Notes and Observations 12 Part 6

NOTES

AND

OBSERVATIONS

L O N G - E A R E D BAT (Plecotus auritus).

I found a female long-eared bat Aying in my cellar, February, 1964.

H. G. BARRETT, Malthouse Farm, Winston.

W h e n this bat was put into the same Container as a female noctule the two slept happilv together side by side pressed closely together.

CRANBROOK, G t .

Glemham.

BATS IN SNAPE CHURCII. Twelve male and three female pipistrelles (P. pipistrellus) were removed on 27th February, 1964, from their usual hibernaculum, tattooed vvith a four in the left wing and released at Westleton. None were heard during the Service on Ist, 8th and 15th M a r c h and none could be found in the usual place on 16th March. ( M R S . ) R . A . HARRISON, Snape Hall.

HIBERNATING HEDGEHOGS (Erinaceus europaeus).

During 1963 1 captured two hedgehogs, a male and a female, which I kept in a small paved garden in London, feeding them on household scraps. T h e y slept under a pile of leaves, Coming out at night to feed. Both were handled regularly and the male became exceedingly tarne, he would not roll up even when handled by a series of school childrui : the female however remained nervous and shy. At the end of October both were feeding well and in good condition, the male weighing 2 lb. 8 ozs. the female 2 lb.

4 ozs. Early in November they stopped feeding regularly and were presumably in hibernation. During the next four months though food was put out regularly very little was eaten—and that possibly by stray cats. During the first half of March food was taken more frequently and by 25th March both were out of hibernation and feeding regularly. T h e male then weighed 1 lb. 12 ozs. and was as tarne as before, the female weighed 1 lb.

6 ozs. and was still nervous.

C. GATHORNE-HARDY, G t .

Glemham.

NEST-BOXES AS W I N T E R ROOSTS. On the nights of 23rd and 24th January, 1964, I inspected ninety nest-boxes in Great Finborough Park to find what birds and mammals were using them

460 Transactions of the Suffolk Naturalists',

Vol. 12, Part 6

for roosting purposes. Thirty-two boxes in all were found to be occupied : 10 each contained one blue tit 9 each contained one great tit 2 each contained one marsh tit 4 each contained one starling 4 each contained a pair of starlings 2 each contained a pair of harvest mice 1 contained a red squirel R. J. COPPING, S t o w m a r k e t .

YELLOW-NECKED MOUSE (Apodetnus flavicollis). I have caught a number of yellow-necked mice in this house during the winter but no long-tailed field mice (A. sylvestris).

W. V. LOVETT, Rosehill, Farnham.

I trapped one yellow-necked mouse in the house in January and have seen two or three half-eaten corpses brought in by the cats which I think were the same—in each case the front half was eaten.

(MRS.) J. LEWIS, Little Bealings.

A yellow-necked mouse was trapped in a lettuce frame in March, after we found the lettuces were being eaten by some animal.

(MRS.) J. S. SCHREIBER, M a r i e s f o r d Hall.

SHREWS IN CHURCH. Mrs. E. Monro sent me a Common Shrew (Sorex araneus) and a Pigmy Shrew ( S . minutus) caught in mouse traps in Cransford Church, reporting " several of the smaller ones but only one of the larger ".

CRANBROOK, G t .

Glemham.

HARVEST MOUSE (Micromys minutus).

A number of Harvest Mice were seen and one killed during threshing at Manor Farm, Barham, in January, 1964. ( M R S . ) J . HADFIELD, Barham Manor.

Viola lactea (E.C. ; B. & S.) a EW RECORD for Suffolk. This very local plant, mostly of West Country has been found by Mr. E. Milne-Redhead, M.A., F L . S of Kew near Great Dingle Hill at Walberswick. It is in fact the first record of this violet in East Anglia.

J.

C. N .

WILLIS.

461

NOTES AND OBSERVATION^

Neottia nidus—avis (I,.) Rieh. Mr. Martin found it this June in a wood not far from Ixworth. This is only the sixth record in recent years of this stränge orehis which seems to be rare now in this county, though Hind in 1889 recorded it in over thirty parishes. It may be that some people because of its eolour have taken it for a Broomrape and tnought it not worth reporting.

J. C.

N.

WILLIS.

TULIPS. Mrs. Grimwood of Little Bealings told the Hon. See. of some tulips that had appeared in her garden which resembled the yellow wild ones. Mr. Bendix, who I am glad to say is in the best of health after his long illness, went round to see them, agreed that they enormously resembled the wild ones but preferred to think they were garden ones gone wild. He had seen wild yellow tulips at Inkpen, Berks, in 1951, when Mr. Lousley told him that the ordinary yellow garden tulip can very quickly take on the appearance of the real thing but would not be counted as such until it had been recorded in the same place for about one hundred years. In view of frequent reports we get of garden plants being found wild this point is worth noting.

J.

C.

N.

WILLIS.

A HERON DISCOMFITED. Early in May, 1964, a heron landed on the lake here, joining the score or so of mallard which are permanent residents and a similar number of black-headed gulls which are regulär visitors in the spring and summer. It walked out into the lake to fish but was suddenly attacked by the gulls, each in turn Aying above the heron and swooping down on it like a dive bomber. Between each attack the heron stood with its beak pointing upwards in the conventional defensive attitude. In that position it looked impregnable, for any attacker would inevitably be impaled or at least severely damaged if it dived onto the beak, but as each successive gull pressed home its attack the heron drew its head down between its shoulders, beak horizontal, in what looked like terrified Submission. Finally it walked back towards the bank and towards a family of young ducklings whereupon the mother duck flew up flapping her wings at the heron's head. It immediately took flight, being pursued for about one hundred yards by all the gulls.

CRANBROOK, Gt. Glemham.