I L . — I send you a Sawfly that I picked up, mjured at the foot of a tree in the park, in Ipswich today. I dö not know it, and shall be glad to hear what it is.—RICHARD STILES • 31 August. [A female of the large Horntail, inches Over all,' perfect though having the abdomen basally fractured below' probably before our Member salvaged it by the walking-stick of some lout who thought it a ' dor.' Sirex noctilio, Fab. is uncommon with us :—found singly in a Stratford-Mary bedroom Oct. 1909 (Miss E. E. Bray); Framlingham, Oct. 1918 (Dr' Vinter); Bury garden, Sept. 1920 (Tuck); and seven males together were " f o u n d by D. Wigan of Loudham Hall near Woodbridge in trees affected by Elm Disease. He has not found them in any tree but these elms. Are they cause or effect ? " (Lord Ullswater, in lit. 28 Oct. 1931). We have never heard of

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85

the species attacking deciduous trees : it can have no relation to the Disease. In fact, it appears confined to Pine wood and for long was considered solely imported. On 23 May 1916 a miner sent us a pair from Lydbrook, stating that eight or nine were to be seen daily, sleepy and inactive, in a large colliery pump-room in Forest of Dean, where it was thought to come into the pit with foreign timber. But on 15 September 1925 two females were taken sitting at ten feet from the ground on the trank of a Scots-fir whence they had directly emerged in Monks Soham school ground, as their adjacent larval holes proved.

In a shop one is said to have emerged, from the pine ' winder,' through every fold of the wound cloth ! That these Sawflies are, at least sometimes, imported is shown by the sole British examples of the allied north American Tremex columba, Linn.

These are three males that emerged, and were sent by M r . Robert Godfrey to us alive on 22 June 1907, from a several-years-used Maple beam in the Glengowan print-works at Caldercruix in Lanark, which beam was constantly or habitually in boiling starch at 70° Fahr. One of these Horntails, most probably the above S. noctilio, is certainly the quite harmless insect of which the Welsh miners were so afraid during the recent strike (D. Mirror, 16 Oct. 1935): " At first we were troubled with Rats, but we hunted them o u t ; worse are the ' hornets,' insects about the size of Grasshoppers with long claw-like feelers with which they bite " !—Ed.] SPORADIC CLOUDED-YELLOW B U T T E R F L I E S . — W e seem as far as ever from understanding the habits of Colias edusa, Fab. This year single specimens have been noted in Suffolk on 25th, and in Norfolk on 24th, July only. Yet a dozen were observed together upon three occasions : along Bawdsey cliff from Manor-house to East Lane on 6 August (Morley); in a single lucerne-field near Benacre church from 19th to 25th (Goddard); and in a single lucerne-field beside Potters Bridge near Southwold on 23rd (Baker). None are reported anywhere in the County throughout September despite the frequent soft south-east winds, nor from anywhere inland.

SWALLOW-TAILS IN S U F F O L K . — T h e mangled debris of a Papilio Machaon, L., was found at South Green in Southwold during August 1934 ; it was identified, but not retained, by D R . COLLINGS who was unable to hear of any locally reared or liberated individuals. A perfect specimen of the same splendid Butterfly was seen on 22 August 1935, sitting on a Dahlia, by a workman who secured it in his hat, at Bartholomew Green by Southwold church ; it is now in the collection of our Member, MR. G. J. BAKER, who considers it to be of the Continental colorational form that is described by Frohawk as less densely black with the shade of yellow deeper. In this case, the example might be

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regarded as immigrant, a theory borne out by the presence at the time of a south-east wind.—Similar isolated examples, though less improbably f r o m the Broads district, are reported as having occurred this year at Lowestoft by our M e m b e r , MR. GODDARD : one along the shore on 2 August, and one in Belle-Vue park two days later.

THE BEDSTRAW HAWK—YOU will be glad to know that I have just come into the possession of a really great capture. A friend of mine, living right in the middle of Lowestoft and close to the post-office, took a perfect specimen of Deilephila galii, Rott., at light in his room last evening, the 25 July 1935. H e managed to box it without the least damage, and has sent it to m e in perfect condition. As it appears to be a female, I shall keep it alive for another twenty-four hours, in the hope that it may deposit some eggs. I do not know when the last specimen was taken in Suffolk ; but I should be most grateful if you can enlighten m e u p o n the subject—GEORGE J. BAKER, Blackwater, Southwold. [Immigrants from the Continent occasionally establish themselves among the Galium of our coast as in 1888, in addition to our Brecksands as in 1859 ; b u t have now been hitherto unobserved for a half-century. A male on lawn of Stricklands in Stowmarket on 2 September 1857, and a female on gravel-walk of garden a quarter-mile away two days later. Previously known in Suffolk only " a t Felixstowe, where the larva was found by Professor Henslow some years ago " ( D r . Bree, who kept both specimens, N a t . vii, 275 ; Ent. W k . Intell. ii, 1857, 187-8). Plentiful at H i g h a m , Barton Mills, Newmarket, etc., u p to 1859 ( T . and J. Brown of Cambridge). O n e in a Suffolk Bungay garden on 5 July 1859 (Garneys, I.e. vi, 131); and one at Gillingham, over the Waveney, during the next m o n t h (I.e., 187). Ipswich and G l e m h a m M a g n a in 1870; five at Aldeburgh (Hele 1870, 185).

R e n d h a m and Aldeburgh during 1888, in which year the larva; were ' very a b u n d a n t ' at the latter town, and also occurred at both T u d d e n h a m and Newmarket.—Ed.]

CONVOLVULUS-HAWK, SANS DETAILS.—I, as the right h a n d , know quite well what the L e f t H a n d doeth : it came and deposited a splendid female Sphinx convolvuii, L . , of 4 i inches in expanse, on m y doorstep, dead and stiff in a tumbler, where a maid f o u n d it just before m y return home, after a m o n t h ' s absence, at the end of S e p t e m b e r last. N o w I want to know v:ho is that benevolent L e f t H a n d , in order to return it due thanks and, incidentally, learn the details of capture ! Such things have occurred in M o n k s ' Soham itself, but only at long intervals. Singly this year, examples have turned u p in late September at Gorleston (Ellis) and 8 October at Pakefield (Goddard)—CLAUDE MORLEY.

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87

PINE-HAWK, ETC., NEAR SOUTHWOLD IN 1934.—I am always able to obtain caterpillars of Gastropacha quercifolia, Linn.*, round this district, although I have not heard that it occure commonly, and have reared numerous imagines. Also, I came across one larva early last February that had taken up winter-quarters upon an isolated bush close to my house, and kept it under Observation for several days : its behaviour is quite interesting. On 15 June last I met with a specimen of Sphinx pinastri, Linn., sitting on a wall near Reydon school: I believe the first local one since South's 1900 record " near Southwold."

Of Acherontia Atropos, Linn., six larvae and pupae were given me from South Cove, Reydon and Southwold, of which four emerged ; also, I heard of a Caterpillar that was found at Wangford. On 13 April Phragmatobia fuliginosa, L., began to emerge, whose larvas were taken at Easton during late March ; at the end of June Plasia festuca, L., came to Valerian flowers and P. iota, L., to light; in early July a single Palimpsestis octogesima, Hb., was secured at sugar on the Southwold boundary, with a few Euxoa vestigialis, R o t t ; and finally, at about 11.15 p.m. on 11 October, I was delighted to beat a beautiful Polia semibrunnea, Hw. (see Trans, ii, 293), out of blossoming ivy at Reydon. I have read the last Transactions with great interest.—GEORGE J. BAKER ; Reydon, 15 October.

BREEDING Euproctis phaorrhoea, DON.—Last May I received a quantity of Brown-tailed Moth larvas, from Mr. G. B. Taylor of Norwich through the kindness of our Member, Mr. Ellis of Gorleston. Mr. Taylor, who retained a large number, informs me that these larvae, then very small, were all found on 17 September 1934 in a web spun on the top of a hawthorn in the roadside hedge between Bawdsey church and the Manorhouse there, in Suffolk ; at the most, only twenty per centum of the larvae found were taken. They fed very little, and had stopped feeding altogether by 5 October; they then hibernated in a dense web spun round a fork of the food-plant in the breeding cage, which was kept during the winter in an unheated conservatory. T h e larvae began feeding again late in the ensuing April, and became full-fed by the middle of June. Six spun up together in a new web on the food-plant, and the remaining circa Taken since 1890 at:—Waldringfield, scarce (Waller); larvse at Lopdock ( H o c k i n g ) ; T u d d e n h a m St. M a r y (Norgate) and bred there p p a r k e ) ; S u d b u r y , scarce and local ( R a n s o m ) ; occasionally at Ipswich in July 1893-5, when Fräser sported about the sole electric arcs in the town and used to r u n them, presumably for advertisement, all night UVlorley, Baylis, P y e t t ) ; five at light, Bungay in 1905 (Mrs. M a n n ) ; 1irT i , m 1 9 1 9 ( R ° P e ) : Martlesham, and singly at Brandon in 1 W and Gorleston in 1932 ( D o u g h t y ) ; Gorleston, one in 1933 (Ellis); rienham, both sexes in July 1924 ( M o o r e ) ; and a female at W r e n t h a m in late July 1933 (R. S. Girling).—Ed.

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fifty did so in a fairly dense web on the roof of the cage. They had all pupated by 16 June, and imagines began to appear on 1 July : all had emerged by 8th. There are twelve females and twenty-nine males; four specimens did not emerge properly, no doubt owing to the mass of web and pupa-cases on the cage's roof. These imagines were strong fliers, and two pairs readily mated. Mr. Taylor has now about fifty small Iarvae hibernating as before, after ceasing to feed on 24-5 September.—My own thirty-odd larvae were less fortunate : they seemed to be doing well until about 6 June, when gradually one after another stopped feeding and started ramping round the cage in the most restless manner, which behaviour continued day after day. As I left home on 17th, could not take the cage with me and, moreover, was convinced all were ichneumoned, I put three or four into each of some largest-sized glass-bottomed collecting boxes, where they ultimately pupated in a dense web that nearly filled the boxes.

T h e first Brown-tails to emerge were four females, of which three were perfect and the fourth slightly deformed ; next on 10 July came a succession of males, not one of which was perfect and many badly deformed, dying inside the webs: no pupa failed to yield an imago of sorts. Their bright red dots render the larvae of this Moth exceedingly beautiful objects, whose hairs seem far less urticating than those of the Gold-tail, Porthesia chrysorrhoea, L.—C. G. DOUGHTY ; 12 October.

JULY M O T H S AT FRITTON—AND W I C K E N

IN

CAMBS.—Sugar

has not been tried in Lothingland this summer ; but on 23 July the following Moths all flew to light in Fritton marsh, facing north from the Herringfleet side : besides Graphiphora ditrapezium, Bk. (new to Suffolk at Trans, i, p. 32) and Xanthorhoe A-fasciaria, Cl., which were new to my collection, came Miniata, Fst., Senex, Hb., Fuliginosa, L., Graminis, L., Rufa, Hw., Phragmitidis, Hb., Bicolorata, Hf., Emarginata, L., Bisetata, Hf., Immutata, L., Papilionaria, L., and Neustria, L. I am hoping to try there again ere long. Meanwhile I had two nights at Wicken Fen, of which the first was cold and the second windy ; but there occurred an early Läppet with late Argentula, Hb. and Reed Tussocks; one Haworthi, Curt. and several Fuliginosa, L., Impudens, Hb., Fulva, Hb., Phragmitidis, Hb., Crescent, Affinis, L., Rumicis, L., two Arsilonche albivenosa, Gze. and a number of unnamed Noctuas, with a couple of Ziczac, L. No sign of Colias edusa here yet.—J. L. MOORE, Gorleston; 28 July 1935.

MACROLEPIDOPTERA NEAR IPSWICH.—In case they are of interest, I give the most conspicuous kinds that have occurred to me in the Ipswich district during the past year. A füll series of Argynnis Euphrosyne, L. ; a couple of perfect Vaness polychloros, L., but Apatura Iris and Thecla rubi I failed to find ; both T. w-album

OBSERVATIONS.

89

and T. quercus were very scarce at Belstead ; and of Gonepteryx rhamni, L., I saw but one. Single examples of Arctia villica, L., Geometra papilionaria, L. and Hygrochroa syringaria, L., were taken with three very fine Hemaris fuciformis, L. and some Deilephila elpenor, L.—ERIC A. BUTTERS ; 22 Nov. 1934.

RED-UNDERWINGED MOTH.—Catocala nupta, L., has occurred in large numbers, at least seventy examples being seen, in Ipswich between 9 August and 13 September this year ; as many as six occurred on both 25th and 27th of the former month. With so many for Observation, opportunity was taken to note details of habits. The greater number were resting on plane-tree trunks, where the chosen point was almost invariably between six and eight feet above ground and none sat higher than the main branches' fork from trunk ; one was found on a brick wall, three on a birch, and few others on both poplars and limes. Their front wings varied in coloration to a considerable degree, ranging from smoky black with deep black markings to somewhat light brown with the markings of a deeper shade. Several specimens were taken in the hope of finding colorational abnormality in the hind wings, though all were normal, and then released. Some unusually large examples, and two very much smaller than the average size, were noted. Sexual proportion worked out at about three males to each female. This moth exhibits great activity and alertness during day, especially in bright sunshine : many flew off their stances upon being approached, sometimes before one had reached within five feet of them. Upon two occasions one was observed Aying freely between plane trees, first settling on one trunk and then another in the manner of butterflies, at about 2 p.m. in brilliant sun. None were surprised in the act of mating.—During my August holiday in Devon and Cornwall, the nearly complete absence of Butterflies was most marked. Even the commoner kinds were very rarely seen, though the weather was warm and sunny, with a great profusion of both wild and cultivated flowers in blossom. The sole exception was offered by Fritillaries, of which Argynnis Paphia, L., A. Adippe, L. and A. Aglaia, L., flew in some numbers.—RICHARD STILES ; 13 September.

MACRO-MOTHS IN SOUTH-EAST SUFFOLK.—In Bentley Woods this year I saw Lobophora carpinata, Bkh., on 23 May ; Geometra papilionaria, L., on 10 July ; and Brephos notha, Hb., Aying about aspen on 23 April. For ten years Hibernia leucophcearia, Schf., has occasionally occurred at Coddenham early in February.

Of infrequent occurrence during the same period at Hemingstone have been Hylophila bicolorana, Fues.; Hadena scabriuscula, L., at sugar; Lobophora viretata, H b . ; Crocata gilvaria, Fab.; Philereme rhamnata, F a b . ; and on tree trunks Sphinx ligustri, L.

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OBSERVATIONS.

In my garden Plusia moneta, Fab., has been very common this year; but both P. iota, L. and P. pulchrina, Haw., have been absent, though usually plentiful. A Goat larva (Cossus ligniperda, Fab.) was found wandering beside a field here on 18 December last and, much to my surprise, pupated on 30th; the emergent female appeared on 13 July. I thought the Caterpillar hibernated : are not these dates irregulär ?—FRED. T . C R I S P ; Hemingstone ; 24 September. [The date of pupation is certainly peculiar.

The larva lives nearly three years ; one, taken by us at the entrance of his burrow in an old willow-tree near Felixstow church on 8 May 1891, produced imago at 6.30 p.m. on 4 July following, and had damaged itself by restlessness at 9.30.—Ed.] M A C R O L E P I D O P T E R A ROUND BECCLES I N 1935.—The year has been very good here; and, by dint of pretty hard work, I have turned up the following among hosts of commoner kinds. Of Butterflies Polyommatus astrarche, Bg., was found to occur locally on 9 June and the summer brood to be on the wing by 4 August, when Thecla w-album, Knh., was noted for the first time ; T. rubi, L., appeared on 25 May. Polia areola, Esp., turned up on sallow on 11 April; Hydriomena suffumata, Hb., was found on 5 May and H. albulata, Schf., on 25th. Eupithecia pygmaata, Hb. on 2 J u n e ; Panemeria tenebrata, Scp., and Eustrotia uncula, Clk., on 8th ; Harmodia nana, Rott., on 9th ; Earias chlorana, L., on 21st and Plusia moneta, F., on 22nd. Leptomeris immutata, L. and Deilephila elpenor, L., on 23rd ; Melanchra genista, Bkh. and H. trifasciata, Bkh., on 26th, with Herminia cribralis, Hb., on 30th. July produced E. albipunctata, Hw., on I s t ; Miltochrista senex, Hb., on 7th ; Zeuzera pyrina, L., and Thyatira batis, L., on lOth ; Ophiusapastinum, Tr., on l l t h ; Plusia festuca, L. and Calocale undulata, L., on 12th ; Pseudoterpna pruinata, Hf. and Ptychopoda dilutaria, Hb. the next day ; Plemyria nvata Hb., Acronycta leporina, L. and Pterostoma palpina, L., on 14th.

E. absinthiata, Clk. and IL albicillata, L., on 17th ; Aventia flexula, Schf., on 21st and Hadena ophiogramma, Esp., on 22nd. Triphcena janthina, Esp., followed on 24-6th; Caradrina arcuosa, Hw., on 27th and Euxoa nigricans, L., on 28th. In August I took C. pyralina, Vw., and H. alchemillata, L., on 4th; Graphiphora stigmatica, Hb., 7 t h ; Gymnoscelis pumilata, Hb. and Caradrina phragmitidis, Hb. on 8th ; Hadena leucostigma, Hb., 9th ; Triphcena baja, F., lOth \Ennomos alniaria, L., 17th and Xanthorhoe vittata, Bkh'., on 25th. September 2nd showed Xanthia flavago, F . ; 12th Hypena rostralis, L . ; and on 28th the first Xanthorhoe cervinata, Schf., flew in to light. A pupa of Acherontia Atropos, L., was dug up here on 6 September, but later died ; and an imago was captured on 21 September.—ERNEST T . G O L D S M I T H ; 6 October.

OBSERVATIONS.

91

LEPIDOPTERA IN NE. SUFFOLK DURING 1935.—Roselia confusalis, H., Blythburgh Wood in early May ; one Miltochrista miniata, Fst., Aying at bladder-campion in Benacre Woods on 30 June, with fair numbers of Harmodia nana, Rtt., at dusk. At sugar at Oulton Broad on 2 June were Caradrina trigrammica, Hfn., Hadena rurea, F. ; and in Benacre Woods on 30 June Rusina tenebrosa, Hfn., Hadena scabriuscula, L. and Ophiusa pastinum, Tr. In the latter on 28 July were Caradrina matura, H f n . and some very dark forms of Polia viminalis, F. On 21 May Cucullia camomillce, Schf., was sitting on boards in Lowestoft. Lymantria monacha, L., was at rest on alder in Benacre Woods on 28 July.

In Lowestoft Eupithecia venosata, F. and Hydriomena immanata, Hw., were Aying at dusk on 15 June. Leucophthalmia pendidaria, Clk., was at rest on birch in Blythburgh Wood on 6 May ; and Xanthorhoe designata, Rtt., netted at dusk in Oulton Broad on the 8th, with Euchaca obliterata, Hfn. and Synopsia abruptaria> Thb., on the 28th. Habrosyne derasa, L., came to sugar in Benacre Woods on 30 June ; on it occurred Palimpsestis duplaris, L., on both 28 May and 2 June at Oulton Broad. A single Drymonia dictaoides, Esp., sat at rest on a beech in Blythburgh Wood on 6 May, when Falcaria lacertinaria, L., was beaten from birch, and where on 21 March Brephos parthenias, L., was Aying in goodly numbers as well as very commonly in Covehithe birch-woods. On 4 June Cerura bifida, Hb., emerged from a pupa taken under poplar-bark on 18 February at Oulton Broad, where I have dug over a hundred various kinds of pupae in Everitt Park. At Lowestoft to light in March came Depressaria applana, F. and D. arenella, Schf. ; in the house were Ephestia Kuhnella, ZI., on 11 M a y ; and one Cheimophila salicella, Hb. (NEW to Suffolk) on 27 March. At Oulton Broad in late May were Ancylis Lundana, F. and Ne-mophora Swammerdamella, L.— JACK GODDARD ; 25 September.

LEPIDOPTEROUS JOTTINGS OF 1935.—Enclosed I give the only scraps I find in my diary, of the paucity of which I am qtiite ashamed. Main points of interest seem to be the reoccurrence of S. ochrata, abundance of A. bifasciana, and prevalence of fruitfeeding larae, whereof Laspeyresia pomonella, L., was a perfect nuisance in apples, etc. 22 April, Argiolus was first seen and later very numerous; also Cardamincs, more plentiful than usual; 8 July, a worn Cardui at Trimley, and on 2 August one in perfect condition here; 10 July, several Atalanta here ; 10 August, one male Edusa, the sole one of the year, was seen here.

September, Graphiphora glareosa, Esp., fiew in to light; always rather scarce here. 10 July at Thorp Ness, males of zterrha ochrata, Sc., were quite as numerous, if not more so, than last year (Trans, ii, p. 295); these were Aying at both noon and 3 p . m . ; no female is yet noticed there. 5 August, larvse of

92

OBSERVATIONS.

Phtheochroa rugosana, Hb., were feeding in Bryonia berries at Ramsholt. 5 July, Argyroploce bifasciana, Haw., were abundant in Austrian-pines in my garden, where they have hitherto been scarce. 22 August, larvac o£ Laspeyresia funebrana, Tr., were /a pest, as evidenced by the number in an appetising (?) plum-pie, and later in bullaces. 23 September, larvse of Pammene Juliana, Ct., were feeding in acorns both here and at Hemley, with plenty of Laspeyresia splendana, Hb. ; also found larval cases of Coleophora artemisiella, Set., on Artemisia maritima at Hemley. 16 September, found by the River Aide similar cases of C. annulatella, Tgst., on Chenopodium and of C. tripoliella, Hdgk., on Aster tripolium. I have enjoyed several delectable dishes of Agaricus (Lactarius) deliciosus, Fr., which this year flourished more than usually under pines in my meadow.—A. P. WALLER, Waldringfield ; 28 October.

FLIES IN S A N D - P I T S . — I was delighted at the end of last September to find great numbers of the beautiful Lonchcea tarsata, Fln., sitting quiescently and sunning themselves upon the vertical face of a pit of white glacial sand in Benacre Park. This Dipteron appears uncommon, as I have very rarely seen it in the course of the last thirty years on the windows of Monks Soham House, usually about 6 p.m., during September and early October; once, in the autumn of 1912, it occurred to me in a hedge-bottom at Rumburgh. Although Lonchcea fumosa, Egg., L. vaginalis, Fln. and L. chorea, Fab., are among our most abundant British flies, sitting about in the sunshine on leaves everywhere, the habits of the genus are ill-known ; and it is certainly worth adding that our Member, the late Mr. H. C. Hayward, bred a female L. fumosa in May 1934 out of a Kent Codlin-moth larva (Laspeyresia pomonella, L.) and that many speeimens of a small kind, apparently L. pusilla, Mg., emerged from ootheca of the Praying Mantis (M. religiosa, L.) as they were coming with me in April 1931 from southern France. Probably the majority are not parasitic, however, for in mid-June 1934 I found several female L. vaginalis at sap that the borings of Goat-moth larvse (Cossus ligniperda, F.) had caused to flow out of an old oak at Denny Wood in the New Forest, and on 25th one was actually ovipositing therein. Others were sitting on rotten Boletus-fungi in the same wood ; and on 4 July I discovered many puparia, beneath the bark of felled Scots Pines in Matley Bog there, that produced this fly on the lOth. So Lonchsea-species' economy appears diversified.

COMMON OCCURRENCE OF A RARE E A R W I G . — A Century ago Prof. Westwood captured a single example of the small Earwig, Apterygida media, Hgnb., at Ashford in Kent and called it Chelidura albipennis (Mod. Classif. Ins., synop. 44, nota); by

OBSERVATIONS.

93

1897 no more specimens had been recorded in Britain (Burr, 17), though a pair were taken near Norwich about 1892. Next my friend Mr. Arthur Chitty rediscovered the species at no less than four spots in east Kent during 1904 by sweeping hedge-banks near hop-fields and in some numbers actually in hop-bines between the end of July and 10 October, mainly in late September (Ent. Ree. xvi, 292). Since that period I have heard of very few occurrences, such as Harwood's at Sudbury and Dr. Blair's at Corton (Trans, supra i, p. 93). Personally forty years' collecting throughout England, as well as in Ireland and France, has given me no more than a single pair. Yet hardly had I drawn back the dark curtains from a ground-floor east window of my Monks Soham house at 11 p.m. on 17 October last before a pair of this interesting Earwig appeared, sitting mated upon the pane; a few minutes after I had secured them, a female appeared upon another pane ; then a male on a third ; and finally a succession of males, all evidently attracted there by the indoor light: though whether they flew to it or crawled up from the ground I could judge no further than from the fact that Earwigs never fly in cop.

Eventually I secured by midnight as many as I cared to take of so uncommon an insect and one, moreover, that has never been seen here during the past thirty years' Observation ! Whence they came I cannot teil; but my present experience proves at least that they are nocturnal and at the zenith of perfection in mid-October. The south-sou'-west wind was blowing a very warm half-gale at the time, and the late moon just topping the eastern shrubbery : no hops are grown for miles around.— CLAUDE M O R L E Y .

DRAGONFLY N E W TO SUFFOLK.—During the last week of June Libellula fulva, Müll., and Calopteryx splendens, Harr., were on the wing in abundance along the Waveney at Beccles. The latter was Aying among reeds and tall grasses on the river-bank, but of the closely allied C. virgo, L., which prefers riverside bushes and shrubs, none were to be seen. Together with these were some numbers of Ischnura elegans, Lind., conspicuous by the brilliant blue of its eighth segment, and a fair sprinkling of Ischnura pumilio, Ch. Of the last Lucas says in 1900 (Brit. Drag. 269) that " as a British insect this species seems to be lost at the present time, for no locality can be given where it may now be found.

But, being so small and resembling so closely I. elegans (especially small examples of the latter) and even Erythronema naias, it may be easily passed over, considering also that Neuropterists are so few that but little of the surface of the British Isles can have been covered by them. This interesting little Dragonfly is therefore probably still with us, and diligent search should be made for it, particularly in the south of England."

94

OBSERVAHONS.

Indeed, the apparent scarcity of Pumilio is not to be wondered at when we consider its habits. I had ample opportunity of watching them : I noticed that the insects avoided the taller reeds and rushes, and never settled on a green blade of reed ; they seemed to prefer settling on the leaves and buds of the Yellow Water-lily and other aquatic plants. The river at Beccles is tidal and, except at low water, these plants were submerged ; then, when the tide covered them, Pumilio would hover close to the surface of the water and sometimes actually settle upon it. The insects were very inconspicuous in such a position and difficult to capture, as striking at them through the water was necessary : consequently the action of the net was delayed, a splash caused, and Pumilio got away ! But at low tide they hovered over and settled upon the plants, and then their sombre colouring made them hard to detect; only an occasional flick of a wing could be noticed, for the body harmonised with Lily-leaves growing beneath the surface, which are brownish green and not bright green like the leaves. Sometimes they alighted on dead reeds, but invariably chose broken ones that lay on or but just above the water. Lucas' suggestion that they may have been confused with I. elegans I cannot understand, as both sexes of the latter are easily recognisable by their coloration ; the flight also differs considerably, for I. elegans is not very fast on the wing but I. pumilio darts about over the water and is gone almost before it can be recognised.—JOHN L. MOORE. [Add this to the species at Trans, supra, i. p. 23. In July 1930 we had the pleasure of meeting a collector at Oberwater Bridge in the New Forest, who showed us I. pumilio just captured by him there. Now that Mr. Moore has drawn local attention to this insect, it will probably prove not very rare in Suffolk : we find it (mixed in our collection with I. elegans) from Oulton Broad in 1898, Barnby Broad in 1906, Covehithe Broad in 1907, Theberton marshes in 1900, Tuddenham Fen in 1903 and even Monks Soham garden in 1905.—Ed.] It is interesting to learn that I. pumilio has occurred commonly at Beccles. There are more or less authentic references to it from two or three of the east and south English counties, and three Irish provinces; but most of these records are old, and I cannot recall any recent mention from elsewhere than the New Forest. It is a small, elusive insect and may be very easily overlooked ; it is quite certain little has been heard of it in recent times outside Hants.—K. J. M O R T O N ; in lit. 1 7 August.

I am greatly interested in the appearance of this Dragonfly in Suffolk, but I cannot say much about its British distribution.

H. Q. Atler has found it in Surrey (Entom. 1934, p. 158); and it is to be taken every year in one or two Hants habitats, breeding

OBSERVATIONS.

95

in bogs as distinct from the adjacent water-courses and ponds, which I. elegans favours. It was found in the New Forest in early June and in mid-July 1934 ; this year it turned up again, in some numbers, on both occasions with the orange-coloured form of the female in evidence. Lucas' distinctions need supplementing : the black humeral stripe is less streng in pumilio than in elegans, the pterostigma is smaller and less in hind wings than in front ones in pumilio, but equal and strenger in elegans.

D R . HAINES ; in lit. 9 August.

Two OTHER N E W SUFFOLK O D O N A T A . — O r t h e t r u m cancellatum, L., is confirmed by a specimen I observed in the Shipmeadow marshes on 3 June 1935 (cf. Trans, i, p. 21). Düring the following August Mr. Doughty netted JEschna. juncea, L., in Norfolk, whence Lucas did not know i t ; our attention being thus called to this beautiful species, it became apparent that it has quite a broad ränge through at least mid-east Suffolk, where it (with M. cyanea, for which it has hitherto been mistaken with us and /E. grandis) was Aying at noon by the dozen and sometimes in cop. under a coastal wood in Dunwich ; as well as singly at Blythburgh Wood, Southwold salterns, Covehithe Broad, hovering four feet above water and only three from me at Easton Broad and (G. J. BAKER) at Reydon, from 9th to (J. L. MOORE) 25 September.—It seems well to draw Members' attention to another species, which the great Neuropterist Robert McLachlan forty years ago told me ought to occur in our marshes. I refer to JE. isosceles, first described in 1767 by Müller as having abdomine rufo-fusco basi dorso traingulo flavo. It is brown, like /E. grandis, L., for which doubtless it has been mistaken in Suffolk whence we have no records for eighty years. In 1935 this ' rare insect of the East Anglian fens ' was observed during mid-July in Catfield marsh, and perhaps South Walsham, Norfolk : in the former, while hawking over a dyke, it is said to haveluddenly swooped up at a slow and heavy-flying Burnet-moth (Zyggena trifolii, Esp.) but, although it could have easily caught the Moth, when less than a foot from it the Dragonfly abruptly sheered off' which behaviour seems of interest in view of the suposititious ' warning ' coloration of the Burnet.

NEUROPTERA N E W TO SUFFOLK ; AND AN A G R Y P N I A . — T h e

ten

following species are to be added to the Suffolk List (Trans, i, p. 181), whence delete as erroneous Phryganea obsoleta and Limnophilus borealis, for which latter L. xanthodes, McL., is the correct name and must be inserted. The additions are : Psocus sexpuMatus, L., at Monks Soham on 6 October 1931 ; Ccenis Hanisella, Curt., a solitary specimen at Brandon staunch on -51 July 1930 (now in coli. Blair); Ephemerella ignita, Poda, a pair

96

OBSERVATIONS.

swept from reeds in August 1905-6 at Brandon staunch ; Centroptilum luteolum, Müll., in outhouse at Barham in May 1900, commonly beaten from birch at Tuddenham Fen and swept about Brandon during May, August and September ; Bcstis binoculatus, L., Tuddenham Fen and Brandon, common in August; Bcetis pumilus, Burm., common in May at Bentley Woods, Butley, Brandon, etc.; Ischnura pumilio (supra) ; Coniopteryx pineticola, found on whitethorn at Monks Soham, 26 July 1915 ; Leptocerus albifrons, L., swept from reeds at Potters Bridge, Southwold, in mid-September 1921 ; and Ecnomus tenellus, Rmb., which was abundant at light close beside Fritton Lake during 9-22 August 1934-5. It may be added that males of Raphidia cognata, Rmb., have recently been taken off birch at Mildenhall on 26 May 1935 and beaten from aspen in Bentley Woods at noon on 26 May 1932; as well as from aspen at Brook in the New Forest on 20 June 1932.

These names bring our totals up to :—3. Pseudo-Neuroptera 3 0 ; 5. Ephemerida; 12; 6. Odonata 26 ; 7. Planipennia 39; 8. Trichoptera 77. Total 206 (31 Dec. 1935).

The fact must also be placed upon record that a Single male of Agrypnia picta, Kolenati (Gen. et Spp. Trichopt. i, 1848, p. 79), was captured by our Members at light in Pondhead, Lyndhurst, about midnight on 9-10 July 1934 (now in coli. Morton). This is one of the very rarest of all British insects, probably because we are ignorant of its habits, which appear exclusively nocturnal; for it was introduced as indigenous by a male, taken at a Highgate gas-lamp in June 1868 (EMM. v, pp. 125, 143), since which time no more than a single pair has occurred: in Unst, of all queer localities, the northernmost isle of the Shetland archipelago, in 1896 which is now thirty-eight years ago (I.e. xxxii, p. 151).

Moth-collectors are too exclusive in ignoring all other Orders attracted to their illuminations, which might enlighten us a good deal in neglected groups.—CLAUDE MORLEY, general-insect recorder.

THYSANURAN N E W TO SUFFOLK.—Last February I found a speeimen of Machiiis (Latr. 1806 = Petrobius, Leach 1817) maritimus, Leach, on the pier at Gorleston. This was identified for me by our Member, Mr. E. A. Ellis, who has observed the species on rocks near Plymouth to be very active in sunshine, unlike the household Silver-fish (Lepisma saccharina, L . : cf.

Trans, i, p. 182), which has much reduced vision and is active at night. No doubt my speeimen, which is now in the Norwich Castle Museum, arrived on some ship ; and, as no ships moor anywhere near where it was found, it possibly transferred itself to the pilot-boat which berths near the spot where the insect occurred.—C. G. DOUGHTY, August 1 9 3 5 . [For habits of this marine Silver-fish, cf. EMM. 1900, p. 188.—Ed.]

OBSERVATIONS.

97

A H A L F - H O U R AT B R A M B L E - B L O S S O M . — H o w rarely are human expectations realised : one surveys a beauteous wood and runs over mentally such rarities as ought to occur there if one's judgment of the time, the place and the man be just. But the Vegetation is not in a fit condition, the weather or season of year is inappropriate, or the subsoil proves unsuitable : the presence of any given Animal depends upon a concatination of such inconsequent circumstances that rarely, indeed, do they coalesce to afford the desired result. Hence years may elapse without that ideal association which gives one the perfect insect-metropolis, yielding all one can anticipate. But every condition concurred to this end at midday on 16 June last in the very marshy centre of Blythburgh Wood, füll of alder and birch and rushes. Ilere lay a considerable mass of early blackberry flowers, expanded in the hot but not perpetual sun, with thundery air and, outside the wood's shelter, a stiff southerly breeze. I warily penetrated to the middle of the mass, which was waste-high, and there stood ready, net in hand, to secure the better insects among those crowding to and swarming upon so luscious a feast. No time allowed of jotting names of all present: most, of course, were common. But I recollect seeing the butterflies, Rubi, Napi and Rapa ; the dragonflies, Nymphula and Puella ; the bees, Osmia ccerulescens, Bombus venustus, agrorum and lapidarius, with various Andrews ; the beetles, Phylopertha horticola, Cantharis obscurus (both Aying in numbers) and Chrysomela polita ; and the flies, Dioctria atricapilla, Chilosia variabilis et spp., Sericomyia borealis in plenty, Leucozona lucorum, Eristalis hortorum and pertinax, Volucella pellucens and bombylans. T h e insects actually netted comprised the Chrysomelid, Luperus rufipes, Scop., always very local with us (cf. Coleop. Suff., Suppl. i, 8 ) ; the Ichneumonid, Pimpla rufata, Gmel. ; the fossors, Ammophila sabulosa, L., which was abundant but very shy, Pemphredon Shuckardi, Mor., and plenty of Crabro chrysostoma, Lep. ; the bees, Ccelioxys rufescens, Lep., in both sexes and a male of the rare Prosopis pictipes, Nyl. But hovering-flies formed the most interesting group, showing Pipiza bimaculata, Mg., Pyrophcena rosarum, Fab., Myiatropa florea, L., many Helophilus hybridus, Low., a male of the rare H. versicolor, Fab. and a half-dozen H.frutetorum, Fab., a species I have hitherto taken at only Horning, Catfield and Walsham in the Norfolk Broads; also here were many specimens of both Xylota abiens, Wied., NEW to Suffolk, and X. segnis, L . ; with Hydrotcea ciliata, Fab. and other common Anthomyids. Just as I was turning away there appeared from nowhere Hemaris fuciformis, L., which my net instinctively embraced, a fine fresh female, curiously late and at an unusual pabulum.—CLAUDE

MORLEY.

98

OBSER VATIONS.

ON THE COTE D'AZUR IN 1935 —We left Dedham by car on Ist April and got to Amiens for the night; then we stopped at the same hotel as with you in 1931 at Saulieu. In the morning everywhere was covered with snow and a little wind blowing; however, this soon disappeared and we stayed the next night at Brignolles, where we had put up last year. Twenty-seven miles short of Brignolles we halted, though a strong wind was blowing, at that wood where you and I took Leucophasia sinapis, L there I had three splendid hours, netting more L. sinapis, Pier Daplidice, L., ColiasEdusa, Fab., Thecla rubi, L., Grizz Papilio Podalirius, L.; also there 1 cut off a rock a Mason nest, consisting of about four cells inside a thick coating of heavy pebbles, with larvae enclosed in papyraceous cocoons inside.

I have seen P. Podalirius twice in the garden here, but have n as yet secured another specimen. A few minute Ants occurred at Brignolles that I am enclosing [Pheidole pallidula, Nyl., als taken both there and at Vallauris by us in April 1931.—Ed.].

We came over the Esterei and have now been in this flat at Juan les Pins (Antibes) more than a week ; it is a most charming one, on the firstfloorwith a separate marble staircase and a glazed balcony running the whole length of the house, where we have breakfast: not ten yards from the sea. We get in a femme de menage for three hours a day, who tidies us and cooks the nightly dinner, so we get plenty of new dishes. Now for our doings: We have had continuous sunshine until today, the 13 April, which is cloudy. Last night there was a mistral and one would have thought the place about to be blown down. I have got a Skipper that I think is Syrichthus Carthami, Hüb. and quite a differ Bombylius from any I have seen in England [B. minor, L., rare in Britain.—Ed.], But only one Gonepteryx Cleopatra, has been seen and I expect they are over, though G. rhamni, L continues frequent; nor have I seen any Ant-lions at present.

Have not seen any Beetles, but most likely this is because I do not know where to look. There are far more insects about than in 1931, so I wish you were here .... [Later.] Je suis revenu depuis Samedi soir apres des vacances tres epatants. J'ai pris quelquechose tres interesants, parmi eux quelque Fourmis-lions ; mais je n'ai que pris un peu de Coleopteres que j'ai garde en semoule (pas cuit) ! Parmi les Papilons j'ai pris Papilio Machao L. et Podalirius, Thais Medesicaste, Iiiig., S. Cartham Argynnis Lathonia, L., Euchloe euphenoides, as we Saturnia pyri, and many others.

A few days after my return home in May the ' Daily Telegraph ' published an article, stating that " a wonderful little insect common in England is the ant-lion." Upon which I wrote to the Editor, thus (D.T. 24 May 1935):—" I regularly read with interest your little Nature articles for the young. Recently it

OBSERVATIONS.

99

was stated that the Ant-lion is common in England. A record of its appearance in the past is a great rarity. T h e larvae are not known to have occurred here, but there are a few instances of the perfect insect being found. A specimen was found at Gorleston in 1931 by a Member of our Society, Mr. Doughty [Trans. Suff.

Nat. Soc. i, p. 228]. I have just returned from the south of France with specimens of a beautiful species of Ant-lion, possessing black and golden wings. There the insect [Ascalaphus ltalicus, Argelini, Biblioteca Ital. vol. xlvii: " Ascalafi Italiani con Nuova Specie " : cf. Westw. T r . Ent. Soc. 1887-8] can be found Aying in abundance in spots limited in area, beyond which there is not one to be seen.—DR. C. H . S. VINTER, Ex-president Suffolk Naturalists' Society, Dedham."

A FORGOTTEN SUFFOLK NATURALIST.—A Norfolk man, S. P. Woodward of the British Museum, gives a most intricate Illustration (in his ' Manual of the Mollusca ' of the World, ed. 1890, p. 298) of the minute teeth projecting from the surface of " part of the lingual membrane of [the Suffolk Slug] Testacella haliotides, Lam., from a preparation by Fisher Cocken esq. of Botesdale." Thence it is obvious that Mr. Cocken was a very dose observer. Did he publish any further zoological investigations ? He was born in 1808, for M r . Charles Partridge of Stowmarket kindly informs us that there yet exists the Inscription, on a " headstone in the churchyard of R ickinghall Superior [next Botesdale, Suffolk], John Fisher Cocken microscopist and naturalist 30 years resident in Rickinghall and formerly of 5 Milk Street [Cheapside: a merchant of sorts ?] London, died 4 September 1880, aged 72."

SNAILS ATTRACTED TO LIGHT.—Among the various senses of our Land Mollusca, which are a good deal more responsive to external influences than most Naturalists have hitherto admitted, I do not find the recognition of light anywhere recorded : for Harting, in his ' Rambles in Search of Shells,' refers only to music produced by a Snail passing Over window-glass at night. That the majority of them are essentially nocturnal in their habits is accounted for by the absence of many natural enemies such as Birds after dark has fallen, and the congenial dew that then pervades herbage.

The common Garden Snail, Helix aspersa, Müll., is of frequent occurrence in Monks Soham upon window-panes of lighted rooms at night, and its presence I have habitually ascribed to vague peregrinations in search of food among the ivy above the windows. However, now I am inclined to reconsider that view, and think it may be directly attracted by indoor light, because on 15 November (and again on 16 December, as well as on 26 April) last I discovered a specimen of the small Snail,

100

OBSERVATIONS.

Balea perversa, Linn., quiescently sitting upon the exact part of a post where both Asthena dilutata, Bkh. and Longitarsus luridus, Scp., to instance only a moth and a beetle among many species, had sat quiescently just a fortnight before. This spot is within six inches of the flame of a lantern habitually hung out after dark in my drive, and exactly upon a level with it. That both insects came" to a halt at that identical spot because it was the nearest to the light is undoubted ; further, the beetle being apterous or at most brachypterous* must have reached it in precisely the same way as the Snail, by climbing the post. And that they halted in just the most brilliant illumination surely leaves no room for doubt respecting the light's fascination for all three to an equal extent—CLAUDE MORLEY, Dec. 1934. [Mention of Lightattraction occurs nowhere in Taylor's Monograph of Mollusca.

Perhaps the majority of Land Snails are not essentially nocturnal: the Hyalinae and Testacellae are so; but most kinds appear at once in response to a shower of rain, and at dusk it seems to be the dew and not failing light that brings them out. Absence of such natural enemies as Birds at that time can hardly account for the habit, for many Snails lie up by day without the slightest attempt at concealment, e.g. Helix Itala, L. I fancy Thrushes resort to Snails, especially II. nemoralis, L., during dry weather, and certainly have an uncanny knack of finding them ; but, when rain comes and the Snails show themselves, the Birds prefer their more congenial diet of Earth-worms. Also Hedgehogs and Carabid beetles, both nocturnal, are great enemies of Mollusca.

T h e distribution of H. aspersa, Müll., is certainly restricted : we never see one in the New Forest and its appearance is uncertain at Martlesham ; in fact, apart from the shore towns of Gorleston, Southwold, Aldeburgh and Felixstow, I believe it to be very uncommon on the Suffolk coast and immediate hinterland.— C.G.D.] SOMERLEYTON RIDDLE SoLVED.—I was puzzled, when fishing in the Waveney at Somerleyton last year, by finding the riverwall to contain numerous recent specimens of the estuarine shell Scrobicularia plana, Cost. (piperata, Bell), with several Mya arenaria, L., Cardium edule, L. and Mytilus edulis, L. Fortunately idle speculations were obviated when it was ascertained from the foreman of the local brickworks that the wall, instead of being built of material dug upon the spot, had been constructed of dredgings brought from Breydon Water. As these would have to be conveyed by bärge at least ten miles, and much of them * W i n g s are said to b e present or r u d i m e n t a r y in vhis species, though generally in Longitarsus " some individuals of a species are w m g e d and some n o t " ( E M M . 1912, pp. 4 a n d 283). Certainly w i n g s are lackin^ in a m a l e L. luridus t h a t I swept in the Brandon marshes on 25 A u g . 1 W , as is p r o v e d by dissection.—C.M.

101

OBSERVATIONS.

barrowed over a wide expanse of rond, such a Solution had not occurred to my mind.—C. G. D O U G H T Y ; August 1935.

T H R E E FISHES N E W TO SUFFOLK (add to Trans, ii, p. 106).— 3a. Bentex vulgaris, Cuv. Four-toothed Bream. " A fine specimen of the Sea Bream, Sparus Dentex, was captured near Eastern (sie) Bavents on Sunday by some fishermen who were Walking along the Seashore. No doubt the fish had got into the Breakers. Size feet long ; weight 85 Ibs. The head and shoulders are being preserved and are in the possession of Mr. Mayhew of this t o w n " (Ipswich Journal, 27 January 1876).

New to Suffolk List. This is the only record I have found of the occurrence of this Mediterranean fish in Suffolk ; D. vulgaris, Cuv., is now known to be no true Sparid as was thought by Yarrell, but to belong to the Percida; (Jenkins 1925, p. 36).

[Where are the head and shoulders now ? This example is so extraordinarily large as to render one sceptical of its identity.—Ed.]

50a. Mugil auratus, Ris. Golden Mullet.—Three Mullets from the river at Yarmouth in January 1934 were distinguished

by Dr. Norman as this species, rare in British waters (Trans.

Norf. Nat. Soc. 1935, p. 485). And another was taken in the tank at Yarmouth electric-station during the next month ; it was confirmed by J. R. Norman, who states in lit. that it is believed to be rare in Britain, occurring normally on our south-western coasts.

56. Ctenolabrus rupestris, L. Gold Sinny.—A specimen was taken in the electric Aquarium at Yarmouth on 17 April 1934 (E. Daily Press, 19 April).

81a. Zeugopterus punetatus, Added at Proc. Ist June, post.

Bich.

Common

Topknot

82. Z. unimaculatus, Day. Bloch's Topknot.—Confirmed for Suffolk by a specimen, 3 | inches in length, taken in the harbourmouth at Gorleston during 1932 and given to me (F. C. Cook).

106. Clupea Alosa, L. Allis-shad.—Two speeimens, of which the larger weighed 1 Ib. 9J oz., were taken in a longshore drift-net off Gorleston beach on 9 October 1934 (C. G. Doughty).

125. Nemachilus barbatulus, L. Stone Loach.—Taken regularly during 1916-22 in River Wang at bridge in Wangford (G. J. Baker; referred to at Trans, ii, 302).

102

OBSERVATIONS.

150. Lampetrafluviatilis,L. Lampern.—The typical form was found in the River Bat near Needham Market in April 1935 (E. W. Platten, v.v.).—D. W. COLLINGS.

SOUTHWOLD FISHES.—A Ballan Wrasse (Labrus berglyta, Asc.) of seven inches in length was taken on 18 March last in a drawnet off Dunwich shore ; and seven days later another specimen was similarly netted off Southwold : I have both these Fish in my collection.—A Montagu's Sea-snail (Cyclogaster Montagui, Don.), about 3J inches long, was brought to me on 19 March last by afishermanwho had taken it in a trawl off Southwold ; the body of this Fish is spotted, but that of the common Sea-snail (C. liparis, L.) is horizontally striped.—D. W. COLLINGS; 10 October.

ALI, BRITISH SNAKES ARE SUFFOLCIAN.—" The credit of first discovering the Smooth Snake in England belongs to Mr. Frederick Bond, who secured a specimen in June 1853, when in Company with the Rev. O. Pickard-Cambridge [F.R.S., the eminent Arachnologist of Bloxworth in Dorset, whom we knew for many years—Ed.]. Since that time the records have been spasmodic : in some years the Snake appears to have been comparatively common, then a long gap ensues; then it turns up again.

A correspondent, writing to ' Knowledge ' (4 September 1885), refers to two in his keeping which had been captured in Suffolk.

This appears to be the only instance of their occurrence outside the heath-land of Dorset, Berks, Hants and Surrey," says our Member DOUGLAS ENGLISH, in ' Nature Book' of 3 February 1909, p. 585. [Will some Member kindly quote the above reference to ' Knowledge,' which, Mr. Lingwood finds, does not exist in Suffolk and the Brit. Museum keeps at Hendon.—Ed.] SUFFOLK REPTILE SANCTUARY.—Yesterday I paid a visit to the late Mr. Eric Kirkby's viper sanctuary at Hinderclay.

I saw six Vipers (Vipera berus, Linn.), three being of the red variety, chersea, Linn. ; one Lizard (Lacerta vivipara, Wagl.); and one Slow-worm (Anguis fragilis, Linn.), all of which pleased me mightily. I found also a Viper's slough, no less than twentyfive inches in length, which great size is exceptional I suppose, so I have added it to the case of Reptiles' and Amphibians' casts in Moyses Hall Museum.—HENRY ANDREWS, Bury; 23 April.

SNAKE IN THE SEA.—I was surprised to see an apparently large eel swimming on the surface whilst sailing my yacht into Harwich harbour about 6.30 a.m. on 26 August 1935. More surprised was I when, instead of diving as one would expect, it came right alongside ; and, as my boat was moving slowly, I was

OBSERVATIONS.

103 able to try lifting it on a boat-hook in the course of which attempt I saw an inch-long tongue protruding. It had approached from the east and was just emerging from the ebb tide that was running south from Trimley marshes to thefloodwhich was Coming into the Orwell estuary from the sea, that would carry it into Dovercourt slack water, and not Walton Backwater. As it passed the dinghy, towing some yards astern, it lifted itself against the side at least a foot out of the water as if attempting to climb abroad. After passing the yacht, then lying between Landguard Point and Walton Backwater, the Snake continued to swim south-west at about one or one-and-a-half miles per hour. It swam very much in the manner of an eel, but carried its head an inch or two above the surface ; the whole was about thirty inches long and two thumbs thick, with a dark brown back and green-tinged sides ; the underside was invisible. [Undoubtedly a Grass-snake, Tropidonotus natrix, Linn.—Ed.] Its position was consistent with having taken the water east of Landguard Point and being carried by the strengflood-tideround that point; or on the ebb from Trimley. The Snake appeared definitely trying to reach the Essex shore as, by taking advantage of the ebb, it was able to enter thefloodat a point where its westerly set would reduce the swimming distance to almost a minimum. Aflatcalm happened to continue tili 11 a.m. ; so it had every chance to affect a landing somewhere westward in Essex.—F. W CATCHPOLE Rushmere; 4 Sept. 1935.

THREE RARE BIRDS.—Düring a recent idle hour in the Everitt Museum at Oulton, I noted that it contained stuffed examples of three localised Suffolk Birds : (1) The Roller, Coracias garmlus Linn., that is specified by Ticehurst in 1932 at page 201, a female shot on 29 May 1855 at Fritton, Suffolk (Stevenson in Zool xiii p. 4809). (2) A White-tailed Eagle, Halicetus albicilla, Linn.! about mne years old, shot on the Somerleyton estate on 22 January 1876 : three feet two inches from beak to tail-tip, with wing-span of eight feet: this specimen and the next are not specified by Ticehurst. (3) Goshawk, Astur palumbarius, Linn., a female killed at Somerleyton, ' the estate of Sir S. Morton Peto Bt January 1859.' Also in the Museum is a splendid specimen of the rare Crab Dromia vulgaris, Edw. (Trans, supra ii, p. 268) taken in the vicinity of the Galloper Light by the Lowestoft smack Giralda on 20 December 1912 ' (ex coli. Lowest. and Dist. Field Club). In a by-room are stored several large glazed exhibition cases, containing Lias and other Fossils, tropical Shells, polished Mineralogical specimens, Neolithic scrapers, stuffed Birds, Mammals and Reptiles, with some Corals : and plenty of stScots orage for more material. Nor could I ignore, though doubt- a capitally stuffed Wild Cat (Felis catus, Linn.) over

104

OBSERVATIONS.

thirty inches in length as set up ; this fine mammal persisted in England from Pleistocene times, when it was coeval here with Mammoth, Lion, Hyaena, Reindeer and Hippopotamus.— CLAUDE M O R L E Y .

Platalea leucorodia, Linn.—While sailing my yacht down the Deben River on 4 August 1934, a day of very hot sunshine that was tempered by a touch of east in the slight south breeze, I met a Spoonbill fairly closely by Methersgate, bound Woodbridge way. I have seen no report of this bird's occurrence, so hope he got his passage safely to wherever he was going.—E. R. COOPER ; 20 Jan. 1935.

S O M E W I N T E R BIRDS IN IPSWICH.—Over the Recreation Ground in south-west Ipswich on 24 January last, two Kingfishers (Alcedo ispida, L.) were Aying straight from the town and about one hundred feet high, rapidly and purposefully ; the flight was direct and arrow-like, not punctuated or switchbacked, and was maintained steadily upon the same line tili the Birds faded in distance. Though it is well known to me, I have never before seen this species in a high, sustained flight in definite direction, and should like to hear of similar phenomena. Some ten minutes later a Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus, L.) left its perch on a topmost branch of a tall tree here, and began hovering over adjacent waste ground. While doing so it was fiercely attacked by a large Gull (Larns sp. ?), that descended upon it in a great swoop from a higher point, shrieking loudly. T h e Kestrel barely, but cleverly, avoided this swift downward rush by suddenly dropping like a stone for about six feet and then rapidly made off to one side. However, the Gull checked his rush by a marvellous stunt of aerobatics and, wheeling on the instant, pursued the hawk and continued its onslaught until both birds dropped from sight behind intervening buildings and trees several hundred yards from the first point of contact. There, too, on 28th three Redwings (Turdus Iliacus, L.) were searching for food in a lightly snow-powdered patch of grass, so fearlessly that I studied their markings and motions in detail for several minutes at only a few yards' distance.

On 29th the same Birds were still there, devouring Hawthorn-berries along with four Fieldfares (T. pilaris, L.). On 1 March I saw a Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla Raii, Bnp.) beside a creek of the Gipping to the South-West of Ipswich.— RICHARD

STILES.

BARN O W L (Strix flammen, L . ) IN KENTON.—Oaktree Farm is a most ordinary dwelling ; but, like many another of our mediseval homesteads, it yet retains the remains of a fine moat, in this case thirty feet broad along its south side and a large pond,

OBSERVATIONS.

105

edged with abpens, on the north. Eastward from the much more pretentious Jacobean farm-buildings stretches pasture that was obviously once a small park, with a clump of beeches, pines and larches in one corner, and elsewhere studded with oaks, elms and ashes a füll Century old. Through this pasture formeily ran a stream that has cut a shallow and now very sequestered Valley, bordered on each side by the high hedges that are so rare hereabouts, through the Boulder-clay and still dribbles into the nameless Monks Soham ' river ' below Woodcroft Hall. At the eastward extremity of the erstwhile park still stands the only really old Oak in the vicinity : some three centuries of age and showing indications of h aving been barbarously pollarded fifty years ago. I was vainly searching its sturdy trunk for the moth Hybernia leucophearia, Sf., rather before noon on 15 February last, when recent bird-casts caused me to glance up to its boughs ; and there, gazing thoughtfully upon me from a hole ten feet up, was a face of the White Owl, that is now suddenly become so rare. Any doubt of its identity was dispelled by the bird's surprise, no greater than my own, which impelled it to swing off and clumsily alight amidst the tall hedge fifty yards away ; thence it flapped along the further side, among odd Gulls (L. ridibundus, L.) who had been following the plough. Thirty years ago Barn Owls used to be seen frequently at Monks Soham, where they appear now entirely superceded by numerous Tawny ones, Syrnium aluco, L., whose resonant hooting reverberates most charmingly as soon as dusk is fallen.—CLAUDE MORLEY.

T w o LAVENHAM BIRDS.—The Hall pond here last week gave hospitality to a Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo, L . : cp. Trans, i, p. 236), which seemed to find the Rudd (Scardinius erythrophthalmus, L.) very much to its taste. I have not seen the bird myself, but it was reported almost daily before the frost of 5th.

My wife was driving me on my rounds between Cockfield and Thorpe Morieux on 8th, when she asked if I saw the Heron in a ditch. I had not, but through the back window at once did so : it turned its head and looked at the car. When we reversed and were nearly opposite, it quietly flapped off and over a field to alight no more than about fifty yards from us ; then it looked again at us, and walked deliberately into a ditch there : the previous night had been slightly frosty. Herons (Ardea cinerea, L.) are very scarce in this neighbourhood, and I have nowhere seen one so tame and confiding. I hope the sight of a man behind a gun will alarm it more than our car, for we passed within five yards and backed some distance, before it decided to move.

Congratulations on the last Transactions.—Dr. E. C. T . C L O U S T O N ; 12 Feb. 1935.

106

OBSERVATIONS.

SPRING ARRIVALS.—Forms were returned to m e by t h e Misses C . E . Cooper and R . M . King (K), the Revd. R. B. Caton (C), M a j o r E. H . Buxton (B), M M . H . M . Bland (Bl.), F. C. Cook and E. W . Jenner (C-J.), J. R. Girling, C. S. Last (L), A. Mayall (M) L . H . Vulliamy (V), T . G . Powell (P). T h e earliest two dates for each species are here s h o w n . — T . G . P .

BIRDS

DATE

Stone Curlew M o n t a g u Harrier Wheatear Chiffchaff Wryneck Swallow Yellow Wagtail Willow W a r b i e r

1934 1935 11 M a r . 10 & 23 M a r .

19 M a r .

9 M a r . 22 & 23 M a r .

20 M a r . 25 & 26 M a r .

9 Apr. 7 & 13 Apr. 12 A p r .

7 & 9 Apr. 15 A p r .

9 & 10 A p r .

8 A p r . 10 & 11 Apr.

Nightingale C o m . Whitethroat Garden W a r b i e r Sedge Warbier Blackcap Redstart House Martin Sand M a r t i n Cuckoo T u r t l e Dove Common Tern Black Redstart T r e e Pipit Whinchat Less. Whitethroat Lesser T e r n Spot. Flycatcher Grassh. W a r b i e r Swift

14 17 21 15 10 17 4 13 13 29 26 19 10 17 21 12 2 17 2

Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. May May Apr. May

Nightjar Reed Warbier W o o d Warbier Ringed Ousel C o m . Bunting* Hobby Blue-hded. Wagtail Red-bked. Shrike C o m . Sandpiper Corncrake

2 20 5 19

May Apr. May Apr.

10 15 21 15

May May Apr. May

LOCALITY

OBSERVERS

and Hollesley C. & B. None C. & B. Snape and ?

B. & C. Snape & R u s h m e r e B. & K .

Nacton & Oulton L . & C-J. Snape & Lowestoft B. & C-J. Snape, Lowestoft, Bealings B.&C-J.&M. 10 & 11 Apr. Nacton, Bealings, Snape L., M . & B. 10 & 16 A p r . Hollesley & Orwell B. & L .

10 & 18 A p r . Orwell & Bealings L. & M. 12 & 14 Apr. Boyton & Oulton L . & C-J. 13 & 14 Apr. ? & Lowestoft C. & C-J. 14 & 18 A p r . Lowestoft,- Bealings C-J. & M. 15 & 21 A p r . Rushmere, Kessingland K . & C-J. 15 & 18 Apr. ? & Bealings C. & M .

14 & 15 Apr. T p - M o r i e u x , R u s h m e r e Burn, L .

17 Apr., 1 M a y Foxhall, Waldringfield P., Cooper 19 & 21 Apr. Hollesley, Lowestoft — & - C-J. V. None 20 & 27 Apr. Playford, Foxhall & ? K., P. & C. 20 Apr. Thorington Girling 23 & 25 Apr. ? & Lowestoft C. & C-J. 23 Apr., 3 M a y T h o r p n e s s ; River Colne L . & Girling 25 Apr., 12 M a y Snape & Lowestoft B. & C-J. 29 A p r .

Oulton C-J. 30 Apr. (one), 1 May ? & Bacton C. & L. & 3 May Nacton & Kesgrave L . & M. & 5 May & Lowestoft C. & C-J. & 8 May Kesgrave & ?

Bl., M & C. May Lowestoft C-J. May Brightlingsea Girling May B. Aldeburgh None 10 & 19 M a y ? & Lowestoft B. & C Lowestoft C-J. 11 M a y None

•According to Ticehurst's ' Birds,' the Common or Com Bunting is doubtfully a migrant in SufFolk.

T h e above Table [Dr. Maidment's return came in from the north Suffolk border at Harleston unconscionably late ; but is valuable because giving the earliest dates for Wheatear, 2 March ; Wryneck, 28 March ; Redstart, 13 April; and Reed Warbier, 1 May.—Ed.] will at once show the relative dates of arrival of our spring migrants in this County. On comparing the Birds that were reported respectively in both 'Suffolk and

OBSERVATIONS.

107

Somerset during 1934, it appears that, out of twenty-seven species, Suffolk had priority in no less than fifteen cases, Somerset in eight, and the remaining four were ties: Suffolk led with Wheatear, Chiffchaff, Wryneck, Blackcap, Cuckoo, Tree Pipit, Sedge Warbier, House Martin, Whinchat, Lesser Whitethroat, Garden Warbier, Spotted Flycatcher, Nightjar, Red-backed Shrike and Turtle Dove ; Somerset had the earlier record foi Sand Martin, Swallow, Yellow Wagtail, Willow Warbier, Redstart, Wood Warbier, Grasshopper Wa/bler and Corncrake.

I saw four House Martins busily hawking for flies near Martlesham church on 16 November 1934, which was a late date.— Common Thrushes were in füll song at Ipswich during the very mild weather throughout November, December 1934 and most of January 1935.—It is pleasant to record the nesting, within three or four miles of central Ipswich of those interesting birds the Ringed Plover and Stone Curlew. One pair of the latter was incubating eggs on 2 1 April, an early date — T . G. POWELL. CUCKOO'S IMPROMPTU O V I P O S I T I O N . — T h e other day a Cuckoo flew into my conservatory and damaged herseif against the glass : while we were trying to revive her, she laid an egg in my wife's hand ! She was after a Wagtail's nest that had been built in the conservatory. A keeper near here, Fakenham, set up a poletrap (which I removed !), and slew a Brown Owl whose hootings I had heard for many years. Swifts have been plentiful round the church here, which they for the most part left between 8-11 July, though near Chelmsford the majority did not leave tili 18-19 July, which is still a very early date. Swallows have been in about average numbers here, but Cuckoos and House Martins scarce ; the last started a nest on my house upon 31 July and have not finished it yet on 12 August. Turtle Doves have been plentiful. In my opinion this year's has been the worst spring migration in north-west Suffolk since I started observations fifty years ago.—R. B. CATON, Fakenham.

BITTERN'S REPEATED N I D I F I C A T I O N . — W h i l e we were lazily paddling along the River Waveney between Beccles and Shipmeadow on 17 August last, my daughter and I put up a Bittern on the south bank, where it seemed quite at home and flew off southwards (ERNEST R . L O N G ) . Bitterns nested again on the Suffolk coast this year, and I can hear them boom. I found a Sky-lark's nest on 11 May at Tunstall containing five eggs [a rather unusual number for EAnglia.—T.G.P.]. W. Cable of Aldeburgh told me on 22 July that he had found two Oystercatchers' nests, one with five eggs and the other with three.

There were two Magpies' nests on 15 May at Hoo—CATH. E. COOPER.

108

OBSERVATIONS.

LAVENHAM MAGPIES.—I am sorry that I could not get to the Fritton Meeting today, owing to business in Bury. You may like to know that yesterday I saw a Magpie from the train between Lavenham and Long Melford. Ticehurst, whose book I read with interest when it first appeared, says Magpies aie nearly extinct in Suffolk.—SIR JOHN TILLEY ; 5 June.

DENSE MIGRATION.—Magpies have again nested somewhere in Playford, for on 2 July 1 saw young ones that were just able to fly. From 4.57 to 5.7 a.m. on 4 March last an enormous flock of Curlews and Redshanks was passing over Rushmere Ipswich in an easterly direction : judging by the noise they made, there must have been many thousands of birds. Between 3 and 4 a.m. on 31 March another very noisyflockpassed over, waking us up ; in this case the calling again lasted for nearly ten minutes. We have often wondered whether there be a line of migration through this place, as we frequently ha/e small flocks of Curlews Aying over in evenings ; but never before have we heard anything like the masses of 4 and 31 March.—RACHEL, M. KING. [I would suggest that the fiequent evening flocks are local passings to and fro ; but the great masses must clearly have been migration on a large scale to summer habitats.— T.G.P.].

BUNTINGS AND OTHER BIRDS.—SpottedFlycatchers were observed several times in an Ipswich recreation-ground during last June, and were accompanied on 22nd by a Redpoll, Linota linaria, Linn (RICHARD STILES).—In the last wees of 1934 aflockof several hundred Snow Buntings, Pleclrophenax nivalis, Linn., frequente the Breydon wa'ils and neighbouring marohes at Yarmouth, a few of these werefincold birds showing black-and-white plumage but the majoritv were nmch browner (E. A. EI.LISJ.—I had the rare experience offindinga Cirl Bunting's nest containing three eggs and a Cuckoo's in ground that was sheltercd by dead bracken : fortunately I saw the actual bird on its nest. [Emberiza Cirlus, Linn., is ceitainly very rarely recorded in Suffolk ; of its nesting Ticehurst says : " It is quite possible that a few pairs may yet breed in the southern part of the county, and are overlooked."— T.G.P.] I saw two Stone Curlews' eggs at Hollesley on 5 July and had seen their first clutch on 29 April which hatched successfully. No doubt the two eggs were their second biood, as I have never seen more than one pair on this particular heath. I had the good fortune to find a Grasshopper Warbier's nest near L heath duiing last summer.—CECIL S. LAST. ABNORMAL MOVEMENT OF MIGRANTS.—One cock Swallow, who arrived on 12 April, was quite alone for a fortnight: away all day, returning in evening to be locked up for the night as in

OBSERVATIONS.

109

previous years. Hen artived a fortnight later ; but no considerable quantity of Swallows came tili towards the end of May, since when the numbers have becn normal, though with very reduced broods. All Nightingales have left here, Falkenham. For many years there have been six 01 seven pairs ; still an odd bird appears occasionally, but stays only for an hour or so before moving on.

My theory is that they find Falkenham too exposed, with the prevailing north-east gales, and move inland where they settle.

If this be correct, they may return to us next year : but I have my doubts upon the subject, for their nesting in this neighbourhood usually ends disastrously. Where do the Curlezvs breed, also the Lesser Terns ? I have seen several on the River Deben in early July, which must have nested in the vicinity.—• H . M. BLAND. [ N O record exists of a CuJew breeding in Suffolk ; those seen in July were most likely non-breeders. The Lessei Terns nest all along our Suffolk coast, on any considerable expanse of shingle.—T.G.P.] M O R E BEARDF.D R E E D L I N G S . — M i s s A. G. Stansfeld repo.-ts a white Duck, consorting with othei Ducks on Benacre Broad ; she considers it a hybrid Mallard X farm Duck. She also saw an early Pochard at the same spot on 3 August, among Tufted Ducks, which latter species Coward &ays are establishing themselve., as permanent resident». The same observer has noted an early Kittiwake at Walberswick on 2 August; as well as some Bearded Reedlings this summei in the north-east of the County ; and reports S-irifts to have been plentiful on 22 September at Southwold [wheiem they were congregating as late as 27th to the extent of thirty birds on each of many of the confounded cats-cradle wires crossing the streets. One suspects these birda were intended when it was " remaiked that at this town in particular, as at all the places on this coast, the Swallozvs commonly first land on their arrival in England, and hence also they take their departure on their return to warmer climates " (Suff Garland 1818, 59).—Ed.]

BIRDS AROUND I P S W I C H . — I made the most fortunate discovery of a Woodcock's nest (Scolopax rusticula, L.) containing four eggs at Staverton Thicks on 2 July ; I should sav this is as late as eggs are ever found, for we usually look for them in March. Young Oyster-catchers (Harematopus ostralegus, L.) were seen at Shinglestreet in Hollesley on 26-7 July ; along with Lesser and Common Terns (Sterna minuta, L. and S. fluviatilis, Naum.) which were feeding their young ; I caught some of the last and found they were growing lustily, but the date is late in the year for such Terns.

A clutch of three eggs of Redshank (Totanus :;alidris, L.) was discovered at the same time, while flushing the birds off their

110

OBSERVATIONS.

nests. In June I went to the Hebrides and Farne Islands, where I experienced some interesting times with such sea-birds as Fulmar Petrels, Eider-duck and many more delectable kinds.— GEORGE BIRD ; A u g u s t .

A GREAT SNIPE.—A specimen of Gallinago media, Lath. (major, Gm.), was unfoitunately shot at Snape near the end of last August, by Mr. George Gooderham of Monewden Hall.

This is a scarce autumnal passage-migrant from Scandinavian moors down our east coast, rarely passing as far west as the Breck, between mid-August and mid-November; its spring return northwards is nearly invariably made east of Britain, so that at most three examples have been recorded here during March and April. Lord Ullswater's keeper is said to have killed another specimen on the Campsey-Ash estate in 1930-1.— HARRY MURRELL ; 14 October.

LUMINOSITY OF TERNS' NESTS (Trans, ii, 307).—When we were at Shingle Street on the Hollesley coast at Whitsuntide this year, I took a friend who knows nothing about Birds Over a shingle area at about 9.30 p.m. and showed him some nests.

In each case the nest-site was encircled by what looked like an oily ring, which rings are about four inches from the eggs. The oily circle is about one-third of an inch wide ; and, when lt passes over the larger stones, the difference between the oily surface and the rest of the stone is very noticeable. We returned to the same area just before 10 p.m. and my friend, as well as I, was able to spot the nest by this oily ring ; he found two more nests, and I also two more nests, entirely by looking for an oily ring and then observing the eggs lying in its centre—L. H. VULLIAMY. A N OVERLOOKED T E R N R E C O R D . — " A large number of wildfowl, swans, geesc, ducks, etc., have been in the neighbourhood of Orford during the severe weather. Mr. Hunt of the Castle Hotel shot a Hooded Merganser in fitne condition [' one adult male, Orford January 1894 was a Merganser,' Ticehurst baldly asserts in 1932, p. 303, sine ref.]. Mr. Chambers killed a Whitewinged Black Tern [Hydrochelidon lencoptera, Schz.] : Prot.

Babington has onlv a record of Mr. Booth killing four, two males and two females in füll summer plumage on 26 May 1871 at Breydon " (EAnglian D. Times of 11 January 1894), though it has been noted there on a half-dozen later occasions, singly at also Fritton and the Hollesley coast.

BIRDS AROUND LOWESTOFT IN 1935.—Although I included the Black Redstart (Ruticilla Titys, Scop.) in the spnng-migration report last year (Trans, ii, 304), I did not intend it to be regarded

OBSERVATIONS.

111

as a summer migrant; it is generally looked upon as the return of wintering birds. Unusual numbers of Bearded Reedlings (Pottums bisarmicus, L.) were seen about the coastal Broads this autumn, iridicating a very successful nesting season. A Swallow was reported as late as 5 December 1934. A Swift was seen by our Member Mr. Jenner at Lowestoft so late as 16 September 1935, the latest date I have of this Bird for the neighbourhood.

Shore Larks (Otocorys alpestris, L.) remained about Lowestoft denes for several days during mid-November 1934.

Two Magpies (Pica rustica, Scop.) were reported by our Member Mr. Long as having been seen at Gisleham on 10 September.

The male Bittern (Botaurus stellaris, L.) began booming at last vear's nesting-place on 12 March, and continued throughout the season ; at least four Birds are known to have frequented this site and breeding undoubtedly took place, although this was not proved. Another pair occupied a site not far from the scene of last year's nesting. Flocks of migrant Woodpigeons (Columber palumbtis, L.) were observed in this vicinity so late as 2 June.

Fourteen Avocets (Recurvirostra avocetta, L.) arrived on Breydon Water about 11 August and remained until 10 September, fortunately without any reduction in their number. On 15 October a Grey Phalarope (Phalaroptis fulicarius, L.) was seen by my brother to alight on the sea just to the north of Lowestoft harbour and, after gyrating for a few minutes in the manner peculiar to these Bilds, to rise and continue its passage southwards along the shore.—F. C . COOK ; 29 October.

ANALYTICAL D E T E R M I N A T I O N . — O n c e upon a sultry July day of the present year there was a Derbyshire moor near Chatsworth, whereupon were seen Grouse, the feathers of Pheasants, along with various sorts of Beetles, Moths and divers Bugs. Across it strolled a Naturalist of Suffolk, surprised to observe a large and conspicuous dropping, just one inch in diameter and scintillating whitely in its coating of limestone-powder. " Now, this," thought he, " must have emanated from a Fox or some such large Animal: but let us ascertain " . . . So he annexed the mass, and examination in the study a month later revealed its composition to be digested seeds of various grasses and other plants, not necessarily growing on moors, thickly interspersed with legs, thoraces and elytra of Beetles belonging to the weevil known as Polydrusus pterygomalis, Boh., an insect unknown upon moors but feeding commonly on hazels and other shrubby trees in woods.

Hence emerged two interesting facts : that the dropping originated m Grouse and no Mammal, and that the Grouse must have resorted o nights to the neighbouring woods around Chatsworth, deserting its daytime-moor because the latter afforded insufficient insecttood for its needs. Every autumn moors are partly burned to give young Grouse tender heather-shoots upon which to feed

112

OBSERVATIONS.

the following spring. Do they appreciate this delicate attention, or do they prefer those insects such a fire destroys by thousands ?

Twenty years ago Mr. Percy Grimshaw of the Edinburgh Museum ascertained, by examination of their crops, that Pheasants' chief food consists of the Heather-beetle, Lochmaa suturalis, Th., which was found though extremely rarely on the moor in question, doubtless almost exstirpated here by the noxious burnings.

T H R U S H SINGING ON GROUND.—Last May I heard, when approaching allotment-gardens by Gorleston Station, a Song Thrush (Turdus musicus, L.) singing and wondered what he had found to perch upon. I found him standing on the bare ground beside some kale plants, and singing for all he was worth.

I thought he might perhaps have a nest in the kale, but I never saw him there again. It is nothing unusual, of course, for Sky Larks (Alauda arvensis, L.) to sing upon the ground.—A Little Gull, Larus minutus, Pall., and a presumably migrant Robin were found dead on Gorleston beach by me on 24 October last.— C.

G.

DOUGHTY.

OVIVOROUS Brnos.—In reply to Mr. LINGWOOD'S qusstion why the conspicuous white eggs of Turtle-doves and Wood-pigeons lying exposedly upon bare platform-nests are immune from attack by Jays and Magpies, M r . FRANK BURRELL explains (in the local daily press of 15 Februarv last) that the consistency is too solid to break and the size too large to transport by either Garrulus glandarins, L. or Pica rustica, Scop., who prefer the softer-shelled eggs of Thrush, Blackbird, Hedge-sparrow and Longtailed-tit (Acredula candata, L . ) ; and, whenever discovered, always derour those of Goldcrest (Regulus cristatus, Koch) and Redpoll (Linota linaria, L.) : last June I found in a Hedge-spanow's nest the shell of a Cuckoo's egg that had been eaten by a Jay. Jays and Magpies may have some understanding with Carrion-crows (Corz'hS corone, L.) respecting the latter's privilege to consume the exposed white eggs of Turtur communis, Sei. and Columba palumbus, L. : with binoculars I have seen in the distance a Carrioncrow Aying with a Wood-pigeon's egg in its beak ; it alighted i I a belt of fir-trees a mile away, where I discovered a quantity of Wood-pigeons', Mistle-thrushes' and many Pheasants' eggshells. These Crows are among the most destructive birus for, from the first week of April to the end of May, their principal food consists of eggs of Snipe (Gallinago Ccelestis, Fr.), wild Duck and Pheasant (Phasianus Colchicus, L . ) : if the last will not move off her eggs, the Crow will actually peck her eyes out and then, having thus compelled her removal, devour the eggs.

HISTORIC PHEASANTS (Phasianus Colchicus, L.).—The first reference to the presence of this Bird in England is said to appear in an Essex bill-of-fare during the year 1059, in the Confessor s

OBSERVATIONS.

113

reign (Newton, Encycl. Bnt. 1892, p. 732). The earliest known to be surviving in Suffolk emerges during April 1467 among some Ipswich ' Expenses of Sit John Howard knight, afterwards Duke of Norfolk,' i.e. Shakespeare's Jockey of Norfolk, which accounts were issued in ' Manners and Household Expenses of England ' by the Roxburghe Club, edited by Beriah Bolfield in 1841, p. 399 : " Item xij fesawntes, pryse xij. s[hillings] " : Sir John was lord of Tendring manor in Navland-Stoke, knight of the SufFolk shire during 1467-8, and his later office of Earl Marshall of England carried twenty pounds of the Ipswich fee-farm r e n t ; one need not add that he feil leading the royal van at Bosworth in 1485. And the L'Estrange domestic documents seem to initiate Pheasants to Noifolk so late as 1519 : cf. T r . Norf. Nat. Soc. v, 332.

HAWKING FOR A HAWKER AT HADLEIGH IN" THE YEAR

«If

1757.—

any F a l c o n e r or O s t n n g e r having a H a w k T h a t is to say a T e r c e l or G o s h a w k or a G o s h a w k F l y i n g t h a t will n o t t u r n T a y l e or baulk H i s or h e r G a m e let h i m come to m e and talk A b o u t H a w k s a n d h a w k i n g and be m y Faulconer T o fly P h e a s a n t Patridge a n d Rail and Ostringer I w a n t and love a H a w k as wel as a W i f e T h a t is t h e pleasure I m u c h delight in L i f e D i r e c t to M r . M a r t i n at H a d l e i g h i n Suffolk I can take h i m to fly and hawk in N o r f o l k H a w k s Spaniels H o r s e s a n d a G u n T h e best C o m p a n y for m e u n d e r t h e S u n N o t a b e n e I w a n t to b u y Faulcons a Cast and half T o fly in N o r f o l k to make m e laugh

Coppy of the Original extempore.

ROBERT

MARTIN.

*#*The Publisher of this paper takes leave to observe, that he has endeavoured, according to Mr. Martin's Order, to advertise this Rhyme without any Alteration, and that if he has made any Mistakes (as very probably he has done), they ought to be imputed to his not being sufficiently acquainted with that Gentleman's hand." (Ipswich Journal, 2 2 Oct. 1757).—ERNEST R. COOPER. EARLY BATS SLAY M O T H S . — T h e emergence of the ubiquitous geometer Theria rupicapraria, Hb., this year was announced by a specimen's presence at light on 6 February, though they appeared there only singly. Some notion of this species' actual abundance was conveyed on 12th when, after a calm and windless night of light westerly air, very numerous debris were found to have been arrested by the moisture lying on the road, which runs under the east side of a Monks Soham shrubbery of evergreens and tall pine-trees. Here, throughout its length of 120 yards and extending beyond neither end, were lying the next morning fully fifty wings of this moth, hind and front ones in about i

114

OBSERVATIONS.

equal proportion, all detached by doubtless common Pipistrelle Bats the previous evening. Such Bats were noted on the wing by 21 February 1934 (Trans. ii, 309); and, though not seen in the flesh, their prcsence upon the present occasion can alone account for the detached wings, whose discovery we owe to the sheltering shrubbery, moist condition of the little-frequented road, and the early morning run that I was giving the dogs.— R. A.

MORLEY.

T w o W O R D S FOR THE STOAT.—Mr. Frank Green of Ipswich recently related to me a curious incident, witnessed by him while sitting with his son in a stationary car. A Stoat passed them, as they sat in a side-road, trotting along in a purposeful manner down the same road, where it made its way through the hedge and shortly afterwards reappeared carrymg in its mouth an already dead and nearly full-grown young Brown Rat. This Performance it repeated exactly ; but a third journey was abortive.

Quite possibly there had been more journeys, previous to the first that my friends witnessed.—T. G. P O W E L L .

I had a curiously similar experience near Romsey in Hants on 5 July 1932. From the car during luncheon, we saw a Stoat hunting along the lane, whose hedge it penetrated ; after a short absence, in the course of which a Rabbit squealed, the Stoat returned to the lane, bearing a dead young Rabbit in its jaws.

But, though it came back and passed through the same hedge-hole ahead of us, nothing further transpired within our vision and the squeal was not repeated.—GRACE W A T S O N .

RABBIT ATTACKS STOAT.—Last August Captain Barne's keeper heard a Lepus cuniculus, L., squeal at Dunwich and saw a quite young one run out of cover a short distance, and about twenty yards from where he was Standing, which was pursued and attacked by a Mustela erminea, L. ; whereupon it squealed again.

Instantly an old Rabbit, presumably its mother, rushed from the same covert and unhesitatingly leapt lengthwise upon the back of the Stoat, who not only relinquished its prey but incontinently fled back to the wood. Our Member, Mr. Horsfall of the Cliff House there, and Col. Meinertzhagen have both heard of one similar case, which must be of rare occurrence.—HENRY ANDREWS. T H E BADGER IN EAST S U F F O L K . — I was shown, at a shop in Southwold on 12 March last, the body of a female Badger that was stated to have been shot at Benacre, near Wrentham.

Probably before its death the Animal had been recently caught in a trap, as one forepaw was lost and there was a large, unhealed wound on the stump. Such slaughter of an almost harmless rarity is deplorable ; but it is good, even thus, to ascertain the survival of our beloved Meies taxus, Schreb., in east central Suffolk.—DR. D . W. COLLTNGS ; 10 October.

OBSERVATIONS.

115

MORF EQUINE ACOUSTICS.—The supposition, put forward at Trans, ii, p. 199, that the row of Horses' skulls had been inserted (between each of the oak floor-joists of an ante-1688 room in Earsham Street, Bungay) for the sake of added resonance thus afforded to dancing, was confirmed in the London press last winter. Düring the preceding winter repairs to two Liverpool houses, erected about 1660, revealed forty such skulls beneath the floor-boards of one and nineteen skulls, including some of Oxen, beneath those of the o t h e r : doubtless " there placed to improve the tone of the Organs which stood over t h e m . " But the practice would seem yet older, for a half-dozen Horses' skulls were found to have been built into each of numerous churchbelfries in Co. Louth ; and three into that of Earls Barton church : " to make the structure more hollow, and so add to the clearsounding of the peal " of bells. Baldwin Brown, if our memory serves, instances Earls Barton in Northants as a typically Saxon structure : though presumably such comparatively small adjuncts as skulls would be later insertable.

EARLY O X - H O R N S . — A dozen horns of Celtic Oxen (Bos taurus, Linn., var. longifrons, Owen), some still attached to their skulls, were found in Sotherton and about a half-mile north-northeast of the church, beside the River Wang which here bounds Uggeshall. They were lying in a pocket of gravel containing Westleton gun-shot pebbles five feet in diameter, directly upon clay, one foot below the general level of the meadow and three above that of the present stream. Herein these unfossilised horns, Oxen's most durable bones, seem to have been washed during a flood, probably in Celtic or Saxon times. I have known of their existence for years, and was glad to find them still in situ last September, when accompanied by three other Members.— GEO. J .

BAKER.

SCIURUS VULGARIS, Bk.—I was delighted to have the opportunity of watching a delightsome Red Squirrel, leaping from bough to bough, high up in the semicircle of fine Walnut-trees just outside Sotterley Hall garden on 18 September 1935 ; the grace of these little animals' every movement is a perpetual joy. It is good to see at Trans, ii, p. 311, that they are multiplying about Bungay (GRACE W A T S O N ; October).—I am glad to say Red Squirrels have turned up on our place at Nayland-Stoke, after an absence of years (FRANCIS ENGLEHEART ; 2 8 March). [Are they still to be observed—never slain, on your life !--throughout all Suffolk ?— Ed.]

A BROWN BEAR.—Our Member Lord Ullswater in 1912 was the recipient of an example of Ursus arctos, Linn., from the mumcipality of Moscow ; this year he has generously presented to the British Museum the Russian specimen, considered by its authorities to be exceptionably fine.

C o R A L L I N E

AS

F A C I N G

S T O N E .

GRAPE

HYACINTH.

E L M

DISEASE

AT

HADKEY

CHUHCH.

116

OBSERVAT IONS.

" MARTENS, ETC., IN SUFFOLK IN 1811.—I have a cutting from a newspaper of 1811, by which it appears that, at the ' SufFolk Gamekeepers' Annual Meeting' held at Bury on 9 Decemher of that year, a prize was given to one Sharnton as the most success ful gamekeeper. He had the looking over (with two underkeepers) of four thousand acres, but in what parishes the manor lay is not stated ; evidently, however, it was in Suffolk. Sharnton gave in an account of vermin destroyed by him and his assistants in twelve months, which I think may be worthy of a place in the records of our [Norfolk] Naturalists' Society, as bearing on the existence of the marten in Suffolk sixty-five years ago. His record is as follows:—Foxes twenty-two; Martens (spelled Martins) forty-three ; Polecats thirty-one ; Stoats four hundr and sixteen ; Crows and Magpies a hundred and twenty ; of all kinds a hundred and sixty-seven ; Field Rats three hundre and ten ; Brown Owls thirteen ; Wild [domestic ones strayed, certainly] Cats seven.—J. H. GURNEY " of Northrepps Hall, F.Z.S. (Trans. Norf. Nat. Soc. ii, 1875, p. 223).

The above newspaper, the Norwich Mercury of 21 December 1811, is misquoted Cef. Trans, cit. vii, p. 580; Zool. 1891, p. 455 and 1892, p. 20), for the number of Martens slain is printe 3 and not 43.—" The Wild Cat's young family, reared largely on stolen game, is out on the trail. The study of the Wild Cat is frought with vexation to the scientist : that noble animal, for his sins, has been as nearly exterminated as game-preservation can accomplish it. But the bond between the true Wild Cat and frail domestic Cat is close ; for, if the home-bred Cat go out to the woods, she remains there, lending Willing ear to the addresses of a Cat with wild blood in his veins or to those of an outlaw lik herseif. Her progeny, in a generation or two, take upon them the outward and inward semblance of the Wild Cat; and, of such a forest-bred Cat, no man may say her grandmother was of blame less antecedents or was bom and bred a proscribed bandit.

The late Duke of Westminster, a Naturalist at heart, preserved the few true Wild Cats left on Reay Forest, thinking it a pity so interesting an animal should be exterminated. What his Grace's keepers thought is not recorded ! " (Strand Mag. 1902, p. 49). " The following is the number of vermin killed by Lord Gwydyr's gamekeeper on the hills of Callander and St. Filane, from December 1824 to December 1825 :—seven Eagles, four Foxes, twenty-eight Martin-cats, thirteen Stoats,fiveW eight Hedgehogs, a hundred and five Gledes [kites], nin Ravens, thirteen Hawks, a hundred and ninety Hoody C thirty-four Magpies, ten Jays, thirty-two Owls, Daws, e twenty-four head in all, killed by stamps. In consequence of the destruetion of so many of these ravenous creatures, the game is rapidly becoming plentiful on thesefineestates" ( e x c e r p t from unreferenced Newspaper, in a book then belonging to William Hoy of Nayland-Stoke).