The Pleistocene Site of Ipswich

156

THE HEMIPTERA OF SUFFOLK.

M. scopulicorne, Denn. Several on a just-dead and floating Water-rail at Kessingland Dam in April 1933.

M. sinuatum, Burm. Titmouse, Parus major.

M. mesoleucum, Nitz. Rook.

M. nigripleurum, Denn. Razorbill.

M. giganteum, Denn. Stock dove.

M. perdicis, Denn. Partridge.

M. transversum, Denn. Gulls.

M. strepsilae, Denn. Turnstone.

M. ridibundum, Denn.—Blackheaded gull, whereon were found many at Southwold in April 1924 (Collings).

M. icterum, Burm. Woodcock.

M. carduelis, Denn. Goldfinch.

Nitzschia Burmeisterum, Denn. Swift.

Trinoton conspurcatum, Nitz. Goose.

T . luridum, Nitz. Duck.

T . squalidum, Denn. Goose.

T. lituratum, Nitz. Smew.

Eureum cimicoidum, Nitz. Three, with an Aphid larva and Limosina-fly, on a swift at Southwold, 1927 (Collings).

E. malleum, Nitz. Swallow.

Laemobothrium laticolle, Denn.—Three were found on a Hobby, Falco subbuteo, L., just killed at Lowestoft, by a taxidermist there, on 15 October 1903 (Dutt); many on a " Hawk," taken by a fowler's net at Ipswich in November 1900.

L. giganteum, Nitz. Buzzard.

L. hasticeps, Nitz. Kestril.

L. atrum, Nitz. Coot.

Physostomum mystax, Burm. Fieldfare.

P. bombycillae, Denn. Waxwing.

P. irascens, Nitz. Chaffinch.

P. nitidissimum, Nitz. Yellow bunting.

Gyropini.

Gyropus ovalis, Nitz. Guinea-pig.

G. gracilis, Nitz. Guinea-pig.

THE PLEISTOCENE SITE OF IPSWICH. B Y JAMES REID M O I R ,

F.R.A.I.

[Abridged]

THE main east-and-west thoroughfare of Ipswich, from Barrackcorner to the Gaol, is one of the lateral terraces of the River Orwell. In fact, these streets are laid along the flattish surface of such a terrace, whence the ground slopes southerly to the present level of the river. To-day it may be difficult, when Walking along these busy streets that are flanked by shops anu

THE PLEISTOCENE SITE OF IPSWICH.

157

houses,finicallypaved throughout, and traversed by innumerable diverting vehicles, to reconstruct the scene which would have met our eyes just after the Orwell, in its age-long task of valleycutting to sea-level, had completed the formation of this terrace whereon our main Ipswich street is reared. In order to do so we must regress about forty thousand years, to a time when the third Glacial Epoch of East Anglia was waning and our temperature slowly rising.

Terraces alongside river-valleys are as inevitable as waves lipon the coast; for as the streams, suddenly increased in volume upon the reception of melting ice and snow running from uplands on either side, cut their way to a broader Channel, a step or terrace was erosed in the valley's sides ; and it is possible, in many cases, to trace all the past vagaries of the river by noting these geological features. So, if we had stood then in the sunlight upon this broad terrace of the Orwell, we should have enjoyed a primitive sight. The high land to the north, bare of any but the scantiest Vegetation and bearing deep snow in its valley-heads, formed a Atting background to the broad sweep of the Valley southward, bisected by the Orwell in spate that hurried its glistening ice-floes to the distant sea. The beauty of such a scene and its stilly solitude would have delighted all true Naturalists, as further would the stränge animals which lived and swiftly moved and had portentous being where now Ipswich rises, For, with good fortune and by keeping well out of sight, we should have witnessed great beasts : the Mammoth, and woolly Rhinceroos, with Reindeer and other creatures now confined to high northern latitudes ; we should have watched the Sea-birds hovering above the turbulent streams that ran down our later Brook Street and Wash ; and we should have seen, slowly rising in the still air above a hollow in the ground, smoke from a campnre where some ancient Suffolk hunters had fashioned for themselves a home.

No fanciful picture this : its materials may yet be seen in the ground-formati on on which Ipswich stands, and in the relics § [rom time to time from deposits below our thoroughfar es and houses. Par exemple, I well recall that, many years ago, whenanaltold erations were made to the Power-station in Constantine _ level, where palaeolithic men had encamped, was uncovered at some eighteen feet below the ground's present surtace. Here were found many unworn implements and flakes Ol Mint, with numerous partly broken bones of Reindeer (Rangifer laranaus, L.), giant Ox {Bos taurus, L., var primigenius, Boj.) and omer now extra-British mammals, while the presence of some Dones of a wild Duck (?Anas sp.) indicated cunning, added to of n?'-m ancient folks' hunting. Our river-terrace, formed pteistocene sand and valley-gravel, is frequently exposed when

158

THE PLEISTOCENE SITE OF IPSWICH.

street-diggings are made, and sometimes fossils of those old Glacial days have been u n e a r t h e d in even Westgate a n d Carr streets.

I t is not, perhaps, too m u c h to suggest t h a t the presence of this terrace, high above even the winter floods and yet within convenient reach of the river, was a m a i n reason w h y o u r earlyhistoric people began to erect a town u p o n the spot. T h e wide piain, traversed by good water and well sheltered northerly, constitutes an ideal h o m e : its soil was dry and well o p e n to the south, t h e basic water-supply was ample and access to t h e sea free, t h o u g h sufficiently distant for protection f r o m piratical rovers. River Orwell must be thanked for all these benefits as, t h r o u g h countless ages, it has cut its course adown t h e Valley and, in t h e later stages of so gigantic a task, washed out t h e broad terrace that is t h e town's backbone to-day.

ON PLUMAGE OF THE

BY CHESTER G .

DOUGHTY,

GANNET. B.A.

THE fresblv disembodied skin of a G a n n e t (Sula bassana, L.) w i t h o u t head or legs, with only half a wing b u t a complete white tail, showing it to be a m a t u r e bird, was discovered on t h e shore at Gorleston on 8 D e c e m b e r 1932, t h o u g h not m u c h of a prize to the h a r d e n e d old b e a c h - c o m b i n g Naturalist. But later I found the other half of the wing a b o u t fifty yards away a n d , noticing its white primary ; saw it must be taken h o m e for f u r t h s r investigation. A few days afterwards I came u p o n the other wing some quarter-mile f r o m the original d e b r i s : and t h u s assembled very useful material, exhibiting three peculiarities in t h e plumage : (i) I t does not moult its feathers in pairs, i.e. t h e corresponding feathers on t h e two sides of t h e body ; (ii) T h e new feathers of a pair, when p r o d u c e d , do not always agree with each other in markings and c o l o u r ; and (iii) It has a distinet tendency to p r o d u c e white feathers, w h e r e they should be dark.

Attention ought to be called to these facts, because most ornithologists have few or n o opportunities of handling Gannets in t h e flesh. I m u s t point out that t h e juvenile is an entirely dark b i r d speckled with w h i t e ; and that t h e m a t u r e one, after n u m e r o u s moults, is an entirely white b i r d with the exception of its ten long primaries, w h i c h are very dark brown, a n d of its head a n d neck, which are pale b u f f : these remarks apply to the p l u m a g e only a n d not t h e soft parts. T h e effect of (i) therefore is sometimes rather curious. It appears t h a t an old all-dark secondary quill may be replaced by a new all-white quill at a Single moult, and consequently a new white secondary in one wing may be paired by an old dark secondary in t h e o t h e r ; and, w h e n it is