Observations 4 Part 2

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OBSERVATIONS. ' 1*11 never, Nature, bid farewell T o thee. T h o u in m y brain shalt dwell, Till m i n d shall have outgrown its clay And left its garment to decay.'

J. W . Douglas (Ent. Mag. 1838, 259).

AURORA BOREALIS.—The Northern Lights were particularly strong on the night of 24 February last throughout all Britian, whence reports came in, plainly showing the peculiarly slow rate at which the visibility of the phenomenon travelled southward. T h e main feature consisted of a mighty arc traversing the whole sky, whence rose a great rufescent curtain of colour, which was visible for several hours in some districts. It was especially noted at Leuchars in Fife, Newcastle, north Wales ; Ross in Hereford, whence it took three hours to reach London ; Devon and in Suffolk. Its next apparition seems to have occurred on 14 October, but this was reported from no further south than the Shetlands.—Ed. OUR CLAY RIVER-WALLS.—Can any Member teil me at what approximate date the River-walls along the lower reaches of the Deben and Aide, and doubtless those of other rivers along our coast-line, were constructed ? I suppose the adjoining lands were flooded with brackish water (for most of these rivers are tidal up to a point), and that either the landowners or some public authority built the River-walls to reclaim these lowlying lands and to confine the rivers. Could you refer me to any book in which I might discover something of their origin ?

I have looked pretty carefully through the Victoria History of Suffolk, but cannot find any reference to them there. It is a practical question which impels me to embark on this enquiry, as some doubt has arisen with regard to the Aide ; and, if I can be put in the way to arrive at the S o l u t i o n , I shall be extremely grateful.—ULLSWATER, Campsea Ashe High House; 15 Oct. [WE are satisfied that a definite reply will be forthcoming from some of our more practical Members, though the matter is distinctly Unnatural History. Such reclaimed lands are invariably timbered with fast-growing Willow and Osier, and never show Oaks or Elms of Over a century's growth. W hite's

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Directory states thefloodgatesfor the protection of Dunwich marshes to have been erected in 1833 ; and we have always vaguely considered these clay embankments to be at most a Century old.

—Ed.] HEU, HEU, HEU !—What a glorious Easter-tide we had this year !

Every prospect pleased but everywhere I go Ifindthat Man is vile ; everywhere Our Suffolk is made more hideous to live in all the winter through ; nowhere is Beauty maintained. Every fact stated in my Protest at our Meeting last March might well be now emphasised in red-ink. Nor do I alone have eyes that see. Stanstead was my bourn yesterday ; and some changes en route are too appalling to describe. Here, where Beauty companioned me all along the way but a dozen years ago, is sheer havoc. The Blakenham chalk-pits are a desolation, especialy that at the road-junction ; and the ancient sacred florid pit at Needham bids fair to be as bad ere long. What then was a splendid avenue of tall wayside Elms has been hewn down at the water-splash, just before Somersham : two alcne were in part decayed. What grateful shade these trees gave on a torrid summer's day ; what pleasure to the voyageur ; and how the Birds rejoiced in their cover ! By Firtree Cottage, where the lane bends to Offton church, the CC. have ' improved ' the little ford and wooden footbridge into a concrete type of basin for the stream, with innumerable posts and wires ; then were here many lovelyflowersblooming on the banks, white Comfrey and Geranium pyrenaicum that love chalk and sunny slope now not a blade of grass or green leaf remains. Further, at Bricett Parva, are being reared those hideous tin towers such as paralyze one's vision on Bawdsey Cliff, insults to the landscape.

Another, in connection with the Wattisham spoliation, will soon be ready for its loathsome coat of creamy-white and grey paint, towering above Bricett park wood. We are not amused by the ugly water-tower and row of CC. cottages just outside Lavenham, that obscure the view of Lavenham Wood and destroy the old grass verge and golden Sallow-bushes by the road. Why cannot the dear picturesque cottages be re-conditioned without the substitution of these of the plainest, meanest and most incongruous type ? One keeps on hoping they may be swept, by some forthcoming force, from the face of our once harmonious County.— FRANCIS SIMPSON ; 11 April.

Smyrnium Olusatrum, LINN.—Mr. Doughty's note on ou Alexanders' distribution (Trans, iii, p. 74) was admittedly incomplete. This year the plant has been unusually luxuriant and late-flowering ; indeed, it was still in füll blossom on 20 May, when the largest and densest patch in Suffolk was a huge bed, some fifty-two yards by 112 north and south, in Dunwich erstwhile All Saints graveyard, atop of the cliff. It was

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thronged, in noon sunshine and light north-east air, by the Flies Dilophus febrilis, L. and Bibio Marci, L., with little eise but a few Syrphus bifasciatus, ~L., Eristalis aneus, Scp., Graphomyia maculata, Scp. and Honey Bees.

SEAWEEDS AT SOUTHWOLD.—There were many more rufescent Algae washed up on our shore than is usuallv the case after equinoctial gales last October, and of more kinds than I could distinguish, ranging from vivid orange through scarlet and crimson to dark red. Through forty years I have never seen so large a quantity there ; of Chlorospermeae, on the contrary, was hardly anything but the usual Sea Lettuce (Viva lactuca, L.). Among them were a very few Dead-mans-fingers (Alcyonium digitatum, L. of. Trans, ii, p. clv). Is it not high time that some marine botanist among us brought up to date the Suffolk Seaweeds, last listed at Victoria History 1911, p. 77, totalling but 136 species.

V E R M E S . — I found an unusual sort of an Earth-worm, on sand beneath a fallen Scots Fir-tree in a plantation on the Breck at Wordwell on 20 April last, that Mr. Mayfield considers to be the Tree Worm, Dendrobcena arborea, Eisen, of our Trans, i, 120 and lxxvii.—CLAUDE MORLEY. SHRIMP-EGGS' LONGEVITY.—At our Meeting on 1 March 1934, (Proc. ii, p. cxliii), I showed to the Members eggs and living larvae of the Brine Shrimp, Artemia salina, L., from San Francisco.

The remainder of the eggs were put away in a small card box in a dry cupboard. On 13 July 1939, i.e. over years later, some of the same eggs were put into sea water in a glass jar in my vinery; and two days later, on 15th, the water was swarming with small active larvae who were still alive and equally active on the 20th.

ANOTHER SPINOUS S P I D E R - C R A B . — A fine specimen of Maia squinado, Hbst., 3 , was taken in a shrimp-trawl at Southwold on 19 July last. The carapace measured five by eight inches.— D. W . COLLINGS. [One, of average size, from Blackgang beach in I.W. on 7 July 1930, expands only 4 | by 5J inches.—ED.] MITES' TENACITY OF LIFE.—Have our Members ever noticed that Lepidoptera, taken in east Suffolk, are peculiarly susceptible to Mites [Histiogaster entomophagus, Lab.—Ed.] ? I observed the circumstance last year when, owing to illness, I was unable to do any setting for several months; and I ascribed it to the fact that the Insects were stored among cotton-wool in boxes.

This year I noticed again that a specimen, I had captured in Suffolk, was attacked two days after being set, although taken straight out of the killing-bottle; further, it was on the middle of a setting-board, and nothing eise thereon was affected. It looks rather as though the Moths had been infested while alive, and the Mites not killed by fumes of Cyanide of potassium.

I suppose this is possible, as on many occasions I have noticed

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Ichneumons to emerge from cyanided Moths. I am seldom, if ever, troubled by Mites on Insects caught at Bishops Stortford or, indeed, anywhere outside east Suffolk.—J. A. WEBSTER, 4 7 , Threadneedle Street E.C.2 ; 22 May. [This sounds as though our County may blossom forth as a veritable El Dorado of such Arachnida when adequate attention is accorded the group!

None of the numerous local Mothists, to whom the subject has been mooted, will own to similar experience, however. And we feel pretty sure our Member is mistaken in the supposition that either Mites or Ichneumon-larvse are less easily slain by Cyanide than imaginal Lepidoptera: e.g. a large Mite of the Tortoise, fifteen mm. by ten, succumbed in a night last May ; and we may be allowed to speak with confidence respecting Ichneumons.—Ed.] FOUR MORE SUFFOLK BIRD-LICE.—Last spring I discovered the enclosed Pediculidse on three Birds from Lowestoft that passed through my hands during April, and shall like to know their names.—FRED C. COOK, 17 May. [In the packet labelled ex Glaucous Gull, Larus hyperboreus, Gun., are 6 mature and 6 immature specimens of the Liotheine Menopon transversum, Denn. (cf. Trans, ii, p. 156) and 1 perfect Philopterine Docophorus Lari, Fab. In that ex Grey Plover, Squatarola Helvetica, Linn., are 2 Nirmus Vanelli, Denn., and in that ex Sanderling, Crocethia alba, Pall., is 1 Nirmus ochropi, Denn. : all are kinds new to the County list.—Ed.] HETEROPTERA, &C., in JULY.—My captures, during a few days at Framlingham towards the end of last July, do not amount to much. T h e best things occurred at Butley on 25th, where were the Beetles Corticaria umbilicata [New to Suffolk.—Ed.] and Stilicus filiformis, with the Bugs Odontoscelis dorsalis, Rhyparochromus pretextatus and, in the marsh to the south of Minsmere in Dunwich, Teratocoris Saundersi was abundant.

Bentley Woods on 27th and Mildenhall on 28th showed nothing of unusual interest.—E. C. BEDWELL, Coulsdon, Surrey ; 25 Aug. COCCID N E W TO SUFFOLK (Trans, ii, 142).—Physochermes abietis was originally described by Geoffroy (Hist. Abreg. Ins. ii, 507) in 1764 from France, and seems to occur over most of Europe but not elsewhere. In Britain it is likely to inhabit all our larger Spruce-fir woods, though much overlooked. I believe I remember seeing it in Bentley Woods forty years ago ; but not tili the publication of D r . Newstead's ' M o n o g r a p h ' on our British kinds in 1903 could one name this family of Bugs, whereto belongs the Mealy-bug of the Vine. Last May M r . P. J. Burton and I beat a half-dozen adult females of P. abietis, Geoff., from the far-spreading branches of those numerous Abies excelsa, L., not an indigenous tree, in Blythburgh Wood that are referred to at page 56 supra.

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A WHIRLIGIG BEETLE.—A rill, running down the hillside to Capel Bangor in Cardigan, forms several pools between the impeding rocks, upon one of which that was hardly two feet across, the Water Beetle Orectochilus villosus, Meli., was found in the warm sunshine of early June, evidently ' on its native heath.' Here a half-dozen specimens were gyrating in Company, as do species of the allied genus Gyrinus, though much less rapidly: it used to be accounted a nocturnal swimmer. A second visit to the pool on 14th showed only one specimen on a dull morning, and this kept retiring for some minutes together into a little cave composed of a slate roofing one angle of the pool. As only a second emerged thence with sunshine at 10.45, the colony seemed of small numbers. With these were skimming the water many larval Bugs Velia currens, L. and on surrounding herbage sat masses of the Fly Dolichopus ungulatus, L. More occurred on 28th near Barmouth, sitting under stones only half in running water. In Suffolk Orectochilus is very rare and has never been seen gyrating. This species was shown at Entom.

Mag. iv, 254, to pupate in May under Willow-bark well above water-level in gregarious cocoons of ' whitish silk, interwoven on the outer part with minute fragments of decayed wood,' and the imagines to emerge in mid-July. One of the Beetles has been found alive inside a dead sheli of the water-snail Lirnncea peregra, Müll., which also contained something (I.e. ii, 531) very like a nest of the Water-spider Argyroneta aquatica, Ltr., which Arachnid it had quite likely devoured : possibly such is its normal food.—CLAUDE MORLEY. Two HOTBED BEETLES.—Düring gardening Operations at Great Glemham House last spring, among manure were found a few Hister bimaculatus, L., in March and a few Oxyomus silvestris, Scop. (porcatus, Fab.) in April. Our Hon. Secretary teils me that records of both species in Suffolk are very sparse.— CRANBROOK, W . 17 April.

REMARKABLE SITUATIONS.—Of recent years I have noticed Insects in places where one would never look for them in an ordinary way. Düring February a male Beetle, Ptinus für, L., was gorging himself upon the remains of a desiccated Spider, Areneus diadematus, Clk., on the ceiling just within the hall door here. In September another Beetle, Cryptophagus acutangulus, Gy., was found alive among old Spiders-webs at the base of a wooden pinnacle on a hothouse roof; and C. saginatus, St., was crawling on a outhouse wall during frost. A pair of Trichoptera remained still in cop. and clinging to the bottom of an Apple after it had been violently thrown to the ground from its branch, some fifteen feet up. The small Beetle, Lathridius minutus, L., was noticed in some numbers during June at thirty feet above the ground between the gnarled stems of Ivy and bark of a Maple-tree it was encircling. All were noted at Monks Soham.

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BEETLE N E W TO S U F F O L K . — I had been vainly searching for Pine Hawks on the broad and gravelly heathland between Tangham gate and the Govt. forest's young Pines on 25 July last, when 1 was annoyed by a nasty little Beetle obstructing my vision about 2 p.m. in sunshine ; so I took off and was about to wipe my pince-nez before I saw the offender to be a peculiarly small black Scymnus, unknown to me. Hurriedly, as he was Walking at a great pace up the lens, I produced a tube and had managed to place it under him at the very moment he dropped : another second, and he would have been lost to Science ! With his habitual dexterity Mr. Bedwell, then staying in Framlingham, kindly mounted the specimen, which proved to be S. ater, Kug., a muchoverlookedspecies thatisknown in onlya half-dozen British counties from Kent to Northumberland ; but must often elude capture by its diminutive size of but 1J millimeters in length by barely one broad. Its food is most likely to be some Coccid blight, more probably on Heather than Pine : carefully beating the surrounding Heather produced no further examples.

REDISCOVERY OF D I A S T I C T U S . — S o typical of the Breck fauna did the small chalky pit on Knettishall Heath (Trans, iv, 62) appear to me last year that I made a further descent upon it on 20 April last, a perfect day of perpetual sunshine and soft southwest breeze, transmogrifying the world with young green glory. There three more of the especially Brandonian beetles were discovered beneath small stones lying on very short grass : Orthocerus muticus, Cardiophorus asellus and a single $ Diastictus vulneratus, Sturm. T h e last species is essentially associated with Rabbits, among whose droppings I was so fortunate as to discover the first British specimen at the ' Diastictus place ' on the heath some three miles south of Brandon on 14 June 1902, when collecting with our late Treasurer Elliott ( E M M . xxxviii, 253). Three others were found by the late Mr. A. J. Chitty and me at the same spot in early May 1906-7 (1. c. 1909, 235); and two further examples have been taken, I am informed, by Harwood during 1913 in the same vicinity, but are unrecorded.

Its economy is probably similar to that of Onthophilus sulcutus, Fab., which occurred with it, but in much greater numbers in its first habitat, usually at arms-length down the most frequented rabbit-holes, whence both were drawn to the surface amid sand and foeces, and thence segregated by means of a small-meshed sieve. Diastictus must be broader spread than hitherto suspected but uncommon with us, for it had many keen and indefatigable searchers thirty years a g o ; yet only. seven indigenous examples are known. Abroad it was first described from Germany and occurs throughout northern Europe, extending south as far only as Lyons, where it is rather rare on high and sandy places, says Mulsant in his Lamellicornes.

OBSERVATIONS. SCAVENGER INSECTS FLYING.—In the wilder places of Suffolk one fairly often finds Burying Beetles on and under dead small Mammals lying upon the ground ; but they are so very rarely seen congregating to the feast that for long I used to suppose their assembly to take place at night. Such is not, however, the case as stated by text books, though I still believe it true in part. Necrophori occasionally are caught hurtling along, like Bumble Bees, some three feet above herbage in sunshine ; but never carnivorus Silphce, which excludes thoracica that is a constant day-flyer. On 9 May last I noticed a defunct Rattus Norvegicus, Bork, (actually ' smelt a Rat' !) thrown on to the top of a low hedge two feet above the ground at the beautiful dell called Peppers Wash in Framlingham. To it were flying, in a hot sun and small south-east air, the beetles Aleochara languinosa, Gr., Nitidula bipunctata, L., and smaller species, with very many Dermestes nurinus, L., which last flew gently, steadily, with vertical body and settled uncertainly on the surrounding hawthorn leaves. Also many of the flies Morellia Simplex, Lw., a few Polietes lardaria, Fab., a few Scatophaga stercoraria, L., and numerousPiophila affinis, M g . - C L A U D E MORLF.Y. Two GALL-GNATS N E W TO S U F F O L K . — I enclose the galls of the Dipteron Craneiobia [Oligotophus] corni, Gir., on Cornus sangumea that I gathered in Mendlesham to-day : I have seen it several times in past autumns here. Also those of Diplosus [Contarinia] linarice, Winn., from Brockford where the Yellow Toadflax was not affected to the same degree as when I first found it there in 1937.—ARTHUR MAYFIELD ; 29 Sept.

EIGHT DIPTERA NEW TO SUFFOLK.—Since all additions to the Fauna and Flora of Suffolk should most certainly be brought forward in these Transactions as soon as their names have been satisfactorily ascertained, I here place upon record the following species of Flies:—(1) Dasyneura tiliamvolvms, Rubs. (Berl.

Ent. Zeit, xxxiii, 57 = Cecidomyia tiliae, Sehr.), of which numerous

f o i l W 6 r - ° n b a s a l s h o o t s o f L i m e a t Blythburgh on 21 June 1934 (Ellis). (2) Stictodiplosis corylina, Lw., whose larvai were distorting Hazel-catkins at Blun'deston in April 1935 (Ellis).

(3) Three new biting Gnats are Ochlerotatus Waterhousii, Theob., tound at Barton Mills in May 1916 (F. W. Edwards) • (4) O fcHal. Ent. Mag. 1833, 151, taken at Southwold in July Colllngs); a n d (5) O. rusticus, Ros., which were K S abundant and biting severely at Laxfield on 4 July 1923 (Collings) anc! are frequent in Monks Soham garden (in May 1936, Uoughty, &c). (6) Xylomyia marginata, Mg., one speeimen ot which, and the sole one here in five and thirty years, was taken on a Monks Soham window on 10 July 1924 (Mly). I m ay add that a male of the rare Sargus bipunetatus (Trans, iii, P- ix) was attracted to light in Wangford Wood near Southwold a t V p.m. on 13 Sept. 1938.

(7) Conops signata, Wied., female

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was taken at Timworth in August 1905 by the late Col. Charles Nurse (in coli. Collin at Newmarket; sec. EMM. 1935, p. 180, known elsewhere in Britain in only Berks and Worcs). (8) A new-to-Science Phorid, Phora flavicans, Schmitz, is described at E M M . 1935, p. 178, of which both sexes were taken in garden of Mr. Verrall's former house Sussex Lodge in Newmarket, Suffolk, during Sept. and Oct. 1909 and 1922.

A N O I H E R G N A T NEW TO SUFFOLK.—Having had the luck to get the little black Gnat that appeared on 18-24 February last year named (Proc. iv, p. xix), I kept an eye wide for it again this year and first saw small clouds of about ten to fifteen individuals dancing over streams in the sun and shelter of hedges on 14th in Monks Soham. This Spaniotoma pigra, Goet., must be extremely numerous, for hardly had I got a hundred yards from home on 26th before several little clouds were similarly dancing, in a stiff and quite cool north-west breeze, over ditches at 11 a.m. and I was able to take all I wanted in glass-bottomed boxes as they danced. Two days earlier males of a distinctly smaller species had occurred on my house-windows, that our Diptera Recorder teils me is Spaniotoma aterrima, Mg., NEW to Suffolk. Females of neither kind have yet appeared here.

T h e small Limnobiid Ormosia bicornis, Mg., also NEW to us, occurred on a window in August 1928 (teste Dr. Edwards) and in the garden at 7 p.m. on 1 June 1934, at Monks Soham.— CLAUDE MORLEY. A N T H O M Y I D DIPTERON N E W TO SUFFOLK.—In the late Mr. Doughty's collection Mr. R. L. Coe has discovered a specimen of Allcesotylus diaphanus, Wied., taken by the former at Gorleston on 19 July 1938 ; also one of the common Helomyza variegata, Lw. [ = rufa, Fln.], captured there by him on 30 Oct. 1936.— E . A . E L L I S ; 27 Sept.

OVIPOSITION OF Bombylius major, L I N N . — A large female of this Bee-fly was hovering at bare earth mixed with sand-particles of quartz near the stool of a last-year-felled Oak-tree in Hinton Wood at 1.45 G.t. in hot sun on 17 May last. It gently lowered its position in the air tili its tarsi rested upon the ground and still maintained its wings in Vibration, though less rapidly than before. Next the ovipositor was employed to shovel the quartzscraps backward, and then it was inserted into a very dry cranny in the clay. Having there left an egg, the Fly flashed away; and my careful sifting of the soil revealed but one remarkably large, pale egg. Verrall gives no account cf the way in which these flies lay their eggs, nor was there here apparent any association with either wild Bees (Verrall, Flies v, 429) or the eggs of Locusts (EMM. xvii, pp. 161, 206). Till quite recently the site had certainly been rendered too damp, by overhanging Oakbranches, for either of these heat-loving groups of Insects.

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FLIES AT STINK-HORN FUNGUS.—This Fungus is not often noticed, however frequent it may actually be in Suffolk (the last I saw was at Bakewell in Derby, where Mr. Doughty called attention thereto by sitting upon it, inadvertently!) and its condition must be just that most attractive to Diptera before they gather about its gills and stem. I am not aware such an attraction has hitherto been noted ; hence I was much gratified to find two small examples of some five inches in height growing amidst a mass of Polypoddy Ferns on a hedge-bank of sand at Frostenden brick-fields on 13 September last. As far as I was enabled to ascertain, the flies were Polietes lardaria, Fab., Lucilia sericata, Mg., L. Caesar, L., F.uphoria cornicina, Fab., Lonchcea vaginalis, Fln., Lauxania Elishce, Mg., one or two Sciarce and numerous Phorce. It was a very warm aftemoon, with slight N W . air ; but, when I passed a few days later, the Fungi were shrivelled with no Flies near them.

DURATION OF C O P U L A T I O N . — A pair of Scatopse notata, L., separated with ease when I attempted to box them on 1 May, but soon afterwards coupled again, and persisted in that position for just twenty-four hours. Subsequently the male lived only some six hours, but the female I killed after she had lived three more days.—CLAUDE MORLEY. MULTITUDES OF SEPSID FLIES.—On the morning of 24 August last my daughter and I noticed a remarkable concourse of small shining brassy-black Flies, each with a dot at the tips of its wings, sitting in the greatest profusion on one or two of the Currant bushes in my garden at Rushmere Cottage near Ipswich. So numerous were they that about fifty of them blackened each of the many leaves, upon which they congregated at five feet from the ground.—CLEMENT CHEVALLIER. [This most interesting phenomenon, which we witnessed the same aftemoon when the Flies had not flown away, was c&used by Sepsis cynipsea, Linn.

S.N. ii, 997 ; it is new in our experience, for the species is rarely seen in more than companies of a half-dozen at a time. Francis Walker refers to nothing of the kind in his Observations on the British Species of Sepsidas (Ent. Mag. i, p. 247), stating merely that " t h e insects of this family may be frequently seen running on leaves in the sunshine, driving away any of the larger Muscides which may chance to alight near them, and continually vibrating their wings; their economy is unknown." In the present case no attraction was apparent, nor could one guess whence the Flies had come.—Ed.] PROFUSION OF TRICHOPTERA : Limnophilus affinis, C U R T . — On 4 May 1937 occurred an apparently large immigration of Caddis-flies at Gorleston. About noon I was sitting just above the slope of the cliff when I noticed what appeared to be small Moths continually Aying up from seaward and, as I had

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been out collecting and had my net with me, I was able to prov the apparent Moths were actually Caddis-flies. I descended to the foot of the cliff to see if I could intercept them between there and the sea but did not notice any moving, possibly because a patch of fog intervened ; although when I got to the shelters at the shore-end of the pier, they were buzzing about in very large quantities. In the afternoon a considerable number was settled on the pier, especialy on the seaward end of [it. My friend, Mr. J. L. Moore, reported his garden on the Lowestoft Road as füll of Water-flies in the evening. The day was sunny, with some strong west [i.e. off-shore] wind, and fog out to sea.— C. G. DOUGHTY. \L. affinis is an abundant species all along ou coast and is no more likely to be immigrant, most especialy on an off-shore wind, than the numerous Insects enumerated on this cliff at Trans, iii, 186.—Ed.] MAYFLIES' HABITS.—One glorious evening last mid-July I was out on the arid breck at Freckenham, waiting for dusk to fall before turning on the car-lights for Moths, with a soft air Coming up from the south and the last of a very füll day's sunshine sinking over the Fens, when I was surprised to see a ha dozen Mayflies on the wing. They were dancing in Company, with the family's typical verticalflightin the shelter of a ruinous byre, apparently with no possible ditch or rill on that sandy soil nearer than Beck Bridge over the Lee Brook at f-mile and Judes Bridge over the Lark River at miles. Not tili I especialy looked for it did I find a small iron pump by the byre, obviously inserted for watering cattle ; but, even so, the probability that larvae of this Mayfly (Centroptilum luteolum, Müll., common a Bamham, Brandon and Tuddenham Fen) could mature in a vertical iron pipe, for no cattle had been here for at least some months to afford them surface drainings, seems very remote.

DRAGONFLIES' DISTRIBUTION.—Despite the cold June, this year two kinds of Odonata have occurred for the first time at Monks Soham. In late July JEschna grandis, L., appeare and was seen on and off tili 13 August; on 9 September sever Sympetrum striolatum, Chp., were darting about the edg a farm pond here. The latter persists on the wing tili early frosts, and a few were noticed in Blythburgh Wood on 10 Octobe JEschna caerulea, Ström., was Aying in small numbers abou at both Benacre and Frostenden in mid-September; and JE. cyanea, Müll., hawking in my garden, protected from a nasty north-east blast by cypresses, as late as noon on 17 October, but cf. Trans, i, 22.—CLAUDE MORLEY. LOCUSTS IMPORTED TO SUFFOLK.—The enclosed Locust, alive but not very lively, is sent for identification. It was captured •on a timber-stack on the quay at Gorleston on 26th morning.

Do not return it but please let me know what it is, for I have

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been assured that it is merely a green Grasshopper.—P. E. RUMBELOW ; 28 August 1 9 3 9 .

[The insect is a moribund genuine female Locust, Acridium Danica, Linn., 52 mm. in length and similar to those recorded from Yarmouth, Bradwell, Southwold, &c (Trans, i, 229 and ii, 89); we have it from Grand Canary and typical A. migratoria from Madeira. Males of the southern form A. lEgypticeum, L.,'were seen Aying in our hotel garden at Juan les Pins in Antibes in April 1931 and captured in small numbers the preceding month there at Villeneuve in foothills of les Alpes Maritimes during their short flights, very like those of its allies, our common British short-horned Grasshoppers ; we have larger females from Algeria.—Ed.] BUTTERFLIES OF 1939.—No records of any Fritillaries have come in from all Suffolk, except one A. Paphia near Ipswich railwaystation on 2 Sept. (GBtn); though A. Aglaia was common in the Welsh hills about Barmouth, with a few A. Adippe and selene about Aberystwyth, where a single A. aurinia was seen at Parsons Bridge. V. c-album has been a good deal scarcer with us than last year, doubtless on account of the cold June ; common it has been at only Needham Market in spring and summer (Platten, GBtn), and Waldringfield in April and July (A. P. Waller) and Sept. (Tom Waller, Major Glossop); singly records are from Monks Soham on 15 (Mly), Rushmere 16 and 26 (Chevallier), Bentley 27 (Bedwell), 7 together on Buddleia in Needham 30 (Platten), Stowmarket 30 (Chipperfield) of July ; Dedham on 5 (Vinter), Coddenham 7 (Btn); Earls Stonham (Elaine Fowler), Fakenham and Wangford and Blythburgh woods (Gd) and Lowestoft (Borrow) in early August; Felixstow 12 (French), Wickhambrook 18 (Dulcie Smith), Herringfleet 23 (Ross-Lewin), north Holton 31 (Btn) of August; Framlingham 7 (Mly), Thorp Abbotts in Norfolk 14-5 (Maxwell), Benacre 20 (Mly) of September ; and at Dedham on 5 October (Vinter). V. Urtica and Io were commoner than usual.

V.polychloros is reported to have been not uncommon at Sudbourn before 20 August (Simpson), but a several-hours' visit to Shrubland Park on 29th showed none. A worn V. Atalanta was in Hinderclay Fen on 25 April (Mly) and another at Needham on 30 July (Platten) ; first fresh one in small, Aster-starred, Framlingham garden on 7 Sept. L. Sibylla was common in Bentley Woods in July (Bedwell) and persists at Blythburgh (Ross-Lewin) ; those already noticed in Needham are strayed from their home in Barking Woods (Platten). P. AZgeria is still lost to Suffolk ; very local and of sparse occurrence in the Welsh hills during 10-26" June. P. Megcera emerged on 24 May at Hinton Wood, and was unusually general through August to at least 9 Sept. over Suffolk. S. Semele rarer than last year : Belstead (GBtn) and a female of 58 mm. at Butley Ferry on 1 Au g- Duration of Insects' perfect existence is rarely noticed

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with accuracy : this year E. Tiihonus was on the wing by 16 and persisted daily in Monks Soham paddock tili at least 10 Sept. ; with it occurred both E. Janira and hyperanthus, latter of which were both drowned in heavy thunder-rain of 4 a.m. on 25 Aug. : in Wales the former was emerged by 9 Ju after a month's drought. A few E. Epiphronflewhigh on Langdale Pikes in Westmoreland in early July (Btn), when C. Tiphon ranged the mosses of the Lakes (ut Proc. supra, iii, p. cliv). C. pamphilus has been less than usually frequent w us, but profuse in the Welsh hills. T. rubi and querem take at Framlingham, &c., (GBtn) ; T. u-album common actually in Needham this year (Platten) ; and C. phloeus in great num from Aug. to 10 Öct. L. Argiolus was peculiarly scarce in spr seen only singly at Bentley on 28 May (our Hon. Sec.'s letter in Local Press) ; autumn brood showed few individuals at Coddenham on 7 Aug. and many at Monks Soham up to 16th. A special expedition to Tuddenham Heath on 15 July discovered no L. /Egon ; and L. Icarus was very late in May emergence, be in Wales quite scarce through June. Not one Colias has entere our County; and G. rhamni almost equally absent, except numerous examples at Brandon on 14 Aug. P. brassica, rapa napi in their usual profusion, the last also noted at Dolgelly in July and taken at light in Needham at 3 a.m. on 23 July (Platten thefirstwas last seen on wing on 10 Oct. Single P. Daplid were observed at Southwick in Sussex on 13 July and Thorpe Bay in Essex on 24 Aug. (Entom. 1939, pp. 218 and 227); E. cardamines emerged late in Suffolk. H. malvce and T been both common in their usual haunts P. Sylvanus, on 9 at Aberystwyth, and P. Thaumas were ubiquitous with us to mid-August; but no P. lineola could be detected so far north as Butley Ferry or even Hollesley Shingle-street, 1 Aug. Mr. Derek Edwards most kindly despatched a series of P. comma, taken at Bletchworth in Surrey about 10 a.m. on 20 Aug., throug the post which lost them out of the envelope !—C. H. S. VINTER 15 Oct. LAST COMMAS OF THE YEAR.—Vanessa c-album has become numerous again in my south Rushmere garden. From 15 Sept. to 24 October Commas were seen every sunny day on the Michcelmas-daisy and Lavenderflowers.But there has been a dearth of Peacocks here, in fact I have not seen one this autumn.— C. CHEVALLIER ; 2 Nov.

PAINTED LADIES MIGRATION.—A very hot day was 7 June with temperature 88° at Rouen and I noticed, while motoring along the Alencon to Mayenne road, numbers of Butterflies.

Aboutfivemiles beyond Alencon we stopped for lunch at 12.31) tili 2.30 ; there they were all Aying in only one direction along both sides of the characteristically straight road at a height

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varying from two tofivefeet and a rate of about ten miles an hour ; all were going ENE. and dead against a moderate wind.

I endeavoured to turn some aside, but without avail and, though I could see exactly where they were Coming, it was difficult to catch any because they so nimbly swerved aside before continuing in their very definite direction. To ascertain their numbers roughly, I counted while my wife took the time : we found they were passing our point at the rate of seventy-five every minute, so that our two hours' rest saw the passage of some nine hundred individuals. And, when our journey was resumed, the stream of them continued unabated for the next ten miles of the still straight road. Thereafter came several curves, across which the Butterflies took short cuts ; we still met them for several more miles, even in the vilages. All the half dozen taken for examination were female Vanessa cardui, I.., which is the commonest kind here at Ste. Marine near Finistere this year, and I shall expect an invasion of England by them later on in the season : nous verrons ! I have beaten, from a blackthorn hedge adjoining our garden here, five larvse of Aporia cratagi, L. and a couple of Thelca betulce, L. ; yesterday I discovered the nest that the former had left with their discarded skins, so I will bring it home with me for exhibition before our Society — DR. C. H. S. VINTER ; 22 June 1939. [From 4 to 14 June Colonel N. Eliot saw V. cardui Coming across the Mediterranean between Hyeres and Cavalaire, twenty miles apart on Cöte d'Azur, at a rate that suggested the immigration of a quarter-million individuals in that period. He expected them to proceed up the Durance Valley and himself followed it to Sisteron and beyond, with very small success (Entom. 1939, p. 201).

Assuming association, our late President's present Observation shows them to have persisted NNW. by N. for well nigh five hundred miles, into Normandy. But the Channel was not passed ; no influx reached south England and, with us, only Major RossLewin saw V. cardui during thefirsthalf of June : one in his Herringfleet garden, and an odd one or two Over the border in Norfolk, and Mr. Goldsmith one at Fritton on 2 July. Later none were noted in Suffolk tili 15 August, whence the species became sparsely distributed over all east Suffolk.—Ed.] The following excerpt from the ' Daily Telegraph' of 19 July might be a sequel to my above army of Painted Ladies ; the larvae are described as black, but this is probably near enough for a press reporter:—The districts of Saint-Pol-de-Leon near Roseoff, and Morlaix in Brittany, are suffering from a plague of black caterpilars about an inch long. Millions have invaded fields, streets and houses. The inhabitants are collecting pailfuls of caterpilars for destruetion. Manv people are suffering from swellings caused by contact of the insects with the skin.—V.

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LARGE TORTOISHELL BUTTERFLIES, &c.—I found one Large Tortoishell hibernating in a shed last winter and managed to keep him alive tili the spring, when he gaily flew away. Two others were on the wing near Hemingstone Hall at the end of June. Vanessa C-album has been seen every month since 21 April ; the final three specimens were sipping rotten Apples on 30 September. A larva of Atropos was given me on 10 October. One P. galiata was sitting on a shed on 10 May ; and a single H. ochroleaca was taken at light on Buddleia on 27 August.

T h e first specimen of P. rhamnata since 30 July 1920 was captured on 21 July last ( F . T . CRISP ; Hemingstone, 30 October). U p to late July, 1939 proved a most unfavourable year for Lepidoptera round Needham Market, where vile weather prevented much collecting before May. On 20th C. coryli were found in Barking woods and B. hirtaria was still Aying, very late but in excellent condition.

Vanessa c-album has definitely made its home here ; dozens of hibernated specimens were Aying in glades of every wood, and in the gardens of the vicinity. V. polyclilorus, also, was seen, though in less numbers, and by 21st no more than a couple of worn specimens seemed left. One Zenzera pyrina L., occurred at Needham on 20 July.—E. W. PLATTEN. LEOPARD M O T H ' S D E S C E N T . — O n e night in early July, there was a scufAe in the chimney here and, down into the empty fireplace, came a female Zenzera pyrina, who soon laid cver twenty eggs. What ought I to feed the ensuing larv2e upon ?—C. T .

GILES, Hopton ; 5 July. [Put the eggs, covered with moss, against the highest branches of the oldest Pear-tree in your garden, and hope they will bore into the hard wood. Trees thus attacked are said to bear a richer crop of fruit than normal ones. And in three (?) years look for their pupte protruding from the bark. Rare in north Suffolk ; Canon Cruttwell used to take it at Crcxton, eight miles away in Norfolk.—Ed.] HAWK-MOTHS IN 1929.—One Sphinx convolvuli, L., was taken in Lowestoft on 9 Sept. and one at Kirkley Fen there on 16th (GODDARD) ; one alive in Southwold on 16th and given tome (DR. COLLINGS) ; a fourth was sitting on the fence of St. Felix School in Reydon on 18th (REGINALD BAKER). T have recently bred a fine lot of Acherontia Atropos, L., from ova laid by last year's female (ALFRED M I T T O N , V.V. 6 Oct.); larvse of this species have occurred in September at Worlingworth (Mly), Oulton and Blythburgh on 10th, with another at the Priory there a few days later. Mr. Ramsden of Yorks, Mr. Goddard and I found fully fifty larvse of Deilepkila porcellus, I.., on galium about gorse-bushes on Walberswick Heath on 16 August. I have recently bred out a good series of M. stellatarum, L., from Reydon larva; ( G E O . BAKER).

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T H E LEPIDOPTERA OF D U N W I C H . — I am sorry not to have sent in the List of Moths that I promised (Trans, iii, p. 305) in time for inclusion in the Society's first ' M e m o i r ' of 1937. All the following species, numbered in accordance therewith, have occurred to me at Dunwich within the last thirty years, besides very numerous commoner ones, making well Over 250 kinds in all. 9 griseola, 12 miniata, 23 villica, 40 ligustri, 42 menyanthidis, 48 ochracea, 58 tenebrosa, 61 pyralina, 63 affinis, 89 scabriuscula, 91 gemina, 95 rurea, 96 hepatica, 109 literosa at Felixstow, 122 vestigialis, 131 augur, 144 brunnea, 146 triangulum, 147 glareosa, 152 fimbria, 166 citrago, 167 aurago, 177 Iota, 192 ornithopus, 194 viminalis, 230 csespitis, 235 dentina, 238 genistse, 239 thalassina, 244 nebulosa, 281 festucse, 342 pimpinellata, 343 Goossensiata, 353 linariata, 356 lariciata, 357 virgaureata, 360 pygmaeata, 371 fraxinata, 373 nanata, 416 corylata, 417 suffumata, 420 nigrifasciaria, 431 decolorata, 233 procellata at Rickinghall, 449 cervinata at Rickinghall, 481 lichenaria, 482 repandata, 510 stratarius, 521 apiciaria, 526 pennaria 533 derasa, 534 batis, 536 duplaris, 538 octigesima, 540 flavicornis, 541 ridens, 542 bombyliformis, 552 pinastri near Aldeburgh, 554 convolvuli, 555 Atropos, 565 tremula, 566 trepida, 579 pavonia, 582 falcataria, 584 binaria, 585 cultraria, 587 quercus, 591 rubi, 596 quercifolia, 674 pingus and 746a flavalis, Schf.— H. L. HORSFALL, Cliff House, Dunwich ; 10 June 1939. [The final species is NEW TO SUFFOLK.—Ed.] SOME VERY EARLY MOTHS.—Mr. Mitton and I went south to Wangford Wood on 10 February which was a very warm evening for so early in the year. Seven Apochemia pedaria, Fab., many of the hibernated autumnal Noctuids and a few Theria rupicapraria, Hb. (a fair number of which last I had already seen on the 7th), came to our lights, where there must have been over a hundred specimens of Hybernia leucophaaria, Schf., an amazing night for mid-February. We went again to the same spot on 16th, however it was cold and moths were proportionately as scarce as they had been formerly plentiful; but one extremely early Biston stratarius, Huf., came to light, with one Erannis ascularia, Schf. and a few Hybernia marginaria, Bork.—P. J. BURTON, Lowestoft; 19 February.

Spodoptera exigua, HB.—The ' large numbers ' that appeared along England's south coast in 1938 (Trans, p. 73) are no more exactly placed at ' several hundreds,' of which fifty examples occurred at Dungeness about 30 August, and its north distribution that year was limited by one at Leicester. T h e sole addition we can claim to SufTolk's eight specimens (Trans, p. 35) is one captured on the Sunk Lightship, ten miles SE. of Felixstow, on 26 September (Entom. 1939, p. 120), while the moth was being captured near Southwold.—Ed.

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OBSERVATIONS.

ANOTHER Monodes venustula, H B . , &C.—It is with considerable pleasure that 1 am able to extend M r . P. J. Burton's great capture of several M. venustula at Blythburgh in 1937 [cf Ent. Wk. Intell. viii, 1860, p. 99. For 247a read 56a in our Memoir 1937, p.

213.—Ed.] by recording it from Benacre Woods, where a single specimen came to my light on 8 July. But the year as a whole, and especially the spring, has been a very poor one for all Insects ; and really hard work was necessary to gather good things, among the best of which I may enumerate numerous P. muscerda on 22 July at light on Barton Broad in Norfolk, with Viminalis, Ziczac, Quercifolia and Tortrix costana. At Wangford Wood in late May, Mendica was ovipositing on Hornbeam.

An Acronycta alni larva, from Mildenhall on 13 August, pupated in Alder-bark on 14th. Only two Subtusa emerged from very many larvae that were numerous between Poplar leaves at both Walberswick and Fritton in July.

Similarly those of Palimsestis or were common between Aspen leaves at Bentley Woods on 23 May and 20 August, also at Hinton in August.

At Dunwich on 20 June were Dolabraria and Trepida.

Three Cultraria, beaten from Beech at Lords Walk in Mildenhall on 31 May, deposited the next day ova which hatched during 15-20 June and produced imagines in early August. Epigraphia Steinkellnerana was beaten on 10 April at the Devils Ditch in Cambs, where Depressaria purpurea occurred on grasses. On 20th in Hinton Wood Schreckensteinia festaliella was beaten from brambles ; and two, of which one was captured, Brephos notha seen Aying over Sallows near Aspen. A larva of Polia semibrunnea, beaten from Ash there in August, emerged as early as 18 September [but no imagines could be found wild in their usual locality at Reydon up to 5 October ; and but a single pair was at Henham the next night on ivy-blossom, out early this year by mid-September.—Ed.], Several of this year's Micros await determination.—JACK G O D D A R D ; 10 Oct.

T w o M O R E Agrotis occulta, L.—Mr. P. J. Burton kindly allowed me to retain a fine A. occulta that I found on his sugar in the Iken salt-marshes on 1 9 August last ( C . GARRETT J O N E S ) . — I found a specimen of Occulta sitting on a willow-trunk at Beccles to-day (E. T . G O L D S M I T H ; 4 Sept).

ENVIRONMENTAL MIMICRY.—The 2 2 October was the first actual Autumn day of 1938, rendered distinctly cold by a stiff breeze from eastward despite the persistent and yet-warm sunshine. In this füll glare of the sun at noon was sitting the Noctuid Moth, Polia ornithopus, Rott., at four feet from the ground on Lichens that clothed the trunk of an Ash-tree near Durdans-farm in Framlingham ; also, it was partly covered by a small Ivy-leaf. None but a Lepidopterist's eye would have detected the Insect, apparent by nothing but its shape,

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of pale Dove-grey with infuscate marbling on exactly similarly coloured Lichens, mainly Parmelia perlata, Ach., but mixed with a small amount of both Ramalina fraxinea, Ach., and Physcia hispida, Tuck, named by M r . Mayfield.—CLAUDE M O R L E Y .

F R O M OUR W I L T S MEMBERS.—Weather here near Salisbury has been bad since late May. However, my son came down and between u s w e scraped up a few things, chiefly at Odstock :— a very fine and varied series of forty male Agrotis cinerea and no amount of searching revealed a single female ; a good series of Melanchra reticulata ; both sexes of Fagi, Conspersa, Cucubali, Corticea, Sublustris, &c. Then we buzzed down to Lydd and got Albimacula, with larvae of Trifolii, as well as a couple of Lineata near Wye ; also a female Sphinx pinastri from Wareham, which greatly pleased me as I want to see if there is a difrerence between them and the Suffolk form. I see Heliothis maritima is now recognised as a distinct species from H. dipsacea (Entom.

1939, p. 132, by our Member, Dr. de Worms). I thought this might happen, as they are different in habits as well as markings.

I have specimens of both, each from two different places ; in each case maritima was taken in heather-bogs and dipsacea in dry meadows.—COL. BROUGHTON HAWLEY, Bodenham; 14 July.

T w o BLUE-UNDERWINGED MOTHS.—A specimen of Catocala fraxini, L., was taken at rest on a brick wall on the main Yarmouth road just north of Lowestoft on 16 September last by M r . D . S .

Stebbings of Tresco, Corton-road, Lowestoft. I thought you would like to hear of it, as there seems to be no record of this immigrant in Suffolk since 1905 (SNS. Mem. 1937, p. 51).

E . A . E L L I S , Norwich Castle Museum ; 23 Sept.—I captured a specimen of the Blue-underwing about 4 p.m. on 25 September, while it was sitting on the front of the house here, on a tile just below a window-sill where I was taking down the sun-blinds.

I am sorry I cannot teil you the sex.—H. M. LAWRENCE, T h e Rookery, Rougham, near Bury St. E d m u n d s ; 11 October.

[Lieut.-Col. Lawrence adds that the expanse is 874 mm. It is, then, probably a $ : we have an Indian ? of 98 mm.—Ed.] Plusice FLYING BY DAY.—One often puts up Plusia gamma, L., when Walking through herbage in daylight and one rarely sees it flying spontaneously in sunshine, e.g. on 21 June 1938 one was hovering at a flower at Otterburn in Hants ; but our other species seem to hardly ever fly before dusk. One P. festucce, L., was similarly hovering in the sun on 27 August 1926 at an Angelica flower in Thorndon fen.—While Walking round my Monks Soham paddock at 11 a.m. on 8 September last, I noticed a great bustle at a wild Convolvulus flower (Volvulus sepium, Ju.) and saw a male P. chrysitis, L., buzzing busily about it with extended proboscis, though a little uncertain where the nectar lay ; but, naving soon found it, he took no more than

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OBSERVATIONS.

a fleeting sip and at once flew gently on along the grass path before me, undulating slightly in progress and evidently quite at home in the bright sunlight.

Hydriomena (Emtnelesia) unifasciata, HAW.—The smaller specimens of this Geometer are at once obviously distinct from the abundant Xanthorhoe (Coremia) ferrugata, Clk., and it was not tili a large female of 20 mm. flew in to light at Monks Soham on 22 Aug. last that I found the species hard to differentiate from the latter, and that I actually had a second, similarly taken on 10 Aug. 1935, mixed under that name. Probably both other Suffolk collectors and I have frequently passed it over as X. ferrugata ; and I shall be glad to know if an examination of series reveals it a common kind with us, as it certainly should be judging from the ubiquity of its food-plant. Primarily Hydriomena differs in having the male antennas bare or at most ciliated from Xanthorhoe, in which genus the male has them conspicuously bipectinate except usually at the apex.— Specifically X. ferrugata shows three outstanding characters: Median band of forewings is crimson with whitish edges and the outer edge only centrally projecting; its subterminal line is preceded by only two dark fuscous spots ; and the apical streak is entirely absent. Its expanse is 21-25 mm., it flies from May to August, and the larva feeds on Nepeta, Galium, &c, in July and September ; abundant throughout Britain to Hebrides.

H. unifasciata has the median band nigrescent with blackish edges and the outer edge projecting both centrally and below the costa ; its subterminal line is preceded by five often obsolete fuscous spots from costa to middle (pace N e w m a n ) ; and the apical streak is always conspicuous though broken at its centre.

Its expanse is 17-21 mm. ; it flies from June to August, and the larva feeds in unripe seeds of Bartsia odontites, Huds. ( E M M . vi, 186 ; Elisha has bred from it the Ichneumon Platylabus rubellus,.

Gm.), in Sept.-Oct. ; it hibernates as a pupa. Its resemblance to X. ferrugata is remarked upon by Newman in 1871, p. 115, who refers to the synonymy and then knew it from only Forest Hill, Epping and the Lakes ignoring Stainton's 1859 records from Lewes, (Exeter-Hellins,) Bristol, Conway, Ardrossan, abundant at Newcastle and occurring at both Cambridge and Ipswich. T o which Bloomfield in 1890 added one specimen from Brandeston, and Waters later one from T u d d e n h a m Mary (Mem. S N S . 1937, p. 73). T h e northern form of H . unifasciata, var. Haworthi, hibernates as an ovum and its April to June larvse feed also on the Hares-tail Cotton-grass, Lagurus ovatus, Linn.—CLAUDE M O R L E Y .

Philereme vetulata, S C H F . , AND O T H E R M O T H S . — M y father and T took several things we wanted during ten days in the New Forest:—Lichenaria, jubata (South = glabraria, Hb.), Notata, Cultraria, &c. Our best Suffolk captures this year

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are :—P. vetulata at Framlingham on 12 July , P. rhamnata Barking 15 July and Bosmere there 16 Aug!, X. \-fasciaria the last 22 July, P. or at Barking on 25 Aug., and 17 eggs P. plumigera on the bare twigs of Maple-bushes at Barking early spring.—GEOFFERY BURTON ; 1 1 Sept.

at at of in

Lymaniria monacha, L., AND OTHER MOTHS.—On our way back from Cornwall, where we failed to take Xanthomista, my wife and I spent two profitable nights in the New Forest and captured Fagi, Consortaria, Flexula, Orion, &c. A single Fluviata occurred in Stowmarket on 11 November 1937 (add to Trans, iii, 294).

This year I have bred Neurica on 28 Aug. from Aldeburgh ; several Xerampelina during 22-5 Aug. from Barking Woods ; and found Monacha common at light in Bentley Woods.

H. E. CHIPPERFIELD ; 1 8 Sept. [The last species occurred freely at light beside Fritton Lake, along with many Hyponomeuta 20punctata, Rtz., and other nice Micros, on 20 Aug., and a perfect male was found sitting on an oak-trunk in Benacre Woods so late as 15 September last.—Ed.] Erhgasttr lanestris, L., AND OTHER MOTHS.—Following rain and cloud with a good deal of wind, there is little Suffolk news in June. I got single Fagi at Bentley Woods and Needham ; and saw a few Castrensis larvse at Walberswick on 2 July : I should say there was only one nest of them as they were very local indeed and by no means widely distributed over the shore as they were three years ago (supra p. 34). The Lanestris nest on Sloe, that Mrs. Morley found in Monks Soham paddock on 31 May, has flourished ; it must have contained over a hundred larvse that keep on emerging like oil from the widow's cruse ! — P . J. B U R T O N ; 7 July. [A prolonged survey of the hedges about the adjoining Kenton, Bedingfield, Southolt (where larval-nests of Hyponomeuta cognatella, Hb., abounded), Worlingworth and Bedfield, a ten miles' circuit, revealed no more Lanestris larvse on 1 June.—Ed.] T H E G R E E N FORESTER.—Its comprehensive and iridescent sheen renders Procris statices, L., an always interesting species ; and, though not generally accounted rare, it is so local in EAnglia that I was delighted to find a good many Aying somewhat freely about 10 a.m. on 9 June last among the Marguerites, Yellowrattle and lilac Orchids of one of the few flowery meads flourishing in this droughty spring on a stony soil near the west Welsh coast at Llanrhystyd. M y previous examples, from Bradwell Doles, Oulton, Barnby and Rockland Broads, Dovedale in Staffs and Killaloe in Ireland, had all been swept from herbage in dull weather and I cannot recall having seen the flight. Here it "was noticed to more resemble that of such Arctiids as Plantaginis and Jacobeas than the Burnets or Heterogeneids, and to be very different from that of P. geryon, Hb., abundant in the Cotswolds and near Brighton. T h e males flutter along at a good pace for

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OBSERVATIONS.

a dozen yards, and very beautiful their emerald hue appears in the sunlight; but the females are so sluggish that nothing would persuade them to move from the grass-heads but the passage of my legs and net.—CLAUDE MORI.EY. BRECK M O T H S PROFUSE.—The experience of a most depressing sparcity among the Lepidoptera of Wales and the Lakes in June made us anxious to ascertain whether the Breck fauna were equally poor this year. So we arrived at Brandon about 7.30 (Greenwich time) p.m. on 22 July, and decided a sumlin sandy field to be best for our headquarters : here were masses of Vipers Bugloss, Mignonette, Common and Bladder Campions with the usual smaller Breck plants, sheltered on both south and west by belts of Pine and Oak from slight SW. breeze.

After anointing a very few of these trees with sugar, we proceeded to dusk just NW. of the Hall garden in a rough field of Grasses, Yellow Bedstraw, Convolvulus, Evening Primrose and White Melilot. Such Geometers as Straminata, Aversata, Emarginata, Bisetata, Imitaria, Subfulvaia, Cncullata, Ouadrifasciaria, Viridaria, Wavaria, Affinitata, Comitata and Clathrata were netted with Bicoloria, Cucubali and one very late Porcellus ovipositing on Bedstraw ; common Crarnbi, Argryoploce ccespitana and Gelechia terrella abounded. At füll dusk moths were found tö be crowded on the sugar : fifteen on one small patch. Among them were Pinastri, Tenebrosa, Megacephala with Aisines, Persicaria, very many Fissipuncta and a single Octigesima on white-Poplar trunk. The first lamp was lit at headquarters at 8.45 and at once attracted Illunaria, Limitata with numerous Vestigialis, Exclamationis, Putris, Tritici, Trifolii, &c. So the second lamp was placed in our dusking field, though little but Micros visited it at first. The breeze rose and brought rather more than a smear of rain at 11 p.m., though the night was sultry and hog-dark.

Fewer visitants came to sugar : Fimbria, Thalassina, Psi, Matura, Lucipara; but they still flewfreely tolight among Bugloss : Impura, Conigera, Lithargyrea, a single Colocasta coryli and (previously unknown to us to occur at light) Eustrotia luctuosa. Rain feil thicker than moths liked and the wind was rising at 12.30, so we took in the first lamp whereat came then Ziczac and Phragmatobia fuliginosa; but the weather soon lifted and at the second lamp were Cuculatella, Diirapesium, worn Neustria and very many Micros : Phalonia roseana and dubitana, plenty of Eucosma citrana and fulvana, Endothenia ericitana, Argyroploce striana and G. sororculella,Brachmia rufescens, &c. Theelements had been most favourable (Plusia chrysitis was seen on a Pine) and still moths flocked to car-lights as soon as lit at Brandon at 1.0 a.m., and in their beams appeared almost incessantly the entire forty miles home : at Bamham they abounded and Prmnata was noted ; at Woolpit Footmen were profuse. But every box was füll, and these laggards had to be discarded at 2 a.m.

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137

Also, of other Orders, there came to Brandon lights, inter alia :— (Hymenoptera) Proctoirypes gravidator, L., Paniscus testaceus, Gr., and Meteorus deceptor, Wsm. ; (Diptera) Simulium nigrum, Mg., Tipula scripta, Mg., Pachyrhina histrio, F., Tachydromia lutea, Fln.,Eriothrix rufimaculaturn, DeG. and several Anthomyids ; (Hemiptera) Sehirus dubins, Scp., Lygus pratensis, F., Philcenus spumarius, L. and many Deltocephalus striatus, L . ; (Coleoptera) Calathus cisteloides, Pz., one female of 13 mm. on sugar at 10 p.m., and several Serica brunnea, L., at light. Of Rhagonycha fulva, Scp., a male flew to light at Monks Soham on 28th ; and of Ocypus brunnipes, Fab., one was on sugar at midnight in Barking woods on 7 August.—P. J. BURTON and CLAUDE MORLEY. Cheimophila salicella, HB., and OTHER MOTHS.—Below I enclose a list of the Lepidoptera I have caught in Suffolk during 1939, with date ; I hope this is sufficient [certainly localities should be appended to each.—Ed.] : Harmodia capsincola, Hb. and Abrostola triplasia, L., on 22 August; Pyralis farinalis, L. and Depressaria Alstromerana, Clk., on 23 August; C. salicella, Hb., on 15 and 20 April.—TONY BORROW, L o w e s t o f t ; 6 Oct.

Pyrausta 8-maculata, FAB.—This peculiarly conspicuous Botyd-moth has been recorded with extreme doubt from our County, and here needs confirmation (Mem. 1937, 128). In Newby Wood on Lake Windermere it flies, with a distinctive rolling motion that is very difficult to follow with the eye, among low brambles, and is rare (cf. Proc. 1937, p. cliii). This year the species was discovered to occur in goodly numbers on 20-21 June in a meadow of short grasses on the west side of a wood hanging to the Silurian rocky hill-side at five hundred feet (pace Stainton, 137) above the Rheidol Valley just east of Goginan in Cardigan. A stiff east wind was blowing through the trees and most of the Botyds were Aying low in sunshine amid Marguerites, Daisys, Buttercups and Eyebright. In the wood of only scrubby sessile-oaks, some fifteen feet high, was little herbage beyond moss, Heather and Cow-wheat: no Solidago (cf. E M M . xviii, 57) was noticed, though it abounded at Newby.— CLAUDE MORLEY. HORNTAILED WASPS IN SUFFOLK.—A good female of Sir ex gigas, Linn., was taken in a back yard at Gorleston on 3 August, which may be worth recording, especially as an enormous amount of imported timber has come in to the town this year (JOHN L. MOORE).—A female was given me, captured at north Holton °N 12 August (P. J. BURTON). [Several specimens of this fearsome beast have occurred this summer. Another female was sent in by a gardener from Easton, which had ' attacked ' h 'm in mid-July.—Ed.]

138

OBSERVATIONS.

WILD BEE'S NIDIFICATION.—This house possesses an ancient oak front-door ; this morning a small fulvous Bee visited it every four minutes from c. 10 a.m. to c. 2.30 p.m., when I saw that she had made a cell ' bricked up ' with a kind of cement, whic I think she pounded into place with her head. Pollen grains -were inside the hole she thusfilled; but I was not present when her egg was laid between 2.30 and 3.30. Ifindfrom Shuckard's book tbat Andrena-species do not nest in wood ; so write t if this Bee can be Osmia fulviventris : it is about 15 mm. with abdomen and legs tawny-red, head black, but I can not see the tongue though I caught her twice.—NANCY CRACKNELL, at Falcutt House, Brackley, Northants ; 21 May 1939. [There would be some doubt respecting the species of this Osmia if captured later in the year ; but O. fulviventris, Pz. (over which name ventralis, Pz., has priority), never emerges before June and is far less tawny than O. rufa, L., a species occurring commonly everywhere throughout May, during which month we ourseif have taken it at the Helpstone woods in that County.—Ed.] SOLE REMARKABLE FISH OF 1939.—The only Fish-note I have gathered is that of a fourteen inches River Lampern,Lampetra fluviatilis, Linn. (Trans, ii, 132), which was washed ashore at Lowestoft on 13 December 1938.—F. C. COOK, 24 Oct. 1939.

[Mr. Platter, teils us that the typical form of this species was found in the River Bat near Needham Market during April 1935.— Ed.] POND LIFE.—Having dug out a pond, keptfilledby a perpetual drip at one end, Ifilchedsome Water-lilies and other weeds from Hatchet Moor, with numerous Tadpoles and Watersnails. To these I introduced a dozen Golden Carp (Carassius auratus, L.), which at once spawned producing afineshoal of fry. Next some Green Frogs were ordered, instead of which a half-dozen Tree Frogs (Hyla arborea, L.) arrived and are very pretty little things of some U inches long, which have not appeared since being placed among rank undergrowth beside the pond ; but, on two warm evenings after dusk, one of them set up a loud and high-pitched piping that I could imitate well enough for him to respond immediately : they seem to have an extensive vocal sac under the chin that distends like a bag-pipe I have noted several breeding places along the shore, not given in Kelsall's' Birds of Hampshire.'—HENRY ANDREWS, Lymington ; 8 July.

SLOWWORM'S HABITS.—When we were away from home at the end of last June, a large Anguis fragilis, Linn., was left my house in Southwold by an unknown donor. On my return, after it had been in a dry and rather hot jar for almost a fortnight, I put it into the bottom of a wet pail and noticed that it began to drink a few drops of water. Therefore I removed

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139

it to a deep earthenware basin, on some moist earth, and offered it a small Earthworm which it seized and swallowed ; it took two more and then appeared satisfied. Since then it has had a couple of small worms about twice a week, taking them from my fingers. It eats the worms rather in the manner of a small Water Tortoise except that, after grabbing them suddenly, it takes rather a long time to swallow its prey, in fact several minutes—D. W . COLLINGS. ORNITHOLOGICAL O B S E R V A T I O N S . — T h e usual number of birds nested in proximity to the aerodrome on Martlesham Heath this spring, and several Lapmings, Ringed Plovers, Stonechats and Tree Pipits were successfully reared there. T h e Lapwing colony continues to persist in breeding actually upon the landing field, and their nests are placed within only a few feet of the aircrafts' alightment.—Mr. R. H . Sherwood of Blaxhall first heard the Cuckoo on 16 April, which is its normal day of advent at Monks Soham. But fewer of these birds than is usual arrived this spring on account of the uncommonly bad weather; a great many of their usual haunts here remained void, and in both Yorks and Lancs the same absence was experienced. A pair of Red-backed Shrikes chose a garden inside the borough of Ipswich as a nesting place this y e a r ; there they nidificated in an apple-tree, and five young were successfully reared. In the same tree built a pair of House Sparrows, whose offspring doubtless feil victims to so predaceous a bird as the Shrike. In one other Ipswich garden were observed the following nests :— House Sparrow, Blackbird, Thrush, Linnet, Hedge Sparrom, Robin, Chaffinch, Blue Tit and Mittle Thrush, that of the Tits being subsequently utilised by a pair of Wrens inside an empty cocoanutshell.—Several couples of Common Curlews were seen along our coast during last June which were non-breeders, doubtless, for at that period they would be tending young of six-weeks old. I witnessed a flight of eight at Boyton a few weeks after my return from the northern moors, where I had photographed several young specimens. Their presence here at that time might lead to the question whether they had bred : it is, however, quite safe to assert that the Curlew never nests in this part of England, for its nesting environment is invariably upon mountainsides amid Crowberry, Ling and Heather, far above sea level.

ROUGH-LEGGED B U Z Z A R D . — A pair of birds that most probably pertained to this species was observed last December upon several occasions near the Westleton and Dunwich coast. Both possessed white underparts, slightly mottled with dark coloration, and white tails with an outer brown band. T h e back and upperwing surfaces of one were dull blue-grey and of the other smokeybrown. T h e legs of both were feathered and dull yellow with yellow feet. T h e flight was that of the common Buzzard, but the above coloration accords much better with the present species.

140

OBSERVATIONS.

OYSTER-CATCHER.—A pair of Oyster-catchers successfully reared a brood on our coast near Hollesley this year. Their nest was placed on shingle at some fifteen feet above high-water mark ; and three eggs were hatched on 16 June. The sole doubtful record [ but cf. Trans, supra, p. 92—Ed.] of this species nidification in our County since 1911 is from Orfordness, whence this bird has disappeared owing to serial bombardments.

Now it has resumed its breeding about four miles further south, where we hope it may increase and multiply in numbers. The Oystercatcher is rarer than formerly on our coast, preferring those of Yorks and Cumberland.—C. S. LAST. RINGED B I R D — T h e Museum of Natural History at Leiden thanks you for information about marked bird, no. D 2 2 3 1 5 [page 93 supra], It is a female Starling ringed near the Hague on 2 7 Sept. 1 9 3 7 as adult.—DR. G . D. W I L M I N K , Riiksmuseum; 1 9 Dec. 1 9 3 8 .

NIDIFICATION OF Phoenicurus Tithys, SCOP.—Last July our Member, Mr. Lingwood, heard that " the Black Redstart has nested in Ipswich. The adults with young have been observed in a garden near the centre of the töwn during 1 to 10 July.

The adult male can be identified by the dusky head, neck and back, dark brown wings, and chestnut tail " (EADaily Times, 18 July). Our Member, Mr. W. T. B. Block, expatiated that these birds " were observed in the garden of the Ipswich Club in Northgate-street there at the end of June. The young had left the nest, and were being fed on the ground. Unfortunately there is no clue to the nest's whereabouts, as the birds had not been seen or heard previously. The whole family stayed here several days, and were easily observable. The cock was frequently seen and heard on the walls and roof; on the ground his movements were spritely and Robin-like. He was seen by myself and others at a distance of ten or fifteen yards, and his appearance agreed entirely with the descriptions and illustrations in the books we referred to. Hence it must be concluded that the birds had n e s t e d in this neighbourhood " (loc. cit., 22 July).

No previous nesting is known in Suffolk, where Black Redstarts are almost confined in their migrations to 24 March—30 April and 8 October—1 December, so the above occurrence in July is altogether phenomenal.—Ed. I have records from Lowestoft since 1911 of no less than forty Black Redstarts, the whole of which have occurred with unfailing regularity during the months of October, April and March. But the present year has produced the exceptional dates: 17 May, 19 August and 30 August. Dr. Ticehurst quotes (Birds Suff. 161) one seen at Aldeburgh on 18 September as a very early date.—F. C . COOK, 24 Oct. [Such strongly goes to substantiate the probability of the species' breeding in our County this year.—Ed.]

OBSERVATIONS.

141

A N ESCAPED Branta Canadensis.—A Canada Goose was caught alive on the River Orwell in the middle of last January, apparentlv on 14th ; its weight was 11 \ pounds, and wing-span of sixty-six inches is well illustrated in the Ipswich newspaper of 19th. These Geese " are kept full-winged and breed on various private waters [in Suffolk], and at times wander far afield. T h e numerous occurrences on our estuaries and inland waters are due to ' escapes.' It is curious that all [sie] the records of the wanderings of the Canada Goose relate to the months April to July," remarks Ticehurst in Birds Suff. 259.

A BITTERN INLAND, AND L I L I E S . — I suppose you heard of a Bittern being killed by telephone-wires at Thrandeston near Eye on or about 11 March ; I am told that it has been s e n t t o the Ipswich Museum.—Last year I potted two Lilies from my garden at Stuston, a wild tulip (Tulipa sylvestris, L.) and a wild fritillary (.Fritillaria Meleagris, L.) and put them in my greenhouse ; both are now in bloom.—C. H. GALE ; 25 March.

FOOD OF ARDEA CINEREA, L . — O n my return to duty after a time on the sick list, I found awaiting me your speeimen of a Heron's regurgitated pellet that our Members had picked up at Scotts Hall during the Field Meeting in June last. In it I recognise the following six kinds of Insects : (Beetles) one example of each of the aquatic species Colymbetes fuscus, L . ; Dytiscus circumflexus, Fab. ; and Hydrophilus piceus, L. ; (Bugs) II examples of Naucoris eimieoides, L . ; 2 of Notonecta glauca, L . ; (Dragonfly) 2 nymphs of Brachytron pratense, Müll. But no trace of any Corixa waterboatmen.—DR. K. G. BLAIR, British Museum, Cromwell Road, S.W. 7 ; 5 July 1939. [ All these kinds are among our largest of their groups, so it is pretty obvious Herons ignore the smaller ones. Kirkman and Jourdain in their 1930 ' Brit. Birds ' term the food " extremely variable but chiefly Fish, usually fresh-water species such as Eel, Trout, Lamperns, Sticklebacks, &c; also Mammals, Watervole, Brown-rat, Field-mice, Shrews, Mole, Rabbit and (once) Bat: occasionally such Birds as Waterhen, young Coot, Waterrail, Dunlin, Snipe, young Terns, & c ; Mollusca, chiefly freshwater ; Worms, small Crustacea and Insects (Water-beetles, Flies, Caddis-flies, &c., and their larvse); also small quantities of Mosses, Algae, Seeds and other vegetable matter." Neither Herons nor Heronry were apparcut at Blythburgh on 20 Sept.last.—Ed.] T H E BIRDS OF S O M E R S H A M — I t may interest your Members to know that I have noted no less than fifty-eight different kinds in my garden here during the eighteen months since my arrival.— THE REVD. A. G. TAYLOR, T h e Rectory, Somersham, near Ipswich ; 5 Sept. 1939. [Mr. Taylor also sends the arrival dates of twenty migrants, - whose compulsory omission we greatly regret.—Ed.lJ

142

OBSERVATIONS.

BIRDS OF THE W E L S H M O U N T A I N S . — I spent some time early last August in touring the less frequented mountain passes of northern Wales, which are often little better than sheep-walks and necessitate some care in traversing cross-gullies where the gradient is so steep that one's bonnet obscures forward vision and the track falls sheer away on one or other side of the motor.

Birds were much more frequent than might have been expected and I cannot have seen all occurring there. Wrens and Robins' Buntings, Wheatears and at least three kinds of Wagtails, were plentiful; Crows consorted with such flight-mates as the Raven which, though living more solitarily, was well in evidence. On the summit of Berwyn Mountains a keeper showed me a Raven's late nest, situated in a dark crevice flanking a deep ravine, clearly visible solely from an overhanging crag though discernible with a powerful glass from the opposing side of the ravine ; the keeper assured me a family of five had been safely brought off. The beautiful Common Buzzard and Peregrine Falcon were often seen, hovering overhead. The 'Bird Rock' is a mighty precipice outcrop of Cader Idris, named from a considerable colony of Cormorants, which has there nested from time immemorial and is the only instance known to me of these weird marine Birds breeding inland. Even so late in the season, large numbers of them were still frequenting the Iedges and Aying to and f r o : a most unusual sight at so high an altitude. Their rocks were shared by numerous Jackdaws that, doubtless, often found dainty mors, 's left by the young Cormorants. There I had the pleasure ot aieeiing Mr. R. Beauchamp, a well known Naturalist of about fifty and son of the late Canon Henry Woodroffe Beauchamp, soa.r: thirty years ago R.ctor of Copdock, where he was buried on 16 j ily 1915 and my acquaintance had been born.—GEORGE B I R D ; Ipswich, 15 August. [Jackdaws are always so abundant at both Aberystwyth and Barmouth as to constitute a nuisance, nesting in house-chimnies and, of early mornings, uprooting plants that gardeners had potted out the previous day in public gardens. We, who were not looking for them, saw no Ravens along the coast from Aberayron to Port Madoc this summer.—Ed.] BIRDS OF THE NORTH.—Last May I thoroughly enjoyed a week amidst the Birds in our more northern counties. One is much surprised by the abundance of Wagtails in the Lake district, where the roadside stone walls afford such suitable nesting places that pairs of Pied Wagtails are to be seen at intervals of every quarter-mile. The Yellow Wagtail is very common at about eight hundred feet on the felis, and its familiar call resounds in well nigh every pasture. Here Coal Tits' nests abound in the loosely stoned walls, wherein they are built low and very safely.

While motoring I saw a Coal Tit fly across the road many times into a quite small hole of the wall hardly a foot above the ground

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143

and, upon every investigation, a nest was discovered in it.

Lapwings and Curlews frequent the felis in great numbers and their timbered sides afford cover to many Tree Pipits. Meadow Pipits are no rarer in the lowlands, where they replace Sky Larks that are locally quite rare. The Lake-sides show a profusion of Sand-pipers, whose nests lie some ten yards from the waters' edge, either beneath tree-roots or in impressed grass.

One can often touch the sitting bird on these nests, then she vacates her stance and makes off with drooping wing, as though broken, to distract one's attention from her eggs. Other wild fowl of various sorts also breed around the Lakes, where many broods of young are to be observed upon the stretches of their water, e.g. plentiful Moorhens and Coot, with an occasional pair of Water-rail so little met with in Suffolk. We searched in Valleys where small streams run for Dippers' nests, finding several under the overhanging trees and rocks, and sometimes but a very few feet above the current. In such a Situation an occasional Grey Wagtails' nest was stumbled upon ; and it grows quite apparent why nidification is so rare in Suffolk, when the environment peculiar to these Westmorelar.d ones is noted.

High above the Valleys the Sparrow Hawk and Kestrel are very common on the mountain sides, nesting there within a few yards of each other and along with the Carrion Crow, whose old habitations are usually converted to their own uses. Buzzards are frequent along the mountain-ledges and sometimes in the taller of the trees, where several nests were noted in a slope overlooking Thirlmere ; locally their chief prey consists of the wild fowl breeding on the Lakes' edges. Near there were seen Peregrine Falcons, the largest of our predatory birds in England where Eagles are considered extinct; it nests on ledges of the precipitous crags and is most difficult of approach ; one nest we examined contained no less than eighteen Pigeons' legs ' complete with rings' ! With them were intermixed several Rabbits' feet and carcases of some large birds. At the same altitude are Ravens, but they breed so early in the season that no young were now visible, though deserted nests of previous years were discovered, some four and even five feet in diameter. After running from these heights, we traversed many miles of swampy ground, inhabited by Black Cock and Red Grouse, amongst which were noted an occasional Partridge, Woodcock and Redshank. To the coast our attention was next turned, to search for aquatic species ; and one of our Isles' oldest sanctuaries was investigated: here were Common and Herring Gulls in profusion, with nests quite close together. Here too had assembled and mingled with them a few Terns, though their main colonies were entirely isolated. The Arctic Tern breeds in hundreds of thousands, adiacent to the nests of Lesser and Common Terns. Along the bare sandy shore were noted broods

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OBSERVATIONS.

of Oyster-catchers, whose large streaked eggs were conspicuous several feet away. Along this coast also breed such water fowl as Red-breasted Mergansers, Puffins and Redshank in such huge numbers as to greatly impress this natural paradise of the avian world upon one's recollection. On a different part of the same sanctuary sea birds selected their sites upon the rocky cliffs : Guillemots and Razorbills breeding in colossal profusion.

T h e formers' eggs, so gaudy in their colour, added an extra beauty to the striking scene. With all these, the ledges were shared by a few Green Shag and Cormorants, while now and then a Fulmar Petrel would circle overhead. Thence many Waders could be seen feeding on the shore ; Dunlin, Sanderling, Redshank, Godwits and other sea-fowl. Of the species met with by us in the North, more than fifty never journey to sunny Suffolk.

EGGS L A I D BY CUCKOO.—The number of eggs that any single Cuckoo will lay in a season has ever been a point of controversy.

Under normal conditions it may be computed at a dozen or even less. One eminent ornithologist, however, obtained fiveand-twenty from a bird that was in her fifth year, all deposited in Meadow Pipits' nests between 11 May and 29 June and, with one exception, all laid on alternate days. Such Observation was rendered possible by the provision of suitable fosterer's nests.

In another year the same bird deposited twenty-one eggs under more natural circumstances; and the next year only fifteen •were forthcoming. Various similar long series are known from Reed Warbiers' nests with eighteen and nineteen eggs, and in Germany seventeen. Meadow Pipits, however, and Hedge Sparrows are the commonest British fosterers in southern England ; Reed Warbiers, locally in the south ; Pied Wagtails, Robins and Sedge Warbiers : in fact, over fifty kinds of fosterers are known, though in many cases merely accidental, as is shown

by Witherby and Tucker's information on this curious subject.

POSSIBLE

SHINGLE-STREET

SANCTUARY.—Disappointment

of large increases that were anticipated in our Terneries befeil us this year. T h e Common kind, that had become well established during 1938, decided to nest further north, and occupied a shingle reach on the river's northern bank. T h e Lesser species also vacated their usual site at Hollesley, and merely a few pairs maintained the earlier colony. T h e new habitat was well patronised by some two hundred pairs in one large colony.

Cause of the transference must be attributed to disturbance by intruders who raise the birds during incubation ; and, unless something drastic be done to prevent its recurrence, our sole Ternery remains in peril of total desertion.—CECIL S . L A S T .

A N A N O M A L O U S PLAYMATE.—It may interest our Members to know that my sister and I, while Walking in the country in Surrev this week, watcheda Cat and a Fox romping in a meadow :

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upon seeing us watching them they both fled into a wood.— CAMERON D. OVEY, Zoology Dept., British Museum ; 1 8 May. [Cub-play, unlike horse play, is well known to be a beautiful sight upon the rare occasions when one is so fortunate as to witness i t ; but we have never before heard of a Cat sharing the fun. A somewhat parallel case j u m p s to mind in the Lamb that W. H. Hudson records to have associated so intimately with Collies as to actively hunt with them the Vizcachas on the plains of Buenos Ayres (Book of Nat. 1924, 121).—Ed.] BADGERS persisted in the Barking neighbourhood until the presumably final specimen was slain during 1913 in Park Wood there or the densely timbered chalk-pit just to the south of it.—JOHN

BURTON,

V.V.,

13

Nov.

1938.

SQUIRRELS.—It is indeed good to hear that the Red Squirrel is distinctly on the increase in our County. One came down and fed from the Bird-table quite close to our dinir.groom window here yesterday.—CLEMENT CHEVALLIER, Rushmere Cottage near Ipswich; v.v. 9 Nov. [They are secretive little chaps and have the habit of placing a stout tree-trunk between themselves and any approaching noise, thus eluding Observation.

We saw one run across the road, with conspicuous brush, at Bedingfield on 17 October. In Wales last summer they were hardly more evident than here, but a few specimens were seen in both the hills f.round Barmouth and the splendid Powys Park at Welshpool. And, on the way home in July, a Grey Squirrel was very conspicuous beside the road at Ampthill in Beds at 5.30 p.m.—Ed.] SUFFOLK'S T H I R D Delphinus tursio, F A B . — " A bottle-nosed dolphin, an unusual fish [sie : cf. Trans, supra Vol. ii, p. 30], which was first believed to be a shark, has been washed up on the beach at Sizewell [Precently]. It was identified after the jaw had been sent to the Natural Historv Museum " (Local Ipswich Paper, 7 Oct. 1939). But all are not Pisces that the sea throws up!

POLTERING A KALLOONA.—A fisher from the shore made a remarkable catch, one day when I happened to be watching, at Shingle-street in Hollesley during October: he feit a terrific tug on his line, having hooked a monster of sorts weighing mnety-eight pounds. Consequently his rod snapped like tinder and he had to be especially careful in playing the quarry, which struggled to such a game extent that nearly two hours had passed before it ceded to force majeure and was gently reeled p • What was every bystander's amazement when finally a "orpoise appeared on the beach ! T h a t is the first time I have ever heard of Phoccena communis, Cuv., succumbing to the wiles

° t r o d a n d l i n e . — C E C I L S . LAST.