Notes and Observations 13 Part 6

NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS L O N G EARED BAT. In March, 1 9 6 7 , a live female long eared bat was found on the floor under a hole in the ceiling of a room at Great Glemham School House.

J O H N RAINER,

Great Glemham.

(Plecotus auritus: see Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 13:90—Ed.) PIPISTRELLE BATS IN SNAPE CHURCH. The bats were first heard in this winter roost Ist Januar}', 1967: sixteen males and eight females, all that were present, were removed on 8th January, 1967 and taken to London to form a breeding colony in captivity.

On 24th February, 1967, there were one male and one female which cannot have been amongst those removed on 8th January.

The female was marked and released at Great Glemham on 28th February but was not recovered.

MRS. HARRISON, Snape Hall.

SPEED OF HARE (Lepus europaeus). On a night in April, 1 9 6 6 , an adult hare ran in front of my car for about f mile while the speedometer registered between 20-28 m.p.h.

C. W. PIERCE, Needham Market.

RED AND G R E Y SQUIRRELS. We still have Red Squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) but the first Grey Squirrel (S. carolinensis) was seen here in October, 1966.

MRS. BARTON, College Farm, Blakenham.

FOOD OF WATER VOLE (Arvicola terrestris). That Field Voles (Microtus) and Bank Voles (Clethrionomys) are pests of forestry damaging young trees by barking them and cutting off their shoots, is well known but there are few records of similar damage by Water Voles (Arvicola) in this county. Southern (Handbook of British Mammals) records them as eating river- and pond-side Vegetation but they have also been recorded as killing young poplar trees by eating the underground roots (Mackay, Trans.

Suffolk Nat. Soc. 11:354) and, above ground, as Stripping the bark from fĂźll grown willow trees (Cranbrook, Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 10:336) and eating the leaves of field maple (Payn, Trans.

Suffolk Nat. Soc. 12:384). In the autumn of 1965 a number of young larches between two and three feet high were planted, each within a one and half inch mesh wire netting sleeve, along a large ditch or stream bed which carries the surface drainage of a small Valley about 1,000 acres in area. The stream runs throughout most of the winter but only at times of very heavy rainfall in the summer. About a mile lower down the Valley a few springs make

412 Transactions of the Suffolk Naturalisis',

Vol. 13, Part 6

the stream permanent and from there onwards Arvicola is not uncommon. Düring the summers of 1965 and 1966 men cleaning the ditch killed a number of "black rats": two which I saw were Arvicola.

Düring the summer of 1966 about 30% of the larches died and as the field in which they stood (barley, undersown with clover) had been sprayed with herbicide this was attributed to spray-drift. Deaths continued after harvest when examination showed that the dead trees had been barked by a rodent and in several cases the leading shoots bitten off. T h e toothmarks were clearly those of Arvicola, wider than those of Rattus, larger than those of the smaller voles. There were very obvious " r u n s " in the clover along the entire length of the field by the ditch side but these did not extend for more than two or three yards into the clover on the landward side.

CRANBROOK, Great Glemham.

HARVEST M O U S E (Micromys minutus).

Düring the past three years I have found harvest mouse nests in Blaxhall, Chillesford, and Gedgrave.

P. A. B A N K S , Butley.

R O E D E E R (Capreolus capreolus).

Düring at Berners Heath and Cavenham Heath.

1966 I

saw Roe Deer

H. J. LEE, Ipswich.

F A L L O W D E E R (Dama darna).

There are now about 1 0 0 Fallow Deer in the Forestry Commission's woods at Rendlesham and Tunstall. In February, 1962, I found a black fallow fawn, not more than a few days old.

P . A . BANKS, Butley.

M U N T J A C D E E R (Muntiacus sp.).

A Muntjac Deer was killed on the road in Sudbourne 30th December, 1966.

P . A . BANKS, Butley.

5

A NEW PLANT—Sonchus maritimus, L. This species has not been recorded before for Suffolk or in any British Flora, but it is described in Bonnier's French Flora from southern and western France.

Miss Ruth Manning found this specimen below the cliffs at Felixstowe where many aliens have been recorded. It is a tiny plant, only three inches tall. But the most striking difference from all other species of Sonchus is that the leaves are not simple or lobed. Six pairs of small quadrangular leaflets are attached to the midrib by short petioles. They dont lie in one plane but stand up almost vertically from the midrib.

NOTES AND

OBSERVATIONS

413

I await confirmation about its being a species new to Britain but Mr. E. A. Ellis thinks it may be.

If you do see another such Sow-Thistle do let us know, but do not pick it, let it seed itself naturally.

J.

C.

N.

WILLIS.