Notes and Observations 9 Part 2

NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS WATER SHREW FEEDING.—At about 4 p.m. one day last summer I watched a water shrew (Neomys fodiens) feeding on a small pond at Webbs Farm, Milden. He was using as his feeding place a water lily leaf over which another leaf had curled giving some cover against Observation from the air. For some f hour I watched him eating water snails crunching up the shells with his teeth, but never saw how he got the snails ; the pond abounds with them.

There was a considerable pile of broken shells in the middle of the leaf on which he was feeding.

J. M. ARCHIBALD. BADGER.—Meies m. meles. There is an active badger's earth in a bank of woodland ditch near my house. The hunt earthstoppers have filled in the holes several times during the winter, but the badger soon opens them up again. The badger has been active all through the winter, the tracks into the wood are well worn and bedding has been turned out of the sett at intervals since the middle of February.

J- VANE, Darmsden Hall.

A LATE LEVERET—A female hare containing a fully developed leveret was shot here in mid-December, 1954—Hon. J. P. PHILLIPS, Dalham Hall.

SEASONAL MIGRATION OF HARES—The hare population here is rather peculiar. We only shoot six to ten hares during the shooting season but in February and March we regularly have an invasion for breeding. Two years ago we had two or three hare drives in March and shot 44. Last year we did not shoot so many, about 22 I think. We get a good many hares in the harvest field and after that they disappear, except for the odd one.—F. G. C. FISON, Stutton Hall, Ipswich.

There is a regulär seasonal migration of hares in this district, they appear in considerable numbers in October or November and seem to leave again in the Spring. It is always said locally that they leave the Fens when these become wet and cold in the Autumn, returning when they dry out in the Spring.—J. P. PHILLIPS, Dalham Hall.

RED SQVIKKEL Sciurus vulgaris.—'The Red Squirrel would appear to be increasing in numbers in Bonny Wood—parish of Barking.

I know of 6 dreys in the wood.—J. VANE, Darmsden Hall.

YELLOW NECKED MOUSE (Apodemusflavicollis)—EveryAutumn from about October to the end of the year I catch about a score of these animals in an upstairs Store cupboard here and a few in my onion shed. Occasionally I catch them out of doors, usually under some big tree where I have seen a heap of fresh gravel scrapped out of a new hole. I do not remember catching any

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other field mouse than A. flavicollis here, save a few voles in the pea rows in the spring. Düring the recent snow (in January 1955) I threw half a pail of acorns in a little wood and thereafter noticed a considerable mouse traffic in the snow. In about 3 days all the acorns had gone.—D. DOYLE JONES, Valley Farm, Higham.

Regularly every winter I catch A. flavicollis in the house and outbuildings and usually a few A. sylvaticus. Normally I get them indoors in the proportion of three flavicollis to one sylvaticus but between October, 1954 and January, 1955 I caught 13 of the first and none of the second. A. sylvaticus is common in the garden but, here at any rate, hardly ever comes into the house and not often into the outbuildings while flavicollis does both regularly.

In the garden they seem to share the same habitat—they certainly share the same hole at times—yet they do not seem to intergrade in colouring i.e. sylvaticus are never so red on the upper parts or pure while below.—Major W. H. PAYNE, Härtest Place.

A. flavicollis has been reported in 1954 from the following fresh localities :—Burgh (Sir Cecil Oakes, C.B.E., indoors in winter), Härtest (Major W. H. Payn, indoors in winter), Rougham (Dr. P. Crowcroft, in a wood in summer).

A L B I N O R A T S — A white rat was caught in the garden h e r e ; there must be a family of them about as another was killed during threshing on a near by farm a week or so ago. Mrs. RIVIS, Rosehill, Farnham—This specimen, now in the Ipswich Museum was a white brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) and not an escaped tarne white r a t ; these last are a domesticated form of the Black rat {Rattus rattus).

FIELD VOLE (Microtus agrestis) O N HAVERGATE ISLAND— This animal seems to have re-established itself on Havergate Island since the flood on January, 1953—probably a few survived to breed. Reg. Partridge the Warden reports having seen several at various times during 1954. In December I saw at least three short eared owls on the Island which would seem to substantiate his statement.—Lt. Col. H. G . BROWNLOW. COYPU (Myocastor coypus)—This animal has extended its ränge to the Hundred River below Latymere Dam where there were upwards of half dozen in the summer of 1 9 5 4 — S I R ROBERT GOOCH,

BT.

TREMATODES.-—Dissecting the gut of several mice and moles in a routine search for parasites, espcially Trematodes, I have so far found large identifiable specimens as follows :—four adult specimens of Itygoni muslorum Dujardin, (1845), (Trematode Brachylaemidae) in the intestine of one adult Mole, Talpa europaea L. from Trimley; Brachylaemus recurvatus Dujardin,

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1845, in the Long-tailed Field Mouse Apodemus sylvaticus sylvaticus L. I have dissected 12 specimens, all from Old Felixstowe, butonly in one could I find any parasites (two specimens of the above) It has been recorded from the house-mouse in Vienna, but so far I have not found any in those I dissected.—H. C . G R A N T .

SAMOUELLE'S ENTOMOLOGICAL C A B I N E T . — P a r t s 1 3 to 2 5 of this publication, bound into a volume, recently came into my hands, and I judge it to be of some rarity. The parts consisted of six plates together with descriptive matter, the size being foolscap octavo. There is a list of contents bound in at the end but no title or other introductory matter. The dates on the plates make it evident that publication was monthly up to Aug. 1833 and that the remaining parts were issued in Oct. to Dec. 1833 and in April 1834, and it seems that after this the gallant venture came to an end.

G. Samouelle seems to have resided or done a good deal of his exploring in the London area, to have been a very painstaking and learned naturalist and to have been given to devout reflections withal. For instance, in the course of remarks on the common wasp he attributed the killing off of immature stock in October by the old wasps to kindly Providence, " mindful of the happiness of the smallest of his creatures ", Who thus ensured the young did not become starved or frozen to death. Samouelle's method of selection was haphazard in the extreme, and one wonders if this was a reflection of how his collection was arranged. Most were beetles, but insects of other Orders are interspersed with them with a total disregard of order. But the plates are sheer works of art. Only one insect is shown on each plate. The drawing and hand colouring are superb. The natural gloss of the insects having any is faithfully reproduced and even transparent wings are painted with a preparation giving them a life-like look. Who was the artist ? Samouelle does not claim to have done them himself, but it is quite possible, as in like cases the artist was not mentioned. I have never seen finer work of the kind. ERNEST T.

GOLDSMITH.

WRYNECK S U R V E Y . — D r . J. F. Monk thanks those who have sent him records of this bird, but asks once more that records of every day upon which every bird has been seen or heard may be sent to him direct at any time. If the project is to be successful this applies just as forcibly in areas where the Wryneck is common as where it is scarce.

His address is Little Stow, Goring-on-Thames, Reading, Berkshire.

T H E BULLFINCH has been increasing in numbers for the past few years at Darmsden and this year has really not been uncommon.

It may be due to the planting up of plum and greengage trees in some numbers.—J. VANE, Darmsden Hall.

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CORVUS MENDAX—from E . A . D . T . 24.2.55.—Others besides myself who were deprived of electricity for some 15 hours last Saturday and Sunday must have wondered what kind of rook it was which, according to a spokesman of the Eastern Electricity Board, was responsible for the mishap. Local farmers do not take a high view of the rook's character ; but few, I think would have considered it capable of wrecking the whole electricity supply system from Claydon to Framlingham.

An ornithological friend of mine suggests that the bird which is believed to have savaged the cable at Claydon last Saturday was not the common rook corvus frugilegus or even the hooded crow, corvus cornix, but a rare variant of the Carrion crow, called corvus mendax.

This uncommon visitor used to find the keen air of East Anglia uncongenial, but it may have been attracted in recent years by currents of hot air emanating from the Cliff Quay power Station.

Corvus mendax bears a superficial resemblance to the jackdaw, and like that bird can be taught to say almost anything. As it sits on the electricity cables it may be heard uttering its raucous and rather ridiculous " caw, caw, caw "—a cry which is believed by students of folklore to have been the origin of that old East Suffolk phrase, " Telling it to the Marines."—JOHN HADFIELD, Barham Manor, Near Ipswich.

Medicago minima.—Miss W H I T I N G reports that among the plants she found in flower at Butley on April 30th were the Small Medick of the Eastern Counties and Vicia lathyroides (Spring Vetch).

We do not seem to have reported hitherto Cerastium semidecandrum (Little Mouse-ear Chickweed or Ckrysosplenium oppositifolium (Golden Saxifrage). T h e latter is not often met with in Suffolk, but Mrs. Trevor Waller saw it in Mr. Barrington's wild garden at Hollesley. A single plant of Sherardia arvensis (Field Madder) was flowering early in spite of its exposed Situation and generally late season.

Potentilla argentea.—Hon. Mrs. A. J. WATSON, has found this growing abundantly on a part of her heathland, which had formerly been nibbled bare by rabbits. It is now gay with many small plants hitherto not seen there.

MOSSES AND LIVERWORTS.—Mr. Bingley has undertaken to identify and record new species found in Suffolk since Mr. Mayfield published his lists about 30 years ago. He requests that any reports sent to him should be accompanied by a specimen to ensure correct determination.