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THE HOLLY BLUE

T h e butterfly was found to be favouring the Rigbone district of Beccles at the end of July and beginning of August, 1941, but was then unobserved until 1944. Since then it has occurred in the district but in very sparse numbers up to last year when, however, only one example was met with on 16th May, in the town.

58 F a i r Close,

ERNEST T . GOLDSMITH.

Beccles.

ADDENDUM.

T h e butterfly seems well established in the interior (away from the coast) in suitable places in both Norfolk and Suffolk with occasional unexpected appearances. Among other places in which it has been observed over the period 1909 - 1952 are : Cromer, St. Olaves, Worlingham, Kenninghall, Hockwold, Stockton, Ubbeston, Fritton (ovipositing on ling), Tunstall and Halvergate, Stokesby and Runham, Yaxley, Stowmarket and Little Glemham.

E.T.G.

MAMMALS WATER SHREW, Neomys fodiens bicolor, Shaw. I trapped the enclosed water shrew in my garden, a hundred yards or more from the nearest stream (Mrs. F. Rivis, Farnham). [Water shrews seem to wander some way from water : this is the second one that Mrs. Rivis has sent me from her garden and I have trapped them in a wood at Gt. Glemham, 5 0 - 100 yards away from the nearest pond. C.] PINE MARTEN, Maries martes, Linn. In July, 1952, in the early evening on a lane between Westhall and Brampton Station I saw an animal which I think must have been a pine marten spring on to the road about 20 yards ahead and cross the road with a squirrel-like jerky motion. It is difficult to be sure of its size, but it was certainly over 2 f e e t ; but nearer 3 feet I should say and the tail at least one-third of its length. T h i s was very bushy, there was some white on its rounded muzzle but for the rest it seemed very dark grey or brown. Its ears were not noticeably pricked u p ' a s with a fox. I wrote to Dr. Harrison Mathews, Director of the Zoological Gardens, who replied : " I think you are correct in dentifying this as a Pine Marten. Your careful

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description seems to fit this very well. Pine martens have increased considerably of recent years, and odd ones have been turning up in many unexpected places. There is alvvays the possibility of course that some of them may have escaped from captivity, but I think that many of these interesting records are those of true wild animals that have wandered far from the headquarters of the species in west and north." (K. C. Yates-Smith). [The last recorded Suffolk Pine martens were a pair seen at Sutton 20th May, 1889 (Trans. SNS, Vol. II, p. 20, 1932). It is to be hoped that the one seen at Westhall was a pregnant female who escaped into the forests at Dunwich where these creatures could do little damage and enrich our Suffolk fauna. C.] H A R E , I.epus europaeus occidentalis, de Winton.

After the flood of Jan. 31st, 1953, on one of the marshes here, there was left above the water a long narrow island of higher ground some \ \ acres in extent, on which stood a cattle shed. On this had collected 15 head of cattle, 2 hares and some rabbits. T h e following day I took a party to attend to the cattle and while they were being collected the rabbits went to ground, but the hares swam straight to shore, a distance which I afterwards measured to be 375 yards. They swam easily, high out of the water and on landing appeared in no way exhausted or distressed, but ran for a hundred yards or so parallel to the shore and then straight up into the higher ground (R. Ffinch, Hollesley).

Y E L L O W - N E C K E D W O O D M O U S E , Apodemus flavicollis zvintoni, Barrett Hamilton. I caught two males of this mouse at Hopton near Yarmouth whilst on leave from the Navy in October 1945 (W. Jenner).

HARVEST M O U S E , Micromys minutus soracinus, Hermann. " In this district Harvest mice are plentiful on the edge of the Fens where they have their nests in among the tall herbage." (M. G. Rutterford, Lakenheath in lit., Jan., 1953). [Little is known of the status in the county of this animal : the only earlier records that I can find are :—"many in a barley Stack at B!axhall"(Rope, Trans. Norf. & Nor. N.S., I I I , p. 674), " appears to be plentiful in East Suffolk (loc. cit., IX, p. 455), " " abundant round L o w e s t o f t " (Ticehurst, Trans. SNS, II, p. 17, 1932).

More recently it has been reported from reed-beds round Oulton Broad (Report Lowestoft Field Club, 1947-48), from the sah marshes at Fiatford (Report S.P.F.S., 1951), Fornham and Gt. Glemham (H. J. Boreham and D. Dow, Trans. SNS, V I I I , p. 2, 1952). In this district (Framlingham - Saxmundham) threshingtackle men teil me that it is not infrequently seen in corn stacks and it is probably universally distributed throughout the countv though seldom reported. In some places it is said to make the conventional nest amongst corn stalks, in others like voles on

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the ground in rough grass and in hedgerows. Reports of nests and their sites would be interesting as indeed would any reports on the distribution of this animal. C.] F I E L D V O L E , Microtus agrestis hirtus, Bellamy.

In the garden at Mariesford Hall is a large lilac tree some 50 or 60 years old and with a trunk of about 30-ins. in circumference. It grows in a bed of Hypericum androsaemum which normally hides the trunk to a height of about 2 feet. In February, 1953, it was noticed that during the winter, hidden by the St. John's Wort, the trunk and lower branches of this old tree had been completely barked by some animals. Traps were set with no result, so a watch was kept and there was shot, flagrante delicto, first one field vole and then a second, after which the damage ceased.

T h a t these little animals will do great harm barking trees in young plantations is well known, but I have not heard before of voles barking a tree so large and tough that one would not expect even rabbits to attack it. (D. J. H. Maclennan, Great Glemham).

[Ed. See frontispiece.]

PORPOISE, Phocaena phocaena, Linn.

Last summer I saw on the beach between Aldeburgh and Thorpeness the decaying body of what I think was a porpoise. (Mrs. D. Jervis). [Members who live near or who regularly visit the coast should watch for the bodies of Cetacea cast up by the sea. Many presumed " porpoises " are in fact dolphins and though the stench of decaying whales, large and small, has to be smelt to be believed, efforts should be made to preserve the skulls at least. C.]