Observations 2 Part 3

281

OBSERVATIONS. " All those dirty delectable things in which a Naturalist delights."

—' Robert Ellsmere.'

FOSSIL POLYZOA.—I used to be pretty good on the Polyzoa of the Crag forty years ago and, as far as the two species found in Coralline Crag at Sutton ' h o o ' are concerned, little mistake is possible : Salicornaria crassa, Wood, is marked diagonally in crosses; S. sinuosa, Hassall, is marked longitudinally, with connecting marks at right-angles. Both species occur also in the Red Crag at Walton-on-Naze (cf. Geol. Mag. lxviii, 1931, p. 4 1 9 ) . — P E R C Y FRY

KENDALL.

FLOWERS N E W TO SUFFOLK DÜRING 1 9 3 4 . — T h e followin? have been determined by the Phanerogamic Recorder unles^ othervvise noted ; and are new records, judged from Hind They are in the order of reception, and the date is affixed wherever known. Lamium purpureum, L., white, Sproughton on 1 April (Simpson). Primula elatior, Jq., with additional leaves under flowers, Rattlesden on 2 April (Simpson : cf. Masters' Vegetable Teratology 1869 ; Worsdell's Principles of Plant Terat. 1915-6).

VIOLA DERELICTA, Jd., Hadleigh ry-station on 7 May (Miss Rawlins). Vicia lathyroides, L., form with end-leaflet, trefoillike, Hadleigh on 11 May (Miss Rawlins). Urtica dioica, L., var. microphylla, Hausm., near Wissington church on 9 June : plant is mentioned in Hind's MS. addenda in Ipswich Library as probably found at Coney Weston. ORCHIS PRJETERMISSA, Dr., var. pulchella, Dr., Cornard mere on 20 June (Miss Rawlins).

Plantago lanceolata, L., var. monstrosa, Dr., Cockfield on 1 July (Miss Rawlins); Polstead on 2 9 June and 5 July (Burn). SCABIOSA ARYENSIS, L., with outer florets not rayed but no larger than inner and the heads larger than type : Polstead on 29 June (Miss Rawlins). Agropyron repens, Br., var. barbatum, D-J., Onehouse village on 24 July (Miss Rawlins). Matricaria inodora, L., with leads 4-5 mm. and few or no ray florets : Polstead on 29 June (Miss Rawlins).

Discovered by the Phanerogamic Recorder have been:— Jd., at Kersey to NE. of the Prior/ in March 1933 (named by W. H. Pearsall esq., F.L.S.) ; Hadleigh p'-bank in March 1934 ; Raydon ; gilgiana, O. E. Schultz, Thetford ea th, Bamham in June. POLYGONUM CALCATUM, Lindm., ^tansfield on 13 September. T H Y M U S LANUGINOSUS, Mill, ortham Common in July; pycnotrichus, Uechtr., Risby and a\enham in July. Viola riviniana x ß nemorosa, Polstead in R^h - F E S T U C A LONGIFOLIA. Thu., Bamham heath in J u n e ; o y m . July; Eriswell on 1 August. Ajuga reptans f. alba x P stolonifera (stoles flowering; flower pale blue-white; both C-ROPHIL.« MAJUSCULA,

2d

282

OBSERVATIONS.

parents near), Melford in June. V I O L A L L O Y D I , Jord., Sutton Common on 16 May ; Bamham in June. Besides these hybrids or newer segregates, the number of varieties hitherto not listed for Suffolk has, since my paper appeared (Trans, supra i, p. 200), been yearly considerably reduced ; yet those still outstanding are multitudinous.—RONALD

BURN.

F U N G U S N E W TO SUFFOLK.—In a Pine and Larch wood at Foxhall on 11 November 1933 I was so fortunate as to find on Pine-needles the curious and uncommon Fungus, Mitrula cucullata, Fr., new to Suffolk and rarely observed in Norfolk (cf. Trans. Norf. Nat. Soc.

i,

1873, p .

56).—ARTHUR

MAYFIELD.

CCELENTERATA.—No suggestions have come in, respecting the identity of the Sizewell Jelly-fish (supra, p. 79). But there seems small room to doubt its being that Pelagia noctiluca, Peron., so well figured by Russell and Yonge (The Seas 1928, p. 189, pl. lxxiii), who term it " the most vividly phosphorescent in our seas.

The method of light-production is probably similar to that of the Noctiluca [Trans, supra, p. 78], only on a much larger scale : there are no special light organs but a stimulus of any kind, such as that caused by the passage of another animal, causes the whole to glow with light."

A C T I N I A R I A . — T h e fascinating Sea-anemones that I have found at Southwold comprise Sagartia elegans, Dal., var. vetiusta, Gos. and var. miniata, Gos. (a species NEW to Suffolk), and S. troglodytes, Price, all occurring in sand by the old Harbour Pier, with their bases attached under stones and discs expanded on the surface.

The Beadlet, Actinia equina, Linn, (mesembryanthemum, Ellis : cp. supra i, p. 224) is found on groynes, on the above Pier and occasionally washed up on the beach. The Plumose Anemone, Metridium senile, Linn., var. Actinoloba dianthus, EH., lives in thousands on the Pier's wooden piles, varying in colour from white to yellow, pink and fawn ; one day I foulhooked three that were attached to a large portion of fossil-shell in Easton Broad.

All these species I have kept in my marine tank.—D. W. (HOLLINGS. [" T h e zoology of the coast is rather poor, owing to the sandiness and usual muddiness of the sea-water, three or four (named) species of sea-anemone being all that are met w i t h " (Dr. Taylor in Tourists' Guide to Suffolk 1892, p. 15). T o the short list of but five kinds in Vict. Hist. 1911, p. 90 and Tealia felina, L., var. crassicornis, Müll., recorded from Felixstow in July 1912 (Journ.

Ipsw. Field Club, 1913, p. 6), may be added both T. felina, var.

Lofotensis, Dan. (i.e. Bolocera eques, Gos.), which Ringed Deeplet was brought into Yarmouth during May 1906, and a beautitul Stomphia coccinea, Müll. (Churchias, Gos.) similarly brought m there during the same month (Trans. Norf. Nat. Soc. viii, p- 46+)T h e shifting bottom of our shore makes a poor fulcrum for these

OBSERVATIONS.

283

Ccelenterata. We shall be glad to hear of more species here, out of the thirty-nine kinds known in Britain, before printing the Suffolk List.—Ed.] NORTH SEA STARFISH.—My nephew, M r . George Doughty of Martlesham Rectory, has given me the Starfish, Astropecten irregularis, Penn. (Asterias aurantiaca of Forbes : not in Lombard's Suffolk list at Trans, i, p. 89) and several still-spined Spatangus purpureus, Müll., taken by him last September at Smiths Knoll (cf. I.e., i, p. lxxxiv); along with a very rough live Oyster, Ostrea edulis, L., slightly over five inches in diameter each way.— C. G . DOUGHTY. AN ADDITIONAL ECHINODERM.—After ' Class Echinodermata' (Trans, supra i, p. 89) must be inserted t h u s : — O r d e r CRINOIDEA. Family HYOCRINID/E. Tetracrinus felix, Bather.

The type fragment of this new species was described in 1909 (Geol. Mag. V, vol. vi, p. 205, figg.) and had been sifted in Red Crag a half-mile east of Felixstow church by our Member, Prof.

Boswell. Probably it was derived from London Clay as are the only other two Crag Crinoidea, both unique from Essex : Balanocrimts subbasaltiformis, Sow. and an Apiocrinid near Calamocrinus (I.e. 210). I may add that another family of the order Crinoidea is the Pentacrinidae, which consists of the Sea-lilies or stalked Crinoids that are rare now, but were extremely abundant formerlv, hmestone being largely composed of this Order in a fossilised State. It is distinguished from the Comatulidae or Feather-stars by the presence of a permanent pentagonal stalk of attachment.

Its exponent Pentacrinus caput-Medusce is one of the commonest recent kinds and lives in the Antilles seas. Those fossil species, that are known as Encrinites or Stone-lilies, are very abundant in I'alaeozoic strata ; of them, Encrinus liliiformis looks not unlike a bean when its arms are closed ; it occurs in the German Muschelkelk of the New Red Sandstone. Stem-joints of these tossils are so common on the north of England shore as to be known as Wheel-stones or St. Cuthbeorht's Beads, as in Scott's Marmion : On a rock of Lindisfarne, St. C u t h b e r t sits & toils to f r a m e i n e sea-born beads that bear his narae.'

—GRAVES LOMBARD, 2 8 D e c .

1933.

EARTH-WORM.—Our Worms Recorder has been so good as to name a white Oligochset with mottled dark markings, and nearly three inches long, as Allolobophora turgida, Eisen ( f r a n s , i, 120).

1 was frightened out of a lawn at Monks Soham by the mower's Passing overhead on 2 0 October last.—CLAUDE MORI.EY. RAG-WORMS.—Two species of these Chaetopods are employed «y anglers as bait. T h e larger, the King-Rag (Ner eis diversicolor, - lull : cf. supra i, p. 103), is about eight inches in length and °und in gritty or sandy mud near rocks. T h e second, the

284

OBSERVATIONS.

Common Rag (Nereis pelagica, Linn.), lives in estuarine mud and IS only some four inches long ; it is much the commoner and sexually dimorphic, one form being known as Heteronereis : indeed, it may be termed polymorphe for, in addition to dissimilar male and female, hermaphroditic individuals sometimes occur. Several other kinds, of about the size of N. pelagica, are found also in the estuarine mud, but less commonly. A small species of Nereilepas is commensal on the Hermit Crab (Eupagurus Bernhardus, L.) and inhabits the top of the whorl of the Whelk or other molluscan shell of which the Crab has made its home.

Whenever the latter is protruded and feeding, the Worm pokes its head out above the Crab and takes its own share of whatever fodder the Crab has fancied ; but it has to be keenly on the alert in order to shoot back into the Upper Chamber before the Crab clicks into the shelter of the shell, whenever alarmed by the approach of possible danger.—MARK R. TAYLOR, Southampton; 31 Jan. 1934. [This Nereilepas is N. fucata, Blainv., and fully described in Mclntosh's Ray Society Monograph of British Marine Annehds, ii, pt. 2, pp. 336-43. It is fairly frequent in shells occupiedby E. Bernhardus on Gorleston beach; and NEW to Suffolk, though both the above Nereis are recorded thence in Vict. Hist.— E . A . ELLIS.]

TAPE-WORMS.—Several of these, of the species Ichthyotcenia ambigua, Duj., were found to be encysted beneath the skin of some Three-spined Stickleback fish (Gasterosteus aculeatus, L.) in the River Yare at Yarmouth on 25 February last. One of the Worms, no more than three mm. in length when disengaged from its host, stretched to twelve mm. and moved about freely soon after being placed in brackish water.—E. A. ELLIS. [Of frequent occurrence as these animals may be, so little attention is yet accorded them locally that this one appears NEW to both the bordering Counties.—Ed.] ADDITIONAL K I N D OF P E R I W I N K L E . — L i t t o r i n a cestuarii, Jeff., has hitherto been regarded as a mere variety of the common L. obtusata, L. and is so given in Mayfield's 1908 list, though not enumerated in the Vict. Hist. 1911, p. 93. Jeffreys himself records it from Shottisham creek, and recently Mr. Le Brockton Tomlin has found it commonly at Woodbridge. T h e latter considers it a good species, more closely allied to L. palliota, Say, than t o L . obtusata, and as such it must be added to the Suffolk list. L. palliota, he informs me, ranges right round from the Scandinavian coast to the shores of Canada and New England.— C. G.

DOUGHTY.

SQUID NEW TO S U F F O L K . — T h e severe gale of mid-December brought on to the shore immediately below Gorleston a s p l e n d i d fully-grown specimen of the Squid, Ommastrephes todarus,

OBSERVATIONS.

285 Chiaje, that weighed some two pounds and was over fourteen inches in mantlelength, i.e. exclusive of the head and tentacles. I examined it as I began my southward beachcombing, in the course of which some old herring-net was annexed, wherein I bore the squid home lateronlöth. A model was not constructed from it for the N o rw i c h Museum, but its pen reposes in my own coli.—C. G. DOUGHTY,

14 Jan. 1934.

[Mayfield, in Journal. Ipsw. F. Club 1908, records four species m Suffolk; the V1Ct. Hist. in 1911 knew five ; a tentative sixth is given at our Proc. 1932, p. xxxiii, nota ; and Mr. Doughty now brings forward a seventh kind, out of the total fourteen tsritish cephalopodous Mollusca.—Ed.] Two SPIDERS N E W TO S U F F O L K . — A splendid male of the large and hairy Tegenaria atrica, Kch., was delicately sipping ' sugar' smeared on an oak-trunk for Moths at Fritton on 3 October last will P , ' m ' a n d 3 w e e k l a t e r a m isguided Zilla X-notata, Clk„ waiked into my museum at Monks Soham. The species' identity C nr n ° 1 „ courtesy of our Veteran Arachnida Recorder, sent f n d l J a c k ®? n ' F - R - S - ' w h o b e 8 s Aat all specimens fcent nim to name will be in spirit.—CLAUDE M O R L E Y .

ON SHARK c2nnhl°mi - - T o the tail of a Porbeagle {Lamna f p u b i c a , L. : c f. supra, p. 127), brought into Yarmouth during as beptember, were found to be attached several large parasitic v-rustacea, female Dinemoura producta, Müll. This sex clings « its host by means of capital hooks, allowing two long strings w eggs to trail in the water behind them; males are usually small swim'nf C e i r t a m C f e S ' hyperparasitic on their consorts ; but larv£e undef (cf lu e c y a , g o some remarkable changes of form ttS Parasitic E a E ° Copepoda : Ray Soc. 1912-3) -

286

OBSERVATIONS.

S Y N O N Y M Y OF B R I T I S H C R Y P T A R C I I / E . — T h e sole indigenous forms of this genus (strigata, Herbst, Natursystem 1789, iv, 187 et Fab. Syst. Eleuth. 1801, i, 350 ; and imperialis, Fab. loc. cit.) have occurred to me, always in Company, only at the exuding sap of a single oak-tree, that was bored by larvse of the Goat Moth (Cossus ligniperda, F.), in Bentley Woods near Ipswich during both 1-20 June 1895 and 13-27 June 1896; and at the exuding sap of a single oak-tree, similarly bored, in the New Forest during 11-18 June 1 9 3 4 : never during the interim. From the fact of their appearing invariably together, I had long suspected them of synonymy, which I consider conclusively proved by the capture on 16 June last of a typical female strigata of 4 | mm. long in cop. with a typical male imperialis of but 2\ mm. long., in fact the smallest that has come under my notice. T h e latter is, as Fowler remarks, " often in Company with the preceding " and hardlv rarer ; the specific distinctions rest solely upon size and coloration, excepting that one is broader-oval than the other with the lateral elytral setae less distinct, possibly by abrasion.—CLAUDE M O R L E Y .

Agonum mcestum, D U F T . , A GOOD SPECIES.—Anchomenus maestus is sunk as an absolute synonym of A. viduus, Panz., by Janson (H. E. Cox) in 1874, though the two were originally described— the first in Herr C. Duftschmid's 1803-25 Fauna Austris, ii, p. 138 and the latter in Dr. G. W. F. Panzer's 1789 Fauna Insectorum Germanica Initia, xxxvii, f. 18—as utterly distinct, and were so retained by Stephens and all the earlier British authors. But Schaum's 1859 European Catalogue treats the former as a mere variety of Panzer's beetle, with which opinion concurs the still Standard 1906 Catalogus of Heyden, Reitter and Weise, as well as Canon Fowler (Coleop. Brit. 1887, p. 92 and 1913, p. 207), though he allows it differs in its constantly " smaller size, rather narrower thorax, and perfectly black coloration without any metallic reflection ; but there is no real structural difTerence." Such authors do little more, in this respect, than follow-my-leader. Personally I consider the smaller size and narrower thorax structural characters of sufficient weight, combined with the utter lack of that strong and chitinous coppcrcoloration covering the whole upper side of A. viduum, to render A. mcestum a perfectly distinct species. Biologie confirmation is furnished by the much sparser distribution of A. viduum, which I have vainly sought throughout Suffolk for forty years, tili in 1933 a single female occurred to our Member, Mr. Kirkby, at Brockley Wood, in Wattisfield.—CLAUDE M O R L E Y .

How BEETLES SQUEAK.—There are some dirty ditches at Southtown, wherein a few of the herbivorous beetle Hydrophilus piceus, L. (together with the carnivorous Dytiscus marginahs, L.)

OBSERVATION«.

287

may generally be found ; I have about a dozen, unfortunately all males. Their full-fed and half-grown larvae, with some in intermediate stages, were there on 11 July ; and the youngsters are not bad-looking, for they swim gracefully and grow fast.

Two of them have pupated, one on 30 July. Generally the perfect Beetles emerge in about a month, and I hope these two are females, of which I have none.

Do you know anything of the soundproducing apparatus of this species ? Some that I keep in a tank get very grubby and are doubtless attaining old age ; so at times I give them a grooming with a soft toothbrush and, during the process, they emit a series of protestations that sound similar to the squeak of a Deaths-head Moth, though much louder.

It appears to be made by the occiput of the head rubbing on to the front of the thorax.—P. E. RUMBELOW, in lit. 6 August. [Our ignorance of British Beetles' sounds has been excellently illustrated

by Dr. Gahan's Stridulating Organs in Coleoptera (Trans. Ent. Soc._ 1900, p. 443), who has to take most examples from foreign species. But he does remark in passing that in H. piceus the most likely structures to give rise to stridulation are ridges placed transversely in a small area on each side of the under surface of the pronotum, just where the latter fits over the outer edge of the mesosternum. In plainer words, the sound is caused by roughnesses on the front part of the thorax rubbing against its middle part, quite unconnected with the head.—Ed.] THE Ptenidium-SEETISES OF SUFFOLK.—These pretty little insects are apt to become confused, partly on account of their size which rarely extends to much more than one twenty-fifth of an inch !

Confusion consists of both changes of nomenclature and misidentification of SufTolk specimens. Our Member, Professor Sir Hudson Beare's 1930 Catalogue of British Coleoptera (B) and Canon Fowler's 1889 book on British beetles (F) both enumerate eleven species of the genus Ptenidium, but only six of these are quite the same. F's formicetorum, Kr. and Kraatzi, -Matth., are^ called by B myrmecophilus, Mots. and its variety Kraatzi.

F's evanescens, Msh. and Wankowiezii, Matth., are now respectively termed pusillum, Gyll. and intermedium, Wank.

And the two kinds, Brisouti, Matth, and nigrifrons, Brit., have been added to the British List since 1889. , Of the five species enumerated for Suffolk in 1899 (Coleopt.

Suff., p. 49) only pusillum, Gyll —evanescens, Msh., was correctly named. That there termed lavigatum, as well as the two queried as fuscicorne and queried as Wankouiezii, all three were actually nitidum, Heer (as corrected at Suppl. 1915, p. 5); but the true lavigatum, Er., was taken in vegetable refuse at Bixley Decoy on . P r i l 1 9 04. T h e species found, new to Britain, near Brandon ' n kuffolk and named atomaroides by Matthews (Ent. Annual 2 > P- 63) is distinct from Motschulsky's atomaroides and

288

OBSERVATIONS.

considered by the late Mr. Newbery, doubtless correctly, to be a form of leevigatum. Thus Suffolk can claim at present only four of the eleven British kinds \—nitidum, Heer; leevigatum, Er., which I have taken also at Monks Soham ; punetatum, Gyll.| taken by the Orwell at Nacton in April 1905 (E. A. Butler) and in Aldeburgh salterns in May 1929 (Morley); and pusillum, Gyll., which Mr. Brockton Tomlin and I have found at Brandon during May and June.—CLAUDE MORLEY. A N E W SUFFOLK C L I C K - B E E T L E — I was so fortunate as to beat a single speeimen of the small red Click, Elater elongatulus, Fab. (prseustus, Ste.), from the low branch of a tall oak-tree in the Bentley Woods near Ipswich on 18 May last. Subsequent hard work upon that and later visits, to and around the spot, produced no other examples.—C. G. DOUGHTY. [Up to 1890 this rare beetle was known in Britain from only Hants, Sussex and Darenth Wood in west K e n t ; about that time it was recorded by Chitty (EMM. 1892, p. 24) from the New Forest, where Thouless later found one speeimen. Stephens knew it as occurring on only oak in June (Man. 179), but Dr. Joy has dug the imago from fir-stumps in Berks. It is now found to occur, always quite rarely, also in Surrey, Oxford and even Dalskairth Wood in Scotland. We possess the species from Southampton, ex coli.

Gorham. The present discovery considerably extends its known British distribution eastwards.—Ed.] A N ANTIPODAL BEETLE IN S U F F O L K . — A live speeimen of Paropsis (01iv.~- Chrysophthartä) agricola, Chap., was discovered in a case containing tinned apples from Tasmania, opened in the holiday-camp on Hopton cliff on 20 June last. The insect is in my collection and superficially resembles a large Cassida, with long antennas ; I am indebted to our Member, Dr. Blair, for its determination.—C. G. DOUGHTY. BIRD-LOUSE N E W TO SUFFOLK.—Well over a hundred speeimens of the enclosed lice [Lamobothrium atrum, Nitz : cf. Trans, supra, p. 156] were found on a just-dead Coot (Fidica atra, L.) at Lowestoft on 27 May 1934.—F. C. COOK.

T w o IMPORTED COCKROACHES.—Can you teil me what is the name of this weird and handsome beastie ? It is alive, most active, and was caught at Claydon on 11 September last. I told the captor that it is a Cockroach, though its black-and-cream mottlings are quite unlike any British species, and its utter lack of wings seems to indicate an immature speeimen.—E. W. PLATTEN. [Dr. Uvarov of the Brit. Museum has determined it to be the tropical American Dorylaa rliombifolia, Stoll, species of which genus remain apterous and nymphiform throughout their existence.

Its presence so far from the sea as Claydon is unexplained ; but

OBSERVATIONS.

289

we find one conspecific example among the several dead Periplaneta Australasias, Fab., that were imported in Linseed to Ipswich on 9 September 1901 (Trans, i, p. 94). Another, unrecorded, kind of Cockroach was f o u n d in Bananas at Gorleston on IS September 1923 by M r . D o u g h t y and is termed Blatella sp. by Uvarov.—Ed.] COCKROACHES IN BANANAS.—The enclosed male of Panchlora nivea, L., has just turned u p among Jamaican bananas and is mainly interesting as the first to come under our Society's notice f r o m Ipswich, though already known in Bury, N e e d h a m Market and Gorleston (Trans, i, 94, lxxxi and ii, 89).—H. R. LINGWOOD, 28 Dec. 1933. [It lived in a w a r m room tili 23 January.—Ed.] As M r . M o o r e ' s query at page 89 has remained unanswered, it may be well to observe that the beautiful Green Cockroach, a native of the West Indies, now t u r n s u p not infrequently among Bananas in Britain. Formerly it was of rare occurrence but, with the development of the West Indian banana trade, its capture has become m u c h more frequent of late years. Lucas (British Orthoptera 1920, p. 117) lists four species of the genus Panchlora (nivea, L . ; viridis, Fab. ; virescens, T h u n b g . ; and exoleta, Burm.) as having been found alive in this country ; but at least some of these are incorrectly determined, and the identity of others is d o u b t f u l : indeed, it is probable that all these names refer to b u t one species, Panchlora Cnbensis, Sauss., which is the only one of the genus that appears to be carried about with Bananas in either this country or America. T h e insect will live for some time in captivity, if supplied with fresh grass or Banana-skins, and even may produce a family. I t is interesting to note that the young (Trans, supra, i, p. 94) are not of the apple-green colour of the parent, but of this family's more usual brown, which was no d o u b t the colour of their ancestors. W h e t h e r the green colour is attained onlv u p o n reaching maturity or at some earlier stage I am not aware, as the only brood that I have had died in the second instar, after living about two months.—DR. BLAIR, British M u s e u m ; 30 May, 1 9 3 4 .

THE PURPLE EMPEROR BUTTERFLY.—Certainly

it o u g h t t o

be

placed u p o n record, in reference to the occurrence of this species in Ipswich (p. 103 supra), that the late M r . Bernard Harwood bred two males f r o m larvae that he had taken in Raydon W o o d during the early s u m m e r of 1919 ; both the males are now in m y own collection. T h e s e larvae show Apatura Iris, L., to have persisted in that same locality for eighty years, and there is no prospect of its extinction there as long as the' W o o d continues in 'ts present condition of preservation, in the careful ownership of " • Alfred Sainsbury and agency of M r . P. H . Oliver of S u d b u r y .

1 wonder if you will receive any later Suffolk records.— U - S. GILLES; in lit. 11 February.

290

OBSERVATIONS.

T o w a r d s the end of July 1933 I had the pleasure of observing an unmistakable male of the Purple Emperor Butterfly, Aying high among the leaves of an oak-tree in Bentley W o o d s near Ipswich.

I watched it for some time, b u t it remained quite beyond the reach

of

my

net.—ERIC

A.

BUTTERS ;

v.v.

23

May.

[These

Woods are no less satisfactorily " preserved " than the Raydon one, by the Society's friend M r . Raydon Wilson of Belstead Hall and the Tollemache family ; we have collected there annually since 12 September 1892. O u r M e m b e r , M r . Riley of the British M u s e u m , asserts A.Iris to be unusually prevalent in Britain during 1934: none were seen in the N e w Forest.—Ed.] M r . Garrett Garrett of Ipswich, who died in 1888, made the sensational capture of no less than sixteen male and two female Purple Emperors, while they were sunning themselves upon young ash trees at Bentley Woods, in 1868. I knew him well and he recounted the achievement to me with gusto u p o n several occasions, adding that other local collectors at that time also took proportionately many specimens.—F. W . FROHAWK, V.V. 20 July 1934.

N o Vanessa Antiopa, L., is to be claimed for Suffolk this year, though two specimens have been observed by our Members within a half-mile of its borders. M r . Rumbelow was so fortunate as to meet with the flrst Camberwell Beauty in Y a r m o u t h about 1.30 p.m. on 18 August, one of the hottest and most sultry days this s u m m e r though not particularly sunny ; the Butterfly ahghted u p o n the surface of Deneside-road, near St. Georges-park, and clumsy attempts at its capture by wayfarers were luckily futile.

M r . Ellis reports that the second specimen came to rest on a ship's boat at t h e Corton Lightship, lying 3 | miles off G u n t o n , on 21 August (but no time recorded), which was a very warm day with sun only after noon and a falling half-gale f r o m the vvestsou-west, at least inland ; when disturbed, the Butterfly Aew strongly westward whence nothing has been later heard ol it.

Has it ?

THE

MUSLIN

MOTH,

AND

SKIPPERS.—I

am

able

to

concur

entirely with the suggestion of local rarity of Diacrisia mendica, Clk., at p. 183 supra. I came to Beccles during 1908, and took m y first female Aying here in the sun on 9 J u n e 1910 ; it or an undiaried second female deposited ova, whence another female emerged on 1 M a y 1911 though most of the larvas of its brood died. Again Aying in the sun, a female was secured at Fenstanton in H u n t s on 2 4 M a y 1915 ; whence I saw none in Suffolk, t h o u g h scouring the countryside, tili 27 M a y 1921, when a male i n s o l e n t i v sat u p o n m y own garden fence in Beccles. T h e species most usually occurs singly about woods, as at Geldeston in N o r t o l k . — By the way, after a quarter-century's collecting h e r e a b o u t s , > n

OBSERVATIONS.

291

1933 I first discovered the Grizzled Skipper Butterfly (Hesperia malvce, L.) at Worlingham on 5 J u n e ; but, though I haunted the locality for a considerable time, no second example occurred to me [hitherto unknown in N E . Suffolk.—J. L. MOORE.]. Also the first Small Skipper [Pamphila thaumas, H f n . : usually frequent everywhere t h r o u g h o u t Suffolk.—Ed.] of this district, where P. sylvanns, Esp., is always abundant, was captured on 23 July 1933 in some plenty.—ERNEST T . GOLDSMITH, Beccles; in lit.

4 Feb. 1934.

A FEW MID-EAST SUFFOLK LEPIDOPTERA, 1933.—White Admirals, Limenitis Sibylla, L., were observed near D u n w i c h on 14 July. [Another entirely new district for this s u p e r b Butterfly: cf. supra, p. 182.—Ed.] I bred three specimens of Acherontia Atropos, L., between 11 August and 5 September from larvae collected at O r f o r d earlier in the year. A b o u t twenty specimens of Sphinx pinastri, L . , were seen in three different woods between 6 and 26 July ; and f r o m t h e m I have reared some seventy-five larvae as far as the pupal stage. Males of Brachionycha Sphinx, H f n . , were a b u n d a n t at light in Sibton during 15-25 November. [Such free occurrence of this species is of no small interest. I n 1890 it was considered " somewhat r a r e " at T u d d e n h a m , Bury, Ipswich, Bentley, Beccles and L o w e s t o f t ; one was taken in Ipswich on 17 November 1898 (Platten), one or more at Waldringfield in 1923 ( T . N . Waller), and a third at light in a brilliantly lit garage in the middle of Bury on 4 N o v e m b e r 1931 (Moore).—Ed.] O n e Nonagria neurica, H b . , of the f o r m ' Edelsteni,' was found amongst N. dissoluta, T r . , which I took in Dunwich marshes on 24 July. I found the second brood of Leptomeris rubiginata, H f n . , to be plentiful in a sandy patch near Orford during August. O n e Porthesia phceorrhoea, Don. (chrysorrhoea : Brown-tail), was seen at D u n w i c h on 27 July : I was u n d e r the impression that this species had disappeared from the East Coast. [By no means : cf. Trans, supra, i, p. 24.— Ed.] I took Drymonia chaonia, H b . , to the south of D u n wich in May ; and both D. trimacula, Esp. and Stauropus fagi, L., occurred at Staverton T h i c k s on 13 June.—(Col.) W . G . B. HAWLEY ; in lit. 11 Feb. 1934.

DISTRIBUTION OF Emmelia trabealis, SCOP.—Our M e m b e r s will be glad to know that this beautiful Noctuid m o t h is still to be found in the eastern half of Suffolk. It was on 15 J u n e 1908 that first turned it u p at C o d d e n h a m ; and it was still in the same spot during 1932. A m o n g a great deal of Silene inflata at that spot I have captured also Diacrisia mendica, Clk., Cuculia umbratica, Harmodia carpophaga, Bkh., capsincola, H b . and cucubali, ,us'> Melanchra advena, Fab., Caradrina umbra, H u f . , m a n y of l ne commoner Agrotidse and Hadenidae, Eupithecia venosata,

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OBSERVATIONS.

Fab. and Eucymatoge scabiosata, Bkh., as well as Deilephila porcellus, L. I have not visited the locality recently.—FREDERICK T. C R I S P , in lit. 4 June. [Here is news indeed ! This Noctuid is confined in Britain to East Anglia and, though recorded from hoth Needham and Ipswich by Bloomfield, has been unnoted by us for füll forty years in east Suffolk. It is hardly known outside the breck district of the north-west, where it is local. It was first discovered with us at Brandon in 1845 ; there it was later taken during the next two years (Stainton) and in 1858 (Ent. Wk. Intell. iv, p. 110); at Croxton in Norfolk during both 1860 and 1864 (Cruttwell MS.); about fifty were turned up in Suffolk during 1868 (Suff. Inst. 41y Journ. 1869, p. 23) and at Brandon in 1870 (Proc. Suff. Inst, iv, p. 218); at Tuddenham it was found in August 1884 (Entom. xvii, 278; liv, 162), and was locally abundant there about 1899 (Sparke & Morley), persisting tili at least 1908 (EMM. 1909, 90), as also it still does at Brandon (Doughty, etc.).—Ed.] Arsilonche albivenosa, Göze.—It is satisfactory to know, by Mr. Howarth's exhibition of " larvse from Brandon " (Entom.

1934, p. 288 : presumably in Suffolk), that this local Noctua still occurs in the Breck marshes, whence it has been unrecorded for thirty years. In our county, Bloomfield could instance imagines from only Lowestoft and larvse from only Lowestoft and Fritton, in 1890 when he considered the species very rare ; and in 1903 he added a few specimens at Needham Market (EMM.). In the Breck, pupse were taken about the same time at Tuddenham Fen in reeds by the late E. J. G. Sparke. My own poor series came from Cambs: Ely,Milton and Wicken Fen, during the 'eighties.— CLAUDE M O R L E Y ; 3 D e c .

1934.

M A C R O - L E P I D O P T E R A AROUND BECCLES I N 1934.—The first Metrocumpu dolabraria, L., noted in the district was taken on a tree-trunk at Barsham on 31 May. Hesperia tages, L., occurred uncommonly and locally in marshes on 2 June, and sparingly later.

Eustrotia iincula, Cl., was plentiful in marshes generally, on 14th; and specimens of Procris statices, L., turned up in a marsh by Beccles Common on 16th. Another marsh on 18th disclosed Miltochrista senex, Hb., which later was very plentiful indeed there at sundown. One Diacrisia Urtica, Esp., was captured Aying in the sun on 23rd ; andEuchceca luteata, Schf., on 30 June.

The first of a series of Ophiusa pastinum, Tr., was beaten from a hedge, with Metrocampa margaritaria, L., on 1 July. Herminia cribralis, Hb., was found in marshes on 2 n d ; and Caradrina arcuosa, Hw., on 4th. Hydriomena albicillata, L., was observed on 5th ; and a female Geovietra papilionaria, beaten from a hedge on 14th. A black Biston betularius, L., came to light that night.

Lithosia griseola, Hb., var. fulva, occurred on 23 July ; Macroglossa stellatarum, L., on 5 August; and Eupithecia Goossensata, Mab.,

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293

on 8th. The larva of Cossus ligniperda, F., spun up on 29 August; and 2 September provided a beautiful Lyccena Icarus, Rott., female, the upper side of which is entirely blue excepting orange border-spots. Examination with a lamp of Hemp Agrimony flowers (Eupatorium cannabinum, L.) showed the plant more productive of moths than any other during 16 August to 13 September; among the species attracted to it were :—Orthosia flavago, F. ; Aletia lithargyrea, Esp. ; Leucania pallens, L. ; Melanchra trifolii, Rott., dissimilis, Kn. and brassices, L . ; Agrotis ypsilon, Rott. ; Euxoa segetum, Schf. and puta, Hb. ; Graphipliora plecta, L., C-nigrum, L., xanthographa, F., umbrosa, Hb., rubi, Vie., stigmatica, Hb., comes, Hb. and pronuba, L. ; Triphana janthina, Esp. ; Ochria ochracea, Hb. ; Amphipyra tragopogonis, L. ; Caradrina trapezina, L., affinis, L., micacea, Espphragmitidis, Hb. and 4-punctata, F. ; Hadena meticulosa, L., nictitans, Bkh., didyma, Esp. and bicoloria, Vill. ; Mania maura, L. ; Plusiafestucce, L. ; Panemeria tenebrata, Sc. ; Eupithecia oblongata, Thb. ; Eustroma testata, L . ; Plemyria sociata, Bkh. ; Hydriomena ocellata, L. and truncata, H f n . ; Xanthorhoe vittata, Bkh., unidentaria, Hw. and designata, Rott.; Abraxas adustata, Schf. and Euchlana apiciaria, Schf. : forty-two kinds.

Work on ivy-blossom was begun on 5 October ; a single Polia semibrunnea, Haw. [unnoticed in SufFolk since it was taken at Stowmarket before 1860 by Dr. Bree—Ed.] occurred at it that evening, and a second was secured on 18th.—E. T. GOLDSMITH ; 22 October.

T H E SMALLEST SNOUT.—Schrankia turfosalis, Wk., is not yet recorded from Suffolk ; but that it does not actually lurk unseen in many of our marshes I cannot believe. In very similar bogs all over the New Forest it is on the wing from 22 June to 20 July.

It is not easily roused by day and, I think, never during the morning however common it may be ; but it naturally flies an hour before dusk, rising from among and Aying habitually just below the tops of the Sweet Gale, upon which or the Sphagnummosses wherein this woody shrub grows its larvae pretty surely feed, though nowhere yet discovered. On the wing it flits most leisurely, and so is easily secured.

Upon capture, the Moth at once scuttles to the bottom of the net, as though diving to roots of herbage when alarmed, and very frequently it feigns death. »» herever it occurs it is quite local, and a patch of the Gale that is merely ten feet in diameter may be füll of it while other surrounding and equally luxuriant patches harbour none for a considerable distance. In Britain it is said to be generally local ! n m arshy places to as far north as Perth : Canon Cruttwell took 11 at Studland in Dorset. We know this Myrica gale to grow aiong the Waveney at Lound, Oulton, Cove, Barnby and Wor»ngham, as well as at Lakenheath and Tuddenham Fen in the

294

OBSERVATIONS.

west of Suffolk. If the Little Snout feed on it, no reason for its absence from our County is apparent. But Col. Nurse told me (in lit. 20 July 1914) that " no Myrica gale remains at Ampton now ; probably both it and Juniper disappeared when the lake was drained and enlarged a few years ago."—CLAUDE MORLEY. U N U S U A L L Y C O M M O N M O T H S OF 1934.—The Small Elephant Hawk {Deilephilaporcellus, L.) was unusually common in Gorleston during the latter half of June. On six nights, between 13th and 28th, I took nine specimens and saw several others in my garden, close to the south edge of the town, all between 9 and 9.15 dusk.

One was hovering over Catmint, Nepeta, and the rest were over Red Spur Valerian, Centranthus ruber, of which flowers they seem particularly fond. Quite likely the influx continued well into July, as some of the last specimens taken by me were in good condition ; but, through absence, I was unable to verify this.

T h e numbers present will be probably considered immigrants by our local Naturalists, as the modern fashion seems to ascribe all Lepidoptera seen or taken near the coast of north Suffolk to such an origin; but, since their native food-plant, Lady's Bedstraw (Galium verum), grows in large quantities on the Yarmouth north denes which are less than a mile east-north-east from the above garden, I myself have no doubt that the Hawkmoths are native born and bred. On only one of the six nights in question, however, was the wind north-east; on all it was light, on two from the south-west and north-west respectively, and on one from the south-sou'-east.

Meanwhile Gorleston suffered from what may or may not have been a litoral invasion of Plusia gamma, L. I have never seen this Noctuid in such numbers : on the 16th individuals abounded in my garden ; and on the 18th two of us, after trying to work an adjacent favourite field of Bladder Campion, returned home defeated and disgusted, for these Silver-Ys there swarmed to such an extent that other species could not be distinguished.

After that date, they appeared to disperse and become less omnipresent.

At the end of July and in early August, Aphid.es' honeydew on a wild Cherry tree and a Blackthorn bush in my garden was especially attractive to the commoner Noctuids, such as Aletia cornigera, Fab., Graphiphora xanthographa, F., Hadena polyodon, L. and strigilis, Cl. This was chiefly noticeable after rain had fallen, so probably the moisture freshened the honeydew and rendered it more alluring than the honey in the surrounding flowers.—JOHN L. M O O R E .

[No valid reason exists for supposing any of the above to be immigrants. W e have occasionally observed P. gamma larvae in the utmost profusion on this coast: e.g. our M S . Entomological

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295

Diary of 25 July 1900 notes that, at Easton Bavents which is some twenty miles further south, " on this day hundreds upon hundreds of Noctuid caterpillars, apparently fully-fed and of a single species (confirmed as P. gamma, after the doubtful record at E M M . 1900, p. 244, issued), were crawling about the shore at the base of the cliff for fully three hundred yards north and south. A large number attempted to ascend the clifF, but feil back with so loose a sand fulcrum ; a few were crawling rapidly down it, throwing themselves forward to accelerate progress. T h e field above the cliff was sown with pease, which appeared much eaten, as though by larva;; and a stiff off-shore breeze was blowing at the time."

We should hear less of " immigration " if our Macro-lepidopterists paid fuller attention to early stages.—Ed.] D E A T H S - H E A D H A W K . — M a n y larvas and pupae of Acherontia Atropos, L., have been taken in Southwold during the past summer. I personally obtained six of the former, one I gave awav and the rest have gone to earth in a box. A pupa also came my way, that was dug up with Potatoes ; I have heard of others, and am seeking further information of their occurrence in the neighbourhood.—D. W. C O L I . I N G S , 22 September. [No records from elsewhere in the County have been received this year, excepting three larvse at Gorleston.—Ed.] M O R E P I N E H A W K S , E T C . — I give a list of Lepidoptera taken in Suffolk during the day-time this year, with their respective dates : A half-dozen Melanchra dentina, Esp., and four M. genist a;, Bkh., near Aldeburgh on 13-15 J u n e ; single Eustrotia luctuosa, Esp. and Emmelia trabealis, Sc., near Brandon, with a half-dozen Eucestia griseata, Schf. One Hydriomena unangidata, Hw., on 15 June and one Leptomeris rubiginata, Hf., on 13th near Aldeburgh ; Pseudopanthera macularia, L., on 2 June in Bentley Woods.

With the other Aldeburgh captures on 13th were a pair of Sphinx pinastri, L. and on 15th a freshly emerged male.—A. H I T C H C O C K , Kings Lynn ; 28 July.

LEPIDOPTEROUS J O T T I N G S OF 1 9 3 4 . — I have been disappointed in many ways this year and have not done a quarter as much collecting as I wanted to, on account of temporarily additional duty. But some nice moths have been added to my collection, and I was glad to see a specimen of Vanessa polychloros on my diningroom window at Waldringfield on 21 August [now become cxtremely rare throughout southern England.—Ed.], V. cardui has been quite scarce, and no Colias Edusa have been seen. In July a fine Sphinx pinastri greeted me on a wayside pine near Aldeburgh; and the best capture has been nearly a score of male Sterrha (Acidalia) ochrata, Sc., at T h o r p Ness in mid-July : for ?so ° n e s P e c ' m e n > that was at first mistaken by Bloomfield in 1890 for A. perochraria, Fsch., is hitherto noted in Suffolk and

296

OBSERVATIONS.

that was captured long ago at Aldeburgh by the Revd. A. H. Wratislaw. [Not to be distinguished by either markings or shape of wings from Leptomeris (Actdalia) rubiginata, Hfn., though thc shape is slightly more pointed and colour paler; but at once known from the latter by the male's undilated hind tibias, which in female are bicalcarate only at their apices and not, as in latter, also near their centre. We took L. rubiginata at lamplight in the evening of 25 July 1900 in Southwold ; and M r . Rait-Smith has been so good as to give us a female, named S. ochrata, Sc.—Ed.] Southwold never fails me ; there in July I secured several species new to my collection, with a series of Monopis ferruginella, H b . ; also at Covehithe both Gypsonoma oppressana, T r . and Laspeyresia aurana, Fab. Later many Carpocapsa splendana, Hb., were bred from acorns. I went to Bentley Woods in early August and the first thing taken was Chelaria conscriptella, Hb., which I see M r . Morley added to the SufTolk list thence in August 1895 [later taken there by Dr. Whittingham, but not again by us.—Ed.] ; there, too, were C. gibbosella, Zel., Peronea literana, L., Stenolechia gemmella, L., with other Tineids and Sarrothripus Revayana, Sc., which last came to light at Waldringfield during October. From their cases, collected the preceding September, emerged in May both Coleophora artemisiella, Scott and C. atriplicis, Durr. Zygcena filipendula, L., has been far less abundant than last year, and I have been able to obtain only four of the dark-orange form.— A . P . WALLER. PHYCITIDIE IN WINTER.—With reference to this matter (Trans, supra, p. 186), it may be useful to note that Mrs. O. W. Richards, B.Sc., F.Z.S., has a valuable " Contribution towards the Study of Insect Fertility: on the Adult Nutrition, Fecundity and Longevity in the Genus Ephestia," in the 1934 Proceedings of the Zoological Society. These moths have this year done much damage to dried fruit used by chocolate manufacturers in England.

Phylctcenia (Ebulea) sambucalis, SCHF.—The caterpillars of this distinctively marked chocolate-and-cream coloured moth feed under a silken covering, of their own spinning, upon the Iower sides of leaves on low shoots of Eider, Sambucus niger, L. (Canon Cruttwell MS.). I found one of these larvae, fully-fed and

Walking u p the door of this house, on 29 A u g u s t 1933 ; it was

imprisoned in a cardboard pill-box, where it bit away a small area of the side pulp and immediately began to spin its elongate and cylindrical w h i t e cocoon with a thick boat-shaped cover of

dirty-white feit, 12 mm. in length. Within it the Caterpillar was still alive on 18 October and persisted in its larval condition all through the winter, as do most Sawflies but few Lepidoptera, and up to at least 28 April 1934. But by 9 May it had become a slender and pale-brown pupa, 8 mm. in length. A male of the above Pyralid Moth had emerged therefrom and was already

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297

dead upon my return home at the end of July. September and October are usually given as the larvee's months ; doubtless the unusual heat of 1933 had accelerated this one's growth — CLAUDE M O R L E Y .

SOME LEPIDOPTERA NEAR LOWESTOFT.—At Lound on 23 April were a single specimen of Epigraphia Steinkellnerana, Schf. (ccnfirmed by Dr. Whittingham) and, among heather, fairly plentiful Peronea mixtana, Hb. Fntton on 24 IVlay produced Eulia ministrana, L. and late Ectropis punctularia, Hb. ; Eupithecia plumbeolata, Hw., was abundant on marshy ground ; and one (just as last year) example of Hemaris fuciformis, L., was noticed hovering at a Campion, though later visits revealed no more.

Rather south of Somerleyton I took a capital series of Raeselia confusalis, HS., sitting on oak-trunks and telegraph poles ; more could have been discovered with additional search. Oulton Broad ry-banks on 16 June produced several Homososoma sinuella, Fab., with one H. bincevella, Hb. and a couple of fine Leptomeris marginepunctata, Gz. ; on 20th many Hydriomena tnfasciata, Bkh., were sitting on Alder-bark there, including a few handsome green forms; as well as one Notodonta dromedarius, L. : but neither would come to light on 23rd. Düring the month I found Drepana lacertinaria, L., on Birch in Blythburgh Wood. In Sotterley Wood on 8 July were Miltochrista miniata, ¥ st., Eupithecia succenturiata, L., Pyralis glaucinalis, L. and a goodly number of Cerostoma costella, Fab., on Birch. Hydriomena dubitata, L., flew in to light at Lowestoft on 17 August; and Hadena (Helotropha) leucostigma, Hb., came to sugar in Benacre woods on 12 September. Beating Birches in Blythburgh Wood on 6 September dislodged my first Leucophthalmia (Ephyra) pendularia, Cl., but I have been unable to find more later.—-JACK GODDARD. DANCING H A B I T OF Blacus paganus, H A L . — A n enquiring mind is a constant flagellation to its owner: my Mother died with the question ' W h y ' on her lips. Hence I was urged to capture a foule of about fifty tiny Flies, only 3 mm. in length, that was dancing in an unusually compact cloud, some four feet above the surface of the lawn and ten yards from the moat, under the shade^of a cypress at 4 p.m., in my Monks Soham garden on both 7 and 8 August 1932. More were in the same position and dancing over the tea-table in precisely similar a manner on 30 July this year. I was anxious to find which kind of Gnats (Lhironomids) could be practising their wonted aerial exercises so early in the afternoon. What was my astonishment, then, to find each ' G n a t ' a Hymenopteron and not Dipterous at all! ijxamination showed every one to be a male Braconid parasite, \ 'cus piganus, which species was first described from Ireland, nabitat in nemoribus minus frequens, by Haliday a Century ago

2b

298

OBSERVATIONS.

(Ent. Mag. 1836, p. 122); but Nees in 1834 considered his doubtfully synonymous German ß. humilis est e vulgatioribus et Semper fere gregarius offenditur. In this genus, the males' dancing habit is hitherto recorded (Trans. Ent. Soc. 1889, p. 170) in the case of B. tripudians only.—CLAUDE MORI.EY. A N T N E W TO B R I T A I N . — A section of coniferous timber, imported from probably Norway, was found in a Suffolk timberyard at Southtown on 8 April 1928 to have been ruined by successive concentric borings that varied from four to nine mm. in breadth and in all covered rather over 2} inches in diameter. Not tili last spring were these excavations found to contain various debris (now in coli. Morley) of Ants, easily determined to be workers and females of Camponotus ligniperda, Latr., by the latter's great size of fifteen mm. in length of both body and wing. These most injurious Insects, Mr. Donisthorpe says (in lit. 7 June), are found through north and central Europe to the mountains of the south, but they have not hitherto invaded Britain. Any of them here found alive should be destroyed on sight, like Colorado Beetle.—E. A. E L L I S .

LIFE-HISTORY OF Phora FLIES.—We are far too inappreciative of the debt of gratitude we owe small Flies for ridding the world of all kinds of putrid matter. One little Fly, that is ubiquitously seen on the inside of window-panes is called Phora rufipes, Mg., and this species seems utterly omnivorous in the way of diet.

Last December our Member, Mr. Ellis, gave me the debris of a Deaths-head Hawk-moth (Acherontia Atropos, L.) along with the chrysalis whence it had emerged that autumn ; and, in the course of the next month, no less than one hundred and fortynine males and females of this Fly had come out of their tiny dull-yellow puparia that were strewn over the Moth's remains, like tiny seeds of grass. Their larvae had devoured the whole of the putrescent, juicy parts of the Moth, leaving nothing but the dry and bare cartilage and integument. P. rufipes is on the wing throughout the entire year and I have found it during every month, perhaps commonest in November and December 1922, when it abounded on my Monks Soham windows ; on 18 January 1932 it was sitting in cop. outside one of those windows, and occurred on 4 December 1898 on others in Ipswich. In October 1901 W. H. Tuck bred females from a nest of the Common Wasp (Vespa vulgaris, L.) at Tostock ; and in 1917 innumerable specimens emerged in my breeding-cases from a mass of dead larvae, etc., of the Bombycid moth Eriogaster lanestris, L., whose mess they had been clarifying for human benefit. Among the last batch were a few of the parasitic Hymenopteron Platygaster JEgeus, Walk., which seemed to have been preying injuriously upon these Phorae-larvas.—CLAUDE M O R L E Y .

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299

INSECTS' " H I B E R N A T I O N . " — D ü r i n g its rigorous and inclement days, we Naturalists often wish that we could snugly curl ourselves round in some warm retreat and dream away the entire winter, like a Squirrel in its drey or Beetle in its moss. But actually we know curiously little about the life-history of the latter group of animals. Hibernation conveys to us the meaning of inactivity, as well as passing the winter; but there seems a comparatively small (we have no idea of its precise extent) proportion of British winter Insects that is not called forth to activity by high temperature. This year the 4 January was a warm day, so an uncommon beetle, Aphthona virescens, Fdr., came Walking up the outside of my diningroom window here at 4 in the afternoon ; the 18 January was equally close and muggy, with the result that I noticed other beetles, a male Quedius mesomelinus, Msh., and male Apionvorax, Hbst., with the Spring-tail Orchesella cincta, L., Walking up the plastered wall of the house, upon which the common biting-gnat, Culrx pipiens, L., was also sitting, at 10 o'clock at night. Near midnight on 24 January a female of the curious apterous Chalcid-fly, Theocolax fortniciformis, Ww., was observed strolling about quite close to the diningroom fireplace; it is parasitic upon the Death-watch Beetle (Anobium domesticum, Frc.), so likely to turn up indoors at any time of year : but it had died the following morning. Just after dusk, at 6 p.m. on the warm 10 February, the Tineid moth Depressaria applana, Fab., flew to a lamp in my museum-window. Other moths, Theria rupicapraria, Hb., which are normally Aying thus early, came to light on 16th ; and Hypena rostralis, L., was disturbed by the stoves in church on 18 February. Perhaps the most interesting instance, however, is that of the heteromerous beetle, Xylophilus populneus, Fab., whose hibernation seems hitherto to be unknown.

This species is usually said to be beaten from old hedges, and its economy appears hitherto unrecorded. Actually the larvae feed in the seeds of ash-trees, where I have constantly found them and whence the imagines are frequently beaten in my paddock and garden at Monks Soham, where they were especially common in July 1915 ; but elsewhere I know it from only Swale clifF in Kent and Twyford Abbey in Middlesex, where our Hon. Treasurer and I swept it in late June 1897. It takes to wing with great freedom and so is constantly found on my windows here, which enables me to State it perfect from 14 July to at least late in October, and again throughout March and April. I have long suspected its hibernation, which was confirmed on 18 February last when a female flew at 10 p.m. to the lamp light of a warm room, that previously had been little warmed that winter, evidently from some secure winter retreat indoors.—CLAUDE M O R L E Y .

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OBSERVATIONS.

ASCIDIAN N E W TO SUFFOLK.—The Golden-stars Tunicate, Botryllus Schlössen, Pall. (violaceus), has come ashore at Gorleston beach upon several occasions during the last few years.— E. A. ELLIS. [We are glad our Tunicata Recorder is getting down to work on this neglected group of animals, classified by Prof. Herdman in Journ. Linn. Soc. xxiii, p. 606. Hitherto we know only the half-dozen species given in Vict. Hist. Suffolk 1911, p. 95.—Ed.]

A SECOND PILOT FISH (cf. p. 109, supra).—My son was fishing on the beach at Gunton, just to the north of Lowestoft, amorig several other anglers on 4 November 1933, when he saw a stränge Fish hooked with bait by Mr. Harvey of 192 Denmark Road, Lowestoft. The former, when later he came home to tea, described the capture to me and recognised it from the picture in a piscatorial book as being the Pilot Fish. He returned to the beach at once with the intention of securing the specimen, but found it deserted by the anglers; nor did those present on the 5th know aught of any such catch. No further details were forthcoming tili the 6th, when this Fish was displayed in a High Street fishmonger's shop, whence it was conveyed by the shopman that evening to H.M. Fisheries Laboratory in Marine Parade here.

There I was informed that, after examination and confirmation of its identity, the specimen had already been packed off to the Natural History Museum in London. [We have seen the Museum's receipt to the fishmonger of one Naucrates ductor, Cuv.—Ed.] Unfortunately it came into my hands at no time, or it would have certainly never left Suffolk. Letters upon the subject in both the local Norfolk newspaper on 10 November and the " Field " of 30 December are inaccurate.—FREDERICK C . COOK (and E . H. KIRKBY), Lowestoft, 23 Feb. 1934.

VIVIPAROUS B L E N N Y . — I was on Southwold harbour pier in the afternoon of 22 October 1933, when a man fishing there caught what he called an Eelpout. He slit up its abdomen, I suppose in order to clean it, and then came across to me, remarking that it was füll of wriggling food. But I saw that the fish was a female Blenny (Zoarces viviparus, L.), that the single ovarian Chamber containing the young had been opened, and that the young were exposed in a solid moving mass. I took some of them home in a common match-box, the sole vehicle available, and put them into a vessel of sea-water. Although they were probably no more than three-quarters developed, they swam about for several hours : they were some half-inch in length, retaining a long yolksac still present. I have preserved them in spirit.—DUDLEY W.

COLLINGS.

OBSERVATIONS.

301

T E N - S P I N E D STICKLEBACK : A C O R R E C T I O N . — I have discovcred recently that the apparently spineless Stickleback, of which I get great numbers, varying from one to ten specimens in every sweep of the water-net, in Southtown ditches, is actually Gasterosteus pungitius, L. (cp. supra, p. 112). T h e spines are little more than bristles, unlike the real thorns of the Three-spined fish.—• C. G.

DOUGHTY.

' BOTTOM ' F I S H R I S I N G TO F E E D . — M r . Herrington's Observation at pp. 189-90 supra is supported by a new form of angling that recently has been experimented successfully in Fareham Creek, Hants, and at other similar places. T h e inventor found that Flounders (Pleuronectes Flesus, L.) would take a spinning bait.

The modus operandi is to use a spoon of some two inches in length, of brass or white-painted brass, upon the Single hook of which a bit of Ragworm (Nereis pelagica, L.) is impaled. T h e spoon is best spun from a boat, or it can be trailed. Success depends upon finding the depth at which the fish are feeding, and this may be close up to the surface. One man, I know, got a sevenpound and a twentyfour-pound Bass (Morone librax, L.) one day, as well as a score of Flounders that ran up to a pound apiece, at Bembridge in I. Wight. I should think this form of fishing would answer well in the Deben ; as June is the best month for it, a most pleasant way of passing a summer's evening is thus provided, when the tide is right.—MARK R . T A Y L O R . # FISHES' VAGARIES.—In my opinion, Dr. Collings' account of the Fishes of Suffolk, at page 104, is very good. But much remains to be written about their vagaries, a side-line upon which he could not be expected to touch in so general and comprehensive a catalogue. Haddocks and Gurnards are denizens of deep water, yet in both cases one rare exception has come under my Observation. (1) Many years ago a Southwold fisherman, upon hauling in his trawl, found it to be füll of Haddocks (Gadus aglefinus, L.) ; though other boats, fishing on each side of his, caught none in their nets. Old men, at the time, said that it was just fifty years since a similar event had last occurred there. Again, (2) I well remember, about the year 1875, a draw-net bringing on shore under Dunwich cliff nearly a boatload of Grey Gurnards (Trigla gurnardus, L . ) ; yet the fishermen present did not see one specimen >n any draught before or after that time during the entire day.

Obviously something especial had attracked these fish to those particular few yards of coast-line, and they had come perhaps thirty miles from deep water to reach it. T h e most reasonable explanation is that probably Mw«e/-banks had grown up at these places, so that small Musseis like sad pearls would have been round inside the fish if such had been sought. About the time of the füll moon of 2 December 1933 numerous Conger Eels

302

OBSERV ATIONS.

(Conger niger, Cuv.) were washed dead on shore at Reydon ; the sharp frosts that occurred at that period go to corroborate my Statement at p. 189 supra. A friend of mine at Reydon has found Stone Loaches (Nemachilus barbatulus, L.) in yet another Suffolk river, and promises to bring me specimens later in the year.— J. C.

HERRINGTON ; i n l i t .

19 J a n .

1934.

S O M E M I D - E A S T COAST B I R D S . — I saw Harriers several times during 1933 between Orford and Dunwich, usually too far away for certain identification ; but, upon one occasion in early summer, a Montagu's (Circus cineraceus, Mont.) passed very close to me.

I saw a Buzzard (Buteo vulgaris, Lch.) at Minsmere, on 8 April that year, in one of the Pine woods ; also a pair of Garganey Teal (Querquedula circia, L.) in the marshes there. Norfolk Plover (CEdicnemus scolopax, Gm.) were plentiful in that summer on most of the higher parts of Dunwich Common towards Westleton ; no doubt they were breeding there, as do great numbers of Ringed Plover (/.Egialitis hiaticula, L.) along with Lapwings (Vanellus vulgaris, Bch.). A Peregrine tiercel (Falco peregrinus, Tun.) passed over my head near Walberswick on 31 December 1933.

On 1 January this year I noted, while watching some Wild-duck on Butley Creek, two very large raptorial birds that were circling after the manner of Buzzards very high up ; one of them emitted a peculiarly penetrating call, far deeper than that of the Buzzard.

Are they likely to have been Marsh Harriers (Circus ceruginosus, L.) ?—(Col.) W. G. B. H A W L E Y .

[The above Norfolk Plover or Stone Curlew, a most fascinating and characteristically EAnglian bird, is evidently well holding its own at present, though Mr. Caton fears the spread of Govt. afforestation may be adversely aifecting it. Mr. Burreil reports pairs still breeding in large numbers in the Thetford area; and Mr. Cook says two or three nest annually on the Dunwich and Blythburgh heaths. In the district between Orwell and Aide I located about ten breeding pairs this year : there were probably one or two more. In Ringed Plovers I noted this summer near Butley a case of double-brooding again (cf. Brit. Birds Mag. Aug. 1934). Two or three of their nests with the rather unusuai lining of rootlets, instead of small stones, I found on Hollesley Common.—T.G.P.] SITUATION OF K I N G F I S H E R S ' NESTS.—In the Broads district of Suffolk and Norfolk where suitable places in high banks are so seldom available, Mr. A. H. Patterson once told me that three birds will build in the reed-thatch of old boat- and other sheds.

This fact appears to be very little known, and Coward mentions only the usual holes in banks as nesting sites.—MARK R. TAYT.OR, Jan. 1934.

OBSERVATIONS.

303

IN THE EASTERN BRECK.—Col. H u m e - G o r e observed an Eagle rise from the ground, and perch u p o n a dead tree, near Euston Hall early in February 1934. It was probably an i m m a t u r e White-tailed one ( H a l i a t u s albicilla, L . : cf. T r a n s , supra i, p. 170): he is positive it was not a Buzzard. For some weeks a G r e a t spotted Woodpecker has been Coming to my bird-table and taking off crusts of bread, which is rather curious behaviour as they are very shy birds and the table is close to the window whereat I write. [Also surely an unusual diet for Dryobates major, L., reported this year by M r . Kirkby as not u n c o m m o n about Hepworth, where he has also observed some Nuthatches, Sitta ccesia, Wlf.] I saw a Green Sandpiper (Tringa ochropus, L. : Trans, i, p. 174) here on 4 September. Swifts nesting in the church-tower were gone by 24 July, which is a week or fortnight earlier than usual [Ipswich ' residents ' left on 19 August. T . G . P . ] .

— R . B. CATON.

WINTER BIRDS IN IPSWICH.—A K i n g f i s h e r , Alcedo

ispida,

L.,

has again (Trans, ii, p. 193) taken to frequenting the Ipswich dock, where it was seen by me first on 24 December 1933.

Another G r e y Wagtail, Motacilla melanops, Pall., or the identical bird that I last reported (Trans, ii, p. 191), has been visiting our garden here for the past three w e e k s ; as u p o n the previous occasion it feeds on scraps thrown out, along with the Sparrows, Storfings and Chaffinches.

For the last two winters a Mistlethrush (Turdus viscivorus, L.) has taken u p his quarters in a large and berry-laden Holly-tree in this garden, which tree he fiercely guards against all other birds. H e spent the entire winter of 1932 there, arriving about the end of N o v e m b e r and departing in March. T h e birds here dealt with are of merely common kinds, but the fact that m y garden lies in a busy and thickly populated part of the town near the docks renders their presence here of some interest.—RICHARD STILES, 2 St. Peters Street, Ipswich ; 2 Jan. 1934.

I saw a pair of G r e y Wagtails at my pond at Fiatford on 23 September ; there were young there early in this s u m m e r . — LEONARD RICHARDSON.* [ W h o will prove this bird to have hred in Suffolk ?—'T.G.P.] n ° m L a n g h a m , just over the Essex border—fortunately 1— Richardson sends the tragic tale of five Avocets shot in mistake for 'leld-duck this year : they were satisfactorily identified by a good taxiderJlust. T h e Bittern has now become re-established : when will the Avocct "tced in Suffolk ? I saw in flight a bird, that I believe to be an Avocct, near Shingle Street in Hollesley on 16 June l a s t — T . G . P .

M

304

OBSERVATIONS.

SPRING ARRIVALS.—Our Members, the Misses C. E. Cooper, L . Harwood and R. M . K i n g ; the Revd. R. B. Caton, M M . H . M . Bland, F . Burrell, F. C.Cook, A. Mayall and T . G . Powell, have sent in 1934 summer Birds' Suffolk arrival datts, of which the earliest two for each species are shown in the following table.—T.G.P. DATE

BIRDS

LOCALITY

OBSERVERS

Burrell & Powell Icklingham & Butley Burrell & Powell Barton Mg. & Foxhall Caton & Burrell Euston & Barton M g .

Bealings Mg. & Oulton Mayall, Cook et al.

Bealings Pva. & Lowestoft Mayall & Cook Icklingham & Butley Burrell & Powell Euston & Culford Caton & Burrell Martlesham & Barton Mg. Powell & Burrell Foxhall, Barton & Oulton Powell, Burrell, Cook Both at Euston Burrell & Caton Barton, Bealings, Fakenham Burrell, Mayall, Caton Horningsheath & Bealings Burrell & Mayall Cook & Caton Oulton & Fakenham Lackford, Oulton, Burrell, Cook, Caton Fakenham Culford, Oulton, Burrell, Cook, King Rushmere

Wheatear Stone Curlew Chiffchaff House Martin Willow Warbier Wryneck Blackcap T r e e Pipit Swallowj Sand Martin Cuckoo

9 & 25 M a r c h 11 Mch. & 4 Apr. 20 & 26 March 4 & 17 April 8 & 11 April 9 April & 5 May 10 & 17 April 10 & 15 April 12 & 13 April 13 & 17 April 13 & 15 April*

Nightingale Yellow Wagtail Sedge Warbier

14 & 15 April 15 & 19 April 15 & 21 April

Com. Whitethroat

17 & 20 April

Redstart Whinchat Grasshop. Warbier Reed Warbier Less. Whitethroat Garden Warbier Common T e r n Turtle Dove Spot. Flycatcher Nightjar Swiftt Wood Warbier Lesser T e r n Red-bked. Shrike

17 & 29 April 17 & 20 April 17 April & 3 M a y 20 & 21 April 21 & 26 April 21 & 23 April 26 April & 8 May 29 April & 6 May 2 & 13 M a y 2 May 2 & 5 May 5 & 7 May 12 May 15 M a y

Martlesham & T h u r s t o n Martlesham & T h u r s t o n Oulton & T h e t f o r d Lowestoft, Icklingham Culford & Waldringfield Culford & Playford Hollesley & Lowestoft Cransford, Kessingland B a m h a m & Oulton Bamham Fakenham & B a m h a m Both at Kesgrave Shingle St. in Hollesley Ingham

Powell & Burrell Powell & Burrell Cook & Burrell Cook & Burrell Burrell & Bland Burrell & King Bland & Cook Cooper & Cook Burrell & Cook Burrell Caton & Burrell Mayall & Bland Powell Burrell

19 19 19 19 21 10 15

Thetford Lackford Lowestoft Lowestoft Lowestoft Icklingham Fakenham

Burrell Burrell Cook Cook Cook Burrell Burrell

RARER

BIRDS

Montagu Harrier Short-eared Owl Black Redstart Ringed Ousel Common Sandpiper Blue-hded. Wagtail Corncrake

March March April April April May May

• T h e sole instance i n this e n t i r e table of o u r M e m b e r s b e i n g forestalled b y t h e local daily t h e C u c k o o is a n n o u n c e d o n 16th to have b e e n h e a r d calling i n B r u i s y a r d a b o u t o a . m . in Hadleigh on 1 2 t h — E d . t W r i t i n g o n 28 F e b r u a r y 1934 f r o m W e s t m i n s t e r i n O r a n g e F r e e State, o u r M e m b e r M a j ° teils m e : — " Y e s t e r d a y I n o t e d h e r e t h o u s a n d s of Swallows g o i n g n o r t h ; also a t e w up."—T.G.P.

JJh'tnd 0UItor

r t l j r t

,t<J

OBSERVATIONS.

305

T H E V O I C E S OF D A W N . — W e venture to transcribe a letter, too observant to be here omitted, from the local Daily Paper of 4 July last: " T o determine for myself which of the wild Birds fürst greeted the dawn, I went to a little place on the north of Martlesham last Saturday. T h e whole night long Nightjars [C.Europceus, L.] and Little Owls [A. noctua, Sc.] kept up a discordant duet, very interesting at first but after an hour or two monotonous.

A Greater Whitethroat [S. cinerea, Bch.] sang twice at 2.50, whence a silence followed tili 3.20 ; and, with dawn just appearing, the Song Thrush [T. musicus, L.] sang. A second or so later a Skylark [A. arvensis, L.] went up, singing beautifully. Twenty minutes more and a Robin [E. rubecula, L.] began but did not have the dawn to himself, for almost immediately five others were bearing him Company. A Yellow-hammer [E. citrinella, L.] started his ' little bit of bread and no cheese ' at 3.50 ; and, before he had finished, a Tree-pipit [A. trivialis, L.] interrupted to sing and perform his usual aerobatics by flinging himself giddily from a tree-branch. At four o'clock a Turtle-dove [ T . communis, Sei.] crooned ; and a few Linnets [L. cannabina, L.] seemed to try which could sing the gentlest song. Very rudely Jays [Garrulus glandarius, L.] broke into all the above by screaming loudly tili 4.30, when a Green Woodpecker [G. viridis, L.] merrily laughed.

Xo Hedge-sparrow [A. modularis, L.] was heard tili five o'clock, which surprised me, as plenty were present and I had read this Bird is the first to herald the dawn."—PERCY E D W A R D S ; 29 Fore Street, Ipswich.

S T O N E I N N E S T . — A perfectly spherical Pebble of about two mches in diameter has been presented to Bury Museum.

It is remarkable as having been discovered in a Partridge's nest (Perdix cinerea, Lath.), surrounded by nine eggs, all of which duly hatched.

The keeper, who found it, had heard of one similar case.— HFNRY

ANDREWS.

A B N O R M A L S O N G - T H R U S H . — A very light coloured Song-thrush has been observed for some months in the Rectory garden at Eyke.

This bird is of a light sandy shade throughout without any white feathers, and has the spots on the breast well defined. It has mated with a Thrush of normal colour, and reared three normal >oung. This, I believe, is always the case when a complete or partial albino mates with a purely normal specimen ; but, if an •iloino mate with one merely apparently normal and actually carrying albinism recessive, then some of the offspring will be •ilbinos. Now, there is in the same garden a Thrush with a few white feathers : so that, if this partial-albino bird should have n ted ^ with (say) a cousin, the sandy bird may possibly be its ""spring. From my personal Observation, neither complete noi partial albinism seems common in Thrushes (Turdus musicus,

306

OBSERVATIONS.

L.), b u t not at all unusual in Blackbirds ( T . merula, L.), at least as far as partial albinism is concerned. I should m u c h like to know the opinion of other M e m b e r s u p o n this matter.—ARCHDEACON C O R Y , Campsea Ashe Rectory ; 3 0 M a y .

I f o u n d three Song-thrushes' eggs, near the Foxhall-road in Ipswich on 23 J u n e , in a nest lacking the usual m u d lining ; either the hen had dispensed with such upholstery, or had appropriated the nest of a Blackbird.

T u r n s t o n e s . — A couple, probably a pair, of Strepsilas interpres, L . , doubtless on migration northward, were seen by m e at Shingle Street in Hollesley on both 3 and 9 J u n e . — T . G . P .

Gallinago ctelestis, Fr., var. Sabinei, Vigors.—There was found in my garden here to-day at 11 a.m. a good specimen of Sabine's Snipe, uninjured b u t somewhat stunned, perhaps by an aeroplane that passed over the town about 6.45 a.m. I released the Bird at a large, overgrown moat near here, and he walked away joyfullv.

— C H A R L E S PARTRIDGE ; Stowmarket, 20 October 1934.

[This melanic variety of Snipe has been noticed at Haiesworth (now in Brit. M u s . ) and perhaps Leiston, b u t is of extreme rarity in Suffolk. I t was first described f r o m Irish material in 1822 bv Vigors as a good species, though now regarded as a mere form of the C o m m o n Snipe (Ogilvie's Field Obs. 1920); it is unnoticed in b o t h Essex and Norfolk. W e are m u c h indebted to M r . Partridge for the r e c o r d . — T . G . P . ] LOCAL

SECRETARY FOR THE E Y E

DISTRICT'S

REPORT.—There

are hardly any Barn Owls (Strix flammea, L . ) left, though there used to be many forty years ago. T h e r e are a great many Tawny Owls ( S y r n i u m aluco, L . ) where there used to be very few. And a great many Little Owls (Athene noctua, Scop.). Also a good many Magpies (Pica rustica, Scop.) and they m u s t nest in these parts, I think, as they are here all the year round. I have this minute seen a pair not a hundred yards f r o m my window ; but I do not r e m e m b e r seeing any tili about ten years ago or less.

Keepers dislike t h e m very m u c h , and I am not sure what orders to give about t h e m . Red-legged Partridges (Caccabis rufa, L.) are becoming very scarce, for some reason ; though some yet remain in certain places. T h e r e seem to be fewer Hedgehogs (Erinaceus Europaus, L.) a b o u t ; keepers also dislike these, and I think they disturb a good many nests ; b u t there are no keepers just round my house, so I wonder why they are scarce.—I consider a really complete and authoritative List of Birds that keepers are actually justified in destroying might well be published, the proportion of good and h ä r m that they do. Rooks and Jackdaws form another problem for game-preservers: they are supposed to have done a great deal of damage this year.

HENNIKER, Braiseworth ; 26 September.

OBSERVATIONS.

307

L U M I N O S I T Y OF T E R N S ' N E S T S . — M r . Vulliamy has noticed that a faint shining ring appears, in the evening light and after a shower, on the pebbles around the eggs of Little T e r n s (Sterna minnta, L.) on the Hollesley beach at Shingle S t r e e t ; it was sufficiently conspicuous to assist him in discovering these eggs on the shore.

Half-a-dozen explanations have been made :—(1) M r . Vulliamy himself suggests that the T e r n s are capable of laying down a kind of barrage, offensive in odour to such possible marauders as rats and mice. (2) Revd. R. B. Caton thinks the circles round the eggs possibly caused by a deposit of salt f r o m the parents' feathers, unless they actually exude some protective liquid. (3) " I should say the oily or shiny substance was produced by the Bird, either simply as an accident or possibly as a protective measure : it m u s t have proceeded f r o m the o i l - g l a n d " ( G . Carmichael Low).

(4) " I know that T e r n s ' eggs are easily seen after a shower.

Possibly this may be d u e to an oily substance on the plumage, and not to a patch being kept dry by the sitting Bird " (P. M . Meeson).

(5) It sounds to me, who know little of T e r n s , like a case of direct transit of phosphorescence carried on the parents' plumage to the shingle ( M r . Morley). (6) T h e sitting Bird would probably shake itself after rain, and possibly moisture thus thrown off might be impregnated with natural oil on the plumage, and so cause a shiny appearance on the pebbles.—T. G . P O W E L L .

ASSEMBLAGE OF S T A R L I N G S . — I saw a wonderful sight here on an evening early last April, consisting of an enormous assemblage of Starlings; I have seen great flocks before, b u t never in such vast numbers. In a three-acre field there must have been thousands u p o n thousands of individuals, and so densely were they packed that no grass at all was visible among them.—J. K . BROOKE, Sibton Park.

STARLINGS AND H O L L Y - B E R R I E S . — W h e n I arrived at my old home, Martlesham Rectorv, for Christmas last year, I was surprised to see the large Holly-tree by the front door absolutely berryless. M y brother told me that, during a cold period shortly before, hordes of Starlings (Sturmis vulgaris, L.) had denuded the tree of berries ; and his gardener added the birds were more wasteiul than even the T h r u s h tribe, making him a rare j o b in sweeping U P dropped berries. T h i s seems a new food for Starlings : the gardener's explanation of it was that they feed a great deal u p o n wheat in winter, and very little W h e a t was being sown in the district. O n the other hand, my nephew learned f r o m a retired game-keeper that, some years ago, two fields on Seckford-hall tarm in the same parish were sown with W h e a t , one of which was mfested by Starlings in thousands that could not be driven off, a nd the other was entirely neglected by t h e m . T h e farmer anticipated a complete failure of the crop oo the infested field;

308

OBSERVATIONS.

but it actually produced a remarkably good one, and the neglected field a very indifferent one. So, apparently, the birds were after Wireworms (larvaä of the injurious Click-beetle, Agriotes obscurus, L.) and not the sown grain.—C. B. DOUGHTY. OILED BIRDS.—In our last Part, M r . Patterson teils us (p. 196) that Gulls, Larus ridibundas, L. and argentatus, Gmel., rarely come to grief through oil which, I hope, helps to confirm m y explanation of the alleged wholesale destruction of Gulls by oil, that is offered on the following page. But I would like to suggest his gull was not greatly distressed by oil, or it would not be feeding. A Sanderling (Calidris arenaria, L.) with oiled underparts was on Gorleston beach for weeks a few winters ago, but ultimately succumbed to the severe weather, just as did other quite clean Sanderlings.

W h e n retiring to rest the birds presumably plumped down on the shore into a pat of oil, possibly hidden by a sprinkling of blown sand.—What makes M r . Patterson think that diving-birds come to the surface amid patches of o i l : has he, or any one, ever seen them do so ? Surely he is on m u c h safer ground when he suggests the danger from oil to which they are liable while sleeping on the water. U n d e r normal conditions, one would imagine the drift of the oil and of the sleeping birds would keep pace with each other; but I suppose it is not impossible that the somnolent divers may keep u p an automatic gentle paddling to retain themselves more or less on their feeding-ground, just as sleeping T r o u t in a rapid stream surely must keep their fins automatically m o v i n g : and it is still considered not impossible that Swifts sleep on the wing.— Also, I join issue with M r . Patterson by doubting whether a sip of water [of the adhesive oil seems intended.—Ed.] would affect the o i l ; and by believing the oil, found in the intestines of his Guillemot (Uriatriole, L.), to have been swallowed by the starving bird as food : cp. supra, vol. i, p. 237, where I record a Gull and whole flock of Gulls feeding on oil.—C. G . DOUGHTY. CASSOWARIES CORRECTED.—At Proc. p. lxxv supra reference is made to the Deer in the park at Campsea Ashe, along with Cassowaries (Cassuarius Cassar, Bris.) f r o m Malaysia. T h i s is an error, for the bird in my park is a male South American Ostrich {Rhea Americana, T e m . ) . H e is the sole survivor of four, dogs and boys have killet! the others.—ULLSWATER, in lit. 1 Jan. 1934.

[Rheas are exclusively neotropical and in S. America are three species, hunted with bolas by the Indians. Darwin in his 1845 ' Voyage of H . M . S . Beagle' and Admiral Kennedy in his 1893 ' Sporting Sketches in South A m e r i c a ' instance a good many details of unusual interest about these great birds' economyLord Rothschild has some at T r i n g : but with us they do not breed at all freely.—Ed.]

OBSERVATIONS.

309

OTHER BIRD NOTES.—Our Member, Mr. Horsfall, reports three Spoonbills (Platalea leucorodia, L.) to have been observed on the marshes near Dunwich during 17-19 June. They were harassed

by Gulls. They came on an east wind and left on a west.

Miss Harwood has seen an ill-fated attempt by Herons (Ardea cinerea, L.) to found a new colony. A single nest was actually built in a fir-tree in the marsh-meadows at East Bergholt; but, after about a fortnight's incubation, nothing further was there seen of the birds.

Mr. John Sherwood senior noted a white Swallow (Hirundo rustica, L.) Aying in July, along with normal ones, near Ipswich.

Our Member, Major de Mussenden-Leathes, notes a Wryneck (Iynx torquilla, L.) as late as 10 October in 1933 at Earls Soham, where Rooks began nesting this year on 19 February, House Martins on 11 June, and two pairs of Swifts on 5 July. " I am sending you the corpse of a Red-throated Diver ('Colymbus septentrionalis, L.) that I picked up alive, frozen in the river here at Snape today. It had evidently become weak from being oiled ; so I brought it in and tried to feed it, but it soon died : quite an unexpected visitor here."—E. H. BUXTON, 14 Dec. 1933. [But not an especially rare one on our coast in winter. ' Occasionally a bird, smeared by oil waste, is floated ashore dying of starvation, or seeks refuge up the rivers,' savs Ticehurst — T.G.P.]

BATS.—Tonight at dusk is the first time this year that I have seen a Bat (Pipistrellus pipistrellus, Sch.) on the wing. Evidently there must be some Insect life already active to have attracted them out.—COL. HAWLEY, Yoxford ; in lit. 21 Feb. 1934.

Quite recently I have observed some giant Bats, both on the Reydon recreation ground and near Bus Creek. These are strangers to this district, as far as I am aware. Size is deceptive in dim light, but I should say they are fully twelve inches in expanse of wing ; the wing-motion is rather slower than that of the Common Pipestrelle.—RALPH F. HERRINGTON. [Though computed so large, the species is most likely Plecotus auritus, L. (Trans, ii, p. 14), as the Situation, which sufficiently resembles Hemley (Trans, i, p. 239), seems too treeless for Noctules or Serotines.—Ed.] A couple of Pipiestrelles were noticed last June at the Corton Lightship, which lies three and a half miles off Gunton. Bats are rarely seen at sea, especially upon the High Seas like these ; and it is a nice question whether they were attracted by the light, or in order to prey upon Moths attracted by the light. I saw Noctules, Nyctalus noctula, Sch., dashing at the Small Cockchafers (.Rhizotrogus solstitialis, L., called in Norfolk ' Blind Bees ') that were Aying round some Poplars at Bradwell on 10 July. These beetles are, perhaps, more numerous this year than is usual in the ^orleston district.—E. A . ELLIS.

310

OBSERVATIONS.

A W H I T E H A R E . — A conspicuous Hare (Lepus Europaus, Pall.), that was locally known to have been always white, was shot in Woolpit during November about 1928 by Windsor Parker esquire of Clopton there, and has just been presented to Bury Museum by him. It is not an albino, for the eyes were of natural colour; but is pure white throughout, with the sole exception of a few brownish hairs between the toes. Mr. Parker had previously seen a similarly pale specimen, though the Victoria History knew none in Suffolk.—HENRY A N D R E W S .

Y O U N G LEVERETS.—Hares are not burrowing animals, and their young are born on the open. The doe is reputed to leave her leverets singly or in pairs in different parts of a field, where she will come and suckle each batch in turn during the evening.

Leverets appear to be fully conscious of the protection derived from remaining perfectly still in their form, where their curly rufous coats so closely resemble the dried herbage of the environment that chances of detection are remote indeed. T h e little Hares (Lepus Europeeus, Pall.) of the accompanying Butley photograph were taken by me when about three days old, and are shown exactly as they were found. Two or three are the normal litter; I have never known or heard of so large a family as four being found in one form before, and feel this must approach a record number.—GEORGE B I R D . fWe are fortunate to have been assured last August by an Elvedon keeper that there a litter of five has recently occurred. He regarded this number as locally unprecedented ; but Johnston gives it, without comment, as the normal maximum.—Ed.]

SQUIRRELS.—A Grey Squirrel (Sciurus Carolinensis, Gmel.= cinereus, Schinz.) was captured in a keeper's trap at Staverton Thicks on 16 December 1933. It was a female in good condition, excepting the previous loss of a fore-leg ; and has been handed over to the Ipswich Museum curator. I believe this is the furthest easterly record of the American Squirrel in Suffolk.— GEORGE BIRD. [A. D . Middleton of Oxford University Museum has reported its occurrence upon two or three occasions ' near Woodbridge ' late in 1932, teste Mr. Lingwood.—Ed.] Mr. Herbert Drake of Ipswich, thinking he saw a Stoat feeding on the top of an old Turtle-doves' nest in the high hedge of a wood at Easton Park on 20 October last, fired at the object in question and brought down a Grey Squirrel. This rather small male is preserved in Ipswich Museum.—H. R. LINGWOOD, 6 Nov. 1934.

Our park and woods at Ellingham Hall are in Norfolk, but we have one toe in Suffolk across the River Waveney where the estate includes a field and marsh or two. I presume such border notes may be embraced by this Society's Transactions, though it is

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a moot point. D ü r i n g the present winter we have had a revival of red Squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris, Bk.), which is very satisfactory because they had deserted us for a good many years, as well as of our usual Hawfinches (Coccothraustes vulgaris, Pal.) Just the other day the obviously correct report, of a Waxwing (Ampelis garrulus, L.) near here, reached m e ; but I did not see it myself.

In July 1933 we caught a W h i t e Admiral butterfly (Limenitis Sibvlla, L.) Aying on the tennis court.—MRS. C L A R I B E T S M I T H ; in lit. 12 Feb. 1 9 3 4 .

A N I G N O M I N I O U S D O O M . — A fine dog Fox ( C . vulpes, L . ) , in füll winter coat, was trapped on 18 N o / e m b e r 1933 by the C l u m p s in the first westerly field leading f r o m the church to Butley Priory.

Various points went to show the animal to be some ten years old and that it had existed in the immediate neighbourhood for a decade. N i n e years ago the Staverton keeper discovered a Fox's foot in one of his traps, and gave it to a Butley resident who retains it y e t : when caught our Fox was found to have lost its right hind foot at the hock, a position corresponding with this relic. T h e Butley keeper f u r t h e r noticed that our Fox lacked toes on its right front foot and, when it had been skinned, pellets came to light that indicated t h e m to have been shot away at some previous period ; the skin, however, had healed over the toe-bases and was in good condition, as is shown by the pelt now preserved by him : some five years ago the late keeper at Butley remembers peppering a Fox in the vicinity of his Pheasant-rearing ground by the Clumps. It is good to know, f r o m clearly discernible tracks, that already there is another Reynard in the field, t h o u g h perhaps not quite the same f i e l d : may his fate be f a i r e r !

Comment u p o n such shooting and, worse, trapping of Foxes were, of course, superfluous.—GEORGE B I R D ; 15 Jan. 1 9 3 4 .

[This case is an excellent example of what occurs in parts of the country which are not h u n t e d . Such a State of affairs could hardly happen within the Jurisdiction of a well regulated h u n t where ammals live their own lives unmolested, excepting the small proportion that meet with a clean and, to a wild thing, very natural death by h o u n d s . — H . A . ]

Can any M e m b e r teil m e what extent of t r u t h lies in the folklore legend that a Fox will roll a Hedgehog (Erinaceus Europaus, L., ot which an adult or two and a three-quarter grown youngster were found by dogs in our M o n k s Soham drive in September ast , ~ E d . ) into water for the purpose of obliging it to uncurl and SO become devourable ?—DR. F. H . HAINES, N e w Forest.

BADGERS A N D T A M E S T O A T S . — I went into Norfolk, beyond uereham, a short time ago to see a Badgers' Earth and found p enty of evidence of its occupation ; so I shall go again later on •n the hope of signs of cubs there. T h e Earth is in a nice, out of

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the way, spot and I fancy the animals (Meies taxus) will not become disturbed. I had a great shock the other evening upon finding that my two tarne Badgers here had got out and disappeared ! It was then too dark to attempt getting them in, beyond Walking around and calling them. S o I turned out at 6 a.m. the next morning, and was greatly relieved to find that they had returned voluntarily to their quarters in the stables : so all is well! I am trying to get some Stoats (Mustela erminea, L . ) and expect to obtain a family of them this spring.— C . F . CATTLE, T h u r s t o n ; 12 F e b . 1934.

ONE-HORNED THOPO (supra, p. 53, nota).—Dr. Dudley Collings and other Members will be interested in the following quotation, chanced upon in W. Cotton Oswell's " South Africa Fifty Years Ago " (Badminton Library, i, 1894, pp. 126-30). " T h e Gemsbok is scarce, and hardly met with save in barren open stretches of country like the Bakalahari [now called Kalahari, in British Bechuanaland,] D e s e r t ; there were more near Cape Colony in my day (circa 1850) than further to the interior . . . A straighthorned Gemsbok ( O r y x capensis, Ogil.), Coming up from the Zuga River that runs into Lake Ngami, passed near my camp, and her horns Struck me as unusually long . . . In many of the Bushmen's caves the head of Oryx is scratched in profile, and in this position one horn hides the other entirely. I am told, even up to the present day (1894), in Syria is found [O. Beatrix, Gray, locally bakr-el-Wahashy.—H.A.] a very near relation of O. capensis.

It is the habit of M a n in his hunting stage to try his hand at delineating the animals he lives upon ; probably the rocks or caves of Syria may show, or formerly have shown, glyphs of the Oryx resembling the work of the African Bushmen, and an early traveller may have easily taken them for representations of an animal with one horn, and started the idea of the Unicorn, biblical and heraldic. T h e word in the Hebrew, in our version of the former, is reem ; indeed, in some old English bibles, reem has been preserved in the text untranslated. Again I am told, the Syrian congener of the Cape Oryx is called by the Arabs of today reem.

Is it not likely, then, that the biblical Unicorn is the same as the reem of the Arab ? As an heraldic beast, the Gemsbok lends himself most gallantly to the theory: he is a s t r o n g l y - m a r k e d equine Antelope, and is the one of his family that frequently lowers his head to show fight, it is said even with the Lion—which is confirmed in song, though he certainly got the worst or it in poetry as I very much think he would in real life. I find this subject has been discussed by the learned [reff. ?—Ed.], anu a decision arrived at unfavourable to the Oryx.

But I do not know that anything has been said on the glyphs-in-profile theory, started by the son of a late Bishop of Jerusalem." See also Mr. O. Shepard's 1930 well illustrated ' L o r e of the Unicorn.'

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ESSEXCOURTESIES — AyoungSeal(Phocavitulina, L.),swimming off Dovercourt beach on 29 December last and occasionally Coming close inshore, was " fired at by a sportsman near the Burse " ; it wisely dived, and was last seen going away strongly in deep water (Local Paper, 30 Dec.).—A baby Seal was seen on Felixstow beach on 20 August following ; and seemed to be resting, after buffetings from the day's gale. Having had a quiet hour on shore, it entered the sea again and disappeared (I.e., 21 Aug.).

A N I N T R O D U C E D M A M M A L . — I have caught a miniature Kangaroo in the kitchen of my ten-years-old bungalow on the southern edge of Earls Soham village, an isolated spot. It was the size of a small Mouse and of House-mouse colour; eyes large and far apart; ears prominent; a bush of bristles round the mouth, and snout shorter than House-mouse; hind legs very long, with peculiarly long f e e t ; fore legs practically non-existant, but with small round hands rather like a Mole ; tail long, thin and hairless, similar to a Mouse and not stout. I think it has led a solitary life for some time in a hollow under the floor ; its hole we thought a Mouse's and stopped in the spring, when it made another, leaving in the opening cheese-rind bearing gnaw-marks.

W e set a trap, and it got caught in the daytime ; now I am sorry it came to a had end, because it was most attractive : I wish I had seen it leaping about, as the length of leg indicates was its habit.—Miss PANSY D O W N I N G ; 1 8 September.

[From this description little doubt remains that the small Jerboa was the Jumping Mouse (Zapus Hudsonius, Zimm.) which has a length of about three inches and tail five. Its nearetie ränge extends from Mexico to far-north lanada, where it lives in woods, plains and mountains, eating all kinds of vegetables and hibernating more or less, in accordance with latitude.

Its amazing agility includes leaps of four or even eight feet, and it can double or squat instantaneously, to escape weasel and o w l : but its habits are not entirely nocturnal. T h e present speeimen must be an escaped pet or the progeny of such ; I have heard of no previous occurrence in Britain.—H.A.] S P R I N G ' T I D E A N D A V I P E R . — I n glorious weather we went nght down on to the Solent shore, a little to the east of Pitts Deep, and pitched our two tents on the only available site, immediately at the highest tide-line, with a narrow strip of salting before the sea. There we stayed for five nights, enjoying the bathing and the solitude, and watching the passing ships through binoculars.

1 he tide began to creep up closer, as the time of full-moon approached ; but, determined to treck the next morning, we did not alter our pitch. However, I awoke about midnight to find 1at füll height of the Spring-tide has lipped over the marsh and inundated our camp : the edges of the light ground-sheets

2F

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DITCH.

AN

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had risen on the flood, so for a moment we had been actually lying with ankle-deep water around : but our sleeping-bags kept dry. W e leaped up and, wading under the füll moon's radiance, dragged everything on to the high gorsy bank. T h e tide ebbed as quickly as it had risen ; and we turned in, all-standing, in our sleeping-bags between the whins : so, for the rest of that night, S . realised an ambition to sleep beneath the open sky. W e packed at dawn and set forth, humping the kit, for the New Forest where a short break was made on a delightful site near Dilton : here a pair of Kingfishers fished in our bathing pool, and Tawny Owls made the welkin ring o' nights. T h e n we Struck across the heart of the Forest and pitched camp in a loop of Highland Water, some way above Millyford bridge, in a small amphitheatre of Beeches and Hollies, with glades radiating in all directions and the brook purling round on two sides. A Viper lived in a Hollyclump at the foot of an ancient Oak, only three or four yards behind my tent. Hirn S . disturbed one morning, while sunning himself, and he slithered under a piece of brown paper, some vandal had left. I whisked the paper away with a s t i c k ; but he betrayed neither anger nor alarm. And so fascinated by his beautiful markings and slow-gliding motion were we, that no scath was done him : though S. slept less easily for the next night or two ! Both Fallow Deer and Roe harboured in the surrounding thickets, and Foxes were seen in füll daylight. T h e air rang with the screams of Pony stallions who would trot officiously past the camp with their little troops of mares, yearlings and foals in train.

Once a Sparrow-hawk pursued a Green Woodpecker that flew, with a terrible hub-bub, round our glade and just over the tents, causing the Hawk to abandon the chase. On Coming up from the sea, we barely missed visiting the Hon. Secretary in Lyndhurst, who had returned to Suffolk the previous day. W e ourselves left the Forest early in August, quite unsettled for mundane life b y such close contact with the Wild.—HENRY ANDREWS, Bury S t . Edmunds.