The Avocet again Nests in Suffolk

TRANSACTIONS. THE AVOCET AGAIN NESTS IN SUFFOLK.

BY A MEMBER. SUCH glad tidings must most certainly be announced, and there is no fitter place for doing so than the present. Why do we record the Situation, locality, and date of each biological species ?

Mainly in order that its Life History and distribution shall become known by compilation of many such records ; possibly with an arriere pensee that the facts may be confirmed by other Members visiting the spot, and that they may benefit by the acquisition of specimens. No hesitation is ever feit in Publishing such records, excepting in the two isolated cases of Plants and Birds, because the former may be dug by oi polloi and transported to their backyards, and the eggs of the latter collected. Such eggs, when of economic value, are very rightly protected (at least nominally) by law ; when of no such value, the matter becomes merely sentimental. I am in entire sympathy with all Bird-lovers ; and, also, I can conceive no reason why the ' mere Oologist' should be considered an Outsider. A Bird's egg is a thing of beauty and the collecting of them certainly will be, as the late Mr. Gilbert Powell* found it, a joy for ever : when adequately labelled, they possess as high a scientific value as do the adults. At the least, common sense dictates that the suppression of statistic data through mere sentiment is subversive to that Progress of Science this Society constantly maintains in view. If there be a commercial side to the question, I wot not of it. Nature lovers are notoriously altruistic, possibly never more so than now when even the working-man collector for cash is extinct.

With these premises, no hesitation is feit in announcing that, after the lapse of sixty-five years (Ticehurst, Birds of Suff. 1932, 380), this ' vagrant which used to breed '• in Britain (Witherby, Check-list 1924, 68), Recurvirostra avosetta, Linn., has been discovered to do so in Suffolk. How satisfactory we may regard the resumption is shown by the Statement that " only a few casuals, straying to the limit of their ränge and rarely numbering more than ten or a dozen, ever reach us. So the likelihood of the Avocet ever re-establishing itself in Britain is remote, for we are on the fringe of its European breeding-range, and there is no passage movement of large numbers of which some might elect to remain " (Ingram & Salmon, Birds in Britain Today 1934, 107). I have no knowledge of the exact localities ; and I have not enquired :

* Trans, ii, pp. 55 & 303.

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THE AVOCET AGAIN NESTS IN SUFFOLK

the mere fact is all sufficient in the case of a Bird that can rapidly cover the fifty-odd miles of our coast. It is attested by at least three of our Members, whose guarded letters convey the impression of three distinct situations, ranging over forty miles. Two adults were first noticed in spring, whence the presumed pair remained occasionally visible for just two months ; then a lady-Member observed four adults, along with two fairly newly-hatched chicks.

Later, at a quite different place, four adults were reported to have hatched off three young, upon strictly private and protected ground. And another Member asserts that ' they have nested elsewhere in the County.'

ORTHOPTERA OF SUFFOLK REVISED. RECENT alterations of nomenclature and some additions to the List published in our Transactions (i, 92) render the present revision advisable. All the 36 British species are here presented, but only the 27 of them that have been found in Suffolk are italicised. All introduced species are square-bracketed.—Though through seventy years' publications the Norfolk Naturalists have never been moved to produce an account of their Orthoptera, the appearance of Suffolk's in 1930 inspired some of their Members to print one of 25 kinds in ' Wild Life ' on 6 January 1934. Of it Dr. Malcolm Burr obviously had no knowledge (e.g. Map, p. 59) when writing his ' British Grasshoppers ' of 1936 ; indeed, our own List and much eise are there overlooked.

FORFICULIDiE (DERMAPTERA):

EARWIGS.

Labidura riparia, Pall.

1. Lalia minor, Linn.—Bury (Trans, iii, 199); Tuddenham Fen 12 June 1900 (Elliott); Aying plentifully at Gorleston 24 May 1937 (Tr. Norf. Soc. xiv, 209). Flew to light, M o r k s Soham 25 July & Foxhall 16 Aug. 1947.

2. Forßcula auricularia, Linn.—At Monks Soham light 17 Oct. 1935, along with Apterygida, post; on sugar at Fritton in Sept. (Trans, ii, 88); Elliott found nymphs to be common on Icklingham sandhills 18 June 1915.

3. F. Lesnei, Fin.—Omitted by Burr, p. 35.

4. Apterygida albipennis, Meg.—Taken at light at Monks Soham House : $ 10.30 p.m. 9 Sept. 1934 ; a dozen, including a pair in cop., 11 p.m. 17 Oct. 1935 (Trans, iii, 92); $ 10 p.m.

19 Aug. 1938 ; nymph 12 p.m. 22 Aug. 1939.

[Three introduced species : Prolabia arachidis, Yers., Aniso'abis maritima, Bon. & A. annulipes, Luc. None found in Suffolk.]