Editorial 2 Part 1

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EDITORIAL. WE are glad to hail the safe advent of our Member Lord Cranbrook from the wilds of Upper Burma and Thibet, where he studied Mammals with the explorer Capt. Kingdon Ward. Even in these sophisticated days, a few odd corners of Old Earth remain terra incognita, where it is yet possible to come at privations and to live upon short rations, eked out by native Squirrel and such indigenous bonnes bouches. Here and there chasms were crossable solely by an improvised rope; coolies occasionally took to vampoosing ; and the climate had always to be fought.

The terrain was the north-east corner of the Indian Empire, presumably just where General Bower's " Abor Expedition" had, for lack of transport, to leave our friend Mr. Stanley Kemp, Superintendent of the Calcutta Museum : this was at Yembung beside the Brahmaputra on 27 December 1911, and Komsing on 3 March 1912. The Fauna of these Himalayan foothills was found most interesting and the Expedition's " Zoological Results " were published in the " Records of the Indian Museum " viii, Oct. 1912 et seqq. ; but that of their greater altitudes, at over fifteen thousand feet say, is still practically unknown.

Hence the satisfaction at our Earl's safe return home, laden ' with important geographical information, and specimens of Plants and Animals," on the last day of February. Further congratulations are tendered him upon the occasion of his marriage, at the church of our E. Anglian saint /Ethelburh in Bishopsgate on 26 July, with Miss Fidelity Seebohm, whose very name suggests true Ornithology.

OUR

COY

BADGERS.

Since no example of this harmless Mammal had been noticed in the County since 1911, it had come to be regarded as extinct with us. But the Society's letter of 5 December 1931 to the Local Paper has produced ample proof of the species' persistency.

A specimen found at " Aldeburgh 1864 " is at Ipswich Museum (not in Hele's Notes) ; one was killed by hounds at Linkwood in Rushbrook about 1908 (Mr. Cattle) ; a female was taken in a rabbit-trap at Easton Bavent during April 1912, and another female in a trap at Gunton near Lowestoft about the same time (Dr. Ticehurst). The following letter is distinctly valuable :

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" T o the Editor, Transactions of the Suffolk Naturalists' Society. " Sir.—One midday in bright sunshine during the war, in 1915 or 1916 and nearly certainly the latter, I was motor-cycling from Ipswich to Woodbridge when, upon rounding a bend, I saw a Badger in the middle of the road which he slowly traversed and entered the hedge on its north side, about five-and-twenty yards ahead of me. At that period the thorofare was quite deserted and, of course, bore a much less sophisticated aspect than is now the case. Heavy military traffic had recently so deeply scored its surface that I was riding on the footpath alongside the hedge, which fact and the contrary wind doubtless account for the Badger's apparent ignorance of my presence.

T h e hedge he entered was under the Kesgrave Hall woods and quite close to the road debouching from Bealings Station. In those days the opposite, southern heaths were comparatively desolate ; and I fear a Badger will not be seen near that spot again.

Respecting the mammal's identity, no doubt is possible ; and the incident is vividly impressed upon my memory, because this was the only specimen I have ever seen alive in a State of freedom. In fact, I feel pretty sure it was a large adult male.

Gislingham Rectory, near Eye.

Yours very truly, (The Revd.) T . A. PYTCHES, M.A."

There were supposed to be Badgers in Arga Fen near Assington about 1929 (Mrs. Andrew of Boxford Rectory, in lit.

Jan. 1932); one was killed at Freston about 1930 (Mr. Stames); and a whole brood at Wissington, threatened with extinction, was saved by our Society last spring. Finally comes the usual " Heu ! " : a splendid female, that weighed seventeen pounds and measured over four feet long, was dug out by louts on a heath in Leiston parish and shot on 8 June last, because they thought it to be a Fox ! An adjacent field is locally known as "Badgers Burrows," wherein an old native, now a London artists' model, remembers their presence: so here they have dwelt securely adown the years tili now, the world forgetting by the world forgot. Such cursed and wanton slaughter caused much heartburning, locally and among our Members. Remember : Brock has as good a right to live as is your own.

RULE v : COMPOSITION.

T h e Honorary Treasurer considers it his duty call Ordinary Members' attention to Rule v. By Member is enabled to Compound, for the term of paying no more than the difference between

this year to it, any such his life, upon the normal

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Composition s u m and such sums as he has already subscribed to the Society. T h a t is to say, if he joined during 1929, composition now d e m a n d s less than another eight guineas.

Life M e m b e r s h i p is intentionally rated high, in accordance with the Society's proper pride. I t was at first hoped that many true Naturalists would come forward in this respect to f u r t h e r its purely altruistic aims. But, the less natural side of h u m a n Nature being what it is, both the times and, often a very different thing, the spirit of t h e times, have conspired to defeat such generosity. T h e T r e a s u r e r has issued, with this initial Part of our Second Volume, a form of Banker's Order. H e trusts t h a t . Ordinary M e m b e r s will save both themselves and h i m trouble and delay by completing the d o c u m e n t and forward ing it to their own banks.

Tear out and use :—

SUFFOLK

NATURALISTS'

SOCIETY.

(.Date).

To Messrs (Bankers)

Please pay on the Ist day of January next, and annually m future, until further notice, to The Hon. Treasurer, Suffolk Naturalists' Society, 41 Chapel Park Road, St. Leonards, Sussex, the sum of one Half-Guinea, to be placed to the account of the above Society.

(Signatur e).

2d.

(Address)

Stamp.