News for Naturalists 5 Part 4

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NEWS FOR NATURALISTS. It is by the patient accumulation of apparently trifling facts that the most important generalisations are achieved.—Deville's Prolegomena.

THE skeleton of a man has been found in a granite cleft in Norway, just off Oslo Fiord, where hc feil some seven thousand years ago (London Paper, 25 July 1945). One hopes all such ancient remains are adequately examined from an evolutionary aspect.—When the Hon. Editor visited Chelsworth in Suffolk during May 1920, there had been recently discovered two more or less entire skeletons, hardly six inches below the surface of Valley Gravel alongside, and formerly in the bed of, the small rivulet called the Brett. Here we picked up and bore home with us one large bone, which proved (upon examination, with our Past President Dr. Vinter) to be an upper right female femur, having the neck, which is nowadays strongly oblique, at very nearly right angles to the shaft and the cancellous tissues, i.e. fibres of the layer of periosteum, much exposed by age. All the bones occurred upon the west margin of the brook, immediately west of the church. With them were discovered no further relics of any sort, excepting an abundance of small and fiat red tiles of the usual early type. Consequent'ly we suggest that these people had been accidentally drowned in a fiood : the site is much too low to have been inhabited in Saxon times, when it must have been normally under water. In reply to our enquiry, A. M . Powell esquire, of 54 Regents-park Road, was good enough to reply on 19 July following, in reference to these " skeletons the boys dug up at Chelsworth a year or two ago : 1 took the skulls and some of the bigger limb bones to Professor Keith at the Royal College of Surgeons, the recognised authority on such matters ; and he said that, though it was not easy to dogmatise in the absence of corroborative evidence, he was pretty certain that the remains were those of Saxon women of about the eighth Century. H u m a n remains had been found upon the adjacent hill before", but this last is quite a distinct exhumation. We have seen no printed record of the female relics, nor had the local press any note on them.

WE were wont to collect occasionally with the late Indian chaplain, Revd. John Hocking Hocking, when he was rector of Copdock during 1881-1903 ; there he then died in his seventieth year (EMM. 1904, 19). He was always keen on iVloths and, about 1899, presented its present collection of them to the Ipswich M u seum. Fame was thrust upon him by the capture of Polia (Xylina) lanVoda on sugar in his garden on 30 September 1895 ; but later he unfortunately exchanged this unique Suffolk specimen. His

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Macrolepidoptera have ever since his decease remained in the hands of his daughter, Miss Mary Hocking, who herseif augmented them. Now they have found another good home in the County by their acquisition in July last by Dr. Hocken of Haiesworth.

N A T U R A L History enters into a very small proportion of F. H. Groome's local stories, in his 1895 ' Two SufFolk Friends ' and, when it does chance to crop up, is not always above criticism.

Thus a peasant woman of Tannington, during the winter of 1833-4, instead of Alling it at the pump, ' deeved ' [delved] her kettle into the snow, which she boiled to malte tea. She became ill and the doctor discovered that a large Toad, credited with having been scooped into the kettle along with the snow, had been simmering therein with the tea for some days, thus causing her malacly (p. 18).

But surely no Toad would hibernate upon the ground immediately beneath snow, any more likely than within an hermetically sealed rock-chamber !—FitzGerald is quoted as writing from Lowestoft in September 1869 that an unnamed boy, ' one of the nicest I have seen these thirty years, sees wonderful things. He saw two Sharks making love together out of the water at Covehithe ; and a shoal of Porpoises tossing up a Halibut into the air and catching it again ' (p. 117). Here the Sharks must have been Cetacean.—At Southwold in August 1869 he was given a ' brownish Moth with a red rump [a late Ruby Tiger ?], I daresay very common that he pinned into a lucifer-match box for the curator of the Colchester Museum (p. 115), where possibly it is yet preserved.—A really valuable early record of Redbreasts' migraticn is described. On 7 October 1866 FitzGerald had been " noticing for several days how many Robins were singing along the London-road in Lowestoft ; and Lusia Kerrich [his niece] told me they had almost a plague of Robins at Geldeston, three or four Coming into the break fast-room every morning, getting under Kerrich's legs, &c. And yesterday a boatman told me that four came aboard his lugger when over twelve miles out at sea : a Bird which he and his mate had never seen to visit a ship before [these would be of the Continental form Rubecula, L., with much yellower gorget and greener black than the British form Melophilus, Hart.]. Also there came aboard another, very pretty Bird of all sorts of colours, whose name he did not know " (p. 106), almost doubtless a ' Herring Spink ' as explained at our Transactions ii, 61.

WE are glad to hear, from Mr. Jim Burton who examined it this year, that the splendid Barrett Collection of Moths has at last found a permanent home in Bristol Museum. It is of interest to E. Anglians because the collector was a civil servant in Norwich during 1868 to 1875 and Kings Lynn in 1886-9, when he discovered Eupithecia extensaria to be British. After the publication of his excellent' Lepidoptera of the British Isles', begun in 1892, we well remember Charles Golding Barrett, who was a Devonian, at Tvleet-

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ings of the Entomological Society, as an old man with long white hair and the presence of a preacher (in eld, he used to evangelise at London street-corners, we believe) ; but his most energetic days were spent in Norfolk, whence a large proportion of the Bristol collection emanated. At Peckham Rye he died forty-one years ago.

W I T H a view to eventual publication, it is proposed to compile a Bibliography of the British Flora. One section of this, on local botany, would comprise all publications, which it is possible to trace, dealing wholly or partly with the flora of any area within the British Isles. This section would include local floras and works on topographical botany, and all publications, such as local and county histories, guide books, periodicals, and newspapers, etc., in which plant lists of particular areas have appeared ; manuscripts of sufficient importance and authenticity would also be listed. Where, however, only incidental mention is made of plant localities, aä in many of the Standard floras of Britain and in monographs, these would be omitted from this section. T h e compilation will entail a large amount of research and will only be possible with the Willing co-operation of helpers who have the requisite local knowledge of the literature of their areas. J. S. L. Gilmour, H. A. Hyde, H. S. Marshall, G. Taylor would be grateful if those Willing to help would communicate with Mr. N. Douglas Simpson, 3 Cavendish Road, Bournemouth, indicating (i) when they can begin work, and (ii) in what areas they are interested and to what libraries and periodicals they have access. When we see what response is received to this appeal, detailed plans for carrying out the work can be drawn up.

NATURALISTS may not all yet recognise the naturally successive phases of Weather, that are asserted to have been generally used by seamen since at latest 1838. They are known as the Beaufort Scale and progress from (1) Dead Calm through (2) Light Wind, (3) Moderate Wind and (4) Strong Wind to (5) Gale, (6) Storm and (7) Kurricane : the point of Storm is attained by a velocity of thirty-eight miles in an hour.

THE following two statements are made, along with one from both Norfolk and Essex, in ' Merlinvs Anglicvs Junjor or the Engiish Merlin Revived, 1644 ' by one ' Lilly, Student in astrologie'.

In none is traceable the political association that one would expect at that period. (1) " At St. Edmund's-Bury in Suffolk, Sep. 6 1660, in the middle of the Broad Street [? fictitious name] there w e r e got together an innumerable C o m p a n y of Spiders of a redish c o l o u r : the spectators judged them to be as many as would have filled a peck. These Spiders marched together, and in a stränge kind of order, from the place where they were first discovered towards the house of one, Mr. Duncomb [William of Bury School, son of agricola John Duncan of Cockfield, was admitted to John's

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in April 1634, agcd 16. Not in Ship Money 1640], a member of the late Parliament and since Knighted. And, as the people passed the Street or came near the Spiders to look upon so stränge a sight, they [latter] would shun the people and kept themselves together in a body tili they came to the said Duncombe's house, before whose door there are two great posts. There they staied, and many of them got under the door into the house. But the greatest part of them, climbing up the posts, spun a very great web presently from the one post to the other and then wrapt themselves in it in two very great parcels, that hung down near to the ground ; which at last pereeiving, the servants of the house got dry straw and laid it under them and, putting fire to it, by a suddain flame consumed the greatest part of them : the number[s] of those that remained were not at all considerable. All the use that the Gentleman made of this stränge accident, so far as we can learn, is only this, that he believes they were sent to his house by some witches.

—(2) A great Swarm of Flyes seen Aying over St. Edmund's-Bury.

The same day were also seen a great Swarm of flyes Aying over the said Town of St. Edmund's-Bury : their multitude was so great that the sky seemed to be darkened by them. Both these relations come from credible persons, eye-witnesses : however, the truth of these things [E. Angl. N. & Q. i, 1867, p. 57] is notoriously known to the Generalities of the Inhabitant of that T o w n " .

OUR article on ' An Old Suffolk Naturalist' by His Son (supra p. 10) ends with regret that we have never seen a word in print from Mr. Garrett Garrett, who lived in Ipswich 1808-1890. Later we have chanced upon the following letter on " Jersey Insects, to the Editor of the Entomologists' Weekly Intelligencer. Sir,—I have some flne speeimens of Deilephila Euphorbiae, which were bred this year at Jersey. I showed them to an entomologist, a few days since, and he said they cannot be considered Eritish. Would you be kind enough to inform me whether they are classed with foreign or British insects ? T h e larvae were found feeding on the seaspurge at Jersey. I am, Sir, Yours, &c., G. G. Ipswich, Dec. 26, 1860". T h e Editor, M r . H. T . Stainton, considers them no more indigenous than are Algerian insects French (I.e. 5 Jan. 1861, p.

110, unindexed). This, we cannot doubt, is attributable to our Suffolk Naturalist, whose Son, the Revd. James Robinson Garrett of Helmingham Rectory died, we regret to see, on 10 June 1944 at Felixstow, aged eighty-eight years.

J O H N RASOR was in the habit of sending us odd insects, not more than two or three at a time, for names during the years 1904-13.

1 asked M r . H. Andrews who lived there in 1931 to obtain any details of him still remembered :—The little Drift he lived in at Woolpit is called Rags Lane, and his widow still lives there. Mr. Rasor was the village schoolmaster and handed over the reins to my informant, now retired, whom I know well. This man is very modest, has no grain of animosity in him, and knew Rasor all his

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life. W h a t he told me is, that M r . Rasor won a spurious fame for himself by writing rubbish to the papers about marvellous things, which were in reality quite commonplace. Although my informant is not especially interested in Natural History, he knew botany because he had to teach it in school. H e can recall three separate occasions on which Rasor made a great song about some rare plant he had found at Woolpit, when really it abounded all round the district: in two cases within two stone-throws of the school itself.

Other people formed the same opinion of his vaunted prowess.

Being negligent in his school duties, Rasor's salary was lowered tili he was obliged to resign. But he died worth a great deal of money, as he had been a miser all his life, and kept his wife in considerable want. T h a t is all my friend knew of him : and quite enough too, you will say !

N o Suffolk strata are old enough to yield precious metals, ignorance of which fact gave rise to many amusing incidents throughout medieval times. T h u s K i n g Henry vi in 1449 commissioned Duke William de la Pole of Suffolk and one J o h n Lematon, to account for the royal fifteenths of both silver and gold that accrued from our County's minerals to the Crown during a half-century (Orig. Rolls 13, 27 Hen.). Later, the manor of Little Haugh in Norton village in ' the time of Henty viii suddenly sprang into considerable notice as the probable El Dorado of our c o u n t r y ' ; and Gibson's 1722 edition of Camden's Britannia instances the ' vain and groundless hopes of finding gold indulged by that bluff King's credulous kind of avarice aroused (Redstone asserts in 1912) by others' profitable barrow-robbery. His Household Book, penes Royal Society, definitely states that in July 1538 there were paid both (1) to Richard Cavendish [cp. T r a n s , iv, 46] and other royal commissioners, having the oversight of the K i n g ' s mines of gold in Suffolk, for conveying there certain refineries and other artificers for trial of the ore, the sum of xx/. ; and (2) to Sir Piers Edgecombe's servant William Wade for his costs in bringing into Suffolk from Cornwall the miners M a n u e l George and William Wynget, to assay and work the new mine, upon a reckoning of their wages, vil. (Suff. Inst, ii, 280). T h e diggings yet remain to show the probability of these attempts (Mag. Brit. 1730) ; the vestiges of these excavations were visible no more than a few years ago (Excur. Suff. 1818) ; and a small plantation at Little Haugh and parallel with the Bury road, showing yellow sand, is traditionally indicated as that field of gold. Potius crediderin aurum solo defuisse quam ille avaritial ! (loc. cit.). T h e above Household Book fails to locate the Suffolk ' mine ' ; and, besides Norton, Hollingsworth (History of Stow) remarks that an undated " mine of gold, it was said, existed at Banketon [Bacton] in Hartismere Hundred; but the expense of working it caused it to be abandoned."

Of this nothing later emerges ; and Sewell of Yaxley aptly considered ( E . Angl. N . & Q. v, 143) the Statement, like many in that History, needs to be verified.

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OUR Member, Colonel Broughton Hawley, went to the annual exhibition of the South London Entomological Society on 27 October last, and writes on 28th : " I expect a brief account of the Macrolepidoptera will interest our Members, who have heard a good deal about rare migrants this year and how (646, Suff. Mem. 1937) Daplidice came to Cornvvall in droves. Here was a dravver füll of it, half captured and half bred ; as well as a specimen of (658c) Argiades and several (642) Hyale. Many other exhibits also showed Daplidice and Hyale ; and one man had also a pair of (601) Lathonia and a (635) Baetica. I showed mv 21 bred (549) Livornica and an (Trans, iv, 35) Exigua, which was on my Bodenham window in rain at end of September.

There were some good varieties of (607) C-album and a lot of bred varr. of moths, which do not interest me, as breeding to a 1 strain ' seems more useful than scientific. Also a lovely series of (118) Occulta from Aviemore ; and very interesting dozen perfect (29a) Nola albula from the New Forest, with a note of the hours at which they were captured that tends to show it flies for a very short time and is almost impossible to find at any other times.

I saw a magnificent series of (229b) Barretti, and a good many fine (554) Convolvuli. But the ' high spot ' of the whole was our Member, Dr. K. G. Blair's four Sedina Buettneri, Her., New to Britain : this is of the utmost interest, as it seems unlikely to be a migrant, and has perhaps been living for generations in its little bit of marsh in the Isle of Wight.* At first glance it looks like a small and dark example of (204) Impura ; but, under a lens, the antennae and hairy thorax show up and its similarity to (43) Simyra albinervosa becomes apparent : collectors will be examining their smaller Wainscots with care now, I expect! I might have seen more of the Exhibition if the crowd round the cases had not been so great."

DATURA STRAMONIUM (supra p. 155).—A small school-boy waylaid me in Blythburgh during 1943 and asked me to identify'a fruit that he had found on a rubbish-heap plant in a cottage garden by the river-bridge there. I had seen it on several tropical rubbish-heaps in Singapore, Canton, &c, so knew it well. Last summer 1944 I saw other plants of this species flourishing in a cottage garden, facing south, between Blyford and Haiesworth.

I find the last number of our Transactions most interesting.—Miss WHITING ; 2 O c t . * " M y n e w h o u s e looks o v e r a fine reed b e d t h a t h a s p r o d u c e d q u i t e a large n u m b e r of g o o d t h m g s , m o s t l y W i c k e n F e n specialities : N . s p a r g a n i i & d i s s o l u t a , a n d a n o t h e r W a i n s c o t t h a t I c a n n o t n a m e , a l o n g w i t h the Beetles D e m e t r i u s imperialis a n d A x i n o t a r s u s r u f u s , n e w t o t h e Island.

Also t h e Psocid Ccrcilius a t r i c o r n i s ( T r a n s , i, 184), n e w to m e a n d at first I t h o u g h t to B r i t a i n , b u t finally r e c o g n i s e d it as D a l e ' s species t h a t was o r i g i n a l l y taken at F r e s h w a t e r in 18&9 " (Blair, in lit. 18 O c t . 1945).