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Yorkshire Hoors and Dales

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THE

NATURALIST:

A

MONTHLY JOURNAL OF

NATURAL HISTORY FOR THE NORTH OF ENGLAND

EDITED BY

THOS. SHEPPARD, M.Sc., F.G.S., F.R.G.S., F.S. A.(Scot.).

Curator of the Municipal Museums, Hull.

Hon. Member of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union ; the Spalding Gentlemen’s
Society; the Doncaster Scientific Society; the Selby Scientific Society.

and

THOMAS WILLIAM WOODHEAD, Ph.D., M.Sc., F.L.S.

Lecturer in Biology, Technical College, Huddersfield ;

WITH THE ASSISTANCE AS REFEREES IN SPECIAL DEPARTMENTS OF

J. GILBERT BAKER, F.R.S.,
Prof. PERCY F. KENDALL,

F.L.S. GEORGE T. PORRITT, F.L.S. , F.E.S.

M.Sc., F.G.S. JOHN W. TAYLOR, M.Sc.

RILEY FORTUNE, F.Z.S.

1919.

LONDON :

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Printers and Publishers to the Y.N. U.

JAN. 1919.

No. 744

(No. 518 of current torlet.

A MONTHLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF

NATURAL HISTORY FOR THE NORTH OF ENGLAND.

T. SHEPPARD,

EDITED BY

M.Sc., F.G.S., F.R.G.S., F.S.A.Scot

The Museums, Hull ;

AND

T. W. WOODHEAD, Ph.D., M.Sc., F.L.S.,

Technical College, Huddersfield.

WITH THE ASSISTANCE AS REFEREES IN SPECIAL DEPARTMENTS OF

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Prof. P. P. KENDALL, M.Sc., P.G.S., JOHN W. TAYLOR, M.Sc.,

RILEY FORTUNE, P.Z.S.

Contents : —

Notes and Comments Petroleum ; Linnean Species of Mollusca ; Yorkshire Geologists ;
Science and Nationality ; Yorkshire Natural Science ; Yorkshire Naturalists; Selous, The

Sportsman

The Common Banded Snail: a Study in Variation (illust.) — A . E Trueman, D. Sc

Notes on the Flora and Fauna of North-east Derbyshire— Eric Drabble
F.L.S. and Hilda Drabble

Notes on the Entomology of the Bubwith District— IF. J. Fordham, M

L.R.C.P., F.E.S

Common Wild Birds of the Scarborough District— W. Gyngell

The Spiders of Yorkshire— Wm. Falconer

Yorkshire Naturalists at Leeds — W.E.L.W.

Notes on Arctic-Alpine Mollusca (illustrated)— Hans Schlesch ...

Yorkshire Naturalists' Union’s Report for 1918

In Memoriam : Richard Barnes (illustrated) - C. A. C

Field Notes : — Scarcity of Wheatear ; Yorkshire Herons; Lancashire and Chesh
tomology ; Goodyera repens near Carlisle

Correspondence: The Causes of Varieties in Butterflies

Proceedings of Provincial Scientific Societies

Northern News

News from the Magazines

Illustrations

1-4

F.G.S.

5-9

D.Sc.,

10-12

R.C.S.,

13-16

17-20

21-25

26-28

29-82

33-43

44-45

e En-

9,

32, 46

47-48

12

25, 48

45, 48

6, 29,

31, 44

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THE NATURALIST. A Monthly Illustrated Journal of Natural History for the North of England. Edited
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of J. GILBERT BAKER, F.R.S., F.L.S., Prof. P. F. KENDALL, M.Sc., F.G.S., GEO. T. PORRITT, F.L.S.,
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THE NATURALIST

FOR 1919.

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

PETROLEUM.

We take the following from Nature : — r The inauguration of
the first boring for petroleum in this country, which took place
at Hardstoft, near Chesterfield, on October 15th, was an event
of more than, economic interest by reason of the confirmation
it may afford of the speculations of competent oilfield geologists
of the existence of oil in this country. Forty American drillers
are engaged on the first boring, but provision of the necessary
plant for drilling ten wells has been made ; seven of these drill-
ings are to be made in the vicinity of Chesterfield. Each of the
wells will be fully equipped for a maximum depth of 4,000 feet,
and the principal occurrence of oil is expected to lie between
2,000 feet and this maximum. Lord Cowdray, to whom the
nation is so much indebted for the assistance he has rendered
in this pioneer work, claimed that although in America such
experimental drilling would be known as ‘ wild-catting/ yet
it was more than justified by to-day's knowledge, but was not a
case for exaggerated hopes. Such a word of caution was very
necessary, for it was so customary to think of oil-wells as yield-
ing prodigious quantities that the low average of some five tons
a day per well throughout the world is not realised. Last year
the importation of oil into this country was valued at more
than £36,000,000. Even if all the ten wells yielded the above
average, the coinribution to our national requirements would
be very little, and the present enterprise must be regarded
more as exploratory than as likely to furnish any adequate
proportion of our requirements.' Personally, in view of the
comparatively small areas in which deposits of Oil Shale occur
in the British Islands, we are not very hopeful of a terrific
success with regard to this supply of Petroleum.

LINNEAN SPECIES OF MOLLUSCA.

At a recent meeting of the Linnean Society a paper was
read * On the Linnean species of Non-Marine Mollusca that are
represented in the British Fauna, with notes on the specimens
of these and other British forms in the Linnean collection,' by
A. S. Kennard, F.G.S., and B. B. Woodward, F.L.S. In this
the authors state ‘ Thanks to the active researches of Mr. C. D.
Sherborn, A.L.S., for the “ Index Animalium," prosecuted
now for some thirty years, of Mr. Iredale, Mr. Reynell, and
others, our knowledge of the work of the earlier writers has
been so greatly increased, especially of late, that there now
seems some chance of approximate finality being attainable
in the matter of nomenclature on the basis of priority — at

1919 Jan, 1.

A

2

Notes and Comments.

least in the case of the British post-Pliocene Non-Marine
Mollusca with which we are particularly concerned. Ac-
cordingly we are attempting a more, thorough revision of their
synonymy than was essayed by us in 1903 (Journ. of Conch.,
Vol. X., pp. 352-367) and 1914 (“ List of the British Non-
Marine Mollusca/' 8 vo, pp. 12;. Naturally one of the first
steps in this undertaking has been to re-in vestigate the Linnean
types, which have not been scrutinized since Hanley wrote
his account of the whole collection of shells (“' Ipsa Linnaei
Conchylia,” 1855), save f°r the uncompleted investigation
by Mr. J. W. Taylor and Mr. W. D. Roebuck in May, 1914,
when they “ examined and isolated all the British land and
fresh-water shells ” (Taylor, “ Monograph,” iii., p. 17)/
YORKSHIRE GEOLOGISTS.

We are glad to see that the Yorkshire Geological Society
continues to issue its excellent publication, part 4 of Vol.
XIX., with twelve plates and numerous tables and illustrations
in the text, having recently appeared. The Society also
keeps the Geology of the county it represents well to the
fore. The present part contains / Alluvial Deposits at
Woodlesford and Rothwell Haigh, near Leeds/ by A. Gilligan ;
‘ Correlation and Facies of the Upper and Middle Oolites in
England and North-west France,' by M. Odling ; (with
appendices : ‘ On an Artesian Well at Oswaldkirk,’ by Percy
Fry Kendall, and ‘ Note on the Stratigraphy of Roulston
Scar,' by M. Odling) ; ‘ The Lower Permian at Ashfield Brick
and Tile Works, Conisborough,' by A. Gilligan ; (with appen-
dix : ‘ Chemical Composition of the Beds by M. Odling) ;

‘ Martin Simpson and his Geological Memoirs,' and a ‘ Biblio-
graphy of Yorkshire Geology, 1916-17,' both' by T. Sheppard.
In addition there are ‘ In Memoriam ' notices : — f Henry
Culpin,' by W. Gibson ; ‘ William Cash,' by P. F. Kendall ;
‘ Benjamin Holgate/ by E. Hawkesworth ; ‘ William Simpson/
by F. W. Branson ; ' John Wesley Judd,' by G. A. J. Cole.

SCIENCE AND NATIONALITY.

Referring to our remarks in The Naturalist for November,
the ‘ inaugural ’ meeting of the Yorkshire Natural Science
Association was held at the University, Leeds, in due course,
and Prof. Bateson gave his ‘ Presidential Address ' on ‘ Science
and Nationality.' In this Prof. Bateson stated : — As far as
the war was concerned, the end of the first act had come,
but the tragedy might soon begin again. Priests and law-
givers had failed to secure peace in the past. Could it be
that scientists would help where the others had failed ? As
scientists they knew that the life of one creature was the
death of another, and knowing that every living thing held
its place by power, and power alone, it was not for them to
cherish dreams of universal peace. In their hearts they know

Naturalist,

Notes and Comments.

3

that never would true peace be found. Not only could peace,
absolute and whole, never be attained, but it could never be
approached. Among mankind race exterminated race by
fire and sword or by competition in countless disguises. Though
war might cease, struggle and competition went on. We were
told that each nation would be free to develop, as President
Wilson said, ‘ unhindered, unthreatened, unafraid,' but to the
biologist the substance behind those words was an illusion.
He was no pacifist ; he believed the duty of self-defence was
one which no Government could decline ; but he was not
sanguine that it was within our power to avert a similar catas-
trophe in future. On the other hand, he thought that the
pronouncement that from the principles of biology it could
be inferred that wars would recur displayed a certain confusion
of thought. Recognising that the struggle for existence must
go on, and that it was not in the power of individuals to con-
tract themselves out of the struggle, he still saw nothing in
what we knew of biology which justified the assertion that
the struggle must periodically take the shape of war. He did
not think that war was an essential phenomenon in the struggle
for existence.

YORKSHIRE NATURAL SCIENCE.

At the meeting, the Chairman, Dr. H. Wager, stated : — If
any apology were needed for the inauguration of yet another
society it would be found in the fact that in the near future
science would have to play an exceedingly important part in
the work of reconstruction. Something on a broader basis
than that of the numerous existing specialised societies was
necessary. There were plenty of Yorkshire scientific societies
that specialised, but there was none that appealed to scientific
men and women on broad lines, and the promoters of that
meeting felt that it was detrimental to the development of
the intellectual possibilities of the race that there should be a
continued specialisation, which had become narrower and
narrower largely owing to the exigencies of the various branches
of learning. It was necessary to ‘ get to the hilltop, look
around and see how things are trending.’ Specialised training
rather tended to destroy the soul ; certainly it limited the
outlook. The talk at present was very largely of science as
utilitarian. It was believed by some people to have been the
cause of the war. That was not so, though the cause of the
war might have been the misapplication of science, brought
about by the misapplication of scientific facts and inferences
through the generalisations of imperfectly trained philosophers.
It was at first suggested that the society should be one for
science teachers, but it was felt that even such a society as
that would be in a specialised groove. What was wanted was
a membership of people who had what he might term a good
education in science.

1919 Jan. 1.

4

Notes and Comments .

YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS.

All this might easily give the ‘ man in the street ' the
impression that the Yorkshire Natural Science Association
and the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union were covering much of
the same ground. Surely, if anybody does object to / special-
isation'— and the ‘ narrow outlook/ it is a Yorkshire naturalist,
who, of all men, gets to the hilltop, . looks around, and sees
how things are trending.’ However, we are pleased to learn
that the objects of the Society as set forth on its official circular,
and as might be assumed from the newspaper report, are not
really as we might assume, and that the society does not
really compete with the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union in any
way. This we have on the authority of Prof. Garstang, who
told us at our Annual Meeting at Leeds that he would certainly
not have had anything to do with the new Society if it had
any likelihood of interfering with the Union in any way, and
he felt he could say the same for Dr. Wager. Anyway, the
new Society is optimistic, and has decided to hold its next
‘ Annual Meeting ’ at Bradford, so we must * wait and see.'

SELOUS.*

The many admirers of Selous will be delighted with Mr.
Millais’ charming account of the life and work of his old
friend. From first page to last the story never loses hold ;
from the daring achievements of ‘ John Leroux ’ at Rugby
School, his encounters with gamekeepers, and collecting expe-
ditions to his later days, when big-game hunting of a kind
which has made the name of Selous world-famous ; all are simi-
larly fascinating. Of Selous’ achievements in Africa, his books
have already made many of our readers familiar, but Mr.
Millais is able to give many details which are- not in Selous’
works, and recites many stories which Selous himself has not
published. Mr. Millais’ sketches add value to the book. As
a pioneer, Selous’ work was of inestimable value to his country.

THE SPORTSMAN.

Then, as sharing the spirit of this ‘sportsman’ in every
sense of that word, he volunteered for service in the Great
War, and was shot, at 65 years of age, while leading his men
against great odds in East Africa. ‘ Thus died Frederick Selous
of the Great Heart, a splendid Englishman, who in spite of
age and love of life, gave up all pleasant things to follow the
iron path of duty. To him his country’s needs were ever before
his private interests. Like the voyageurs of old he was ever
looking for some far-off country where his restless soul could
sleep in peace. Let us hope that he found his Valhalla on
that day.'

* Life of Frederick Courtenay Selous, D.S.O., by J. F. Millais. Long-
mans Green & Co. 387 pp. 21/- net.

Naturalist,

5

THE COMMON BANDED SNAIL.

A STUDY IN VARIATION.

A. E. TRUEMAN, D.Sc., F.G.S.

Every field naturalist knows the wonderful variety of colour
and marking exhibited by the common banded snail ( Helix
nemoralis Linn.). It is therefore by no means surprising that
many workers have made extensive collections of these shells,
and numerous attempts have been made to show how all the
variations are dependent on the nature of the environment.
Yet very few writers give any of the simple facts of growth
and modification which are needed before any understanding
of this problem is possible, and it is as a short introduction to
this means of study that the following has been written.

Amost every type of shell form, colour and marking has
received a special name, and ranks as a ‘ variety ’ in systematic
lists. Thus, one of the common yellow shells would be var.
libellula ; if banded, var. fasciata ; if with pink mouth, var.
roseolabiata ; if very thin, var. tenuis, and so on. A most
comprehensive account of these ‘ varieties ’ is given in Mr,
J. W. Taylor’s excellent Monograph.* While collectors are
content to record these varieties from as many counties and
vice-counties as possible, without any details of their occur-
rence, their abundance, and their persistence, little progress
in this study is to be expected.

One of the most laborious studies of variation in If. nem-
oralis was that made by Mr. W. Gyngell,f who collected some
thousands of shells in various localities, both inland and
coastal. The averages given by him show the relative abund-
ance of different types in the areas where he collected, but
otherwise his results are too general to be of any value.

It has been usual for some years to ascribe all variations
to environmental influences, and to assume that they had value
in the struggle for existence. Thus Mr. Taylor pointed out J
that among the causes of variation in H. nemoralis which have
been suggested, are the nature and colour of the soil the
character of the food plants, and the position of the habitat.
Leydig § arrived at similar conclusions from his study of the
shells of Germany, but his evidence cannot be regarded as

* J. W. Taylor, ‘ Monograph of the Land and Freshwater Mollusca
of the British Isles,’ Vol. III., 1914, p. 294 et seq.

f W. Gyngell, Helix nemoralis and H. horiensis, etc., Journal of Con-
chology, 1 91 1, p. 241.

X J- W. Taylor, Op. cit., p. 288.

§ F. Leydig, ‘ Ueber Verbreitung der Thiere in Rhonegebirge, Verhandl.
d. natur. vereins d. preuss. Rheinlande u. Westfalens,’ 1881, p. 156.
See also Eimer, ‘ Organic Evolution,’ (Trans. J. T. Cunningham), 1890,
P- *37-

5919 Jan. 1.

6

Trueman : The Common Banded Snail ,

convincing. It is quite certain, as Vernon* * * § pointed out, that
very violent changes of environment produce notable change
in the shells ; it will also be shown later that there are some
modifications in H. nemoralis which are traceable to weather
conditions, and to the amount of lime in the soil, but in the
words of Prof. Bateson, j the assertion that local distinctions
are caused by differences of climate, food, or soil, is merely a
result of belief in adaptation to an environment, and not a
result of observation. For example, if yellow shells are
particularly adapted to a certain locality, why do we find red
ones on the same plants ? And if unbanded shells are adapted
to life on a given hedge bank, why are all the shells banded on
an (apparently) similar hedge bank not ten yards away ? We
can only conclude that the advantage possessed by the more
suitable of the forms, if advantage there be, is very small, and
that selection is not so stringent as to lead to the extinction of
the other

Distribution of Varieties.' — When commencing this work

Fig. 1. — Sketch map showing the distribution of Helix nemoralis between
Nottingham and Bilborough.

A. Area with H. nemoralis (band formula 12345).

B. ,, ,, H. hortensis.

C. ,, ,, H. nemoralis (band formula 00300).

D. ,, ,, ,, (band formulae 00000'and 12345).

large numbers of shells were collected in various localities
around Nottingham on the different geological formations, in
the expectation that each would show some peculiarities of
shell type. Except, however, for certain differences in the
average thickness of the shells, to be noted later, no such dis-
tribution of varieties was found, although it soon became
apparent that certain small areas contained only shells with par-
ticular types of banding. In order to determine the relations
of these types, their distribution was mapped in several areas,
every shell collected being recorded on a large scale map
(24 in. to 1 mile). One of these maps, showing the lane between
Nottingham and Bilborough, is reproduced here (fig. i).§ In

* H. M. Vernon, ‘ Variation in Plants and Animals,' Intern. Sci. Ser.,
1903, p. 231.

| VV. Bateson, ' Problems of Genetics,' Yale Univ. Press, 1913, Chap. vi.

X W. Bateson. Op. cit., p. 17.

§ From Ordnance Survey Map (6 ins. to 1 mile), Notts., XXXVII., S.E.

Natural! ft.

Trueman : The Common Banded Snail . 7

the area A, only five-banded shells were found ; at B, no
examples of H. nemoralis were taken, but H. hortensis was
abundant, although absent elsewhere in the neighbourhood.
C was an area with one-banded H. nemoralis only, while further
west, at D, unbanded and five-banded shells occurred together.
Various other types are similarly restricted to small positions
of other areas. Mr. C. S. Carter likewise found considerable
differences in the shells collected on opposite sides of the
Pullover, at Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire,* * * § while Rev. E. A.
Woodruffe-Peacock noted a similar fact at Brigg.f

Most of my observations were made in Nottinghamshire,
but I have also collected H. nemoralis extensively in most other
midland counties; my records including some twenty thousand
shells, with details of their habitats. Several friends have
greatly assisted me by gifts of specimens and by allowing me
to examine their collections ; among these I may mention
Messrs. W. E. Howarth, J. Laws, and W. D. Varney, B.Sc.
I have also examined a number of specimens from Ireland in
the Natural History Museum, Nottingham, by permission of
Prof. J. W. Carr, and some collected in northern France by
Lieut. R. J. Welch.

Detailed Study of Variations. — Colour. — While many
different colour varieties of H. nemoralis have been described
and have received separate names, they may generally be
referred to two groups, namely, of red and yellow shells, which
are discontinuous. It is possible that some chemical factor
determines these colours. J Pink shells occasionally become
yellow on the outer whorl (var. rubello-libellula) while, on the
contrary, some yellow shells become pink (var. libello-rubella). §
It also frequently happens that immediately in front of the
mouth of a red or orange shell is a yellow zone ; in some red
shells which show distinct resting stages during growth a
similar yellow zone Occurs at each such stage.

In areas where shells with only one type of banding occur
(as at C. fig. 1) both red and yellow shells may be found. Shell
coloration is thus of a comparatively inconstant nature, and is
less deserving of varietal rank than types of banding.

Spire. — Rare examples of H. nemoralis, perhaps not more
than one in a thousand, have a spire noticeably elevated or
depressed, due to a slight change in the spiral angle. An
increase in the spiral angle (possibly a tendency towards
uncoiling) occurs in the last whorl of all normal examples of
H. nemoralis.

* C. S. Carter, ‘ Local Distribution of Colour and Band Formulae,'
Trans. Lines. Nat. Union, 1908, p. 304.

f E. A. Woodruffe-Peacock, ‘ Thrush Stones,' The Naturalist, 1909,
p. 178, etc.

X W. Bateson, ‘ Materials for the Study of Variation,' 1894, p. 72.

§ J. W. Taylor. Op. cit ., p. 304.

1919 Jan. 1.

8

Trueman : The Common Banded Snail.

Reversed or sinistral shells are still less common ; I have
not found a single specimen in the course of this work. Yet
in some localities (as at Bundoran, Ireland) sinistral examples
of H. nemoralis are common.

Thickness of Shell.— It is usual to find thick heavy
examples of H. nemoralis (var. ponder osa) on limestone soils,
yet all the shells found in such localities are by no means thick.
Thus on the Magnesian Limestone of Aspley Lane, Nottingham,
while the average shell weighs about n grains, shells weighing
20 grains are' not uncommon. Yet very thin shells (var.#
tenuis) consisting of conchiolin with scarcely any calcareous
material and weighing only 4 grains, may be found feeding on
the same plant. This may be due to differences in the rate of
growth or to different activity of the shell-secreting glands.

On soils deficient in lime, as the Bunter or Keuper of the
Midlands, the shells are generally thin. For example, fully
seventy per cent, of the shells from Edwalton, Notts., on the
Keuper Marl, may be referred to var. tenuis.

Banding.— Normal examples of H. nemoralis are five-
banded ; some are unbanded, and one, two, three and four-
banded forms may all be found. G. von Martens proposed to
number the five ilormal bands 12345, starting at the posterior
part of the whorl and proceeding anteriorly. Using a cipher
to denote an absent band, it is possible to use these formulae
to show the ordinary types of banding.

Thus, the comonest shell has five bands, and would be
represented by 12345. An unbanded shell would be 00000,
while the common one-banded form, in which the band
represents the middle one of a five-banded .shell, would be
00300. When two bands become united the corresponding
numbers are bracketed in the formula.

Various other formulae have been invented to show the
relative widths of the bands ; of these, the most useful is that
suggested by Rev. E. A. Woodruffe-Peacock,* which has been
employed in making the records for this work, but the somewhat
complicated formulae are not used here, the less satisfactory-
but better known formulae of Martens’s being more convenient
for the present purpose.

But I desire to draw attention to another and more im-
portant aspect of band variation, which takes account of the
order of appearance of the bands. Mr. Taylor pointed out that
in England the middle (or third) band almost always appears
first j ; that is to say, the band formula of such a young shell
would be 00300. In Nottinghamshire the bands appear in

* E. A. Woodruffe-Peacock, ‘ Thrush Stones,’ The Naturalist, 1909,
p. 178.

f J. W. Taylor. Op. cit., p. 293.

Naturalist,

Trueman : The Common Banded Snail. 9

the following order, 34521, that is, during ontogeny the band
formulae would be

00000, 00300, 00340, 00345, 02345, 12345.

It is important to notice that, in that area, the adult shells
with fewer than five bands have one or other of these formulae,
or in other words, they represent stages in the evolution of the
five-banded shells of the area. For example, the only three-
banded adult shell commonly found is 00345, the only two-
banded shell is 00340.

In other areas, the order of development is not always the
same, but the adult shells generally have band formulaes
similar to those passed through in the development of the
five-banded shell of the particular area. In some parts of
Lincolnshire, the lower three bands appear in the same order
as in Nottinghamshire, but the upper band often appears before
the second, the order being 34512 ; four-banded shells found
here have the formula 10345. Naturally, however, there is
little difference in the order of appearance of bands in neigh-
bouring areas.

The shells from the sandhills at Bundoran, Ireland, on the
other hand, show striking differences in this respect. The
third band, in the specimens I have examined, never appears
first in development, the usual order being 54123 ; thus the
stages passed through in development are

00000, 00005, 00045, 10045, 12045, 12345.

Adult shells with all these formulae, that is, representing all
these stages in development, may be found. It is noteworthy
that among the shells from this area the formula 00300 does not
occur, although it is one of the commonest in England.

Comparable and equally striking differences in ontogeny
are shown in some continental shells. For example, in some
shells from Normandy the order of development of bands is
45321, while in a collection from the Somme region, the order
is 35124. In other parts the order is different, and in each
district the shells with less than five bands generally have
formulae corresponding to some developmental stage of the
five-banded shell. Greater details of the continental shells
are needed before this work can be carried further.

{To be continued).

Scarcity of Wheatear. — Mr. Butterfield remarks (The
Naturalist for 1918, p. 388) on the scarcity of the Wheatear this
year and wonders whether the scarcity is local or general.
Around Eastby (near Skipton) the bird was plentiful, at least six
pairs nesting within half a mile of Eastby Sanatorium. Earlier
in the season they were even more abundant.— W. Rowan.

1919 Jan. 1.

10

NOTES ON THE FLORA AND FAUNA OF
NORTH-EAST DERBYSHIRE.

ERIC DRABBLE, D.Sc., F.L.S., and HILDA DRABBLE.

Little has been written on the Fauna and Flora of North-
east Derbyshire. The area now dealt with extends from
Ambergate and Matlock to Hathersage .on the west, and from
Tibshelf through Glapwell, Langwith and Whitwell to Wood-
house Junction on the east. It includes large tracts of Mill-
stone Grit, Coal Measures and Permian Limestone, with
smaller tracts of Carboniferous Limestone and Yoredale (or
Pendleside) rocks near Matlock and Ashover, and the surface
features are extremely varied, comprising moorland, woodland,
pasture and arable land.

The impression seems to prevail that North-east Derbyshire
is poor faunisticallv and floristically. This is quite erroneous,
and is at least partly due to two important works, namely^
the Victoria County History (1905), and the British Association
Handbook (Sheffield Meeting, 1908). The sections on the
fauna in the County History confine themselves, for lack of
data, very largely to the southern parts of the County, while
the notes in the British Association Handbook, which profess
to deal with the country within a twenty-mile radius of
Sheffield, were drawn up chiefly by Yorkshire naturalists who
appear, with few exceptions, to have had but little knowledge of
the neighbouring county. Indeed, very few memoirs dealing
with the plants and animals of North-east Derbyshire have
appeared.* It is our purpose in this paper to deal with our
observations on the Butterflies.

The British Association Handbook gives the impression that
butterflies, other than the common whites, are generally rare,
and that many which in reality abound, are almost wanting.
Naturally, in the immediate vicinity of manufacturing towns
and coal mines the smoke-blight has a great effect, but on
passing to the agricultural districts and to the moorlands the
number of butterflies increases most markedly and occasionally
they occur in quite extraordinary abundance.

Argynnis aglaia L. (Dark Green Fritillary). — The only record in the
County History is ‘ formerly at Dovedale,’ and it appears to be unknown
in our area. In August, 1918, during a ramble of the East Derbyshire
Field Club a $ was found on Carduus palustris near a marsh below the
moors at Cathole, about three miles west of Chesterfield. The larvae of

* Attention may be called to the following : — E. and H. Drabble,
Notes on the Flora of Derbyshire ’ {Journal of Botany, 1909, pp. 199-207 ;
1911, pp. 313-317 ; 1913, pp. 5-11 ; 1916, pp. I33-I39)- E. Drabble,
Additions to the Flora of Derbyshire' (Journal oj Derbyshire Archceol. and
Aat. hist. Society, 1917, pp. 225-235) ; E. and H. Drabble, ‘ Notes on the
Diptera of Derbyshire ’ ( Entomologist , 1916, pp. 273-275 ; 1918, pp. 5-9)..

Naturalist,

The Flora and Fauna of North-East Derbyshire.

ii

this insect feed on the leaves of the dog-violet. Within a very short
distance of this spot grow V. riviniana Reichb.. var. flavicovnis (Forst.),
V . canina L., var. flavicornis (Sm.) and V. palustris L.

Grapta c-album L. (Comma). — We have not found this butterfly our-
selves, but a specimen was taken near Eckington several years ago by
Mr. S. Hooke, of Poolsbrook.

Vanessa urticae L. (Small Tortoiseshell). — Though generally occurring
only sparingly near towns, urticae is extremely abundant in the country
districts, especially near the moors. As many as thirty together may
be seen on thistles within a radius of a few yards in August and September,
and the larvae are to be found in great numbers on the nettle. In some
seasons this insect is unusually plentiful, the summers of 1914, 1917 and
1918 being noteworthy in this respect.

Vanessa polychloros L. (Large Tortoiseshell). — Occurred formerly in
the Chesterfield district, but we have not seen it. Collectors tell us that
they used to take it freely in gardens about thirty years ago. Our absence
from Derbyshire in the early summer may account for our failure to find
this insect.

Vanessa antiopa L. (Camberwell Beauty). — Seems hitherto to be un-
recorded for North-east Derbyshire, but there are some five records
from . the south of the County. In September, 1914, we took a good
specimen on Calluna on East Moor, where it was accompanied by crowds
of urticae, atalanta and cardui. The food plants, willow, birch and nettle
all occur there and it may well be that antiopa occurs more often than is
generally suspected. One of us (E. D.) saw this insect about twenty
years ago at Spital, near Chesterfield.

Vanessa io L. (Peacock). — The County History states that io is 'now
almost rare ’ in Derbyshire. It is certainly local, but locally it may be
found abundantly, especially in secluded woodside pastures where Scabiosa
succisa grows. In these situations we have seen it in such numbers that it
was impossible to count the individuals. This was our experience near
Barlow, in September, 1917.

V . atalanta L. (Red Admiral). — After urticae this is the commonest of the
Vanessas. It frequents more low-lying districts than cardui and is found
much nearer to towns than io. On the moors it occurs in large numbers.

Pyrameis cardui L. (Painted Lady). — Not uncommon, and odd speci-
mens may be found in most seasons. In the last few years this insect
has been plentiful in the uplands, frequenting the moors in company with
urticae and atalanta.

Chrysophanus phlceas L. (Small Copper). — -Very common in dry
pastures and on the moors, and appears to be on the increase. The rare
variety schmidtii Gerh.. was found at Barlow this Summer (1918), and seems
to be hitherto unrecorded for the county.

Lycaena icarus Rott. (Common Blue). — Not very frequent except on
the Limestones, Permean and Carboniferous, where it abounds. This is
the only ‘ blue • that we have seen in our area.

Epinephele ianira L. (Meadow Brown). — Occurs sparingly only. This
is rather surprising, as in most parts of England it is one of the commonest
butterflies. Its comparative scarcity with us cannot be due to any lack
of the food plants.

Coenonympha pamphilus L. (Small Heath). — Common in the uplands
and on the moors.

Pararge egeria L. (Speckled Wood). — We have not seen any record of
this insect for North-east Derbyshire. The County History gives ‘ Seal
Wood and Repton Scrubs, scarce ; once at Calke, H. H. C. ; one seen
Lathkill Dale, R. H. F.’ We found this butterfly near Chesterfield in
1914.

Theda rubi L. (Green Hairstreak). — Taken recently by Mr. S. Hooke
about five miles west of Chesterfield. Apparently a new record for North-
east Derbyshire.

1919 Jan. 1.

12 The Flora and Fauna of North-East Derbyshire.

Euchfoe cardamines L. (Orange Tip). — Fairly common in the agricultural
parts of our area in the spring, but apparently less so than formerly. There
is no lack of its food-plants, and it may be that it occurs more plentifully
than is suspected in the more remote agricultural districts. We have
had fewer opportunities of observing the spring butterflies than those
which fly in summer and autumn.

Pieris brassicae L. (Large Garden White) and P. rapes (Small Garden
White). — Extremely common in cultivated districts, and the numbers
found on the moors are surprising, though of course much less than in
the lowlands. It is not improbable that in the moorland regions the eggs
may be laid on wild cruciferous plants.

Pieris napi L. (Green-veined White) . — While common in the lowdands,
is less so than the two last-named species. In the uplands and on the
moors it is the commonest Pieris.

It will be seen from this short account that the butterflies
are of some interest in North-east Derbyshire. The moorlands
have been quite insufficiently worked and probably many
unexpected facts may come to light when a more thorough
examination has been made.

The extreme prevalence of the Vanessas in 1914, 1917 and
1918, even in the more low-lying districts, is worthy of notice.
The winter of 1916-17 was very severe ; snow began to fall in
November, and parts of the moors were snow-clad from mid-
December to mid-April. At Cathole there was a persistent
thick coat of snow from Christmas to Easter. Probably the
ichneumons and other butterfly pests were largely killed off,
while the butterflies survived. It by no means follows, how-
ever, that there may not have been an abnormally high death
rate amongst the butterflies themselves, as the eggs of a single
pair in the absence of parasites might produce an unusual
quantity of perfect insects. Thus, although the butterflies
may have suffered more than usual, it would seem probable
that the parasites suffered more than the butterflies.

1918 again has been rich in Vanessas. The winter of
1917-18 was not unusually severe in our area. It may be that
the parasites had not recovered their predominance sufficiently
to keep down the butterflies to their usual numbers.

In any case it would seem lhat the comparatively low
number of Vanessas in normal seasons is not due to any un-
suitability of the country for these insects, but to some agents,
probably parasitic, which may be affected by severe winter
conditions. These agents being destroyed, we find an enormous
number of. Vanessas making its appearance.

: o :

\mong the contents of The Proceedings of the Croydon Natural History
and Scientific Society we notice the Presidential address of Mr. E. A. Martin
on ' Nature’s Air Raids : a Chapter in “ Meteoritics, ” ’ which includes
references to North of England occurrences, and ‘ Addington : its An-
tiquities and Traditions,’ by W. H. Mills, and an elaborate Report of the
Meteorological Committee, 1917. There is also an interesting account
of an Anglo-Saxon grave at Mitcham, with photographs.

Naturalist,

NOTES ON THE ENTOMOLOGY OF THE
BUBWITH DISTRICT.

*3

W. J. FORDHAM, M.R.C.S., L R.C.P., F.E.S.

The village of Bubwith is situated on the left bank of the
Yorkshire Derwent, about 12 miles south east of York and 7
miles east of Selby, and was at one time the centre of a large
wheat growing area and boasted a market day. Before the
advent of the Selby to Market Weight on Railway the produce
of the district was taken away in “ keels ” on the river Derwent,
which at that time was a busy waterway, though now somewhat
neglected and in need of dredging and clearing at the sides.
In these byegone days flax and teasles were grown considerably
in the district, but of the latter plant not even a stray specmen
is to be seen in the hedge-rows. Flax, or ‘ Line/ as it is locally
termed, has been grown in small quantity during the past year
and nothing can exceed in delicacy of colouring the appearance
of a field in full bloom.

The district is flat and at the most only 25 feet above sea
level, and there is not much woodland in the immediate vicinity,
such small woods and plantations as occur having been thinned
out recently to provide pit props and other forms of timber.
I have had several specimens of Sirex gigas L. brought to me
which have been captured during these operations of felling
and sawing, and in one plantation the woodmen told me that
it was frequently to be seen in flight on hot days. On one
occasion in one of these small woods, I was fortunate enough
to take a very small female of 5. noctilio F.

The soil in the immediate neighbourhood is somewhat
clayey and damp, but the clay gradually merges both on the
east and west into the sandy commonland characteristic of the
lower part of the Derwent Valley and well exemplified in Skip-
with Common, which lies about 3J miles west of Bubwith.
The underlying geological formation is Triassic, but of this
there is no local outcrop.

During a residence of ten years in the district I have devoted
my leisure mainly to the study of its beetle fauna and have
formed a high opinion of its productiveness in this order of
insects, the most interesting captures having been duly recorded
in the reports of the Yorkshire Coleoptera Committee. Since
the war my rambles have been very restricted and I have paid
more attention to the so-called ‘ neglected orders.’ As the list
of insects taken contains a large number of species not previous-
ly recorded from the county, a short account of these may be
of interest. I have selected only those species which are new
or which are of particular interest and have a mass of records
which extend and amplify the local distribution of many species
and of which the insects here mentioned do not form a tithe.

1919 jan. 1

14 Notes on the Entomology of the Bubwith District.

I am greatly indebted to our referees and others for kind
help in verifying and determining my captures and must
specially mention the Rev. F. D. Morice and Messrs. Cdaude
Morley and Rosse Butterfield for help with Hymenoptera,
Messrs. E. A. Newhery and E. A. Butler with Hemiptera, Mr.
P. H. Grimshaw with Dipt era. Mr. G. T. Porritt with Trichop-
tera and allied orders.

The extensive Ings on either side of the river may first
claim our attention. These vast stretches of meadowland are
interesting and prolific at any season of the year. In the
winter they are transformed into a huge inland sea by the
overflowing of the river, aided intentionally b}^ the opening
of the / Clough * doors, which allows the water to £ back ' up
the larger dykes and smaller drains which intersect the Ings.
Acre upon acre is thus covered with water and the detritus
brought down by the river when it is in flood enriches the
soil and helps to produce later the luxuriant crops of meadow
hay for which the Ings are noted. At times, however, the
process gets out of gear and I have seen haycocks floating
about in the water when, in the summer, high tides have
coincided with heavy rainfall further north in the extensive
Derwent drainage area. On the edges of this large sheet of
water, in varying situations depending upon the height of the
flood, the contour of the land, and the prevailing winds at the
season, are deposited masses of the flood refuse, which has
made Bubwith justly famous among English coleopt exists, for
the richness of this deposit in beetle life is extraordinarily
marked. Other orders are well represented and the countless
numbers of insects which scuttle away in every direction when
a handful of the refuse is thrown on to a sheet of paper in a
warm room is a revelation to anyone previously unacquainted
with it. One wonders where they have all come from — some
evidently travelled far (or at any rate not yet discovered in
the district in their natural habitat) and others undoubtedly
merely disturbed from their local haunts in the Ings. In the
spring and early summer the Ings are covered with a crop of
hay, and numerous aquatic and sub aquatic plants mark out
the situation of the drains and give cover to a host of dragon-
flies, caddis flies and other allied insects. There are no species
of these orders new to the county, but among 12 species of
Trichoptera and about half-a-dozen Odonata the elegant
Calopteryx splendent Harr, calls for notice as it flits graceluily
along the drains. I have here taken a female Agrion puella
L. with the blue on the abdomen of much greater extent than
usual.

It is to the thistles and umbelliferous plants growing lux-
uriantly on the towing path that we must look, however, for
many of our most noteworthy insects. A dense mass of

Naturalist,

Notes on the Entomology of the Bubwith District.

15

herbage, in some places waist -high, harbours a host of ichneu-
mons, sawflies, aculeates and two-winged flies. Among the
aculeates occur at least six species of Andrence, of one of which
albicans Kub. the burrows are extremely abundant on the
clayey towing path. The sawflies include 4 or 5 species of
Teuihredella, 4 species of T euthredopsis (of which latter genus,
however, Mr. Morice says that the species are extremely hard
to determine), 7 species of Dolevns, including *dubius Kl. (a
rare species), and *haematodes Schr., *Arge cyaneocrocea Forst.
* Amauronematus vittatus Lep., and a host of other commoner
species, of which the most abundant and pugnacious is
Allantus arcuatus Forst. The diptera are exceedingly well
represented, but I can only here mention the abundance of
Empis tessellata F. which I found dead and dying in large
numbers one day during the last season and attribute the high
mortality to a parasitic Empusa ; and the new records * Lea-
cozona lucorum L., Myopa *testacea L., and *poly stigma Rnd.
(?), and * Cordxluna pub era L. This latter fly was abundant
in 1915, but I have not taken it since. Last but not least,
at any rate, in point of obtrusiveness, the Cleg ( Haematopota
pluvialis L.) is very abundant and bites viciously, but I have
not yet captured the male, though I have taken one example
of this sex of the allied *crassicornis Whbg. in the neighbourhood
of Bubwith. The galls of *Dasyneura sisymbrii Schr. occur
occasionally on Radicula sylvestris Druce on the river bank, and
those of *C lino diplo sis thaiiciricola Rubs, on the Meadow Rue
in the Ings.

The ichneumons are exceedingly well represented and . al-
though many new species have occurred in the district the only
ones to be added to our list from the river banks are *Meloboris
crassicornis Gr. and Tryphon *consobrinus Hlgr. and *brun-
neiventris Gr. Concerning my consignments of Ichneumonidae
to Mr. Morley, he remarks on one occasion that ‘ there is ,a
curiously small percentage of common kinds ’ and again ■ quite
above the average of nice things.'

Skipwith Common is my next most frequently visited
collecting ground and though well known to most Yorkshire
entomologists personally, and also through the work on the
lepidoptera of the Rev. C. D. Ash, deserves mention for some of
its interesting insects. A wide expanse of heather, interspersed
here and there with boggy patches and the famous gull ponds,
and dotted over with small plantations of fir, the common is a
veritable storehouse of insect wealth. The beetles I shall not
mention except to refer to the fact that I bred out a species of
Phora from a pupa of the lady bird Mysia oblongo guttata.
(In the Entom . Monthly Mag., 1918, p. 91, Mr. Champion notes

1919 Jan. 1

The * indicates a new county record.

16 Notes on the Entomology of the Bubwith District.

that Phot a fasciata Fall has been bred in France from the
Common 7 spot lady bird). The lepidoptera probably are
well known and I have paid little or. no attention to this order,
but have not failed to be struck with the protective resemblance
exhibited by the larva of Panolis pinipevda on the pine needles
and the likeness of flavicofnis at rest in the perfect state to the
sallow catkins among which I found several. Grasshoppers
are abundant on the common, the most interesting species
being Tettix bipunctatus L., of which I took a small dark
specimen one September hibernating under the bark of a birch
stump tenanted by the ant Leptothorax acervorum F.

Space does not permit of the recital of all the aculeates
occurring on the common, but Halictus rubicundus Chr. had
a very strong colony in a small sandpit, and H. atricornis Sm.
also occurs, Colletes daviesana Sm. is not rare and also occurs
on Tansy by the Derwent at Bubwith, and I have one $ of
C. * succinetui L. from Skipwith.

On a sunny day in May during the season just passed I
found numerous specimens of Andrena albicans Kub. and
gwynana Kub. burrowing in a sandy path on the common.
With these occurred Nomada succinct a Pz. and bifida Th.
(the former also being very abundant on white dead nettle in
my garden at Bubwith about the same time), and *Sphecodes
pilifrons Th. fairly commonly together with one § of S. ferru-
ginaius Schr. These six species appeared to form a definite
insect association. I observed a specimen of Andrena albicans
being chased by a fly and captured both in the hope that the
latter might prove to be a Tachinid parasitic on bees, but it
was merely a of * Hydrotcea dentipes F., a common species,
but apparently overlooked in Yorkshire.

Among the sawflies mention may be made of Cirnbex femo-
ral a L. and Trichiosoma lucorum L. (both occasionally taken
on birch), Lophyrus pini L., the larvae of which were exceed-
ingly abundant in September, 1912, but I failed to rear the
insect ; one specimen of a species of ivi esoleius however emerging
from the cocoons in the following July, *Entodecta pumilus
Kl.. Dolerus madidus Kl. (common on one occasion on the
heather) and * T euthredella balteata Kl., whose larva feeds on
the bracken.

The ichneumons include *Phaeogenes bellicornis Wesm.,
* Prionopoda stictica F. (a rare species preying on sawflies and
only recorded from the South of England), * Pimpla arctica
Zett. (a northern species), a $ of * Ichneumon gradarius.W esm.
(the (J of which is as yet unknown, but Mr. Morley thinks that
a specimen which I sent him from Buckden in Wharfdale may
possibly prove to be this sex of the species, which is said to
prey on Panolis piniperda and Charaeas graminis).

{To be continued.)

1919 Jan. 1.

17

COMMON WILD BIRDS OF THE SCARBOROUGH

DISTRICT.

W. GYNGELL.

[Continued from The Naturalist for igi8, p. JS7)'

*The Pied Wagtail (. Motacilla lugubris) Temminck.

The ‘ Willy Wagtail ’ as a summer visitor arrives in this district in
small parties about the middle of March, and when brick making begins*,
the bird being called the 1 brick maker ’ by the workmen in some of the
brick works. It is scarce or rare in the winter season. In summer time
it is generally distributed from the sea shore, where it feeds, on sand-flies,
up into the moors, where I have found its nest within fifty yards of a
Ring Ouzel’s. Its nest, placed in holes in walls, quarries or lime-kilns*
in stone heaps, banks of streams or roadsides, close to the ground or ten
feet , above, it, is composed of straw, gra.ss, moss, wool, hair and a few
feathers. In it I have found as many as seven fresh eggs, though usually
six is the number laid. These are sometimes hatched as early as April 20th,
but fresh eggs have been found on July nth. They weigh -07 to -08 oz.
The birds may be seen in small flocks as late in spring as May 13th, and
begin to flock again by August 22nd. The Pied Wagtail sometimes
perches in trees and I have seen parties of them roosting at night in beds
of rushes. Here it may be heard singing from March 1st until October 2nd.

The Grey Wagtail ( Motacilla melanope Pallas) is locally and better
called the Yellow Wagtail, for it shows more yellow than grey. Newton,
in his ' Dictionary of Birds,’ says that ‘ a line drawn from the Start Point
slightly curving to include the Derbyshire hills and ending at the mouth of
the Tees will, it is believed, mark off its breeding range in England.’
This statement is substantially correct, but the line should have been
drawn to Scarborough and would then scarcely have needed any curve.
Here it is a resident bird descending from its breeding haunts on the Moor-
land streams to the lowlands in winter, where it may be frequently seen by
roadside streams and ditches. It nests within a mile or so of the borough
boundaries, using as building materials moss, wool, much hair, grass and
herbage stems. Eggs may be found by the middle of April. I have
seen a bird settle down to roost in a laurel bush near our valley pond on
a January evening. Eggs weigh -06 oz. Its call-note is less shrill and
loud than the Pied Wagtails.

*The Yellow Wagtail ( Motacilla raii Bonaparte). — A distinctly rare
bird all through our district, yet a pair hatch their young every summer
within the borough. In habits it resembles the Meadow Pipit more than
the other common Wagtails, as also it does in its call-note ‘ pee-cheep.’
Its nest of dead grass and much hair may be more successfully sought in
the low-lying meadows of East Yorkshire. It lays six eggs each weighing
•07 oz.

*The Tree Pipit ( Anthus trivialis L.). — This charming summer visitor
arrives about the middle of April and at once commences singing its loud
and most varied song, usually in the top of some tall tree ; occasionally
it sings on a hedge or the telegraph wires and once I heard one singing
whilst perched on a moorland rock. Some of its notes much resemble
those of a cage canary. It commences at 2-14 a.m. on a Midsummer
morning and sings daily till July 13th. Its nest may be found on the
ground within or on the outskirts of woods or on roadside banks. Dead
grasses, dead leaves, moss and hair, are the materials used. Though the
wagtails commonly lay six eggs I have never found more than five in the
nek : of any species of pipit. Eggs of this species weigh -09 oz.

*The Meadow Pipit (. Anthus pratensis L.). Resident during most of
the year in field or on moor, sometimes in winter it resorts to the sea
shore. Once I saw several Meadow Pipits together running about in

1919 Jan. 1.

B

18 Common Wild Birds of the Scarborough District .

some swampy shallow water just as wagtails commonly do. It sings its
rather feeble and monotonous song from March, ioth till August ist.
It sings usually during short flights into the air, but occasionally in a tree,
and I have seen it rise singing from the ground to a considerable height and
descend singing to a tree-top just as a tree Pipit might do. On open moors
fields, banks, cliffs and sandhills by the sea, it makes its nest of grass and
hair. Eggs may be found by April 22nd and as late as July 8th. They
vary very much in colour and markings although not to the extent that
the Tree Pipit’s eggs do. In weight also they vary much, frmo -07 to -09
oz.

*The Spotted Flycatcher ( Musicapa grisola L.). — This is one of our
most familiar summer visitors and is as common in our town as in the
open country. It may be seen hawking for flies and the snap of its beak
heard when an insect is caught, on a June evening till 8-30 p.m. It is
here from May 15th till September 5th. When perched it constantly
swings its tail up and down. At Castle Howard, on September 19th,
1904, it being a very warm day, one or two of these birds were very busy
catching flies on the top of the stone obelisk which is about 100 feet high.
They flitted backwards and forwards from the tops of the tall trees of
the Avenue to the top of the monument. The nest, built at heights
varying from 3! to 10 feet above the ground, I have found in trees, open
barns or sheds, posts, palings, clefts in quarries or walls. It is composed
■of moss, strips of bark, lichens, wool, dead grass and feathers. The
beautiful eggs, never more than five -in a nest, weigh -07 oz., and may be
found from May 23rd onwards.

The Pied Flycatcher ( Musicapa atvicapella L.). — Unknown in most
parts of England and generally rare where known ; this is a regular
though scarce summer visitor to our district. It nests within a mile of
■our borough boundaries. Although more often seen among the higher
branches of forest trees, it commonly descends among the lower branches,
and usually selects for breeding purposes a tree-hole from 6 to 10 feet
high. One nesting site that I know in particular is a bone of contention
between this species and the Great and Blue Titmouse. This bird differs
much in habits from the Spotted Flycatcher. It does not so constantly
take up a definite position to work from in its fly-catching, but it fans
np and down with its tail in the regular way with other members of its
family. The song, which is performed in the same manner as the Red-
starts, is, however, shorter and the notes sharper and more titmouse like.
The nearest, though very feeble word-representation that I can give is
‘ pink-pink, chip-chip, weet, quichy-quichy,’ but it is varied with each
utterance. I have heard the song from May 16th until June 23rd. The
nest materials used are thin strips of bark, dead grass and a few dead
leaves. Each of the pale blue eggs weighs -065 oz.

*The Swallow ( Hirundo rustica L.). — We have seen the Swallow here
from April 9th till October ist, and have heard its delightful song or
‘ twittering ’ as others might say, from 2-35 a.m. till 8-31 p.m. Often in
little parties it sings on the house roof, on telegraph wires, and not rarely
in trees, accompanied by house martins. Sometimes it sings ' on the wing.’
I have seen from 200 to 300 together continually singing on the telegraph
wires. It sings every day it is here. When surprised by a sudden return
of cold weather in spring, as at Hornsea Mere on May 27th, 1891, many
die from starvation. Its nest is nearly always built in barns and other
outbuildings, mud, straw, moss, grass, feathers and hair being the materials
commonly used. I have never found more than five eggs in a nest, their
average weight being -065 oz.

♦The Martin ( Chelidon urbica L.). — Although arriving here at about
the same time as the Swallow, the Martin remains with us much longer,
sometiimes up to the last day in the year. Here, in addition to its usual
nesting haunts under the eaves of houses and other buildings, small
colonies nest on the vertical cliffs along the coast from Flamborough to

Naturalist

Common Wild Birds of the Scarborough District .

19

"Whitby. It is most remarkable how late young remain in the nest every
year, always till September, and sometimes as late as October nth. In
the nest of mud, lined with grass and feathers, five eggs, averaging in
weight *07 oz., are laid. In building, the most sheltered position is not
always chosen, sites often seem to be selected haphazard. Not infre-
quently the birds will select an unfinished house and build there whilst
the slaters are working on the roof. Both Martin and Swallow are
common in our district.

*The Sand Martin •( Cotile riparia L.). — Coming in spring at about the
same time as the Martin appears, April nth being the earliest date that
both species have been noticed. This is the earliest member of the family
to disappear, never having been here after September 16th, though young
have been seen in the nest on September 2nd. It haunts and nests in
sandy strata in the sea cliffs, as well as river banks, and I have known it
to occupy drain pipes in banks. The nest is of dry grass and feathers.

*The Greenfinch ( Ligurinus chloris L.). — Very common here as elsewhere
in England in summer or winter ; large flocks may sometimes be seen in
autumn. Though much less popular than the Common Linnet as a cage-
bird, the ‘ Green Linnet ’ freely sings a very fine song, which may be heard
ifrom March 17th till August 16th, and in June at 8-30 in the evening.

Its long-drawn note ‘ dree ’ which always forms a part of its song

.may be heard as a call-note as late as November 22nd. As is the case
with some other British birds, individual Greenfinches are occasionally
met with having plumage of much more than the ordinary brightness of
green and yellow. The nest, which may be found with eggs by April 20th,
and with young as late as September 10th, is placed from 30 inches to 18 ft.
above the ground, in furze and other bushes, hedges and trees. A,
wonderful variety of materials is used in its construction, including mosses,
sheep’s wool .from the thorns and coloured wool beaten out of carpets,
twigs, roots, feathers, grass, hair, rabbit’s fur and lichens. It lays more
•eggs than most other finches, six and sometimes seven being laid, and these
vary greatly in size and weight, ranging from -07 to -i oz., small specimens
being indistinguishable in colour and markings from those of the Common
Linnet. One nest found near Scarborough, and which I saw contained
three pure- white eggs. On June 30th, 1900, I saw a male Greenfinch
flying round and round and up and down in the air like a bat, at about
40 feet above ground, and singing all the time. The call-note of the fledged
young sounds like Chick- 00.

The Hawfinch ( Coccothmnstes vulgaris Pallas). — An elusive and scarce
bird usually, it is too well known at least in one fine garden near Scar-
borough, where its annual visits to the peas are naturally much resented.
Few nests are found, and the only one that I have examined was built
in a quite unusual position. It was in the top of a thin branch near the
top of a wych-elm tree, and 30 feet above the ground. It was composed
of birch twigs and fine roots with lichens in the nest walls, and much
resembled the nest of the Bullfinch, though larger and thinner, but deeper
than I expected it to be. Recently it seems to have increased in numbers
locally.

The Goldfinch ( Corduelis elegans Stephens) . — This is- another beautiful
bird that is commoner as a breeding species in our district than it was
thirty years ago. I have seen and heard it in three different villages in
our district in an hour’s cycle run, including a brood of young ones. More
than once it has nested within the borough in recent years. A variety of
nesting sites are occupied here, the crown of an apple tree, the thin lateral
branch of a tall sycamore or a young poplar, but the beauty of the nest
is, I consider, over-rated, it not being in any way equal to that of the
Chaffinch. Those I have seen have been placed from 10 to 15 feet high
and composed of roots, moss, wool and horsehair. The weight of an egg
is .045 oz.

*The House Sparrow (Passer domesticus L.). — Abundant here as in most

1919 Jan. 1.

20

Common Wild Birds of the Scarborough District.

parts of Britain, and of the same habits excepting that I do not notice ft
nesting so much in trees here as in southern counties. Although not
regarded as a song bird its vocal powers quite equal those of the Chiff-chaff,
whilst its call and alarm notes are more varied than those of some other
small birds. Hundreds of sparrows delight to sing together in chorus as
starlings do, in trees or on an ivy-covered wall. Sometimes this sort of
festival seems to last all day, and it may be heard from early spring till
late autumn. The ordinary chirping song may be heard from January
ist till December 31st. Its fighting shindies, no more serious than a
football match, I have heard on Christmas day, so these little affairs do
not seem to be confined to courting times. It seems to be equally fond of
dusting itself in roadways and washing in cold water. I have seen several,
after bathing together,' come out of the water quite drenched when the
thermometer stood at 30 degrees F. I have found its nest, which is
composed of dead grass, moss, feathers, paper, string and hair built
in the roofs of buildings, holes in quarries, lime kilns and trees, and
also in bushes, wall fruit trees, ivy and hedges. It is not a very early
breeder, May 5th being my earliest finding of eggs ; ^ five or six form a
* clutch,' average weight -n oz. I have seen several sparrows together
hawking for insects, presumably gnats, on December 15th. Young birds
when just out of the nest can support themselves by clinging to vertical
iron railings.

The Tree-Sparrow (. Passer 'montanus L.). — Of local distribution and not
common in this district, it is least scarce on the level Vale of Pickering,
where it nests regularly in holes in lime-kilns, in company with the House-
Sparrow, holes in trees and on one occasion I found a spherical nest built
in the open branches of a hawthorn bush. Close observation with field-
glasses is generally necessary to identify this bird and its nest, especially
where there is a mixed colony of the two species. In building, a great
variety of materials are used, including grass, feathers, wool, dead and
green leaves, hair and strips of bark. All the eggs that I have found
have been noticeably smaller and more glossy than those of the House-
Sparrow, the weight being -08 oz. May 12th is the earliest date for eggs.
Quite commonly one egg is much lighter in colour, that is to say, has fewer
markings than the remainder of the ‘ setting,’ and this egg is, judging from
my experience with this species, as well as other birds, the first to be laid.

*The Chaffinch ( Fringilla coelebs L.).— The local' name about here is
‘ weety,’ but whether this name has reference to its spring call-note
‘ weet — ting, ting ’ or its white wing bars so noticeable in flight (it is called
white-finch in Somerset, c.f. Wheatear, the bird with the white wings),
I cannot say. This note, heard in spring only, is distinct from its more
general call-note of ‘ chink,’ ‘ pink ’ or ‘ spink ’ variously rendered, whence
it gets its many local names, perhaps more than are bestowed on any
other British bird. The song, in double quick time, may be rendered
‘ quick-quick-quick-quick, come and kiss me pretty little deear,’ but I
have a bibulous friend who declares that on hot summer days the last word
is beer ! The full song may be heard from February 15th until July 15th,
and at Midsummer from 3 a.m. till 8-51 p.m. It is resident and abundant
throughout our district all the year round, remaining in winter flocks
sometimes till April nth, afterwards paring off to nest in tree, bush or
hedge. Twice I have found the nest in the cup-shaped hollow top of a
tree stump. This most beautiful object and cradle is composed of moss,
lichens, wool, hair, feathers, spiders’ webs, fragments of dead wood, dead
grass, bark, twigs, rabbit fur, dead leaves and roots, placed from 2 feet to
22 feet above ground. I have never found it to contain more than five
eggs, my earliest date for which is May ist. Their weight is *07 to *08 oz.
Eggs of typical colour and marking are well enough known, but a variety
approximating to those of the Bullfinch are rarely met with. I found a
set of these near Scarborough, some years ago. The Chaffinch is another
of those birds that occasionally hawk for flies in true Flycatcher style.

{To be continued).

Naturalist, ,

21

THE SPIDERS OF YORKSHIRE.

WM. FALCONER,

Slaithwaite , Huddersfield.

( Continued from The Naturalist for igi8 , p. J54).

Gen. Pholcommci Thor., i-i.

P. gibbum Westr.

Occurs throughout the British Isles and Europe, but is not common
in Ireland and in some other areas ; amongst debris, grass and
heather roots and fallen leaves in woods. Adults throughout the
year. First occurrence — the author, Slaithwaite, April, 1897.

V.C 61. — 'Not common, Spurn, E. A. P., T. S. ; beech wood at South
Cave, King’s Mill Marsh (Driffield), Houghton Woods, Humber
shore at Welwick, T. S. ; Scampston ; Skipwith Common.

V.C. 62, 63, 64.- — Widely distributed and recorded stations numerous,
but in some more plentiful than in others. It is common in the
Huddersfield area.

Gen. Theonoe Sim.

( Onesinda Camb.), 1-1.

T. minutissima Camb.

A rare British spider now on record for Dorset, Staffs., Cheshire,
Northumberland, two Irish counties, Balmoral, Rannoch, Rothie-
murchus and Ben Nevis in Scotland ; abroad, East France and
Switzerland ; mainly from damp moss in woods. Adults of both
sexes taken most months of the year. First occurrence — the author.
Drop Clough, July, 1900.

V.C. 62. — Farndale, Kildale, Eston, Gt. Ayton and Easby Moors,
' abundant,’ Wilton Wood, J. W. H. ; Ringingkeld Bog, two ^s,
R. A. T.

V.C. 63. — Crimsworth Dene, several §s by fishpond, W. P. W., W. F. ;
Drop Clough, freely on various dates ; Bottoms Wood, Ainley Place
and Pole Moor, near Slaithwaite ; Wessenden Valley ; Storthes
Hall Wood (Huddersfield) ; Lower Stones Wood (Stocksmoor) ;
Ramsden and Marsden Cloughs and Morton Wood (Holmfirth),
from open sphagnum bogs ; Ellen Springs (Shepley).

V.C. 64. — Adel Moor, below the Seven Arches ; Sawley High Moor,
many 2s.

Fam. Linyphid^e.

Sub.-Fam. Erigone^e, 94-127.

Gen. Cevatinella Emer., 3-3.

C. brevis Wid.

Widely distributed in Great Britain and Ireland ; abroad, in
Northern and Central Europe and South Russia ; amongst roots of
grass, moss and fallen leaves. Widely diffused in Yorkshire, but
very seldom in any quantity. Adult autumn to spring. First
occurrence — the author, Dalton Lane, May, 1903.

V.C. 61. — North Cave, in ant’s nest, Birkhill Wood (Cottingham),
one $ , Houghton Woods (Market Weighton), one £ , Weedley,
T.S. ; Skipwith Common, one g, W.P.W.

V.C. 62. — Cleveland, ‘ every locality visited,’ J.W.H. ; Ravenscar,
Ringingkeld Bog, Raincliff Woods, ^s, R.A.T.

V.C. 63. — Hurst Wood, Shipley, W.P.W. ; Wessenden Valley (Mars-
den) ; Honley Old Wood, Woodsome, Mollicar Woods, Grimescar
Wood and Butternab Wood in the Huddersfield area ; Harden
Clough, Meltham ; Cawthorn, sub C. scabrosa Cb., The Naturalist,
1909, P- 395-

1919 Jan. 1.

22

Falconer : The Spiders of Yorkshire.

V.C. 64. — Trench Wood, Saltaire, W.P.W. ; King Wood (Adel),,
Alwoodley, Harewood, Linton Common, Dalton Lane ; Risplith
Gill and Spa Gill, Sawley ; Ingleton.

C. scabrosa Camb.

Rare, noted for a few English localities from Dorset to North-
umberland, and for Leinster ; abroad, France and Hungary _
Season and habitat as in last.

V.C. 62. — Easby Moor, Gt. Ayton Moor (very plentiful), and Eston
Moor (several), J.W.H.

C. brevipes Westr.

Uncommon in Ireland and occurring in Great Britain as far north,
as Aberdeen and on the Continent as Sweden ; with a similar
habitat, tp C. brevis, but in Yorkshire more frequent. Adult
autumn to spring. First occurrence-r^the author, Wessenden
Valley, June, 1897,

V.C. 61. — Puffin Bog and King’s Mill Marsh (Driffield), Kelley thorpe,.

T.S. ; Skipwith and Riccall Commons, W.P.W. , W.F.

V.C. 62. — Farndale, Easby, Eston and Gt. Ayton Moors, ‘ common ’
Lonsdale, J.W.H. ; Ringingkeld Bog, Scarborough and Thornton
Dale, R.A.T. ; Castle Howard and Lindale, J.F. ; Goathland ;
Marske ; Lazenby.

V.C. 63.— Blackhills (Bingley), Hurst Wood (Shipley), W.P.W. ;
Bottoms Wood (Slaithwaite) ; Drop Clough and Wessenden,
Valley (Marsden) ; Crossley Plantation (Holmfirth) ; Chew Valley
(Greenfield) ; Honley Old Wood, Woodsome, Storthes Hall Wood,.
Butternab Wood, near Huddersfield ; Harden Clough (Meltham) ;
Hebden Bridge and Crimsworth Dene.

V.C. 64. — Elam Wood, Keighley, W.P.W. ; Sawley District, S.M._
W.F. ; Moor Allerton, near Leeds ; Birk Crag, Harrogate.

Gen. Lophocarenum Menge, 2-3.

L. nemorale Bl.

Widely distributed in the British Isles, but not generally common ;.
abroad, France and Hungary ; apparently local in Yorkshire ;
amongst grass, herbage, moss, etc. Adult autumn to spring.
First occurrence — T. Stainforth, Spurn, May, 1909.

V.C. — Spurn, many §s from amongst seaweed drift, on Humber shore,.
Sandholme, one 9, Houghton Woods, Boynton Woods, one
T.S.

V.C. 62.— Beast Undercliff, Staintondale, $, T.S. ; Whitby Road,.
Scarborough, $, and Ringingkeld Bog, both sexes, amongst pine
needles, R.A.T. ; Great Hograh, <$, J.W.H.

V.C. 63. — Dean Head, Scammonden, §, in an old barn.

V.C. 65. — Coverham, one W.E.L.W.

L. mengii Sim.

A rare and local spider, but often plentiful where it does occur ;
noted for Cumberland, Northumberland, Staffordshire, Connaught
and Ulster ; abroad, France, Austria-Hungary and the Tyrol ;
in dry ground at roots of heather and bilberry and under stones ;
chiefly, however, at the roots of grass and rushes and amongst
moss in moist places. Adult males have been taken from Septem-
ber to July, $s throughout the year. First occurrence — the author,
Wessenden Valley, June 1st, 1898.

V.C. 62. — Eston, Turkey Nab and Gr. Ayton Moor, not uncommon,
from rushes and from ants’ nests, Wiltcn Wood, J.W.H. ; Kildale
Woods, $, W.P.W. ; Ringingkeld Bog, both sexes, R.A.T.

V.C. 63. — In almost all the wet places on the moors about Hudders-
field ; Ainley Place, Wffiolestone Moor, Cup with, Shred, Dean Head,
Jerusalem Farm, Bottoms Wood, all near Slaithwaite ; Drop
Clough, Wessenden 'Valley, Clowes Moor, Standedge, and Pule in

Naturalist,

Falconer : The Spiders of Yorkshire.

23

the Marsden district ; Chew Valley, Bill’s o’ Jack’s, Saddleworth
and Isle of Sky ; Marsden Clough and Hades Valley, Holmfirth ;
Dunford Bridge ; Crosland Moor (Huddersfield). In several of the
above localities in drier ground also.

V.C. 64. — Sawley High Moor, S.M., W.F.

Gen. Cnephalocotes Sim., 5-7.

C. obscurus Bl.

Widely distributed in Great Britain and on the Continent (France,.
Belgium, Germany and Sweden) ; recently taken in County Down
and County Carlow, Ireland ; very rarely in any quantity ; amongst
moss and at the roots of grass and rushes, usually in wet ground.
Adult autumn to spring. First occurrence — the author, Slaith-
waite, October, 1898.

V.C. 61. — Market Weighton, on the road to Holme-on-Spalding Moor,.
2, Houghton Woods, one °ne $.• Birkhill Wood, one <3> one $>•
Kelsey Hill, Snake Hall and Moor, 3, 2s, Humber shore at
Welwick, Os, Brantingham Dale, Sunk Island, one^, two $s, T.S. ;
Skipwith Common, and $s, W.P.W., W.F.

V.C. 62. — Eston, uncommon, J.W.H.

V.C. 63. — Black Hills, Bingley, and Hurst Wood (Shipley) f>r
W.P.W. ; Slaithwaite District — Bottoms Wood, Lane, Merridale,
Barrett Clough, Ainley Place, Wholestone Moor, Slaithwaite Moor,
Cupwith, Pole Moor, and below Dean Head Church ; Marsden
District — Drop Clough, Wessenden Valley, Marsden, Standedge,
Clowes Moor, Harden Clough, Saddleworth, Butternab Wood
(Huddersfield) : Crimsworth Dene.

V.C. 64. — Valley of Desolation, Bolton Woods, $, W.P.W. ; Ilkley
Tarn; Ingleton, $ ; Clapdale (Ingleborough), ; Sawley High
Moor, 3 1 Adel ; A1 woodley Gates.

C. elegans Camb.

A rare spider, on record for Scotland, Snowdon, Wicken Fen,
Cumberland, Northumberland, Staffordshire, Cheshire and Ireland
(Kerry) ; habitats as in preceding. Adidt autumn to spring.
First occurrence — the author, Slaithwaite, March, 1901.

V.C. 61. — Skipwith Common, both sexes, W.P.W., W.F.

V.C. 62.= — Redcar, rare, Eston Moor, one 3- JW.H. ; Ringingkeld
Bog, <$, two $s, R.A.T.

V.C. 63. — Both sexes, Ainley Place, below Dean Head Church, Drop
Clough (numerous) ; rfs, Bottoms Wood, Scout Wood, Cupwith,
Wilberlee (aeronaut), Wessenden Valley, Chew Valley, Dunford
Bridge.

V.C. 64. — Malham, two $s ; Clapdale, both sexes ; Compton Bank
Top,

C. interjectus Camb.

A local spider, but usually plentiful where found ; on record for
Hertfordshire, near London, Sussex, Dorset, Northumberland,
Edinburgh, Leinster and Ulster ; abroad, Holland ; generally
met with on or near the coast. Adult autumn to spring.

V.C. 61. — Cottingham Marsh, three <3S> two $s, King’s Mill Marsh
(Driffield), one £, Hessle Chalk-pits, one and Leconfield,
one 3 ; all 1915, T.S.

V.C. 62. — Redcar, common, more than thirty under one stone on the
beach, J.W.H. ; amongst flat tufts of Atriplex, east of promenade,
abundant ; Teesmouth ; all 1909.

C. curtus Sim.

Another rare coast spider on record for Findhorn Sandhills, Ras-
carrel, Arran, and near Edinburgh (Scotland), Northumberland,
North Lincolnshire, Southport, St. Leonard’s; Connaught : and
Ulster (two localities) ; abroad, also very rare/from Mediterranean

1919 Jan. L.

24

Falconer : The Spiders of Yorkshire.

shores only. Adult autumn to spring. First occurrence — T.
Stainforth, Marfleet, November, 1908.

V.C. 61. — Humber bank at Marfleet beneath estuarine plants on flat
surface next the mud of the river, both sexes, near Earle’s Yard and
New Joint Dock, Hull, two yjs, one and Sunk Island, both sexes,
T.S. ; Saltend Common,:^ and Welton, £, E.A.P.

C. ambiguus Camb.

A very rare spider, Britain only ; Arran, Scotland, one £ {Pwc.
Dorset Field Club, Vol. XXVI., p. 67, wrongly given Bute), Findhorn
Bay, Moray, numerous ; usually mud-flats.

V.C. 62. — Easby Moor, nearly 1,000 feet, several of both sexes, June
1st, 1914, amongst moss and liverworts, J. W. H., The Naturalist,
January, 1915.

Gen. Tiso Sim., 1-2.

T. vagans Bl.

Widely distributed in the British Isles and in Western Europe,
rare in Eastern Europe ; at the roots of grass and other herbage
and heather, among vegetable debris and under stones. Adult
throughout the year. First occurrence — the author, Slaithwaite,
June, 1897. Extensively diffused through the county, but not
reported as common except V. C. 6i, Redear, and V. C. 63, in the
south-west Pennine valleys.

V.C. 65. — Y.N.U., Upper Teesdale.

Gen. Araeoncus Sim., 2-3.

A. humilis Bl.

Widely distributed in the British Isles and on the Continent ; Isle
of Man, 1908 ; usually common ; various situations on the ground.
Adult throughout the year. First occurrence^-the author, Leeds,
December, 1905.

V.C. 61. — Widely diffused, and in many places not uncommon,
notably on or near, the Humber shore, T. S., W. F.

V.C. 62. — Redcar, beneath tufts of A triplex on a rubbish heap, east
of promenade, both sexes in extraordinary abundance ; Teesmouth ;
Eston.

V.C. 63. — Sewage works, Glasshoughton, (J. W. H. Johnson) ;
Roundhay Park, and Scarcroft Hill (Thorner) near Leeds ;
Woodend Malt Works, Mirfield, both sexes, many ; Farnley Tyas.
V.C. 64. — Bolton Woods, one
A. crassiceps Westr.

A rare but widely distributed spider, recorded for Newton Moss
(Penrith), Cheshire, Dorset, Northumberland ; Isle of Arran and
Loch Leven in Scotland ; Ulster and Connaught ; abroad, Sweden,
Bavaria, France.

V.C. 64. — Between Middle House and Malham Tarn, but nearer the
latter place, an adult female from grass roots in a dried-up spot,
June 9th, 1911.

Gen. Troxochrus Sim., 4-4.

T. scabriculus Westr. .

Widely distributed in Gt. Britain and on the Continent ; uncommon
in Ireland ; partial to sandy ground and therefore most generally
met with on the sea coast. Adult — autumn and spring. First
occurrence — J. W. Harrison, Redcar, 1909.

V.C. 61. — Bridlington, T. S.

V.C. 62. — Redcar and Leven Bridge, J. W .H. ; Marske and Redcar.
V.C. 64. — Ingleton, three localities.

T. cirrifrons Camb.

Usually found in company with the preceding, some authorities
considering it a true species, and others as a mere variety of

Naturalist,

Falconer : The Spiders of Yorkshire.

25

T . scabriculus, regarding the two as one species with dimorphous
males. The latter are easily differentiated by well marked cephalic
differences ; the females are practically undistinguishable, but
the Rev. O. Pickard Cambridge publishes figures ^{Proc. Dorset
Field Club, Vol. XXXI., 1910), based mainly on the following
which he believes will serve to separate this sex also. Habitat
and season as in the last. First occurrence — the author, Marske,
August, 1909.

V.C. 62. — Marske, six rf’s, and many females, an unmixed collection
from short grass edging a bare sandy spot to the east ; Teesmouth.

T. ignobilis Camb.

Very rare, on record for Dorset, Glamorgan and Northumberland ;
abroad, France and Bavaria. Adult in spring.

V.C. 62. — Eston Moor, quite common with Hypselistes jacksonii Camb.,
less commonly, Normanby Intake, Easby Moor and in Lonsdale
generally, J. W. H.

T. hiemalis Bl. ( Diplocephalus speciosus Camb.).

Widespread in the British Isles and on the Continent (Sweden,
Holland, France and Central Europe) ; amongst dead leaves,
moss and grass roots. Adult autumn to spring. First occurrence- —
the author, Wessenden Valley, June, 1899.

V.C. 61. — Broomfleet, E. A. P. ; Waudby Green, Houghton Woods
and Folkton, (females), Snake Hall, several of both sexes,
Brantingham Dale, T. S.

V.C. 62. — Eston, Wilton Wood, Westerdale, Greenhow Botton, and
Farndale, ‘ pretty common,’ J. W. H. ; Raincliff Woods and
Ringingkeld Bog, both sexes, R. A. T. ; Castle Howard, J. F.

V.C. 63. — Both sexes — Bottoms Wood and Merridale, Slaithwaite ;
Drop Clough, Wessenden Valley and Clowes Moor, Marsden ; Chew
Valley, Greenfield ; Honley Old Wood ; Holme Moss, Hades
Valley, Marsden and Ramsden Cloughs (Holmfirth).

V.C. 64. — Sawley High Moor, S. M., W. F. ; Malham ; Chandler’s
Whin (York) ; Bolton Woods.

Gen. Caledonia Camb., 1-1.

C. evansii Camb.

A rare spider, a variety of the Kamtschatkan, C. aliena Kulcz.,
noted for Cumberland, Westmorland, Lancashire, Northumberland ;
Lead Hills, Pentlands, Cairngorm and Ben Macdhui ; unknown in
Ireland and on the Continent ; roots of grass, herbage and heather
and beneath stones. Adult autumn to spring ; $s throughout the
year. First occurrence — the author, Wessenden Valley, October,
1900.

V.C. 62. — Eston Moor (common), Wilton, Normanby Intake and
Westerdale Moor, J. W. H.

V.C. 63. — Common in many of the following localities : — -Windsor
Castle, Jerusalem Farm, Blackmoorfoot, Wholestone Moor, Pole
Moor, Royal Clough, Merridale, Dean Head, Slaithwaite Moor,
Cupwith (Slaithwaite district) ; Drop Clough, Wessenden Valley,
Standedge, Isle of Sky, Clowes Moor (Marsden dsitrict) ; Saddle -
worth ; Chew Valley, Greenfield ; Crossley Plantation and Marsden
Clough, Holmfirth ; Crosland Moor, Butternab Wood and Outlane,
Huddersfield.

V.C. 64. — Ilkley, W. R. B. ; Ingleborough, above Clapdale, both sexes,
and on summit.

(To be continued )*

: o :

The following is copy of a printed label issued by a Dutch bulb-grower :

* If the Snowdrop not are true the named and colour, received the buyers

it money back.’

1919 Jan. 1.

26

YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS AT LEEDS.

By the kindness of the Council of the University of Leeds the
fifty-seventh Annual Meeting of the Union was held at the
University on Saturday, the 7th December.

The Union greatly appreciated the honour of again being
permitted to hold its gathering at the University, the facilities
available being such as to make the meeting a success, further
enhanced by the efforts of the local Societies, ably carried out
under the supervision of the President of the Union.

The attendance at .the meeting of the General Committee,
at which the President occupied the chair, was excellent,
twenty-seven of the thirty-four affiliated Societies being
represented. The Annual Report for 1918, and Excursion
programme for 1919, were adopted. The announcement that
Dr. W. G. Smith, B.Sc., Edinburgh, had been elected President
of the Union for 1919 was most heartily received. The financial
position was lucidly explained by the Hon. Treasurer, Mr.
Edwin Hawkesworth, and although the working expenses
during the year had exceeded income to the extent of £22
19s., the consensus of opinion subsequently expressed was
that this loss, considering the great increase in cost of printing,
etc., was not discouraging. Discussion ensued as to the best
course to pursue during the coming year to meet increased
liabilities, and it was ultimately decided to leave this question
to be dealt with by the Executive. Mr. H. B. Booth suggested
that those present should subscribe towards the loss on the
year’s working, and slightly more than one half the amount
of this loss was thus raised. The subscription list is still open,
and donations, however small, will be gratefully received by
either the Hon. Treasurer or Hon. Secretaries. The Balance
Sheet was adopted.

A vote of thanks was accorded to the retiring officers, who
were unanimously re-elected. On behalf of the Doncaster
Scientific Society, Dr. H. H. Corbett and Mr. M. H. Stiles
kindly invited the Union to hold the annual meeting for. 1919
at Doncaster, and this invitation was cordially accepted.

Mr. H. B. Booth reported as to correspondence from the
West Riding County Council to the Wild Birds and Eggs
Protection Committee of the Union, asking for the opinion of
the Union, upon the question of complete protection for the
Lapwing in the West Riding, and he moved the following
resolution, which was seconded by Mr. L. Gaunt, and carried
unanimously, viz. : —

‘ In view of the extreme usefulness of the Lapwing (Green
Plover or Peewit) to agriculturalists, it. being a bird without
a single fault, we consider that both the bird and its eggs
should receive complete protection in the West Riding. We
would also recommend that it should be made an unlawful

Naturalist,

Yorkshire Naturalists at Leeds.

2 7

offence to offer for sale either the Lapwing or its eggs in this
Riding.”

On the proposition of Mr. E. W. Wade, seconded by Mr.
Sheppard, it was resolved that a similar resolution be sent to the
East Riding County Council, and on the proposition of Mr. D.
W. Bevan, seconded by Prof. Kendall,, it was resolved that a
similar resolution be sent to the North Riding County Council.,

Mr. Sheppard referred to the recent formation of the
Yorkshire Natural Science Association, and asked if the ob-
jectives of this Association would be in conflict with the work
carried out by the Union. The President said he had been
connected with the birth of this new Association, whose main
objective was for the exchange of views on the teaching of
the academic aspects of Botany, Zoology, and other sciences,,
as stated in the circular convening the inaugural meeting.
The Association had no thought of competition with the
Union, and if there had been any possibility of conflict he
would have had nothing to do with the new Association.

The Lecture Theatre was quite full at the evening meeting.
Prof. Garstang, M.A., D.Sc., F.Z.S., occupied the chair, and
was supported by Prof. Gillespie, M.A., the Pro Vice-Chancellor
of the University, and past Presidents Prof. P. F. Kendall,
M.Sc., W. Denison Roebuck, M.Sc., Dr. Harold Wager, F.R.S.,
the Hon. Treasurer and the Secretary. Prof. Gillespie, on behalf
of the University Authorities, extended a hearty welcome to
the members of the Union. After an epitome of the Annual
Report had been given, and five new members elected, Prof.
Garstang delivered his presidential address, on “ Nature and
Man,” from the chair.

After expressing thanks to the members of the Union for
the honour accorded to him in adding his name to the list of
Presidents of the Union, Prof. Garstang said that the point
he desired to discuss was the statement made at various times
during the war, that the recent titanic struggle has been a
phase of what was known as the struggle for existence. His
address involved to some degree a survey of certain of the
evolutionary processes which, he hoped, would challenge crit-
icism. After dealing with the question as to whether the
war was a magnification of the struggle for existence, he then
by skilful method of illustration from the animal and insect
worlds, showed that both animals and insects had progressed
by industry rather than by fighting.

Indeed, it was much nearer the truth to state that the
struggle was carried on in the living world not by war, but
by industry, and the result of progress was attained not by
direct assault upon competition, but by development of special
and more efficient methods. There were many morals to be
derived from the illustrations given by him, and the Germans ,

1919 Jan. 1.

28

Yorkshire Naturalists, at Leeds.

themselves, when they had recovered their senses, would have
reason to thank the Allies for teaching them a lesson in time
to save both them and humanity from a headstrong rush
along the wrong road of evolution. The life of humanity had
endured a severe strain during the past four years, and it
behoved every good naturalist to attack at once, and sharply,
any pretentious phrases which gained currency ■ to put a biol-
ogical gloss upon the cause of the recent conflict. The attempt
to trace the outbreak of the war to ‘ biological necessity ’ was
absolutely devoid of foundation. At the close of the address,
upon the motion of Mr. Booth, seconded by Mr. A. Haigh
Lumby, Prof. Garstang was very heartily thanked, as well as
for his services to the Union during his year of office.

At the close of the meeting a Conversazione under the
.-auspices of the inviting Societies, the Leeds Naturalists’ Club
and Scientific Association, Leeds Geological Association, Leeds
Co-operative Field Naturalists’ Club and the Leeds Conchol-
ogical Club, was held in the Biological Department of the
University. Here was placed on view an excellent array of
exhibits contributed by the following gentlemen : Shells from
the ‘ Nelson ’ collection, the property of the University ;
Helix busbyi from the Northern Island of New Zealand, and
Cowries, with note upon their economic uses, by Mr. W.
Denison Roebuck, M.Sc. ; varieties of H elicella virgata collected
at Dublin, Scarborough, Blackpool and Crossgates, near
Leeds, by Mr. J. A. Hargreaves ; pearl mussels with pearls,
by Mr. A. F. Thornes; Local Lepidoptera, by Mr. G. B
Stanger ; Exotic Long-horned beetles, by Mr. E. C. Horrell ;
herbarium sheets of plants collected in Cheshire and North
Wales, Anglesea, Carnarvon, and the sand dunes of South
Lancashire, by Mr. Charles Waterfall ; herbarium sheets of
plants illustrative of the flora of Upper Wharf edale, and also
plants of the Leeds District, by Mr. Thomas Cockerline ; Alien
plants by Mr. E. C. Horrell ; a rare moss, T eiraploden worms-
kjoldii, in fruit, gathered at Widdybank, Teesdale, with
explanatory notes thereon, by Mr. W. H. Burrell ; coloured
lantern slides of flowers and insects, by Mr. C. A. Cheetham ;
specimens of Yorkshire peat, and the result of investigations
of their constituents, by Miss Whitaker ; Jurassic plants of
the Estuarine series of the Yorkshire coast ; and microscopical
geological slides, by Dr. A. Gilligan, B.Sc. Light refreshment
was provided by the inviting Societies. The appreciation of
those present was voiced by Dr. Corbett, seconded by Mr.
W. P. Winter, B.Sc., to the authorities of the University of
Leeds for the use of rooms, and to the inviting Societies for
their hospitality and services in making the local arrangements,
the response of Mr. W. H. Burrell bringing to a close another
very successful gathering of the Union. — W.E.L.W.

Naturalist,

29r

NOTES ON ARCTIC-ALPINE MOLLUSCA.

HANS SCHLESCH.

Hellerup, Denmark.

Pupa ( Vertigo ) genesii Gredler.

Testa minima, subperforata, ovata, obtusa, obsolete striata,
nitidula, purpureo-cornea, anfractibus /\\ convexis, apertura
subsemicirculari, edentula, peristomate incrassato, fucato, ex-
pansiusculo, callo tenuissimo juncto (Gredler).

Alt. 2 mm., lat. i mm.

Pupa genesii is a typical arctic-alpine mollusc. It was
first observed by the late Prof. Gredler in 1853, at St. Genesien,
near Botzen (Tyrol), two specimens* being found, and in after

a b

a— Vertigo genesii Gredler. b — Vertigo eumicra Bcurguigrat.

years further specimens were obtained at Salten (Tyrol), at
a height of 5,000 feet above sea level, where it lives on stones
on a wet slope only a few square yards in extent, f Gredler adds
that it is remarkable that this species, together with Carychium
minimum, seem to prefer the neighbourhood of water. Re-
corded also by Geyer, from Tret, in Monsberg (Tyrol). J

In Germany, GeyerJ records Pupa genesii from a moor
near Kieslegg in Allgaii (Wiirtemberg), but it is found fossil in
several places, as in Thuringia, (Weimar, Mosbach), Bavaria
(Munich and Ismaning) §, Wiirtemberg (Wolfegg and Bob-
lingen) ; and Geyer holds || that Pupa genesii migrated from
Thuringia and the Rhine valley to the High Alps and Northern
Europe.

In Northern Europe it is, as far as I know, only found in

* Gredler : Tirols Land-und Siisswasser-Conchylien, Wien, 1856-59,

pp. 122-23

f Gredler : Neues Verzeichnis der Conchylien von Tirol und Vorarlberg
mit Anmerkungen, Bozen, -1894, pp. 19-20.

X Geyer : Ueber die im Niederschwaben wahrend des Ouartars erlos-
chenen Molluscen (Jahrb. u Mitb. d. Oberrh., Geol. Ver. Heft. 2, 19:13)./

§ Schroder : Die Conchylien des Munchener Gebiets von Pleistocaen
bis zur Gegenwart (Nachr. d. D. Malak. Ges., 1915, pp. 112-121).

|| Geyer : Die Weichtiere Deutschlands, Stuttgart 1909, p. 109.

1919 Jan. 1.

jo

Notes on Arctic- Alpine Mollusca.

Sweden. Erland Nordenskiold found living specimens at
Ostersund,* * Jamtland, but the specimens Westerlund refers
to in his works, as from Wastergotland, collected by Prof.
Lilljeborg, are fossil. By Dr. Odhner it was found fossil at
Skultorp in Wastergotland j and Rangilstorp in Ostergotland.

Further, Pupa genesii is found in Siberia at Werschininskoj
68° 55' and Krasnojarsk.

Vertigo eumicra Bourguignat is found in Switzerland on the
ruins of Habsburg near Meggen, and at St. Moritz in the
Engadine, and is probably only a form of Pupa genesii.

Pupa ( Vertigo) alpestris Alder.

(Syn. P. shuttleworthiana Charpentier.)

‘ Testa cylindracea, nitida: pellucida, subtiliter sed regulariter
striatula, lutescenti-cornea ; anfractibus 5, convexis, sutura
profunda, pone aperturam, valde ascendente, separatis, apertura
semi-ovalis, \-dentata\ dente parietali 1, compresso, lamelli-
formi ) columellari 1 acuto, palatalibus 2, lamelliformibus , prce-
sertim inferiori, eburneis ; peristoma album, marginibus callo
tenui junctis, margine dextro subsinuato , brevissime expanso,
superne forte arcuato, columellari curvato * (Westerlund).

Alt. 2J mm., lat. 1^ mm.

Pupa alpestris Alder was first obtained in England at Lip-
wood House, in Northumberland, by J. Thompson, and named
by Alder.J In England, according to Lionel E. Adams, § it is
■confined to a few of the northern counties, with the exception of
a single locality at Coleraine in Ireland.

In the Scandinavian peninsula it is probably found from
the south to the northermost parts, but only a few localities
are noted. In Sweden it was first found by Wallenberg || at
Quickjock (67-68° N.). Westerlund ]f records it from Ofveds-
kloster and Belteberga in Scania, Ronneby (Blekinge), Borgholm
and Ismantorusborg (Oeland), Westerns (Westmannland),
Kungshamn and Stora Angviken on Wermdoen near Stock-
holm. In Norway, Friele obtained Pupa alpestris at Bergen and
on Malmoen near Kristiania, and Jensen from Langesund ;

* Odhner : Mollusken aus Kalktuffen von Ostergotland (Arkiv. for

Kemi. Mineralogi och Geologi), Bd. III., Stockholm, 1910, p. 3.

f Odhner : Die Entwicklung der Molluskenfauna in dem Kalktuffe

bei Skultorp in Wastergotland (Geol. Forhandl.), Bd. 32, Stockholm,
1910, p. 1 1 13.

% Alder: Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc., Northumberland II., 1830, p. 370.

§ Adams, Lionel : The Collector’s Manual of Brit. Land and Fresh-
water Shells, Leeds, 1896, p. 99.

Wallenberg : De Molluscis Lapponiae Lulensis, Berolino, 1858, p. 20.

* Westerlund : Sveriges, Norges och Danmarks Land och Sotvatten-
Mollusken, Stockholm, 1871-73, p. 267.

Naturalist,

Notes on Arctic- Alpine Mollusca.

3i

Brevik, Borseoen near Skien.* Miss Esmark records it from
Revalanjarg in Porsangerfjord f and Brevik on Tromsoen.|
In Finland it occurs commonly throughout the country,
and Luther § records it from several places. Kasbergot and

o o

Jomala (in Aland Isles), Pargas, Vasa, Bjorneborg, Abo, Run-
sala, Kulho Ispois, St. Karins, Pikis on Kusto, Karislojo, Lojo,
Sammatti, Nummis, Nordsjonear Helsinge, Hartonoes, Meilans,
Degero, Nevas in Sibbo, Andersberg in Mantsala, Javastehus
(Luopiois), Hogland, Viborg, St. Johannes, Ylane, Saaminki,
Parikkala, Kirjavalaks in Sordavala, Jaakimvaara, Ylistaro,
Jyvaskyla, Palokkajarvi, Lohikoski, Vesanto, Kuopio, Hirvib
aks, Kortejoki, Pieal, Melalahti in Paltamo, Kuhmoniemi,
Suomussalmi, Kiiminki, Sodankyla, (between Kultala and

Vertigo alpestris.

Rovanen), Kantalaks (c. 67° N.), Ischkarajoki and Kuoppaniva
near the shore of Anarjoki, and at Elvenses in Varanger.

In Denmark it is very rare and only obtained in a few
localities in Zealand: Sorgenfri, Gribskov, Ermelund and
Ordrup near Copenhagen (Steenberg),||

In Germany it is recorded from several mountain slopes in
the Mittelgebirge (Geyer), the Silesian mountains, the Moravian
valley, Riesengebirge, Bavarian Alps (Isergebirge) and from
the Lahn valley in Nassau.])

From the Hartz mountains Goldfuss ** cites: Hartenberg
near Wernigerode, Regenstein near Blankenburg, Hirschgrund

* Brogger and Jensen : Indberetning om en i sommeren, 1870, foreta-
gen Rejse i Kristiania og Kristiansand, Stift, etc., Kristiania 1872.

f Esmark and Hoyer : Die Land-und Siisswasser Mollusken des Arc-
lischen Norwegens (Malak. Blatter, 1886, p. 106).

X Esmark : Land and Freshwater Mollusca in the Arctic Regions
of Norway, Tromso, 1882, p. 99.

§ Luther : Land-och Sotvattengastropodernas utbredning i Finland,
Helsingfors, 1901, p. 76.

[| Steenberg : Bloddyr L, Landsnegle, Kobenhavn, 1911, p. 165.
Clessin : Deutsche Excursions Molluskenfauna, Niirnberg, 1884, p.

264.

** Goldfuss : Die Binnenmollusken Mittel-Deutschlands, Leipzig, 1900,
P- 157-

1919 Jan. 1.

32

Notes on Arctic-Alpine Mollusca.

near Thale in Bodethal, Magdesprung in Selkethal, Alexisbad
and Ascherleben Fossil it is found in the old Pleistocene beds
near Weimar, Taubach (Thurinjia),* * * § and in loss at Mosbach
by Biebreich neai Rhine (Bromme).

Moreover, Pupa alpestris is found in Switzerland (Bex,.
Canton Waadt, Steinerberg, in Ahrenthal and Basel), Italy
(Pisa), Friaul, Gorz (Erjavu 1877), Tyrol (Ferrara Alps in
Grodnerjochl, 6,000 feet, Kollern, 3,960 feet, and Virgl near
Botzen, Lengmoos in Ritten, Finsterbriicke, St. Jodok in
Brenner Pass), f Oberglaming in Salten, Moostengelchen, Nons-
berg near St. Felix, and Moos in Passlier) , J Carinthia (Valentin
Alps: MooskOfels), § Galicia (Wedlug, Jachny, Cracow) ; ||

Hungary (Tatra near Czebrathegy), and Transilvania (Vajda
Hunyad and Vulcan Pass).^J It also occurs in Estland (Glint
in Katherinenthal and Manenberg near Reval),** throughout
Russia, Siberia (Jenissei near Podk, Tunguska, Krasnojarsk,
Irkutsk, Kultuknear Lake Baikal), Amur (Schilkinoskoi Savod
in Dauria, Kidsi, near River Amur) and Kamchatka). If

Finally Pupa gouldii Binney, is widely distributed in
North America and is probably identical with Pupa alpestris.
: o :

Yorkshire Herons. — Mr. Booth refers on p. 392, to c a
pair of Herons which nested successfully in Bolton Woods/
This nest was not strictly in Bolton Woods, but in an adjoining
coppice above them. Only one young one left the nest.
There were four eggs originally, one being thrown out of the
nest early on. Of the remaining three two hatched, one of
which got its leg broken when quite small. The last time I
went up (25th May), the nest was well out on one of the topmost
branches of a huge old Scotch Fir — the sound youngster was
at the remote end of the wood where I saw him fed, the cripple
still being in the nest, very thin and emaciated. I tried to
reach him to put and end to his misery, but he wriggled out
to the extreme end of the branch, where, of course, he was out
of reach on account of my weight. — William Rowan.

* Weiss : Die Conchylienfauna der altpleistocaenen Travertine des

Weimarisch. — Taufbacher, Kalktuff — beckens (Nachr. d. D. Malak., Ges.
1897, p. 145-163 ; 185-190).

-j- Blume : Die Mollusken von St. Jodok am Brenner (Nachr. d. D.
Malak, Ges. 1906, p. 1 01 -109).

+ Gredler : Tirols Land-und Siisswasser — Conchylien, Wien, 1856-59,
p. 129.

§ Gallenstein : Die G-astropoden Karntens, Klagenfurt, 1900, p. no.

Bakowski : Mieczaki, Lwowie, 1892, p. 107.

•f Clessin : Die Molluskenfauna Oesterreich-Ungarns und der Schweiz,
Nurnberg, 1887, p. 276.

** Luther: Verzeichnis der Land-und Susswasser-Mollusken der Umgeb.
Revals, Helsingfors, 1901, p. 9.

ft Westerlund : Sibiriens Land-och Sotvatten-Mollusker, Stockholm,

1877, p. 44.

Naturalist,

33

A YEAR’S SCIENTIFIC WORK:

being

THE YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS’ UNION’S
FIFTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT

FOR 1918.

(Presented at Leeds, 7th December, 1918).

o

The Fifty-Sixth Annual Meeting was held at Wakefield on Saturday,
8th December, 1917. A report of this successful meeting appeared in
The Naturalist for January, and our journal also contained Sir Archibald
Geikie’s Presidential Address on ‘ A Yorkshire Rector of the Eighteenth
Century.’

Five Field Meetings have also been held, viz. : — to Barnard Castle
(Whit week-end), May 18th to 20th ; Market Weighton, June 15th ;
Crosshills, July 13th ; Settle (August Bank Holiday week-end), August
3rd to 5th, with the British Ecological Society ; the Mycological meeting
was held at Selby, with the British Mycological Society, September 7th to
12th. These joint meetings were very successful and proved to be
mutually advantageous. The attendance at these gatherings, considering
the war conditions, was quite satisfactory. The. usual excursion circulars
were issued, and detailed reports of all the excursions have appeared
in The Naturalist.

The Excursions for 1919 will be as follows : —

Yorks. N.E. — Coxwold (Easter Week-end), April 19th to 21st.

,, S.W. — Ryhill, nr. Wakefield, Thursday, May 15th.

,, N.W. — Hawes (Whit Week-end), June 7th to 9th.

,, Mid.W. — Pateley Bridge, Saturday, July 5th.

,, S.E. — Spurn or Hornsea (August Bank Holiday week-

end), August 2nd to 4th.

Mycological Meeting, Helmsley, in September.

Annual Meeting, Doncaster, December 6th.

The Membership of the Union is now 333. The following new
members have been elected during the year, viz. : —

The Rev. Frank B. Butterfield, L.Th., 34 Mount Preston, Leeds.

Miss F. Vera Greenwood, B.Sc., Stoodley Hall, Todmorden.

Mr. Thomas Fenton Greenwood, 9 Eiffel St., Hebden Bridge.

Mr. Sam Gibson, Primrose Cottage, Hebden Bridge.

Mr. Joseph Harper, 14 Otto Terrace, Sunderland.

Mr. F. E. Milsom, B.Sc., 53 Merton St., Huddersfield.

Mr. A. Nicholson, 34 Quarry St., Woodhouse, Leeds.

Mr. H. Pollard, 1 Warren Terrace, Wakefield.

Mr. A. A. Pearson, F.L.S., 59 Southwark St., London, S.E. 1.

Mr. Harry Stansfield, Ribstone St., Bankefields, Mytholmroyd.

The Rev. Cecil F. Tomlinson, M.A., The Rectory, Bolton Abbey.

Mr. Albert Thornes, 151 Town St., Armley. Leeds.

Mr. R. S. Wimpenny, 19 North Lane, Headingley, Leeds.

Mr. A. E. Winter, 39 Esplanade Road, Scarborough.

Sorby Scientific Society, Sheffield.

Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society.

1919 Jan. 1.

C

34 Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union : Annual Report, 1918.

The Affiliated Societies now number 34 ; the Sorby Scientific Society
and Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society joined during the year.
The statistics furnished by these Societies show that their total membership
is 2,194. This, added to the membership of the Union, makes our total
numerical strength 2,530.

Obituary. — We regret to record the deaths of Mr. Matthew B. Slater,
Malton ; Mr. J. H. Howarth, J.P., F.G.S. (a past Treasurer of the Union),
and Mr. W. Lower Carter, M.A., F.G.S., Watford. ‘ In Memoriam ’
notices of these gentlemen have appeared in The Naturalist.

Divisional Secretaries. — The gentlemen officiating in this capacity
have again been most useful in making the local arrangements for the
excursions.

VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY SECTION.

West Riding. — Mr. H. B. Booth writes : — Those species of birds
which suffered so greatly, and had their numbers reduced in varying de-
grees, by the severe winter of 1916-17, have, for the most part, recovered
almost to their normal numbers in the West Riding. An exception,
however, is the Goldcrest ; both in the winter and summer birds. As
an instance, the writer regularly visits three former constant nesting sites
of the Goldcrest. In 1917 all were vacant ; in 1918 only, one of the three
was again occupied. Fieldfares, and' also Redwings to a lesser extent,
were conspicuous by their absence, or by their extreme rarity, in the
autumn of 1917, and during the winter following. However, in March,
April and early May of 1918, many flocks of these birds passed on their
journey north. It would almost appear as if their journey south in the
previous autumn had been altered, or diverted, from its usual channels.
A pair of Grasshopper Warblers, reported by Mr. R. Butterfield, reared
two broods near Keighley, on almost exactly similar lines (‘ reeling ’
behaviour, etc.) as the pair at Bingley in 1915 (The Naturalist, 1916,
pp. 167-170 and 199-203). Mr. C. A. Cheetham informed me that two,
possibly more, pairs of Grasshopper Warblers frequented Austwick Moss
this season, and also that he had heard a bird of this species ‘ reeling ’
at Guiseley on the 21st and 27th of July. Mr. T. Roose reported a pair
of Herons nesting in Bolton Woods, in a large Scots Pine, in a secluded
part of the Woods. When I was there on May nth, large young ones
were in the nest. This is the first occurrence of the nesting of the Heron
in Bolton Woods, and is probably due to tree-felling near some of the
older local heronries. Mr. W. H. Parkin and Mr. W. J. Forrest found
a nest of the Dunlin containing four eggs at Whitsuntide, on a moor in
Upper Airedale. Mr. Sam Clough carefully counted 375 Rooks’ nests
in the Steeton rookeries on April 14th, 1918.* A curious fact, Mr. Clough
informs me, is that none of his Rooks appear to have attempted to nest
again after completing the first clutch of eggs. The Hawfinch has been
added to the list of birds nesting in the Hebden Bridge district (W. Greaves) .
Black Game (mostly, if not solely, descendents of birds introduced many
years ago) are increasing considerably in extreme Upper Wharfedale,
and Mr. Cheetham informs me that they are now quite common close to
Semmerwater. Tree Sparrows have been noted near Sheffield (The
Naturalist, 1918, p. 26), and two rare ducks (the Ferruginous and a male
Gadwall) are reported from Upper Nidderdale (The Naturalist, 1918, p. 231).
A female Goosander was shot, and five others seen, by Mr. R. Fllam, on
Silsden reservoir, on January 2nd, 1918 (R. Butterfield). A Leach’s
Fork-tailed Petrel, in good condition, but dead, was picked up near to the

* This agrees with his report in The Naturalist, 1918, pp. 237-8, viz.,
the contents of 359 nests were taken, and less than 30 nests left, owing to
dangerous positions.

Naturalist,

Yorkshire Naturalists Union : Annual Report, 1918. 35

river Aire, at Snaygill, near Skipton, on October 8th, 1918 ( Yorkshire
Weekly Post, October 19th, 1918). A Puffin was caught at Denholme
on December 7th, 1917 ( The Naturalist, 1918, p. 32). A white Yellow
Wagtail ( M . raii), a bird of the year, was seen throughout the summer
in fields by the river, near Steeton and Silsden (Crosshills Naturalists’
Society), and Mr. R. Butterfield reports seeing a white Chaffinch, ‘ a very
pure example,’ near Silsden, in June.

East Riding. — Mr. E. W. Wade reports : — 1918 has been on the whole
a favourable season for the birds. A fairly severe winter, not unduly
prolonged, was followed by a cold wet April and a dry May and June.
The Fieldfares, conspicuous by their absence throughout the winter,
appeared in Mid-February, and stayed till the end of April. The Grey
Crow was again very scarce, but reports from the battlefields of France
indicate that the bird has found more attractive winter quarters.
Woodcock commenced their return migration in January, appearing
at Burton Constable as usual. Rooks commenced building during the’
last week in February, and were very numerous and prolific. Carrion
Crows and Magpies were early and laying full clutches. Our Blackbirds
and Thrushes have quite recovered from the winter of 1916-1917, and
the former are more numerous than ever. The exceptional numbers
of Mice and Field Voles produced the usual fecundity among the Owls.
Clutches of five and seven of Brown Owls were observed and of six of Long-
eared Owls, though the date of laying was late. The Brown Owl has
entirely displaced the Long-eared Owl on the Wolds as a breeding species,
and threatens to become too numerous. The Barn Owl has not done'
so well. A brood of young flew from the nest on 24th September. The
Pewits have not recovered from the effects of the winter of 1916-1917.
The laying date was late, and the intensive cultivation on the Wolds
has very much upset them, the fallows being ploughed and harrowed
before they had time to hatch off their young. A severe snowstorm
on 1 8th April drove many birds from their nests and many former haunts
remain untenanted. Snipe were unusually numerous. Migrants arrived
at about the same date as last year and in full numbers. The Swifts,
however, were late in arriving and early in departing, disappearing
well before the end of August, except for a few stragglers on the coast,
which lingered on till the end of September. All the migrants had a
successful breeding season and departed in good time. There has been
a noticeable increase in the numbers of breeding Finches. Grey Linnets
were especially abundant and apparently all double brooded. Gold-
finches again show a marked increase. The Lesser Redpoll has appeared
in districts where it has not been previously observed. Whinchats have
been more numerous than for many years. Two pair of Woodwrens
have again bred in the district. Swallows and Martins have had a success-
ful year, though the former were laying small clutches. The Goldcrest
has disappeared as a breeding species, formerly frequent, and only a few
have been observed on migration. The Corncrake lingers here and there,
lust enough to remind us of its existence. Turtle Doves have been
more numerous than for many years. Partridges generally have done
well, though there has been some disease on the carr lands and Holderness
clays where the birds are patchy. Some exceptionally large coveys are
about. The numbers of Pheasants have shown a steady decline since
war conditions set in. The Stone Curlew arrived on the Wolds on 21st
April (the usual date), but shows no increase in numbers — rather the
contrary. The Pink-footed Geese arrived on 19th September, and the
numbers are unusually large. The Tufted Duck, which was extending
its breeding range in the Riding up to two years ago, has almost entirely-
disappeared. Last November, many Little Auks were seen off the coast.
On May 16th and 17th five Black-tailed Godwits were seen at Hornsea,
attended by some small Sandpipers (unidentified) . The latter occasionally
perched on the backs of the Godwits whilst the latter were feeding in
shallow water. I can find no justification for the statement that the

1919 Jan. 1.

36 Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union : Annual Report, 1918.

plague of insects this year was caused or intensified by the scarcity of
insectivorous birds. With the exception of the Starling,- which has not
yet recovered from the epidemic of some years ago, all the insectivorous
birds were numerous, the Spotted Fly-catcher especially so. Yet there
was a perfect plague of caterpillars in the gardens and the oak trees were
again stripped in many places, and wasps were particularly numerous
and destructive.

North Riding. — Mr. W. J. Clarke writes : — With the exception of
Blackbirds, all the Thrushes have been scarce throughout 1918, not yet
having recovered from the havoc wrought in their numbers by the severe
winter of 1916-17. Whinchats are reported as scarce in some districts,
but in others they have been more numerous than usual. Stonechats
have become scarcer, and in one breeding district are reported to have
disappeared altogether. Golden Crested Wrens have also been much
less abundant than usual. Tits have remained normal, with the exception
of the Long-tailed Tit, which has not been seen in quite the usual numbers.
Goldfinches are increasing throughout the district, although the bird
catchers still take toll of them everywhere. Landrails have been again
more numerous than for some years past, and in one district are described
as being abundant during the past summer. Turtle Doves have also
been more common this year ; this species seems to be extending its range
throughout the district and becoming steadily more abundant. Little
Grebes have revisited an old breeding haunt long deserted, and at least
three broods were reared this year. Woodcocks seem to be increasing
as a breeding species every year, and many nests have been found during
1918. Green Sandpipers are reported from two localities. Among
the ducks, Shoveler and Garganey, Pochard, Wigeon and Tufted have
been noticed, and several pairs of Teal have nested. The stormy weather
during December, 1917, brought Glaucous Gulls in unusual numbers,
mostly immature, but including several fine adults. These remained
about the coast until March 2nd. Lesser Black Backed Gulls passed
in numbers, all immature birds, on August 29th. This species does not
appear to have visited its nesting- place at Kettleness for several years
past. A Great Northern Diver remained about the coast from December
nth, 1917, to January 23rd, 1918. It fed chiefly upon small crabs and
seldom brought up a fish. Shags, which are now annual winter visitors
to the coast in small numbers, remained this year until May 6th — an
unusually late date. The recorder has to acknowledge with thanks the
receipt of notes from Messrs. T. N. Roberts, and F. Snowdon, which have
been of use in compiling this report.

York District. — Mr. W. Hewett writes : — My thanks are due to Dr.
C. A. Lower, Elvington, near York, and to Mr. J. F. Musham, Selby, for
notes which have been of use in compiling this report.

Arrival of Spring migrants : —

Swallow. — April 24th, Kexby ; April 27th, Hammerton ; April 28th,
Elvington.

House Martin. — April 28th, Stamford Bridge. Dr. Lower informs
me that both the Swallow and House Martin have been common at
Elvington.

Sand Martin. — April 28th, Stamford Bridge.

Common Swift. — May 5th, Gate-Helmsley ; May 6th, Elvington ;
August 19th, last seen at Selby.

Cuckoo. — April 20th, Hammerton ; April 29th, York ; May 1st,
Elvington ; May 3rd, Selby ; June 30th, egg of Cuckoo (of Skylark type)
found in Hedge-Sparrow’s nest which contained three eggs, at Kellfield,
near York.

Landrail. — May 7th, York ; May 8th, Elvington. I have found
this species in many localities near York during this summer, and believe
it to have been of more frequent occurrence than usual.

-Naturalist,.

Yorkshire Naturalists* Union : Annual Report, 1918. 37

Willow- Warbler. — April 23rd, Elvington.

Redshank. — As numerous as ever in several localities near York ;
commenced laying on April nth ; two nests, with five eggs in each, seen
on May 6th.

Black-Headed Gull. — A large number assembled on Skipwith
Common in April and commenced laying about May 10th.

Curlew. — A pair frequented Skipwith Common during the whole of
May, but so far as could be ascertained did not nest. This species nested
in the locality in 1901.

Hawfinch. — An immature specimen was caught by a Gamekeeper at
Hammerton on July 26th.

Turtle-Dove. — This species has been noted from many localities
this season and is gradually extending its range.

Partridge. — The past season has been a favourable one for this
species in the York neighbourhood. Coveys of eleven and twelve have
frequently been noticed.

At 1 a.rn., on the 17th March, great numbers of birds calling from the
sky, evidently a phase of spring migration. The species seemd to consist
of Redwing, Fieldfare, Starling and Skylark.

Fork-Tailed Petrel. — A specimen was picked up by a cat at Clifton,
York, on October 28th, 1917.

Dr. Lower informs me that, at Elvington, Ducks were much scarcer
on the Derwent during last winter and no rare species were observed ;
that the

Hooded Crow came in very small numbers and did not stay long ;
and that the

Fieldfare was abundant and stayed until May.

Woodcock. — A specimen was observed drinking in the yard behind
his house at Selby, by Mr. Musham, on the morning of December 25th, 1917.

Wild Birds and Eggs Protection Committee. — Mr. Johnson
Wilkinson writes : —

Spurn. — We have not been able to do any protecting during the past
year. Mr. Lemon,. Hon. Sec. to the Royal Society for the Protection of
Birds called upon the Sec. of Trinity House, who promised to bring the
matter before the Elder Brethren, with the result that they could not
allow any keeper or man from the Lighthouse to assist, so the birds had
to take their chance. Mr. Wade has done everything he possibly could
with the Humber Headquarters. The C. O. would give a permit to a
watcher, but the Trinity House stands in the way.

Bempton. — Two young Falcons got safely away. The Climbers did
not approach the nest until April, when two eggs were found. The part
of the Cliff where the eggs were found was carefully protected and not
disturbed until the young birds had flown. A report from the York shiv p.
P\'t complaining of shooting along the cliffs from an aeroplane, in con-
sequence of which large numbers of eggs were destroyed, was entered
into at once and complaint made to the proper authorities. A reply
was received that the shooting had not been done by any pilot from
Hornsea Mere, but there were other units of the R.A.F. who have machines
fitted with Machine Guns. The matter was then brought before all the
Officers, with a satisfactory result.

North Yorkshire. — I am given to understand three eggs were laid,
but only one young Falcon got away. Unfortunately we have not been
able to pay proper attention to this part of Yorkshire. Corncrakes have
been very numerous in this District.

Hornsea Mere. — The Mere has been taken over entirely by the Military
this Season, all pleasure boats being taken off and no one allowed on the

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38 Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union : Annual Report , 1918.

Mere. I heard, however, that the aeroplanes did not do nearly so much
harm as the boats, the breeding places having never been disturbed.
The Pochard, Great-crested Grebes and Shovelers had been above the
average ; Sedge and Reed Warblers were more numerous than before.
No Bearded Tits have been seen. Our Watcher says he has not seen so
many Grebe^ for many years, also that many Wild Geese visited the Mere
in the Winter months, but soon passed on.

Stone Curlews.— Unfortunately not so many nests as usual this yearA
no doubt accounted for by the scarcity of watchers. Several birds, however^
have been seen.

Black-Headed Gulls.— On November 5th, 1917, I again wrote the
Controller of Food' and reminded him of my letter of last year, and pointed
out the necessity of an early reply so that arrangements might be made
for taking sea-birds’ eggs for the whole of the country. I received the
usual reply ‘ Have received yours, and having attention ’ ; nothing further
heard on the matter. Mr. Claude Thompson kindly gave the eggs at
Skipwith to us on the same terms as last year. Unfortunately the number
of birds did not turn up as usual, and we only got 471 eggs. These were
sold retail at id. each ; at the same time they were being sold in
Leadenhatl Market at 7d. each. Two other smaller Yorkshire Colonies
have not done so w'ell this year ; from one Colony large numbers of eggs
were stolen.

Protection. — Complaints have been made about Nightingale and
Grasshopper Warbler eggs having been taken in Yorkshire ; the matter
has been brought before both owners of property and police.

Finance. — Having a balance in hand 1 deemed it not necessary to
ask for any subscriptions. Our expenses have been ^11, leaving a balance
still in hand of /n 10s. gd. The accounts have been duly audited by
Mr. W. E. L. Wattam.

Mammals, Amphibians, Reptiles and Fishes. — Mr. J. F. Musham
writes : — At Selby, on November 19th, 1917, a Stoat was shot by Mr.
Beasley in the act of dragging away a stale dead fowl ; a penchant for
carrion is rather unusual in this species. On February 22nd last, at
9-30 p.m. small frogs were numerous on the pavement in Bondgate, Selby.

Mr. H. B. Booth writes that the North American Grey Squirrels,
liberated at ‘ Upwood,’ near Bingley (the residence. of the late Mr. Geo.
Mitchell) four years ago, are now considerably increasing, and at least one
has made its way across the moors into the adjoining valley of the Wharf e.

Mr. E. W. Wade writes : — It has been a great year for Mice here
(North Ferriby). Woodmice and House-mice very common ; Short- tailed
Field Voles and Bank Voles numerous and destructive. I have been
trapping and destroying them ever since January, and still they come ;
have hardly seen the Common Shrew which we generally have around here.
Badgers are still on the increase in our Dales, in spite of the efforts of
keepers to reduce their numbers.

Mr. W. Hewett reports a female Badger caught during April in Sand
Hutton Wood.

Mr. W. J. Clarke, Scarborough, reports that an Albino Hedgehog,
about half grown, was taken at Seamer (alive) in October, 1917. Also
the capture of a Basse measuring sixteen inches in length, off the East
Pier, Scarborough, on February 15th, 1918. Also the capture of a Lesser
Forkbeard or Tadpole Hake, at Scarborough, on July 24th, 1918.

Marine Biology Committee. — Dr. John Irving writes : — This Com-
mittee has been unable to arrange a meeting at the Coast for Scientific
investigation. This autumn, attempts have been made to collect, and
bleach to whiteness, the so-called Carrageen Moss — two allied sea-weeds, .
Chondrus crispus and Cigar tin a mamillosa, which abound on the Yorkshire

Naturalist,

Yorkshire Naturalists Union: Annual Report, 1918. 39

Coast. The Food Production Department is anxious to secure this for
the preparation of jellies in connection with Red Cross Hospital invalid
diet, as a substitute for Isinglass and Gelatine. Collecting parties have
been organised at Whitby and Sandsend by Mr. J. T. Sewell, J.P. ; at
Scarborough and Carnelian Bay by the writer ; and at Filey by C anon
Cooper. Thus the energies of the Marine Biology Committee are diverted
for the time being.

CONCHOLOGICAL SECTION.

Mr. J. F. Musliam writes : — At our meeting at Market Weighton, on
the 15th June last, Messrs. J. A. Hargreaves, Greevz Fysher and I renewed
acquaintance with many of our local commoner forms, vide The Naturalist
for August, page 264. Reference may be made to Hyalinia lucida in
copula, at 9-30 a.m., in my garden, Brook Street, Selby ; a small colony
of this local mollusc eking out an existence here for some time back.
On August 10th, a second large specimen of Lima.x flavus var. brechworihiana
was secured in a garden near by, the first being taken in September of 1917.

ENTOMOLOGICAL SECTION.

Lepidoptera. — Mr. B. Morley writes : — An unusual swarm of Tortrix
viridana larvae caused a defoliation of the oaks in many woods during June,
and it is reported that the cabbage crop has been destroyed in North
Yorkshire by the larvae resulting from the autumn brood of Pieris rapce.
Polyommatus phlaeas appeared commonly in June, but in August it abounded
in most parts of the county, in many unusual places, sometimes flying
in considerable numbers in streets of the villages. In June, Mr. Rosse
Butterfield took Argynnis euphrosyne and Coremia munitata at Barden, in
Wharfedale. Mr. T. Ashton Lofthouse has taken Peronea mixtana, Clepsis
rusticana and Phoxopteryx unguicella on the Cleveland Hills, the latter being
new to the local list ; in the same district and at Skelmanthorpe, Stigmonotd
regiana an d Amphisa gerningana have occurred, arid on the Eston moors
Elachista kilmunella was common in August. Cerosioma sequella was in
great abundance in July on Sycamore trunks in a restricted area at
Skelmanthorpe, and in all the woods around the same place, where the
Wild Hyacnith grows freely, the little known Sciaphila sinuana was taken
freely in July, and Mr. G. T. Porritt believes he found the larvae of this
species commonly in two different woods near Huddersfield. At Hudders-
field also, he has taken a specimen of A crony eta megacephala, a rare species
there, and at the same place the larvae of Cucullia verbasci have been found
for the first time, and a specimen of Plusia moneta has also been taken,
which is a new record for West Yorkshire. Nemeophila plantaginis was
plentiful on the West Riding Moors in June, and in a few lowland localities
also. During recent years this species has been rarely seen in the Riding.
In August I saw Argynnis paphia in a wood near Skelmanthorpe, and Mr.
J. Hooper confirmed the record by taking one in the same place the
following day. This, with the taking of Chaerocampa elpencr larvae, are
new to the local list. Mr. H. Lodge took a specimen of Cymatophora
fluctuosa. near Wakefield in June, and in September, at Skelmanthorpe,
Mr. T. H. Fisher procured a specimen of Sphinx convolvuli, at which place,
also, a few examples of Zeuzera pyrini were obtained in August. It is
worthy of note that the type form of Amphidasys betularia still lingers on in
the West Riding* two specimens being taken in June, one at Hebden
Bridge, and the other at Skelmanthorpe.

Goleoptera. — Dr. W. J. Fordham writes : — In spite of a more or less
unfavourable season, a fair amount of work has been done in this order.
Molorchus minor has turned up in the East Riding, undoubtedly native,
thus further extending its known range in a northerly direction. There
are also a few more County Records and many interesting Vice-County

1919 Jan. 1.

40 Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union : Annual Report, 1918.

Records, a detailed list of which will probably appear later in The
Naturalist.

Neuroptera and Trichop ter a —Mr. G. T. Porritt reports: — There is
very little to report on these insects. The only species of any interest
was Coniopteryx aleyrodiformis , which occurred in woods near Huddersfield
in June, not uncommonly, but had only previously ^ been recorded in
Yorkshire from the Cleveland district. Chrysopa tenella, after an apparent
scarcity for some years, appeared in plenty .again in the Huddersfield
district. Limnophilus hirsutus, which occurred at Kirkheaton, Hudders-
field has not previously been recorded for that district.

Hymenoptera, Diptera and Hemiptera. — Mr. J. F. Musham
writes In Bombus, a black male of hortorum, var. hanisellus occurred at
Hemingborough, E. R. Examples of the autumn brood of Andrena
gwynana, Nomada bifida and alternata ; Halictus morio, smeathmanellus and
nilidiusculus ; Pemphredon lethifer and shuckardi, together with Passaloecus
insignis and Prosopis hyalinata were frequent at Selby, the latter I believe,
new to Yorkshire. Crabro chrysostomus nesting in dead Ash stump, was
netted with its prey, a large syrphid dipteron. Odynerus trimarginafus
nested in the end of a tall cane used for supporting runner beans ; a split
section revealed a series of chambers, each closed with an earthen partition,
and provisioned with eight or nine small green lepidopterous larvae.

Mr. Rosse Butterfield, Keighley, writes : — I have found several nests
of Myr mica rubra, race lobicornis at Grassington and Keighley; in the
spring I found several specimens of Formicoxenus nitidulus in nests of
Formica rufa near Hebden Bridge ; I believe this little guest-ant has not
been found elsewhere in Yorkshire except at Scarborough. In the genus
Sphecodes, amongst the additions are S. pilifrons, S. vaviegatus and S. hya-
linatus from Keighley district.

Fossores. — Pompilus nigerrimus Scop., from near Barden, and P.
pectinipes, Keighley, are both new.

The extremely rare A status stigma Panz. occurred to Dr. W. J.
Fordham on August 12th, IQ17, in a sandy field on Brayton Barff ( vide
The Naturalist, June 18th, page 188).

On our August excursion to the Settle district, Mr. Chris. A. Cheetham
captured males of Nomada solidaginis at Keasden.

Ichneumons and Sawfi.ies. — Mr. Butterfield reports a number of
additions from Upper Airedale. Dr. Fordham has also added to his
local captures. Pine wood from Helmsley, sawn up at Selby, was respon-
sible for an invasion of Sir ex gigas in the town. Dr. Fordham reports
a female of Sirex noctilio taken in a fir wood at Aughton, E.R., on a felled
log ; 5. gigas was taken here no several occasions ; there can be no question
of introduction.

Diptera. — Mr. Butterfield reports Microdon mutabilis L., Ceratopogon
myrmzzophilus Egg., from pupa found in nests of Formica fusca at Grassing-
ton ; both these are interesting additions to the north.

Mr. Cheetham has also added three new County records in this section,
and Mr. Fordham has done good work. Dr. Fordham found Anopheles
maculipennis Mq. in Selby. It is well to refer to this fact since the Local
Government Board are specially requiring information about mosquitoes.
Mr. Butterfield also got an Anopheles sp. in Keighley.

Arachnida. — Mr. Wm. Falconer writes : — During the year two species
of spiders have been added to the county list, viz., Xysticu^ulmi Hahn, from
Martin Beck Wood, two females (Dr. Corbett), previously erroneously
reported for Yorkshire in Blackwall’s ‘ Spiders of Great Britain and
Ireland,’ (1861-64), and one new to science, provisionally named Maro
humicola, Slaith waite, both V.C. 63. Dr. Harrison, in his ‘ Notes on the
Spiders of North Yorkshire,' The Naturalist, October, p. 316-7, gives
three species new to V.C. 62, Oxyptila praticola C. L. K., Epeira triguttata-
Fabr. (? sturmii Hahn.), E. cucurbitina Clerck., and four new to V.C. 65,

Naturalist,

Yorkshire N aturalists’ Union : Annual Report , 1918. 41

Hilaira uncata C-amb., Maso sundevallii Westr., Ceratinella brevis Wid., and
Lycosa lugubris Walck., none, however, uncommon. A list of ‘ The
Spiders of Yorkshire ’ has commenced serial publication in The Naturalist,
and several gall mites, to which may now be added seven more species,
were recorded in ‘ The Galls of the Huddersfield District,’ in the May issue.
Useful work has again been done in investigating the A carids of the County
and it is proposed in due course to collate the records for publication, as
has already been done in the other orders of Arachnida.

BOTANICAL SECTION.

Flowering Plants. — Mr. C. A. Cheetham and Mr. J. F. Robinson
write : — It is pleasant to report that, alike by detached workers and by
the collective efforts of affiliated societies, good observational and other
work has been accomplished along botanical lines. The societies have
not been idle, for one learns that generally the past year has afforded
very good seasons for the prosecution of plant study (classification and
geography), and many excursions, besides those of our Union, have been
made into the wilds — where such can still be found. Such unusuals as
Actaea spicata, Thlaspi alpestre, Viola lutea, Spiranth.es spiralis , etc., have been
seen again in their old West Riding stations. In the East Riding reports
show that sedges like Carex axillaris , C. pseudo-cyperus and C. paradoxa have
again luxuriated in stations that were new to V.C. 61 less than five years
ago. Moreover, so recently as the 13th of September, one of our younger
local botanists discovered in one of the fen patches of heather (Calluna),
to be found in the East Derwentland Division, some bushes of Erica medi-
terranea, which, so far as we can yet gather, has hiterto been recorded only
for Ireland. The origin of this species on the Great Sand Field near
Holme-on-Spalding Moor is still sub judice.

Several useful articles have appeared in The Naturalist.

TJtricularia intermedia Hayne is added to the Yorkshire list by Mr.
H. J. Wilkinson, being found by Corporal A. Templeman on Strensall
Common.

Mr. W. Ingham reports Typha angustifolia L. with Hypericum elodes L. in
a small marsh at Naburn ; also Genista tinctoria at Flaxton and Bolton Percy.

Dr. F. A. Lees reports an addition to our West Yorkshire Flora from the
Bentham-Ingleton district, viz., Juncus tenuis Wills., found by Mr. A,
Wilson, who also found a new station for Malaxis paludosa at Fostrow Fell.
Dr. Lees states -that our prevailing form of Hypericum quadrangulum L. is
H. lineolatum and adds Helleborine purpurata Druce as a West Yorkshire
species, and also gives many interesting notes on alien species.

The very mild weather at the end of January brought the early spring
flowering plants along in good time. Up on the limestone scars at the head
of Crummockdale, alt. i,ioo ft., Daphne Mezereum L. was in full flower
on February 23rd, and Saxifraga oppositifolia L. was just opening
at the same time. Celandines were in full flower in Ribblesdale on March
3rd. May was very fine and hot, and the Globe flower was almost over
by the 24th, on Helwith Moss. Most of the trees have had an average
crop of fruit, the oak, however, is reported as failing in many districts
(Scarborough, Parlington Park). The pear crop is a failure after the
abnormal effort of last year.

Botanical Survey Committee. — Mr. W. H. Burrell writes : — During
the year Miss Elsie D. Whitaker has made known her discovery of Pine
stools in quantity near the base of the peat on the Whitby and Scarborough
moors, in Harwood Dale bog, Foulsike bog and near the Flask Inn. Many
cones were seen, some with seeds, and microscopic examination revealed
pine pollen as a constant and abundant constituent of the lower peat.
The survey of Martin Beck shows progress in Mr. M. H. Stiles’ report on
the Diatom flora published in a recent number of The Naturalist. The
joint visit of the Union and the British Ecological Society to the moors

1919 Jan. 1.

42 Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union: Annual Report , 1918.

around Huddersfield and Settle, in August, should stimulate interest in
Vegetation Survey.

Bryology. — Mr. W. Ingham, B.A., writes': — Since the last report the
Bryological Committee has lost one of its oldest and most valued members
in Matthew B. Slater. The section has been represented at all the Union's
excursions and some interesting plants have been seen and reported, such
as Tetraplodon Wormskjoldii Lindb., at Widdy Bank, and Dicranum
undulatum Ehrh., at Market Weighton. Mr. W. Ingham reports the follow-
ing : — Sphagnum fimbriatum var. intermedium forma densum (Strensall
Common, first British record) ; var. laxifolium (Arncliffe Wood) ; 5.

Girgensohnii var. stachyodes (Wheeldale Beck) ; S. compactum var. isophylla
(Sandburn Wood, near York) ; and S. auriculatum var. tenellum (moor
above Ravenscar, first British record. Mr. Burrell rediscovered the very
rare Hepatic Scapania Bartlingii in Bolton Woods.

Mycology. — Mr. A. E. Peck writes : — The Fungus Foray of the year
was held at Selby from September 7th to September 12th, being a joint
meeting with the British Mycological Society. A report will probably
appear in The Naturalist. At this meeting Messrs. Wm. Bellerby (York)
and F. A. Mason (Leeds) were elected to the Mycological Committee of
the Union, and Messrs. R. Fowler Jones, Thos. Smith and A. E. Peck were
elected members of the British Mycological Society. The majority of
our Committee are now members of the B.M.S., and our Chairman, Dr.
Wager, has been elected its President for the ensuing year.

GEOLOGICAL SECTION.

Mr. John Holmes reports The section has been officially represented
at three of the summer excursions. At Market Weighton a portion of
the Wold Country was explored. The Crossbills excursion extended our
knowledge of the beds exposed by the Lothersdale anticlinal. Members of
the section attended the joint excursion with the British Ecological Society
and explained the geology of the places visited. The fossiliferous shales
in the Millstone Grit of Keasden Beck also received attention.

O

British Association. — Mr. T. Sheppard, M.Sc., reports : — I had the
honour of representing the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union at the Conference
of Delegates of the British Association in London, in July, and took part
in a discussion on popularising the work of our scientific societies. A
report of the Conference appeared in The Naturalist for August, pp. 247-248.

Soppitt Memorial Library. — The following contributions have been
received during the year : — Transactions of the North Staffordshire Field
Club, Vol. LIL, with Annual Report for 1917-18 ; Annual Report of the
Huddersfield Naturalist, Photographic and Antiquarian Society, 1917-18.
The Improvement of Hill Pasture, by Dr. W. G. Smith, and Pitty Hollow,
W'irksworth, a Botanical Study, by Mr. Thomas Gibbs.

The Naturalist has been regularly published, and its high standard
of excellence maintained. This is particularly satisfactory, seeing that
so many scientific journals have ceased publication on account of the
present conditions. The thanks of the Union are given to Mr. Thomas
Sheppard, M.Sc., for supplying the blocks in illustration of some of his
various contributions entirely free of cost.

The Presidency has been offered to and accepted by Dr. W. G. Smith,
B.Sc. The Union wishes to record its indebtedness to the retiring
President, Prof. W. Garstang, M.A., D.Sc., F.Z.S.

Financial Statement. — The following is the Hon. Treasurer's (Mr,.
Edwin Hawkesworth) Statement of Receipts and Payments : —

Naturalist,

Yorkshire Naturalists' Union : Annual Report, 1918.

43

STATEMENT OF INCOME AND EXPENDITURE,

12 months to November 26, 1918.

INCOME.

EXPENDITURE.

£

s.

d.

£ s.

d.

£

d-

Members’ Annual

Expenses of Meetings

7

3

8

Subscriptions, arrears

7

13

6

Printing and Stationery (General A/c)

24

9

6

„ , t ,

1918

65

7

6

Postages, etc. (Hon. Secretaries A/c)

10

2

10

n ■ »

1919

1

2

6

Clerkage, „ ,,

10

0

0

i

74 3

6

Printing, Stationery (Hon. Treas. A/c

) 2

5

9

Life Members ’ Subscriptions ( contra )

14 14

0

Postages, etc. , ,,

1

11

3

Levies from Associated

Bank Commission

0

4

8

Societies,

arrears

0

18

9

Publications :■ — •

1918

7

9

7

Annual Report. 1917 ... 10 19

6

8 8

4

, (est.) 1918 14 0

0

24 19

6

Less — Provisions in A/cs

for 1917 9 0

0

—

—

15

19

6

£

s.

d.

£ s.

d.

N ATURALIST ’ : —

‘ Naturalist ’ : —

Subscriptions,

arrears

9

12

0

Members’ Copies ... 104 3

2

P |

1918

81

7

0

Exchanges ... ... 3 16

6

1919

1

10

0

Editor’s Postages etc. ... 8 0

10

92 9

0

Extra pages 6 18

0

Sales of ‘ Transactions ’

0 2

6

Binding 2 2

0

Bank Interest

3 4

1

Extra Postage ... 48

9

—

- —

129

9

3

Balance, being excess of Expenditure

Life Members’ A/c ( contra )

14 14

0

over Income

22 19

0

£216 0

5

£216

0

5

BALANCE SHEET, November 26, 1918.

LIABILITIES.

Amounts owing by Union —

'Naturalist’

51

14

2

Anniial Report, 1918 (estimate)

14

0

0

Subscriptions received in advance ...
Life Members’ A/c

2

12

13

6

89

0

‘ Hey’ Legacy A/c

20

0

0

Balance, being excess of Assets over
Liabilities

68

12

5

£246 12 1

q

ASSETS.

£ s. d. £ s. d.

Cash at Bank 136 9 0

Cash in hands of Hon. Secs. 5 6 8

Cash in hands of Hon. Treas. 2 6 5

144 2 1

War Savings Certificates for £100 (Feb.

12th, 1917) cost £77 10s. ; present

value, say ... ... 82 10 0

Subscriptions in arrears ... 24 7 6

Written off as unrealisable 4 7 6

• 20 0 0

£246 12 1

E. HAWKESWORTH,
Hon. Treisurer.

19^9 Jan. I.

44

3n fTDemoriam.

RICHARD BARNES.

Yorkshire bryologists have had many losses of late years
and death has now removed another link with the great
workers of a past generation. Richard Barnes was the son of
Thomas Barnes, of The Nurseries, Thirsk, and was born

August 6th, 1851. His interest in botanical pursuits, as a youth
was developed by rambles with the late William Foggitt.

After a five years’ apprenticeship with his father, he went
to the Royal Gardens, through the influence of Mr. J. G. Baker,
spending one year at the Horticultural Gardens, Chiswick, and
two years at Kew. The result of his work would have secured
him recommendation for an appointment from there but he
thought it his duty to return to Thirsk. At his father’s death
he obtained an appointment as Curator at the Saltburn Gardens,
a post he retained for sixteen years ; he then established a
business at Harrogate, where he spent the remainder of his life. .

It was at Kew that his attention was first directed to the

Naturalist,

In Memoriam: Richard Barnes.

45

study of bryology, by his friend and colleague, the late F. W.
Burbrjdge, afterwards Curator of the Botanical Gardens,
Dublin ; his interest and enthusiasm in this study never lagged,
Prof. Denny, of Firth College, Sheffield, encouraged and helped
him in the preparation of microscopic mounts, a work in which
he attained extraordinary technique.

The extent of his held work is shown in the numerous
localities investigated by him and cited by Dr. Braithwaite
(whom he always spoke of as the old Doctor, and whose friend-
ship he greatly valued), in the British Moss Flora ; by M. B.
Slater, in the second edition of Baker’s ‘ North Yorkshire/
and in lists of species in The Naturalist from Nidderdale,
Cleveland, and other North Yorkshire and Durham districts.
Among the most striking discoveries were Bryum maratlii ana
B. calophyllum on Coatham marshes, and later Barbula glauca
near Richmond, this having been previously detected only in
Sussex. To the Bryological Section of the Union his death is
a great loss ; to the younger generation his knowledge of minute
mosses and hepatics in the field was a constant wonder, and his
enthusiasm over fresh discoveries quite infectious ; when
microscopes were brought out and his mounts exhibited it
seemed hardly credible that such minute and fine work and
dissections could have been done by any but the delicate fingers
of youth, at this work he was unequalled ; he made a very
careful study and had a wide knowledge of the peristomes of
mosses, especially the genus Bryum. This work of his should
be a national possession available for bryologists in the future.
It is not given to many to form such warm friendships as Barnes
did, the younger generation loved him and looked on him as a
father on bryological rambles ; his leadership at the proposed
meeting next July, at Pateley Bridge, a district with which
he had an intimate acquaintance, will be sadly missed.

He died at Harrogate, on November 7th, from heart failure,
following the premature report of the armistice. He was
buried at Harlow Cemetery, the Bryological Section being
represented by Mr. W. H. Burrell, of Leeds. — C.A.C.

: o :

Dr. R. F. Scharff has an interesting article on ‘ The Irish Red Deer/ in
The Irish Naturalist for October-November. In the same issue Mr. R. L.
Praeger writes on ‘ Derc-Ferna, the Cave of Dunmore.'

Part IX. of Annie C. Jackson’s paper on ‘ The Moults and Sequences
of Plumages of the British Birds ’ appears in British Birds for December ;
there is the Report on ‘ Recovery of marked Birds,’ and the usual crop of
suspicious aliens from Sussex.

The New Phytologist for ‘ October and November ’ contains a paper
' On the Nature of Fertilization and Sex,’ by W. N. Jones ; three notes on
‘ The Reconstruction of Elementary Botanical Teaching,’ by J. Small,
M. C. Rayner and M. C. Stopes ; and ‘ The Origin and Development of
the Compositae,’ Chapter IX. ; ‘ Fruit Dispersal,’ by J. Small.

11)19 Jan. 1.

46 FIELD NOTES.

ENTOMOLOGY .

Lancashire and Cheshire Entomology. — At a recent!
meeting of the Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society,!
Mr. W. Mansbridge brought his series of Peronea crisjtamn
comprising most of the named forms and some un-named.;
He also showed the varieties bred this season, these including;
varieties nigrana, leucopheana, radian a, -d ivisana , centw-iiiio.na
and autumnana, and stated that nigrana was the most frequent,:
the others being only of rare occurrence. Mr. W. A. Tyerman
showed bred series of Hyponomeuta euonymellus , and captured;
Semioscopus phryganeila from localities in the Liverpool district.
Mr. S. P. Doudney, Odontopera bidentata from Rainhill and Dela-
mere, also the race of Liparis similis with brown anal tuft,
from Huyton. Mr. H. M. Haliett exhibited the pentatomid
bug, Acanthosoma haemnrrhoidalis, usually considered to be
attached to the birch, but these had been captured a long way
from the nearest birch. Mr. R. Wilding had a large number
of Coleoptera from Cartmel, and called attention to the following
as being new to the Lancashire and Cheshire list, viz. : —
Philonthus lucens, Silpha nigrita and Scaphidium /\-waculatrm ;;
he further included in his exhibit a very fine series of varieties.,
of Rhagium bifasciatum from the same locality. — W. Mansbridge;
Hon. Sec.

— o : —

BOTANY.

Goody era repens near Carlisle.— For the last two years
I have been aware of a station for this charming little Orchid
within four miles of this city, where the plant is so flourishing1
that it must have been established there for a long time. The:
habitat is the usual one for the species — a plantation of Scots
pine, and although there is a school within a stone’s throw,
and the plantation is more or less open to the footpath which
borders it, numerous other interesting plants such as Pyrola
minor, Sanicula europaea, Erythraea Centaurinm , etc., contrive to1
flourish. A greater danger to the station lies in the fact that1
the plantation consists of splendid] y grown trees, ready for1
the axe, which in these days is showing so little mercy to our
woodlands, and whether the Orchid would survive the destruc-
tion of its natural association with the pine is perhaps open to
doubt. On the other side of the footpath is another plantation,
but consisting of birch and a little oak, and G. repens is not
present there. G. repens is not mentioned by Hodgson in the
‘ Flora of Cumberland,' although in Baker’s ‘ Flora of the'
English Lake District,’ published thirteen years earlier, it is
recorded from Armathwaite, which is, of course, in Cumberland,
and I know it has been found there again within the last few
years, and also at Corby, another station in the Eden valley.—,
F. H. Day, Carlisle, November 24th, 1918.

Naturalist,

47

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE CAUSES OF VARIETIES IN BUTTERFLIES.

In reply to Mr. Porritt ( The Naturalist, p. 359, 1918), it seemed to me
far more likely that the caterpillars of those P. phlaeas fed comparatively
near to each other (in Devon or Cornwall, the field being near the county
boundary) than that they fed in localities wide apart (such as one in the
above counties, the other in the north or east of England or in the mainland
of Europe). If the former, I do not see that climatic conditions and
temperature would cause the difference in coloration. On the other hand,
is there any scientific objection to the view that in Britain in this species
dark varieties are the results of the caterpillar feeding mostly on one plant,
and light varieties the result of feeding mostly on another plant ? The
average normal coloration can be explained as being the result of a mixed
food supply on several plants, in which those mentioned in the former
sentence would counteract each other. If climatic conditions (temperature,
etc.) cause all the varieties in butterflies and moths (as sometimes claimed),
how is it that some species do not vary much, while others seem to vary
in most countries, if not all ? For instance, Mr. J. H. Leech, ‘ On the
Lepidoptera of Japan and Corea,’ Proc. Zool. Soc., 1887, states that
P. phlaeas is ‘ an extremely variable species both in size and colour and
markings ; during the summer the typical form gives way entirely to var.
eleus ; a few intermediate forms occur ’ (p. 414), ‘ darker in some localities'
than in others.’ It seems to me exceedingly difficult to believe that
climatic conditions of those parts are completely responsible for these
differences just stated. Vanessa c-albumjis also stated ' as variable in
Japan as in Europe’ (p. 420). So far as I am aware, the climatic conditions
of Japan are not exactly like those of England or South of France ; but in
these two latter localities, the species varies considerably in the same sum-
mer. On the other hand, Vanessa io ‘ does not vary in the least from
European specimens ’ (p. 421). It seems to me that some species, as the
first two, will vary whatever climatic conditions they are exposed to. Take
again Colias edusa, and its variety helice. It seems a complete impossibility
for the climatic conditions of Devon to form the coloration of the typical
specimens and at the same time that of the variety, which flies side by
side with the others, as I found in 1892-3. Only one helice was seen (and
caught), whereas the typical coloration was very plentiful. Now if the
climatic conditions picked out that one specimen why did they not also pick
out the others ? Here again it seems reasonable to think that this variety
is due to the caterpillars feeding mostly on one Jplant. According to
Leech, besides the typical form of Colias hyale in Japan, there are also four
varieties ‘ all together in one spot ’ (p. 409). I find it impossible to
believe that all these are the result of climatic conditions.— F. D. Welch.

Everyone who has bred lepidoptera at all extensively fom the egg knows
that the food-plant has no influence whatever on the imagines. The theory
has been tested over and over again during the past fifty years by rearing
separated lots of larvae from the same batch of eggs, on totally different
food-plants, without any result so far as variation is concerned. On the
other hand, Mr. F. Merrifield, many years ago, proved conclusively that
temperature has a great deal to do with variation ; and the full details of
his experiments may be read in the Transactions of the Entomological Society
of London. But perhaps the most potent cause of variation is Heredity,
either from the parents or from more remote ancestors. The former is
so well-known that an experienced lepidopterist knows when pairing
together the different forms of species, pretty well what the produce will
be. Of the latter I had a striking instance last year. Several years ago,
my strain of the variety vcvrleyata of Abraxas grossulariata having run out,
and not having reared any varleyata from wild larvae that year, but having
bred four or five wild specimens of the black-and-white form which is known

1919 Jan. 1.

48

Correspondence.

to produce varleyata, I paired a couple of them, with the result of getting
twenty-five per cent, of varleyata in the next generation. The two forms I
paired together for several years, but never got anything different from the
two forms of the parents until last year, when a very striking asymetrical
specimen cropped out from one of the broods. In the specimen both the
left forewings were similar to the black-and-white parent, but the right
side forewings were of a totally different type of the moth, having an un-
usually broad yellow band outside the black median band in the upper
wing, and in the hind wing the markings and distribution of the spots
were also totally different. Nothing of the character had ever appeared
in any of the large number of moths I had bred from the strain up to that
time, although the deep yellow colour, etc., must have been inherent
during the several years I had bred them, and I know not for how many
years in the wild ancestors. Perhaps a still more striking instance occurred
to Mr. L. W. Newman, of Bexley, in Kent. Mr. Newman, years ago,
obtained from South-west Yorkshire a batch of eggs from a cross between
the type of A . grossulariata and the var. varleyata, from which in the second
generation he reared the usual Mendelian proportion of 25 per cent, of
varleyata. These he bred together with the type specimens, but in a year or
two entirely lost, as he believed, the strain. But, having no use for the
many type specimens he bred from the strain, he had been in the habit of
turning them out on to a Euonymus hedge close to the door of his house
(a hedge I know well), and each spring collecting the larvae from the hedge
on the chance of breeding varieties. From them five years afterwards, but
not in a single instance previously, he tells us, varleyata turned up in num-
bers ! That they were the produce of the original Yorkshire moths there
is no doubt, as this variety does not occur at all anywhere in that part of
England.; — G.T.P.

In future The Scottish Naturalist is to appear bi-monthly, at 7/6 per
annum.

Mr. N. Colgan writes on the Reproduction of Helix aspersa in The
Irish Naturalist for December.

Mr. J. Ritchie has some ' Notes on the Food of some Wild Birds ’ in
The Scottish Naturalist for November.

The annual subscription to the Entomologist’ s Monthly Magazine for
1919 is 9s., and to The Entomologist 12s.

Dr. A. Smith Woodward, of the Geological Department of the British
Museum, has been awarded the Cuvier prize by the French Academy of
Sciences.

An inspiring article on ‘ War and Peace,' in which the part played by
science in connexion with the war is well drawn, appears in Nature,
No. 2559.

We regret to learn of the death, of Mrs. R. F. Scharff. She took a
keen interest in The Irish Naturalist, and in 1916 issued an Author-Index to
the twenty-five volumes then issued.

‘ Observations on the Local Variation of Clausilia bidentata,’ by Prof.
A. E. Boycott ; and ‘ Field Notes on H elicodonta obvoluta ,’ by H. Beetson,
appear in the Journal of Conchology for January.

Mr. J. F. Musham, Hon. Secretary of the Selby Scientific Society has
been elected Vice-President of the Lincolnshire Naturalists’ Union, ' a
position carrying with it the Presidentship for 1920.’

Dr. W. E. Collinge has a paper in The Scottish Naturalist for December
on ‘ The Distribution of Woodlice in Scotland ’ ; and Mr. W. Denison
Roebuck writes on ‘ The Mollusca Fauna of the Outer Hebrides. We
notice that Dr. Collinge admits only those records which he has personally
examined ; a habit other writers are contracting, and which we hardly
consider to be either scientifically desirable nor complimentary to previous
workers, many of whom were quite reliable.

: o :

Naturalist,

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A Description of the North Yorkshire Moors
together with Essays and Tales,

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248 pages , size 8f by 6| inches, and 12 Jull-page plates on Art Paper,
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The district covered by the North Yorkshire Moors is oneof the most interesting'
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Part I. serves as a guide to the visitor, and brings to his notice the objects of
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Part II, forms a series of Essays, and, besides other subjects, deals with the
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Part III. consists of a number of stories which further describe the character-
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The Moorlands of
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Their Natural History and Origin.

By FRANK ELGEE, F.G.S.

177 pages Dehiy Svo, Cloth Boards, Gilt Top, with two large coloured maps ,
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This work is the first of its kind in the English language, and deals not only
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FEB. 1919,

No. 745

(No, 519 of ourrent tor! to.

A MONTHLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF

NATURAL HISTORY FOR THE NORTH OF ENGLAND,

EDITED BV

T. SHEPPARD, M.Sc., F.Q.S., F.R.Q.S., F.S.A.

The Museums, Hull ;

AND

T. W. WOODHEAD, Ph.D., M.Sc., F.L.S.,

Technical College, Huddersfield.

WITH THE ASSISTANCE AS REFEREES IN SPECIAL DEPARTMENTS OF

J. GILBERT BAKER, P.R.S. P.L.S., GEO. T. PORRITT, F.L.S., P.E.S.,
Prof. P. P. KENDALL, M.Sc., P.G.S., JOHN W. TAYLOR, M.Sc.,

RILEY FORTUNE, P.Z.S.

Contents : —

Notes and Comments:— A Wet Month; Terrestrial Acari ; Yorkshire Specimens; An
Entomological Contortionist ; British Whales; Popularising Science; Leeds War
Memorial ; Fossil Earthquakes ; Old River Channels ; Earthquake Phenomena ; ‘ Lurch-
ing ’ ; ‘ Rock-Riders ' in Cumberland ; Sandstone Dykes ; Age of Dykes ; Durham Glacial
Beds; Loess; A Yorkshire Comparison ; Carboniferous of Yorkshire ; Goniatite Zones... 49-56

Fossils of the Holderness Basement Clays (illustrated)— A Ifred Bell 57.59

The Hearing Organs of Fishes (illustrated)— Joseph Smith, M.R.I.A 60-62

The Apterygota of Yorkshire and Derbyshire (illustrated)— James Meikls Brown,

B.Sc,, F.L.S., F.C.S ,4 63-66

The Common Banded Snail: a Study in Variation — A.E Trueman, D.Sc., F.G.S. ... 67-69

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49

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

A WET MONTH.

Nature informs us that ' According to the monthly weather
report for September, issued by the Meteorological Office,
the weather was abnormally wet over the British Isles gener-
ally. In the West Riding of Yorkshire and in Lincolnshire,
where the records extend over a period of more than fifty
years, it was not only the wettest September, but wetter than
any calendar month of the year. In many places rain fell
every day/

TERRESTRIAL ACARI.

The Rev. J. E. Hull has favoured us with a reprint of the
portion of his ‘ Terrestrial Acari of the Tyne Province ’ dealing
with the Thrombidiidse and Gamasidae. This is a far more
important contribution to our knowledge of our British Acari
than its local title suggests, for it includes keys of the genera
and descriptions of all the species on record for the British
Isles, and three plates of descriptions of new species. The
author has made use of the Dr. George collection of 41
mounted specimens (21 British species) of Thrombididse in the
Hull Museum, and has been assisted with material by several
Yorkshire workers.

YORKSHIRE SPECIMENS.

The Yorkshire references are therefore numerous, including
the following species : — Thrombidiidse : Allothrombium fuligin-
osum Herm., Sericothrombium brevimanum Berl. ( = Trombidium
mushami Geo.), 5. schlarlatinum Berl., Enemothrombium clavatum
Geo., E. pexatum K., E. bullatum Geo., Georgia ramosa Geo.
(= Ottonia sheppardii Geo.), Microtkrombidium pusillum Herm.,
Podothrombium filipes K., Johnstoniana eximia Berl., J. errans
Johnston, Eothrombium echinatum Berk, Smaridia ampulligera
Berk, Rhyncholophus phalangioides De Geer, R. pachypus sp. nov.,
Belaustium miniatum Herm., Achorolophus globiger Berk, A. nor-
vegicus S. Thor., A. falconerii sp.nov., Cyta latirostris Herm., Bdella
pallipes L. Koch. Gamasidae : Trachyuropoda coccinea Mich.,
U odinychus janetii Berk, Episeius italicus Berk, Macrocheles
superbus sp. nov., M. longispinosus Kr., Cyrtolaelaps nemorensis K.,
C. transisalce, Oud., C. cervus Kr., Pergamasus coniger Hull, P.
runcatellus Berk, Gamasus fimetorum Berk, G. anglicus sp. nov.

AN ENTOMOLOGICAL CONTORTIONIST.

In a recent number of Nature (p. 366), a writer describes
how he caught two specimens of a rare butterfly. He says 1
‘ These were captured without a net, by what I imagine is a
well-known method. When the butterfly alighted I approached
it from behind, keeping as well out of the range of its eyes as.
possible, and moving very slowly. When within arm’s reach the
hand was slowly stretched out, keeping it as low as possible.

1919 Feb 1

D

50

Notes and Comments.

and behind the insect Now in the case of the two

butterflies referred to, one was picked off a leaf of a bush, and
the other had settled on my shoulder/ We would have
given something to have seen the writer very slowly stalking
the latter butterfly from behind, and when at arm’s length,
stretching his arm out and keeping it as low as possible and
behind the insect !

BRITISH WHALES.

The British Museum (Natural History) has issued Dr. S.
F. Harmer’s Fifth Report on Cetacea stranded on the British
Coasts (2/6) ; the present dealing with the year 1917 records.
Among the more noteworthy are a white-sided Dolphin (Lag-
enorhynchus acutus) from Lincolnshire, a sperm whale (Caithness) ;
a Cuvier’s whale (Co. Clare) ; a Risso’s Grampus (Devon), and
a Rudolph’s Rorqual from the Scillies. There is a special
report dealing with the occurrence of the Bottle-nosed Whale
in British waters. From the excellent map which accompanies
the report it would seem that, besides the Lincolnshire record
already referred to, the other northern-county records in
1917 were a white-beaked dolphin (Humber) ; two porpoises
(Lines.) ; and a Bottle-nosed Dolphin (Lancs.).

POPULARISING SCIENCE.

Mr. Wilfred Mark Webb, the Secretary of the Selborne
Society, is appealing to the Secretaries of various provincial
societies to solicit the aid of the local members of Parliament
‘ to bring into existence joint scientific committees throughout
the country with a view to popularising science, and to offering
advice to local and other authorities.’ This is the Selborne
Society’s scheme, and if carried out may do good, though
fortunately, in Yorkshire, as with the south-eastern counties,
a strong union of the local scientific societies is already carrying
out the suggestion made by the Selborne Society.

LEEDS WAR MEMORIAL.

‘ Subscriber,’ writing to the Yorkshire Post recently, under
the above heading, makes some extraordinary suggestions in-
reference to what he considers should be the future of the
Leeds Literary and Philosophical Society. He seems to wish
it to be transformed into a species of superior Cafe. If he
may be taken as a type of the members or owners of the
Society, the sooner the Society changes its name to ‘ The Leeds
Public House and Refreshment Company ’ the better. There
may or may not be a pressing need for a meeting ground ‘ for
people of larger means,’ where afternoon teas, music, cards,
luncheons, dinners, etc., may be provided, but such an In-
stitution hardly comes within the scope of a Literary and
Philosophical Society. If the present members consider that
the Society’s work should be on such lines the Corporation

Naturalist,

Notes and Comments .

5i

should take charge of its Museum quickly. Without dis-
paraging in any way the good work Mr. Crowther is doing, it
would be interesting to know in what way the Leeds Museum
is ‘ the second in importance in the whole country. *

FOSSIL EARTHQUAKES.

At a recent meeting of the Geological Society of London,
Prof. P. F. Kendall read a paper on ‘ Wash-outs in Coal Seams
and the Effects of Contemporary Earthquakes/ A report
appeared in The Yorkshire Observer from which we gather that
Professor Kendall pointed out that there occur in all Yorkshire
coalfields occasional interruptions of the coal seam of a character
which constitute a peculiar disappointment to mining engineers,
since they involve the absence from within the area of a lease
sometimes of millions of tons of coal which might reasonably
have been assumed to have been present. These interruptions
offered problems fairly to be considered, both in a scientific
and an economic aspect, among the most important remaining
unsolved in Coal Measure geology. A large class of such
interruptions were correctly interpreted by mining engineers
as due to river action. The coal, accumulated not as mere
drifted material but as a species of peat which grew on the
spot on which the seam was now found, under conditions
alluvial if not actually deltaic, and certainly undergoing slow
depression. Through such an alluvial swamp rivers would
meander, cutting courses for themselves. From time to time,
under the influence of floods, new courses would be torn out
in the accumulated peat and other materials. These meanders
and flood channels, would in turn be abandoned, and would
become filled with sand or mud, or they would remain as
stagnant back-waters accumulating a vegetable mud, which *
would become cannel.

OLD RIVER CHANNELS.

Many such river channels could be identified. One existed
on the Top Hard or Barnsley Bed Coal on either side and
doubtless beneath the town of Worksop. An elaborate
network of channels existed in the Haigh Moor seam in the
district between Wakefield nd Kippax on the north-west, and
Ackworth and Pontefract on the south-east. Several other
seams also .showed examples, which had been less perfectly
explored. Associated with the evidences of such river-channels
in the coal seams were other disturbances of a different type,
though commonly miscalled by the miners * wash-outs/ Only
one agency — namely, earthquakes — was capable of producing
such phenomena as those presented, and Professor Kendall
stated his conviction that in Coal Measure times earthquakes
had an importance which has never hitherto been suspected.
Earthquakes are in th6se days especially frequent in alluvial

1919 Feb. 1

52

Notes and Comments .

tracts such as was the area in which the vegetable materials
of the coal seam$ were accumulated, and their effects are in
such localities especially impressive, being proportional to the
mobility of the materials through which the seismic impulse is
propagated. In the coal measures the peat -beds were indi-
vidually on a scale vastly greater both in thickness and area
than are the peats in any area of the modern world where
earthquake phenomena have been studied. Therefore it
might reasonably be supposed that some of the effects of
earthquakes must, in Coal Measure times, have been of a
magnitude proportionately greater than the effects produced
in the areas of modern earthquakes.

EARTHQUAKE PHENOMENA.

The phenomena presented by the coal seams and the
modern earthquake areas were exactly similar. The formation
of permanent and transient ridges, troughs, and fissures, the
lurching out of place of belts of the superficial strata, great
displacements, due to the subterranean flow of quicksand, and
traces of the caving-in of river banks had all been recognised
by Professor Kendall in coal seams in the Midland Coalfield,
in Lancashire, and elsewhere, and many examples from York-
shire and Nottinghamshire were adduced and described. A
striking abnormality in coal seams consisted in the intrusion
into coal of shapeless masses of sandstone. These were inter-
preted as due to the invasion into the searn of sands rendered
mobile by excess of water, and moving under the impulse of
earthquake waves.

PUZZLES FOR MINING MEN. -

The elastic compression of an earthquake Wave would tend
to push forward the water contained in a peat-bed enclosed
beneath a cover of laminated clay or mud. Where this cover
was impenetrable # the effect would be transient ; where the
tenacity of the cover could be overcome, water would be ejected
from the peat. If this passed into a sandbed a quite small
excess of water beyond the bare quantity required to fill the
interspaces of the grains would be sufficient to convert the
sand into fluid quicksand, and this, responding to the earth-
quake, would in turn be extravasted into adjacent beds or
expelled to the surface as ‘ sand-blows ’ — the sort of geyser-like
eruptions of sand and water which were invariable accom-
paniments of earthquakes in alluvial areas. Of the effects of
the extravasation of sands many notable and weird examples
which had puzzled mining engineers — notably great rolls some
30 ft. high at Altofts, near Leeds, and Ackton Hall pits — were
described. Peculiar masses, which Professor Kendall inter-
preted as casts of the orifices through which sand-blows had
operated, existed in hundreds in the Yorkshire and Notting-

Naturalist,

Notes and Comments. 53

hamshire pits, but, curiously, had never been described by the
geologist. Several specimens were exhibited by the lecturer;

'lurching/

‘ Lurching ’ out of place of the superficial strata occurred
on a considerable scale in the Coal Measure earthquakes as in
the modern earthquakes. The ancient evidence was found in
the gaps often miscalled ‘ wash-outs/ in respect to which the
local loss of coal was compensated for by swellings or folds of
the seams, or by the over-riding of the seam by great flakes of
coal still retaining the characteristics of the seam. Much
evidence existed to show that these over-ridings were not
moved by any tectonic or mountain-building stress within the
earth’s crust, and they were only explicable on the supposition
that a mass of unconsolidated or but partly consolidated peat-
stuff or lignite was projected forward by its own inertia in a
medium of sand which, through excess of water and gases/had
only such resisting power as belongs to a fluid.

‘ROCK-RIDERS’ IN CUMBERLAND.

Dr. A. Gilligan followed Prof. Kendall’s address with a ;
paper ‘ On Sandstone Dykes or Rock-Riders in the Cumberland
Coalfield.' The occurrence of these sandstone dykes was
brought to his notice when engaged in investigations into the
interruptions in the coal-seams of this area. They have been
encountered at various times in pits distributed all over the
Coalfield ; but those more particularly examined were met with
in the workings of the Bannock Band and Main Band Seams
at Ladysmith Pit, one and three-quarter miles south of Welling-
ton Pit, Whitehaven. The pit-shaft is 1080 feet deep, and has,
been sunk through the St. Bees Sandstone, Gypsiferous Marls,
Permian, and Whitehaven Sandstone to the productive Lower
Coal Measures. Splendid cliff-sections of the Whitehaven
Sandstone and succeeding beds, which dip southwards, can be
seen in a traverse of the shore from Whitehaven southwards
round Saltom Bay. The coal-workings have been opened up
south of the shaft, and therefore pass under St. Bees Head.

SANDSTONE DYKES.

The dykes certainly pass through the Bannock Band and
Main Band Seams and the intervening measures, which are
about 54 feet thick ; but their full vertical extent has not been
dtermined. Their horizontal extent is variable : the longest
has been traced for more than a mile. They all run practically
parallel one to the other in a direction approximately north-
north-west and south-south-east. The inclination of the same,
dyke is not constant, but the greatest deviation from the
vertical was io° south-westwards, and in general the amount
was very small. In only one case was a dyke found associated
with a small fault, the displacement being 2J feet, and everu

1919 Feb. I

54

Notes and Comments.

this died out in a short distance. A noticeable feature was the
presence of slickensiding, approximately horizontal, on the
sandstone surface. Flutings, simulating ripple-marks, were
present on the sides of the sand-stone forming the dyke.

AGE OF DYKES.

An examination of the cliff-sections of Saltom Bay, where
dykes of the same series as those at Ladysmith Pit should
emerge, shows that they are not present in the Whitehaven
Sandstone and succeeding beds. The inference was, therefore,
drawn that they were of pre- Whitehaven Sandstone Age.
The probable conditions which obtained at the time of the
formation of the fissures and their infilling were as follows : —
The coal-seams through which the dykes pass had been com-
pressed to their present thickness, while they and the associated
measures were sufficiently consolidated to take a more or less
clean fracture. The sea in which the deltaic material of the
Whitehaven Sandstone was accumulating covered the area.
Fractures were produced by earthquake disturbances set up by
movement along one of the north-north-west and south-south-
east faults, and the sediment on the sea-floor ran in and sealed
them up.

DURHAM GLACIAL BEDS.

At a recent meeting of the Geological Society of London,
Mr. C. T. Trechmann read a paper ‘ On a Bed of Interglacial
Loess and some Pre-Glacial Fresh- water Clays of the Durham
Coast.’ He pointed out that a few years ago he described
a bed of Scandinavian drift that was found filling up
a small pre-Glacial valley-like depression at Warren-House
Gill on the Durham coast. This section and others north and
south of it have been kept under observation at different
times, and several new features have been noticed as the high
tides and other agencies exposed parts of the coast. Towards
the southern end of the old pre-Glacial valley at Warren-House
Gill a bed of material, varying from 4 to 12 feet in thickness,
was found overlying the Magnesian Limestone and also the
Scandinavian drift. This material has been carefully examined
chemically and microscopically, and proves to be identical
in chemical and physical characters with a sample of the true
Continental loess. It is light brown or fawn in colour, very
porous and. extremely finely divided, and is devoid of plasticity.
Towards the base, where it has not been disturbed since it
was laid down, it contains a number of rounded and elongated,
often very hard, calcareous concretions. In the cliff-section
it shows little or no trace of bedding, but tends to break down
along vertical clefts and cracks. It passes upwards into a few
feet of material that consists of loess which has been partly
redeposited by water, and is mixed with sand, gravel, and
other material derived from the Scandinavian drift.

Naturalist,

Notes and Comments .

55

LCESS.

The bed of loess and redeposited loess-like drift has suffered
much decalcification and weathering ; near its surface there
was a large boulder of Norwegian titaniferous syenite which
was superficially rotted, and decomposed to a considerable
depth. Smaller granitic erratics in the redeposited loess are
generally very much rotted. The limestone rubble and stones
beneath the loess are strongly calcreted, apparently by material
leached out of the loess. In a fissure beneath the loess some
mammalian bones were collected, including astragali of two
species of Cervus. It is argued that the formation and sub-
sequent decalcification of the loess deposit lying upon the
Scandinavian drift indicates an Interglacial lapse of consid-
erable duration, as great as that which Continental geologists
call an Interglacial Period, before the overlying English and
Scottish drift was deposited.

A YORKSHIRE COMPARISON.

The President (Mr. G. W. Lamplugh) said that the author
was to be congratulated upon a notable addition to our scanty
list of fossiliferous pre-Glacial or early-Glacial deposits in
Britain. That the fossils were found between tide-marks is
in keeping with the usual condition on the East Coast, as in this
position, where the deposits are permanently saturated, the
fossils are more likely to be preserved than at higher levels
where they are subjected to the circulation of ground-water,
The deposit described as loess seemed hardly to deserve the
prominence ascribed to it by the author. The heterogeneous
drift-material of the Yorkshire coast included many limited
local deposits of peculiar composition, doubtless due to the
complex conditions at or near the fluctuating ice-border, and
these were particularly' numerous and variable in Holderness
between the ‘ Basement Clay/ which was the equivalent of the
author’s ‘ Scandinavian drift,’ and the * Purple Clay,’ equiva-
lent to part of his ‘ Main drift.’ But in many places there
was evidence for uninterrupted glacial conditions from the
deposition of the lower boulder-clay to that of the higher.
The significant feature of loess in the typical regions was its
wide extension in homogeneous sheets ; and it seemed hardly
advisable to apply the term specifically to a small isolated
patch such as that described. The author’s attempt at a
general classification of the drifts on the basis of the Durham
sections deserved consideration, but was necessarily of limited
value, like the many previous attempts of this kind. The
speaker’s experience had been that the sharp boundaries
observable among the East-coast drifts in several localities,
though often traceable for some distance, always faded out
sooner or later, and were not confined to any particular horizon.

1919 Feb. L

56

Notes;: and Comments ,

CARBONIFEROUS OF CLITHEROE.

At a recent meeting, of the Geological Society of London,
Drs. Wheelton Hind and A. Wilmore read a paper on ‘ The
Carboniferous Succession of the Clitheroe Province/ The
tectonic structure: of . the province consists of three dissected
parallel anticlinal folds in beds of Carboniferous-Limestone,
Pendleside, and Millstone-Grit age, The general direction of
the axes of these folds is east-north-east and west-south- west.
Dissection has exposed the lower beds of Z, C and S age, as the
tectonic axes and beds of D, P, and Millstone-Grit age occur
on The flanks. The Limestone sequence shows all the. zones
from Z to D. Modiola and Cleistopora phases have not been
exposed, the base of the Carboniferous not being seen. The
Z beds are much thickened, and not so fossiliferous as in
the Bristol Province. C and S beds are, as a rule, well-bedded,
with shales intercalated between, beds of limestone. There
are crinoidal beds of considerable thickness in places, and
shell-breccias are common in S. Zaphrentis omaliusi indicates
an important horizon in Lower C, and -these beds are character-
ized by numerous large gasteropods. Productus humerosus
(sublcevis) marks an equally important horizon in Upper C, as
it does in the Belgian Province. D beds are peculiar in the
western part of the Clitheroe Province, and are largely repre-
sented by shales, mudstone, and thin earthy limestones ; but
in the north and north-east, in the Settle and Burnsall districts,
thick, fossiliferous, obscurely-bedded limestones with a rich
brachiopod and molluscan fauna • occur. The Pendleside
Series is well developed, and practically the whole sequence is
exposed on the north-western flank of Pendle Hill. This series
•can be subdivided into life-zones by the Goniatites.

GONIATITE ZONES.

An important horizon occurs between the Kinderscout and
the Millstone Grit — Sabden Shales — characterized by a rich
fauna with Glyphioceras beyrichianum and Glyphioceras reticulatum.
It is considered probable that the well-known fossiliferous
Hebden-Bridge Beds may be on this horizon rather than in
the Pendleside Series.

Table of Goniatite Zones.

Gastrioceras carbonarium von Bueh.
Gastrioceras carbonarium von Buch.
Gastrioceras listen Martin.
Glyphioceras diadema Bey rich.

( Glyphioceras bilingue Salter.

■j Glyphioceras reticulatum Phillips. '

( Glyphioceras spirale Phillips.

Glyphioceras striatum Phillips.

J Nomismoceras rotiforme Phillips.
[Prolecanites compressus Sowerby. -
Glyphioceras crenistria Phillips.

Naturalist,

% u
T2 <D

CO
' o 10
r/> S

‘ Middle ’ Coal Measures.
Lower Coal Measures.

Upper Millstone Grit.

Sabden Shales.

Shales below Millstone Grit.

Bowland Shales.

Posidonomya becheri
Shales.

Carboniferous Limestone D.

57

FOSSILS OF THE HOLDERNESS BASEMENT CLAYS.
WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES.

ALFRED BELL .

Singe my last communication ( The Naturalist, 1917. P- 95)> I
have, through the kindness of Dr. Marr, Messrs. T, Sheppard,
Headley and other friends, been able to make further additions
to the lists of species then known , and to get identified other
forms imperfectly known, or catalogued. Mr. Headley has
generously allowed me the use of his beautiful collection. The

Fig. 1, — Admete viridula sheppardi sp. nov.

Fig. 2. — Astarte apiculata sp. nov.

Hull Museum has yielded* some new species (Piliscus commodus
and Portlandia arctica and the Cambridge (Sedgwick) Museum
(Leckenby Collection), others. The fishes have been amplified
from lists of Mr. E. T. Newton (Q.J.G.S., 1884, p. 332).

In addition to this list of additions to the ‘ Bridlington
Crag/ fauna, I am able to describe three species as new to
science, viz., Admete. viridula sheppardi, Littorina headleyi
and Astarte apiculata.

The letters a, b, c, indicate the collections in which the
following specimens occur, viz., a, Hull Museum ; b, Sedgwick
Museum, Cambridge ; c, Headley Collection. »

* i.e., produced, but still possesses ! — Ed.

1919 Feb. 1

58 Fossils of the Holderness Basement Clays.

Mollusca.

c Admete tabulata Friele.

c Admete viridula sheppardi, n.sp. A. Bell. (fig. 1).

Shell slender, elongated, apex rounded, blunt, whorls 6-7,
convex, suture deep, mouth arcuated, canal open, columella
bearing 2.3 plaits, surface indented with deeply impressed
spiral striae and slightly elevated costae on the upper part.
L. 15, B. 8 m.m. I have associated this pretty form with
the name of my good friend T. Sheppard, F.G.S., both as a
Bridlington man, and in remembrance of his many acts of
kindness to me personally.
b Buccinum undatum crassum King.
b Cemoria ( Puncturella ) noachina Linne.

Wood {Crag. Moll., pi. xviii., fig. 5) figured a shell, now in
the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge, much larger than the
normal type. It seems to be either a new species or a
very abnormal-sized shell. The usual type occurs in the
same collection from Bridlington.
c Lacuna crassior ? Montagu. A young example.
c Littorina saxatilis Johnstone.

c Littorina headleyi, n. sp. A. Bell. (L. globosa Jeffreys). I
Dr. Jeffreys had already (in Brit. Con. Vol. 3, p. 365), utilised
the name globosa for a variety of L. rudis. The type being
in Mr. Headley’s collection I have renamed it as above.
c Menestho sulcosa Mighels.
c Menestho truncatula Odhner.
c Natica (Lunatia) nana, Moller.
a Piliscus commodus Middendorff.

I find in Mr. Headley’s series another imperfect and ribbed
shell, named by Jeffreys Fusus curtus. The specimen
belongs to the Searlesia group and is not unlike S. lundgreni
Morch, from the Icelandic pliocenes (see F. W. Harmer,
Plioc. Moll., pi. xiv., fig. 10).
c Anomia aculeata Muller.
c Modiola phaseolina Phillips.

c Astarte nana Jeffreys (see ante, p. 96), is referred to by the
late E. A. Smith, to A. castanea Say.

Astarte apiculata (n. sp.) Fig. 2.

This shell is unlike any of the numerous examples of Brid-
lington Astartes that I have seen, and it does not appear
to have been noticed by Dr. Dali ( Proc . U.S. Nat. Museum,
Vol. XXVI., p. 933, 1908), nor by E. A. Smith ‘ On the
genus Astarte’ ( Journ . Conch., Vol. 3, 1882, p. 196). Shell
strong, solid, rather globose, ovately triangular, apex acute,
base rounded, lunule deep, escutcheon long, rather broad,
margin plain, hinge strongly toothed, exterior surface
strongly ribbed with broad interspaces above, passing,
downwards into crowded irregular striae. H. 14, B. 15mm.

Naturalist,

Fossils of the Holderness Basement Clays. 59

a Portlandia arctica Gray.

Cyrtodaria siliqua Lamarck.

Mr. C. F. Trechmann, F.G.S., writes me that he has obtained
an example from the Durham equivalent of the Bridlington
beds.

Spines and plates of a small Echinus, E. norvegicus, are
plentiful, and Mr. Headley’s siftings have yielded Spirorbis
spirorbis , a well marked Cellipora, and some Crinoid ossicles.

Some patches of peaty matter of lacustrine origin occur
amongst the basement clays, apparently the relics of a land
surface older than the purple clay. They have yielded a few
species which have been identified as Bithynia tentaculata,
Helix ( Hygromia ) hispida, H. ( Cepcea ) nemoralis, H. (Frutieola)
striolata, Limnea palustris, L. pereger, Planorbis leucostoma,
Succinea oblonga, S. schleiermacheri var. (all a).

Fishes.

Raja batis (Grey Skate).

Notidanus serratisimus ( microdon E.T.N.) and a lower sym-
physial tooth probably of the same species (A.S.W.).
Lamna ( Odontaspis ) subulata, and other forms not yet identi -
fied.

Belemnostomus. In note put with the specimen, Mr. E. T.
Newton says of two teeth in Mr. Headley’s coll., resembling
those of Belemnostomus.’

Gadus morrhua (Cod), Sewerby.

G. aeglifinus (Haddock).

G. minutus (Power Cod).

G. virens ? (Coal Fish).

G. merlangus (Whiting).

Chrysophris s.p.

Platax woodwardi. Bones of this fish are very common. They
are in the same condition as those in the earlier Crag
deposits.

Fragmentary teeth of Mvliobatis and Carcharodon are
occasionally met with, but are not sufficiently perfect for
determination.

It is an open question whether these are an integral part
of the Bridlington fauna, or derived from other sources, and
incorporated with it. I do not think very much of the theory
of derivation unless supported by incontestable evidence,
believing that many species have and had a longer range in
time than is usually credited.

: o :

Part XVII. of ‘ Yorkshire Type Ammonites,’ by S. S. Buckman,
excellently illustrated by Mr. J. W. Tutcher’s photographs, has recently
appeared, and contains descriptions of Ammonites gregarius, dissimilis,
crassus, parvum, nndicosta and rotundaium.

1919 Feb. 1

6o

THE HEARING ORGANS OF FISHES,

JOSEPH SMITH, MR; LA.

We may in truth attribute the acquisitions in scientific know-
ledge generally to the utilization of natural forces, which
distinguishes the present from the past, and the naturalist
has, from a careful prolonged and profound study in recent
times of natural phenomena, of the exact observation of the
laws governing such phenomena, been enabled to explain many
features which alone by the assistance of skilful appreciation
of the laws of natural forces, he has been able to recognise.
Among the: category of natural phenomena, light and sound
may be recognised as being in the earlier stages of evolution
two of the most inexplicable, since it is difficult to conceive
any laws which govern these phenomena, and which, if so
facto , explain them. In dealing with the theory of sound which
apparently was the minor, it would be inaccurate to separate
it from that of light, since it was during the experiments con-
ducted to ascertain what laws governed the flatter phenomenon,
that by chance revealed those explanatory of the theory of
sound. To Decartes we may attribute much elucidation of
natural phenomena, and he shows that the "shock of the waves
on the eye produce a vision, and from this it was argued by
anology that sonorous impressions are the shocks of waves
on some organ so arranged as to intercept and accept
the undulatory motion. Thus it is seen that both phenomena,
sound and light, are governed by the same laws of mechanics,
but in working these out to completion a serious difficulty
presented itself, disorganizing the analogy for the time being ;
for inasmuch as the waves which produced light travel in a
direct line, those responsible for sound need not necessarily do
so, but may pass round any obstructing object and follow
circuitous routes without sacrificing any of their influential
power. This divided physicists into two camps, one advoqat-
ing the theory of emission, while the other adhered to
the theory of waves ; each section claiming the superiority of
the theory it supported. The results which this , competition
added to natural philosophy, in the new phenomena which were
brought to view, were ample to prove the wave theory, and
Newton originated a series of questions on the subject of light
and sound. Speaking of the conditions of light, he argued that
light was never known to follow crooked passages or bend into
shadows. This may be regarded as the genesis of the theory
of sound, since to this assertion were due the experiments on
light, which eventually substantiated the laws which governed
sound, and which were attained through the investigations of
Young on thin plates. ‘ Presuming the homogenous luminous,
ray is analagous to the sonorous wave produced by a musical

Naturalist,

* Nature, Vol. LX., p. 295.

Smith : The Hearing Organs oj Fishes. 61

instrument everything is explained with extreme simplicity/*
This, however, though correct, was a novel theory, and Young
failed to give any explerimentum crucis to substantiate his
proposition, the result being, that the wave theory again fell
into the vortex of controversy in which the most skilled geom-
eters of the period — Laplace, Biot, Poisson, and Huygens
figured. This controversy was the means of Malus discovering

1. Cod ; 2, Herring ; 3 & 8, Gurnett ; 4, Conger Eel ; 5 Halibut ; 6, River Sole (female)
6a, River Sole (male) ; 7, Haddock; 9, Brill ; 10, Trout ; 11, Whiting ; 12, Bluet Ray ;
13, Great Weevil 14, Fluke (female) ; 15, Pollard; 16, Catfish.

and explaining the phenomenon of polarized light, and shortly
after Fresnel investigated the question of rays and shadows.
He reduced diffraction to an analytical problem, and availing
himself of the two minor experiments, he proved the wave
theory, and demonstrated the complete analogy of the luminous

1919 Feb. 1

62

Smith : The Hearing Organs oj Fishes.

ray and the wave of sound. His theory of diffraction shows
that light is produced in a straight line, on account of the waves
being extremely small, while sound is diffuse because the
lengths of the sonorous waves are very great. A still further
difficulty was set at rest, that of polarization, since the two
phenomena, light and sound, being governed by similar laws,
the sequence would be they would attain equal sensitiveness
to outside influences. The non-sensitiveness of sound waves,
however, to the influence of polarization is due to the fact that
the vibrations of the sound waves are longitudinal, and conse-
quently cannot be affected by polarizing influences, while the
vibrations of the light waves being perpendicular render them
sensitive to the detractive analysis of the prism.

These introductory remarks on the sound waves will facili-
tate a better comprehension of the faculty of hearing, a sense
possessed by all animals and the greater majority of Inverte-
brates. Now, since the sound waves are diffused and may pass
round an obstructing object without losing their power, it is
only requisite that a suitable organ for the inception of such
sound waves should exist, and the individual in which such
organ is found to exist is capable of distinguishing sound. It
does not follow, nor is it necessary that such organ should
have a similar arrangement to that found in man ; nor again,
is it requisite for the fulfilment of the phenomenon, that each
apparatus should occupy the same position as in mammals.
All required is the apparatus sensitive to sound waves, and
the nerve inceptive to its vibration, by which such vibrations
are conducted to the centre ganglion, and so diffused as in the
higher animals to the brain, or carried on to other nerves
sympathetic to such movements, as in some insects, or as in
others,- complete their energy in absorption by the ganglion.
Hence so called ears or hearing organs may occupy strange
positions in various families of the Vertebrate and Invertebrate
Kingdoms.

[To be continued ).

: o :

Mr. A. W. Stelfox has ‘ Notes on the Lake-forms of Limnaea pereger '
in The Irish Naturalist for January.

The Hastings and East Sussex Naturalist, Vol. III., No. i, besides reports,
contains a lengthy and well-illustrated paper on Prehistoric Hastings, by
A. Belt ; The Flight of Birds, by G. V. Webster ; The Brighton Rubble-
Drift Formation, by E. A. Martin ; Potato Spraying, by E. S. Salmon ;
and Notes on the Local Fauna, Flora, etc., for 1917, by W. Ruskin Butter-
field. The last include records both zoological and botanical. But we
don’t like the method of naming birds — though it may be correct according
to some lists ; the Magpie is Pica pica pica, the Swift is Opus opus opus ;
the Snipe is Gillinago gallinago gallinago, the Quail, Coturnix. coturnix
corturnix, and so on. It is a pity we have not a ‘ recurring ’ sign in zoology ;
it would save much space and type.

Naturalist,

63

THE APTERYGOTA OF YORKSHIRE AND
DERBYSHIRE.

JAMES MEIKLE BROWN, B.Sc./ F.L.S., F.C.S.

Sheffield.

Since my previous communication dealing with this subject
(4),* a further large quantity of material has been collected
and examined, enabling me to add considerably to our records
for South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire.

Most of the species mentioned in the present paper are
comparatively little known in this country, many of them
having been recorded once or twice only. Several of these,
such as Micranurida pygmcea, Tullbergia quadrispina, Megal-
othorax minimus and Acerentomon doderoi, are of special

Fig. 1. — Megalothorax minimus. X 180.

interest. The systematic position of the last is at present
doubtful, and perhaps it should not be included amongst the
insects at all. Acerentomon doderoi was discovered by Silvestri
(9), who, in 1907, created the order ‘ Protura ’ for its reception,
regarding it as related to the Thysanura. Later and more
detailed work by Berlese (2), led him to believe it — and the
associated species by that time known — to be more closely
connected with the Myriapods ; he therefore renamed the
order ‘ Myrientomata.’ The members of this order present
many structural features of peculiar interest, perhaps the
most interesting of which are the absence of antennae, and
the presence of paired abdominal appendages. They exhibit
also, during their life-history, the phenomenon of ‘ anamor-
phosis,’ that is, the number of abdominal segments increases
during ‘ larval ’ life ; a feature shared also by the Myriapods.

* The numbers in brackets after authors’ names, refer to the literature
at the end of this paper.

1919 Feb. 1

64

The Apterygota oj Yorkshire and Derbyshire.

I have followed Silvestri in placing them provisionally near
the Thysanura.

The following records are either new for these counties, or
else they extend the known localities for some of the less-known
species.

Order : Collembola.

Family : Poduridae.

Achorutes purpurescens Lubb.

This species occurs under stones and bark. Beauchief, * Bakewell *
Haddon.*

var. inermis Bomer. This variety seems to be rare. Found
in rotting willow wood, Haddon.*

Xenylla grisea Axels.

This is the first record for Derbyshire, but the species is frequently
found under bark and amongst leaves. Lathkil Dale,* Cordwell,*
Monk Wood,* Grindleford. *

Pseudachorutes subcrassus Tullb.

Found most often under bark and amongst leaves, but I have also
obtained it in Sphagnum. Owler Bar,* Cordwell.*

P. asigillatus Bom.

This species has been previously recorded for Herts, by Collinge and
Shoebotham. It seems to be rare, but is sometimes found "under
bark. Totley.*

Friesea mirabilis (Tullb.) D.T.

Under bark. Bakewell,* Totley.*

F. claviseta Axels.

Rather more frequent than the last; also under bark. Whamcliffe,
Dovedale,* Lathkil Dale,* Bakewell.*

Anurida granaria (Nic.) Tullb.

On damp earth. Haddon.*

Micranurida pygmaea Born.

This is one of the smallest species- of the order. It occurs amongst
moss and leaves. It was first described by Bomer in ipoi (3), and
has previously been found in Bucks, by Shoebotham (8). It reaches
a length of .4 mm. Totley,* Holmesfield,* Ecclesall Woods.

Onychiurus fimetarius (L.) Lubb.

Oughtibridge, Lathkil Dale.*

Tullbergia krausbaueri (Bom.).

Occurs under leaves and stones. Totley,* Lathkil Dale,* Ecclesall
Woods.

T. quadrispina (Bom.).

This is one of the rarer species ; it occurs in damp earth. Totley,*
Lathkil Dale.*

Family : Entomobryidae.

Folsomia quadrioculata (Tullb.) Axels.

Carpenter (5) says of this species, that ‘ it is one of the least-known
members of the Britannic fauna/ I find it, however, quite commonly
among dead leaves, and often under bark. Ecclesall Woods,
Oughtibridge, Totley,* Cordwell,* Bakewell,* Barlow.*

Isotoma sensibilis Tullb.

This species occurs very frequently under bark and among dead
leaves, often in association with I. cinerea. Lathkil,* Dovedale.*

I. minor Schaff.

This delicate, eyeless species is often found among dead leaves. Eccle-
sall Woods, Totley,* Cordwell,* Bakewell,* Lathkil.*

* Localities starred * are in Derbyshire ; the remainder are in Yorks.

Naturalist

The Apterygoia oj Yorkshire and Derbyshire.

65

Tomocerus vulgaris (Tullb.).

This animal is less common than T. minor. Oughtibridge, Baslow,*
Beauchief.

Lepidocyrtus albus Pack.

This is an occasional form among dead leaves. Monk Wood.*

Orchesella villosa (Geof.) Lubb.

1 do not find this species at all common. It occasionally occurs
under stones. I have also collected it in Middlesex. Bakewell.*

Heteromurus nitidus (Tempi.).

Fairly commonly under stones, but never in large numbers. Oughti-
bridge, Haddon,* Buxton,* Lathkil,* Dovedale.*

Family : Neelidae.

Megalo thorax minimus Willem.

This is perhaps the smallest and the most curious insect known at
present, reaching -3mm. in length (fig. 1). It was described by Willem
in 1900 (10), from specimens taken in the Botanical Gardens at Ghent.
It is easily overlooked, and has been recorded only once or twice for
England. I have obtained it frequently in humus and among dead
leaves. Ecclesall Woods, Totley, * Holmesfield.*

Family : Sminthuridae.

Sminthurinus aureus var. ochropus (Reut.).

This species occurred in very large numbers in and about an old stone
wall at Beauchief, during October. It might easily be mistaken for
S. niger (Lubb.), which, however, is found in conservatories.
Bourletiella bicinctus (Koch.). ( = cinctus (Tullb.) ).'
forma principalis.

var. repanda (Agr.) Axels. (= ? sulphurea (Koch.) ).
var. pallipes (Lubb.).

The nomenclature of this species appears to be rather doubtful.
(See Linnaniemi (7).) The type form, a striking yellow insect, with
two distinct dark bands across its back, occurs in association with the
two varieties, but is less common, the yellow var. repanda being the
most frequent, and probably often confused with B. lutea (Lubb.).
Lathkil,* Via Gellia,* Ashford.*

B. insignis (Reut.).

This species is frequently found on plants in damp situations. Owler
Bar,* Haddon.*

B. bilineata (Bourl.).

Amongst grass. Haddon.*

Order : Thysanura.

Family : Campodeidae.

Gampodea gardneri Bagn.

I have frequently found this species, recently described by Bagnall (i)r
under stones. It is, however, not so common as C. staphylinus.
Wharncliffe, Monk Wood,* Dore.*

Family : Machilidae.

Premachilis hibernica Carp.

In my previous paper (4), this insect was incorrectly referred to as-
Machilis polypoda. Via Gellia,* Bakewell,* Lathkil.*

Order : Protura.

Family : Acerentomidae.

Acerentomon doderoi Silv.

This curious animal occurs frequently in humus. Totle3r,* EcelesaB
Woods.

1019 Feb. 1

E

66

Reviews and Book Notices.

The following species have been found on various vegetables
rsuch as lettuce, cabbage, marrow, in Sheffield gardens. They
probably do a considerable amount of damage by carrying
fungus spores, upon which they feed — as has been proved by
Dr. Collinge, (6) — into wounds in the cuticle of the plants.

Achorutes armatus Nic. Folsomia fimetaria (L.) Tullb.

Onychiurus fimetarius (L.) Lubb. Isotoma grisescens Schaff.

O. ambulans (L.) Nic. Entomobyra multifasciata (Tullb.)

LITERATURE REFERRED TO.

— Bagnall, R. S. : ‘ Records and Descriptions of some British

Campodeidae,’ in Entom. Mo. Mag., 1918, Vol. LIV.

2..— Berlese, A.: ‘ Monografia dei Myrientomata, ’ in Redia., 1909,

Vol. VI.

3- — Borner, C. : ‘ Neue Collembolenformen, etc.,’ in Zool. Anzeie., 1901

Vol. XXIV.

4- Brown, J. M. : ‘Apterygota from Yorkshire and Derbyshire,’ in

The Naturalist, 1918, June.

5- — Carpenter, G. H. : Clare Island Survey — ‘ Apterygota,’ in Proc.

Roy. Irish Acad., 1913, Vol. XXXI.

6- — Collinge, W. E. : ‘ Collembola as Injurious Insects,’ in Journ.

Econ. Entomol., 1910, Vol. III.

7:— Linnaniemi, W. (Axels.) : ' Die Apterygotenfauna Finlands,’ II.,
in Acta Soc. Scient. Fennicae, 1912, Vol. XL.

— Shoebotham, J. W. : ' Some records of Collembola new to England,’
in Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 1911, Vol. VIII.

9- Silvestri, F. : ‘ Descrizione di un nuovo genere di Insetti Apterygoti
etc.,’ in Boll. Lab. Zool. Agrar. Portici, 1907, Vol. I.

10. — Willem, V. ‘ Un type nouveau de Smerinthuride : Megalothorax, ’

in Ann. Soc. Entom. Belg., 1900, and also 1902.

: o :

Everybody’s Flower Book. By F. M. Ramsay. London: Simpkin
Marshall, pp. 126, 5s. net. The writer is obviously a flower lover and writes
chattily and pleasantly on the subject. After a short account of a few
common flowers and their poetic associations, practical details are given
on gathering flowers, the apparatus needed for their display, followed by
chapters on arrangement, table decoration, wild flowers, packing, and
gardens. There are sixteen plates from drawings by M. Snape, and a
number of text figures.

The Exploitation of Plants. Edited by F. W. Oliver, F.R.S.

London : Dent, pp. 170, 3s. net. This little book edited by Prof. Oliver
is the second volume of the ‘ Imperial Studies Series,’ and consists of
nine lectures delivered at University College, London, in 1917. They deal
with plant food and soil problems, waste lands, timber, rubber, cotton,
-dyes, tea, medicinal plants, and coal. Each subject is ably treated by a
well-known botanist, and the whole form a volume of very interesting
• and instructive reading. In most cases a brief history of the subject is
.given, and branches requiring investigation are indicated. The impression
left on reading the volume is the large amount of useful work done in the
past by the ‘ practical man,’ and the wide field open in the future for the
trained botanist. The burden of the lectures is indicated in the last
words of the book, ‘ Research, and yet again Research.’ For this, greater
facilities are urgently needed if the resources of the Empire are to be satis-
factorily exploited, but we must not look for speedy and important
commercial results from the interesting lines of research suggested by the
authors. . <

Naturalist,

THE COMMON BANDED SNAIL.
A STUDY IN VARIATION.

6 7

A. E. TRUEMAN, D.Sc., F.G.S.

( Continued from page 9).

It is interesting to note that in spite of the differences in
the order of development of the bands, in each case a five-
banded shell is the normal. If the order of appearance of the
bands in ontogeny in any way reproduces the order of their
appearance in phylogeny in the several groups it may be sug-
gested that

1. The ancestral shells were unbanded.

2. Banding has been acquired in different ways in each
group.

3. For some reason, five similar bands have been developed
in each group, possibly because this type of banding
forms the best means of concealment* ; the persistence
of such a large proportion of unbanded and one-banded
shells, is however, difficult to explain, in view of the
rarity of two and three-banded shells.

It is thus probable that these outwardly similar five-banded
forms have been evolved along several parallel lines.

There is some other evidence which indicates that the
evolution of banding has proceeded in this way. For instance,
the late Clement Reid found that all the H. nemoralis is an
old tufaceops deposit were unbanded, j Similarly a number of
fossil shells collected in the drift at Coddington, near Newark,
show a primitive stage in shell-banding, nearly one half of the
adult shells collected having the formula 00345.

So far as breeding experiments have been conducted it
would appear that the banding behaves as a Mendelian factor ;
apparently the banded is dominant and the unbanded recessive.
Thus where unbanded shells live together without inter-
breeding with other forms, we should expect all the shells to
be unbanded. It is possible that the question is more com-
plicated than this, however, and much careful breeding would
be necessary to elucidate the problem.

The intensity of the pigment of the bands also varies con-
siderably ; the bands are usually dark brown or black, but
quite frequently they are red or brown (var. rufozonata). In
some cases, too, some or all of the bands are devoid of pigment,
the band then being slightly more transparent than the rest

* E. A. Woodruffe-Peacock, The Naturalist, 1909, p. 178, and A. E.
Trueman, ‘ Shell-banding as a means of protection,' Ann. and Mag. Nat.
Hist., Ser. 8, Vol. XVII., 1916, p. 341. '

t C. Reid, Proc. Dorset Field Club, Vol, XVII. See also Natural Science,
Vol. IX., 1896, p. 348.

1919 Feb Y

68 Trueman : The Common Banded Snail .

of the shell (var. hyalozonata) . Thus it usually happens in an
area where practically all the shells are, for example, one-
banded, that a shell which appears at first sight to be unbanded
really has one unpigmented band.

The intensity of the pigment, moreover, may vary on a
single band. This type of banding has received some attention,
but apparently it has not been realised that shell secretion and
the deposition of pigment do not proceed quite simultaneously,
the pigment being added some time after the membrane is
secreted. Further, while pigment deposition is comparatively
regular, the rate of shell growth is largely influenced by the
weather. Thus a dark belt of pigment frequently marks a
resting period, such as, for example, a spell of dry weather.
If a number of these blotched shells are collected from one
plant it is usual to find that the dark blotches occur in corres-
ponding positions on each shell, suggesting that they are due
to similar conditions. That weather conditions are, at least
in part, responsible for the irregular pigmentation was shown
by collecting young shells at short intervals during the summers
of 1916 and 1917, and noting the relation of shell growth to the
weather. It is also possible to produce this type of banding
by keeping snails in alternately very wet and very dry habitats.

The above conclusions support the view put forward by
Mr. C. Ashford,* that all blotched shells were originally zoned ;
in this connection it may be mentioned that the young of
Helix aspefsa, a typically blotched shell, is distinctly banded.
Rev. S. S. Pearce"| took the opposite view, viz., that banded
shells have arisen from blotched forms, and considers that
banded Helix caper ata are commonest in pastures because they
are easily seen, and consequently avoided by the sheep. It is
by no means certain, however, that snails are distasteful to
sheep ; the differences in distribution of zoned and blotched
forms which Mr. Pearce sought to explain are doubtless com-
parable with the facts quoted above in the case of H. nemoralis.

The splitting of one or more of the five normal bands, or
the interpolation of additional narrow bands, is relatively
unusual in Europe. Specimens of H. nemoralis introduced
into Lexington, however, in a very few years produced many
variations of this character, a large number of which are quite
unknown in Europe. J

Relation to Helix hortensis. Helix hortensis is very
similar in form, coloration, banding and habits to H. nemoralis

* C. Ashford, ‘ Suggestions for a Serial Arrangement of Banded Land
Shells,' Journal of Conchology, Vol. III., 1880, p. 89.

f S. S. Pearce, ‘ Varieties of Banded Shells,' Journal of Conchology,
Vol. VI., 1889, p. 123.

+ Cockerell, Nature, Vol. LI., p. 393. See also H. M. Vernon, ‘ Varia-
tion in Animals and Plants,' Inter. Sci. Ser., 1903, p. 315.

Naturalist,

Trueman : The Common Banded Snail. 69

and it moreover exhibits comparable variations ; yet H.
hortensis is undoubtedly a distinct species with marked internal
differences.* These two species rarely occur together ; for
example, in Asplev Lane (see map, fig. 1) they occupy distinct
areas. Intermediate forms are uncommon and breeding does
not usually occur where the two species come in contact. f
In considering species outwardly so much alike as H.
nemoralis and H. hortensis, it is generally assumed that they
are closely allied forms and that they have recently evolved,
either the one from the other, or both from some common
ancestor. | This implies that the characters they have in
common were developed before the distinctive internal charac-
ters. It is much more probable, however, that these distinct-
ions are fundamental and that the outward similarity is due
to parallel development such as has been demonstrated by
palaeontologists in many groups. ‘ Externally the individuals
may be almost indistinguishable and. yet belong to totally
different lines of development/’ §

Conclusion. — It is apparent from the notes given above
that the so-called varieties of Helix nemoralis are not of equal
importance. Two main divisions may be recognised, viz.,
those ‘ modifications ’ which may be traced to some environ-
mental influence, || and those which are independent of the
environment and are usually inherited.

I. — Variations affected by environmental influences :

Thickness of shell ; extremes, var. tenuis and var.
ponderosa.

Size of shell.

Irregularity of pigmentatism, leading to interrupted
banding and to var. undulata. »

Intensity of pigmentation :

[a) banding, leading to rufozonata and hyalozonata.
{b) lip-colouring, leading to roseolabiata and albo -
labris.

II. — Variations which appear to be independent of the

environment.

Order of appearance of bands.

Number of bands.

Shell colour (?)

* J. W. Taylor. Op. tit, Vol. III.

f G. Coutagne, ' Recherches sur le Polymorphisme des Mollusques de
France,’ Ann. Soc. d’Agric., Sci. et Indust., Lyons, 1895.

X See, for example, W. Bateson, ‘ Problems of Genetics,’ 1913, Chap,
viii., p. 164.

§ I. Thomas, ‘ Carboniferous Producti,’ Mem. Geol. Sure. Palaeontology ,
1914, p. 253.

|| Lloyd Morgan, Brit. Assoc. Rept. {Liverpool), Zoo. Sect., 1896. See
also Natural Science, Vol. IX., 1896, p. 287.

1919 Feb. 1

70

NOTES ON THE ENTOMOLOGY OF THE
BUBWITH DISTRICT.

W. J. FORDHAM, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., F.E.S.

( Continued from page 16),

* Phobocampa obscurella Hlgr. (another rare species, the
only northern record being from the Isle of Man), *Dicoelotus
earner oni Bridg. and a fine male of Exochilum circumfiexum L.,
taken flying round a fir tree. Hemiptera are abundant, the
most noteworthy species being * Phytocoris pini Kb. (which I
believe has also occurred to the late Capt. H. V. Corbett in the
Doncaster district). Dragonflies are numerous and a few years
ago Sympetrum scoiicum Don. absolutely swarmed. The flies
include *Micropalpus vulpinus Fin., once not uncommon in
flight over the heather, *Oxycera trilineata F., an extremely
pretty stratiomyid whose larva lives in mud, * Echinomyia grossa
L., bred from Bombyx rubi and *Therioplectes distinguendus
Verr., of which I took a specimen flying round a fir tree.

Collecting in my garden _ at Bubwith has been very pro-
ductive during the past season. Solitary wasps were abundant,
especially Odynerus parietinus, together with parietum L.,
*sinuatus F. and 3 -fasciatus 01., a $ of which latter species I
found investigating a hole in the rear number plate of my car.
The parasitic Chrysis ignita L,, as to be expected, has been
very numerous and variable. Several fossors occur on the
bushes, including Trypoxylon figidus and several species of
Crabro. Osmia aurulenta Pz., and leana Kub. have been
taken, and a species of leaf cutter occurs, but I have never
been able to discover it (though the leaves of rose, enchanter's
nightshade and fuchsia bear witness to its labours).

Many good sawflies occur in the garden including *Thrinax
macula Kl. (a rare species), *Priophorus padi L., and *P. tristis
Zadd (?) *Pristiphora melanocarpa Htg. and *P. ruficornis 01.,
*Pteronidea flavescens Cam. * Loderus palmatus Kl. and *Em-
phytus rufocinctus Ratz. The Ichneumonidae of note are
*Proclitus socius Hal., (a rare species with few British records),

* Hemiteles brunneus Mori., *Polysphincta gracilis Hlgr. (a rare

species parasitic on spiders), * M elanichneumon Faunus

Gr. (an uncommon insect of which Mr. Morley only possesses
three examples), Ophion stigmaticus Mori, (probably a wander-
er from Skipwith Common where it preys on Agrotis agathina),

* Angitia exareolata Ratz., *Microcryptus abdominator Gr.,
*M. perspicillator Gr., and *M. nigrocinctus Gr., * Euryproctus
lateralis Gr. (a little understood species with few records).

Homocidus pectoratorius Hr. and *biguttatus Gr. (both
uncommon species parasitic on syrphids) and *Phaeogenes
maculicornis Steph.'

* Pracon stabilis Wesm. occurred on elder leaves and on a
window, together with a good Chalcid, a species of *Microterys

Naturalist,

Notes on the Entomology of the Bubwith district. 71

at present undetermined. The brilliant Chalcid * Lamprotatus
splendens Westw. was also taken in the garden. Several species
of plant bugs include the northern *Calocoris alpestris Mey.
I have a large number of dipt era unidentified as yet, but those
worthy of mention already determined include * Hydrotaea
ciliata F. *Pegomyia bicolor W., *Sargus flavipes Mg. (very
variable in size and colour 'on plum trees) and * Chrysotoxum
bicinctum L. The mosquito Anopheles maculipennis Mg. is
common about the buildings and I took a male in November
last year, which is later than any previously known date. The
? of course of this species hibernates

Two males of the fossor * Diodontus luperus Shuck, were
taken on blackcurrant at East Cottingwith, from which village
I have also obtained the sawfly * P achynematus clitellatus Lep.
and the pretty Tachinid *Oliviera lateralis F. A fine $ of

* Thevioplectes tropicus Mg. was found on a window at Gribthope
and at Ellerton in a marshy place on. Iris I have taken two
females of the uncommon and ichneumon-like fly *Loxocera
aristata Pz. and on a gate post in the same village the fly
Anthomyia pluvialis L., eluded capture for ten consecutive
days till I finally obtained it. Since that date I have seen no
more, though for some time I went through the gate daily, so
we may be fairly certain that it was the same fly, and this
furnishes an instance of the curious pertinacity with which
some insects cling to a particular favourite spot. In a wood
near Bubwith the gall of Oligotrophus annulipes Hart, occurs
on beech and from either this species or from Lithocolletis
faginella which occurs on the same leaves, I have bred a minute
Chalcid at present undetermined.

The ichneumon *Mesoleius filicornis Gz. was taken at Holme-
on-Spalding Moor together with Glyphicnemis suffolciensis .
Mori, (a species abundant in Suffolk, but elsewhere only re-
corded from Scotland and Askern). * Arnbly teles negaiorius F.
(a parasite of Noctua brunnea) occurred at Crockey Hill, the
rare * Cratichneumon dissimilis Gz. was taken at Escrick and

* Glyphicnemis senilis Gmll., hitherto only recorded from the
south of England, turned up at Melbourne. *Bracon minu-
tator F., was taken on Barmby Common, a locality somewhat
resembling Skipwith, where I took many interesting insects
prior to the restrictions on the use of motor spirit for f joy
riding’ and the cynipid * Cothonaspis Crassicornis Cam. was
obtained from a ‘ horse ’ mushroom at Ellerton.

The above notes (including as far as I can gather nearly
70 species new to the Yorkshire list), taken in the scanty leisure
afforded by a busy country practice, will serve to show that
this little corner of East Yorkshire can hold its own with any
other locality in the county of broadacres for the number and
interest of its insect inhabitants.

19 ’ 9 Ffeb; 1

72

COMMON WILD BIRDS OF THE SCARBOROUGH

DISTRICT.

W. GYNGELL.

( Continued from page 20)

*The Linnet (Acanthiscannabina L.). . A common bird at most times,
abundant occasionally at migration time, its numbers have scarcely varied
in thirty years. It may be heard singing from early January to late
December, whilst in flight or perched in bush or herbage. I have not heard
it early in the morning, but have known it to sing at 8-14 p.m. Its favourite
1 nesting site is a furze bush, though other low bushes and even brambles
are occasionally selected. One nest found near here was built close
against the trunk of a tree two feet in diameter, a very unusual position.
The materials used in building are roots, twigs, moss, grass, dead herbage,
wool, hair and rabbit-fur, the positions selected being from 1 foot .to 7
•feet above ground. Eggs, usually 5, never more than 6 in a nest/have
been found by April 25th. The weight of an egg is *07 oz. Market
gardeners here are not friends with the linnet, who is too fond of their
newly sown small seeds.

*The Lesser Redpoll (A canthis rufescens Viellot) . Quite as common
as the linnet here in summer, though less so in winter the ‘ French linnet ’
is distinctly a bird of the eastern and north-eastern counties of England,
becoming scarcer as we travel westwards. The birds arrive here in
successive small parties from about April 1st, singing as they fly. Indeed,
this bird is more frequently heard when on .the wing than when at rest.
The buzzing and rather metallic song suggests the syllables zizzy-zizzee
continuously repeated. When nesting-, its alarm note much resembles
the ‘ sweet ' of the cage canary. I have heard its song from April 2nd
till October 10th, and as late as 9-40 p.m. on July 27th. Its nest, little
concealed, is built in thin hedges and bushes from 5 to 12 feet above
ground. It is a tiny and beautiful structure of grass, herbage stems,
moss, feathers, hair, odd bits of string, leaf-bud sheaths of the beech, etc.,
and is always lined with willow or other vegetable down which makes the
nest appear to be lined with white cotton- wool. Usually 5, but sometimes
<6, eggs are laid, the weight of each being *045 oz.

The Bullfinch ( Pyrrhula eviropcea) . This shy and retiring bird with
little song to attract our attention seems scarcely to be so common here
now as at the end of last century. I have not a single note of its singing
in a wild state. I have found its nest of twigs, roots and hair — never
any other materials used — in furze and other bushes and hedges, with
eggs as early as May 8th. It is placed from 2 feet to 5 feet above ground.
Usually five, never more than six eggs are laid. In confinement, both,
cock and hen birds sing, and both birds display sexual emotion by moving
the tail to one side or from side to side. They feed each other not only
at the breeding time, but in mid-winter, but none of these habits may be
indulged in by the birds when in a wild state. Though not of local interest
I might here say that I have found the bullfinch to be more common in
some parts of the west of Scotland than in south Britain. In west Britain,
in the absence of low cover it more often frequents fir trees, feeding on
the cones.

The Crossbill ( Loxia curvirostra L.). This species has no claim to a
place in this list, but the following note respecting its singing may be of
interest. On April 7th, 1900, Mr. T. Roberts and I were attracted by
the notes of a bird quite near to us ; a sort of sharp, whistling short song.
We were in a plantation of tall firs, scotch and spruce, on Flixton Carr,
at the time, and soon discovered the bird seated on the topmost twig of a
Scotch fir about 60 feet high. The bird continued to sit and sing a song
oi about four rather shrill notes. We identified it well as a Crossbill. It

Naturalist,

Common Wild Birds of the Scarborough District.

73

was in dull red plumage, and streaks on under parts were visible. The
birds head with the beak caused it to resemble a miniature vulture in its
bead outline. It remained for about ten minutes whilst we examined it
with our field glasses.

*The Corn Bunting ( Emberiza miliaria L.). A very common bird in
summer from about April ist, especially about grass and corn fields, but
being of dull plumage and not noticeable for its song, it is scarcely known
at all to any but practical field observers of birds. By the very few
country people who do know it is sometimes called the mud-lark. It is
most noticeable near the coast. It is comparatively scarce in winter,
but whilst in the neighbourhood may be heard singing at almost any
time. I have heard it on December 27th, and in summer from 3-6 a.m
until 8-50 p.m. On the hottest summer days, when most birds are silent
the Corn Bunting, Yellow Bunting and Greenfinch may always be heard.
Owing to its nest being almost invariably placed on the ground in grass
or corn fields and although the bird is quite common within and close
around the borough boundaries, its nest is very rarely found. Built late
in the nesting season it is a bulky structure of straw, grass, fine roots, moss
and hair. 3 to 4 eggs are laid, the weight of each being *ii oz.

*The Yellow Hammer or Yellow Bunting (. Emberiza citrinella L.).
Locally known as the Goldie, this bird is very common throughout the
district at all seasons. Its bright plumage and its gay song, sang from
mid-February till the end of August, are amongst the most familiar sights
and sounds of the country. It seems to be especially fond of roadside
banks and hedges ; and walking home through the country on a summer’s
evening one constantly disturbs its roosting. It then comes out of the
hedge and twittering, flits along before us soon to settle down again. Its
nest is more frequently placed on the ground than above it in furze and
other bushes, hedges and brambles, though I have found it as much as
6 feet above ground. It is bulky and composed of the same materials
as used by the last named species. Very commonly only 3 eggs are laid,
a less number than is usual with any other small passerine British bird.
Ten eggs weigh one ounce.

The Reed Bunting {Emberiza schceniclus L.). Although occurring in
all parts of this district from near the shore up to the higher moors, it is
everywhere very scarce, even where there are reeds. It sings a short
but pleasant song, but as with the songs of most other birds it is almost
impossible to render it in words. The two attempts to do so that I have
made and set down in my note book are so utterly unlike that it would
be absurd to put them in print. The call note is like the Yellow Bunting’s,
but more shrill. Its nest, which may be found within the borough bound-
aries is made of dead grasses, moss and hair, is nearly always placed on
the ground though occasionally in a hedge, tussock or osier stump. 2 feet
up. I have found eggs from May 8th till June 25th. Five are laid each
weighing *07 oz.

*The Starling ( Sturnus vulgaris L.). Known to natives as the
‘ Gyp,’ this is one of our most abundant birds at all times of the year in
town or country. Huge flocks settle down in the evening at favourite
roosting places, in woods, small plantations, or on ivy covered walls in
early summer as well as winter. In such places, as well as on the ground,
they also sing in chorus. With only a very short period of silence in
summer they may be heard singing at all other times of the year. The
song is a wonderful production of whistling, piping and squeaking notes,
having a sort of under current accompaniment of sounds like those pro-
duced by running machinery. In addition to all these notes and sounds
the starling really does ‘ mimic ’ wholly or in part the song of other birds,
and the cries of some mammals. Whether this is intentional mimicry
or merely the expression of the bird’s own musical repertoire it is perhaps
impossible to say. Certain it is that individual birds constantly repeat
certain other birds’ notes and that apparently only these individual birds

1919 Feb. 1

74 Common Wild Birds of the Scarborough District.

can or do repeat them. For example, on the South Cliff, Scarborough
for the first time, I heard a starling mimic the call of a lapwing. Some
days afterwards a brother bird observer here told me that he had heard
a starling indulge in the same amusement. Asked where, he gave me the
exact locality ; that is the very same street where I also had heard almost
certainly the same bird. This was also the first time that my friend had
heard the lapwing call produced by a starling. Personally I have heard
the following other birds ‘ mimicked ’ by the starling : the Tawny Owl,
Willow-Wren, Green Woodpecker, Yellow Hammer, Blackbird, Curlew,
Redshank, .Golden Plover, the Canary’s Chirp, and the quack of a duck,
whilst every day an imitation of the human whistle may be heard. The
usual nesting haunts here are holes in cliffs, quarries and trees. One I
found was in a hole in a wall and only four feet above ground. The
materials used I have found limited to straw, bark and feathers, but prob-
ably more substances are used. From 5 to 6 eggs are laid, each weighing
\ oz. These are sometimes hatched by May 7th, and I have known
young birds to remain in the nest till July 14th. In districts where much
small fruit is grown, cherries, grapes, etc., the starling does much damage
n a short time, but his usefulness during the remainder of the year more
than compensates. I have watched him feeding on a lawn, digging up
and swallowing grubs or worms at the rate of six in a minute. Reverting
to this bird’s power of mimicking the song of other birds. To-day, Dec.
2nd, 1918, I thought I heard a Willow Wren singing. It turned out to
be a Starling.

The Jay ( Garrulus glandarius L.). In spite of all efforts of the game-
keeper the Jay still inhabits the wooded parts of this district in not smaller
numbers than thirty years ago. It is strange how such a conspicuous
and often noisy bird escapes. Its nests which I have found on several
occasions have never been more than 15 feet and sometimes but 6 feet
above ground and often in mere bushes.

The Magpie ( Pica rustica Scopoli). Another gamekeeper defier still
remaining with us undeminished in numbers during the last thirty years.
It is not so familiar here, however, as in the West Riding -where it is not
infrequently builds its nest in a city park and there finds more safety
than in most rural haunts. Like the rook and the crow it is often very
careless in its choice of a nesting site building occasionally within 9 feet
of the ground. But when such a low position is the centre of a dense
thorn bush the domed and thorny stronghold with its mud foundation
is almost impregnable and quite impenetrable to a charge of shot It is
equally safe, too, in the crown of a tall larch which I have always found
to be the most difficult tree to climb. 5 to 6 eggs are laid, averaging
in weight 3 to an ounce. Its harsh chatter is not the only note of the
magpie, which, in amorous mood says, ee-yuck, ee-yuck (meaning, I daresay
yum-yum) to its mate. I have never seen anything approaching a ‘ flock '
of magpies, though have heard of a small ‘ flock ' having been seen by a
trustworthy observer in this district.

(To be continued.)

Mr. E. E. Lowe writes on * Museum and Art Gallery Finances ’ in The
Museums Journal for January.

Another religious journal favours its readers with a natural history
note : the Church Family Newspaper states, ‘ She watched him catch the
sticklebacks which were one day to turn into frogs.'

More natural history : Punch tells us, ‘ Anemones, said a lecturer at
the Royal Institution, will live as long as sixty years in captivity and are
very intelligent. Nevertheless, we refuse to swallow the story about their
being taught to jump through a hoop. The man who told it must have
been thinking of an Egyptian king of the same name.’ Punch, perhaps
we had better point out, is not strictly a scientific journal, but humorous.

Naturalist,

3n flDemoriam*

75

GEORGE PARKIN (1839-1918).

The band of field-naturalists who united to form the West
Riding Consolidated Naturalists' Society, and developed it
into the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, is gradually disappearing,
the most recent loss being that of Mr. George Parkin, which
took place on the morning of November 24th, 1918, at his
residence in York Street, Wakefield. Love of Nature must

have been inherent in him, for as early as i860 he was widely
known as an ornithologist. The first number of the Yorkshire
Naturalists' Recorder dated June 1st, 1872, contains f Notes ’
from him ‘ On a few of our Summer and Winter visiting birds.’
Incidentally we find that he was already a vice-president of
the Wakefield Naturalists’ Society. It is interesting to note
that this magazine, which, only lasted fourteen months, besides
two other contributions from the subject of our notice, contains
those of fifty-one more or. less well-known names in the Natural
History world, of whom not more than five survive arid of

1919 Ffcb. 1

y 6 In Memoriam : George Parkin.

these three only, viz., Dr. F. A. Lees, S. L. Mosley and G.
T. Pcrritt, have maintained their interest in scientific study,
and deservedly occupy a prominent place amongst Yorkshire
Naturalists. On the establishment of The Naturalist in August,
1875, Mr. Parkin was again a contributor. About this time
he removed from Wakefield to Brampton in Cumberland, and
our second volume contains an interesting article, ‘ Eleven
days in Cumberland,” written by James Varley, giving an
account of a visit paid to him there. Of this district he had
very pleasant recollections, and his room contained an enlarged
photograph of one of its beauty spots, with himself standing
by the ‘ Kissing Stone/ The scene is described by James
Varley in the article referred to. He was back again in Wake-
field by 1886 and remained till death, a tower of strength to
the local Naturalists’ and Paxton Gardeners’ Societies. Al-
though Ornithology only has hitherto been mentioned, his
choice was not confined to that branch of s.cience. Geology,
Botany, Entomology and Vertebrate Zoology all received a
share of his attention, and in consequence he was an ideal
companion in a country ramble. His knowledge was wide
and accurate and his observation keen, and he was ever ready,
indeed, anxious to place it at the disposal of his many friends
and acquaintances. As a lecturer he was much in demand, his
subjects ranging from varied phases of bird life to frost’s fairy
work, being fully illustrated by lantern slides of his own making,
and usually were the outcome of some research he had been
prosecuting. For he was ever at work probing into the secrets
of nature. In 1917, when failing health made him more or less
a prisoner at home in the care of his two devoted daughters,
he succeeded in working out the ecto -parasitism of Aleochara
bilineata on the pupae of the cabbage root fly. It was not
until he had completed his observations that he was made
aware that he had confirmed the conclusions of Mr. J. T.
Wadsworth, who had anticipated him by two years. As a
taxidermist he had few equals. A number of his cases were
exhibited on the occasion of the Annual Meeting of the York-
shire Naturalists’ Union at Wakefield in 1917, and evoked
much admiration. A man of a most lovable disposition he
had a large circle of friends despite the fact that he had long
survived such friends of an older generation, as Thomas Lister,
William Talbot, James Varley, Joseph Wainwright, Charles
Waterton and Joseph Wilcock. Of these he had a fund of
interesting reminiscences, and was never at a loss to blend the
dead past with the living present. The writer had the privilege
of spending a short time with him three days before his death
and found him keenly interested as of yore in the things of
Nature. A son and two daughters are left to mourn his loss,
and to them we tender our respectful sympathy. — E.G.B.

Naturalist,

WESTMORLAND COLEOPTERA

77

F. H. DAY, F.E.S.

(< Continued from The Naturalist for 1918, p. 391).

Lamellicornia.

Sinodendron cylindricum L. Rydal (Black), Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Aphodius erraticus L. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

A. fossor L. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten).

A. foetens F. Rydal (Black).

A. fimetarius L. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten), Shap (Day).

A. ater De G. Tebay (Bowman), Rydal (Black), Shap (Day).

A. lapponum Gyll. Rydal (Black), Patterdale (Britten), Shap (Day).

A. constans Duft. Rydal (Black).

A. merdarius F. Tebay (Bowman), Ravenstonedale (Day).

A. conspurcatus L. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten).

A. contaminatus Flbst. Tebay (Bowman).

A. punctato-sulcatus Stm*. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten).

A. rufipes P. Tebay (Bowman), Pendragon Castle (Day).

A. depressus Kug. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Geotrupes typhoeus L. Cliburn Moss (Britten).

G. spiniger Marsh. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten).

G. stercorarius L. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

G. stercorosus Scrib. ( silvaticus Pz.). Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe
(Britten), Rydal (Black).

Serica brunnea L. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Melolontha hippocastani F. Ulleswater district (Wood).

M. vulgaris F. Melkinthorpe (Britten), Witherslack (Day).

Hoplia philanthus Fuss. Tebay (Bowman).

Phyllopertha horlicola L. Ulleswater district (Wood), Rydal (Black),
Patterdale (Britten), Witherslack (Day).

Sternoxia.

Corymbites pectinicornis L. Windermere (A. W. Rymer Roberts).

C. cupreus F. Tebay (Bowman), Ulleswater district (Wood), Rydal
(Black), Patterdale (Britten), Windermere, Kendal (Roberts).

C. cupreus var. aeruginosus F. Tebay (Bowman), Ulleswater distric
(Wood), Rydal (Black), Patterdale (Britten).

C. incanus Gyll. ( quercus Gyll.). Melkinthorpe (Britten), Witherslack
(Day).

C. aeneus L. Crook, Windermere (Roberts).

Sericus ( Sericosomus ) brunneus L. Witherslack (Day).

Dolopius marginatus L. Melkinthorpe (Britten), Windermere (Roberts),
Witherslack, Lowther Park (Day).

A griotes pallidulus 111. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten), Winder-
mere (Roberts) , Witherslack, Lowther Park (Day) .

A. obscurus L. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten), Windermere
(Roberts), Witherslack (Day).

Hypnoidus riparius F. Tebay (Bowman), Kirkby Stephen (Thompson)
Windermere (Roberts) .

Cryptohypnus dermestoides Hbst. Melkinthorpe, Cliburn (Britten).

C. dermestoides Hbst. var. tetragraphus Germ. Melkinthorpe, Cliburn
(Britten) .

Melanotus rufipes Hbst. Windermere (Roberts).

Elater balteatus L. Witherslack (Day).

Athous hirtus Hbst. ( niger Brit. Cat.). Rydal (Black), Melkinthorpe
(Britten) .

A. vittatus F. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

A. hcemorrhoidalis F. Tebay (Bowman), Windermere, Crook (Roberts),
Melkinthorpe, Askham. Patterdale (Britten), Witherslack (Day).

1919 Feb. 1

7 8 Westmorland Coleoptera.

Denticollis { Campy lus ) linearis L. Ulleswater district (Wood), Patterdale
(Britten), Witherslack, Ravenstonedale (Day).

Trixagns { Throscus ) dermestoides L. Witherslack, Lowther Park (Day).

Malacodermata.

Dascillus cervinus L. Tebay (Bowman), Rydal (Black),. Askham, Patter
dale (Britten), Witherslack, Lowther Park (Day).

Helodes minuta L. Melkinthorpe, Cliburn (Britten), Witherslack (Day).

H. marginata F. Tebay (Bowman), Cliburn (Britten), Witherslack (Day).

Cyphon ochraceus Steph. ( pallidulus Boh.). Melkinthorpe (Britten).

C. paykulli Guer. ( nitidulus ■ Thoms.). Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe
(Britten), Witherslack (Day).

C. coarctatus Pk. Witherslack (Day).

C. variabilis Thunb. Melkinthorpe (Britten). .

Hydrocyphon deflexicollis Mull, Melkinthorpe (Britten), Lowther Park
(Day).

Podabrus alpinus Pk. Tebay (Bowman), Ulleswater district (Wood),
Pooley Bridge (Britten).

Cantharis ( Ancistronycha ) abdominalis F. var. cyanea Curt. Tebay (Bowman),
Ulleswater district (Wood), Pooley Bridge (Britten).

Cantharis ( Telephorus ) rustica Fall. Melkinthorpe (Britten), Witherslack
(Day).

C. (. Telephorus ) obscura L. Ulleswater district (Wood), Rydal (Black).

C. ( Telephorus ) nigricans Miill. var. discoidea Steph. Tebay (Bowman),
Melkinthorpe (Britten). Witherslack, Ravenstonedale (Day).

C. (. Telephorus ) livida L. var. rufipes Hbst. [dispar. F\). Tebay (Bowman),
Melkinthorpe (Britten) .

C. '{Telephorus) figurata Man. Ulleswater district (Wood), Rydal (Black),
Askham (Britten).

C { Telephorus ) rufa L. var. liturata Fall. Cliburn Moss (Britten), Wither-
slack (Day).

C. [Telephorus) pallida Goeze. ( bicolor Brit. Cat.). Tebay (Bowman),
Melkinthorpe (Britten), Witherslack, ' Kirkby Stephen (Day).

C. [Telephorus) fulvicollis F. var. flavilabris Fall. Lowther Park (Day).

C. [Telephorus) paludosa Fall. Rydal (Black), Askham (Britten), Wither-
slack (Day).

C. [Telephorus) haemorrhoidalis F. Tebay (Bowman), Cliburn, Askham,
Melkinthorpe (Britten), Witherslack (Day).

Rhagonycha limbata Th. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten),
Witherslack, Ravenstonedale (Day).

R. lignosa Miill. [pallida F.). Melkinthorpe, Lowther Park (Day).

Malthinus flaveolus Pk. [punctatus Brit. Cat.). Melkinthorpe (Britten).

M. fasciatus Ol. Melkinthorpe (Britten), Witherslack (Day).

M. balteatus Suf. Witherslack (Day).

Malthodes marginatus Lat. Tebay (Bowman), Ravenstonedale (Day).

M. minimus L. Melkinthorpe (Britten), Witherslack (Day).

M . fuscus Waltl. [pellucidus Kies.). Witherslack (Day).

M. fibulatus Kies. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

M. atomus Th. Melkinthorpe, Lowther Park (Day).

M. flavoguttatus Kies. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Malachius bipustulatus L. Melkinthorpe, Patterdale (Britten).

Dasytes aerosus Kies. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Necrobia violacea L. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Teredilia.

Siptus hololeucus Fall. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten).

N. unicolor Vill. ( crenatus F.). Tebay (Bowman).

Ptinus fur L. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten).

P. tectus Boield. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Naturalist

Field Notes.

79

Dryophilus pusillus Gyll. Melkinthorpe, Patterdale (Britten), Witherslack
(Day) .

■ Priobium excavatum Kug. (castaneum Brit. Cat.). Tebay (Bowman)
Melkinthorpe, Patterdale (Britten).

Ernobius mollis L. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Anobium striatum Ol. (domesticum Fourc.). Melkinthorpe, Patterdale
(Britten) .

O china ptinoides Marsh, (hederae Mull). Melkinthorpe (Britten) .

Longicoknia.

Rhagium bifasciatum F. Melkinthorpe (Britten), Rydal (Black).

Alosterna (Grammoptera) tabacicolor De. G. Melkinthorpe (Britten).
Grammoptera ruficornis F. Rydal (Black), Witherslack (Day).

Clytus arietis L. Melkinthorpe (Britten) .

Liopus nebulosus L. Rydal (Black), Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Pogonochaerus hispidulus Pill, (bidentatus Thoms.). Melkinthorpe (Britten.
Tetrops praeusta L. Melkinthorpe, Patterdale (Britten).

(To be continued.)

: o : — —

BIRDS.

Moorhen nesting in a tree. — -Last May a Moorhen built
its nest about two miles away in a hawthorn, quite, I should
think, ten feet from the ground. All the other nests I have
known have been built on or near the ground. ^E.^P. Butter-
field.

It is not at all unusual for Moorhens to built in trees.
Rarely a season passes without my finding one or more. — -R. F.

Corncrake calling whilst perched in hedge. — Referring
to the note by Mr. Horrox in The Naturalist for November, p.
361, I have never heard the call of the Corncrake whilst in
flight, but I once heard one calling in the early morn, before
any other bird had begun to sing. This was when I was
coming from Harewood to Collingham, and by creeping quietly
in the direction of the sound, I found the bird perched in a
hedge and calling quite lustily. — E. P. Butterfield.

— : o : —

ENTOMOLOGY.

Derbyshire Butterflies. — In the very interesting account
of the butterflies of North-east Derbyshire in The Naturalist
for January, 1919, by Dr. E. Drabble and Hilda Drabble., there
is no mention of Gonepteryx rhamni (Brimstone). This insect
certainly occurs in the district. During May, 1918, I saw this
butterfly and Euchloe cardamines (Orange Tip), both in large
numbers in Lathkil Dale. In the same dale during August,
the following were noted : — Vanessa io (also at Cordwell,
Bake well, and in Via Gellia), V. atalanta (and in Via Gellia),
Pyrameis cardui (and at Haddon), while Chrysophanus phlaeas and
Coenonympha pamphilus were very plentiful. Lycaena icarus
occurred on the hillsides above Bake well. — J. M. Brown,
Sheffield. ,

1919 Feb. 1

So

NEWS FROM THE MAGAZINES, etc.

The death is announced of F. G. Aflalo, a writer on popular natural
history.

The Subscription to The Entomologist’s Record for 1919 will be 10/-, and
to The New Phytologist £ 1 .

The name Trigonalys hahnii Spin, should be substituted for Meliora
aparamus on p. 399 of The Naturalist for December, 1918..

Dr. F. W. Flarmer, of Norwich, the well-known geologist, has had the
title of M.A. honoris causa, conferred upon him by the Cambridge
University.

The Fifty-seventh Annual Report of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union,
reprinted from The Naturalist, is on sale by Messrs. A. Brown & Sons,
Hull, at one shilling.

. The Kendal Municipal Museum is in need of ^1000 and the Allen
Trustees have promised one half the amount, provided the remaining
half is subscribed by the public.

‘ Observations on the Cuckoo,’ by E. Chance ; ‘ Notes on the Crested
Lark in Northern France,’ by E. A. Wallis, and ‘ Moults of British
Waders,’ by Annie C. Jackson, appear in British Birds for January.

Dr. Wheelton Hind favours us with a copy of his admirable paper on
‘ The Distribution of Carboniferous Goniatites,’ reprinted from the
Geological Magazine. It is a continuation of the work published in The
Naturalist in 1909.

The Journal of the Quekett Microscopical Club, No. 83, contains Notes
on some Intermediate Forms of Navicula and Cymbella, by Sir Nicholas
Yermoloff ; Two African Species of Volvox, by Prof. G. S. West, and
‘ The Binocular Microscope,’ by Mr. E. M. Nelson..

Journal and Transactions of the Leeds Astronomical Society, No. 25, 39 pp..
2/-. This may be called the ‘ Whitmell ’ number, as ‘ so few papers being
available,’ the editor has included some matters in which he was personally
interested, which he contributed to The English Mechanic and other
journals.

The New Phytologist, Vol. XVII., No. 10, contains ‘ Developmental
Forms of Marine Algae,’ by Lilian Lyle ; ‘ The' Conjugation of Zy gogonium
ericetorum,’ by W. J. Hodgetts ; ‘ Botany as the Science of the Living
Plant,’ by W. Stiles; and ‘A Voice from the Secondary Schools,’ by
F. B. Davies.

Mr. R. Standen writes on ‘ Variation and Distribution of the Marbled
Beauty ( Bryophila perla Fab.) in the Wirral,’ in The Lancashire and Cheshire
Naturalist for October; Mr. E. R. Brown writes on 'The Food Plants
of Eumorpha elpenor L. and Calocampa exoleta L. and on ‘ Teratological
Variations in Wings of Lepidoptera,’ and Mr. O. J. Wilkinson ‘ On a
remarkable colour variation of Rumicia phlaeas L. from Delamere Forest.

The Geological Magazine for January bears the name of R. H. Rastall
as joint editor with Dr. Henry Woodward. Dr. Woodward, who is in
his eighty-seventh year, has edited the journal since its commencement
in 1864. Among the contents of the January number we notice Dr. C. D.
Walcott (a memoir) ‘The Progress of Mineralogy from 1864 to 1918/
Dr. G. T. Prior, ‘ The Interior of the Earth,’ by Mr. R. D. Oldham, and
‘ Notes on Ammonites/ by Mr. L. F. Spath.

The Presidential Address of G. W. Mason to the Lincolnshire Natura-
lists' Union on ‘ Only a Micro, or some Notes on the Micro-Lepidoptera
of Lincolnshire,’ appears in the Lincolnshire Naturalists’ Union Transactions
•for 1917, recently issued. The same publication contains reports on
Entomology by G. W. Mason ; Vertebrata by Rev. F. L. Blathwayt ;
Geology, by H. Preston; Botany, Rev. E. A. Woodruffe-Peacock, who
also writes on the Snow-Frost, 1916-1917 and Mus sylvaticus. H. C. Bee
gives a list of Lincolnshire Dragonflies ; there is the Secretary’s Report,
and there is the usual article on the Presidents (sic) of the L.N.U., this ■
time the memoir being on G. H. Caton Haigh.

Naturalist,

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This forms Volume XVIII. of the Proceedings of the Yorkshire
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NATURAL HISTORY BOOKS AND SERIALS.

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Twelve Illustrations, beautifully printed in colours and Mounted on Stout
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BROWNS’

ENEMIES OF THE GARDEN

Reproduced in the very best style of Lithography from special designs by

H. W. BRUTZER, M.A., F.E.S.

THE 1 2' ILLUSTRATIONS ARE AS FOLLOWS :

1. OUTLINE OF INSECT LIFE. — Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, Lepi-

doptera, details.

2. LACKEY MOTH. — Egg, Caterpillar, Nest, Coeoons, Female Lackey

Moth, Egg Cluster.

3. SMALL ERMINE MOTH. — Eggs, Caterpillar, Cocoons, Ermine Moth,

Nest in Apple Tree.

4. GOOSEBERRY SAWFLY. — Egg, Larva, Larva (last stage). Leaf,

Sawfly, Branch, Cocoon.

5. ASPARAGUS BEETLE. — Eggs, Larva, Beetle, Pupa, Asparagus

stripped of leaves. Cocoon.

6. BLACK CURRANT MITE. — Mite, Big Bud on Branch, Section of

Bud with Mites.

7. RASPBERRY STEM BUD CATERPILLAR.— Caterpillar, Chrysalis,

Moth (enlarged), Raspberry Cane.

8. MILLIPEDES and CENTIPEDES. — Three destructive Millipedes and

two useful Centipedes.

9. SCALE. — Currant Scale, Scale on Aralia and Myrtle Leaves and Mussel

Scale.

10. WIREWORMS. — Click Beetle and Skip Jack showing details.

11. PEA THRIPS, COCKCHAFER, DADDY LONGLEGS, WOOD-

LOUSE and EARWIG, showing sections and details.

12. SOME USEFUL INSECTS.— Dragon Fly, Ichneumon Fly, Lady Bird,

Tiger Beetle, Hover Fly, Glow Worm, Cocktail Beetle, Lacewing Fly.

All the designs are printed on appropriately tinted backgrounds, devoid of
any white border, thus enabling the various sections on the Charts to be
seen with great clearness.

We always have enemies within our garden-gates, and would-be
gardeners are often reminded that the results of their labours may be
brought to nought or greatly lessened by the work of destructive insects.
There are other insects, however, that are our Allies, as they live on the
destructive pests and thus help to protect the vegetables and fruit. It
is, therefore, most necessary to be able to distinguish between useful and
destructive insects, hence the popularity of Browns’ “ Enemies of the
Garden,” as the charts show at a glance how to tell our enemies from our
friends. A set of the illustrations should be exhibited in all our schools
or village clubs, as the knowledge which they and their accompanying
handbook convey is essential to successful gardening. The small ex-
penditure on same will prove a truly profitable investment.

London : A. BROWN & SONS, Ltd., 5 Farringdon Avenue, E.C. 4.
and at Hull & York.

Printed at Browns’ Savilk Press, 40, George Street, Hull, and published by
A. Brown Ac Sons, Limited, at 5 Farringdon Avenue, in the City of London.
February 1st, 1919.

MARCH 1919

No. 746

(No. 520 of current ttrlee.

A MONTHLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF

NATURAL HISTORY FOR THE NORTH OF ENGLAND.

EDITED BY

M.Sc., F.G.S., F.R.G.S., F.S.A.Scot.

The Museums, Hull ;

AND

WOODHEAD, Ph.D., M.Sc., F.L.S.,

Technical College, Huddersfield.

WITH THE ASSISTANCE AS REFEREES IN SPECIAL DEPARTMENTS OF

J. GILBERT BAKER, P.R.S. P.L.S., GEO. T. PORRITT, P.L.S.,

Prof. P. P. KENDALL, M.Sc., P.G.S., JOHN W. TAYLOR, M.Sc.,

RILEY FORTUNE, P.Z.S.

T. SHEPPARD,

T. W.

P.B.S

Contents : —

PAGE

Notes and Comments (illus.) : — Bootham School Naturalists ; Northumberland Naturalists ;
Britain’s Mineral Resources; Whitby Jet; East Anglian Pre-historians; Illustrations;

The Report; Other Contributions; The Vasculum ; Selby Naturalists; An Ancient
‘ Comb ' ; A Mammoth’s Nest ; One of the Fibulariidae ; Origin of Flint ; Essex
Naturalists; A ‘ Crop ’ ; Science Progress ; A National Museum 81-88

Nature and Man— Prof. W. Gatstang, M.A., D.Sc 89-S6

Bibliography:— Papers and Records relating to the Geology and Palaeontology of the North

of England (Yorkshire excepted), published during 1918 — T. Sheppard, M.Sc., F.G.S. ... 97-101

Yorkshire Coleoptera in 1918— IV. J. Fordham, L.R.C.P., F.E.S 102-104

Common Wild Birds of the Scarborough District— IF. Gyngell 105-106

In Memoriam: H; C. Drake, F.G.S. (illustrated)— T.S. 107-109

Field Notes: — Birds in North West Leeds; New Yorkshire Diptera; Sibbald’s Rorqual

( Baleenoptera sibbaldii) in North Wales ; Vegetative Reproduction in Grasses 88, 96, 104, 109

Correspondence : Cuckoos’ Eggs and Foster Parents ; Former Status of the Starling ; Late

Stay of Swifts . 110-111

News from the Magazines, etc 112

Illustrations 85,87,107

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Keighley Naturalists’ Society Journal. 4to. Part i.

Lancs, and Cheshire Antiq. Soc. Vols. IV., V., VIII., XXVI.

Louth Ant. and Nat. Soc. Reports, 1-12, 19.

Liverpool Geol. Association Proc. Parts 1, 3, 16.

Liverpool Nat. Journ. Parts 1, 3, 7, 9, 18, 20 (or set).

Manchester Geol. Soc. Trans. Vols. XV., XVI., XIX.-XXIII.

Marine Biological Assoc. Journal. Vols. I.-IV.

Naturalists’ Guide (Huddersfield). Parts 1-38.

Naturalists’ Record. Set.

Newbury District Field Club Transactions. Vols. III. and on.

Norfolk and Norwich Nat. Soc. Trans. Vol. IV., Pt. 3.

North Staffordshire Field Club Reports for 1869, 1871-2, 1876.

Peterborough Natural History Society. Reports 1-8, 11-12, 14-26.

Quarterly Journal of Science. •1878-9, 1882-3, and 1885.

Quekett Club Journ. 1st Series, No. 25.

Royal Cornwall Geological Society Trans. Vol. V. to date.

Salisbury Field Club. Transactions, Vol. II.

Scottish Naturalist. 1881-1891.

Simpson’s Guide to Whitby. 1st ed. [before 1881].

Smith’s New Geological Atlas of England and Wales. 1819-21.

Soc. of Antiquaries, Proc. 1st Series, Vols. I and II.

Surrey Arch. Collections. Vol. V.

Sussex and Hants. Naturalist. 2-5, 34-36, 38-
Tweddell's Bards and Authors of Cleveland. Parts 9-12.

Union Jack Naturalist. Any.

Vale of Derwent Nat. Field Club. Old Series, Vols. I.-III.

Wakefield Lit. and Phil. Soc. Reports. Set.

Walford’s Antiquarian Mag. and Bibliographer for July-Dee., 1885.

Wilts. Arch, and Nat. Hist. Mag. Vols. X.-XXVI.

Woolhope Club Trans. 1866-80.

York Museum. Keeping's Handbook to Nat. Hist. Collections.

Yorks. Nat. Club Proc. (York). Set. 1867-70.

Yorks. Nat. Union Trans. Part 1.

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81-

NOTES AND COMMENTS,

BOOTHAM SCHOOL NATURALISTS.

The Eighty-fourth Annual Report of Natural History,
Literary and Polytechnic Society, Bootham 4 School, York,
seems to be even more interesting than usual. This School,
like its Ackworth rival, is * strong ' in natural history, and no
doubt we shall hear more of many of those whose names are
mentioned in the reports of the various sections of the Society’s
work. There are reports on Archaeology, Astronomy, Botany,
Conchology, Entomology, Microscopy, Ornithology, etc., and
some particularly valuable notes on Ancient Earthworks,
with illustrations.

NORTHUMBERLAND NATURALISTS.

The Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham
and Newcastle-on-Tyne continues to issue its valuable Trans-
actions, the substantial Part I of Vol. 5 (new series, pp.
180+lxv., 6/-) having been published. Apparently it covers
the years 1913-15. Besides the Society’s reports for 1913-15,
E. Burnup writes on the Field Meetings during 1913 ; J. J.
Hill, on the Field Meetings during 1914 ; J. E. Hull, on
Terrestrial Acari of the Tyne Province (already noticed in
these pages) ; J. W. H. Harrison on ‘ A Survey of the Lower
Tees Marshes, and of the Reclaimed areas surrounding
them ’ ; W. Johnson on ‘ A Valuable Addition to the British
Lichen-Flora ’ ; and D. Woolacott ‘ On Sections in the Lower
Permian Rocks at Claxheugh and Down Hill, Co. Durham.’

Britain’s mineral resources.

We take the following from the valuable report of the
Controller of the Department for the Development of Mineral
Resources in the United Kingdom, issued at the low price
of 6d. : — ‘ The Geological Survey, now under the Board of
Education, would surely be more appropriately linked with the
Mines Department. That section is well organised, and has
rendered very valuable service to the country. My Department
is greatly beholden to Dr. Strahan and his able staff for a
series of valuable maps especially prepared for its use, and
for the wealth of information contained in the Memoirs. But
although a good deal of scientific and in special cases research
work has teen done, it falls short of national needs. Too
little attention has been given to economic geology, which is.
the practical application of the scientific theories propounded.
At the inception of this Department, the work was seriously
handicapped by the lack, of reliable and comprehensive in-
formation respecting the mineral industry of the country. •
The greater part of the time of the staff of mining engineers
was and is taken up in gathering it by visiting mines in various

1919 Mar. 1

F

82

Notes and Comments.

parts of the Kingdom. This is not as it should be. The
Government ought to have at its command up-to-date informa-
tion as to the real position of all the different branches of the
British Mineral Industry, and this subject should form a part,
and by no means the least part, of the work of the proposed
enlarged Mines Department/

WHITBY JET.

In The Quarry for January is an extract from f Special
Reports on the Mineral Resources of Great Britain, Vol.
VII., Part 1/ which includes the following relating to the
Whitby Tet industry : — ‘ The Whitby Jet is embedded in a
mass of shale about 25 to 30 feet thick, known as the Jet Rock.
In the search for lumps of jet the Jet Rock has been mined
all along its outcrop, and has been found to give off an appreci-
able amount of volatile matter. It contains also mineral
oil in joints and in the interior of nodules and fossils. Attempts
to extract oil were made at Kettleness but proved to be
unprofitable. It is stated that ten gallons of oil can be ex-
tracted from one ton of shale. From experiments with Whitby
jet, made many years ago, it was found that 100 grms. of
jet evolve 30.2 c.c. of gas at 100 degs. (Gent.), the chemical
composition of which was given as carbonic anhydride, 10.93
per cent., quartane or ethyl, 86.90 per cent., and nitrogen
2.17 per cent. In 1850 there were about 50 workshops for
the manufacture of jet ornaments : in i860 the trade realised
£45,000, and in 1873 £90,000. Since then the industry has
rapidly declined. In 1882 not more than three or four tons
of Whitby jet were used, varying in value from £300 to £1,300
a ton. In 1888 there was said to be not more than £200
worth of Whitby jet employed in the trade annually, im-
portation of inferior foreign jet having caused the decline.’ ^

EAST ANGLIAN PRE -HISTORIANS.

Part IV. of Vol. 2 of the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society
of East Anglia (pp. 469-589, 3/6) has been issued. On account
of the expense of publication the members are asked ‘ at
least to double their subscriptions.’ though personally we
consider this would be unnecessary if a desirable reduction
were made . in some of the sketchy illustrations. For instance,
one ‘ author ’ has 68 illustrations to one of his papers and
15 to another — all poor and mostly far too large, albeit all
carefully initialled and dated. As a contrast we should like
to refer him to Mr. Lingwood’s excellent sketches accom-
panying Mr. Peake’s paper ; and they are neither signed
nor dated. Figure Y on page 509 might be a tortoise, a
golfer’s sponge box, or a fungus ; Z (b) would pass for a pear
or a pipe bowl, while X (b) on page 513 might well be a view

Naturalist,

Notes and Comments.

83

of ‘ the author ’ when very much annoyed ; few would ever
guess they were flint implements, notwithstanding the arrow
indicating the ‘ direction of blow ’ — in fact this suggests a
weathercock.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

With the wealth of fine blocks at his ready disposal we
are surprised that the address of the President is illustrated
by such crude outline drawings, many of which might pass
for mammalian teeth or sausages. The reproductions from
photographs accompanying Mr. W. G. Clarke's papers are
worthy of the Society, as also are Mr. Pickering’s plates ;
the Rev. H. G. O. Kendell's sketches are better and not too
large ; Mr. Lingwood’s, as already stated, are excellent,
and we would suggest that in future those who at present
occupy nearly a page with a bare plan of a potato should
requisition Mr. Lingwood to prepare their blocks.

THE REPORT.

As his Presidential Address, Mr. Reginald Smith, of the
British Museum, has a paper on ‘ Our Neighbours of the
Neolithic Period.’ Mr. Smith begins by stating that 1 more
is known of (he remote Palaeolithic period than of the later
Stone Age that ended about 4,000 years ago.’ Without
asking for evidence of the 4,000 years, we certainly very
seriously question the statement made. Unquestionably the
literature dealing with the so-called pre-Neolithic periods has
recently grown in bulk, enormously, but much of it is speculative
and a large proportion due to the tendency of so-called ‘ pre-
historians ’ to try . to make many unquestionable Neolithic
or even more recent discoveries, of Palaeolithic or even earlier
date. Some of the members of the Society under notice are
the greatest sinners in this respect, and the ■ literature ’ has
often been further extended by the frequent corrections which
have had to be made to these alleged ‘ pre-Neolithic ’ remains.

OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS.

Other contributions are ‘ Surface Implements of a Late
Palaeolithic Site,’ by J. D. Hill ; ‘ A Flint Implement Factory
Site near Milverton, Somerset,’- by C. F. Maysey ; ‘ The

Ichnield way in East Anglia,’ by W. G. Clarke ; ‘ Flint Im-
plements from the Ploughlands of South West Leicestershire,’
by A. G. .Pickering ; ‘ More about Windmill Hill, Avebury,
and Grime’s Graves,’ by Rev. H. G. O. Kendell ; ‘ Surface
Palaeolithic Implements from the Chilterns,’ by A. E. Peake,
and three of the usual type of paper by J. R. Moir, their
titles being * The Ancestry of the Mousterian Palaeolithic
Flint Implement ’ ; ‘ The Flaking and Flake Characteristics

1919 Mar. 1

84

Notes and Comments.

of a pre-Recl Crag Rostro-carinate Flint Implement,’ and
‘ The Fracturing of Flints by Natural Agencies in Geological
Deposits.’

the vasculum;

The Vasculum, Vol. IV., Nos. i and 2, is a very.good number
and several of the contents are distinct contributions to
science. ‘ J. A. S.’ contributes a Memoir on the late Professor
G. A. Lebour and gives a list of his papers ; and among other
items we notice ‘ On Water Voles and Shrews,’ by C. Robson ;
‘ Primitive-tails, Spring-tails and Bristle-tails,’ by R. S.
Bagnall ; ‘ Cobwebs,’ by J. E. Hull ; ‘ The Grasshopper

Warbler,’ by J. E. Ruxton ; ‘ A Wensleydale Week [Botany
and Entomology],’ by T. A. Lofthouse ; ‘ The Significance of
Local Lists,’ by G. B. Walsh; there are two papers on
‘ Bird-Life and the Severe Winter of 1916-17,’ by G. Bolam
and J. S. T. Walton ; the former author also contributing
‘ Unusual Nesting Sites of Willow Wren and Wood Warbler.’
On the cover readers are urged to get additional subscribers,
while on a printed slip we learn that, on account of paper
shortage, etc., the magazine ‘ can only now be supplied to
subscribers for the Volume, and only a very few new sub-
scribers can be added to the list,’

SELBY NATURALISTS.

At the recent Annual Meeting of the Selby Scientific
Society, the report of the Secretary (Mr. J. F. Musham)
showed that the }^ear had commenced with a membership of
122 and had ended with 126. Two members, E. Archer and
J. S. LTlathorne, had been killed while serving thnir King and
country. The number of excursions arranged was 22, inclu-
sive of the Y.N.U. fixtures, and with little exception these
had been carried out, though with diminished attendances.
The meeting of the British Mycological Society held at Selby
in September last had been a success. At the excursion to
Bravton Barff in June it had been decided to obtain per-
mission to dig out the accumulation of many years from the old
wishing- well, and the necessary excavation had been done
voluntarily by Mr. W. Reaston and the Secretary, but had not
yielded any objects of special interest. The work of the
photographic section had been well maintained. It was
urged that the Society should keep in close touch with the
.town authorities with reference to the contents of the Museum,
that many of the items which are . priceless as records be ac-
corded the preservation and care which their historic association
merits. The Treasurer’s report shewed that the year had com-
menced with a balance of £4/3/8, and ended with one of £5/8/5,
Not the least interesting of the Society’s work is the compilation

Naturalist,.

Notes and Comments.

8.

of an album of photographic records, consisting of portraits
of local celebrities and worthies of bygone years, together
with copies of documents and old prints of historic interest.

Mr. H. Ling Roth, of the Bankfteld Museum, Halifax,
has issued for 2/6 that portion of his book on c Yorkshire
Coiners/ which deals with Pre-Historic Halifax. He has
also published as Bankfield Museum Notes, 2nd series. No.
XI., part 4 of his ‘ Studies in Primitive Looms/ which contain
some useful information relating to various antiquities found
in this country, which have hitherto been apparently described
as ‘ weavers’ combs/ On page 140 of this publication he

illustrates an object described as a comb for cleaning deer-
skins, which is remarkably similar to an example found in
a pre-historic barrow on the Yorkshire Wolds, made from a
deer antler, and is illustrated in Mortimer’s ‘ Fort}' Years’
Researches,’ fig. 727. It was found in 1870 at Garton, Yorks.,
and by the courtesy of the publishers we are able to illustrate
the specimen herewith. Whatever the original object of this
article could have been it seems pretty clear that the one
figured by Mr. Lin§ Roth, and the Yorkshire example, are
identical.

In Man for February, Mr. J. R. Moir gives four illustrations
of what we first thought was a freak potato, but apparently

AN ANCIENT * COMB

A MAMMOTH S NEST.

1919 Mar. 1

86

Xotes and Comments.

it is an irregular chalk pebble, which he describes as ‘ a piece
of carved chalk from Suffolk ’ ; and to Mr. Moir it is a ‘ statue ’
of a mammoth, and ‘ the sculpturing of the head, ear, eve,
trunk, and elephant-like foot is very striking, and testifies
to the skill and accuracy of the ancient craftsman. ’ The dorsal
view of this ‘sculpture’ shows the ‘well-sculptured back,’
etc. He also tells us that ‘ when the sculpture was complete
and uneroded it must have presented a quite remarkable
appearance.’ Notwithstanding this author’s ‘ experiments in
carving chalk from the boulder clay ’ (some experiment !) w^e
are quite prepared to w^ager a shilling that his statue is quite
a natural and accidental lump of chalk, and as much resembles
a mummy as a mammoth !

OXE OF THE FIBULARIID.E.

To assist his readers, the author of a paper in The Geological *
Magazine for November, gives the following summary : —
Pygastrides r el-ictus, Loven, is believed to be an early post-
larval stage in the development of some Irregular Echinoid.
Reasons are given for the belief that this Echinoid is probably
a Clypeastroid, and one of the Fibulariidse. In view of its
undoubted resemblance to the Holectypoida, particularly to
the Pygasteridae and Discoidiidae, Pygastrides is regarded as
affording ontogenetic evidence of the phyletic connection of
the Clypeastroida and Holectypoida through the Discoidiidae.’

ORIGIN OF FLINT.

In Science Progress No. 49, Dr. A. Scott gives the following
interesting summary of recent papers on this vexed question : —

‘ In a discussion of the origin of Flint,’ E. R. Lankester (Nature
99, pp. 282-4, 1917) considers that it- is formed at a period
long subsequent to the deposition of the chalk, and that the
main agent is percolating atmospheric water containing
silica in solution. The colour of black flint, which is supposed
to consist of minute quartz crystals cemented by amorphous
silica, is ascribed to carbon. On the other hand, W. A. Tarr
(Amer. Journ. Sci. 44, p. 409, 1917) inclines to the view that,
so far as certain Lower Carboniferous rocks in Missouri are
concerned, the flint has formed at an early stage, and is not
a replacement of the calcium carbonate. B. Moore (Naturey
99, p. 324, 1917) believes that the flint is precipitated from
colloidal carbonated solutions during the interaction of the
calcite and the carbon dioxide to form ‘ acid ’ calcium car-
bonate. ‘ Synthetic flint,’ which, however, is much less
hard than the natural material, has been obtained in this
w ay S. C. Bradford (ibid, p. 324, 1917) considers the formation
du<- t" crystallisation from gels, while G. A. J. Cole (Geol.

Naturalist.

Notes and Comments.

8 7

Mag. (6) 4, pp. 64-68, 1917) adopts a theory analogous to that
of Liesegang, and holds that many flints are formed by the
rhythmic precipitation of silica from solution.

ESSEX NATURALISTS. •

Part XII. of Vol., XVIII. of The Essex Naturalist is, as it
should be, devoted to the various ‘ ologies ’ relating to Essex,
but the following contributions are of more than local interest:- —
‘ A Short History of the Study of Mycetozoa in Britain/ and

Eight species of fertile Lichens on Vertebra of a Sheep.
Xanthoria parietina Th. Fr. most prominent. XI A.

‘ The Haunts of the Mycetozoa/ by Miss G. Lister ; ‘ Notes
on the Ecology of Lichens/ by R. Paulson, and ‘ Mosquitoes
and the Danger of Malaria in England/ by A. Bacot. We
are kindly enabled to reproduce one of the many interesting
illustrations in this valuable publication.

A ‘ CROP.'

In The Journal of Agriculture , Vol. 25, No. 8, details are
given of the contents of a crop of a Wood Pigeon, shot in
Cumberland, in April, 1917. ‘ The crop contained about

8,000 seeds (weighing 14 grammes, after being washed and
dried) of spreading Orache (A triplex patula), which were all

1919 Mar. 1

88

Notes and Comments.

ingested at one meal. It would seem, therefore, that the
bird may sometimes be of some agricultural use/ The same
Journal contains ‘ Injurious Weed Seeds in Grasses and Clovers
harvested for seeds in Britain/ and ‘ The Common Honey
Bee as an Agent in Plum: Pollination/

SCIENCE PROGRESS.

In Science Progress No. 50, Mr. Henry Bury writes on ‘ The
Denudation of the Weald : A Defence of Existing Theories/
being a reply to Major R. A. Marriott in a previous issue. In
the same journal Dr. W. E. Collinge writes on ‘ The Preserva-
tion of Game Birds and its relation to Agriculture/ and Mr.
J. R. Moir replies to a criticism of .one of his papers, which
appeared in a previous issue. Reference had' been made to
the incongruous association of a bone of an elephant with others
of apparently more recent date in a deposit at Ipswich, and
it was quite correctly suggested that this was probably a
derived fossil. Mr. Moir won’t have this — quite apart from
geological discrepancies which its presence makes, and con-
siders it of the same age as the rest., in fact a ‘ certaint}^/
It is a pity he did not get the opinion of a geologist on the
point .

A NATIONAL MUSEUM.

The Eleventh Annual Report of the National Museum of
Wales for 1917-18, contains particulars of over 66,000 additions
to the collection. Among them we notice reference to the
Rippon Collection of insects and shells, the Brigg Colection of
British Hemiptera, Neuroptera, etc., the ‘ Hoyle ’ collection
of books and pamphlets, etc. We notice ‘ a pair of white
rooks from Yorkshire.’ As an appendix is Mr. R. A. Smith’s
report on his ‘ sixteen full days’ work ’ on the ‘ Slopes’ ’
collection of Stone Implements. Personally we were disappointed
with the report as we feel there was plenty of material for a
much longer and more valuable account, and we know that
Mr. Smith has the ability.

Birds in North West Leeds, — A nightjar was seen on
several occasions during June and July last in the grounds
of the Northern Hospital in Beckett’s Park, Ear Headingley.
Leeds. My informant is Mrs. Perkins, one of the lady nurses,
who knows the species well in their Middlesex and Surrey
haunts. On Easter Day, 1918, and for some days afterwards,
a pair of dippers was present on the stream in Meanwood
Village — accompanied on one occasion by a grey wagtail.
One evening in mid- July. 1918. a Woodcock passed over the
hawnswood Cemetery evidently on its way to Adle Dam.: —
Jaspfr Atktnson.

Naturalist,

8g

NATURE AND MAN.*

Prof. W. GARSTANG. M.A. D.Sc.

In making my choice of a subject for this address, I hope
that you will not consider it inappropriate that, instead of
discussing some special topic of research, or the progress in some
special department of Natural History, I propose to take
up the question of Man and Nature, i.e., of the relations of
man to nature, ambitious as this project may seem to be for
a discussion of an hour’s duration. It is true that as members
of Natural History Societies we do not usually pay much
attention to man, and on our excursions are perhaps only
too glad to turn our backs upon him and all his works, always
our companions for the time excepting, and of course our host
on the approach of tea-time. But during these past four
fateful years man has made himself so conspicuous on the
stage of Nature and has displayed so many surprising
phenomena, that if this were a meeting of the section of
Vertebrate Zoology you could certainly net protest if I brought
forward a paper under some such title as this : ' On some

new or little-known traits in Homo sapiens.’

As a matter of fact, the point I want to discuss first of
all is the statement which has been put forward at different
times and in various countries that the titanic struggle in
which we have been engaged has been a ‘ biological war,’
a phase of the general ‘ struggle for existence.’ It seems
to me that if wars of this nature are to be regarded as a necessary
part of our heritage from Nature, it is of the utmost importance
that we should face and recognise the fact, especially those
of us who have devoted our lives to the study of living Nature
and may be reasonably expected to have some first-hand
knowledge of the matters involved. On the other hand, if
the statement is false, it behoves us with equal force to proclaim
its falsity.

Nevertheless, although I have admitted a special motive
in selecting for my address the relations between Man and
Nature, the subject necessarily involves a survey of certain
features of the evolutionary process which are of general
interest ; and this part of my subject I have attempted to
approach from a point of view which I trust will add to its
interest, and possibly challenge your criticism.

It will lend a personal touch to this preamble — and in the
friendly circle of the Y.N.U. such personal touches are wel-
comed as a symbol of our intimacy — if I also confess that
my thoughts were turned very early in the year towards the

* Being the Presidential Address to the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union,
delivered at Leeds, December 7th, 1918.

1919 Mar. l

90 Gar stung : Nature and Man

general achievements of Natural History by a quite different
set of considerations. It happens that during the year in
which the Union has honoured me with the Presidency I
have had to record my age so frequently on ration books,
calling-up forms, and similar ‘ scraps of paper’ incidental
to the war that I have been compelled to realise that it was^
also the jubilee year of my own life. Whether that fact
ought to have been taken by me as a reason for jubilation or
not, I must admit that it turned my thoughts into reflective
channels, amid which such questions as these pressed success-
ively for an answer : Is it worth any man’s while to devote

his life to the pursuit of Natural History, apart altogether
from the honours or discoveries which such devotion may
bring in its train ? * Is the study a mere eccentricity or

luxury, or does it fulfil an intellectual need which no other
study can replace ? ’ ‘ Does it, or does it not, help a man to

play his part in the world, to spend time upon the structure
and habits of insignificant creatures, and to grope into the
mysteries of the distant past ? ’

Or, on the other hand, is the naturalist who has ‘ scorned
delights and lived laborious days ' to look back upon his
life with regret and dissatisfaction and to exclaim with the
poet :

Alas, what boots it with incessant care
To tend the homely slighted Shepherd’s trade.

And strictly contemplate the thankless Muse ?

Were it not better done, as others use,

To sport with Amaryllis in the shade
Or with the tangles of Nesera’s hair ? ' -

Now I am quite sure that, * homely ’ and * slighted ’ as the
pursuit of Natural History may be, you do not need from me
any specific answers to these questions. I merely wish to
put you in full possession of all the questions which have
prompted me during my jubilee year of office to devote mv
address to the general topics I have mentioned.

Nature and War.

The idea that war is a natural event, that it is an essential
feature of the living world, is so wide-spread that any attempt
to controvert it is bound at first to appear quixotic if not
disingenuous. ‘ Nature, red in tooth and claw,’ * the battle
of life,’ ‘ the war of Nature,’— when Tennyson and Darwin
make use of such expressions as these, must we not accept
them ? My reply is that even men of science, to emphasise
an aspect of things which is new or insufficiently recognised^
occasionally resort to metaphor, and employ phrases which,
when removed from their context, may convey meanings not

Naturalist

Garstang : Nature and Man . <fi

intended by their authors. As a matter of fact Darwin rarely
uses the expressions I have quoted, and then only as equivalents
of what he generally calls the * struggle for existence/

This term Darwin was careful not to employ without a
definition. Under a special headline he says :

I should premise that I use this term in a large and meta-
phorical sense , including dependence of one being on another ,
and including ( which is more important) not only the life of the
individual, but success in leaving progeny . Two canine animals

in a time of dearth, may be truly said to struggle with each other

which shall get food and live. . The mistletoe is dependent

on the apple and a few other trees, but can only in a far-fetched
sense be said to struggle with those trees, for if too many of these
parasites grow on the same tree it languishes and dies. Bui
several seedling mistletoes, growing close together on the same
branch , may more truly be said to struggle with each other. As
the mistletoe is disseminated by birds, its existence depends on
them ; and it may metaphorically be said to struggle with other
fruit-bearing plants in tempting the birds to devour and thus
disseminate its seeds. In these several senses, which pass into
each other, I use, for convenience sake, the general term of struggle
for existence.’

Notice that the wolf is not said to struggle with its prey,
but with its mates when the prey is scarce ; and that the mistle-
toe is not said to struggle with the apple tree, which it may
kill, but with other fruit-bearing plants vthich are its rivals
in attracting the appetites of birds for the purpose of dis-
tributing their seeds. The struggle for existence is the rivalry
of one individual with another for the direct means of sub-
sistence and for the safety of its offspring.

The question then becomes : Is war a manifestation of
the struggle for existence ?

This idea, so far as the recent war is concerned, has been
more directly expressed by speaking of it as an ‘ economic''
war ; but from our present point of view both terms are meant
to imply that the war was based on the conditions of life
itself, and was a struggle between rivals for the limited means of
subsistence. Probed in this way, is it not clear that the whole
idea is false ? I do not suggest that biological (or economic)
wars have not occurred in the past history of mankind, or
that they may not occur again ; but there is all the difference
in the world between a war provoked by a prosperous nation,
or by a group of prosperous nations, and the invasion of a
thriving country by people goaded by famine or groaning
under harsh and excessive toil. Let us note in passing that,
organised as men are to-day in states with defined boundaries,
war means invasion ; that no invasions on account of famine.

l9l9'Mar. 1

9:

Garstang : Nature and Man .

or threatened famine, have taken place in civilised countries
for centuries ; that international commerce provides a means
of redressing any inequalities in the natural distribution of
food-stuffs and other necessaries, which renders war for this
purpose futile and superfluous ; and that, when in a given
state famine or threatened famine supervenes, the uprising
of the people which results takes the form of a revolution
against the system of government rather than of a war against
some inoffensive neighbour.

There is, however, another view of the question under
which even wars oh aggression might conceivably be held to
be ‘ biological/ The illustration from the animal world is
the so-called war of the carnivore on the herbivore, as exempli-
fied by the lion and the antelope, the stoat and the rabbit,
and so on. This is the aspect of nature to which Tennyson’s
phrase ‘ red in tooth and claw ’ refers ; but again you will
notice the wide discrepancy between such phenomena and
the wars of mankind. The latter are concerted movements
of masses of men against one another, which, as we have
seen, have little or no relation to matters of food-supply
(while wars of cannibalism will hardly be invoked by the
hardiest advocate of ‘ biological necessity ’). The relations
of carnivores to herbivores on the other hand involve a special
kind of adaptation which is the very condition of their existence.
This relationship also is not war except in a metaphorical
sense, and if common practice justifies its treatment as a
4 kind of war/ it is one which is not parallel to international
wars but to the raids which man makes, daily upon fishes,
birds and beasts for his sustenance.

As a matter of fact, we should be much nearer the truth
in saying that the struggle is carried on in the living world
not by war but by industry ; and the progress which results
is attained not by direct assault upon a competitor but by
development of special and more efficient methods. The
real ‘ biological war ’ among predatory species is not illustrated
by their raids on the herbivores, but by the tendency of the
carnivores to specialise among themselves in their methods
and objects of attack. It is the competition between carnivore
and carnivore which is the biological necessity in their case,
and that is pursued not by the carnivores tearing one
another to pieces, but by each carnivore independeqtly doing
his utmost with the means at his disposal. With them, as
with mankind, there is no need to fight over their meals, since
their food is always plentiful though locally unequal ; but
it requires increasing industry and activity to get it, as the
prey becomes more alert and wary on the one hand, or the
ground becomes less productive on the other.

Naturalist,

Garstang : Nature and Man. 93

The case is not altered if we turn our attention to the
social animals. The wasp and the bee live in highly organised
communities; the one is predatory, the other purely
vegetarian. There would be nothing anomalous if the wasp'
were to prey upon the bee, but if the wasp ever has tried that
game, she has probably learned wisdom by experience. Norv
does one family of wasps attack another of the same species—-
the only competition between them, and.it is a very real one,
is in the industry with which they seek out their instinctive
prey, and in the degree of harmony and co-operation with
which, in each family, they share their indoor and outdoor
duties.

Some of the ants, alone in the animal creation, share
some of the vices of humanity in their wars and slave-raids ;
and 1 am strongly inclined to think that the causes are the
same in the two cases, not dearth of food, but sheer aggressive-
ness and bombast, the result of over-success in the real battle
of life.

In any case the disciples of Nietsche and Bernhardi might
well take warning from the history of these normally industrious
and successful little creatures. The Superman who was to
be the product of German wars, Kultur and World-empire
has already been anticipated by the super-ant as a product
of militarism, slave-making, and excessive success ; but un-
fortunately for German theory this miserable creature is
nothing but a decadent breeding monarch, unable to wash
her own face or take her own food, so feeble in energy that
she cannot move without the assistance of her slaves. She
has lost the power of producing workers of her own, and she
is too feeble even to make slaves though she lives in the midst
of them as a kind of parasite. She retains all the outward
signs, but none of the reality, of royalty, ruling, or appearing
to rule, merely by the survival of a tradition ; and obviously
destined to an ignominious extinction at the first touch of
adversity.

[ Quotations were read here from Lubbock’s ‘ Ants, Bees
and Wasps ,’ Int. Sci. Series, 1882, pp. 79-86, on the slave-
raids and habits of the Ants mentioned below].

Here is Lubbock’s summary of the effects of aggressive
war and slave-making on four European tribes of Ants :

At any rate, these four genera offer us every gradation from
lawless violence to contemptible parasitism. Formica sanguinea,
which may be assumed to have comparatively recently taken to
slave-making, has not as yet been materially affected.

Polyergus, on the contrary, already illustrates the lowering
tendency of slavery. They have lost their knoudedge of art,

1919 Mar, 1

94

Garstang : Nature and Man.

their natural affection for their young, and even their instinct of
feeding ! They are, however, bold and powerful marauders .

In Strongylognathus the enervating influence of slavery
has gone further , and told even on the bodily strength. They
are no longer able to capture their slaves in fair and open war-
fare. Still they retain a semblance, of authority, and, when
roused, will fight bravely, though in vain.

In Anergates, finally, we come to the last scene of this sad
history. We may safely conclude that in distant times their
ancestors lived, as so many ants do now, partly by hunting,
partly on honey ; that by degrees they became bold marauders,
and gradually took to keeping slaves ; that for a time they main-
tained their strength . and agility, though losing by degrees their
real independence, their arts, and even many of their instincts ;
that gradually even their bodily force dwindled away under the
enervating influence to which they had subjected themselves , until
they sank to their present degraded condition — weak in body
and mind, few in numbers, and apparently nearly extinct, the
miserable representatives of far superior ancestors, maintaining
a precarious existence as contemptible parasites of their former
slaves /■ — Op. cit. pp. 88-89).

There are many morals to be derived from this extraordinary
chapter of Natural History. But those of us who study
Nature, not merely as a diversion, but in order to gain guidance
from the laws of life, may feel confident that the Germans
themselves, when they have recovered their senses, will have
reason to thank us for teaching them a sharp lesson, in time
to save them and humanity from a headstrong rush along
the wrong road of evolution.

I hope I have not wearied you by this elementary discussion
and this survey of well-established facts. But the life of
humanity has endured a severe strain during the past four
years, and it behoves every good naturalist to attack at once
and sharply any pretentious phrases which gain currency
to put a biological gloss upon the causes of this conflict. We
have seen that the attempts to trace the outbreak of this war
to ‘ biological necessity/ are absolutely devoid of foundation.
The biological struggle for life is a struggle for sustenance,
and not the struggle for dominance of a well-fed and prosperous
community. The animal world has progressed by industry
rather than by fighting ; and in the only cases of organised
warfare and aggression among social animals the ultimate
result has been shown to be one of wholesale degradation
and imbecility.

It is to be feared that Prussian eulogies of war, like those
of Bernhardi, must have derived much of their success in

Naturalist,

Garstang : Nature and Man.

■95

Germany from their appeals to popular misunderstandings
of the real meanings and nature of the biological struggle
for life, and the danger is not ended by the termination of the
-war. I have met a good number of people who, after reading
Bernhardi, have remarked that, after all, the struggle for
existence is universal, and it is only natural that a nation
should choose its own time for a fight. We cannot overestimate
the subtle danger that lurks in half understood or wholly
misunderstood phrases and catch-words— those ‘ idols of the
market-place/ against which Bacon warned us so earnestly,
and to which the crowd is ever liable, especially in these days
of hasty writing, rapid reading, and inadequate reflection.

II. The Supposed Cruelty of Nature.

Having begun with the subject of war and the struggle for
existence, I propose to devote a few words to the supposed
cruelty of Nature’s methods, upon which, as upon the former
subject, I am convinced there is a great amount of misappre-
hension. Although the matter is only a side issue of my
theme, a brief discussion of it seems natural at this point, and
will form something of a bridge towards the later portion of
my address.

We have seen two aspects of living Nature in which the
element of cruelty may conceivably enter — the struggle
for existence, which affects all living things, and the special
case of the carnivore, whose life involves the death of its prey.

Now with regard to the first of these it should be remembered
that the f struggle ’ is not a conscious struggle, as this un-
fortunate term almost implies. As we have already seen,
the word is employed in a purely metaphorical sense, to account
for the fact that one animal or plant attains maturity while
.another fails to do so. This is an everyday observation,
and the life of the animal or plant is in no wise affected by
our speculations as to the cause of the fact. Darwin calls
life a struggle simply because the results of variations in the
powers and endowments of different individuals are like the
results of a race : the individuals which possess any advantage
must tend to come oh best on the average. But this
average is one which has to be counted over many generations
and in most cases over thousands of years at least. No
naturalist carefully examining hedgerow and thicket ever
sees any signs of this particular ‘ struggle ’ except in the
marvellous industry and adaptations of animals, in the equally
nice adaptations of plants. He will find a prosperous colony of
burrowing bees on one sunny slope, and a less prosperous colony
on a less favoured bank. But the latter are going about their

1919 Mar. 1

Garstang : Nature and Man.

9&

affairs quite' unconsciously of the advantages ' of the former ;:
and if some of them discover in time that they have made a
mistake, they merely set to work to find a better spot. Of
course now and again there is a little friction, as for example
when two pairs of sparrows decide upon the same nesting
site. They exchange words, like, their betters, and may
come to blows, but usually one pair finds discretion the better
part of valour and retires to seek another hole. That any
animal worries itself with harrowing thoughts about what
will 'happen to it if it is not the fittest to survive, every field
naturalist knows is not the case. They are not philosophers,,
but children of the sunshine and the daily task ; and when
bad times come — well, death comes to all sooner or later,
and is all the kinder to them in coming as a rule both rapidly
and unconsciously. We must not forget, moreover, that
Nature's selective method, though at variance with modern
human sentiment for the infirm or afflicted, spares her creatures
all the accumulations of suffering which humanity has created
by sheltering the unfit and the diseased, thus lowering, in
effect, the standard of vigour and vitality, and introducing
into the everyday life of man elements of pain and susceptibility
to pain which to animals in a state of nature are quite unknown.

On this matter, in both its aspects, I agree absolutely
with Wallace, to whose chapter on ‘ The Ethical Aspects of the
Struggle for Existence * I need merely refer (‘ Darwinism/
pp. 36-40).

(To be continued).

: o — -

New Yorkshire Diptera. — Whilst looking over the mosses
growing in a springhead on the flank of Moughton Scar in the
bright sunshine of January 18th, numbers of small midges
were seen making short flights from moss to moss, the specimens
collected were Oythocladus albolincatus Mg., apparently not pre-
viously recorded for Yorkshire. In some books there is the
statement that this species frequents sallows in spring but the
time is much too early for this ; the only flowers seen were'
Daphne l aureola a mile away from the place.

Not far away on January 25th, on turning over the skin
of a dead hedgehog, scores of minute flies ran or hopped into
holes and under the vegetation ; they were presumed to be
Phoral, but are Limosina crassimana Hal., another addition to '
the Yorkshire lists. On this day a celandine was seen in flower
near Long Preston. Mr. J. H. Ashworth kindly examined the •
diptera with me and agreed with the identification. — Chris A.
Cheetham/

c .

Naturalist,

' V - ■:*> ;v. 97

BIBLIOGRAPHY :

Papers and Records relating to the Geology and Palaeontology of
the North of England (Yorkshire excepted), published during 1918.

T. SHEPPARD, M.Sc., F.G.S.

Anon. Northern Counties.

Sands for Glass Manufacture [review of Memoir by P. G. H. Boswell and
Others : see under Boswell, 1917]. Nature, January 10th, 1918.

Anon. Derbyshire.

War-time Quarrying in the High Peak [in Mountain Limestone].
Quarry, January, pp. 5-9.

Anon. Northern Counties.

Geological Research on Refractories during 1916 [based on ‘ Summary
of Progress of Geological Survey for 1916’]. Quarry, January,
pp. 10-14.

Anon. Lake District.

Lake District Rocks, Vulcanicity [notice of J. F. N. Green’s paper].
The Naturalist, May, p. 145.

Anon. Yorkshire, Lancashire, Isle of Man.

TNote on] Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins. The Naturalist, May, pp. 145-146.

Anon. Northern Counties.

Recrystallization in a Solid Environment : Conditions governing

Metamorphism [Dr. A. Harker’s Address]. The Naturalist, May,
pp. 146-147.

Anon. Northern Counties.

The Glacial Period ; The Glacial Question ; Deep Gorges ; Inter
glacial Conditions ; One Ice Age ; Balby Boulder Clay [notice
of P. F. Kendall’s contributions to the Handbuch der regionalen
Geologie]. The Naturalist, June, pp. 181-184.

Anon. Northumberland and Durham.

l Obituary] Prof. George Alexander Louis Lebour. Geol. Mag., June,
pp. 287-8.

Anon. Nottinghamshire.

On a Deep Boring for Coal at Kelham, Nottinghamshire. Appendix
III. (pp. 48-50) to Summary of Progress of Geological Survey for 1917,
55 PP-

Anon. Lancashire, Cheshire. ,

Facetted Pebbles [notice of J. W. Jackson’s paper]. The Naturalist,
April, pp. 1 1 3-4.

Anon. Derbyshire, etc.

Chellaston Gypsum-Breccia : Conclusion [notice of Bernard Smith’s
paper]. The Naturalist, April, p. 116.

Anon. Yorkshire, etc.

Forests of the Coal Age [notice of D. H. Scott’s paper]. The Naturalist,
April, pp. 117-118.

Anon. Lancashire, Yorkshire.

Heterangiums of the British Coal Measures [notice of Dr. D. H.

Scott’s paper]. The Naturalist , February, pp. 57-58.

Anon. Lake District.

The Shap Minor Intrusions [report of paper by James Morrison]. The
Naturalist, January, pp. 2-3,

Anon. Northern Counties.

Splitting of Coal Seams And their Causes {notice of P. F. Kendall’s
paper]. The Naturalist, November, p. 337.

1919 Mar.

G

98

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P. G. H. Boswell. Yorks., Derbyshire, Northumberland.

British Supplies of Potash-felspar, considered from the Glass-making
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C. S. Carter. Lincolnshire.

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Grenville A. J. Cole. Yorkshire, Lincolnshire.

[In Memoriam] John Wesley Judd, C.B., LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S.

Proc. Yorks. Geol. Soc., Vol. XIX., pt. 4, pp. 327-329.

A. Hubert Cox. Nottinghamshire.

The Relationship between Geological Structure and Magnetic Dis-
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[A. Hubert Cox]. Nottinghamshire.

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E. H. Cunningham Craig, F. Mollwo Perkins, A. G. V. Berry,

A. E. Dunstan. Yorks., Lancs.

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John F. Curwen. Cumberland, Lancashire.

The Lancaster Canal [with contoured map]. Trans. Cumb. and West.
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Bibliography : Geology and Palceontology.

99

Yorkshire, Lancashire, Isle of Man.

Wm. Boyd Dawkins [notice of Award to]. The Naturalist, May
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Harold E. Dudley. Lincolnshire, N.

A Year’s Work at the Scunthorpe Museum. The Naturalist, April,
pp. 14.1-142.

A. E. Dunstan. See E. H. Cunningham Craig.

A. A. Eldridge. See P. G. H. Boswell.

Archibald Geikie. Northern Counties.

Memoir of John Mitchell, M.A., B.D., F.R.S., 108 pp.

W. Gibson. See A. Strahan.

E. Leonard Gill. Durham.

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description of ‘ Fossil Tree with Stigmarian Roots ’ from the Millstone
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Newcastle-upon-Tyne, N.S. Vol. V., pt. 1, pp. xxxvi-xlii.

Albert Gilligan. Yorkshire, Lancashire.

Geology [of the Settle District]. The Naturalist, October, pp. 329-331.

J. F. N. Green. Lake District.

The Igneous Rocks of the Lake District. [Abstract] Nature, March,
28th p. 79.

J. F. N. Green. Lake District.

Lake District Rocks [Abstract]. The Naturalist, May, p. 145.

F. H. Hatch. Yorks., Lines.

The Jurassic Ironstones of the United Kingdom, Economically

considered. Journ. Iron and Steel Inst., Vol. XCVII., pp. 71-120,
also issued by Consent of Inst. Min. and Metallurgy, pp. 71-125 ;
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F. H. Hatch. Northern Counties.

Average Analyses of British Iron-ores and Ironstones produced in

1917-18. London, 12 pp. Reviewed by R. H. R. in Geol. Mag.,
Jan., 1919, pp. 38-39*

Alfred Harker. Northern Counties.

The Anniversary Address of the President [on ‘ Some Aspects of
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Alfred Harker. Northern Counties.

Address [to Geol. Soc. : Abstract]. The Naturalist, May, pp. 146-147.

H. F. Harwood. See P. G. H. Boswell.

J. Scott Haldane. Notts., Yorks., Derbys.

The Effects of Dust Inhalation. [Abstract] Quarry, July, pp. 69-72.
See also Trans. Inst. Min. Eng., Vol. LV., pp. 264-293.

J. Scott Haldane. Notts., Yorks., Derbyshire.

The Effects of Dust Inhalation. Trans. Inst. Min. Eng, Vol. LV., pp.
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F. W. Harmer. Yorks., Lancs., Cheshire, Isle of Mar. 5

Pliocene Mollusca of Great Britain [being supplementary to S. V
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J. W. Heslop Harrison. Durham, Northumberland.

A Survey of the Lower Tees Marshes and of the Reclaimed Areas
adjoining them. Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc. Northumberland, Durham
and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, N.S. Vol. V., pt. 1, pp. 89-154.

1919 Mar. 1

100

Bibliography : Geology and Palceontology .

William Hewitt. Lancs., Cheshire.

Notes on Pebbles in their Geological Association [abstract). Geol.
Mag., December, pp. 557-558.

George Hickling. Lancashire, Cheshire.

The Geology of Manchester as revealed by Borings. Trans. Manch.
Geol. and Min. Soc., Vol. XXXV., parts 7 and 8, pp. 189-239 [Dis-
cussion in part 9, pp. 316-317]. See also Trans. Inst. Min. Eng.,
Vol. LVI., pp. 367-417, and notices in Sci. Progress, Oct., pp. 209-210.

J. J. Hill. Northumberland, Durham.

Report of the Field Meetings of the Natural History Society for 1914

[brief geological notes]. Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc. Northumberland,
Durham and Newcastle-upon-Tyne., N.S. Vol. V., pt. 1, pp. 164-180.

J. de W. Hinch. Isle of Man, Cumberland.

The Development and Decay of the Irish Sea Glacier. Irish Naturalist,
April, pp. 53-63.

Wheelton Hind. . Northern Counties.

On the Distribution of the British Carboniferous Goniatites, with
a Description of one New Genus and some New Species. Geol.
Mag,, Oct., pp. 434-450 ; also The Naturalist, November, p. 340.

Wheelton Hind. Lancashire.

The Caninia-seminula horizon of Productus humerosus. Geol. Mag.,
October, p. 480.

J. Allen Howe. Northern Counties.

Special Reports on the Mineral Resources of Great Britain, Vol. VI.,
Refractory Materials, Granite and Silica Rock, Sand for Open-hearth
Steel Furnaces, Dolonjite [review of]. Quarry, October, pp. 101-103.
See Anon.

J. W. Jackson. Lancashire.

Exhibit of Facetted Pebbles from Pendleton [on November 8th, 1916].
Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., Vol. LXXIII., part 1, No. 289, pp. i-ii.

J. Wilfrid Jackson. Lancs., Cheshire, Notts.

The Association of Facetted Pebbles with Glacial Deposits. Mem.
and Proc. Manch. Lit. and Phil. Soc., Vol. LXII., part 3, 15 pp. See
also Nature, February 7th, p. 458 ; and The Naturalist, April, pp. 113-
114 ; December, p. 370.

T. A. Jones. Lancs. S.

[Note on a boring 772 feet deep at near Biliinge]. Lancs, and Cheshire
Nat. November, p. .220.

John Wesley Judd [obituary]. See under Alfred Harker.

P. F. Kendall. See under Anon.

R. Kirkpatrick. Northern Counties.

Tne Nummulosphere, part III., 319 pp. See also notice in The
Naturalist, p. 367 ; see January Naturalist, p.

G. Vv. i^amplugh. See A. Strahan.

Jane Longstaff [nle Donald). Yorks., Isle of Man.

Supplementary Notes on Aclisina De Koninck and Aclisoides Donald
with Descriptions of New Species. Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., Vol.
LXXIII., part 2, No. 290, pp. 59-83.

Margaret C. Marsh. Lancs. S., Cheshire.

The Superficial Geology of Manchester. Mem. and Proc. Manch.
Lit. and Phil. Soc., Vol. 62, pt. III., pp. 1-17.

E. A. Martin. Yorks., Lancs.

Nature’s Air-Raids : A Chapter in ‘ Meteorics.’ Trans. Croydon Nat.
Hist, and Sci. Soc., Vol. VIII., pt. 4, pp. 151-159.

Naturalist,

Bibliography : Geology and Paleontology.

IOI

Ernest R. Matthews. Northern Counties.

Coast Erosion and Protection. Second edition, xvi.-fi95 pp.

James Morrison. Lake Dsitrict.

The Shap Minor Intrusions [Abstract], Geol. Mag., January, pp. 45-46 ;
The Naturalist, January, pp. 2-3.

T. H. Mottram. Yorks., Notts., Derbys.

Report on the York and North Midland Division [under the Metalliferous
Mines Acts]. Quarry, October, pp. iio-m.

A. D. Nicholson. Lancs., Cheshire.

Report on the Lancashire, North Wales and Ireland Division. Report
under the Metalliferous Mines Acts, Quarry, October, pp. 111-112.

Leonard Miles Parsons. Derbyshire.

The Carboniferous Limestone bordering the Leicestershire Coalfield.

Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., Vol. LXXIII., pt. 2, No. 290; pp. 84-110.

L. M. Parsons. Derbyshire.

Dolomitization and the Leicestershire Dolomites. Geol. Mag., June,
pp. 246-258.

L. M. Parsons. Lancs.

The horizon of Productus humerosus. Geol. Mag., December, p. 559.

F. Mollwo Perkins. See E. H. Cunningham Craig.

R. Pettigrew. Derbyshire, Lake District.

Notes on some Residues obtained from the Treatment of Substances
with Acid [Mountain Limestone from Derbyshire, etc.]. Trans.
Manch. Micro. Soc., for 1916 (publ. 1918), pp. 50-54.

[Lionel Phillips]. Northern Counties.'

Report of the Controller of the Department for the Development of
Mineral Resources in the United Kingdom. 62 pp.

William Pickup. Lancs.

Presidential Address : Mining Education and Research in Lancashire,

an appeal for wider interest and greater support. Trans. Inst. Min ,
Eng., Vol. LIV., pt. 4, pp. 275-286.

H. Preston. Lincolnshire.

Geology in the Witham Valley: Tufa Concretions. Line. Nat: Union
Trans., 1917, pp. 74-76.

R. H. Rastall. Lake District.

The Genesis of Tungsten Ores. Part 3, Scheelite Deposits. Geol.
Mag., July, pp. 293-296.

R. H. R[astall]. Northern Counties.

Summary of Progress of the Geological Survey of Great Britain

for 1916 [review of]. Geol. Mag.., January, pp. 28-29.

F. R. Cowper Reed. Lake District.

Notes on the Genus Homalonotus. Geol. Mag., July, pp. 314-327.

Clement Reid [obituary]. See under Alfred Harker.

Edward Sandeman. Yorks., Derbys., Notts.

The Derwent Valley Waterworks. Min. Proc. Inst. Civil Eng., (pp.
39 of reprint). Abstract in Nature, April 25th,, pp. 152-153.

Henry Crunden Sargent. Derbyshire.

On a Spilitic Facies of Lower Carboniferous Lava-Flows in Derby-
shire. Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., Vol. LXXIII., part 1, No. 289,
pp. 11-25.

D. H. Scott. See under Anon.

1919 Mar. 1

(To be continued).

102

YORKSHIRE COLEOPTERA IN 1918.

W. J. FORDHAM, M.R.C.S., LR.C.P , F.E.S ,
Rubwith.

The following report on the work accomplished by coleopterists
in Yorkshire for the year 1918 is happily the last which is the
result of collecting under war conditions. It contains seven
additions to the county list, thus bringing up the total number
of new species for the years 1915-18 to seventy, a very pleasing
accession to the coleopterous fauna, and containing many
extremely interesting insects. It is to be hoped that as more
normal conditions become established, more workers may
enter the field of Yorkshire Entomology and help to fill up
the many gaps that exist in our knowledge of the beetles of
the county. The distribution of common species is not
thoroughly worked out, and the writer would be grateful
for lists of such species from any part of the county. It is
well within the knowledge of all coleopterists that a species
which is generally accounted common may, for some reason at
present unknown, be absent or extremely rare in any par-
ticular area. Mr. J. W. Carter writes that Bembidium bi-
gutiatum F. has not yet been observed in the Aire Valley, and
this is a generally common insect all over the Kingdom — many
examples also might be given from any other area in Yorkshire.
In particular more records are required for v.c. 65, as this area
has not been worked as assiduously as others, and if any
entomologist would collect the beetles in this district and
forward them to the writer he would be helping considerably
to further our knowledge of the county distribution, and such
records would swell the number required before a detailed
history of Yorkshire beetles can be compiled. To avoid need-
less repetition, any records published in The Naturalist for 1918
have not been included, but it may be noted that many of the
species recorded as the result of the Yorkshire Naturalists’
Union excursion to Barnard Castle are new to v.c. 65.

As usual the asterisk (*) indicates a new vice-county
record, and the dagger (f) a new comital record.

Mr. E. G. Bayford notes that Pterostichus madidus F. is increasingly
common near Barnsley and is by far the commonest beetle in the district.
Carabus nemoralis Miill. is also increasing. This used to be very much less
common in the immediate district than violaceus L. (Mr. Bayford can go
back thirty-five years), but in 1918 was quite equal in point of numbers.
Thirty years ago, and for the following six or seven years, nemoralis was
the more frequent of the two near Wath (seven miles from Barnsley).
Gibbium psylloides Czemp. ( scotias F.) is thoroughly established in a con-
fectioner's shop at Barnsley and occurred from May 25th to September
20th.

Mr. J. W. Carter records the capture of Bembidium atroviolaceum Duf.
(stomoides Dej.) fairly commonly at Seven Arches, near Saltaire (*63), but
local. Mr. Carter's previous record of this species from the district was

Naturalist,

Fordham : Yorkshire Coleoptera in 1918.

103

in v.c. 64. Amara bijrons Gyll. was taken at Sunnydale, near Keighley,
(*63), in April, by Mr. Beanland. Gastroidea viridula De G. occurred
commonly to Mr. R. Butterfield at Morley on Sisymbrium alliaria. In
Bingley Woods, in June, Mr. Carter took Rhynchites nanus Pk. commonly
on young birches, together with Rhamphus pulicarius Hbst. (*63). At
Malham, at Whitsuntide, Messrs. Carter and Haxby took among other
interesting species Amara ovata F. (*64), a few Lesteva luctuosa Fauv. and all
British species of Elmis (except Riolus nitens Mull.).

Mr. E. C. Horrell supplies the following records made by Leeds
coleopterists in 1917 : — Bembidium atroviolaceum Duf., Boston Spa (C. W.
Horrell).

Rhagonycha lutea Mull ( fuscicornis Ol.) (*64), Malthodes dispar Germ.,
Apion aethiops Hbst. (*64), and A. violaceum Kirb. var. f obscurum. Boston
Spa, J. D. Firth.

Pterostichus anthracinus 111. (*63), and Bembidium Clarki Daws. (*63).
Ryhill, J. D. F.

Calathus micropterus Duft. (*64) and Ocys 5 striatus Gyll. Timball,
C. W. H.

Cantharis paludosa Fall. Adel, J. D. F.

Podabrus alpinus Pk. ab. rubens F. Harewood, A. E. Thornes.

Bradycellus collaris (*64), Philonthus umbraiilis Gr. (*64), P. ventralis
Gr. (*64), *P. quisquiliarius Gyll., Cryptophagus scanicus L. var. f patruelis
Stm. Adel, C. W. H.

\Ocyusa picina Aube, \Trogophloeus halophilus Kies., Atheta parva Sahl.
var. muscorum Bris. (*64). Collingham, C. W. H.

Corticaria fulva Com. (*64), cellar, Leeds. S. Matthewman.

Notiophilus rufipes Curt. (*63), Armley, A. E. T.

Orchesia micans Pz. (*64). Roundhay, J. D. F.

Mr. M. L. Thompson supplies, among other records (see The Naturalist ,
1918, p. 228), the following : —

Tachinus proximus Kr. Thornton Dale, September, in decaying fungi.

Lathrobiurn multipunctum Gr. Sandsend, July, in moss.

Acidota cruentata Man. Eston, October, one among felled Scotch firs.

Rhizophagus ferrugineus Pk. (*62). Kildale. May, Scotch fir.

Pselaphus heisei Hbst. Kildale, May, moss.

Laria ( Bruchus ) rufimana Boh. Kildale, May, on whitethorn. (An
interesting habitat for this cosmopolitan species, which is usually associated
with beans and considered an importation).

Trachyphloeus bifoveolatus Beck. ( scaber Brit. Cat.). Sandsend, July.

f Pissodes notatus F. Kildale, May ; one on Scotch fir.

Magdalis ruficornis L. (pruni L.). Ingleby, June, and Hylastes ater Pk.
Kildale on pine.

Mr. G. B. Walsh records the following species from Askham Bog : —
Berosus affinis Brul. (*64), Noterus clavicornis De G. (sparsus Marsh) (*64),
Hydrothassa aucta F., Phyllobrotica 4 maculata L. (a dark form with basal
spots confluent) on Myrica (*64). Anisosticta 19 puntata L. (*64), Galeru^
cella grisescens Joann, (sagittarice Brit, Cat.), G. calmariensis L. (*64),
and Nanophyes marmoratus Geoze (lythri F.) (*64).

Mr. Walsh also reports Cercyon terminatus Marsh, from Bubwith (*61)
and Pria dulcamara Scop, from Selby (*64).

Mr. Rosse Butterfield has taken Quedius rufipes Gr. near Keighley with
the ant, Myrmica Icevinodis ; and with Formica rufa at Crimsworth, the
following : — Oxypoda formiceticola Mark, O. haemorrhoa Mann., h omaiota
tcdpae Heer. ( parallela Mann), Zyras ( Myrmedonia ) humeralis Gr., Thiasopkila
angulata Er., and Notothecta fiavipes Gr. All the above are new vice-county
records.

Mr. W. Falconer (together with Mr. S. L. Mosley) has found Attelabus
nitens Scop. ( curculionoides L.) in several woods near Huddersfield, the
rolled leaves being very abundant in June. He has also furnished the

1919 Mar. 1

104 Fordham : Yorkshire Coleoptera in 1918.

writer with specimens of beetles taken during his spider hunts, and while
there are several interesting species there are no new V.C. records,

: Mr. J. F. Musham has taken Anaglyptus mysticus L. on Viburnum at
Breighton, near Bubwith (*61), and Cryptophagus lycoperdi Hbst., at Stay-
nor Wood, Selby, in Scleroderma (*64).

Mr. A. E. Winter of Scarborough writes that Carabus violaceus L. was
abundant under hay and in corn fields at Seamer ; Silpha opaca L., in great
numbers on mangold wurzels at Seamer on June 29th and following
days, and a colony of Siagonium 4-corne Kirby occurred under elder bark
on Deepdale Golf Links.

The writer has received a list of specimens taken in the neighbourhood
of Catterick Camp in the autumn by Mr. B. L. Cumming (Lieut., R.G.A.)
and verified by Mr. E. C. Bedwell, which includes the following : — Carabus
nitens L., not uncommon in one or two restricted areas on the moors ;
Miscodera arctica Pk. (*65), one only on moors ; Calathus micropterus Duft.,
Pterostichus adstrictus Esch. ( vitreus Dj.), exceedingly abundant in restricted
areas ; Quedius boops Gr. (*65) ; Aphodius lapponum Gyll., black form
only ; Hylesinus crenatus F., in ash log ; Xyloterus domesticus L. (*65)
Rhinosimus ruficollis L. (*65), Tetratoma fungorum F., and Rhizophagus
dispar Pk. (*65). From a beech stump.

For the Bubwith district the writer can report that flood refuse in
January was very prolific in commoner species. Mr. J. H. Keys found
one specimen of the rare \Platystethus nitens Sahib, in a sample of refuse
sent to him and Mr. G. B. Walsh again found Aiheta debilis Er. and A.
britteni Joy. in good numbers and a few Trichopleryx fratercula Mattb.
Moles’ nests were disappointing owing to the wet state of the ground-
only one specimen of Oxypoda longipes Muls. occurring, f Bembidium doris
Pz. occurred in a marsh ; one specimen only.

Dytiscus circumcinctus Ahr., was taken in a tub at Thorganby, an
extension of its range in the Derwent Valley.

\Molorchus minor L. (a single specimen), was taken at Escrick in May
by sweeping umbellifers by a hedge near a wood containing larch, spruce
and fir, together with some deciduous trees.

Pogonocerus hispidulus Pill. ( bidentatus Th.), on a gate at Ellerton.

Longitarsus atricillus L. Bubwith, on Radicula in the Ings (*61), and
Magdalis ruficornis L. (pruni L.) (*61), on plum tree at Bubwith.

It will be seen from the preceding report that the Coleop-
tera Committee is indebted to several gentlemen who are
not members for records, and their help is hereby gratefully
acknowledged.

— o : —

Sibbald’s Rorqual (Balsenoptera sibbaldii) in North
Wales. — Last September when staying at Barmouth I noticed
in the shop of Mr. Davies, fishmonger, a very large Whale's
vertebra. He told me that it had been cast up by the

sea about 20 years ago. It measures 13 inches across
the disc, and the upper process 9 inches. I submitted a
sketch and details to the British Museum, and the
authorities there think that it is a lumbar vertebra of
Sibbald s Rorqual. This is the largest of existing animals
and has, I believe, never before been recorded in Welsh
waters. — H. E. Forrest.

Naturalist,

io5

COMMON WILD BIRDS OF THE SCARBOROUGH

DISTRICT.

W GYNGELL.

( Continued from page J4 J,

*The Jackdaw ( Corvus monedula L.). Absent from some inland parts
of our district this is a most abundant local bird, being especially in evidence
on the higher cliffs, about tall buildings in town, and everywhere associated
with rooks in flocks in the fields or at roosting sites, the two species seeming
always to be very friendly. The nest here is nearly always in a hole or
crevice, sometimes yards deep, in cliff, quarry or tall building, rarely in
a tree hole. Like the rook it usually nests in colonies. Sticks in enormous
quantity, barrow loads occasionally, are carried into Church towers. I
have seen a pile of sticks five feet high on the belfry stairs of a parish
church necessitating the use of a short ladder to enable the sexton to
climb over it before he could reach the bells. Occasionally the Jackdaw
plays at nest building in autumn. Once on November 22nd, I saw a
demoralized bird pulling sticks out of a rook’s nest, Dead sticks picked
up anywhere are used for building, though sometimes like the rook, this
bird will snap living twigs from a tree. The nest is lined with grass, dead
leaves, wool, hair, strips of bark and paper. Although nest building-
may commence as early as March 18th, I have not found eggs before
April 23rd. Young may be found in the nest as late as June 19th. Eggs
weigh from *38 to *42 oz. ; usually 5 is the number laid. I have never
found more than 6 in. a nest. The Jackdaw excels as an acrobat. I have
seen one perch on the central vertical point of a 4-point lightning conductor.

The Carrion Crow ( Corvus corone L.). More an outlaw than other
members of the family the black crow chiefly haunts the smaller woods
of the wilds especially those in moorland ravines north and westwards.
Here it nests chiefly in tall trees though occasionally in holly or hawthorn
bushes not more than 10 feet above ground. Even when a tall tree is
selected the higher branches are not always chosen to support the nest
which may be on a low lateral branch. I have found nests in alder,
willow, larch, hawthorn, holly, spruce and scotch fir. The materials
used are sticks, heather-stems, roots, bark, peat, string, feathers, wool
and hair. Often only 4, usually 5 eggs are laid. I have found them well
incubated by April 20th and with young on April 30th. Eggs weigh
from *6o to *70 oz. 21 per cent, of them are chiefly marked on the small
end. Not unfrequently last year’s old nest is re-lined and used again.
On two occasions I have heard of snail shells having been found in or below
crow’s nests, but have not been able to find out what species of snail
the birds had used, for food, I presume. !

The Hooded Crow [Corvus cornix L.). Locally called the Norwegian;
Crow, this winter migrant arrives here sometimes as early as September
1st, and remains as late as May 10th. It has never been known to breed
in the district. I have found its nest in Scotland, made of heather stems,
birch twigs and moss and containing eggs by April 23rd. Usually 5 only,
once 6 in a nest. The following notes illustrating individuality of be-
haviour I copy direct from my note book. ‘ Found a nest near Cork April
30th, 1893, but although the nest then contained neither eggs nor young,
the pair of birds swooped down at me threateningly when I climbed up
to it, Another nest found near Appin, N.B. contained two fat young ones,
but in this case the parent birds flew from the nest and right away before
I got near the ravine in which it was built, and did not come near whilst
I climbed the tree. Not choice in its food I have seen it feeding on a
dead pig’s head on one occasion and on turnips at another time, whilst

1019 Mar. 1

106 Common Wild Birds of the Scarborough District.

nothing seems to come amiss that it may find in animal life on the sea
shore which it very regularly frequents here. While with us the Hooded
Crow is more generally distributed throughout our district and comes
closer to town than the all-black species.

*The Rook [Corvus fugilegus L.). By far the most abundant member
of the Corvidae throughout this district. It is more often called crow
than rook. In the breeding season, regularly inhabited nesting colonies,
some of enormous size, are to be seen from the immediate neighbourhood
of the coast all through the inland portions of our district. On some
large estates every wood seems to be occupied whilst trees from the
hawthorn 12 feet high to the tallest elms and larches may be selected to
bear the bulky nests. Where these have been added to and repaired year
after year they may be as much as 4 feet in height and 3 feet in breadth
and perfectly capable of bearing the weight of a 9-stone man sitting on
the nest whilst a strong breeze is blowing. They are made of sticks
outside, twigs of beech, willow and elm and lined with moss, grass, feathers,
dead leaves and occasionally horse-dung. Whilst the crow’s nest is almost
invariably lined with wool, the rook never, in my experience, uses it.
The nests are usually, but not always, well built. I have known one to
tilt over and spill the eggs. Sometimes a nest may be deserted one year
and re-occupied unrepaired the next year. I have known a rook to
build its nest and rear its young in a perfectly dead tree in a garden.
Almost invariably when building the rook pulls living twigs from trees
apart from those of the rookery. Few nests survive the winter gales. In
our town rookery, 12 nests only out of 200 survived the winter of 1903-4,
which was not noticeable for severity. I have counted 30 nests in one
tree. Nest building properly so-called may commence as early as Feb-
ruary 1 8th, enthusiastic birds working all day, sometimes until it is quite
dark. Eggs may be found as early as March 24th and there may be young
in the nest as late as June 16th. Usually 4, less often 5, rarely 6, eggs are
laid. The weight varying from *53 to *6o oz. About 10 per cent, of the
eggs are chiefly marked at the smaller end. When, as usual, the cock
bird feeds the hen on the nest, the sound of her gobblings leads the in-
experienced to suppose that young are being fed weeks before they appear.
That the brooding bird is well looked after is evidenced by the numerous
little pellets of undigested corn mixed with small stones, that are always
to be found under the rookery trees at breeding time, damning evidence
of the birds’ tax upon the farmer. I have found such pellets in our
town rookery from March 24th until August 16th. Once I saw a cock
bird, as early as January 22nd, pick and eat a number of elm tree buds
and then after regurgitating, feed his mate with them. Rooks seem to
hold meetings about their nests every autumn, when there is a good deal
of cawing, bobbing and tail- flirting. Apparently they claim and inspect
their nests, very rarely they carry in and adjust sticks. I have seen such
gatherings of rooks in different years from September 23rd till December
t2th. Occasionally in and out of the nesting season (on April 8th, 1900,
for example), rooks fly round in the air together in circles. I have seen
scores so desporting together. The rook is the largest bird that I have
seen perching on a telegraph wire. It does so quite regularly. When a
mixed flock of rooks and jackdaws are flying together the latter birds may
be easily distinguished at a distance by the more rapid beat of their
wings and by the cock and hen birds flying more closely together in pairs.
The wing beats of a flying rook are about 200 per minute. Even in the
same district and in the same year the breeding time differs in different
rookeries. I have known a colony of birds that occupied a small exposed
plantation near the edge of the sea cliffs to hatch their young ten days
earlier than those in a sheltered valley inland.

f To be continued ).

Naturalist,

1 07

3n flbemoriam.

H C. DRAKE, F.G.S.

(1863-1918.)

It seems strange that certain glorious geological districts,
which have been the collecting grounds of many of our leading
geologists, should in time remain almost neglected. Such an
instance occurred some years ago in the Scarborough area,
where the fossil remains in the various Oolitic strata, and the
geological and physiographical problems demanded the at-

tention of Smith, Phillips, Bean, Williamson, Hudleston,
Fox-Strangways, and a host of others, and then, for a time,
no one seemed to carry on the work. It was with peculiar
pleasure, therefore, that, somewhere about twenty years ago,
a party of Hull geologists, including the present writer, called
at a chemist’s shop at Scarborough, and made the acquaintance
of Mr. H. C. Drake — at first reticent and retiring, but it was
soon evident that he was a keen paleontologist, and he showed
us a magnificent collection of fossils from the rocks of the
Scarborough district, which he knew so well.

Previously he had been in Leicester, and had made extensive
collections from the Oxford Clay, Lias and Rhsetic, many
interesting specimens from which he left behind in the
Museum at that place. He was particularly interested in the
vertebrates, and was fortunate in securing fine series of saurian

1919 Mar. i

io8 In Memoriam : H. C. Drake , F.G.S.

and fish remains from the Scarborough area, though he made
a good general collection, which was especially rich in
Ammonites.

Eventually his business brought him to Hull, where he
soon associated himself with the local scientific societies.
He also took a keen interest in the Hull Museum, assisted in
the cataloguing and arranging of the geological specimens
there, and presented several hundred valuable Specimens to the
collections. These included several fine series of Peloneustes,
Cryptocleidus, and fish remains from the secondary rocks,
which occupy a number of cases in the Museum. While at Hull
his ability and zeal as a collector considerably added to our
knowledge of the vertebrate remains from the chalk, especially
in North Lincolnshire. He was also able to make additions
to the list of the molluscan remains of the secondary and recent
rocks.

Eventually he returned to Scarborough and continued his
collecting there with renewed vigour, securing many rare
Cephalopods from the Cornbrash and other rocks. The reports
of the Scarborough Philosophical Society show that he gave
much assistance to the geological department of the Museum,
and associated himself with the Scarborough Field Naturalists’
Society. He was a Fellow of the Geological Society of London,
and a member of the Palaeontographical Society. He sent Dr.
A. Smith Woodward much material for the latter Society’s
Memoirs, and he enriched the national collections at the South
Kensington Museum by a number of specimens. It was with
difficulty that he could be persuaded to write accounts of his
discoveries, yet he spent a considerable amount of time in
making himself familiar with palaeontological literature and in
writing papers of general interest for the societies to which
he belonged, and in preparing lists of fossils. He was fifty-five
years of age.

He will be much missed by Yorkshire geologists, all of whom
will join us in extending every sympathy to his widow and young
child,

The following is a list of his publications : —

Geological Rambles. Trans. Leicester Lit. and Phil. Soc, N.S. IV.,

1898, pp.. 467-474..

Cornbrash Fossils from North-east Yorkshire. The Naturalist, Feb

1906, p. 60.

Remains of Gyrodus from the Coral Rag of East Yorkshire.

Trans. Hull Sci. and Field Nat. Club, Vol. III., pt. 4, 1907, p. 290.

Spiders New to the Scarborough District. The Naturalist, August

1908, p. 299.

Remains of a Chimaeroid Fish from the Coral Rag of North

Grimston. The Naturalist, May 1909, P- x96.

Palaeontology in East Yorkshire, etc., in 1908. Trans. Hull Sci. and.

Field Nat. Club., Vol. IV., pt. 2, 1909, pp. 85-869.

With T. Sheppard],

Catalogue of specimens in the ‘ Lether ’ Collection, and of the

Naturalist.

Field Note.

109

Combrash Fossils in the Hull Museum. Trans. Hull Set. and
Field Nat. Club, Vol. IV., pt. 2, 1909, pp. 71-80, and reprinted in the
Hull Museum Publications No. 58.

Asteracanthus in the Yorkshire Gornbrash. The Naturalist, April,
1910, pp. 141-142.

"With Thomas Sheppard).

Classified List of Organic Remains from the Rocks of the East
Riding of Yorkshire [a list of all the known records from the
Lower Lias to the post-glacial series of East Yorkshire ; with
Bibliographies]. Proc. Yorks. Geol. Soc., Vol. XVII., pt. 1, 1909
[publ. 1910], pp. 4-71.

Asteracanthus in the Coralline Oolite [at Seamer]. The Naturalist,
March, 1911, p. 130.

Report for Geology, 1910 [Scarborough District]. Ann. Rep.

Scarborough Phil, and Arch. Soc. for 1910 [publ. 1911], p, 31.

Report for Geology, 1911 [Scarborough District]. Ann. Rep.

Scarborough Phil, and Arch. Soc. for 1911 [publ. 1912], pp. 30-31.

Vegetative Reproduction in Grasses. — Mr. Falconer's
note of his finding of a viviparous example of Cynosurus cristatus
L. at Wilberlee ( The Naturalist, December, 1918, p. 380) is
interesting. On looking through my collection of grass plants
I find a panicle of Dactylis glomerata collected at Newsome
(altitude 550 feet) showing the curious suppression of seed
formation spoken of as vivipary. That exceptional conditions
of moisture have their effect on the vegetative organs of grasses
is further evidenced by an interesting form which I noted when
passing over Clowes Moss, Marsden (altitude 1100 feet) in Au-
gust last. Across this moor many subsidiary streams have
cut their way through the peat to the rock bed below. A not
uncommon species of the drier knolls of the banks of these
streams is Deschampsia flexuosa. By the side of one of these
streams this particular grass was dominant down to the waters
edge, having worked its way by numerous offsets into the
newly-deposited sandy silt, firmly binding it together. From
the intra-vaginal buds in this compact mass arose numerous
stems with shortened internodes, whilst from the nodes, which
were considerably swollen, arose either fully developed or
developing grass plants, having foliage practically corres-
ponding to the foliage of the partial shade form of Deschampsia
-flexuosa. Very few flower stems were produced from this
particular mass of plants, those which were produced being of
the typical kind. When fully ripened these plantlet-bearing
stems would break at their nodes, and alighting at some
suitable habitat would thus be able to establish a new grass
colony. I have a similar example of this vegetative mode of
reproduction in Festuca ovina, collected on Great Orme’s Head,
Llandudno ; also a similar phase in an example of Agrostis
vulgaris collected at Farnley Tyas, but in this case it is upon,
the flowering culms that buds arise at the nodes and give rise
to groups of young plantlets.— W. E. L. Wattam, Newsome. :

1918 Mar. 1

1 10

CORRESPONDENCE,

CUCKOOS’ EGGS AND FOSTER PARENTS.

Since my notes on this subject ( The Naturalist, 1918, p. 174 and p. 236),
I have found two other records, one recorded in The Naturalist for 1886,
p. 17, in which F. B. Whitlock, writing under the heading * Breeding of
the Cuckoo,' says : ‘ My friend Mr. Wieldt, of Loughborough, however,
found a Pied Wagtail’s nest containing two eggs of the Cuckoo and four
or five eggs of the Wagtail, and as the two Cuckoo eggs were similar in size
and colour, he presumed they were placed there by the same bird. The other
instance is culled from The Country Side, July llth, 1908, under the heading
' Young Cuckoos,’ in a note by R. H. Dene Marlow. He writes : ‘ I once
found two Cuckoo eggs in the nest of a Greenfinch (not a very usual
foster-mother), and the eggs appeared to have been laid by the same Cuckoo.' I
am quite aware from the necessities of the case that it is impossible for
me to prove, or for that matter, any one else, to disprove, that the in-
stances which have been given furnish evidence of such a nature as to
preclude any doubt in the matter. Where such is the case, the question
can best be approached by taking probability as our guide, and where
probability is accumulative, it constitutes evidence of the highest value.
In the case which came under my own observation, the eggs of the Cuckoo
were so different from the usual type found in this district, and were so
very similar in every respect as to preclude anyone from coming to any
other conclusion than both eggs had been laid by the same Cuckoo.

Referring to The Naturalist for 1918, page 271, Mr. Massey writes : * I
take it that instinct tells her (the Cuckoo) there would be no room for two
young in the same nest.’ I should, however, like to ask Mr. Massey if
Cuckoos are not at times prompted to do things where instinct is as much
at fault, or more so, than laying twice in one nest. What about Cuckoos
which deposit their egg in the nest of such birds as the Ring Ouzel, when
to all appearance there are no lack of far more suitable fosterers — Skylarks,
for instance, which are usually nesting in abundance in the neighbourhood
where such eggs, as referred to, have been found ? The Cuckoo's egg
has also been recorded as having been found in such unlikely nests as the
Dipper. Jackdaw, Little Grebe, Green Woodpecker, Stock Dove, Ring
Dove, Turtle Dove, Jay and Magpie, and it will lay its egg and not unfre-
quently, in unfinished nests, even in such a nest as a Gold Crest, and it
will deposit its egg sometimes in forsaken nests, and in nests from which
its offspring, when full grown, could not escape, and it has been known to
rob whole clutches of eggs after which it has deposited its own egg ; indeed,
there is no limit to the vagaries of individual Cuckoos, and I cannot conceive
that there is any very great improbability in the belief that occasionally,
at least, the Cuckoo does deposit two eggs in one nest. From the last
paragraph of Mr. Massey’s note, one would infer that I had been mistaken
in my identification of the two Cuckoo eggs mentioned in my note {The
Naturalist, July, 1908, pp. 236-7), but surely the evidence is of a similar
nature in my case to that of Mr. Massey when he says, in the note referred
to, that he has examined 772 sets of Cuckoos’ eggs, and the statement of
Mr. E. E. Pettitt ( The Naturalist, June, 1918, p. 204), when he writes : ' I
have seen hundreds of Cuckoo’s eggs in situ.’

Referring to the note of Mr. Pettitt above mentioned, does not the
laying of the Cuckoo commence before the end of May ? To what part
of Britain does his remarks apply, say, in average years ?

E. P. Butterfield, Wilsden.

0

FORMER STATUS OF THE STARLING.

Replying to my notes in The Naturalist for October, 1918, page 311,
Mr. Massey, in The Naturalist for November, 1918, page 365, states :
Fifty-eight years ago the Starling was a very rare bird indeed in this
district, south and south-west of Manchester, adjoining the borders of
North Cheshire. In this neighbourhood at this time, only one pair of
birds was known to be breeding. About the year 1870, the Starling began

Naturalisl,

C orresfi ondence. 1 1 1

to increase rapidly, and for the last few years we have had an enormous
roost in the rhododendrons.

Since I wrote the above article I have been looking over the old num-
bers of The Naturalist and The Zoologist to try to ascertain whether in any
of the former references any indications are given, other than those
given in any notes mentioned above, as to the Starling being a rare or
unknown bird. From the years 1843 to 1857 many notes have reference
to the Starling in a good number of counties, some do not, state whether
it is common or abundant — a breeding species or chiefly an immigrant.
Some, however, state that it breeds commonly ; others that it breeds
abundantly, but few, if any, state it to be a very rare and local species.
Coming to the area nearest to that mentioned by Mr. Massey at the be-
ginning of these notes, — that is, south and south-west of Manchester,
adjoining the borders of North Cheshire — I find that Mr. T. W. Barlow,
in The Zoologist for 1845, mentions the Starling (presumably nesting) in
Cheshire, and Mr. Briggs refers to the Starling in The Zoologist for 1849,
page 2,559. The latter says : ‘ On October 2nd, 1844, I noticed the most
amazing flock of Starlings it was ever my lot to witness. At a distance it
looked like a gigantic mass of cloud.’

Mr. E. G. Bayford of Barnsley, has written calling my attention to
the fact that Neville Wood in his British Song Birds, states that the
Starling is equally and plentifully distributed over the British Islands,
and is well known to everyone, and the preface is dated from Sudbury
Hall, Derbyshire, April, 1836.

Without questioning the statement of Mr. Massey in the least, it is
strange if Mr. Wood’s statement be true as to the status of the Starling in
Derbyshire in 1836, that it should continue to be a rare bird on the borders
of North Cheshire down to the years of 1870, but there must be some cause
for I cannot but repeat that Mr. Massey cannot be mistaken.

As regards the statement by an old man who formerly resided here,
it is quite possible he may have been mistaken, that he remembered the
first pair of Starlings which bred in Wilsden, as my father and eldest
brother never alluded to the scarcity of this species in this district, which
they would have done if it had been a fact, and the statement that the
Starling is but a recent addition to the avifauna of Ireland is undoubtedly
in opposition to fact. . q E. P. Butterfield.

LATE STAY OF SWIFTS.

Mr. Fortune in 2 "he Naturalist for November, page 361, and December,
page 383, refers to having seen the Swift on October 6th, and as late as
October 13th. These dates he mentions as exceptionally late ones, and
he quotes from ‘ The Birds of Yorkshire,’ an instance of a Swift having
been seen in the neighbourhood of Harrogate on November 16th, 1901 ;
and further states one is said to have been taken in a dormant state at
Bolton Hall in mid-winter — which would be an interesting record if proper-
ly authenticated ; but no authority is given for the record. It is a pity
no details are given in such cases. At the time the record was published,
I wondered whether there had not been some mistake. Is it possible that
the Swift in this case might have been a species of bat ? This, by the
way, brings to my remembrance that the late Fred Smith of the British
Museum has a record in The Zoologist for September, 1856, to the effect
that he was informed on the 8th July, 1856, that bats were dropping down
in the streets of Deal in huge numbers, and were being killed by boys, and
the church was covered with them. He at once started off, and on arriving
at the church in Lower Street he was astonished to see Swifts hanging in
clusters from the eaves and cornices. Some clusters were at least two feet
in length, and at intervals benumbed individuals dropped from the outside
of clusters. Most of the Swifts have left this district, Wilsden, by the middle
of August, but it is not all uncommon to see individuals, and sometimes
even small flocks, much later. The date recorded in ‘ The Birds of York-
shire ’ viz., November 16th, is certainly late, but one was seen at Greetland
on 30th November, I believe, in 1913, but if my memory serves me rightly,
instances have occurred in December. E. P. Butterfield.

1919 Mar. 1

112

NEWS FROM THE MAGAZINES, etc.

Miss A. Lee writes on ‘ Old Botanising Haunts of Birkenhead/ in The
Lancashire and Cheshire Naturalist for November.

The Geological Society of London has awarded the Murchison Fund
to Mrs. Reid, widow of the late Clement Reid.

In The Field (November 16) Mr. A. Shaw reports that he shot a
Red-legged partridge in county Durham on November 6th.

Mr. J. H. Gurney records a late Swift (September 27th) at Yarmouth
(British Birds, February). In the same journal Mr. K. Fisher records
the appearance' of two Whooper Swans near North wich.

As ‘Miscellaneous Publications, No. 22,’ the Board of Agriculture
and Fisheries has reprinted from its Journal : ‘ Rats : How to Exterminate
them,’ and ‘ The Taking of Wild Rabbits,’ by I. R. Sharpe (47 pp., 6d.).

Mr. G. Abbott describes some Sunderland specimens in a note on
‘ A Collection of Concretions at Tunbridge Wells,’ in Trans, and Journ.
Eastbourne Nat. Hist., etc., Society, Vol. VIII., No. 22.

Dr. E. O. Croft, of Leeds, well-known to our readers, has been appointed
Professor of Obstetrics in the Leeds University, in place of Professor
J. B. Hellier, who has retired.

In a report of a lecture on Coal-Dust Explosions, a contemporary
informs us that ‘ there is a rush "of gas ladened with explosiou (sic)
products, followed instantly by a volume of superheated streahi.’

Mr. C. Davies Sherborn has a note on ‘ Pulcrus of Rome, the first
to make a Restoration of an Extinct Mammal,’ in The Geological Magazine
for February.

Sir Arthur Evans has presented the fine collection of Ancient British
Coins formed by his father, the late Sir John Evans, to the British Museum.
This series is illustrated and described in Evans’s ‘ Ancient British Coins.’

In Man, for January, Mr. Moir figures two Late Bronze-age urns
from East Anglia, which, oddly enough, are much more primitive in
type than a pre-historic vase, which we saw in the Ipswich Museum
the other day, and which Mr. Moir had labelled as of Neolithic date.

There have been issued ‘ The Botanical Society and Exchange
Club of the British Isles Report for 1917/ by G. Claridge Druce. Vol. V,,
part I., 204 pp., 7/6. and ‘ The Botanical Society and Exchange Club
of the British Isles, Report for 1917, the Botanical Exchange Club,’ by
C. E. Britton, Vol. V., part II., pp. 205-262, 3/6.

Miss Annie Dixon reports to the Manchester Microscopical Society
the occurrence of Archerina boltoni, a rhizopod, which she found plentifully
in a pond at Didsbury. It was previously reported for Birmingham
in 1885. To the same Society Mr. H. Britten makes a record of Cara-
phr actus cinctus, one of the Fairy Flies. It was taken at Levenshulme
and is said to be the first record for the north of England.

No. 13 of The Journal oj the East AJrica and Uganda Natural History
Society (Longmans, Green and Co., pp. 279-357, 5s. 4d.), contains three
papers on Caves, by C. W. Flobley, T. L. Deacon, and A. Knight-Bruce
respectively ; Note on the Former Level of the Victoria Nyanza, by
Felix Oswald ; Game and Disease, by A. B. Percival ; On Snakes in East
Africa, by A. Loveridge ; A Volcanic Eruption in East Africa, by C. W.
Hobley ; and Pitta angolensis longipennis, by V. G. and L. van Someren. •

Dr. R. C. L. Perkins gives ‘ Additions to E. Saunders's Catalogue of
British Hymenoptera (Aculeata), 1902, and Changes in nomenclature’
in The Entomologist's Monthly Magazine for January. The author quite
truly says, ' in addition to these changes, which are sufficiently deplorable,
others even more so will have to be made.' In the same journal is a
record of Elasmostethus ferrugatus taken by Mr. J. W. Carter, near Bradford,,
in 1889, — ' this is the third recorded British specimen of the species,
and is really the earliest in point of time. Mr. D. Day records Thalyora
sericea, Delphax distincta and D. pullula in Cumberland.

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AND

T. W. WOODHEAD, Ph.D., M.Sc., F.L.S.,

Technical College, Huddersfield.

WITH THE ASSISTANCE AS REFEREES IN SPECIAL DEPARTMENTS OF

J. GILBERT BAKER, P.R.S. P.L.S., GEO. T. PORRITT, P.L.S., P.8.S.,
Prof. P. F. KENDALL, M.Sc., P.G.S., JOHN W. TAYLOR, M.Sc.,

RILEY FORTUNE, P.Z.S.

Contents : —

PAGE

Notes and Comments (illus.): — The Natural History Museum; An Appointment; A
Detriment to Science ; The ‘ Creators ’ ; Natural History Museum ; An Appointment
Made ; Dr, Harmer’s Qualifications ; Church and Science ; Ammonite or Mammoth ;

The * All-Seeing Eye ’ ; An Archaeologist’s Eye ; Man Proud Man ; The First Restoration
of An Extinct Mammal; Underground Geology; A Yorkshire Analogy; A Side Issue ;
Summary of Arguments ; A Handbook of British Birds ; The Plan ; Plovers and Their

Eggs ; A Pigeon's Crop 113-122

Nature and Man —Prof. W. Garstang, M.A., D.Sc 123-131

Micro-Lepidoptera In Wharfedale— IV. Mansbridge ... 135-136

The Spiders of Yorkshire— Wtn. Falconer 137-110

Bibliography Papers and Records relating to the Geology and Palaeontology of the North

of England (Yorkshire excepted), published during 1918 — T. Sheppard, M.Sc., F.G.S. ... 141-142
In Memoriam: William Denison Roebuck, M.Sc., F.L.S. (illustrated)— J.W. T. 143-149

Field Notes: — Helix ( Macularia ) vermiculata Muller in Northamptonshire; Denbighshire
Hepatics ; Linum angustifolium at Cloughton ; Large Wharfe Trout; Derbyshire
Butterflies ; Lancashire and Cheshire Entomology ; Polynema natans ... 122, 136, 150-151

Reviews and Book Notices 134

Northern News 140

News from the Magazines, etc. 152

Illustrations | 116, 117, 122, 14B

Plate I?

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Lancs, and Cheshire Eutom. Soc. Reports 1-9, 11, 12, 14 18
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Liverpool Geol. Association Proc. Parts 1, 3, 16.

Liverpool Nat. Journ. Parts 1, 3, 7, 9, 18, 20 (or set).

Manchester Geol. Soc. Trans. Vols. XV., XVI., XIX.-XXIII.

Marine Biological Assoc. Journal. Vols. I. -IV.

Naturalists’ Guide (Huddersfield). Parts 1-38.

Naturalists’ Record. Set.

Newbury District Field Club Transactions. Vols. III. and on.

Norfolk and Norwich Nat. Soc. Trans. Vol. IV., Pt. 3.

North Staffordshire Field Club Reports for 1869, 1871-2, 1876.

Peterborough Natural History Society. Reports 1-8, 11-12, 1 4-2*5.

Quarterly Journal of Science. 1878-9, 1882-3, and 1885.

Quekett Club Journ. 1st Series, No. 25.

Royal Cornwall Geological Society Trans. Vol. V. to date.

Salisbury Field Club. Transactions, Vol. II.

Scottish Naturalist. 1881-1891.

Simpson’s Guide to Whitby. 1st ed. [1862].

Smith’s New Geological Atlas of England and Wales. 1819-21.

Soc. of Antiquaries, Proc. 1st Series, Vols. I and II.

Surrey Arch. Collections. Vol. V.

Sussex and Hants. Naturalist. 17 parts.

Sussex Arch. Collection, II. -V.

Tweddell’s Bards and Authors of Cleveland. Parts 9-12.

Union Jack Naturalist. Any.

Vale of Derwent Nat. Field Club. Old Series, Vols. I.-III.

Wakefield Lit. and Phil. Soc. Reports. Set.

Waliord’s Antiquarian Mag. and Bibliographer for July-Dee., 1885.

Wilts. Arch, and Nat. Hist. Mag. Vols. X.-XXVI,

Woolhope Club Trans. 1866-80.

York Museum. Keeping's Handbook to Nat. Hist. Collections.

Yorks. Nat. Club Proc. (York). Set. 1867-70.

Yorks. Nat. Union Trans. Part 1.

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1 1.3

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM.

It seems hardly believable that after the awful lessons during
the greatest war in History, when it has been demonstrated
that the lack of the proper appreciation of science has almost
been the country's ruin, there should be the necessity for the
following letter which appeared in The Times of March 1st
bearing the signatures of some of our greatest naturalists,
viz. : — W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., J. Cossar Ewart, F.R.S.,
F. W. Gamble, F.R.S., J. S. Gardiner, F.R.S., Walter Garstang,
D.Sc., E. S. Goodrich, F.R.S., W. A. Herdman, F.R.S., S. J.
Hickson, F.R.S., J. P. Hill, F.R.S., W. E. Hoyle, D.Sc.,
Arthur Keith, F.R.S., J. Graham Kerr, F.R.S., E. W. Mac-
Bride, F.R.S., W. C. McIntosh F.R.S., P. Chalmers Mitchell,
C.B.E., F.R.S., E. B. Poulton, F.R.S., R. C. Punnett, F.R.S.,
A. E. Shipley, F.R.S., W. J. Sollas, F.R.S., Jethro J. H.
Teall, F.R.S., and J. Arthur Thomson, LL.D.

AN APPOINTMENT.

The letter is as follows ‘ The Director of the British
Museum (Natural History) is about to retire, and we learn
with deep apprehension that the principal trustees, with whom
the appointment rests, have received, or are about to receive
from the general body of trustees a recommendation to pass
over the claims of scientific men and to appoint a lay official,
who is at present assistant secretary. The former directors,
Sir Richard Owen, Sir William Flower, and Sir Ray Lankester,
like the present director, Sir Lazarus Fletcher, were all distin-
guished scientific men. The Natural History Museum is a
scientific institution. There is a large staff of scientific keepers
and assistants. The director has to represent natural history
to the public, to other scientific institutions at home, in the
Dominions and colonies, and in foreign countries, and to the
many Government Departments with which the Museum has
relations. He must represent it with knowledge and authority.
There are few posts with such possibilities of advancing the
natural history sciences, of making them useful to the nation,
and of interpreting them to the public. The existence of the
post is a great stimulus to the zeal and ambition of zoologists
and geologists.'

A DETRIMENT TO SCIENCE.

‘ The arguments alleged in favour of the recommendation
are trivial. It is stated that a former director was allowed
by the trustees to leave the administrative details to the member
of the clerical staff whom it is proposed to promote, that he
performed these duties with ability, and during the tenure
of the present director retained and extended his powers.
It is urged that the tenure of the new director would be short
as he would have to retire in two years under the age limit.

1919 April 1

H

Notes and Comments.

114

It is pleaded that promotion would entitle h’m to a larger
pension and that he need not be called director, but only
acting-director. Plainly, if the assistant secretary be the only
man who knows the details of administration it is important
that the permanent director should be appointed at once, in
order to have the opportunity of learning them before taking
them over. In actual fact there is nothing in the administra-
tive work of the directorship that could not be learned in a
few weeks or months by any person of ordinary intelligence.
At least two of the present keepers are eligible for the vacancy,
•have attained the necessary scientific standing, and have ample
experience of the Museum itself. To pass over these or several
eminent and eligible men not on the staff in favour of one
of the ordinary office staff would be an affront to scientific
men and of grave detriment to science/

THE / CREATORS/

It does seem strange after all the lessons we have had,
that the appointment of the Director of our Natural History
Museum — probably the most important post of its kind in
the world — should, by a law old in date and mediaeval in
type, be in the hands of the Lord Chancellor, the Archbishop of
Canterbury, and the Speaker of the House of Commons,
whoever these very estimable gentlemen may be for the time
being. It is very unlikely that, with their many duties,
they can give much time to scientific matters. By a stroke
o: sheer luck one, at least, might possibly have some leanings
towards science ; the odds are however that the reverse will be
the case. In the old days when all our National collections
were housed at Bloomsbury, and books and mummies were
the chief attraction, a Chancellor, an Archbishop and a Speaker
may have been a sui able tribunal. But science has made
leaps and has bounded away to South Kensington since then,
and the present Government should see to it that the appoint-
ment of the Director of the Natural History Museum is in the
hands of men capable of judging the requirements of the post,
instead of, as in the present case, attempting to give the
honour to the person who salaams to them on the few occasions
upon which they meet, and who has the privilege of recording
the Great Words which issue from their Great Mouths.

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM.

As a ‘ leader ’in The Times points out : — ' The present
home of the Natural History Museum was completed in 1880.
The logical sequence of this separation of the buildings and
collections would have been to create a separate body of
Trustees, with scientific knowledge and interests, for the
governance of the new building ; and this course was urged
in a memorial signed by leading naturalists, including Darwin

N^tutalist,

Notes and Comments .

*15

and Huxley. But no action was taken on the memorial;
and the general body of Trustees, although admirably adapted
for the control of the Museum at Bloomsbury, still have very
slight connexion with the natural history sciences. The
Principal Trustees hold their position ex officio, and are not
men of science. But in England anomalies* of this kind have
a way of producing their own corrective, and the appeal of
our correspondents may well prove successful/

AN APPOINTMENT MADE.

Since the agitation which appeared in the press, the matter
has been settled, as will be seen from the following extract
from a report in The Times : — At a meeting of the Electing
Trustees of the British Museum the Prince of Wales was
elected a Trustee in place of the late Duke of Northumberland.
The following appointments have been made by the principal
Trustees : Dr. Sidney Frederick Harmer, F.R.S., Keeper of
Zoology, to be Director of the Natural History Departments,
in the room of Sir Lazarus Fletcher, F.R.S., retired. Mr.
Charles Tate Regan, F.R.S., to be Assistant Keeper of Zoology,
in the room of Mr. W. R. Ogilvie Grant, retired. Dr. Harmer
will retain the keepership of zoology until the end of Tie year
1920.

dr. harmer’s qualifications.

Dr. Harmer, a distinguished Cambridge zoologist, was
formerly a Fellow of King’s College, Lecturer in Zoology, and
Superintendent to the University Museum of Zoology. He is
a leading authority on invertebrate zoology and has published
many papers on polyzoa, and with Dr. Shipley, now Vice-
Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, he edited the
Cambridge Natural History. In 1907 he was appointed keeper
of zoology at the Natural History Museum, and at once threw
himself into his new duties with vigour. He has studied in
particular the fauna of waterworks, and, following the example
of his great predecessor, the late Sir William Flower, he has
paid special attention to whales. He has taken a deep interest
in the preservation of animals, and has advised the Colonial
Office on the preservation of whales and seals. He is a vice-
president of the Zoological Society. Mr. C. Tate Regan,
F.R.S., who has been appointed Assistant Keeper of Zoology,
is an authority on fishing, and has recently done important
work on the Departmental Committee on fresh water fish.

CHURCH AND SCIENCE.

The protest to the newspapers against the filling up of the
post of Director of the British Museum of Natural History by a
clerk has been successful. But the . three Principal Trustees

1919 April 1

Portion of Chalk Ammonite — the alleged ‘ventral surface
of mammoth model.

natural ‘ piece of chalk/ receives unexpected confirmation
from one of our leading palaeontologists whose authority one
cannot question. He points out that the so-called palaeolithic
carving is nothing more nor less than a fragment of the whorl
of a chalk ammonite ! A further examination of the four
figures makes this so plain that we feel ashamed to say this
was not noticed in writing our first note ; the curve of the edge
of the shell, the natural sculpturing on the keel, the divisions
of the cell walls, and the siphuncle are all clearly shown in

116

litotes and Comments.

have followed the line of least resistance, and effected a com-
promise by selecting Dr. S. F. Harmer for the post and saving
a salary, a part of which is no doubt to go as a sop to the clerk.
The one person who by his position, his work and his general
reputation the world over was marked out for the post, has
been passed over. The anomaly and anachronism of the
interference of the Church in scientific matters was never
brought into a fiercer light than in this unseemly incident.

AMMONITE OR MAMMOTH.

Referring to our note (pp. 85-86) on the alleged carved
statuette of a mammoth, four illustrations of which occupy a
full page plate in Man for February, our suggestion (made
merely from the illustration), that the ' model ’ was simply a

Naturalist,

Notes and Comments.

ii 7

this, with almost text -book clearness. For the loan of the
blocks of two of these illustrations we are indebted to the
publishers of Man.

THE ‘ ALL-SEEING EYE.’

Of one of these septa Mr. Moir writes : — ‘ When we turn
to the ventral surface of this carving we notice that the four
legs, penis [the siphuncle !] and belly of the creature are
depicted in a remarkable and realistic manner. An examin-
ation of this surface shows that in all probability the hind
legs and penis (which was probably represented extended)
have been broken off in ancient times, and this may also
apply to the trunk, the lower end of which is visible in the
photograph.’ And so on. To make his discovery more

Side view of alleged Model of Mammoth.

plausible Mr. Moir gives one of his characteristic school-boy
sketches, ‘ Outline drawing of woolly mammoth/ though this
time it is not dated nor initialled.

AN ARCHAEOLOGIST’S EYE.

Mr. Moir concludes, * This important discovery by Mr.
Gathorne-Hardy, which it has been my privilege to describe,
will no doubt open the eyes of archaeologists/ etc. Well,
it has. But what we wonder at is that Mr. Moir should so
readily be able to mislead many of our leading men, and get
the results of his ‘ researches * published in otherwise reputable
journals. Dr. Keith’s excellent work on * The Antiquity of
Man ’ is scientifically damned by the inclusion of Mr. Moir's

1919 April 1

ii 8

Notes and Comments.

account of his ‘ discovery ’ of the now notorious * Ipswich
Man/ originally said to have been one of the oldest skeletons
in Britain, if not in the world, which Mr. Moir himself has since
admitted to be a comparatively recent burial.

MAN PROUD MAN.

Mr. Moir, we know, is one of those enthusiasts who sees
urns in trees, flints in running brooks, palseoliths in stones,
and mammoths in everything. But that he should publish
a portion of an ammonite in 'Man, a Monthly Record of
Anthropological Science, published under the direction of
the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Biitain and
Ireland/ passes our understanding. We certainly think that
this Royal Institute, and its editor, are much to blame for
allowing such stuff to be given to the world under the name of
* science/ It is evidently another proof of what our greatest
poet has anticipated : — - j

‘But Man , proud Man !

Drest in a little brief authority, —

Most ignorant of what he’s most assured,

His glossy essence, — like any angry ape,

Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven,

As make the angels weep.’

THE FIRST RESTORATION OF AN EXTINCT MAMMAL.

We take the following interesting note by Mr. C. Davies
Sherborn from The Geological Magazine The grammarian
Appollonius relates that there was’ an earthquake during
the reign of Tiberius Nero, through which many celebrated
cities of Asia were entirely destroyed. ...... In

those parts in which the earth was rent asunder very large
dead bodies were , found ; the magnitude of which, indeed,
so astonished the inhabitants, that they were unwilling to
move them. That the affair, however, might be generally
known, they sent to Rome one of the teeth of these bodies ;
and this was more than a foot long. The ambassadors, at
the time they showed this to Tiberius asked him whether
he wished that the hero to whom this tooth belonged should
be brought to him. Upon this Tiberius very prudently
thought of , a means by which he might neither be deprived
of knowing the dimensions of this body nor yet be guilty of
the impiety of robbing the dead. He ordered a celebrated
geometrician, whose name was Pulcrus, and whom he honoured
for , his art, to be called, and desired him to make a face in
proportion to the size of that tooth. The geometrician, there-
fore, having calculated from the size of the tooth the, dimensions
of the face and of the whole body, accomplished the task
imposed on him with great celerity, and brought the face
to tin Emperor, who, after j he had .satisfied himself with

• Naturalist i,

Notes and Comments.

119

beholding it, ordered the tooth to be restored to the place
from whence it was taken.’ Phlegon Trallianus, ‘ On Admir-
able Things,’ ex notis Taylor, ed. Pausanias, i, 97, in iii. (1824),
240.

UNDERGROUND GEOLOGY.

At the recent Anniversary Meeting of the Geological Society
of London, the President, Mr. G. W. Lamplugh, F.R.S., delivered
an address on ‘ The Structure of the Weald and analogous
tracts.’ With respect to the Weald, he described how the
numerous deep borings on its northern flank had proved
that the Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous rocks as a whole
formed a huge recumbent wedge, and how this wedge had its
thickest part in the middle of the Weald. He showed that
borings near Battle, along with other evidence, indicated that
the central mass of sediments thinned southwards as well as
northwards ; that the anticlinal structure of the Weald was
confined to the outcropping strata ; and that it was super-
imposed upon a syncline of Jurassic formations. He mentioned
that the superficial character of the anticline was recognized
long ago by W. Topley, though the suggestion then made
that the sediments were originally deposited as a dome had
been d sproved. The occurrence, at various horizons, of
estuarine and other strata, which must have been deposited
horizontally, but now diverged towards the Wealden axis like
the ribs of an open fan, showed that the accumulation of
almost all the Mesozoic sediments had taken place in a gradually
deepening trough with relatively stable s'des, and that the
superficial anticline was due to a slight recovery or shallowing
of the trough after it was filled.

A YORKSHIRE ANALOGY.

Following the comparisons instituted by Topley, he next
dealt with a section through the Jurassic rocks of the South
Midlands, from Gloucester to beyond Aylesbury* and showed
that the original structure and conditions had beeir like that
of the Weald, the present difference being due mainly to the
tilting of the basin by the uplift of its western side, and the
consequent removal of the strata on this side by erosion.
This arrangement, resulting in a recumbent wedge, pointing
eastward, prevails throughout the Midland counties up to the
Humber. The discussion was then carried to the Jurassic
rocks of Yorkshire, illustrated by a section drawn h orn Robin
Hood’s JBay to Pocklington, where again the recumbent wedge
was shown to be in. evidence, and to postulate a history similar
to that of the Weald. Some reference was also made to the
existence of an analogous structure in certain areas of Triassic
and Carboniferous rocks, and to its possible occurrence in
older formations. , . . .

1919 April 1

120

Notes and Comments.

A SIDE ISSUE,

As a side issue arising from the study of the sections, it
was pointed out that, in all cases where the formations were
above sea-level, their outcrops coincided more or less closely
with the tracts in which the formations severally attained
their greatest original thickness ; and the same relationship
he d good for nearly all other formations in England. It was
suggested as an obvious explanation that, when denudation
plays upon a mass of similar material of irregular thickness,
the thickest parts of the mass will endure longest, so that lens-
shaped deposits accumulated in a basin will lose area most
quickly around any exposed margin, and will maintain it
longest in the middle of the lens.

SUMMARY OF ARGUMENTS.

The president concluded his address with the following
summary of his argument - (i). The Anticline of the Weald
is a superficial structure dependent upon an underlying syncline.
The lens of sediments thus bounded was deposited in a gradually
deepening trough, which was afterwards shallowed by partial
recovery. (2.) The Jurassic rocks of the rest of England
have had a similar history, and show an analogous structure
modified by unequal uplift. (3.) The Triassic and most of
the Carboniferous rocks of England appear also to have been
accumulated in deepening troughs or basins, which were after-
wards shallowed by differential uplift where the deposits
were thickest. (4.) Where the formations dealt with lie
above sea-level, the present outcrops represent the areas of
maximum development, and therefore coincide roughly with
the position of the deepest parts of the old troughs. This
factor may be of wide application, and has a practical bearing.

A HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS.

We have received from Messrs. Witherby and Co., Part 1
of ‘ A Practical Handbook of British Birds/ and if the remaining
seventeen parts keep up to this standard, the book bids fair
to be as useful and as valuable as was Barrett-Hamilton's
‘ British Mammals/ referred to in these pages at the time ;
and we don’t think the editor, Mr. H. F. Witherby, could
hope for greater praise. This section contains xvi. J- 64 pp.,
two plates, one of which is excellently reproduced in colours,
and over 60 illustrations in the text. In the preparation of the
work the editor has had the assistance of E. Hartert, Annie
C. Jackson, Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain, C. Oldham and N. F.
Ticehurst. The first part contains an appropriate ‘ Intro-
ductory Note/ a ‘ Glossary of Terms/ a 1 Key to the Orders/
and descriptions of various species beginning with (1) The Raven
and ending with ‘Carduelis hornemanni 24. Carduelis horne-

Naturaiist,

THE NATURALIST , 1919.

Plate I.

1. Juvenile Snow Bunting.

2. Juvenile Wood-Lark.

3. Juvenile Sky Lark.

4. First-winter Richard’s Pipit.

5. Juvenile Rock-Pipit.

Reproduced by permission from “ A.

edited by H

6. 1st primaries of Sky Lark
(a) juvenile, ( b ) adult.

7. Crest feathers of (c) Sky Lark, (d)
Wood Lark, (e) Crested Lark.

8. Feathers from rump of (/) Red-
throated Pipit, (g) Meadow-Pipit.

Practical Handbook of British Birds."

F. Witherby .

Notes and Comments

121

manni hornemanni (Holt) — Hornemann’s Redpoll.’ There is
no disrespect to man Homemann anyway !

THE PLAN.

Each species is referred to under the heads of Description,
(nestling, Juvenile, first winter and summer ; Measurements
and structure) ; Characters and allied forms ; Field-characters,
Breeding habits, Food, Distribution (British Isles and abroad)
and Migrations. The scientific names are of the recently
invented Pica pica pica (L.) [!] type, whereas in these times
we prefer seeing more brevier ! We can only say that in the
matter of paper, type, etc., the work is quite up to the Witherby
standard. We are permitted to give a sample of the illustrations
herewith, by the courtesy of the editor (see Plate I.).

PLOVERS AND THEIR EGGS.

Messrs. Johnson Wilkinson and F. H. Edmondson, the
joint secretaries of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union Wild
Birds and Eggs Protection Committee write : — ‘ Following up
a complaint by the Ingleton Tenant Farmers’ Association,
the West Riding County Council have made inquiries from the
Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union and other associations concerning
the lapwing, green plover, or peewit. On November 25th,
1918, at the meeting of the Bradford Naturalists a resolution
was passed to the effect that the plover and eggs should be
protected all the year round. On December 7th, 1918, at
the meeting of the Y.N.U., held in Leeds, Mr. H. B. Booth
moved the following resolution, which was seconded by Mr.
L. Gaunt, and passed unanimously : — “ In view of the extreme
usefulness of the lapwing to agriculturalists, it being a bird
without a single fault, we consider that both the birds and eggs
should receive complete protection in the West Riding. We
would also recommend that it should be made an unlawful
offence to offer for sale either the lapwing or its eggs in the
Riding.” It is gratifying to the members of the Y.N.U. to
learn that the County Council at Wakefield have approved of the
resolution, and that henceforth both plovers and eggs are to
be protected all the year round. It is now up to the farmers
themselves to do their best to prevent persons wandering
on their lands and taking and destroying at their pleasure
both birds and eggs.’

a pigeon’s crop.

We take the following from The Journal of the Board of
Agriculture, Vol. XXV., No. 5 : — ‘ The Board have received
the following communication from Dr. Thos. Milburn, the
Secretary of Agriculture to the Lancashire County Council *—
“ Many examples of the damage done to newly sown corn

1919 April 1

122

Notes and Comments

crops and to young clover plants have-, from time to time,
appeared in the Press. The following will serve as a useful
record of the voracious feeding of the wood pigeon, and will
also show its preference for a vegetable diet, particularly
grain and cultivated plants. The pigeon was shot by Windham
E. Hale, Esq. The corn and other' seeds were counted and
have been preserved as a permanent record at the Agricultural
Department, County Offices, Preston. The following is a list
of the contents of the crop (see Fig.)

Barley grains ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 56*

Clover leaves ... ... ... ... ... ... 113

Rye Grass seeds ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 986

Clover seeds ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 108

Weed flowers ... ... ... ... ... ... ... —

It was difficult to give a correct record of the weed flowers,
as they were in various stages of development. There would,
however, probably be about 60 to 80.” ’ The accompanying
illustration appeared with the above note and by the permission
of the Board we are able to give it to our readers.

: o :

Helix (Macularia) vermiculata Muller in Northampton-
shire.— An undoubted specimen of this South European
species was found in August of last year by Mr. C. E. Wright,
of Kettering, during the process of cutting out a new heading
in the Ironstone mine situate on the site of the old Roman
encampment called Citteringham. The shell was found
amongst a number of particles of Helix hortensis, at about
two feet down in one of the old Roman Kitchen-middens,
and has lost its epidermis, and in great part the dark pigmenta-
tion it may have had, but is in fair condition, considering
its age. Specimens of Helix hortensis. Oyster shells, broken
Romano-Britis.h pottery, coins, brooches, parts of sandals,
etc., have been unearthed during the excavations of these
Kitchen-middens* — Jno. W. Taylor, March 25th, 1919.

Naturalist,

123

NATURE AND MAN.

Prof. W. GARSTANG. M.'A. D.Sc.

( Continued from page 96 ),

With regard to the supposed cruelty of the carnivorous
habit, the special case of the hunter and the hunted, it is even
more necessary to lay stress on the possibility of great exagger-
ation, owing to the common failure to recognise the greater
play of memory and anticipation in human than in animal
consciousness. There is good reason to think that a race
for life among animals is most probably devoid of all the more
painful elements of fear that goad human beings under similar
circumstances, while the excitement of the race, in animals
adapted to it, is more likely to be accompanied by a sense of
pleasure than of pain. Finally, when the prey is seized or
struck, we have direct evidence that the sensory mechanism
is so profoundly stunned by the shock that actual pain must
be both rare and insignificant. Livingstone’s sensations when
he was seized by a lion, and shaken as a rat by a terrier, have
been fully described by himself, the description being quoted
by Wallace. The effect of this shake, he says, was to cause
4 a sort of drowsiness, in which there was no sense of pain
or feeling of terror, though I was conscious of all that was
happening.’ Whymper’s statement of his experience of a
fall of several hundred feet on the Matterhorn is equally
emphatic. ‘ He declares that while falling and feeling blow
after blow, he neither lost consciousness nor suffered pain,
merely thinking, calmly, that a few more blows would finish
him.’ We have probably all of us, unfortunately, heard
only too many of the experiences of friends and relatives
variously wounded in the course of the present war, and
their testimony amply corroborates these and other records.
Thus I fully endorse Wallace’s remark, ‘ We have therefore a
right to conclude that, when death follows any great shock,, it
is as easy and painless a death as possible ; and this is certainly
what happens when an animal is seized by a beast of prey.’
To which quotation I will add a portion of Wallace’s general
summary : ‘ On the, whole, then, we conclude that the popular
idea of the struggle for existence entailing misery and pain
on the animal world is the very reverse of the truth. \\Tiat
it really brings about is the maximum of life and the enjoyment
of life with the minimum of suffering and pain.’

I have ventured to emphasise this aspect of the question
not merely because , I am interested in the spread of truth,
but because every convinced naturalist has opportunities of
correcting popular, errors on these and similar questions ; and
it is not until public opinion has been rendered more healthy

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124

Garstang : Nature and Man.

and pruned of much false sentiment that many of the
commonest ills of mankind can be eradicated. In my opinion
the future welfare of humanity depends more upon a training
of the sentiments and emotions in the light of a knowledge
of Nature than upon anything else.

III.*— The Interpretation of Nature.

To a child Nature is a picture drawn around the stage
of his activities. His little mind, vivid with an unceasing
stream of growing instincts, fresh sensations, new ideas, is
the only reality. You might roll up the background and
substitute another— it is no more essential than the scenery
to an acrobat. The idea that he is part of this same Nature,
which is so obviously outside him, would be unintelligible to
him. That she has been in any way concerned in building
him up, in moulding the very activities which mark him off
from her, would seem nonsense. His lively consciousness is
the measure of what is ; the past and the future have no
existence.

In a little while he begins to make discoveries. Parts
of the scenery move without him. The sun crosses she sky ;
leaves fall and scatter ; daisies close their eyes ; a butterfly
flits past ; a blackbird darts cackling into the bushes. The
background begins to puzzle, then excites him. The very
ground is full of moving things ; a centipede darts away from
his spade ; helpless caterpillars curl up, uncoil, and hide
again. Thus gradually becomes unveiled the world of life
outside our own, with its identical problems of being and
becoming,— the thrush’s nest, the pupa in its earthen cradle ;
and I know one small boy who found to his delight a baby
earthworm emerging from its cocoon.

He begins to use his hands ; watches the carpenter, sweep,
blacksmith ; plays with tools ; tries to make things, unmakes
them ; but soon is drawn into the circle of school, games,
playmates. Comradeship becomes a passion ; the instincts
of the pack take hold of him ; he loses his freedom ; their law
becomes his law. While he is learning the rules of corps life,
of leadership, and ‘ give and take,’ Nature is eclipsed.
Gradually, however, the pack changes, and, being now strong
of limb, he can drop out from time to time with a chum, if he
is lucky, and spend long summer days exploring the haunts of
the wheatear, snipe and kingfisher. Too often the guide, or
the stimulus, or the opportunity is lacking ; other claims or
interests attract him ; the call of the moors and woodlands

* Sections III. and IV., thoug-h contemplated as part of this address,
were not actually read. — W. G.

Naturalist

Garstang : Nature and Man. 125

finds no response ; Nature as an influence and a revelation
retires from his consciousness.

Duties now press more and more ; he looks into the future,
forms hopes and plans and fears ; becomes a man. Time
passes ; the years race where formerly they crept. Sometimes
he is oppressed and weary, and re-visits the country scene.
It is quiet and soothing, but seems empty where once it was
so full. Nature alone has ceased to be a companion, though
now and again she breaks upon him with faint echoes and
memories of the old glory. But these occasions end in
sadness ; he and Nature have drifted apart ; her lessons
have ceased ; he has lost touch.

Is not this a fair picture of the relations to external Nature
of many an ordinary man ?

And what a loss it is ! You and I, who, through all the
ups and downs of life, have kept on visiting terms with the
‘ old Nurse/ would be twenty years older but for her. The
patch of her wild garden which we have cultivated has been
sadly small, but it has been enough to keep us under the
old benign influence. And what one has garnered he has
shared with others, so that we have gained far more than our
own experience, and have had access to the stores of our
predecessors as well. Nature has long ceased to be the
indifferent background of our lives. Each rock and stone,
each brook and pond carries legends of former times ; mosses
and liver-worts, ferns and flowers daily build up for us the
story of the past ; worms and insects, newts and lizards, birds
and beasts carry on the tale of life to the threshold of to-day.
So far from age drifting us apart from Nature, every year has
brought us closer. The sense of unity increases with our
knowledge, in spite of the mysteries which defy examination.

Now to see the unity and simplicity amid the infinite
variety of nature has always been claimed to be the privilege
of the poet, who alone is said to ‘ see Nature whole/ Science
is supposed, on the other hand, to take partial views, and to
be content with analysis and dissection. If this contrast
were really tenable, we should have to claim for Natural
History a place outside and above the spheres both of poetry
and science, for the field naturalist is able, above all men,
to appreciate both the poetic and the scientific aspects of
Nature. Yet, in truth, no such contrast is permissible. Open
the literature of the poets and you will find no ‘unity ’ of
Nature, but almost as many ‘ Natures ’ as poets ; to many
poets Nature seems to be little more than a reflection of their
moods. Open the literature of science and, if you can read
it, you find the discoveries in every section blending into
a harmonious whole, a progressive revelation of the continuity
of Nature from nebula to man. The poet makes an artificial

1919 April 1

126 Garstang ': Nature and Man.

unity of Nature by animating it with a projection of his own
soul ; science unveils the real unity of Nature by stripping off
its many-coloured cloak of time and circumstance.

Thus the mantle of the prophet is passing— indeed, has
already passed — from the poet to the man of science. Why
then do we still hear of the inspiration of poetry and the
materialism of science ? There are at least three reasons,
each one of which, it must be admitted, is bound to affect
the unscientific world with prejudices not unnatural. Firstly,
the continuity which science has been engaged in revealing
at the outset connects man downwards with the dust instead
of upwards with the angels; and Disraeli spoke for more
than himself when he asserted that he, for his part, was ‘ on
the side of the angels/ Secondly, science may not appeal
to the emotions which every man carries about with him,
but depends in the last resort on minute details, the veri-
fication of which by the man in the street is rarely possible.
And thirdly, instead of the ‘ magical felicity of expression \
with which the poet clothes his ideas, science confronts its
votaries with a harsh jargon of such extreme technicality
that it demands months, if not years, to master the vocabulary
and axioms of even a single branch of science.

The prejudices due to these causes certainly tend to dis-
appear as knowledge of the larger achievements of science
become diffused ; but the industrial bye-products of science
multiply so rapidly that we shall probably have to lie under
the charge of materialism Until matter itself has been consigned
by the physicist to the limbo of popular illusions. In the
meantime we may sum up the situation as regards the in-
terpretation of Nature to mankind by the statement that
poetry appeals to the heart without convincing the head,
while science appeals to the head and leaves the heart cold.

Will the situation end there ? Assuredly not ; for science
is no longer a curious collection of drawing-room experiments
and quaint specimens, but a spirit permeating life with a new
outlook and a new ideal, the lode-star of which is truth —

‘ truth, though the heavens fail ’ — and influencing every form
of human activity. A force which penetrates society in all
directions, and like a ferment, stimulates change and achieve-
ment in man’s material, intellectual and spiritual spheres
alike, is not going to leave the poetry of the future unaffected.
No literature in the world can rival our own in its exquisite
descriptions of the phases of external Nature ; but, as in the
past, so in the present the ‘ stir and growth ’ of the times
cannot fail to call forth its own poet, who in this case must
be the herald and interpreter of the coming kingdom of science.
The spirit bloweth where it listeth ; but the poet -seer, who first
attains the full spiritual freedom of science, will want to pursue'

Naturalist, '

Garstang : Nature and Man.

12 7

at least two themes 'unattempted yet in prose or rhyme:'
Man conscious of his powers as the: Interpreter of Nature, and
Nature revealed as the parent and surest Guide of Man.

Thus, although we began by denying that the poets of the
past had ever really * seen Nature whole/ we end by admitting
that poetry, after all, must be the great interpreter of Nature
for the mass of mankind. What poetry unified of old was
not Nature but the subjective dreams and myths of men.
Substitute for these the objective revelations of science, and
poetry may still fulfil its ancient role ; for the essence of poetry
lies not in its materials but in their adaptation to the spiritual
needs of man. The men of science may expound their technical
details to one another, and with more or less success point
out the consequences of these to narrow sections of man
kind around them ; but most men are to be moved through
the heart rather than the head, and require the winged words
from a poet’s quiver to produce the full effect which the
clumsy circumlocutions of science are unable to achieve. As
one of my literary colleagues, a lover of Nature, too, has
expressed it : ‘ Surely from out of the brazen world of the
scientist the poet will one day deliver a golden ' (Moorman,
The Poetic Interpretation of Nature, 1905).

Similarly we began by denying that science is limited to
partial views and is content with analysis and dissection,
but we must end by admitting that, so far as mankind at
large is .concerned, the specialisation of science and the slow
process of synthesis naturally produce the impression which
we seek to dispel. For the task of science, being no less than
the understanding of the whole of Nature, is undertaken not
by one man, or even by the co-operation of a group of men,
but by the co-operation of generations of men, who carry
forward the double work of analysis and synthesis from the
stage at which it was left by their predecessors. The vast
panoply of Nature, in its whole extent and depth, is analysed
piecemeal by astromomers, geologists, chemists, biologists,
who work independently, without organisation, guided simply
by their opportunities and special interests. Overlapping
and repetition —those bugbears of political organisers— -occur
everywhere and are indispensible ; but elastic communications
are maintained between the various groups, and discoveries in
one section, which bear upon the work of another, are soon
picked up, circulated, criticised and applied. Inevitably
analysis-r-the first step — occupies much of the time of the
individual worker ; but the actual analyses which he undertakes
are almost always determined with the object of completing
the data for a particular synthesis. These partial syntheses
are the temporary goals of every worker ; their accomplishment
stimulates, and encourages the analytic labours which often

1919 April 1

128

Garstang : Nature and Man.

tax severely his resources of skill and patience ; and it depends
on the accord or conflict of related syntheses whether progress
in a particular field can be definitely reported, or the energies
of all be turned back once more to discover the sources of
discrepancy and to devise technique of still greater precision.

It is only, therefore, with radical qualifications that the
man of science can be characterised by partial views and
devotion to analysis. These, with him, are only means to
an ideal end which is ever before him. They are. moreover,
the only means by which that ideal can be realised upon
unshakeable foundations : £ The stone which the builders

rejected is become the head of the corner.’

In this way, then, the army of science moves towards
its objective ; a far-flung battle line of irregular front, parts
moving rapidly over ground well- cleared by successful advance
guards, other parts held up by obstacles which require new
methods to tackle, but all the units in touch and pursuing
the same aims in different sectors ; the individuals gratified
by every partial success, hardened by each failure, striving
for objects which they know will but mark stepping stones of
further progress ; ever straining towards a goal which others
will reach, if not themselves.

With regard to the interpretation of Nature then, the
revelation of science, like life itself, is ‘ a progress, not a
station.’ It may be that the reconstructions of science will
always fall short of the ideally full and final truth. Does
it follow from this admission that in the meantime the syntheses
of science are false, uncertain, unreliable ? You will find
many quibblers eager to pursue that line of argument, and
to support it by pointing to the rapidity with which scientific
views on various matters have c changed ’ (as they call it)
in our own times. Mendelism, they will tell you, has knocked
the bottom out of Darwinism ; radio-activity has upset the
atomic theory ! How do we know that to-morrow some new
discovery will not consign the whole of present-day science
to the dust-heap of preposterous delusions ? The answer
which would satisfy anyone familiar with the methods of
science is that the foundations, as distinct from the fringes,
of science are too securely la^d to admit of any ‘ change ’ other
than one of extensions and consequently of the proportion
of parts to one another. But if ‘ signs and wonders ’ are
needed as evidence of the truth, surely the material achieve-
ments of science are sufficiently demonstrative of a real
knowledge of Nature’s secrets ? As a matter of fact, each
of the newer discoveries cited has conflicted with nothing
but the most insignificant of details in the old ones. One
(to resume our analogy of the battle-front) has filled up an
admitted gap, the other has created a salient from which

Naturalist

Garsiang : Nature and Man.

129

^visions of the next great advance are already taking form.
A big discovery in science marks not an oscillation of the
line, but an advance ; the bases are already impregnable ;
oscillations are possible only in the outpost line or in regions
where the line is ' fluid ’ and making its first tentative advances
into territory yet unexplored.

At any given time, then, science is truth. It is not the
‘ whole truth/ but every advance brings it nearer to that
position. It is not f nothing but the truth/ for it is preceded
by a screen of mobile scouts who are prepared to entertain
every imaginable theory, until they find one which fits their
observations so completely that they can pass it back as at
least a sound working hypothesis. The main body acts on
the new theory ; if it is found to work, it is adopted and in-
corporated ; if not, a new hypothesis is invented which does
work. In any case the fact that science provisionally adopts
many hypotheses which may be replaced at a later date by
others, and these possibly by others again, is merely a statement
of the conditions under which science advances from the known
to the unknown. ‘ Science moves, but slowly, slowly, creeping
on from point to point/ The amount of conquered territory
steadily enlarges, and that, so far as it extends, is truth —
truth ample enough to live by, and absolute enough to die
for. It is only along the receding boundaries of the unknown
that oscillations of theory are frequent, as they are inevitable.
Against the barriers of the unknowable science does not batter
itself, but none the less it is ever on the look-out for gaps in
the fence, and a flank attack has turned many an impregnable
position.

IV. — The Continuity of Nature.

The first chapter in the scientific synthesis of Nature may
fairly be said to be drawing to a conclusion with the virtual
demonstration of the material unity of all things. The matter
of which the immense variety of observable things is made —
suns, moons and stars, earth, air and sea, plants, beasts and
men — is found to be the same everywhere, so far as its essential
characters are concerned ; i.e., there is not a special material
for the suns and stars, another for the land and water, and
another for the living things of earth. All are built up of
varying combinations of the same elemental materials — the
80 odd ‘ elements ' of the chemist. The combination of any
two elements does not yield a mere blend of the properties of
the two constituents, but yields a third kind of matter with
properties quite distinct from either ; and the combinations
which make up the living matter of a plant or animal are not
identical with any to be found elsewhere. But this difference
is one of the degree of complexity, rather than the kind, of

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I

130 Garstang : Nature and Man.

material, and it appears to be certain that there is nothing in
the body of a plant or animal which cannot be resolved into
the same ultimate elements as many of the commonest mineral
constituents of the earth and its atmosphere. Now these
ultimate elements have perfectly fixed properties, and combine
with one another in perfectly fixed ways ; and the wonder of
life is increased enormously by realisation of the fact that the
bodies which exhibit life show no trace of any material elements
peculiar to themselves. Dust they are, and to dust they
return.

But since we have admitted that the matter of living
bodies is readily distinguishable by its complexity from that
of every kind of inorganic matter, and since no plant or animal
is known to have arisen by any other method than that of
ordinary reproduction, it may well be urged that these facts
are sufficient to distinguish the living world sharply and
absolutely from inorganic Nature. The gap is, indeed, a real
one, but its significance is only to be properly appreciated if
we compare this gap with other gaps that are recognisable in
the continuity of Nature.

At the present time, for example, there are gaps between
all the great classes and orders of animals and plants ; indeed, it
is the existence and width of gaps which is the basis of the
customary schemes of classification, both of plants and animals.
The one-toed horses, asses and zebras of to-day, with deep-
crowned grinding teeth, form a family of animals which is
sharply and absolutely distinguishable from their next-of-kin,
the 3- or 4-toed tapirs, with low-crowned molars ; but the
evidence of fossils shows that in Miocene times the gap was
distinctly less, for all the horses or asses then living were
imperfectly 3-toed, and many had teeth with lower crowns ;
while in Eocene times the ancestors of horses and tapirs were
barely distinguishable from one another, since all were per-
fectly 3- or 4-toed and had low-crowned molars. Thus the
gap of to-day between horses and tapirs did not exist in early
Tertiary times. There are so many similar cases, indeed, and
there is so much corroborative evidence of other kinds, that
practically all gaps between the types of animals and plants
living to-day are regarded as due to unequal rates of progress,
or divergent modification, from originally continuous groups
of ancestors, the connecting links having been improved, or
at least, modified out of existence. Thus, life, at any rate,,
provides no evidence of the discontinuity, and much evidence
of the continuity of Nature.

But what of the fundamental differences between the
chemical elements of matter ? Surely in them we have clear
evidence of discontinuity in Nature ? The answer again is
‘ Yes, certainly, under the conditions which now prevail on

Naturalist.

Garstang : Nature and Man.

131

the earth’s surface ; but not necessarily under the conditions
which prevailed when

‘ The solid earth whereon we tread
In tracts of fluent heat began.’

Water is a compound of Hydrogen and Oxygen ; but it retains
its physical form only within a narrow range of temperature,
below which it turns to ice, and above which it turns to vapour.
Within a very wide range of temperature its chemical constitu-
tion still remains unchanged ; but heat its vapour to about
i,ooo° C. and its constituent particles fly asunder as free
Hydrogen and free Oxygen. In the flame of the electric arc,
which yields the highest temperature at present available on
the earth — about 3,500° C. — practically all the compound
forms of matter break up into the elementary atoms of which
they are composed. At this temperature coal does not burn,
but glows, splits up into its elementary atoms of Carbon, Oxygen,
Hydrogen and Nitrogen, and disappears in invisible vapours
of these four substances.

Now, from our present point of view, what does all this
mean ? Two things at least ; firstly, that not merely types
of life, but also inorganic bodies have their own conditions
of existence — in this case, conditions of temperature ; and
secondly, that, under the conditions of temperature which are
now available on the earth, the chemical elements with few
exceptions are ultimate forms of matter, and therefore dis-
continuous.

But as some substances are more refractory to heat than
others, and as the number of substances which resist decom-
position is successively reduced by increase of the temperature
applied, what would happen if we could subject these earthly
elements to the still greater heat of the glowing sun ? The
answer to this question has been provided by the spectroscope.
Some elements, like sodium, will glow sufficiently over a gas-jet
to show their characteristic lines ; others, like iron, do not
show them below the heat of the electric arc in air, when a
many-lined spectrum becomes visible. But when the electric
pressure is increased to its maximum by forcing the current
through a vacuum, the spectrum changes, most of the lines
disappearing, and a few of them becoming more intense. This
change is understood to imply a temporary break-down of
the complex iron-atom into simpler atoms of what may be
called iron-predecessors.

When the spectroscope is turned to the sun and stars, the
spectra obtained are found to vary with the heat of the stars
examined. In the hottest stars there is no trace even of the
vacuum-arc predecessors of such metals as iron and copper,
still less of carbon. Except helium in small quantities, almost

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132

Garstang : Nature and Man.

all the lines indicate ‘ predecessors ’ of our earthly elements,
and only a few of these, of which hydrogen is one. In stars,
of the next grade such as Algol, typical hydrogen appears
and helium is prominent, while oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon
‘ predecessors ’ also appear. In the next group, which includes
Sirius, predecessors of many metals become prominent, and
in still cooler stars, including Arcturus, Capella and our own
Sun (if we can speak of coolness when the temperature is
estimated to be at least twice- that of the Voltaic arc), typical
earthty metals appear, such as iron and calcium, whilst the
spectra of many of the * predecessors ’ become obscure or
disappear. In still other and cooler stars evidences of carbon
make their appearance and the metallic lines become faint.

Similar observations have been made on the spectra of
nebulae, comets and meteorites. Ordinary nebulae show only
the lines of helium, hydrogen, and of another rarefied gas,
which is as yet unknown in the earth’s atmosphere, nebuiium.
(It will be remembered that Lockyer recognised helium by its
spectrum in the sun before Ramsay extracted it from earthly
sources), and it is commonly believed that such nebulae consist
only of these rarefied gases. Whether that be so, or nebulae
are merely the incandescent atmospheres surrounding shoals
of meteorites, the fact remains that at least the atmospheres,
if not the interiors, of these primary sources of worlds consist
of nothing but the most rarefied of gases, one— and probably
two — of which are so inert that their atoms do not even combine
with one another into molecules ; while comets on the other
hand display the spectra even of compounds which on the
earth at present are invariably found to be the products of
organic activity, viz., hydrocarbons ; and carbon compounds,
as well as familiar metals, are common constituents of meteorites
which have fallen upon the earth from the unknown depths
of space.

Does it not follow from all this that the material basis of
things everywhere within ‘ the flaming bounds of time and
place ’ is the same, but that it changes in complexity in ac-
cordance with changes in the conditions ? The many di-
vergent forms of matter on the surface of our cold earth become
reduced in number, in complexity, and in internal energy as
we turn the spectroscope to scenes in space of greater heat
and electrical excitement. Compounds break down into
elements ; the heavier and more active elements become
replaced by simpler ‘ predecessors,’ until finally nothing is
left but the lightest and most inert of gases under conditions
of intense electrical excitement.

Reverse the statement and we get a picture of the evolution
of the material elements themselves ; the hottest stars with
few very simple inert elements represent a stage in the devel-

rSaturalist,

Garstang : Nature and Man.

133

opmeiit of the cooler stars in which the elements are more
numerous, more varied and more energetic in themselves ;
and, as thejr cool, the complexity of the forms of matter and
their variety goes on increasing, while the light active gases,
such as hydrogen, and the inert gases, such a helium, become
scarcer and scarcer, the former, on cool worlds like the earth,
becoming locked up in compound forms of matter (e.g., water) ,
the latter becoming locked up with additional quantities of
electrons to make new elements of greater weight, such as
radium. Howt else are we to account for the facts shown by
a comparative study of the light of the suns and stars, and
for the fact that the undoubted element radium is now busily
engaged in decomposing into the scintillating particles above
mentioned ? Indeed, physicists are now debating whether
these same electrons, the minutest particles ever measured, and
everywhere alike, whatever their origin, are not the ultimate,
uniform and universal particles out of which the atoms of the
various elements have arisen by condensation into systems of
varying number and relative motion.

In any case it is clear that the chemical elements of the
earth at the present time are not the beginnings of matter :
they are the stable or persistent forms which matter has assumed
at successive stages of its long history ; and the differences
between them afford no more evidence of an essential discon-
tinuity of Nature than do the existing differences between one
kind of plant or animal and another.

Thus we have seen that in two cases capable of investigation,
the gaps that now exist between one chemical element and
another and between one type of animal and another are not
fundamental, but depend on the disappearance of the con-
ditions under which alone the original connecting links are
capable of existence. Midway between these two gaps lies
the interval between the complex carbon compounds of the
living body and the few simple inorganic carbon compounds.
Probability is plainly on the side of the view which regards this
interval in the same way as due to the unsuitability of the con-
ditions now prevalent on the earth, either for the formation or
for the persistence of the connecting links. Unfortunately the
biologist cannot apply his microscope, as the chemist can
his spectroscope, so as to get other worlds in an earlier phase
of evolution to supply the missing chapter ; nor can the
geological record help us with regard to the origin of the
simplest forms of life. There is no means of tackling this
problem except the patient methods of the physiologist and
biochemist, who will some day give us a mental synthesis of
the nature of life even if they do not succeed in artificially crea-
ting it. And there I must leave it.

What is clear is that living matter is distinguishable from

1919 April 1

134

Book Notice.

inorganic matter not in its elements — for these are identical —
but in the greater complexity of the compounds into which
these are built up, in the constant interaction of the parts
within the whole, and in the ceaseless interplay between the
whole and the materials around it. The beginnings of a world
are marked by extraordinary inertness and simplicity in the
first forms of matter (helium, etc.) and tremendous play of
energy outside them. Evolution consists in the gradual
enclosure, as it were, of fractions of this energy within new
forms of matter, different kinds of matter locking up different
amounts of energy ; until finally fife presents us with a reversal
of the picture — matter inconceivably, and almost immeasurably
complex, discharging energy from within itself in a hundred
novel ways, and absorbing the declining energies around it as
fuel to its own fires. Thus the evolution of matter runs
parallel with the involution of energy. Vital energy is the
latest term in the series, and is fitly conditioned by a material
basis in which the complex balance of atoms, molecules and
multi-molecules is so delicate and unstable as to defy direct
investigation, and the organisation of parts is so elaborate
that it can take account of the past, make provision for the
future, adapt itself to a thousand variations in the external
conditions, and gain an increasing control over the forces
of Nature which produced it.

( To be continued).

: o :

Fresh- water Biology, by H. G. Ward and G. G. Whipple. New York :
J. Wiley and Sons; London: Chapman and Hall, i,iii pp., 28s. net.
This is one of the most comprehensive and scientifically complete vol-
umes that we have seen for some time. Besides the two principal authors,
there is a whole army of ‘collaborators,’ each a specialist in his particular
department. There are thirty-one chapters, the type and paper are well
chosen, and there are over 1,500 illustrations, mostly small, but all ex-
cellently drawn and clearly indicate the characteristics described in
the text. ‘ Fresh-water Biology ’ covers much, and while the book
is by Americans and is illustrated by American species, it will be of
great service to English students as we know of no single publication
in this country which, so well embraces the various aspects of biological
science. After an excellent Introduction by H. B. Ward, there are
chapters on Conditions of Existence, and Methods of Collecting and
Photography. Then follows an enormous series of monographs on
Bacteria, Algae, Protozoa, Sponges, Worms, Animalcules, Shrimps,
Water Fleas, Copepoda, Ostracoda, higher Crustaceans, Mites, Insects,
Mollusca, and Aquatic Vertebrates ; the final chapter being on Technical
and Sanitary Problems, by G. C. Whipple. As a fair sample of the
thoroughness of the work reference may be made to Chapter IX. dealing
with Flagellate and Ciliate Protozoa, by H. W. Conn and C. H. Edmondson.
This occupies over 60 pages, is illustrated by 200 sketches, and there
is a good list of ‘ Important References’ to works on this particular subject.
The other chapters are similarly thorough and complete.

Naturalist,

MICRO-LEPIDOPTERA IN WHARFEDALE

135

W. MANSBRIDGE.

Having made a number of visits to different places in Wharfe-
dale in recent years, a note of my captures, especially as regards
the less known ‘ micro ’ section , may be useful to lepidopterists.
Most of my collecting has been within easy reach of
Menston, but anyone living near enough to visit Grassington
frequently would no doubt find that district best repay
working. Unfortunately nearly all my notes relating to Grass
Wood have been lost, otherwise the list for that locality
would have been longer. As it is one species new to Porritt’s
list is included, viz., Sciaphila penziana, which should be looked
for on the rocks and scars on the more open ground near the
wood.

The part of Otley Chevin referred to is the wooded slope,
facing north, just round the corner from the Bradford road.
Heber’s Ghyll Wood and the moorland slope above it are
doubtless well-known, at any rate they can be found quite
easily by the visitor to Ilkley. The other part of Rombald's
Moor most frequently visited by me borders the road, on the
right, just past the * Gaping Goose/ and yet another good
place, perhaps the best before the heather was burnt off in
1917, is up the dough nearly at the top of the road from
Burley station. This, in time, will recover, hence I mention
it here ; it is marked Coldstones Beck on the one-inch ordnance
map.

In regard to the macro lepidoptera I have not met with
any tendency to melanism in the above localities except
in the case of Polia chi. Of this moth the var. olivacea and the
dark slatey variation are frequent on the wall at the top of
Heber’s Ghyll Wood : last year I took a number of Phigalia
pedaria in the wood but all were of the light typical form.
I was disappointed in this as in 1891 I took one of the earliest
examples of the melanic ab. monacharia on record, this was in
Danefield Wood on Otley Chevin. The usual moorland
species of macros are of course common on suitable ground
on Rombald’s Moor, and a specimen of Emmelesia tceniata
taken in 1892 was captured there ; at the time I regarded
it as a variety of the abundant Larentia didymata. I do not
put this forward as a record, because it still requires confirm-
ation, but the species should be sought on the mossy parts
of the Moor in July.

Otley Chevin.- — Peronea vaviegana, vars. cirrana and borana, ;

P. comparand ; Ter as contaminana ; Grapholitha nisella var. decor ana ;

G. penkleriana ; Harpiptery x xylostella ; H. nemorella ; CEcophora

fulvigutella •; Argyresthia spiniella ; A. nitidella.

1919 April 1

Field Notes.

136

Rombald’s Moor. — Tortrix viburnana,, Amphisa gerningana „
Peronea caledoniana, Penthina sauciana, Bactra lanceolana, Grapho-
litha geminana, Pamplusia mercuriana, Eupcecilia angustava, Aphelia
osseana, Exapate congelatella, Phycis fusca (carbonariella) , Incurvaria
masculella, Coleophora ceespititiella , Elachista rhyncosporella.

Menston. — Dictyoptery x forskaleana, Peronea sponsana, Sciaphila
irgaureana and black variation, S. hybridana , S. conspersana, Scoparia
murana, S. trnncicolella , S. angustea, Ornix avellanella, O. guttea,
Coleophora paripennella, Lithocolletis alnifoliella .

Ilkley, Heber’s Ghyll Wood. — Scoparia ambigualis, S. murana,
S. trnncicolella, Penthina betulcetana, Pcedisca occultana, Solenobia
inconspicuella (larval case), Scardia cloacella, Argyresthia spiniella,
A. andereggiella, Ornix torquilella, Elachista obscurella, Lithocolletis
oxyacanthce * Frev., ( pomifoliella , partim), L. alnifoliella, L. querci-
ioliella, Cemiostoma laburnella.

Grass Wood. — Scoparia ambigualis, S. truncicolella, Pyrausta
aurata, Ennychia octomaculata, Mimceseoptilus bipunctidactylus,
Leioptilus osteodactylus, Argyrotoza conway ana, Penthina dimidiana,
Sciaphila penziana, S. chrysantheana, Grapholitha penkleriana ,
Ornix torquilella.

: o :

BOTANY.

Denbighshire Hepatics. — For some time I have been
trying to induce some of the younger members of the Man-
chester Microscopical Society to take an interest in the
Hepaticae, and I have found in one a promising student, Mr.
Harry Bendorf, who has been spending a few days lately at
Colwyn, Denbighshire, and has sent me a small collection
in which are two species new to Denbighshire, at least they are
not recorded in the ‘ Census Catalogue ' nor in the paper con-
tributed to The Naturalist last year by Mr. D. A. Jones, on
the ‘ Mosses and Hepatics of Denbighshire ' ; they are Metzgeria
conjugata Lindb. and Bazzania trilobata L. The list of species is
interesting from a beginner's point of view — Aneura multifida
L., Metzgeria conjugata Lindb., Alicularia scalaris Schrad.,
Eucalyx obovatus Nees., Lophocolea cuspidata Limpr. in fruit,
Lophocolea heterophylla Schrad., Chiloscyphus pallescens Ehrh.,
Cephalozia bicuspidata L., Calypogeia fissa L., Diplophyllum
albicans L., Lejeunea cavifolia Ehrh. — Wm. Hy. Pearson.

Linum angustifolium at Cloughton. — On Sept. 12th, 1918,.
I gathered Linum angustifolium Huds. in bloom in Goosedale^
Cloughton, near Scarborough, where it seemed fairly plentiful.
I see that Baker in his North Yorkshire, p. 273 (Yorkshire Nat-
uralists" Union edition), gives only two records of the finding
of the plant, so that it may be worth while to mention this
occurrence. My identification has been confirmed by Mr. J.
Beanland and Mr. J. W. Carter. — Herbert E. Wroot. Bradford.

* Bankes has shewn (E.M.M., 1889, p. 250) that pomifoliella is a
composite species it will therefore be necessary in future, when naming
any of this group of the Lithocolletidae, to refer to his descriptions.

Naturalist.

THE SPIDERS OF YORKSHIRE.

137

WM. FALCONER,
Slaithwaitc, Huddersfield .

( Continued from page 25).

Gen. Baryphyma Sim., 1-1.

B. praiensis Bl.

Uncommon, on record for two southern, three eastern, six midland
and two northern English counties, and N. Wales ; abroad, France
and Denmark. Adult April and May ; $s later also. First
occurrence — E. A. Parsons, May, 1909.

V.C. 61 — Sutton Drain bank near the bridge between Sutton and
Wawne, one <£, and Pulfin Bog, both sexes, E. A. P.

V.C. 64. — Bishop Wood, one $, T. S. ; Woodhall, one from river
drift, on left bank of Wharfe.

Gen. Peponocranium Sim., 1-1.

P. ludicmm Camb.

Widely distributed in Great Britain as far north as Culbin Sands,
Moray and in the Isle of Man ; very rare in Ireland, Hill of Howth ;
abroad, west and north of France ; at roots of grass, furze and
heather. Adult — $ May to July, $s till autumn. First occur-
rence— the author, near Pole Moor, June, 1899.

V.C. 61. — Spurn, one Bielsbeck, $s, Houghton Woods (Market
Weighton), few both sexes, Snake Hall, <$, T. S. ; Riccall and
Skipwith Commons, W. P. W., W. F.

V.C. 62. — Lonsdale, Ayton and Eston, not uncommon, J. W. H. ;

Raincliff Woods ; Ravenscar ; Goathland ; Boosbeck and Lazenby.
V.C. 63. — Naylor Rough and Hurst Wood, Shipley, W. P. W. ; Pole
Moor ; Drop Clough ; Wessenden Valley ; Marsden Clough (Holm-
hrth) ; Meltham ; Crosland Moor and Butternab Wood ; Dunford
Bridge.

V.C. 64. — Howden Ghyll, Shipley Glen, Newby Moss, W. P. W. ;
Sawley district, S.M., W.F. ; Trow Gill (Ingleborough) ; Kingsdale
Beck ; Malham ; Burnsall ; Arncliffe ; Burley-in-Wharfedale ;
Ilkley ; Plump ton Rocks ; Moor Allerton ; Adel Moor ; E. Keswick
and Linton Common.

V.C. 65.— White Force, Upper Teesdale, W. P. W.

Gen. Minyriolus Sim., 1-1.

M. pusillus Wid.

With a wide range in Gt. Britain and on the Continent ; only
recently found and very rare in Ireland ; minute and not every-
where common. Adult throughout the year. First occurrence —
the author. Drop Clough, October, 1898.

V.C. 62. — Wilton Wood, Normanby Intake, Farndale, Westerdale,
Turkey Nab, Bilsdale Head and Gt. Ayton Moor (common) J.W. H. ;
Ringingkeld Bog, both sexes, R. A. T.

V.C. 63. — Drop Clough, six ^s, many £s.

V.C. 64. — Malham Cove, one W. P. W. ; Sawley High Moor, both
sexes, S. M., W. F. ; Bolton Woods, both sexes; Grass Woods,
one $.

Gen.. Panamomops Sim., 1-2.

P. bicuspis Camb.

Very rare, recorded for Dorset, Somerset, Sussex, Surrey, Cambs.,
Staffs., Cheshire, Cumberland and Northumberland, but not yet
for either Scotland or Ireland ; abroad, France, Germany and
Switzerland. Adult throughout the year. First occurrence —
H. C. Drake, Humber Bank, 1908.

1919 April 1

I3«

Falconer : The Spiders of Yorkshire.

V.C. 61. — Humber Bank east of Hull H.C.D. {Trans. Hull Club 1908) ;

Wilberforce House, Hull, one T. S'

V.C. 62. — Scarborough, H. C. D., Naturalist, August, 1908 ; Lang-
dale End, one $, R. A. T.

V.C. 64. — Linton Common, one <?•

Gen. Savignia Bl., j-i.

S. frontata Bl.

In all parts of the British Isles, usually common, but abroad
noted only for Scandinavia and Central Europe, where it is scarce ;
at the roots of grass, heather and furze, amongst fallen leaves,
moss, etc., or beneath stones. Adults throughout the year. First
record — Yorkshire, S. G. B. I., p. 317.

V.C. 61. — Very extensively diffused, occurring1 in all parts except the
dune areas.

V.C. 62.— Marton, G. B. W. ; Gt. Ayton Moor, Eston, Lonsdale,
(common), J. W. H. ; Scarborough, H. C. D. ; Raincliff Woods,
Oliver’s Mount, and Seamer Road (Scarborough), R.A.T. ; Marske ;
Coatham Marshes ; Lazenby.

V.C. 63.— Woods about Shipley, Saltaire, Cottingley and Harden,
W. P. W. ; Cusworth, T.S, ; Calverley, S. M. ; Askem ; many
localities about Slaithwaite, Marsden, Meltham and Huddersfield ;
Heath, Wakefield; Deffer Wood (Cawthorn).

V.C. 64. — Bishop Wood, T. S. ; Roundhay Park, Leeds ; about
Adel and Ahvoodley ; Scarcroft Hill, Thorner ; Compton Bank Top.
V.C. 65. — Upper Teesdale, Mickleton, W. P, W.

Gen. Diplocephalus Berth., 8-10.

D. cristatus Bl.*

Widely distributed and often abundant in Gt. Britain and on the
Continent ; occurs also in the U.S.A. ; only recently found in
Ireland, where it is rare ; one $, Isle of Man, 1908 ; at the
roots of herbage, among dead leaves or beneath bark of trees,
occasionally in houses. Adult throughout the year.

First record — R. H. Meade, Bradford, S.G.B.I.

V.C. 61, 62, 63, 64, taken in most localities, where, any investigation
has been made, and commonly, the fewest stations being in 61, and
the most in 63 and 64.

V.C. 65.— Upper Teesdale, Y. N. U.

D. permixtus Camb. ( D. spinosus Hull, The Naturalist, Dec. 1901, p. 365).
Widely distributed in the British Isles and in many places common
in damp ground ; abroad. Northern France and Bavaria. Adult —
autumn to spring. First occurrence — the author, Slaithwaite,

• April, 1898.

V.C. 61. — Barmby-on-the-Marsh, Sandholme, Weedley Springs, Sutton,,
Market Weighton and King’s Mill Marsh, Pulfin Bog (Beverley),
Kelley thorpe, Hornsea Mere, T. S. Riccall and Skipwith Common,
numerous.

V.C. 62. — Lonsdale, fairly common, Farndale, not common, J.W.H. ;
Eston Moor.

V.C. 63. — Hurst Wood (Shipley) and Stony Ridge, W. P. W. ; on the
moors and in the doughs about Slaithwaite, Marsden, Meltham and
Holmfirth ; Dean Head ; Chew Valley, Greenfield ; Mollicar
Woods, Huddersfield ; Dunford Bridge.

V.C. 64. — Brim Bray and Eavestone, S. M., W.F. ; Ingleborough ;

Malham Tarn ; Harewood Park ; Ilkley ; Adel Bog ; Askham Bog.
V.C. 65. — Cronkley, Upper Teesdale.

* In New Zealand introduced by means of egg sacs among imported
European hay-seeds. — Ann. Soc. Ent. de France Vo\. LXXXVI., annee 1917.

Naturalist,

Falconer : The Spiders of Yorkshire.

139

.D. latifrons Camb.

On record for several counties in Gt. Britain and three of the Irish
provinces, but more plentiful in the north than the south ; abroad.
Central and Western Europe ; amongst fallen leaves and at the
roots of grass and other herbage, chiefly in woods. Adult autumn
to spring. First occurrence— the author, Slaith waite, March, 1898.

V.C. 61. — S. Cave, Brough, Haltemprice Lane, Cottingham, Hull
Bank Hall, Beverley Road (Hull), Birkhill Wood (Cottingham),
Brantingham Dale, Boynton Woods, Bielsbeck, Hornsea, Welwick,
T. S. ; Haworth Hall, Sutton Drain and Bentley Woods, E. A. P.
Kelsey Hill, E. B.

V.C. 62. — Wilton Wood, among pine needles, J. W. H. Cayton Lane,
R. A. T.

V.C. 63. — Woods about Shipley, and Seven Arches (Saltaire) W.P.W. ;
Crimsworth Dene, W. P. W., W. F. ; thinly in the open, commonly
in woods about Slaithwaite, Marsden, Saddleworth, Holmfirth,
Greenfield, Honley, Meltham, Armitage Bridge, Lepton and Hud-
dersfield ; Hebden Bridge.

V.C. 64. — Shipley Glen and Cottingley, W. P. W. ; Ilkley, W. R. B. ;
Rivock and Howden Ghyll, R. B. ; woods about Knaresborough,
W. P. W., W. F. ; Sawley district, S. M., W. F. ; Bolton Woods ;
Ingleton ; Leeds ; Adel ; Meanwood ; Harewood ; Rigton ;
Stubbing Moor ; Malham ; Hackfall.

V.C. 65. — Y.N.U. Upper Teesdale, Mickleton.

D. picinus Bl.

Recorded from Dorset, Essex, Staffs., Norfolk, Northumberland,
Glamorgan, N. Wales, Lancashire and the S. of Scotland ; very
rare in Ireland ; abroad, Sweden, West and Central Europe ; in
dry woods in similar situations to the last and on bushes. Adult—
autumn to spring. First occurrence — the author, Drop Clough,
June, 1899.

V.C. 61. — Bentley Woods, both sexes, E. A. P. ; Scampston, $s.

V.C. 62. — Kildale Woods, fairly plentiful, J. W. H. ; Oliver’s Mount,
R. A. T. ; Raincliff Woods ; Riftswood (Saltburn).

V.C. 63. — Bradford, G. H. O. (V.C.H.) ; woods at Shipley and
Cottingley, W. P. W. ; Bottoms Wood and Scout Wood (Slaith-
waite) ; Drop Clough ; woods about Huddersfield and Honley,
but not at all common in these localities ; Askern ; Deffer Wood
(Cawthorn) .

V.C. 64.- — Shipley Glen and Trench Wood (Saltaire) ; Burley-in-
Wharfedale, Knaresborough, W. P. W. ; Howden Ghyll, R. B.„
W. P. W. ; Sawley district, S. M., W. F. ; Roundhay Park (Leeds),
plentiful ; Meanwood ; Wharfedale, Harewood to Boston Spa ;
Dalton Lane ; Stubbing Moor ; Chandler’s Whin (York) ; Wash-
bum Valley ; Bolton Woods ; Mickley and Hackfall.

D. beckii Camb.

Noted for eight English, three Scottish and two Irish counties,
but not common anywhere ; abroad, France and Germany, but
apparently rare in both ; partial to obscure and neglected places,
cellars, etc., under stones and beneath bark of trees. First occur-
rence— the author, Slaithwaite, November, 1899.

V.C. 61. — Garden, Ryde Street (Hull), Weedley Springs, Snake Hall,
Wilberforce House (Hull), a $ at each place, T. S.

V.C. 62. — Kildale, one G. B. W. ; Farndale, Eston and Gt. Aytoa
moor, ‘ not uncommon amongst moss,’ J. W, H. ; Raincliff Wood,
one $, R. A. T.

V.C. 63. — Garden, Hope View, Moorhead, W. P. W. ; Slaithwaite,
cellar, on wall in summer house, greenhouse, manure heap and
under thick ivy ; Bottoms Wood (Slaithwaite) ; Wilberlee, barn and
under stones on a wall ; Clough House Wood and Ainley Place

1919 April 1

140

Falconer : The Spiders of Yorkshire.

Wood ; Almondbury, cellars and stable ; Storthes Hall Wood from
tree stump ; sewage works, Berry Brow.

D. fuscipes Bl. ( Tmeticus neglectus Camb. §).

Widespread in the British Isles, but commoner in the north than
in the south ; abroad, France and Switzerland, usually abundant
amongst fallen leaves and at the roots of herbage and under stones.
Adult throughout the year. First occurrence — the author, Slaith-
waite, November, 1899.

V.C. 61, 62, 63, 64. — widely distributed and in many places plentiful,
the recorded stations being numerous.

V.C. 65. — Y. N. U., Upper Teesdale, Mickleton.

D. castaneipes Sim.

A rare British spider, Snowdon and Moel Siabod ; Helvellyn ;
Ben Nevis {<$) and Forres ($) in Scotland ; Clare Island and Co.
Donegal, Ireland ; abroad, Southern France, two localities ;
a mountain species.

V.C. 64. — Between Middle House and Malham Tarn, but nearer the
latter, June 9th, 1911, three adult females from roots of grass ;
summit of Ingleborough, one <$, one $, 1916.

D. protubevans Camb.

Only one example, an adult male, previously found in Britain,
amongst moss, Gibside, Durham ; abroad, France (Simon, Arach-
nides de France, Tome V., partie 3.).

V.C. 63. — Clough House Wood, Slaithwaite, on left bank of Ainley
Place beck, from grass roots, May, 1911, one <$, three $s, the latter
the first occurrence of the sex in Britain ; Drop Clough (Marsden),
one $ ; Simon’s figure ( loc . cit.) is not a good one, and a drawing
of the epigyne was made from one of these examples, vide The
Naturalist, Aug., 1911, p. 285. Higher up the same stream three
rjs were taken, September, 1911, and three $s, October, 1913.
During Y. N. U. Meltham, September, 1911, Mr. Winter obtained
a $ in Honley Old Wood.

Gen. Tapinocyba Sim., 4-5.

T . pvaecox Camb.

Not common, on record for Dorset, Staffs., Cheshire, Lancashire
and Northumberland ; recently found in Leinster ; abroad, France
and Germany ; at roots of grass, furze and heather, among moss
or beneath stones. Adult autumn to spring. First occurrence —
the author, Crosland Moor, April, 1902.

V.C. 61. — Cliffs, N. of Bridlington and outer court, Hull Museum, one
of each sex, Houghton Woods (Market Weighton), both sexes,
Weedley, one one ■$, Holme-on-Spalding Moor, one <j>, T. S. ;
Spurn, one §.

V.C. 62. — Lonsdale, from moss, rare, J. W. H.

V.C. 63. — Bottoms Wood, Slaithwaite, one (J, one 2, and Blackmoor -
foot, two 2s ; quarries above Linthwaite Church, two §s ; Helme,
one $ ; Crosland Moor, four <£s, 14 $s ; Wholestone Moor, one
and near Pole Moor, two ^s, three $s ; Standedge, one (J.

{To be continued.)

: o :

The following note, taken from a Hull evening newspaper, may be of
interest to our medical readers, as it is possibly the result of an overdose
of a certain mixture which a section of the medical men has recently
recommended for the ’flu : — ‘ To counteract the ’flu, a medical writer
advises people to sterilise all. nose and mouth night and morning. Men
with full sets of whiskers or cream separators, side wings, face mittens,
or chest warmers with No. 5 ear flaps, are advised to boil them for twenty
minutes.'

Naturalist,

i4i

BIBLIOGRAPHY :

Papers and Records relating to the Geology and Palaeontology of
the North of England (Yorkshire excepted), published during 1918,

T. SHEPPARD, M.Sc., F.G.S.

( Continued from page 101).

Thomas Sheppard. Lincolnshire.

Glacial Committee [Report; boulders at Bardney, Lines.]. The
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T. S[heppard). Northumberland, Durham.

George Alexander Louis Lebour [obituary]. The Naturalist, March,
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T. S[heppard], Lancashire S.

W. A. Parker [obituary]. The Naturalist, March, p. 106.

Thomas Sheppard. Northern Counties.

British Geological Maps as a Record of the Advance of Geology.

Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., Vol. LXXIII., part 1, No. 289, pp. c-ci.

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R. L. Sherlock. Yorks., Notts., Derby.

Datum-lines in the English Keuper. Geol. Mag., March, pp. 1 20-1 25.

R. L. Sherlock. See A. Strahan.

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Bernard Smith. See under Anon.

B. Smith. See R. L. Sherlock.

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' ito April 1

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October, p. 468.

Henry Woodward. Durham.

Note on Bellinurus Trechmanni, a new species of Limuloid Arthropod
from the Durham Coalfield. Geol. Mag., October, pp. 469-470.

H. W[oodward], Northern Counties.

Eminent Living Geologists : George William Lamplugh, F.R.S.,

President Geol. Soc., Assistant Director of the Geological Survey
of England and Wales. Geol. Mag., August, pp. 337-346-
H. W[oodward], Lancashire (S.).

Obituary: William Albert Parker. Born 1855. Died January 14th,
1918. Geol. Mag., Feb., p. 95.

David Woolacott. Durham.

On Sections in the Lower Permian Rocks at Claxheugh and Down
Hill, Go. Durham. Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc., Northumberland, Durham
and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, N.S., Vol. V., pt. I., pp. 155-162.

ADDENDUM.

Edgar Newberry and Hartley Lupton.

Cumberland, Derbyshire.

Radio-Activity and the Coloration of Minerals. Mem. and Proc.
Manchester Lit. and Phil. Soc. Vol. LXII., pt. 3. No. 10, pp. 1-16.

Naturalist,

143

3n flftemoriam.

WILLIAM DENISON ROEBUCK. M.Sc., F.L.S.

By the" lamented death of William Denison Roebuck on
February 15th last, in the 69th year of his age, the study of
Natural History, and especially of Yorkshire Natural History,
has sustained an irreparable loss which will long be felt, as
his influence extended to wherever Natural Science is culti-
vated.

f His death was the result of a sudden paralytic seizure
on the evening of January 19th, when apparently in the full
enjoyment of health and strength ; he was gradually recovering
from this attack when he had a second seizure from the effects
of which he gradually succumbed.

Mr. Roebuck was born in Leeds on January 5th, 1851,
and resided there until 17 years of age, when his parents
removed their summer residence to Pannal, a pleasant village
near Harrogate, and during his summer residences there in
1868 and succeeding years, he commenced the active collection,
study and registry of the Butterflies and other insects met
with, incited thereto by the possession and perusal of Cole-
man's a British Butterflies,' a book responsible for making

1919 A prill 1

144

In Memoriam : William Denison Roebuck.

many converts to Natural History pursuits. His observations
upon the Bees and allied groups made at this period are in-
teresting and valuable, and have been placed on record in
the Victoria County Histories.

Although not professing to be an Entomologist, Mr. Roe-
buck was always intensely interested, in that science, and was
rarely absent from a meeting of the Entomological Section
of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union. In his earlier days he
had done excellent work in the science, as those who remember
his splendid paper entitled ‘ Locusts in Yorkshire,’ which
appeared in The Naturalist in 1877 will know. But the title
does not indicate the scope of that paper, which was in reality
-a history of all the known locust flights throughout Britain
from the years 1842 to 1876, and is even yet by far the most
comprehensive and exhaustive account of the subject we
possess. Then at one time he was greatly interested in Hy-
menoptera, and was largely responsible for the list of that
group of insects in the ‘ Victoria History of Yorkshire,’ as
he was also for the entire Entomological chapters in the
Victoria Histories of some of the other Northern Counties
of England. For very many years he had kept records, with
references, of all the papers and notes referring to all orders
of insects (when he could do so, cutting out and keeping
the papers or notes themselves) published in the various
journals, referring to Yorkshire and other North of England
Counties, and so was in possession of a vast store of information
which was always available to any responsible author writing
on any particular subject connected with Entomology. His
help to the science in this way has been incalculable.

He was possessed of a brilliant and unusual combination
of synthetic and analytical faculties and characterised in
an eminent degree by great foresight and accurate judgment,
while his genius for organization and administration was greatly
developed, the constitutions of the Yorkshire Naturalists’
Union, The Conchological Society, the Leeds Naturalists’
Field Club, the Leeds Conchological Club, the Leeds
Philatelic Society, etc., being all standing testimonies to his
abilities and foresight in these directions, as the constitutions
of these bodies were all drafted by him and have successfully
withstood the tests of time.

The Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union, of which he was the
inspirer and organizer, had ever a chief place in his affections
and interest, for he it was who conceived the idea of its
formation by the enlargement of the sphere of activity and
usefulness of the West Riding Consolidated Naturalists’ Society,
an Association of the Natural History Societies of South-west
Yorkshire, of which Mr. Roebuck was appointed joint secretary
with Mr. J. M. Barber, of Heckmondwike, in 1876. -

Naturalist

In Memoriam : William Denison Roebuck. 145

In the following year with the enthusiastic co-operation of
Mr. G. T. Porritt, the late C. P. Hobkirk and other leading
Yorkshire Scientists, the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union was
established as a means of a more efficient unification of
Yorkshire scientific effort, while the subsequent adoption of
Mr. Roebuck’s suggestion to institute working sections for
each branch of Natural History has been remarkably successful
and tended more fully to ensure a closer fellowship and a more
general spirit of co-operation among our numerous Yorkshire
Societies.

This powerful Union, constituted by the federation of
upwards of 40 local Natural History Societies, comprising
some thousands of members, is an organisation second only
in influence and membership to the British Association, and
a long list of distinguished scientists have held the post of
President, among them being Mr. Roebuck, who by the
unanimous wish of the Union held that honourable position
in 1903, and as the topic for his Valedictory Address, placed
on record a full and authoritative history of the Union and
The Naturalist from their inception.

He it was who conceived and constituted the ‘ Fungus
Forays’ which were such a great success, as to eventually becomd
one of the leading features of the Union’s work. The first
foray was held in 1881 at Studley and Harrogate, and followed
by the second in 1888, and were so thoroughly appreciated
by those concerned, that the meetings were arranged as Annual
events, and the results obtained culminated by the publication,
in the Transactions of the Union, of ‘ The Fungus Flora of
Yorkshire,’ by the joint labours of George Massee and Charles
Crossland.

Mr. Roebuck was the Honorary Secretary and one of the
impelling spirits of the activities of the Union for nearly 30
years, and in addition to this onerous post was Editor of the
‘ Scientific Transactions ’ an important series of publications
which include many works of high scientific merit. From 1884
to 1902 he was sole Editor of The Naturalist with the exception
of comparatively short periods in which he had the collaboration
of W. Eagle tlarke and Mr. E. R. Waite. In addition
to all these duties he personally made all the arrangements
for the numerous excursions and meetings held during each
year for business purposes or for the investigation of the fauna
and flora . of the county.

Besides these great calls upon his time and energy he in
1881, in association with Dr. Clarke, prepared and published
the important and standard work ‘ The Vertebrate Fauna of
Yorkshire ’ which the bibliographic and scientific knowledge
they possessed, enabled them to issue with remarkable com-
pleteness. In addition he gave priceless and unstinted help:

1919 April 1

K

146 In Memoriam : William Denison Roebuck.

to friends and correspondents upon very diverse subjects,
either the results of his own personal experience or culled from
the enormous mass of classified records which he had accumu-
lated by years of unwearied industry and research.

This valuable assistance has been gratefully acknowledged
by Mr. G. T. Porritt in his excellent .Manual T A list of York-
shire Lepidoptera 1 ; by Mr. T. H. Nelson in his 4 Birds of
Yorkshire,’ by Mr. J. W. Taylor in his Monograph of British
Land and Fresh-water Mollusca, and others, so that it is
safe to say that without his great help and willing co-operation
many valuable works would never have been undertaken.

The formation of the Lincolnshire Naturalists’ Union was
entirely due to the suggestion of Mr. Roebuck, who always
maintained a lively interest in its welfare and progress and
frequently attended its meetings. With the co-operation of
Rev. E. A. Woodruffe-Peacock, Mr. J. F. Musham, Mr. H.
Wallis Kew and other Lincolnshire Naturalists he thoroughly
and systematically investigated its Molluscan fauna, of which
he has already published a preliminary list and accumulated
the material for a more complete account.

With Mr. Musham, he was alternately President and
Secretary of the Conchological Section and has always kept
the Conchological records of the Society.

The Union fittingly signalized their appreciation of the
value of his services by selecting him as the President for
1909-10, and an account of his life and work by Rev. E. A.
Woodruffe-Peacock. with portrait', was published in the
Transactions of the Union for the year 1915.

Mr. Roebuck was also one of the founders of the Leeds
Field Naturalists’ Club, in 1870, and was, to the last, one of
the most valued and influential of its members, while the
numerous quarto volumes of written and classified records of
all forms of life, by his hands, now in possession of the Society,
are a monument of his zeal and enlightened industry in the
cause of the Society and the progress of science, and have
proved of immense utility to various authors who have availed
themselves of the stores of knowledge they contain.

He several times filled the office of President, his enthusiasm
and personal magnetism attracting good assemblages of mem-
bers to the meetings, and his terms of office were always
periods of prosperity and progress.

As Secretary in 1871 and for many years afterwards he
worked untiringly in the interests of the Society, perfecting
its organization and increasing its usefulness, so that from
the training and experience there acquired, it is not surprising
that it was one of the most successful provincial Societies
and has turned out an unusually large proportion of skilled
zoological investigators, who have been or are now acting as

Naturalist.

In Memoriam : William Denison Roebuck . 147

Museum Directors or Curators not only in Leeds but in Dublin,
Edinburgh, Calcutta, Sydney, Adelaide, Christchurch, Welling-
ton and elsewhere, the present Chief Inspector of Canadian
Fisheries also received his early training here, as did the
Professor of Zoology of Sheffield University, and others.

As a Malacologist, Mr. Roebuck was one of the four original
founders of The Conchological Society of Great Britain and
Ireland, an organization which has now a numerous and in-
fluential membership not merely in this country, but in all
parts of the civilized world.

He acted for many years as Honorary Secretary, and much
of the Society’s success may be traced to the foresight and
genius he displayed in the preparation of the rules governing
its activities.

As President he was a very popular officer, and an unusually
large influx of new members took place during his period of
office, a striking testimony to his reputation and influence
in the scientific world, which was further emphasized by his
unanimous selection as one of the ten Honorary Members
of the Society.

Mr. Roebuck's inclinations were always to help forward
neglected subjects to a due measure of appreciation, and it was
chiefly this feeling which led him to become the pioneer and
populariser of the modern study of the terrestial slugs, a group
which prior to his adoption of them as a field of study, was a
neglected and despised set of animals. As a result of his
energy and personal influence such interest and enthusiasm
was infused into the investigations that in the course of a
few years, six new species of slugs were discovered or satis-
factorily differentiated from previously known species with
which they had hitherto been confused, and thus raised the
number of British species from twelve to eighteen. By the
force of his diligence and ability he became pre-eminent
amongst British Limacologists and the universally acknow-
ledged authority on the morphology of the British species of
Limacidce and Arionidce , with whose remarkably varied
aspect he was most profoundly conversant.

This distinguished and honourable position was recognised
by the late Prof. Simroth, of Leipzig, the equally brilliant
exponent of the internal structure of the Slugs generally,
who in his honour applied the name roebucki to the large,
conspicuous and peculiar Urocyclus discovered in Zanzibar.

The Leeds Conchological Club, a very active and successful
organization, of which he was also a founder, so highly
esteemed his services to science and to the Club, that the
members some little time ago showed their deep appreciation
of his great services, by electing him as their Honorary Life-
President.

1919 Apn\ 1

148 In Memoriam : William Denison Roebuck.

As a further representative example of his interest and
activity in the cause of science, during his long and useful life,
may be reckoned the great and valued help and guidance he
rendered in the formation of The Craven Naturalists’ and
Scientific Association thirty-two years ago, contributing
afterwards in many ways to its welfare and progress. The
Association gratefully remembers and appreciates his many
and willing services in its cause.

One of the chief interests of his later years was Philately,
for the promotion of the study of which subject he in 1890,
in conjunction with his friend, Mr. T, K. Skipwith, founded
the Leeds Philatelic Society, which with the exception of
the Royal Philatelic Society of London is the oldest in the
kingdom. Of this organization he was the Secretary and
had filled the office of President.

His energies in this study, were for many years past,
especially devoted to the collection of British issues, and
in this branch his collection is so large and valuable, that
on the visit of His Majesty King George to Leeds in September
1915, a special audience was arranged to enable him to show
to His Majesty the issues of especial interest or rarity con-
tained in the collection.

This rich and valuable collection, which illustrates the
history and uses of stamps generally, was presented by Mr.
Roebuck in 1913 to the University of Leeds, where it now
forms one of their choice treasures. •

Mr. Roebuck’s great attainments and the important
influence he exercised in the promotion of science and scientific
methods were gracefully and fittingly acknowledged in July
1915, when the University of Leeds publicly conferred upon
him the honorary degree of Master of Science. On that
occasion Professor Garstang, in citing the grounds for the
distinction bestowed, acclaimed him as ‘ the pioneer and
organizer of the systematic survey of the natural history
of the county, the man of method, insisting upon the guarantees
of accuracy and completeness, the keeper of our records,
a student of many sided interests, and of indefatigable per-
severance.’

He was indeed not only the inspirer of energy and per-
sistence, his was also the guiding hand which led the real
workers into habits of systematic investigation and publication ;
he inculcated the combination of broad views in general,
with rigid and detailed registration of the material results.
The importance of accurate and full data, the study of variation
and the proportionately greater value of the common or
dominant species in studying Geographical Distribution
was consistently urged upon every suitable occasion.

For a great number of years he diligently examined many

Naturalist

In Memoriam : William Denison Roebuck. 149

parts of the British Isles, but he was especially attached to the
investigation of the fauna of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, with
which counties from years of travel he was thoroughly familiar.

During 1904-1906 he travelled extensively abroad visiting
Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa and Egpyt, and
made many interesting additions to our knowledge of the
diffusion and dominance of the European species of mollusks
and other organisms which had been designedly or unwittingly
introduced by man to these primitive countries.

His zealous and whole-hearted pursuit of Natural History
was stimulating and infectious, and gathered around him
sympathetic supporters and coadjutors in the good work
he was engaged upon, and gave a decided impetus to
scientific pursuits in Yorkshire and beyond, but the im-
mensity and variety of his services to science, are as yet only
inadequately understood or utilised, even by his most intimate
and appreciative friends who knew and valued his untiring
zeal and devotion to the advancement of knowledge and
his many personal sacrifices in its cause. Space will not
allow for a full recital of his manifold activities and interests
and of the many tributes of appreciation he has received,
but many friends and none more than the present writer
will sadly miss his ever present help and comradeship and
mourn the great loss sustained by his lamented death.

The remains were cremated on February 17th at Lawns-
wood Cemetery, Leeds, the impressive service being attended
by a representative assembly of Scientists ; the University
of Leeds being represented by Professor E. O. Croft, M.D. ;
the Linnean Society of London by Mr. G. T. Porritt, F.L.S.,
and Mr. W. H. Burrell, F.L.S. ; the Yorkshire Naturalists’
Union by Professor Garstang, D.Sc., Mr. Fowler Jones, Mr.
Godfrey Bingley and others ; the Leeds Corporation (Education
Department) by Alderman W. H. Clarke ; the Leeds Philo-
sophical and Literary Society by Mr. H. Crowther, F.R.M.S. ;
the Leeds Naturalists’ Field Club by Mr. J. A. Hargreaves,
Mr. E. J. T. Ingle, Mr. C. A. Cheetham, Mr. J. Fry Pickard,
Mr. C. Turner, Mr. B. Beevers and others ; the Conchological
Society of Great Britain and Ireland by J. Wilfrid Jackson,
F.G.S., and J. W. Taylor, M.Sc. ; the Leeds Conchological
Club by Mr. F. Booth and Mr. Harrison Hutton ; the Leeds
Co-operative Field Club by Mr. S. Matthewman, and the
Doncaster Scientific Society by Dr. H. H. Corbett.

The Royal Philatelic Society of London was represented
by Mr. Abraham Oxley ; the Leeds Philatelic Society by
Mr. T. K. Skipwith, Mr. W. K. Skipwith, Mr. J. H. Thackrah,
Mr. Eugene Egly, Mr. F. J. Kidson and others, and the York-
shire Numismatic Society by Mr. J. Digbv Firth, F.L.S.

" J. W. T.

1919 April 1.

150

FIELD NOTES.

FISHES.

Large Wharfe Trout. — On April 9th, 1910, a large Trout
was found recently dead about a mile above Ilkley, in a side
pool of the Wharfe. It weighed 10 lbs. 9 ozs., measured 31
inches, and its greatest girth was 15 J inches (see The Naturalist,
1910, p. 213). This, I believe, still continues a record for
Yorkshire river trout, and more especially for such a fast
stream as the Wharfe is. Dr. W. R. Bates, of Ilkley, had this
fish preserved, and it may now be seen at the Ilkley Golf Club
house.

On December 23rd, owing to a heavy fall of snow, followed
by a quick thaw with heavy rain, and aided by a strongish
westerly wind (the latter an important factor in assisting a
flood here), the River Wharfe rapidly rose higher than I have
seen it before (with one exception), during the last ten years.
It flooded much of the adjoining land and at places it looked
almost like a lake. When the floods subsided, the head of a
large trout recently dead, with several inches of spine extended,
was found hanging on a tree on the Ilkley Golf Course, which
runs close along the north bank of the river and which had
been covered by the flood. It looks as if this fish had got left
in a pool on the Golf Links by the fast falling floods, and had
been found in difficulties by some workman, who for reasons
best known to himself prefers that his identity should remain
unknown. He therefore decided to take it home, and to save
transport, and probably also hide it more easily, he cut — or
rather hacked — off its head ; leaving several vertebra attached
to it. These latter, I am informed by someone who saw them,
were quite an inch in diameter. Mr. Ellis Beanlands, the hon-
orary secretary of the Ilkley Angling Club, informs me that he
measured the head of this fish, and that at its greatest circum-
ference it was 15 inches. In his opinion it belonged to a fish
quite as large, and probably larger, than the 1910 specimen.
From the measurements I am inclined to agree with Mr.
Beanlands. The 1910 fish was a male and the greatest girth
of its body was 15J inches ; the 1918 fish was a female, and
female trout have smaller heads than males. Yet the head
of this one measured 15 inches at its greatest circumference !
It must have been an enormous fish, and let us hope it made
some poor family feel comfortable during that bare Christmas,
and the Angling Clubs are only too pleased to get rid of such
monsters, which are always cannibals. No doubt, both these
large trout came out of a part of the river Wharfe known as
" Cockin Deep,” a series of deep holes noted for their large
fish, about half way between Ilkley and Addingham. Both
these large trout belonged to the Loch Leven race. Mr. Bean-
lands informed me that in January a huge Chub had been

Naturalist

Field Notes.

I5i

brought out of this part of the river by Otters, The head
being intact he took it home, and found that it weighed exactly
1 lb., so that it would belong to a fish that would weigh quite
7 lbs.— a big weight for a Chub. — H. B. Booth. Ben Rhydding.

: o :

ENTOMOLOGY .

Derbyshire Butterflies. — We have read with interest
Mr. J. M. Brown’s note on page 79 of the current volume.
It should be mentioned, however, that Lathkil Dale, Bakewell,
via Gellia and Haddon all lie to the west of the area with which
we dealt. Our western boundary was purposely drawn to
exclude the main mass of Carboniferous Limestone. We
have never seen Gonepteryx rhamni in our area, but Dr. W. J.
Fordham tells us that he thinks he saw it many years ago
near Chesterfield, and we have come across specimens of this
insect in a reputedly local collection.— E. & H. Drabble.

Lancashire and Cheshire Entomology. — At a recent
meeting of the Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society
Mr. W. R. Tyerman read a paper on micro-lepidoptera taken
during 1917 and 1918 in the Liverpool district. This enumer-
ated 2 11 species, many of them not having been recorded for
South West Lancashire since the publication of the Ellis List
in 1890 ; probably owing to much of the author’s collecting
having been done in places seldom visited by other lepidop-
terists. Among other species mentioned A nacamt sis albipalpella ,
a single specimen taken at Formby, is an addition to the
Lancashire and Cheshire fauna. Mr. W. Mansbridge then read
a paper detailing his results in breeding Aplecta nebulosa and
its varieties ; he shewed the different families obtained as
the progeny of selected parents and suggested how the black
forms of the moth might arise in nature ; he also stated that
the percentage of black forms bred from wild larvae obtained
from a certain selected area had sensibly diminished in the
last four years, while, so far as known, there was no increase in
any other part of Delamere Forest. Observations extending
over the last fourteen years were embodied in the paper. —
W. Mansbridge.

Polynema na tans.— In the Transactions of the Manchester
Microscopical Society appears a record, said to be the first
for the North of England, of one of the fairy flies, Caraphractus
cinctus Haliday. This is an error, for on page 346-347 of
The Naturalist for 1916 Mr. A. R. Sanderson has an article
on the same insect that he had taken at Austwick Moss.
Perhaps the synonomy may account for the slip, Mr. Sander-
son’s article being headed Polynema natans Lubbock, but he
quotes Haliday’s name in the text. — Chris. A. Cheetham.

1919 April 1

152

NEWS FROM THE MAGAZINES, etc.

We shall be glad to receive newspaper or other reports of Annual
meetings of any of the Societies in the Northern Counties, which are likely
to be of interest to our readers.

With the March number The Geological Magazine introduces a new
feature ‘ Editorial Notes,’ which are very much after the style of the
‘ Notes and Comments ’ in The Naturalist..

We notice from the Annual Report of the Spalding Gentlemen’s Society
for 1918, that the late President, Mr. H. W. Maples, has presented a valu-
able show case to the Museum at Spalding.

Referring to the note relating to trinomials on page 62 of The Naturalist
for February, a correspondent suggests that a better name for the Swift
would be opera. in. For the rest we might suggest an anthem !

After two years’ interval owing to war conditions, the British Associa-
tion for the Advancement of Science will resume its series of annual
meetings this year, at Bournemouth, from September 9th to 13th, under
the presidency of the Hon. Sir Charles Parsons.

It is gratifying to find that as a result of the agitation brought forward
by the members of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union, the Home Secretary
has made an order for the Protection of the Plover, and Plover’s Eggs
in the West Riding of Yorkshire all the year round.

Mr. Claude Morley writes on Dipterous hosts of Stilpnid Ichneumons,
in which Yorkshire examples are referred to, in The Entomologist for
February. In the same journal Yorkshire, Durham and Northumberland
species are described in Dr. J. W. H. Harrison’s ‘ Gleanings from my
Notebook, IV.’ .

With regard to the supposed variety, exquisita of Abraxas grossulariata,
Mr. G. T. Porritt, writing in The Entomologist’s Record for January, states
‘ it has no more claim to have another varietal given to it, than have
dozens of the many other, forms of the variety, and which to name differ-
ently would be absurd.’

The death is announced of the Rev. W. Tuckwell, known as ' The
Radical Parson.’ For twelve years he was rector of Waltham, Lines.,
during which period he took a keen interest in the Lincolnshire Natura-
lists’ Union. He was the secretary for the short-lived Lincolnshire
Boulder Committee, and had some notes in The Naturalist on glacial
geology. His portrait appears in the group on page 336 of this journal
for November, 1896.

In The Field for February 15th, page 185, is a note as to whether
pheasants destroy an appreciable number of ‘ wire-worms.’ Two
pheasants’ crops from different districts and full of wire- worms were
sent to the ‘ shooting ’ editor, who has counted the wire- worms in one
crop and found it to contain 435 ! ! Not a bad day’s work for that
pheasant, and it would almost prove that pheasants are really fond of
wire-worms when they can get them.

The Proceedings and Transactions of the Liverpool Biological Society, Vol.
XXXII., has been issued (140 pp., 10/6). Besides the usual record of.
Proceedings, it contains the 31st Report of the Liverpool Marine Biology
Committee/with an address on ‘ Sir John Murray,’ by Prof. W. A. Herd-
man ; Report on the Investigations carried on during 1917, in connection
with the Lancashire Sea Fisheries Laboratory ; and the Presidential
Address of Dr. J. A. Clubb, on ‘ The Public Museum and Education.’

The excellent principle of awarding departmental clerkships to those
members of the Staff of the British Museum who have done original
artistic or scientific work outside their ordinary duties, has been recently
-omewhat extended. Among the latest promotions are Mr. T. H. Withers,

I .S., whose work on the fossil cirripedes is marked by wide knowledge
and considerable literary skill, and whose opinion is sought world-wide;
and Mr. T. Wells, whose knowledge of birds was ensured by a long training
under the late Dr. Rowdier Sharp

Naturalist.

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EDUCATIONAL GARDENING,

By ROBERT HOGG, F.R.H.S.

Instructor of Gardening to the Derbyshire Education Committee.

Extract from Introduction by Mr. ARTHUR HOUGH.

This book will prove a reliable guide to teachers, scholars, and others interested
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pursuit of Horticulture acts beneficially on body and mind, it readily lends itself to
experiment, sharpens the power of observation, anticipates results, and is a
wholesome and profitable recreation.

London : A. Brown & Sons, Limited, 5 Farringdon Avenue, E.C.4-1

Printed a4 Browns’ Savilk Press, 40 George Street, Hull, and published
A. Brown & Sons, Limited, at 5 Farringdon Avenue, in the City of London.

April 1st, 1919

MAY 1919.

No. 748

(No. 522 of current aeries.

A MONTHLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF

NATURAL HISTORY FOR THE NORTH OF ENGLAND,

EDITED BY

T. SHEPPARD, M.Sc., F Q.S., F.R.G.S., F.S.A.Scot..

Thb Museums, Hull ;

AND

T. W. WOODHEAD, Ph.D., M.Sc., F.L.S.,

Technical College, Huddersfield.

WITH THE ASSISTANCE AS REFEREES IN SPECIAL DEPARTMENTS OF

J. GILBERT BAKER, P.R.S. P.L.S., GEO. T. PORRITF, P.L.S.. F.R.S..
Prof. P. P. KENDALL, M.Sc., P.G.S., JOHN W. TAYLOR, M.Sc.,

RILEY FORTUNE, F.Z.S.

Contents : —

PAGE

Notes and Comments -.—Problems 01 Coal; Waste of Coal; Campodeidae : A Plea for
Material ; Yorkshire Campodeae ; A Check List of Myriopods ; Diplopodic Synonymy ;

A Deduction ; A Variety Promoted ; A Larval Species ; Colour-sense of Wasps ; Female
Fellows ; Myrmecophilous Notes 153-157

Aculeate Hymenoptera of a Doncaster Sand Pit— H. H. Corbett 158-160

Cephalozia fluitans (Nees) Spruce, In Mid- West Yorks.— Win. Hy. Pearson 160

Old Scientific Magazines— T. Sheppard, M.Sc., F.G.S 161-163

Some Zoocecidia of South Denbighshire—^. A. Dallman, F.G.S 164-166

Ornithological Observations and Reflections in Shetland— Edmund Selous 167-168

The Hearing Organs of Fishes— Joseph Smith, M.R.I.A 169-173

Common Wild Birds of the Scarborough District— IF. Gyngell 174-176

In Memoriam : Thomas Gibbs (illustrated)— E.S 177-180

Edward Lamplough (illustrated) — T. S 181

Hull Museum Publications 181

Field Notes: — Allantus perkinsi Morice in’ Yorkshire ; Omphalia. telmatiaea in the
Rotherham District ; Unusual habitat for Limnea truncatula and Physa fontinalis ;

New Yorkshire Diptera; Aberrations in Lepidoptera ; Milk Tooth of Mammoth ( Elephas
primigenius ) from Aldborough 168, 181, 182-183

Correspondence : Former Status of the Starling

News from the Magazines, etc

Illustrations

183

173, 183, 184
17L 177, 181

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153

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

PROBLEMS OF COAL..

In The Nineteenth Century and After, No. 505, besides an
uncommonly interesting series of essays on a variety of topical
subjects, is a thoughtful paper on ‘ Some Problems of Coal,’
by Sydney Brooks, which ought to be read by everybody.
He writes : — ' Shiftlessness and improvidence are the qualities
that still characterise our conduct of this prime utility. We
have not shown in the coal trade, the key industry of our
entire manufacturing fabric, either the pliability and the large
designs of the Americans or the patient scientific thoroughness
and intellectual grasp of the Germans. It was characteristic
that before the War was two months old the burning of bitu-
minous coal in any household was absolutely forbidden
throughout Germany. The only solid fuel allowed was: coke
from by-product recovery ovens. While we were permitting
wealth, power and the raw materials of war to vanish in smoke
up the chimney, Germany, from her own stores of. coal was
providing herself with benzine, toluene, liquid fuel for marine
boilers and Diesel engines, motor spirit for her land transport,
and the essential ingredients for the manufacture of high
explosives. We meanwhile continued, as in the slouchy days
of peace, to waste these invaluable by-products in our domestic
stoves and grates, and incidentally to pollute the air and to
purchase abroad vast quantities of fuel and spirit that we
ought to have obtained from our own coal. The popular
British view of coal is that it is something to be burned. The
scientific view is precisely the opposite. It is that coal is
too valuable to be burned, that to burn it is to squander it,
that the by-products of coal are of greater moment than the
coal itself, and that not until these by-products have been
extracted should the residuum be used for industrial or domestic
purposes.'

WASTE OF COAL.

‘If gas producers and gas engines were to replace the ordinary
steam-engine and boiler installation, it has been calculated
that the amount of coal now consumed for power purposes
at mines and factories would be reduced by over three-fourths.
Similarly, if we adopted the central heating system in our
houses and used an open soft coke fire to supplement hot-
water pipes and radiators, over one-half of the coal now burned
and largely wasted in our ten million dwellings would be saved.
The universal use of a proper grate alone, it is maintained,
would save from 20 to 25 per cent, of the coal used. We are
all sinners in this wastage of coal — householders, collieries,
manufacturers, gasworks — they perhaps are the greatest

1919 May 1

L

i54

Notes and Comments.

criminals of all— railways, every person, every firm, every
industry that uses it at all. But these sources of waste, after
all, are subsidiary to the main fountain head of extravagance
and inefficiency— the organisation, the economics, the pre-
posterous muddle of the industry as a whole/

CAMPODEIDAE : A PLEA FOR MATERIAL.

Mr. R. S. Bagnall, whose work on the more obscure orders
of Arthropods is so well known, has favoured us with reprints
of his recent papers. In one of these, ‘ Records and Descrip-
tions of some British Campodeidae,’ appearing in the Entom-
ologist’s Monthly Magazine for May, 1918, nine British species
are described, and in some cases illustrated, out of twelve
or thirteen species known to the author, but three (or four)
new forms are represented by but two or three poor examples,
and he has therefore withheld describing them in the hope
that further material may come to hand. In this connection
he renews his appeal for material, but modifies his former
suggestion that one tube should be reserved for one specimen.
As most species occur in little families or colonies he suggests
that one tube should be reserved for the members of one little
colony, or those from one particular habitat. Particularly de-
sired are examples from the coast and from the summits of our
higher mountains.

YORKSHIRE CAMPODEAE.

These primitive insects have been so little investigated in
Britain that an energetic collector should discover species
new to Britain or even to science. In a county with such a
variety of habitats as Yorkshire this is especially likely to be
the case. The list includes records of three species taken in
Yorkshire or Lincolnshire by Mr. T. Stainforth. These are
Campodea fragilis Meinert, from Weedley, near South Cave
Campodea gardneri, sp. n., from Hull ; and Campodea lan-
kesteri Silvestri from Hull, and South Ferriby (Lincolnshire).

A CHECK LIST OF MYRIOPODS.

In The Journal of Zoological Research for October, 1918,
Mr. Bagnall publishes ‘ Records of some new British Diplopods
and Pauropods, with a Preliminary Check List of the British
“ Myriapoda.” ’ The students of Myriopoda are much more
numerous than formerly so that the list should prove very
acceptable. As the author remarks, such lists, even though
imperfect, are very useful as a working basis. In using the
word ‘ Myriopoda ' as the name of a phylum, the writer
recognizes that it includes orders which may ultimately prove
to have no near kinship one with another. His list includes the
orders Diplopoda (Millepedes), Symphyla, Pauropoda, and

Naturalist,

Notes and Comments.

*55

Chilopoda (Centipedes). The number of species listed is
ninety two, but this will undoubtedly be increased as more
workers appear. As it is, a record is included of a new species
of Brachychaeteuma ( B . melanops) which had yet to be described
as well as five species new to the British fauna, which are de-
scribed. These comprise two Diplopods, Ophiodesmus al-
bonanus Latzel, from Bath and Swanage, and Monacobates
tenuis Bigler, from various localities including Leeds, and
three Pauropods, Stylopauropus pubescens Hansen, Pauropus
furcifer Silv., and Allop aur opus brevisetis Silv., all recorded
from the north of England.

DIPLOPODIC SYNONYMY.

The three Leachian species, Brachyiulus pusillus, Poly-
microdon polydesmoides, and Craspedosoma rawlinsi, as set
out in the list, are in accordance with the synonymy elaborated
by Mr. Bagnall in a paper ‘ On the Synonymy of some Euro-
pean Diplopods (Myriapoda), with special reference to Three
Leachian species/ appearing in The Annals and Magazine
of Natural History for November, 1918. Among Diplopods
there are many instances of two species being so closely related
as to be practically undistinguishable, except by a dissection
and study of the male. It is at once realised how difficult
it must be for one who finds a species so closely allied to one
already known to decide which of the two was the one described
by an older naturalist at a time when present-day methods
were not used.

A DEDUCTION.

As a case in point, Brachyiulus pusillus, a graceful little
millepede with a pair of yellowish stripes down the back,
was described by Leach from Edinburgh and London more
than a hundred years ago. In recent years Verhoeff has
shown that there are two species, externally alike but abund-
antly distinct, in the structure of the male gonopods, etc.,
and described one of them as new under the name of Brachyiulus
littoralis. The dissection of male examples, however, from
an abundance of British material, proves that, all our examples
are referable to Verhoeff ’s species. Mr. Bagnall claims that
by deduction, the British material must be referred to Leach's
species and VerhoefTs name rank as a synonym. Further,
another name must be found for the pusillus of Verhoeff (non
Leach) .

A VARIETY PROMOTED.

In his memoir, Mr. Bagnall gives what he considers the true
synonymy of three of Leach's species. According to the evi-
dence he produces new names will have to be found for Craspe-

1919 May 1

156

Notes and Comments.

dosoma rawlinsi Verhoeff (non Leach), as well as the species
referred to above. As existing names (now sunk as synonyms)
may be found applicable, use may eventually be made of these,
but the writer leaves this matter to be settled later. He has
however, suggested a new name for Craspedosoma simile
Attems (non Verhoeff), as the issue in this case is not com-
plicated by old synonymy. When Attems described it he was
aware of Verhoeff's var. simile of rawlinsii, but the raising of
this form to specific rank rendered it necessary to give another
name to Attems" species.

A LARVAL SPECIES.

Mr. Bagnall is convinced that Polymicrodon latzeli Verhoeff
is the adult of the earlier named P. polydesmoides Leach, and
that the former name must therefore be sunk as a synonym.
In 1912, Verhoeff stated that the occurrence of P. latzeli in
the North of England was very noteworthy from the zoo-
geographical point of view since this was the first time that a
form of this character had been recorded from northern regions
affected by the Ice Age, and was by far the most northerly
record for any such Craspedosomid. As a matter of fact
the species is equally common in the North and South of
England and is known from Yorkshire. Here we find again
the familiar truism that the distribution of am organism fre-
quently reflects the distribution of energetic collectors.

COLOUR-SENSE OF WASPS.

At a recent meeting of the Linnean Society, Dr. H. Wager
read a paper on ‘ The colour-sense of wasps." The experiments
described in this paper were made by observing the number
of wasps flying towards, and settling upon, pieces of sugar
placed upon sheets of coloured paper arranged in various
ways. The results show that in seeking their food wasps
( Vespa vulgaris) are guided by their social instinct, their re-
membrance of locality, and their power to distinguish
conspicuous colours or colour-contrasts. They are probably
also guided by smell, but no experiments were made to test
this. Leaving out of account the probability that smells
play an important part in their activities, the experiments
indicate that the governing principles which dominate wasps
in their search for food are, first, the attraction exerted by
the presence of other wasps ; secondly, the tendency always
to return to the same place ; and thirdly, the attraction due
to conspicuous colours and colour-contrasts.

FEMALE FELLOWS.

At a special meeting of the Geological Society of London,
recently held in order to consider the following Resolution of

Naturalist,

Notes and Comments.

*57

Council : * That it is desirable to admit Women as Fellows

of the Society/ the President said : — ‘ It will be within the
recollection of most of the Fellows that the question of the
admission of Women to candidature for the Fellowship of the
Society has been raised on more than one occasion in the past.
It was considered in 1889 and 1901, and again, more system-
atically in 1908-1909, when a poll of the Fellows was taken
and three Special General Meetings were held, with inconclusive
results. It is generally recognized that the course of events
since these dates has materially changed the situation. Women
have been welcomed to our meetings as visitors, and we have
had many examples of their qualifications for Fellowship in
the excellent papers which they have from time to time con-
tributed to the Society. The value of these papers has been
appreciated by all geologists, and has been repeatedly acknow-
ledged by the Council in its Awards. Therefore, in the opinion
of the Council, it is no longer reasonable to maintain a sex-bar
against qualified candidates for the Fellowship of the Society,
and I am empowered by the Council to submit the above-
mentioned Resolution for your consideration/ A ballot was
then taken, and the Resolution was declared carried.

MYRMECOPHILOUS NOTES.

In his ‘ Myrmecophilous Notes for 1918/ reprint of which
from The Entomologist's Record (VoL XXXI., Nos. 1 and 2)
we have just received, Mr. H. Donisthorpe has several North
of England references. The Rev. E. A. Woodruffe-Peacock
sent him specimens of the var. mginodo-laevinodis Forel, of
Myrmica laevinodis Nyl. taken at Cadney, North Lincolnshire,
in June, 1917. This is a new county record of this variety.
Mr. Butterfield sent a gynaecoid worker of Leptothorax acervomm ,
which was taken on a rock at Rumbolds Moor, Yorkshire, on
March 20th, 1918, and a very curious female of the same
species taken in a mixed nest of L. acervomm, and Myrmica
ruginodis at Mauley Bog, Keighley, on April 26th, 1918. This
is a small dealated female, rather dark in colour, and is
exceedingly remarkable in that it possesses no trace of a
petiole or a post-petiole. Acanthomyops alienus Forst. is
recorded from Wallasey, and is a new record for Cheshire.
References are made to the occurrences of certain Diptera
found in Yorkshire in association with ants, by Mr. Butterfield.
One is a species of Ceratopogon bred from pupae taken on the
underside of a stone over a fusca nest at Grassington, on May
5th, 1918. An example was submitted to Mr. J. Collin, who is
of opinion that it is Ceratopogon braueri Wasmann., a species
new to Britain. In the same locality Mr. Butterfield found 70
pupae of the Dipteron, Micvodon mutabilis on the underside of
a stone situated over a fusca nest.

1919 May 1

158

ACULEATE HYMENOPTERA OF A DONCASTER
SAND PIT.

H. H. CORBETT.

About miles from Doncaster, on the- left side of the Bawtry
Road, is an estate that has been laid out for residential purposes.
Considerable numbers of more or less ‘ undesirable villainous
residences ' have been erected, but there are still several
new roads not yet built upon. By the side of one of these
is a somewhat extensive quarry whence sand has been dug.
The base is of undisturbed Bunter Sandstone, while the upper
portion is weathered and altered into loose, friable sand.
Little or no excavating has taken place for the past two or
three years, and the ground in front of the quarry face is clothed
with vegetation, while the face itself has assumed the con-
dition of rest such as suits the taste of burrowing aculeates.
Throughout the spring and summer there is a sequence of
flowers beloved of Hymenoptera, the following predominating
in succession : — Taraxacum, Ornithopus, and Crataegus fol-
lowed by Hypochaeris, Hieracium pilosellum and Trifolium
repens ; these are succeeded by Senecio jacobaea, Carduus
nutans and Trifolium arvense, and these together with Leontodcm
autumnale drag on throughout the autumn.

A visit paid to the place just when the dandelions were
beginning to flower convinced me that it should prove a
happy hunting ground for the hymenopterist, and during the
season I have run over to it whenever time and weather
permitted. It has well repaid my visits, for although I have
not found any insect in abundance, nor anything rare, yet I
have seen a considerable number of interesting species, several
of which do not appear in the list of Yorkshire Hymenoptera
in ' The Victoria County History.'

Taking the species seen in the order that they appear in
Saunders' monograph they are : —

1. — *Pompilus pectinipes Smith ( chalybeatus Schiodte). Often seen

but like all Pompilidse, difficult to catch, especially to a short-
sighted man. They generally occurred in the upper part of the
quarry. There they flew and ran with great rapidity. I did not
find Saunders’ recommendation for capture by striking downwards
when they settle to be good ; my most successful method being
by a side stroke when flying.

2. — *Priocnemis ( Salius ) parvulus Dahlb. This species was in habit

like the last ; indeed, until examined at home I never knew which
I had got.

3. — Tachysphex pectinipes. Not nearly so active as the former species,

but still very lively, especially when in the net. They frequented
a lower and harder part of the quarry than the Pompilidse.

4. — Diodontus minutus Fab. I only took one example of this common

insect.

5. — *Oxybelus uniglumis L. Certainly the most abundant fossor in

this locality. First appearing in May and lasting throughout the

Naturalist,

Aculeate Hymenoptera of a Doncaster Sand Pit 159

season. They burrowed chiefly at the lower part of the soft 'shnd.
In flight they are comparatively slow, but are very quick runners.
Frequently their dipterous prey was quite as large as themselves,
yet they did not seem to be in the least inconvenienced by their
burden. They varied greatly in size and in colour, some having the
pale spots so yellow as to raise hopes of their being mandibularis .

6. — Crossocerus wesmaeli V. d. Lind. This little species was fairly

common and made its burrows in the soft sand just below the sur-
face humus at the top of the quarry. .

7. — Hoplocrabro \-maculatus Fab. This was also fairly common and

of habit similar to that of wesmaeli.

8. — Thryeopus cribrarius L. This, which is probably the commonest

and most widely distributed fossor near Doncaster, abounding on
umbelliferae in all sandy districts, was remarkably scatce at Bessa-
car. I only saw one, and this I failed to catch

g . — A ncistrocerus trimarginatus Zett. This was the only species of wasp
that I saw. In habit it much resembled a Nomada frequenting, as
they did, the upper part of the bank, where it flew backwards and
forwards several times before finally settling at its hole.

10. — *Colletes fodiens Kirb. This pretty little bee I found on flowers
of Senecio and Tri folium afvense. How it derived any benefit from
the latter flower I do not know, as its tongue is too short to reach
the nectary. I never succeeded in tracing it to its burrow.

11. — C. daviesanus Smith. I took one specimen of this insect, but
unfortunately it was destroyed by an accident.

12. — Sphecodes gibbus L.

13. — S , subquadratus Smith.

14. — S. pilifrons Thoms.

These three species were all common, and, needless to say, I did
not distinguish them in the field. Subquadratus was the only one
seen in the spring, when females, many of which had their wings
much torn, were flying in company with female Halictusrubicundus.
In August, both sexes of all these species were on the wing. On
August 8th, at 11-45 a.m., I took pilifrons in cop. The pair fell
down the face of the quarry and I thought that they were some
species of fossor with its prey, but on getting them into a glass
tube, I found that they were <§ and $ Sphecodes. Is the question
of the inquiline nature of Sphecodes yet solved ? On one occasion
I certainly saw a $ gibbus making a burrow.

15. — Halictus rubicundus Christ. Of this very common species, females,
many much worn, were common on flowers of dandelion in May and
June. At the same time, they were to be seen laden with pollen,
entering burrows in the higher part of the bank. In August, the
<$s were common on flowers of ragwort, and $s about the burrows.

16. — H. cylindricus Fab. (Js were common on flowers of ragwort, but

I did not see any $s.

17. — H. tumulorum Linn. £s also common on ragwort.

18. — Andrena albicans Kirb. By far the commonest of the spring
andrenas. Both sexes frequent on dandelion flowers.

19. — A. rosae Panz. I only met with one of this abundant species at
Bessacar, but they were common in the suburbs of the town on
the pavement below sycamores, on the flowers of which they seem
to get drunk.

20. — A. chrysosceles Kirb. Was frequent on dandelions.

21. — *A . denticulata Kirb. Both sexes common on ragwort and thistles
in August.

22/ — Nomada alternata Kirb. I am rather ‘shaky’ in the matter of
nomadas, but so far as I have made out, this is the only
species that I saw at Bessacar. They seemed to be attached to A .
chrysosceles.

1919 May 1

i6o Cephalozia fluitans ( Nees ) Spruce, in Mid-West Yorks.

23. — * Panurgus ursinus Gmil. Of this species, which usually forms
large colonies, I only saw one.

24. — Epeolus pvoductus Thoms. A few of these pretty little bees were
swept off ragwort and Tri folium arvensis, and they were also flying
about the face of the quarry. When on the wing or in the net,
they closely resemble Oxybelus uniglumis and might easily be over-
looked.

25. — Megachile circumcincta Lep. Was fairly common. I saw a £
flying with a large piece of rose leaf which she took into a burrow
in the hard lower sandstone.

These are all the species that actually inhabited the quarry, but
on flowers were also taken : Psithyrus vestalis Fourc., Bombus

agrorum Fab., B. derhamellus Kirb., B. pratorum L., B. lapidarius
and B . terrestris L., making a total of over 30 species of aculeates.

Species not named in ‘ The Victoria County History of
York/ are marked*.

I am indebted to the Rev. F. D. Morice for naming doubt-
ful species.

: o :

CEPHALOZIA FLUITANS (NEES) SPRUCE,

IN MID-WEST YORKS.

WM. BY. PEARSON.

Some time ago Miss Annie Dixon, of the Manchester Micro-
scopical Society, sent me a small collection of hepatics, made
in the neighbourhood of Ilkley, in September last year. Most
of them were of the usual common species, but among them
were specimens of the above species collected on boggy ground
near the Upper Tarn, Ilkley.

It has been recorded from many counties, and I have
no doubt is generally distributed in the British Isles, but been
passed over as a form of Jungermannia inflata, from which it is
however very distinct.

Dr. Spruce (‘ On Cephalozia/ 1882) well summarises their
differences, which are, ‘ for C. fluitans , the stem rooting by
numerous stout flagella ; the branches, whether foliferous,
all postical ; the longer, narrower and more laxly-reticulate
leaves ; the constant presence of underleaves ; the clado-
carpous inflorescence ; the tristichous female bracts, toothed
at the base, and the innermost embracing the perianth ;
finally the lineari-fusiform, trigonous, thin perianth. But in
J. inflata there are no flagella ; the branches arise variously
from the mid-axil of a leaf, or from its postical angle, and the
female flowers are borne on the apex of the stem or of long
leafy branches ; there are no underleaves at all, except, very
rarely a small subfloral one ; the bracts are distichous, con-
formable to the leaves, and usually remote from the perianth ;
and the perianth itself is pyriform, inflated, and obscurely
4-5 plicate only at the very apex ; it is besides composed of
two strata of cells up to one-third of its height/

Naturalist,

i6i

OLD SCIENTIFIC MAGAZINES.*

T. SHEPPARD, M.Sc., F.G.S,

naturalist’s note book.

Since briefly referring to these volumes in ‘ Yorkshire’s
Contribution to Science ’ (p. 141), I have obtained a set of
the publication and am able to give more detailed information.
The full title of the first volume is ‘ The Naturalist’s Note
Book for 1867. A monthly record of Anecdotes, Theories,
and Facts relating to Natural Science. Together with Notices
of New Books, Reports of the Meetings of Learned Societies,
Original correspondence, and Descriptions of new inventions. . .
Office : 1 Racquet Court, Fleet Street, London.’ The publi-
cation is a small quarto, in double columns, the matter being
much after the type of Hardwicke’s Science Gossip. The Pre-
face, dated January 1868, with vi. pages of Index, precedes
a volume of 356 pp., which comprise the twelve monthly
parts issued in 1867. No Editor’s name is given to this, or
to the succeeding volumes. Volume II., for 1868, bears the
imprint ‘ London : Reeves and Turner, 196, Strand,’ and

contains 382 pp. and the frontispiece ‘ Nest of the Tom Tit.’
Vol. III., for 1869, has a similar imprint, and has a frontispiece
and 376 pages. In the Preface it is ‘ Our painful task to inform
many friends that this “ Note Book ” in its present shape
ceases to exist with this volume. . . . Early in January
will be issued the first number of a new series of the ‘ Naturalist’s
Note Book.’ It will be an 8vo (size of the ‘ Cornhill ’), will

contain 48 pp and the price will be sixpence.5 I cannot

trace, however, that this projected series ever appeared.

GEOGRAPHY.

In addition to its well known Journal the Manchester
Geographical Society has published a small royal octavo journal
called ‘ Geography : being Notices and Notes of the Manchester
Geographical Society.’ No. 1 was published on September
30th, 1895 (8 pages), and the last part (No. 93 and 94,
dated June and July, 1904) contains an In Memoriam notice
of the Society’s late Secretary, Eli Sowerbutts. The publication
was issued each month during the winter, and occasionally
during the summer, and was commenced to signalise the
Society’s entry into its larger premises in St. Mary’s Parsonage.

‘ The arrangements of the Society ’ were then published upon
cards, the first, dated October 6th, 1904, stating that ‘ The
issue of Geography will for the present be discontinued.’

MOSS EXCHANGE CLUB.

From a prefatory note in the reports and extracts from the

* For previous notice see The Naturalist for 1918, p. 308.

1919 May 1

162 Old Scientific Magazines.

Club’s note books for the years 1896-7-8, published in 1899 at
Stroud (20 pp.), we learn ‘ The Moss Exchange Club was
founded in the year 1896, in response to proposals made by
me in the “ Journal of Botany,” Feb., 1896, p. 88 (see also
pp. 135 and 368) ; “ Science Gossip,” Dec., 1895, p. 272 ;
and “ Irish Naturalist,” Feb. 1896, p. 55.’ Twenty-three
members had been enrolled by the end of the year, when the
first Exchange took place. Rules were drawn up after the
model of those of the two British Exchange Clubs for seed
plants. There are now 36 members.-— C. H. Waddell, Hon.
Sec., Feb., 1899/

The Society appears to have published similar annual
reports, that for 1917, published at York, being the 22nd,
though some covered more than one year ; nineteen in all
have been issued. Mr. W. Ingham, B.A., became Secretary
in 1903, when he took the place of Mr. Waddell, who had re-
signed. In addition to the valuable information relating to
the distribution of mosses which occur in these reports, the
Society has also published (1) ‘ Census Catalogue of British
Hepatics,’ compiled by Symers M. Macvicar, 1905, York, 24 p. ;

(2) Ditto, 2nd edition, by W. Ingham, Darwen, 1913, 36 pp. ;

(3) ‘ A revised Key of Hepatics of the British Islands,’ by
S. M. Macvicar, Eastbourne, 1906, 20 pp. ; (4) ‘ A Census Cata-
logue of British Mosses,’ by Prof. Barker and W. Ingham,
D. A. Jones, R. H. Meldrum, Rev. C. H. Waddell, Canon Lett
and E. D. Marquand (York, 1907,' 64 pp.). ; (5) ‘ Synopsis
of the European Sphagna,’ by J. A. Wheldon, Darwen, 1917,
42 pp. ; (6) ‘ An Exchange List of European Mosses,’ compiled
by W. E. Nicholson, 4 pp.

HECKMONDWIKE NATURALISTS’ «=ociETY.

In December, 1908, the Heckmondwike Naturalists’ Society
issued a list of ‘ Plants and Shells of the Spen Valley,’ by W.
Balmforth Haley (Cleckheaton, 20 pp.). Preface on p. 1 ;
Plants, pp. 2-10 ; Land and Fresh-water Shells, pp. 12-15.

THE NUMMULOSPHERE.

The first part of this extraordinary publication, containing
104 pp. and 3 plates, appeared in 1913, and bears the title
‘ The Nummulosphere : An account of the Organic Origin of
so-called Igneous Rocks and of Abyssal Red Clays by R.
Kirkpatrick,’ sold by Lamley Sc Co., 2/-, 104 pp. During the
same year appeared part 2, with the sub-title * The Genesis
of the Igneous Rocks and of Meteorites (Plankton and Benthos),’
by the same author, 16 pp.(i/-), with a plate illustrating ‘Plank-
ton organisms found in Igneous Rocks, and in Meteorite/ In
1916 appeared part 3 with the sub-title ‘ The Ocean Floor or
Benthoplankton,’ 319 pp. with 27 plates, and numerous
illustrations in the text, price 10/-. The author is evidently

Naturalist,

Old Scientific Magazines.

163

an enthusiast and somebody has evidently spent a considerable
sum of money in riding his hobby, but we fear that the old-
fashioned Geologist with his knowledge of the origin of igneous
and sedimentary rocks is not likely to be converted. From a
prospectus we learn that in the author's opinion, a discontinuous
belt of nummulitic limestones of Tertiary age, and thousands
of feet thick in places, extends across the Eastern Hemisphere
from Morocco to Japan. Apart from a few doubtful specimens,
nummulites have not hitherto been known to exist before the
Tertiary Era. The supposedly sudden appearance of these
gigantic deposits of Eocene nummulites has been referred to by
d’Archiac as ‘ The Nummulitic Enigma.'

‘ From a purely geological point of view the enigma is now
solved. For chalk is mainly a deposit of nummulites, and so
also are most of the limestones down through the ages to Pre-
cambrian. The mysterious “ morpholiths " of Ehrenberg are
particles of nummulites. Chalk flint is mainly formed of
silicified nummulites. The silica is derived partly from the
skeletons of organisms.

In the neighbourhood of hot magmas silica in limestones
combines with magnesia, etc., to form silicates, the latter being
sometimes re-deposited in zones. Specimens of Eozoon are
simply lumps of nummulitic limestone with silicatic zones.
“ Eozoon " structure is common in archseozoic, but occurs also
in more recent limestones ( e.g ., Monte Somma bombs).

Igneous rocks are silicated masses of nummulites. The heat
of molten magmas may be derived from one or from several
sources, viz., chemical, mechanical or radioactive. The silicates
of the igneous rocks are the end term of a long series of chemical
changes.

Meteorites, whether stony or metallic, are replete with
nummulitic structure, and are very probably ejects from the
nummulosphere of this planet.

The sedimentary rocks are chiefly composed of particles
and fragments of mineralised nummulitic deposits.

The earth is an ocean planet. Its known rind or crust is a
deposit of oceanic and organic origin, viz., a “ benthoplankton"
deposit formed of mineralized nummulites.’

We find the following note on page 20 of part 3 : ‘ Anything
of Scientific value in “ Nummulosphere,” Parts 1 and 2, is
incorporated in part 3. The first two parts, which are no longer
of use, have been of the nature of stepping-stones, that have
helped me, in spite of much initial error, to arrive at the truths
explained in the present work.' At the top of the prospectus
is the following quotation : ‘ What is wanted is, in fact, the
skilled eye .... Hence the need of a long and patient training
of the sense of sight. The Abbe Th. Moreux.' To this we
can only say, Amen.

LS19 May 1

164

SOME ZOOGECIDIA OF SOUTH DENBIGHSHIRE.

A. A. DALLMAN, F.C.S.

In the course of an investigation of the flora of Flint and
Denbigh the writer spent some weeks — during parts of May,
August, and September — in 1918, in the latter county.
The tiny hamlet of Tregeiriog in the secluded upper part
of Dyffryn Ceiriog {i.e. the Ceiriog Valley) served as a con-
venient centre. Much of this time was devoted to local
observations in regard to the floral biology, pollination,
and insect visitors, of various Phanerogamia. Adverse
weather rendered investigations on floral biology impossible
on some days, and consequently I made notes on the plant
galls seen chiefly during August and September.

I am not aware that anything has been published in regard
to Welsh zoocecidia — certainly not so far as North Wales
is concerned. The present contribution makes no pretence
at completeness, and the number of species only represents
a gleaning of the larger total which could certainly be found
in South Denbighshire by detailed investigation. In the
following list I have generally followed the nomenclature
of Monsieur E. Houard’s Les Zoocecidies des Plantes d’ Europe
(1908-1913). I have also made occasional use of Swanton’s
British Plant Galls (1912).

Most of the galls were observed at an average altitude
of 900-1000 feet above sea-level.

Hymenoptera.

Biorrhiza pallida Hartig. The familiar ‘ Oak Apple.’ Common
on Quercus pedunculata Ehrh. ; one of the few galls which receive
a popular designation in Welsh. In Dyffryn Ceiriog they are
known amongst children by the barbaric (half Welsh, half English)
name ‘ Marbles Coed ’ {i.e. Wood Marbles).

Cynips kollari Hartig. On Quercus pedunculata, Ehrh.

Dyrophanta divisa Hartig. On leaves of the two Oaks, Quercus
pedunculata Ehrh., and Q. sessiliflora Salisb.

Neuroterus lenticularis Oliv. [N. baccarum L. form lenticularis).
Common Spangle Gall. Frequent on leaves of Quercus pedun-
culata Ehrh.

Pontania pedunculi Hartig. On leaves of Salix Caprea L., and S.
cinerea L.

Rhodites eglanteriae Hartig. On leaves of Rosa canina L.

R. rosae L. On Rosa arvensis Huds., and R. canina L. This common
and conspicuous gall (‘ Robin’s Pincushion ’) goes by the name
Ystol Robin Goch [i.e. Red Robin’s Stool) in South Denbighshire.

Diptera.

Contarinia craccae Kieff. Affecting flowers of Vida Cracca L. which
are much malformed and enlarged. Between Tregeiriog and
Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog.

heraclei Rubs. Foliage of Heracleum Sphondylium L.

C. steini Karsch. Frequent in flowers of Lychnis dioica L. Also
seen in flowers of L. alba Mill, by Tregeiriog Farm.

Naturalist,

Dallman : Zoocecidia of South Denbighshire.

165

Oligotvophus. annulipes Hartig. A very distinctive gall on leaves of
Fagus sylvatica L. Sparingly in the little wood just above and
north of Tregeiriog ; altitude about 1,000 feet. Sparingly above
right bank of River Ceiriog between Ty-du and Pont Ricket.
By the little cemetery at Tregeiriog.

O. bur savins Bremi. Only a few examples seen. On leaves of
Ground Ivy ( Nepeta hederacea Trev.) between Llansantffraid
Glyn Ceiriog and Tregeiriog.

O. capreae Winn. On Salix Capvea L.

O. taxi Inchb. On the yews in the churchyard at Llancadwaladr.

Perrisia cvataegi Winn. Very common on Hawthorn, causing mal-
formation about the growing points of the stems.

P. filicina Kieff. On pinnules of Bracken ( Ptevis aquilina L.) above
the Ceiriog, on Ty-newydd Farm.

P. fraxini Kieff. On Ash by the Ceiriog above Ty-du Tregeiriog.

P. galeobdolontis Winn. ‘ Rounded or oval gall about the size of a
pea, formed of two leaves with margins in juxtaposition.’ On
Lamium Galeobdolon Crantz. by roadside near Llwyn Pen Llan.

P. ulmaviae Bremi. Affecting foliage of Spiraea Ulmavia L., at Pont
Ricket

P. urticae Perris. Seen on nettle ( XJvtica dioica L.) at Chirk, Pont
Fadog. Dol yWern, and Llansantffraid Glyn Ceiriog. Apparently
rare in the valley above Llansantffraid but noted by the little
cemetery near Tregeiriog.

P. vevonicae Vallot. Very common on Veronica Chamaedrys L.

P. viciae Kieff. On Vicia sepium L., the leaflets becoming revolute
and enlarging to form firm pod-like galls. Pont Ricket.

Rhopalomyia ptavmicae Vallot. Transforming the entire inflorescence
of Achillea Ptavmica L., the various capitula coalescing and
giving rise to a large spongy, pubescent, and somewhat globular
cecidium. Close to the River Ceiriog by Tregeiriog Farm.

Homoptera,.

Adelges abietis Kalt. Common on Spruce ( Picea excelsa Link.

Aphis geranii Kalt. Causing malformation of flowers of Gevanium
molle L.. on hillside above road by Llwyn Pen Llan.

A. urticae Fabr. Affecting Uvtica dioica, L.

Bvachycolus stellaviae Hardy. On Stellavia Holostea L., at Llwyn
Pen Llan and elsewhere. Apparently not uncommon. The same
insect was also noticed galling Holcus (probably mollis L.) close
to the River Ceiriog by Tregeiriog Farm. In this case the leaves
had a distinctive erect and tufted arrangement. They ‘ embrace
each other at their bases like those of a sedge. In this manner
a kind of boat is formed for the protection of the colony.*

Psylla buxi L. On Box ( Buxus sempevvivens L.) causing the clusters
of terminal leaves to be deformed, each being incurved so as to
become more or less hemispherical.

Tvioza galii Forster. Galling Galium palustre L., by the river at
Tregeiriog and also by stream at Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog.

Acarina (Gall Mites).

Epitvemevus trilobus Nal. On leaves of Elder ( Sambucus nigra L.).
Common.

Eviophyes avellanae Nal. A very common gall-maker causing several
distinct forms of cecidia on Hazel ( Covylus Avellana L.). The
enlarged deformed buds ( Houavd , No. 1056) due to this mite
seem to be ubiquitous in South Denbighshire.

E. brevitavsus Focken. Galling leaves of Alder ( Alnus glutinosa
Gaertn.). Dyffryn Ceiriog.

E. euaspis Nal. Deforming leaves of Lotus corniculatus L., on hillside

1919 May 1

166 Dallman : Zoocecidia of South Denbighshire .

west of Llwyn Pen Llan, at about 950 feet elevation. Mr. Swanton
to whom I am indebted for the identification, informs me that
these are the first British specimens he has seen. The galls agree
well with Houard’s description : ‘ £troit enroulement marginal
ou reploirement du limbre par en haut, avec pubescence anormale
a la face inferieure. La partie attaquee est tres epaissie et colored
en jaune ou en rouge.’

E. fraxini Karp. On Ash ( Fvaxinus excelsior L.), causing marked
deformation and hypertrophy of the flowers attacked, and the
inflorescence forms curious conspicuous cauliflower-like growths.
At first of a pale colour and soft consistency, they gradually darken
and assume a leathery or even woody hardness as the season
advances. On one Ash tree only by the river just below Ty-du.
On an Ash by the roadside between Llwyn Pen Llan and Pont
Picket.

E. galii Karp. Affecting leaves of Galium Aparine L. In garden
at Ty-du and also in many places between Pont Picket and
Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog.

E. goniothorax Nal. Common on Hawthorn ( Crataegus monogyna
Jacq.) in the hedges.

E. laevis Nal. Common on foliage of Alder ( Alnus glutinosa Gaertn).

E. macrorrhynchus Nal. On leaves of Sycamore ( Acer P seudo-platanus
L.).

E. nalepai Focken. Perhaps not quite as common as E. laevis Nal.
On leaves of Alder. By Ffordd Nant Caled Gwynt. Along the
River Ceiriog.

E. padi Nal. Forming little nail-like galls on the leaves of Bird-
Cherry ( Prunus Padus P.) by Ty-du.

E. pyri Pagenst. Causing pustular galling of leaves of cultivated
Pear at Ty-du. On Rowan ( Pyrus aucuparia Ehrh.) Houard,
No. 2912 ; on Ty-newydd Farm.

E. ribis Nal. Black Currant bushes in various gardens shewed
evidence of the activities of this familiar gall mite.

E. rudis Can. Affecting buds of Birch (Betula alba L.). Not un-
common.

E. similis Nal. On leaves of Sloe ( Prunus spinosa L.) and another
uncertain Prunus which occurs in various parts of Dyffryn Ceiriog
Houard, No. 3294.

Phyllocoptes acericola Nal. On Sycamore (Acer P seudo-platanus L.).

P. fraxini Nal. On Ash ( Fraxinus excelsior L). in hedge between
Ty-du and Tregeiriog.

The prevalent hedgerow Prunus showed extensive blistering
and curling of the foliage but I failed to detect the agent
responsible. Mr. Swanton, to whom specimens were sub-
mitted, reported : — ‘ The condition of these leaves much
recalls that of leaves attacked by Aphis. In one of the curled
ones I found what appears to be the skin of an Aphis larva.
At least two species of aphides attack Prunus spinosa in Spring
and then migrate to other plants.’

Another unidentified zoocecidium was encountered spar-
ingly on Ty-newydd Farm, Tregeiriog. This was on Meadow
Vetchling (Lathyrus pratensis L.) and had the appearance
of an elongated swelling of the stem — chiefly about a node
or a little beyond — but I have failed to identify the contained
larva.

Naturalist

i6y

ORNITHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS AND
REFLECTIONS IN SHETLAND.

EDMUND SELOUS.

( Continued from ‘ The Naturalist' for igi8} page 383).

October 21ST, 1911. — What are Cows to Starlings here ?
How do they benefit by them ? This is not quite clear. This
afternoon I watched them for some time, following up the
cows as they fed, and feeding near them. But with what
object ? Mr. Hay was inclined to think that the Cow, in
browsing the grass, loosened its roots, and that the Starlings
were thus enabled to get at various insects — beetles, larvae,
etc.— that might be found amongst them. This sounds
likely, but the following are my observations on the con-
nection, in practice. The Starlings, in a little band, would
come flying to one or another of the cows, but whilst they
often came down close to, or near them, they did not peck
about where they had actually been browsing. Instead
of that, they always got a little way out from them, and,
even at the nearest, never, or so rarely as to make it of no
significance, walked actually in their track. Again, they
would often descend in front of them, and spreading to one

side or another, as the Cow came on, here again, they just

missed what ex hypothesi they had come for. On perhaps
three occasions a single bird got just by one of the feet of a
Cow, but I was not able to make out that it actually pecked
at any part of it — hoof or hair — and my impression is that

it never did. As the Starlings fed, they spread out and

became more disseminated, and it was owing to this, I think,
and not designedly, when one came close to a Cow’s foot.
Having come down near beside a Cow, or before or behind it,
but not actually in its track, and having then spread away,
here and there, feeding but still without getting into it — by
chance, I suppose, but showing that this was not the object —
the Starlings would fly to some little way away and, for some
time, feed there precisely as they had been doing when near
the Cows. Then, all at once, they would come flying back
to them — generally to some one in particular, and then,
perhaps, some to another, when what I have described re-
commenced. In short, though in an irregular and desultory
manner, they most certainly followed up the cows, and kept
with them, I could not discover — or rather it was not at all
apparent — that they got anything extra in the shape of
food by so doing. It seemed as though they liked the Cows’
company and accompanied them for that reason. They fed
in one uniform manner, whether they were near the Cows or
some way away from them — viz., by light, irregular peckings

1919 May 1

168 Ornithological Observations and Reflections in Shetland .

bestowed on the ground all about. Say that, speaking
generally, they get more food where Cows graze, yet this does
not explain their actions such as I have described them,
or the pleasure which they seemed to derive by being with
this or that Cow. Rather they seemed to think this enjoyable
— fun — than to be actuated by utilitarian motives. Cows,
I may say, are as carefully treated here — ‘ dipped ’ and scraped
and otherwise attended to — as are sheep ; and even if this
were not so, yet, though the Starlings often walked, for a
little, close beside them, it was never so close that anything
falling from their bodies would have fallen in their path.
Nor did they ever, whilst I watched them, perch on their
backs, though this they often do as with sheep. I have
little doubt, however, that what I have said as to this* must
apply here too. Thus neither the insect parasite theory,
nor that as to the loosening of the roots of the grass, through
browsing, explains why the - Starlings accompany the Cows
in just the way that they do accompany them. Only one
other hypothesis of the utilitarian order is, as it seems to
me, open. As I have previously noted, f cow-dung is certainly
probed and investigated by the Starlings here, who, no doubt,
find their account in it. They may prefer it fresh, and by
following the Cows, as they browse, be from time to time
supplied with this species of manna. I should have been
glad to put this speculation to the test, but I watched and
waited till I grew weary without any such incident occurring.
When one considers, however, how conspicuous such provender
is, and how easily attainable by walking or flying anywhere
about where Cows graze, it does not appear to me likely that
they are personally shadowed with this object in view.

(To be continued).

o

Allan tus perkinsi Morice in Yorkshire. — This species
is described by the Rev. F. D. Morice ( E.M.M. , 1919* P- 62)
as new to science, but has previously been confused with
arcuatus Forst. It may be known from the latter by its black
scutellum, differently formed saw and different sculpture of
the head and mesonotum. On looking through my series of
arcuatus I find three specimens ( 2 $ 1 $). taken at Askham
Bog, 25th July, 1918. Mr. Morice kindly verifies the identi-
fication. On the same day Mr. Walsh and I took some sawfly
larvae feeding on Iris , but failed to rear them. Mr Morice
says that, no doubt, these were larvae of Rhadinocercea micans
Klug and if so the species is new to the county. — Wm. J.
Fordham, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., F.E.S., Bubwith.

* See ante, p. 386-7. f See ante> P- 3l8-

Naturalist(

169

THE HEARING ORGANS OF FISHES.

JOSEPH SMITH, M.R.I.A.

(> Continued from page 62).

The auditory organ, the nerve of which belongs to the
hind brain (probably derived from the sensory root of the
spinal like cranial nerve) is entirely absent in the Amphioxus.
In its simplest form, it is a membranous sac — membranous
labyrinth — containing fluid and otoliths. The posterior part
of the sac is usually prolonged into three semicircular canals,
while the anterior part, which in many cases is separated as a
saccule, gives off a prolongation which forms a cochlea. The
auditory organ of fishes consists only of the labyrinth, and in
the Teleosteans, bony fishes — Ganoids — lies partly in the
cranial cavity surrounded by fatty tissue. It is worthy to note
that in Cyprinidce, Carp, Characince , bony Ganoids, Siluridc ?,
Catfishes and others, the labyrinth is connected with the
swimming bladder by a chain of small bones.* The hearing
bones of fishes are characteristic in different species, and furnish
a very interesting study in comparative anatomy. Found
detached as fossils, they would be puzzling specimens to anyone
unacquainted with existing forms. Some of the bones are
quite microscopic, as those of the Sprat, while others are of
considerable size, those of the hake attaining more than an
inch and a half in length. They are contained in cartilaginous
capsules under the protection of the post frontal bones of the
skull. Although the organs of hearing are well developed in
all fishes, they are not however always to be met with, the
membranous labyrinth of the lamprey has only two of these
canals, and in the Myxine there is only one of these
canals, but in all other fishes there are three ; they communi-
cate with a vestibule in which are contained the bony plates
called Otoliths. There are usually three of these flattened,
somewhat oval, organs, two being larger than the other.
When considering the functions of the otoliths, it will not be
out of place to contrast the life of the fish and its otoliths ; to
compare the size of these stones in the different fishes more
especially when their habits are similar, and even when totally
dissimilar. Yet the otolith whilst maintaining its family
resemblance is extremely different in different families, and in
this question the size of the fish does not establish any corres-
ponding rule, that its otoliths would be larger or smaller than
those of another family, but of a larger or smaller, size, e.g.,
the Smelt, Osincrus eperlanus, has a larger otolith, though a

* Claus. ' Elementary Text Book of Zoology.’ Translated by Sedge-
wick and Heathcote, Vol. II., pp. 121 and 139. London, 1885.

1919 May 1

170 Smith : The Hearing Organs oj Fishes.

smaller fish than the Auxis rochei. The comparison as to the
size of the otolith with the size of the fish, although sufficiently
obvious in the above mentioned case, hardly admits' of a
definite accuracy, but it is rather one that strikes the eye when
dissecting out the otoliths. The otoliths from a Palymis sarda
28 ins. long, and from an Auxis rochei 24 ins. long, are, the first
comparatively, the second actually smaller than the otolith of
the Flying fish Exocaetus paecilopterus. As a further contrast,
we may take another sample, viz., those of the Horse Mackerel,
Carnnx trachurus , and the Bass, Morone labrax, the otoliths
in these fishes are large, as in the Beryx splendidus, or Sehastes
norvegicus. The former two frequent the estuaries of the
rivers and the coast, the two latter very deep water.*

The more commonly known fiat fish have all comparatively
large otoliths, and the other fishes that live at the bottom of the
sea, the Weever, Gobies, etc., each have large otoliths ; we
have several kinds of fishes frequenting the sea-bed, and each
supplied with a fairly large otolith. For a comparison, we
must go to the Blenny family many of which live on the bed
of the sea, yet they have all small otoliths. The Blenny,
Blennius gutlorugine , and the Gobius paganella are two fishes
which vary very little in size ; their mode of life is very similar
on the bed of the sea, yet the otolith of the Goby is manifestly
the larger. Again the Cod, Gadus morrhua , living and feeding
at the bottom of the sea, in deep water, the Scombridce , the
mackerel family, living in the surface strata of the deep sea,
where they find their prey, have small otoliths. The Sparidas,
the Bream family, have, as a rule, large otoliths. Now take
the family Salmonidce : —

The Smelt, Osmerus sperlanus.

The Salmon, Salmo scaber ; and
The Grayling, Thymallus vulgaris.

Their modes of life are different ; the Smelt frequents the salt
waters, the Salmon spends its life in salt and fresh waters,
while the Grayling lives in fresh water only. Taking a com-
parison, the fresh water inhabitant has the largest otolith,
but they are all fairly large.

The arrangement of the various stones is as follows : the
large rounded stone, the lapellus , is on the left, the asteriscus
on the right, and the sagitta in the middle and under the
other two. A relation has been sought by comparing the power
of vision of a fish, as deduced from the muscles attached to
the eyeball, with their power of hearing. In many fishes the
recti-muscles of the eyeball are ‘attached to the skull, at the
back of the eye, giving a short range of movement. This is

* Comparisons of Otoliths found in Fishes, by Colonel C. E. Shepherd.
The Zoologist, 1910, pp. 292, et seq.

Naturalist

Smith : The Hearing Organs of Fishes . 171

seen in the Gadidce— Hakes — which possess large otoliths. In
others, again, these muscles are long, and go well back from
the eye ball, resting in a long narrow case parallel to the basi-
sphenoid, and divided from the brain pan by a bony septum.
The long recti muscles give a quickly mobile eye and are seen
in the Scombridce — Palymids — which have typically small
otoliths, but that the quickness of sight, makes up for the
dulness of hearing, or that more acute hearing follows because
of the increased size of the otolith is a question not as yet

Pagellus centrodontos (After Retzius)

Sea Bream.

A. Asteriscus. s. Sacculus.

S. Sagitta. ri. Ramulus Lagenae.

I. Lagena. xs. Ramulus Sacculi.

decidedly proven. The foregoing remarks have bearing on
the Teleostean fishes, only, that is those possessing a bony
skeleton. The large number of Elasmobranchii, i.e., fishes
with a cartilaginous skeleton, do not possess solid otoliths.
The place of the stone is taken by ‘ Otoconie * or ear dust.
The otoconie, like the otolith, consists of crystals of carbonate
of lime. The cartilaginous fishes require to hear as well as the
bony framed ones ; but why their ear membranes should
contain dust instead of solid concretions is certainly so far

1919 May 1

1J2 Smith : The Hearing Organs of Fishes.

inexplicable, but the fact remains, and in this connexion it
should be noted that in this respect the Sturgeon, Acipenser
sturio, is an exception, possessing both otoconie and otoliths
in its ear membrane.

The Carp family have their auditory organs in connexion
with the air bladder, and so have several of the Clupeidce, e.g.,
the Herring, Culpea harengus, and the Pilchard, Clupea pil-
chardus* These have the Sagitta, as the largest otolith, as
also have certain of the Serranidce— the Perch family, the
Sparidce — the Sea Bream family, and Gadidce — the Cod family.

The Sagitta of the Hake also has a connexion with the air
bladder. All these families have the sagitta as the largest
otolith. They, indeed, have a connexion between the air
bladder, and the auditory organs, and with them there exists
a slight variation in the arrangement of the organs to that
adopted in the anatomy of the Carps, but it does not follow
that the fact of the air bladder and auditory systems being
connected, makes this arrangement essential to increase the
size of the Asteriscus. Again, in the Siluridae— A rius gagorce,.
an inhabitant of the Indian Ocean— which have the same
method of connecting the air bladder with the auditory organs
as in the Cyprinidce, to which the Tench, Fresh Water Bream,
Roach, etc., belong, by means of moveably connected ossicles
have the lapellus , as the largest otolith ; their asteriscus,.
although well developed is relatively small. One characteristic
in the shape of the Asteriscus which is apparently common to
a great many families, is the little spike that projects from,
the middle of one side. It is so delicate as to be easily broken
when dissecting this stone out of the membrane. There
apparently exists a difference of opinion as to what the actual
uses of the otoliths in the working life of the Teleostean fishes
are, the older naturalists regarding them solely as the means
of increasing sound vibrations, and so making the hearing of
fishes more acute, while some of the more modern see in them
only an organ to enable the fish to retain its equilibrium in
the water, but there are still more recent naturalists, and.
possibly the more accurate and correct who credit the otoliths
with helping the equilibrium as well as assisting the hearing.
Taking the Cod as a sample, otoliths occupy the cavity
under the posterior lobes of the skull ; these are apparently
connected, or rather have an auditory nerve which conveys
the vibration of sound, through this differentiated channel,
to the nervous centre. In the Ray family, the otoliths occupy
a cavity on the posterior lobes of the head ; the cavities are
fill< vith a mucous substance which surrounds the otoliths

* The Cambridge Natural History, Vol. VII., page 389, quoting
Bridge, Ridewood, E. H. Weber and Haddon.

Naturalist,.

Smith : The Hearing Organs oj Fishes.

173

which, unlike those of the Cod, are of a soft pasty constituency,
and when dried have a chalky appearance. The phenomenon
of sound is in this instance of a peculiar nature, since regarding
the constituency of these otoliths in contradistinction to those
■of the Cod, it must be of a delicate nature, and consequently
of an imperfect nature. Hearing may therefore be described
as the vibration of solids and fluids propagated by means of
waves through some intervening medium. The function of
the hearing organs is to intercept and collect these undulations
and convey the result to the brain, by which organ they are
made manifest to the individual as sound sensations. This
sensation of hearing may be defined as the conscious state
resulting from the impinging upon a specially prepared part
oi the sentient surface of the body of aerial or fluid vibrations,
caused by the molecular disturbances of bodies in a state of
tremor or vibration. The essential part of an organ of hearing
is obviously a nerve endowed with the peculiar property of
receiving and transmitting sonorous undulations. In the
auditory apparatus whenever and however sonorous undulations
affect the nerve they must cause a sensation of sound and
consequently it is by no means indispensable, as some contend,
that any specially modified surface should be included in the
auditory apparatus, since the auditory nerve, if merely in
contact with any solid part — as the head — will be affected by
the vibration in which it is continually participating.

In the round mouthed sucker fishes, the vestibule repre-
sented by the sac amongst invertebrates, gives off an annular
passage which may be considered as a semicircular canal con-
taining a few twigs of the auditory nerve. Amongst the
higher Cyclostomes, e.g., the Lamprey, two such canals exist,
while the majority of other fish have three holding the same
relation to each other as they do in man. In the higher order
of fish, we have as already noted the addition of the labyrinth,
■consisting of three semicircular canals communicating with
the vestibule, which, with the two ampullae formed by the
expansion of the semicircular canals, give rise to three cavities
at each side of the base of the brain. In these are suspended
the otoliths enclosed by gelatinous endolymph, and enveloped
by a thin membrane traversed in every direction by minute
branches of the auditory nerve forming an exquisite suspensory
ligament. These otoliths are best studied in the skate, herring,
sprat, mackerel, salmon or cod. They are calcareous concre-
tions, purulent in the Cartilaginous fishes— ray and shark
families — but hard and stony and of a porcellanous appearance
in the osseous tribes.

Still another new society is to be formed, viz. : — * The Wild Bird
Investigation Society. ’

1919 May 1

174 • ■

COMMON WILD BIRDS OF THE SCARBOROUGH

DISTRICT.

W. GYNGELL.

(Continued from, page 106).

*The Skylark ( Alauda avvensis L.). Generally distributed as a common
bird throughout the year its numbers are often greatly increased at
migration time. Then, in autumn, as in small or large parties, calling
or singing in modulated voice, it leisurely moves inland after its sea flight,
it is one of the most noticeable of our migrants. Its full song may
occasionally be heard at any time from January to December. On
the Midsummer Night's, excursion, an annual institution of the Scar-
borough Field Naturalists’ Society, the Skylark is almost invariably the
first bird to be heard, commencing to sing sometimes as early as 1-5 1
a.m. Then, its song may be continued at intervals during the whole
length of a nineteen hours day. Sometimes it sings whilst perched in
a hedge. The nest is usually placed on the ground in grass fields but
may be found on the moors among the heather. Rarely more than
four, often only three eggs are laid-. These usually vary little from the
type colouring, but I have seen a clutch almost pure white. A sky-
lark’s egg weighs ’12 oz. The following note under date July 28th,
1900, appears in my bird note book. For the first time I have actually
been deceived by a bird’s apparently feigning being wounded. A skylark
which I came across by the road side shuffled along the road for about
twenty yards with every appearance of being lame, and I followed it
up feeling sure that it was so. I carefully searched the roadside for
nest or young but found none.

*The Swift (Cypselus apus L.). A very common, one might almost
say abundant summer visitor ; always late to appear, never but once
having arrived in April and then on the last day of the month. One
of the first summer birds to leave us, we have no note of its having re-
mained after September 16th. Its favourite nesting sites are holes in
tall buildings in town, though often it will nest well in under the thatch
of a lowly country cottage. Its nest, though thin and light, is more
substantial than is generally supposed, being formed of straws and
grasses agglutinated by the bird's saliva. One nest I examined had in
its composition many of the disc-shaped seeds of the wych elm, possibly
gathered as they fell from the trees by the birds whilst in flight. The
following most singular, perhaps unique experience in connection with
swifts is here given just as it was written down at the time of its obser-
vance : — ‘ On September 1st, 1897, I was near the top of Stepney Hill
and saw two swifts flying near some ash trees growing by the road side.
Presently one bird flew into one of the trees amongst the smaller side
branches, apparently with the object of taking flies from the leaves.
After repeating this action, to my great surprise, the bird clung to a
pendant branchlet and there hung suspended vertically, its long wings
drooping below the tail, at first in horse-shoe form and then afterwards
closed together. The bird hung suspended at about twenty feet from the
ground whilst I watched below for a quarter of an hour till darkness and
the rain, which was then falling, sent me away. The bird remained motion-
less, quite indifferent to the rain and the breeze which caused it
continuously to sway backwards and forwards. Whilst I waited the
second bird approached and had a look at its mate two or three times
and seemed to endeavour to settle on the same twig, but it did not do sa
and had disappeared when I left. That the birds were swifts I am abso-
lutely certain. The incident was a great surprise to me, as I had never
heard that the swift was in the habit of perching, even occasionally,
much less settling down for the night in such a place and position, not

Naturalist.

Common Wild Birds of the Scarborough District. 1 75

perched, in the ordinary sense of the word, but vertically suspended
like a great moth/

The Nightjar ( Caprimulgus europcsus L.). A fairly common summer1
visitor. No early records of its appearance have been made, but eggs
have been found by May 27th. It haunts uncultivated land from the
level vale to the moorland heights, resting during the day among bracken,
furze or heather and coming forth at night to ‘ churr ’ and hawk for
insects. The ‘ churring ’ sound, like the noise of a distant threshing
machine is, I feel sure, always produced when the bird is perched. Another
sound made by the bird in flight is produced by striking the raised wings
together. Both performances may sometimes be heard and the wing
clappings seen in the day time. To stalk close up and listen to the bird’s
weird music on a calm summer’s night is one of the most interesting
experiences an ornithologist can have. When perching on tree branches
the bird's body usually reposes longitudinally but I have seen it sit in
the usual way of other birds. The nightjar’s egg weighs '28 oz.

The Green Woodpecker ( Gecinus viridis L.). Not really a common
bird though regularly inhabiting our larger woods ; often coming into
the open to dig in sandy banks for sand- wasps and other insects. On
a hot summer’s day I have seen it at Castle Howard clinging to the stone
obelisk, insect hunting in the crevices fifty feet above the road. I have
heard its loud laughing or yapping ‘ hyi, hyi, hyi,’ as early as February
4th and until October 15th. Its nest hole in living, more often than
dead trees, is usually, though not always, a round hole bored by the
bird itself, the eggs being laid upon the bare chips of wood which fall
inside, whilst a heap of such white chips at the base of the tree often
betrays the bird’s nest.

The Great-Spotted Woodpecker ( Dendrocopus major L.). Apparently
rather more common than the last species and found in the same haunts.
It also occasionally leaves the woods and may be seen at work on an old
post in a fence or the plaster work of an old barn. Its nesting haunts
too, are the same as those of the green species, but a smaller hole is made
sometimes but eight feet, often as much as twenty-five feet above ground,
holes in pines as well as deciduous trees being bored and occupied. The
‘ woodpecker tapping ’ produces a sound quite unlike that so often
described by those who have never heard it. The bird also makes a rapid
vibrating sound which is best imitated by holding the end of a walking
stick loosely against a deal door and running it up and down the wood-
work. This may be a sort of call. The alarm note sounds like ‘ chook.’
Starlings are much indebted to woodpeckers for providing them with
such nice ready-made nesting holes which they, the starlings, are not
slow to usurp. An egg of this woodpecker weighs 16 oz.

The Kingfisher ( Alcedo ispida L.). Scarcely to be called a common
bird, though nesting annually on all the larger streams of the district
and occasionally frequenting the sea-shore. I have found eggs in the
nest by April 15th. The Kingfisher can and does excavate its own nest
hole in a river sand-bank as is proved by the distinct marks of its beak
about the entrance. The bird’s egg weighs '14 oz.

* The Cuckoo ( Cuculus canorus L.). This common summer visitor
sometimes arrives here as early as April 16th, though eggs have not been
found before May 31st. These, in this district, are most frequently
placed in the nest of the meadow-pipit, whilst the hedge-sparrow, pied-
wagtail and tree-pipit are quite commonly selected as incubators. The
cuckoo regularly nests in town gardens or on our golf links. Both male
and female - sing ’ whilst flying as well as when perched on bush or wall.
Its voice may be heard from 2-13 a.m. until 8-42 p.m. on a summer’s day.
On June 8th, 1895, I found a cuckoo's egg under most peculiar circum-
stances. I was walking through a thin plantation of birches on S earner
Moor when my attention was arrested by a heap of feathers on the ground.
They were fairly closely packed, that is to say not scattered about. On

1919 May 1

176 Common Wild Birds of the Scarborough District.

close examination I found that they were cuckoo fehthers, both quill
and contour, and underneath them there was a cuckoo’s egg. There
was nothing else ; no bones, blood or evidence of a struggle, and no
bird’s nest near. But I imagine a sparrow-hawk was the author of the
tragedy, the cuckoo having been caught immediately it had laid its egg
and then plucked by the hawk which, possibly disturbed at its meal
had then carried away the body of its victim. This may not be the true
story, but I think it the most likely one. I still have both egg and feathers.
The cuckoo’s egg weighs ’13 oz. Not all cuckoo superstitions are yet
dead. In this twentieth century a local labourer told me that ‘ the
cuckoo is a kind of hawk, but it does not call in the winter.’

The Barn Owl (Strix ft amme a L.). Of the three owls resident in our
district this is the least common, probably owing to its coming abroad
earlier in the evening and thus more often falling a victim to the game-
keeper’s gun. It is, sad to relate, a favourite household ornament when
stuffed and mounted in a glass case. But the limited numbers in which
it is still found in this district are not less than they were thirty years
ago. One must not forget, too, that its northward range- in Britain is
restricted. A hollow tree, old pigeon cote or hole in a barn are its favourite
local nesting haunts. As many as six eggs, each weighing -85 oz. are
commonly laid ; these may be deposited in fairly quick succession, though
perhaps more frequently they are laid at such intervals of time that
three pairs of young ones of most obviously different ages may all sit up
and hiss at an intruder. I have often heard but have been disappointed
in the, to me, somewhat feeble screech of this bird. A number of its
cast-up pellets which I took from an old farm building show that the
victims of this one pair of owls were small birds, chiefly sparrows, as well
as mice and voles.

The Long-eared Owl ( Asia otus L.). In its own particular haunts
the densest and darkest of our spruce fir plantations, this is the com-
monest owl of our district. Here throughout the year it roosts throughout
the day on the flat old nests of the wood, pigeon. It is most difficult to
flush the bird. Sticks and stones may be thrown up and heavy kicks
delivered ten feet below the roosting bird without apparent effect. Usually
silent, it produces, particularly in the breeding season, some most un-
canny sounds. Kee-avik — hoo, hoo, slowly uttered at intervals, faintly
yet distinctly audible. Then perhaps a long pause and one may hear a
low clapping sound produced by striking the wings together at each beat,
Gver the back it has seemed to me. All these sounds may be heard as
early in the year as January 9th, and by March nth the four or five white
eggs may be found on one of the old wood-pigeons’ nests, from twelve
feet to forty-five feet above ground. An egg weighs ’82 oz. Sometimes
an old nest of the magpie is used. Nothing is added to the former owner's
work but a few of the owl’s own downy feathers. When the young are
hatched the nest may often be found to contain a dead mouse or vole,
daylight rations obtained the previous night. The call of the young is
particularly harsh and piercing and as unharmonious as the noise made
by a slate-pencil scratched vertically along a slate. The young can also
hiss. As all naturalists know, owls perch parrot-like with two claws
forward and two to rear, but the baby long-eared species grasps objects
(one’s finger for example), with three claws forward and one backward.
When the young are molested both parent birds sometimes fly round
and ‘ snap ’ their beaks. In woods regularly inhabited by this species
quantities of ‘ pellets ' composed of the indigestible portions of former
meals that the bird has cast up, may be found strewn about under the
trees. These, on examination reveal the bird’s tastes in. meats. .Some
dozens that I have pulled to pieces have disclosed the remains of forty-
four mice, thirty voles and two small birds.

(To be continued ).

Naturalist

1 77

3n flDemoriarn.

THOMAS GIBBS (1865-1919).

It will be with very keen regret that naturalists in Yorkshire
and Derbyshire hear of the death of Thomas Gibbs at the
comparatively early age of 54. For the past twenty years
he has been one whose attendance at meetings of the York-
shire Naturalists’ Union has been welcomed with that warmth

The late T. Gibbs (left) with the late C. Crossland.

•of feeling which fellow workers have for unostentatious ability
and indefatigable service. He was one of the stalwarts of
the annual Fungus Foray, and the photograph which we are
able to reproduce shows him, as he was for some years, a right-
hand helper of our late venerable chief mycologist, Charles
Crossland. To many of us memory will add a companion
picture. One of the earliest arrivals at the place of meeting,
Gibbs would be out with his vasculum or basket assiduously

1919 May 1

178

In Memoriam : Thomas Gibbs.

working the district in every nook and' corner, to return at
the close of the day with the reward of a full harvesting.
Little escaped his observant eye while all his gleanings had
their habitats duly recorded. In the sorting and examining
which followed, his work was as careful as his judgment was
trustworthy. It was only when the last specimen was cleared
away that he. allowed the tension to relax, and though
naturally of a quiet and -reserved manner he would warm
even to enthusiasm in discussing some problem of Natural
History or Philosophy.

Gibbs appears to have been always a naturalist. Educated
at the Grammar School at Burton-on-Trent, he was only a
schoolboy of eleven when the Natural History and Archaeo-
logical Society was formed in that town in 1876, and he became
a junior member in the first year of its existence. The records
of the Society show that he soon became a contributor, and
like many youthful naturalists; he was first an entomologist,
then from insects he turned to flowers and became a botanist.
He was fortunate in the stimulating friendship of Mr. C. W.
Tripp, Dr. P. B. Mason, Dr. Horace Brown, and the Rev.
C. F. Thornewill.

Articled in 1881 he was admitted as a solicitor in 1887,
yet all this time he was so devoted a naturalist that he worked
the whole of the wide district of the Society’s operations
till he knew it intimately, as his contributions to Nature
Notes, the Calendar of Nature, and the Lepidoptera of Burton
bear witness.

After short periods of residence in South Wales, and at
Haverhill, in Suffolk, he came into Yorkshire in 1890, joining
a firm of solicitors in Sheffield. Very soon this corner of the
county and the immediate neighbourhood of N. Derbyshire
were as familiar to him as the fields and woods around Burton.
He joined the Sheffield Naturalists’ Club, and became one of
its most useful and active members. In 1894 he returned to
Burton and became the Secretary of his old Society, acting
as Editor of Parts 2 and 3 of Vol. III. of its Transactions.

Before leaving Sheffield he turned his attention to the study
of the Fungi, and when he returned in 1898 he was able to
enter upon a thorough investigation of the Fungus Flora of
the District. But a wider field was opened up to him for he
became a member of the Y.N.U., and henceforth Mycology
claimed him for her own. It was in Ecclesall Wood, near
Sheffield, that he discovered a new Fungus, Coprinus gibbsii,
named by Massee and Crossland and described by them in
The Naturalist , 1902, page 1., ‘ probably the smallest Agaric
known.'

After ten years in Sheffield he took up business at Derby,
but resided at Wirksworth. He became a member of the

Naturalist,

In Memoriam : Thomas Gibbs.

179

Derby Arch, and Nat. Hist. Society and started a new
Society at Wirksworth. He compiled a first list of Derby-
shire Agarics for the former Society’s Journal, wrote the
article on Fungi of the Sheffield District for the Handbook of
the British Association which met there in 1910, and prepared
for The Naturalist a report of the Rainfall of Wirksworth
from records kept by his father at Bridge House. His last
paper was a contribution to the Derbyshire Society’s Journal,
‘ Bitty Hollow Wirksworth : a Botanical Study.’

Some years before, his studies in Brambles brought him
into contact with the Rev. W. R. Linton whose In Memoriam
he wrote for The Naturalist.

In the early days-of the war he took an active part in forming
the Home Guard at Wirksworth, but in 1916 he removed
to Sussex, where he was a member of the Sussex Volunteer
Corps. He died at Lindfield on February 8th.

He married in 1911, Miss H. E. Bowen, of Sheffield, who
by his death is left a widow with a little daughter five years
old.

Mr. Cheesman, one of that devoted band of Yorkshire
Mycologists, a frequent companion of Crossland and Gibbs,
writes of him : —

‘By the death of Thomas Gibbs, Yorkshire Mycology has
suffered another severe loss. For many years he was an
active member of the Mycological Committee, present at
every meeting, always prepared with some communication
of value and ever ready to impart his knowledge to enquirers.

‘ His wide botanical knowledge made him a delightful
and entertaining companion in the field.

‘ He became deeply interested in the study of Fungi, and
whilst possessing a good all round knowledge of the group
was soon led to specialise on the Coprophilous Fungi in which
he was a noted authority, and was the means of adding con-
siderably to our stock of knowledge of this section.

‘ He checked and verified the researches of Massee and Sal-
mon ( Ann. Bot., 1901, 353-5) proving that the spores of
Coprophilous Fungi did not germinate until they had passed
through the intestines of some herbivorous mammal. During
this work he raised Coprinus gibbsii Mass, and Crossl. which
is probably the smallest agaric known. He also named and
described C. cordisporus Gibbs n. sp. (Nat., 1908, p. 100)
and C. cheesmani Gibbs, n. sp., raised by cultures in fimo
Hippopotami brought from the Victoria Falls, South Africa
(Linn. Soc. Jour., Feb., 1909).

‘ The Yorkshire records were augmented by him from time
to time by numerous species of Sordaria and allied fungi..
Since his removal from the county he has acted as referee for
the Ascomycetes.’

1919 May 1

i8o

In Memoriam : Thomas Gibbs.

The following is a list of Mr. Gibbs’ published Natural
History contributions : — •

In The Midland Naturalist, 1885

Report of Entomological Section of the Burton-on-Trent Natural
History and Archaeological Society, 1884-5.

Insects new to the District of Burton-on-Trent.

I11 The Transactions of the Burton-on-Trent Natural History and
A rchaeological Society : —

The Lepidoptera of Burton-on-Trent and neighbourhood, Vol.
I., pp. 114-138, 1889.

The Larva of the Eel, Vol. III., Part 2, 1896.

The weather of 1894 (with Mr. Jas. Wells) Ibid p. 109.

The weather of 1895 (with Mr. Jas. Wells) Ibid, p. 170.

The weather of 1896 (with Mr. Jas. Wells) Vol. III., Part 3.

The Flora of Burton-on-Trent and neighbourhood compiled by
Mr. Gibbs, Vol. III., Part 2, f. 177-190.

Vol. III., Part 3, f. 269-282.

Vol. IV., Part 1, f. 75-88.

Vol. IV., Part 2, f. 117-148.

The Climatical Distribution, of British Plants,

Vol. IV., Part 1, f., 48-55.

In The Naturalist : —

Taraxacum found at Markland Grips, Derbyshire, 1900, p. 50.

Fungi in Yorkshire and Derbyshire, 1901, p. 128.

Fungi, near Wirksworth, 1901, p. 128.

Yorkshire Naturalists' Union at Masham, 1902, p. 15.

Fungi at Conisbro’ and Doncaster, 1902, p. 123.

Coprophilous Fungi collected near Sheffield, 1902, p. 132.
Fungi collected at Y.N.U. meeting at Coxwold and Kilburn, 1902,
p. 281.

Fungi of Bowes, Y.N.U. meeting, 1903, p. 373-
Fungi at Wharncliffe, Y.N.U. meeting, 1903, p. 400.

Destructive Fungi in Wharncliffe Woods, 1904, p. 15.

Kingfisher at Wirksworth, 1904, p. 31.

Navelwort in N. Derbyshire, 1904, p. 38.

Fungi in Potridings Wood, S. Yorks, 1904, p. 93.

Coprophilous Fungi at Helmsley, 1904, p. 113.

New Yorkshire Fungi, 1905, p.139.

Schistostega osmundacea (Mohr), 1906, p. 301.

Fungi at Horton-in-Ribblesdale, 1907, p. 395.

W. R. Linton, In Memoriam, 1908, p. 51.

A New Coprinus (C. cordispovus Gibbs), 1908, p. 100.

Fungi : Correction in Horton List, 1908, p. no.

Fungi at Osmotherley, Y.N.U., 1908, p. 409.

Bovistella paludosa on Osmotherley Moor, 1908, p. 457.

Fungi at Kirby Moorside, Y.N.U., 1910, p. 404.

The Relative Frequency of the Species Agaricus (Abstract),
1911, p. 28.

Rainfall records at Wirksworth, 1913, pp. 105-118.

Notes on Fungus Habitats, 1914, pp. 5 and 6.

Polyporus giganteus as a timber destroying Fungus, 1914, p. 129.

Fungi of Sheffield District, Brit. Assoc. Handbook for Sheffield
Meeting, 1910, p. 433-442.

A First List of Derbyshire Agarics : Journal of Derbyshire Arch,

and Nat. Hist. Society, Vols. XXX. and XXXI.

Pitty Hollow Wirksworth : a Botanical Study, Journal of Derbyshire
Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc., 1918, p. 181-192.

E. S.

Naturalist,

In Memoriam: Edward Lamplough. 181

. EDWARD LAMPLOUGH.

We much regret to hear of
the death at the age of 74 of
Mr. Edward Lamplough, of Hull,
which took place on the 26th
March. Mr. Lamplough wTas the
author of * Hull and Yorkshire
Frescoes/ and numerous volumes
of poems, and the pages of The
Naturalist have frequently been
enriched by his sonnets. He
took a keen interest in natural
history, and for many years was
associated with the Hull Scientific
and Field Naturalists' Club, and in
1904-5, 5-6 occupied the presiden-
tial chair. He was keenly interes-
ted in microscopy and was especi-
ally skilful in the preparation of
dissections of insects, etc. — T. S.

: o :-

FUNGI.

Omphalia telmatiaea in the Rotherham District.

Among the fungi I collected in the Rotherham district in 1918
was Omphalia telmatiaea a somewhat rare species which appears
only to have been noted once before in Yorkshire, at .Scar-
borough. For identification of this and other species I am
indebted to Messrs. W. Bellerby and W. T. Elliott. —
J. H. Payne, West Melton.

1 1 - o :

Hull Museum Publications, Nos. 113, 114, 115, 116. Edited by
T. Sheppard. A Brown & Sons, Hull. Now that the war is over, the
Hull Museum has recommenced the issue of its well-known pamphlets.
No. 1 13 is a Catalogue of the Imperial War Museum, with a list of the
local war relics, and is issued at sixpence ; the others are one penny each.
No. 1 14 contains notes on ' The Evolution of Shipping as illustrated on
Coins and Tokens,’ * Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Seventeenth Century
Tokens,’ ‘ More Bronze Age Relics from Scarborough,’ and a report on a
‘War Memorial Museum,’ etc., all by the Curator; No. 115 contains
' Notes on Packing and Removing a Museum of Geology and Antiquities
[Driffield] in War-time,’ and ' Stuart Collections for Wilberforce House,’
by the Curator, and ‘ The Woodlice of the Hull District,’ by 2nd Lieut.
T. Stainforth. No. 116 contains ‘Money Scales and Weights,’ by Mr.
Sheppard, and ‘ List of Marine Mollusca of Iceland,’ and ‘ Notes on
Arctic- Alpine Mollusca,’ by Hans Schlesch. These various papers have
been reprinted from The Naturalist, The Museums Journal, The Report of the
British Association, The Transactions of the Yorkshire Numismatic Society, and
the Minutes of the Hull Corporation.

Edward Lamplough.

1919 May 1

i82

FIELD NOTES.

MOLLUSCA.

Unusual habitat for Limnea truncatula and Pbysa
fontinalis. — On March 26th last, the' head gardener to Selby
Park, called my attention to some snails on the sides of the
green slimy flower pots in one of the greenhouses. There I
found a fairly large colony of the first of the above, with a few
of the latter all sizes from very small to almost the normal.
On submitting a sample to Mr. J. W. Taylor, he writes as
follows : ‘ In my opinion they are L. truncatula and P . fontinalis
as you say. I have not heard of their living so numerously
under the circumstances you describe, and they must have been
kept very moist ; of course, as you know, both these species
are really land shells that are taking to a watery habitation,
quite analogous to the seals, etc.’ — J. F. Musham, Selby.

: o : — —

DIPTERA.

New Yorkshire Diptera. — When examining some diptera
taken during the past summer at Farnley, Leeds, a tipulid
was identified zsPachyrrhina imperialis Mg., but as this was not
included in the published county lists and was very frequent
in a garden during August, there appeared to be a possibility
of error until it was confirmed by Mr. J. H. Ashworth. A
single specimen of Mycophaga fungorum Deg. was also taken at
the same place last July. This has been compared with Dr.
Meade’s collection now housed in the Zoological Museum at
Leeds University, which contains, amongst others, a damaged
specimen of this species taken at Thorp Arch, 20th August,
1879, which should stand as the earliest county record.
Acknowledgment is made to Professor Garstang for facilities
he has on several recent occasions granted to local workers
at Diptera for comparing critical species with the named
tj^pes in the valuable collection under his charge. — Chris. A.
Cheetham.

: o :

LEPIDOPTERA.

Aberrations in Lepidoptera. — I have in my collection an
abnormal example of the Five-Spot Burnet Moth (Zygaena
lonicerae) possessing four antennae. It was bred from a cocoon
which I took on the coast at Flamborough Head. I have
also a preserved larva of the Cinnabar Moth (Euchelia jacobeae)
in which two of the black bands in the centre of the body
cross one another. This is from Spurn. — Ch as. Couldwell,
Hull.

Naturalist,

Correspondence.

183

GEOLOGY.

Milk Tooth of Mammoth ( Elephas primigenius) from
Aldborough. — I have just obtained a somewhat interesting
Mammoth tooth which was found recently on the Holderness
Coast at Aldborough, by Miss A. Colley, of Hull. It is a very
small example and is apparently one of the milk teeth which
in the young of the elephant family, occupy the position of
the premolars, but are afterwards crowded out and not
replaced. That the tooth referred to is a milk tooth may be
judged from the root formation (like an inverted canine
tooth), and from the fact that an undeveloped anterior molar
would have been three times the size and have a compound
root. — Chas. F. Procter, Hull.

: o :

CORRESPONDENCE.

FORMER STATUS OF THE STARLING.

That the Starling is now much more evenly distributed over the whole of
England than was the case fifty or sixty years ago, is a fact too well-
known to be disputed. A century ago it was extremely rare as a- breeding
species in Northumberland, and till comparatively recent years was only
a winter visitor to Cumberland, the greater part of Wales and Cornwall.
It is therefore not surprising that in South Lancashire it was as Mr.
Massey states, still scarce till about 1890. At this date it was, however,
plentiful in the Trent basin, and in the Derwent Valley right up to the
moorlands. Evidently the high ground to the northward acted as a
bar to its progress, and probably the wave of immigration came from
the Cheshire side.

I have not mentioned the spread of the Starling in Scotland, as the
subject has already been fully treated by Harvie-Browne ( Ann. Scot.
Nat. Hist., 1895, and Vert. Fauna of Tay, p. 138) to which papers Mr.
Butterfield may be referred.

Some of Mr. Butterfield's evidence is quite beside the mark. There
is no proof that the instance of the nesting of the Starling recorded by
T. W. Barlow ( Zool ., 1845, p. 1023) took place in Cheshire. It is merely
given on the authority of an unknown friend who may have lived any-
where. The presence of large flocks in South Derbyshire in 1844 has
obviously no bearing on the status of the species in Lancashire. Neville
Wood was also resident in the Dove Valley and had no personal acquain-
tance with Lancashire.

The question can only be studied satisfactorily when some regard is
paid to natural conditions, such as the presence of mountain ranges
or large tracts of treeless country devoid of breeding sites, which act as
barriers to the progress of an increasing species for a time, even in the
case of a strong winged species like the Starling. _ Mr. Butterfield will
find the solution of the English problem, speaking generally, lies in the
study of our mountain systems : the Pennine chain, the Derbyshire
Peak, the Cambrian and Devonian groups acting as breakwaters which
checked, but did not stop, the oncoming tide. — F. C. R. Jourdain,
Appleton Rectory, near Abingdon, Berks.

: o :

Northern records occur in ‘ Gleanings from my Note-books, V.,’ by
Dr. J. W. H. Harrison, and ‘ British Neuroptera in 1917 and 1918/ by
Mr. W. J. Lucas, in The Entomologist for March.

1919 May 1

184

NEWS FROM THE MAGAZINES, etc.

Mr. H. H. Corbett, of Doncaster, has been elected a Fellow of the
Linnean Society.

Mr. J. H. Gurney’s 25th annual report on the ornithology of Norfolk
appears in British Birds for April.

Still another new Society is suggested, “ The Geographical Association,
the headquarters of which are at Aberystwith.

From January 1st Dr. Alfred Harker has been appointed Reader
in Petrology at the University of Cambridge.

Mr. J. R. le B. Tomlin and Prof. T. Hudson Beare have retired from
the editorial staff of The Entomologist’ s Record.

A Memoir and portrait of the late F. Du Cane Godman, F.R.S., appear
in The Entomologist’ s Monthly Magazine for April.

Mr. J. J. Lister, F.R.S., writes ‘ On some north-Country [Lake District]
species and forms of Lepidoptera ’in The Entomologist for April.

The Lancashire and Cheshire Naturalist for February, issued April
(gth), is entirely devoted to a section of Mr. H. J. Weldon’s Fungus
Flora of Lancashire.

The Museums Journal for April contains a paper on ‘ Arrangement
of an Ethnographical Collection ’ by Ben H. Mullen, and ‘ The Application
of Art to Industry, and its relation to Museums,’ by S. E. Harrison. .

We have received the Annual Report of the Scottish Marine Biological
Association, which contains a list of additions, a list of the late Dr. J.
M’Rury’s Collection of Birds’ Eggs, as well as a report on the Society’s
work during the year.

As a supplement to The Journal of the Board of Agriculture for March,,
is a valuable pamphlet on ‘ The Cultivation, Composition and Diseases
of the Potato,’ which contains 116 pages, and many illustrations (some
coloured), and is sold at the low price of sixpence.

A lengthy abstract of a paper on ‘ The Petrography of a Sedimentary
Rock, with special reference to the Carboniferous System,’ read to the
Midland Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers, by Dr. Alfred
[Albert] Gilligan, appears in The Quarry for March. '

A writer in The Entomologist’ s Record for February states he started
from London to visit Stainton’s ' Hilly Field,’ near Mickleham, Surrey,
in June, 1882, but did not arrive at his destination till July 28th, 1919 !
The trains in the south must be worse than we thought !

Among the contents of The Entomologist’ s Monthly Magazine for March,
we notice a Note on the British representatives of the Genus Macropsis
Lewis, Notes on Sawflies, and Allantus perkinsi n. sp., a new British
sawfly. There is also a record of Phryganea obsoleta, a new record for
Yorkshire.

We have received from Messrs. Wheldon and Co., of 38 Great Oueen
Street, Kingsway, London, their catalogue No. 86, which is entirely
devoted to Entomological works, and contains particulars of over 1,000
items, carefully classified. The catalogue itself is distinctly valuable
from a scientific point of view.

At a recent meeting of the Entomological Society of London, Mr.
E. E. Green exhibited specimens of a rare Coccid ( Kermes quercus) taken
on the stem of a single oak at Selby. They were found to be associated
with dense groups of adventitious buds on the stems of the tree, and were
extraordinarily like the buds themselves.

Vol. LX 1 1., part 3 of the Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester
Literary and Philosophical Society contains Regional Distribution of
the Native Flora of Teneriffe, . by J. H. Salter; The Association of
Facetted Pebbles with Glacial Deposits, by J. W. Jackson ; Radio-
Activity and the Coloration of Minerals, by E. Newbury and H. Lupton,
and The Superficial Geology of Manchester, by Margaret C. March.

mrVl

’.1919

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By ROBERT HOGG, F.R.H.S.

Instructor of Gardening to the Derbyshire Education Committee.

Extract from Introduction by Mr. ARTHUR HOUGH.

This book will prove a reliable guide to teachers, scholars, and others interested
in Horticulture who wish to possess a good knowledge of facts and principles
necessary for successful practical work, whether connected with school and cottage
gardens or allotments. The writer, whose practical experience extends over many
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London : A. Brown & Sons, Limited, 5 Farringdon Avenue, E.C.4

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May 1st, 1919

A MONTHLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF

NATURAL HISTORY FOR THE NORTH OF ENGLAND

EDITED BY

T. SHEPPARD, M.Sc., F G.S., F.R.Q.S., F.S. A.Scot.x<

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WITH THE ASSISTANCE AS REFEREES IN SPECIAL DEPARTMENTS OF

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RILEY FORTUNE, P.Z.S.

JUNE 1919-

NO. 749

(No, 523 of currant aartes.

Contents

Notes and Comments (illustrated) : — Tidal Lands; Royal Commissions; Blakeney Point;
Medical Contributions, and the Study of Evolution ; A Discussion; Summary of Con-
tents; The British Museum; Cherianths, ii., 1919; Moir Jaw; Practical Handbook of
British Birds; Local Societies and Adult Education; Exeunt Sea-Eagle; Dates of
Publication; A New Songster: ‘The Gardener and the Robin’; Fieldfares; Food of

Wild Birds ; A Verdict ; A Tell-tale Diagram..

Songs of the Birds— Prof. W. Garstang, M.A., D.Sc

The Witchery of Gilbert White — Rev.E.A. Wyodruffe-Peacock, F.L.S., F.G.S., F.E.S.

Yorkshire Naturalists at Coxwoid (illustrated) — W.E.L . W

The Nightmare of Names in the Bed of Roses— F. Arnold Lees, M.R.C.S.

Field Note:— Spring-gun in Oak Tree (illustrated)

Correspondence: Former Status of the Starling

Proceedings of Provincial Scientific Societies

Northern News

News from the Magazines, etc

Illustrations

185-194
195-198
199-205

206-210

... 211-213

214

215

•. 214, 215

. 205,213

216

189, 193, 194, 206, 214

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Settle, August 23rd-25th.

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Alford Nat. Hist. Soc. Reports. Set.

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Derby Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc. Parts 20, 21.

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Dublin Geol. Soc. Vol. I., pt. i, 1830? ; Vol. VII., 1855-9.

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Geological Maps, Early.

Goole Scientific Society, First Report.

Geol. Soc., London, Trans. 4to. 2nd series, Vols, IV. -VII. Pts. 1-3 (1836-52).
Geol. Soc. Quarterly Journal. Parts 5 and 7.

Geological Magazine, 1890-1-2-4.

Huddersfield Arch, and Topog. Society, 1st Report, 1865-1866. (38 pp.).

Illustrated Scientific News. 1902-4. (Set).

Journ. Micrology and Nat. Hist. Mirror. 1914 —

Keighley Naturalists’ Society Journal. 4to. Part 1.

Lancs, and Cheshire Entom. Soc. Reports, 1-12, 14, 15, 18-23, 26, 27, 31, 36.
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i85

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

TIDAL LANDS.*

Until recent years the question of tidal lands, their
formation, reclamation and protection, was one for the
engineers ; occasionally they sought the aid of the geologist.
Modern researches however, particularly on the part of Prof.
Oliver, at Blakeney Point, Norfolk, have demonstrated the
advisability of courting the aid of the botanist in connection
with tidal land problems. It is therefore appropriate that
Mr. Carey and Prof. Oliver should jointly produce a volume,
bringing together for the first time the views of a practical
engineer and an expert botanist.

ROYAL COMMISSIONS.

Expensive Royal Commissions have sat dealing with the
protection of the most recent additions to our islands, and vast
volumes exist containing acres of expert evidence on the
question of the protection and utilization of new lands, but
had one the time and ability to digest this great mass of matter
we doubt whether the result would be half as beneficial as a
perusal of ‘ Tidal Lands/ where the whole problem seems to
be succinctly summarised and discussed on sound and up-to-
date scientific lines. Whether dealing with tidal rivers,
sand-dunes, shingle -beaches, reclamation, salt marshes,
plant winning of tidal lands, or the numerous other
problems, the chapters are exceptionally complete, and made
further valuable by the addition of numerous plans and
reproductions from photographs.

BLAKENEY POINT.

It may be taken that the valuable work at Blakeney Point
— now familiar to the scientific world — forms the basis of
the volume, but many other areas, at home and abroad, are
described and compared. In this country, Essex, Sussex,
Torquay Harbour, Rhyl Dunes, Norfolk and numerous other
areas are dealt with. Yorkshire is neglected ; and we would
suggest to Yorkshire naturalists the advisability of thoroughly
investigating Spurn Point — one of the best places in the
country for the purpose — on the lines of ‘ Tidal Lands.’
MEDICAL CONTRIBUTIONS, f

While considering the subject of the Croonian Lectures
which Dr. Adami was invited to deliver, he tells us that
‘ a chance discussion with a leading British biologist [Sir
E. Ray Lankester] convinced me that the time was ripe to

* ‘ Tidal Lands : A Study of Shore Problems,’ by A. E. Carey and
F. W. Oliver. Blackie and Sons, 284 pp., 12s. 6d. net. +

f ‘ Medical Contributions to the Study of Evolution,’ by J. G. Adami.
Duckworth and Co., 372 pp., 18s. net.

1919 June 1

N

i86

Notes and Comments.

bring together and sum up the conclusions regarding Adapt-
ation which as a student of pathology I had reached gradually
in the years preceding the war. I judged from the discussion
above referred to that the earlier work was not known to
biologists in general. Varied as is his reading and brilliant
his memory, this distinguished biologist was evidently
wholly ignorant concerning it. It seemed also that it
would be ■ serviceable to present the conclusions reached,
not so much from the point of view of their medical bearing
as from that of their biological significance, in order that
both morphologist and physician might observe the direction
in which medical research is surely leading us with reference
to matters that form the basis of general biology. Hence
the Groonian Lectures upon Adaptation and Disease/delivered
in June, 1917, which forms the first part of this volume/

AND THE STUDY OF EVOLUTION.

Dr. Adami goes on to say that ‘ The survival of the fittest
does not depend upon chance variation. A given environment
leads to variation in a particular direction, provided that the
change in surroundings is not so great as to be beyond the
adaptive powers of the organism. Where “ chance ” enters
is in the nature of the new environment to which the individual
and the race, may be exposed. To the extent that the in-
dividual is unable to control his surroundings, to that extent
is the race exposed to chance. It does not appear to have
been sufficiently realized hitherto that here essentially it
is that chance is operative. Conjugations and amphimixis,
it is true, are a cause of individual variation, but from the
point of view of the race are distinctly conservative processes,
tending to maintain the mean/

A DISCUSSION.

We have long wanted a book dealing with the medical
side of the question of evolution and certainly Dr. Adami
covers an enormous ground, apparently thoroughly, and his
remarks on several of the questions are remarkably full and
clear. It seems a pity, however, that Sir Ray Lankester
and his views seem to take the part of a King Charles' head
with Dr. Adami, and we certainly think the dignity of the
volume is impaired by the inclusion of the rather personal
correspondence reprinted from the British Medical Journal,
in connexion with which we must admit our sympathies are
with Sir Ray. Still, if that discussion resulted in the present
work we must not grumble.

SUMMARY OF CONTENTS.

The first part of the book deals with Adaptation and Disease
(seven chapters) being the Croonian Lectures delivered to
the Royal College of Physicians in 1917. Part 2 (nine

Naturalist,

Notes and Comments .

187

chapters) discusses Heredity and Adaptation, and Part 3
(six chapters) is ‘ On Growth and Overgrowth.’ The great
variety of subjects dealt with can be gathered from the titles
of four chapters, selected almost at random : — The Physics-
Chemical Basis of Immunity and of Evolution.’ ‘ The
Biophoric Concept ’ ; * On the variability of the Bacteria

and the Development of Races ’ ; ‘A Lecture on Life ’ ;
and ‘ Unipotentiality, Pluripotentiality, and Tolipotentiality
of Cells : a Note upon the Classification of Tumours.’

THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

Many letters have reached us on the matters referred to
in our April number. We are not able to print them all,
but the following seems to embody nearly all the points
raised by the various writers : — A correspondent writes : — r
‘ Your articles on the recent appointments at the Natural
History Museum have caused wide interest. But I think
perhaps you are a little severe on the Three Principal Trustees.
The present Lord Chancellor had barely a few days in office
and could not know anything about the staff or the working
of the Museum, and must, therefore, be left out of account ;
the Speaker wrote an unfortunate letter to The Times over
the micro -lepidoptera, and does not seem to have the necessary
knowledge to judge * the Archbishop, who, if I remember
rightly, was a nominee of Queen Victoria’s, had time to
acquaint himself with the existing facts, had he had the time
to attend to them. In any case those three men are too busy
for the work. There are many other Trustees who may have
had a large influence on the appointing Three, and the ex-
perience of past years may have had a great influence on their
opinion.’

‘ The initial success of insisting on a scientific rather
than a lay chief has been of considerable importance, as
it has probably saved several other Institutions from a
like fate. But the selection of the scientific man is fully
open to public criticism. Those who know the Museum
by the public activities of the men therein could not hesitate
to nominate the more prominent for a moment. Speaking
of one department, the Geological, the officers of which are
constantly giving lectures or addresses on their charges,
one wonders why it should be penalised throughout by the
selection made. All the officers are eminent in their subjects,
yet they are all condemned by the appointment of a junior
man from ever rising to the positions which should un-
doubtedly have been theirs and were open to them when they
entered the service of the Trustees. Officers in the other
Departments of the Museum are no doubt in the same un-
fortunate position. Thus it is clear that an injustice has been

1919 June 1

i88

Notes and Comments.

done, and such injustice cannot work for harmony or the
general efficiency of the establishment. Had the new Director
been a man of outstanding eminence something might have
been said. The lamentable weakness of past years has been
only too apparent, while during the same period lay control
has been pre-eminent ; and it will be of interest to see whether
the new director, will be a Director or a mere figure-head/

CHEIRANTHS . II. . 1919.

Hand-flowers ! Bloom again — Giroflees prank !

May’s here, and Peace, and the storks, again nest
On the flat roofs of Flanders, and rank after rank
The pavid faced poilus make track for their rest ;
Remembrance may fade like the wreath so well won,

The comrade’s mute spin -fall beside one was tragic.

But no more a fate to be dwelt on being done,

Than the flush of a dawn or the set of a sun —

The venue quick changed to the placable magic
Of just an idea, yet imbruing all being :

Calm certitude inly, and hap now for seeing
One’s kindred, and Home with its beehives a-row,

And the queer quiet ways that a flower can blow f

The Dead in our hearts are a lifetime enshrined
Till we who feel, pass too, and join spirit hands ;

But the spared are twice free ! body, soul, unconfined *

And they home as the dove to its cote in all lands,

To greet again daily their dulcicor gaily,

Fair father, rare mother, one ‘ chum ’ or another,

Content like the bees to drink joy in, and thrive,
Unwordingly conscious they’re Blest and alive.

So, Wallflowers ! dight ye, in lake— orange — red ;

Beflag and encrimson your earths as of yore ;

Perfuming the pane of the sanctified bed :

Your message and Symbol keep sweet evermore.

F. Arnold Lees.

MOIR JAW.

In 1855 a human jaw-bone was ‘ shot out of a cart containing
coprolite,’ from a deposit near Ipswich. Palaeontologists
then considered the jaw to lack primitive characteristics, in
addition to which it contained eight per cent . of organic matter.
The jaw was figured in The Anthropological Review in 1867,
and then apparently went to America. In his presumed
anxiety to discover anything ancient from the Ipswich area ,
Mr. J. R. Moir is writing to the popular press endeavouring to
trace the jaw. Judging from the illustration which he re-
produces, and the admittedly doubtful pedigree it possesses,.

Naturalist..

Notes and Comments.

189

• it is difficult to understand what good can accrue even if the
present whereabouts of the jaw is known. Of course it is an
advertisement for Mr. Moir, though one would have thought
he had had enough publicity lately ! It is a relief to find that
up to the present, he has not claimed it to be the jaw of a
mammoth !

PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS.

Part 2 of the Practical Handbook of British Birds, by H. F.
Witherby, issued on April 20th (pp. 65-128, 4/- net ) is equal to
part 1, in every way. It has coloured plates showing heads
of the various Buntings, the Common Cross -bill, and there is
a plate in black and white of the Redpoles. We are not

sure whether some of the illustrations in the text are quite as
successful as they might be. To afford an opportunity of
judging, we are reproducing three of these, by permission of
the publishers, and leave our ornithological readers to guess
what they are.

LOCAL SOCIETIES AND ADULT EDUCATION.

The ‘ Report of the Corresponding Societies and of the
Conference of Delegates/ held in London in July last has been
published (45 pages, 1/-), and contains Dr. F. A. Bather’s
presidential address entitled * The Contribution of Local
Societies to Adult Education ’ ; an address on ‘ Afforestation,
Its Practice and Science/ by Mr. Martin C. Duchesne ; a note

1919 June 1,

190 Notes and Comments.

by Mr. B. B. Woodward on ‘ A Typomap of the British
Islands’; a list of the Corresponding Societies affiliated
with the British Association, and the usual Catalogue of the
more important papers, especially, those referring to local
scientific investigations, published by the corresponding
Societies during the previous year. Dr. Bather’s address is
well worthy of careful consideration by the members of our
local Societies, though the discussion, which is printed in
extenso, is not very conclusive.

EXEUNT SEA-EAGLE.

A brief obituary notice appears in the current number of
Bird Notes and News of the last of the white-tailed or sea-
eagles of the Shetlands. This is also believed to be the last of
the British race of these noble birds and has only survived to
the present day through the protection afforded by the
watchers of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
She has outlived her mate for eight years and grown quite
white ; but for several years after the disappearance of the
male bird — probably shot in some unprotected area — she
haunted the old nest and watched and waited. The Society
unfortunately was too late to preserve the British * ernes ’
and man’s hand had been too long against them. Down to
1836 it was the custom of the * Commissioners of Supply ”
in an outburst of economic zeal not unparalled in later days,
to give 3/6 for every eagle killed. The collector did his
best to help in the destruction, one writer who visited Shetland
in 1837, mentioning that he had obtained eight specimens.
Since then the resident birds and also wandering individuals
have been eagerly shot ‘ for preservation ’ ; with the result
that the British Erne has now to be added to the list of ex-
terminated birds lost for ever to this country’s fauna.

DATES OF PUBLICATION.

The Lancashire and Cheshire N aticralist , dated December,
1918, reached us on March 3rd, and was posted from the pub-
lishing office on March 2nd. There is nothing on the cover to
show that there is an error of about three months in the date
of the publication. Inside, on page 248, is a record of a new
Carboniferous Nautiloid (Coelonautilus trapezoidalis) which is
quite possibly the first record of this new species. From a
bibliographical point of view, therefore, this record was
apparently made in 1918. However, as this December
number contains, on page 252, a record of a meeting of the
Liverpool Geological Society, held on February nth, 1919,
it is clear that this new species should not be included in
1918 lists, but in 1919. We certainly think that as new
records are of considerable importance, care should be exer-
cised by editors in seeing that their publications are correctly
dated.

Naturalist.

Notes and Comments.

191

A NEW SONGSTER.*

Prof. F. W. Moorman, who has done so much to preserve
the dialect and poetry of our county, has recently produced a
volume of his own poems, valuable alike as a record of our
dialect, as of Yorkshire life and character. In an admirable
Preface the author tells us that * the time may be not far
distant when England will again become what it was in
Elizabethan days — a nest of singing birds, where the minor
poets will be able to take their share in the chorus of song,
leaving the chief parts in the oratorio to the Shakespeares
and Spensers of to-morrow.’ Professor Moorman gives
twenty-five poems, and personally we should like to quote
them all, but no doubt his publishers and our printers would
both object. Anyway we take the liberty of quoting from
two of the poems : —

‘ THE GARDENER AND THE ROBIN.

‘ Why ! Bobbie, so thou’s coom agean !

I’m fain to see thee here ;

It’s lang sin I’ve set een on thee.

It’s ommost hauf a yeer.

What’s that thou says ? Thou’s taen a wife
An’ raised a family.

It seems thou’s gien ’em all the slip
Now back-end’s drawin’ nigh.

I mun forgi’e thee ; we’re owd friends,

An’ frat chin’s not for us ;

Blackbirds an’ spinks I can’t abide,

At doves an’ crows I cuss.

But thou’ll noan steal my strawberries.

Or nip my buds o’ plum ;

Most feather -fowl I drive away,

But thou can awlus coom.

Ay, that’s thy place, at top o’ t’ clod,

Thy heead cocked o’ one side,

Lookin’ as far -learnt as a judge.

Is that a worrm thou’s spied ?

By t’ Megs ! he’s well-nigh six inch lang,

An’ reed as t’ gate i’ t’ park ;

If thou don’t mesh him up a bit,

He’ll gie thee belly -wark.

My missus awlus lets me know
I’m noan so despert thin ;

* ‘ Songs of the Ridings,’ by F. W. Moorman. Elkin Matthews,
71 pp., 2s .

1919 June 1

192 Notes and Comments.

If I ate sausages as thou

Eats worrms, I’d brust my skin !

Howd on ! leave soom for t ’ mowdiwarps
That scrats down under t ’ grund ;

Of worrms, an’ mawks, an’ bummel-clocks

Thou’s etten hauf a pund .

* * * * ❖

FIELDFARES.

Fieldfares, bonny fieldfares, f cedin' ’mang the bent,
Wheer the sun is shinin' through yon cloud’s wide rent,
Welcoom back to t’ moorlands,

Frae Norway’s fells an' shorelands,
Welcoom back to Whardill, now October’s ommost
spent .

Noisy, chackin’ fieldfares, weel I ken your cry,

When i’ flocks you're sweepin' ower the hills sae high :
Oft on trees you gethers,

Preenin’ out your feathers,

An’ I’m fain to see your coats as blue as t ’summer sky.

Curlews, larks an’ tewits, all have gone frae t’ moors.
Frost has nipped i’ t’ garden all my bonny floors ;
Roses, lilies, pansies,

Stocks an’ yallow tansies

Fade away, an’ soon the leaves ’ll clutter doon i’
shoors .

He ❖

Storm -cock sings at new-yeer, swingin’ on yon esh,

Sings his loudest song when t 'winds do beat an’ lesh ;
Robins, throstles follow,

An’ when cooms the swallow,

All the birds ’ll chirm to see our woodlands green an’
nesh.

Fieldfares, bonny fieldfares, I’ll be gone ’fore you ;

I’m sae weak an’ dowly, hands are thin an’ blue.

Pain is growin’ stranger,

As the neets get langer.

Will you miss my face at whiles, when t’ owd yeer’s
changed to t’ new?

FOOD OF WILD BIRDS.

In The Journal of the Board of Agriculture for March,
Dr. W. E. Collinge gives the results of ‘ Some further Investig-
ations on the Food of Wild Birds,’ in which he deals with

Naturalist,

Notes and Comments .

193

the Jackdaw, Starling, Chaffinch, Yellow Bunting, Great
Tit, Blue* Tit, Song Thrush and Fieldfare. He gives a very
graphic diagram showing the nature of the food of each of
the particular species dealt with, based upon the examina-
tion of the crops of a large number of individuals. These

Diagrammatic Representation of the Percentages of Food of
the Jackdaw.

show at a glance the relative good and harm done by the par-
ticular bird examined. One of them is reproduced herewith.

A VERDICT.

Dr. Collinge summarises the results of his researches by
reporting that * after examining the stomach contents of
798 adults and 166 nestlings, embracing eight species of wild
birds, the opinion has been formed that (1) the Jackdaw,
Yellow Bunting, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Song Thrush and Field-
fare are distinctly beneficial ; (2) The Great Tit, Blue Tit,

and Fieldfare are beneficial to such an extent that their
protection is advisable ; (3) In spite of the injuries it commits
it would be unwise to recommend any repressive measures for
the Chaffinch ; (4) The Starling has been allowed unduly to

1919 June 1

194

Notes and Comments.

increase. At the present time it is far too numerous,, and the
injuries it commits are far greater than the benefits it confers ..
Temporary repressive measures would, no doubt, help to
restore a more normal population of this bird, with consider-
able benefit to both the farmer and the fruit-grower.

A TELL-TALE DIAGRAM.

Dr. Collinge concludes by giving the accompanyingr

1. Jackdaw. 5. Yellow Bunting. 9. Missel Thrush. 13. Sparrow Hawk..

2. Rook. 6. Skylark. 10. Song Thrush. 14. Kestrel, H 18

3. Starling. 7. Great Tit. 1 1 . Field Fare. 15. Lapwing.1 C

4. Chaffinch. 8. Blue Tit. 1 2. Green Woodpecker. 1 6. Wood Pigeon.

diagram which illustrates in a remarkable way the comparative
benefits, injuries, etc., of the species named. Benefits are
marked by the portions shaded by longitudinal lines, injuries
by stippling, and the blank portions represent the percentages
of food of a neutral nature. For permission to reproduce this
and the preceding diagram we are indebted to the Board of
Agriculture and Fisheries.

Naturalist,

i95

SONGS OF THE BIRDS.

WALTER GARSTANG, M.A., D.SC.,
Professor of Zoology in the University of Leeds.

These songs represent the first-fruits of an attempt to repro-
duce in suggestive verse the distinctive characters of the
songs of our English birds. The first four are reprinted,
with a few corrections, from the Yorkshire Weekly Post of
April 19th, May 3rd, May 10th and May 24th, 1919 ; the
fifth is new ; the sixth is reprinted, with a few corrections,
from The Times of May 8th. To the courtesy of the editors
and publishers of these journals the author is indebted for
the opportunity of bringing these songs together before the
close of the season.

Others are in preparation and will appear, it is hoped, in
succeeding numbers of The Naturalist from time to time.

I. — The Song of the Chaffinch.

Hark to the Chaffinch on yonder tall spray
Buoyantly singing his roundelay gay :

Some plain and some trill'd notes, a final bravado —
Tell, tell, tell; Cherry -erry -erry ; Tissychoo-eo !

So through the heyday of love and good cheer !

But, when alone, at the start of the year,

In vain he attempts that last flourish so merry ;

All he can sing is : Tell, tell, tell ; Cherry-erry !

Meanwhile the sun's ever widening sweep
Stirs bright -locked Pan from his long winter sleep ;
Young folk exchange love-rhymes, birds brighten each-
feather —

Pan's and St. Valentine's feasts run together.—

Thus before Valentine's day in the Spring
Pan tunes the pipes of each bird on the wing,

And Pinky rings out his full carol with glee Ho !
Tell, tell, tell ; Cherry-erry-erry ; Weecho, Sis-cheo !

1919 June 1

196 Garstang : Songs of the Birds.

II. — The Song of the Greenfinch.

Twittering sweetly in the trees,

Dainty greetings sending ;

Throwing love -notes on the breeze
Musically blending
Why, then, flaunt a raucous wheeze.

Greenfinch, for your ending?

There you ring your tinkling call :

Did-it-it-it-itty !

Chow, Chow, Chow, Chow, richly fall —

Joy -notes of your ditty !

JEE — R ! — What harsh, uncanny drawl !

Is it not a pity?

Your pretty twitter you employ

As well to keep up, on the wing,

Communications aery ;

Those loud full-throated notes of joy

You share with other birds who sing,

Including the canary.

Alas ! that, like a naughty boy,

You’ve learned the taunting jeer to fling,

Nor find your rivals chary !

III. — The Song of the Wren.

See, Sweet, see, see, see, see,

The sun showers kisses through the tree !

So must I trill
My music shrill ;

See, Sweet, see, see, see, see.

See, Sweet, Sweet, Sweet, see, see,

Such joys attend simplicity !

With bliss I thrill
And loudly trill ;

I would all space with music fill !

See, Sweet, see, see, see, see.

So sweetly falls in winter sunshine’s kiss !

So short the joys endure of springtide bliss !

Then short and sweet the song shall be for me :

See, Sis, Sis, Sweet, Sweet — trill ! — see, see, see, see !

Abbeville, Picardy ; March, 1918.

Naturalist,

Garstang : Songs of the Birds. 197

IV. — The Song of the Hedge Sparrow.

Hail, thou, homely warbler of the hedge and country side*
Equally contented where the rich or poor abide,

Setting example to all on the wing.

Brightening Winter with carols of Spring !

Unpretentious though your lay, and far from rich your voice,
Wee-so, Sissy-wee-so, Sissy-wee-so , Sissy-wee !

Yet a real melody is heard when you rejoice —

Wee-so, Sissy-wee-so, Sissy-wee-so, Sissy-wee !

Built by repeating the shortest of staves.

See, Sissy-wee, Sissy-wee, Sissy-wee ;

Running in rapidly following waves.

See, Sissy-wee, Sissy-wee, Do you see ?

Modesty like yours, shy Dunnock, gains but little praise —
Least of all, or not at all, for slight and simple lays ;

Yet, if I gain for you one or two friends,

That will perhaps make the best of amends !

Wee-so, Sissy-wee-so, Sissy-wee-so, Sissy -wee ;

See, Sissy -wee, Sissy -wee, Sissy -wee !

V. — The Chorus of the Willow- Warblers .

Among the birds which come and sing
To crown the joys of England’s Spring
Some excel in warbles louder,

Others in their plumage prouder ;

Yet not a songster can outvie
The little Willow Warbler shy
In the sweetness of his carol
Or his neatness of apparel.

Beneath these trees hark, from their throats,

The rippling streams of silvery notes ! —

Each a tender scale descending.

All in whispers softly ending.

How tremulously sweet they fall,

And, ever simple, never pall ;

SIP, SIP, SIP, SEE, Tee-tew, Wee-tew ;

Witty, witty, wee, wee, weetew !

But, ere one bird completes his strain,

Another starts the same refrain :

Thus a rustic chorus rises,

Full of nicely tuned surprises.

Philosophers say birds lack wits ;

Musicians, sense of harmony.

Fain would I ask them how it fits
That willow warblers, lacking wits,

Can blend their notes so charmingly f

1919 June 1

198 Garstang : Songs of the Birds.

VI. — The Wing -Song of the Tree -Pipit.

Have you, during May time’s splendour,

Seen from trees a Pipit slender
Silently his perch surrender

And fly aloft, as though above the lark at heaven’s gate to
soar ?

But, upon a small height gaining.

Turn around and, downward planing,

Paeans of exultation raining,

His soul in throbbing ecstasies of love and glorious life out-
pour ?

See, above the oaks one rises !

Flight so sheer has no disguises !

’Tis his silence that surprises

When straight he mounts that unseen ladder in the sky above
his tree.

Now he sinks, and peals his solo
Loudly, then diminuendo :

Chip, r chip, chip, chip ; choo, choo, choo, choo ;
Pesee, Pesee, Pesee, Pesee, pesee, pesee, pesee, pesee !

Wait now, watch, and keep quite still !

Listen to the voiceless trill
Coming from that slender bill
And charged with joy unspeakable of his devotion !

The thrill of rapture waxes, wanes and dies
As he alights again upon his tree ;

And then, if all goes well, there will arise
See ! — e

— e

— e

— e

— e

— e

— e

A sigh of ecstasy

So sweet and infinite

That not the gurgling nightingale’s rich serenades
Nor e’en the skylark’s luscious long-sustained cascades
Can hold supremacy

That spell-bound minute.

A sigh ?

A whisper from the sunset sky,

Which, softly sweeping down the scale of music’s ocean,
Brings tenderest echoes from the wells of deep emotion.

Naturalist,

THE WITCHERY OF GILBERT WHITE.

I99

REV. E. A. WOODRUFFE-PEACOCK, F.L.S., F.G.S., F.E.S., etc.

Why is it? What is it? Cannot analysis say on what it
tfeeds, and why it grows with lengthening years? A quiet
•country parson, a bachelor, too, more by token, writes a
book about the natural history of his native and much beloved
village, now over a hundred and fifty years ago. After long
delays it was published in 1789, or when its author was 69 ;
that is nine years older than the date which T. H. Huxley
fixed for his own retirement, and grimly suggested that men
of science should be pole-axed lest through ossification of
mind they should become * arrestors of human progress/
For some reason the ‘ infinite variety ' of this work has taken
and still catches the popular taste alike of the simple and the
wisest. Selborne in consequence becomes a shrine of the
English-speaking race, more celebrated, if possible, than
Stratford-on-Avon. Though the village of to-day is so
very different from that of which Gilbert White wrote,
it is an object of pilgrimage, for its eternal hills are the
same, the swallows and martins twitter and the swifts screech,
and the magic churr vibrating from the stationary fern-owl,
or the loud clap of its wings and sharp whistle during flight,
are just the same as of old.

To supply the demands of a growingly receptive republic
of readers oi Gilbert White's Natural History, no one knows
the numbers of impressions that have been issued by the press
of the English-speaking world. There is some doubt even
about the editions that have gone forth ; more striking still
is the list of naturalists of repute, who have supplied every-
thing in the shape of notes, explanations and illustrations,
such as no other non -religious work has ever received. What
a stately list it is — Markwith, 1802 ; Jardine, 1829 '» Brown,
1833 ; Bennett, 1837 > Jenyns (Blomefield), 1843 ; Blyth
and Jesse, both 1850 ; Wood, 1854 > Harting and Buckland,
both 1875 ; Lord Selborne, 1876 ; Bell, 1877 ; and Grant-
Alien and Bowdler Sharp both 1900 ; not to name lesser
men who have tried their 'prentice hands, or Professor A.
Newton's work in th e Dictionary of National Biography and
Macmillan’s Magazine, 1900. They have all been delighted
to forward White's reputation by serving their acknowledged
master’s work up in an ever fresh setting of notes and
illustrations. When the Sage's great -grand-nephew, Mr.
Rasleigh Holt-White, brought out Gilbert White’s Life and
Letters, with notes by Professor A. Newton on all critical
questions of natural history, this work was only added to
the charm and witchery associated for ever with the Selborne
•observer's name.

1919 June 1

200 Woodruff e-Peacock : The Witchery of Gilbert White .

What is this witchery, and wherein lies the charm? We
are conscious of it more fully in his private letters than in
his more stately published work, though it is there in excess
when compared with other writers. What makes a Markwith,
a Jenyns, and even a Sir Francis Darwin to-day a humble
copyist of the Selborne master’s methods ? It is most cer-
tainly not his style. Though that is fairly good and always
abundantly clear, it is sometimes redundant and can hardly
be compared with that of some of his followers at once in
clarity, distinction and music — yet apparently it will outlast
them all.

The secret surely of his fascination is his method of im-
parting his knowledge, and his way of generalizing about it ;
the half unconscious grasp he possessed that the ultimately
valuable thing in observing nature was those truths she kept
only for her true lovers. Not the truths that other men have
found out and recorded, but those still to be discovered,
which any earnest worker can find out and record, anywhere
and everywhere. There is an almost childish simplicity
about it, for there is the ever implied but rarely stated : —
* Work as I work, here a little and there a little, but ever
at it — seeking the truth every day.’ Charles Darwin has as
great a reverence for truth, and a poorer style, but when the
Origin is no longer read, a careful selection of his private
letters may be, for he was too good a student of White to have
wholly missed his gift . Huxley was a slave of what he believed
to be ‘ the white-light of truth,’ and was in possession of a
style the power and grace of which are hard indeed to beat,
but when the scientific writings and theories of the great
protagonist of evolution are only known to students, Gilbert
White will still be read by the masses. Many another
strenuous controversialist is merely remembered by a chance
phrase or as Toplady by his Rock of Ages. This association
of the torpedo of Darwinism and the topknot of Calvinism,
because both were mighty supporters of ‘ isms ’ in their day,
makes one smile.

Gilbert White does not come to you with a set theory
to defend, he is no controversialist, he is not artful but
diffident. He does not know it all, and as he learns, you are
learning with him, and study to answer his questions.
This is the secret of his power to hold the attention, and of his
charm together — ‘ come let us reason together, and teach one
another.’ Let him speak for himself — no one can do it
better.

‘ Men that undertake only one district are much more likely

to advance natural knowledge than those that grasp at more than

they can possibly be acquainted with ; every kingdom, every

province, should have its own monographer.’ — p. 154.

Naturalist

Woodruff e-Peacock : The Witchery of Gilbert White. 2or

Except where I expressly say otherwise, I quote from J. E.
Harting’s 1875 edition.

There lies the unspoken — ' I am content to investigate a
parish.’ The fact is self evident, and the reader is invited,
' to join up and do his little — as I have done.’ Here is another
quotation on * the theory of the work ’ or ‘ the best way ’ ;
and it is another invitation.

‘ Faunists, as yon observe, are too apt to acquiesce in bare
descriptions and a few synonyms ; the reason is plain, because
all that may be done at home in a man’s study ; but the investigation
of the life and conversation ( i.e ., habits) of animals is a concern
of much more trouble and difficulty, and is not to be attained but
by the active and inquisitive, and by those that reside much in
the country.’ — p. 169.

Was the countryman ever made to plume himself more
handsomely on his activity, inquisitiveness and rurality?
White not only says ‘ these are the gifts you possess ’ to his
readers, but adds in an undertone, ‘ Use them as I do.’ So
in each generation ‘ the mantle of this prophet ’ falls on a few ;
as for instance the ducks and duck-lore of Rainworth Lodge,
and five goodly volumes of natural history prove. Where is
Gilbert White more studied than there ?

His own methods of work are simple enough and yet most
effective — p. 144. ‘ For many months I carried a list in

my pocket of the birds which were to be remarked, and, as I
rode or walked about my business, I noted each day the con-
tinuance or omission of each bird’s song ; so that I am sure of
the certainty of my facts as a man can be of any transactions
whatever.’ He never gave more valuable advice, and after
following it fifty years, I can truly say so.

It is a wonderful book ! No one is to be disappointed
by the results he may obtain, for the individual in any case
can do little. In the aggregate if all do their part, everything
will be discovered. Let this prove it.

‘ Though there is endless room for observation in the field of
nature, which is boundless, yet investigation (where a man en-
deavours to be sure of his facts) can make but slow progress ; and
all that one could collect in many years would go into a very narrow
compass.’ — p. 151.

Here, too, we have the same thought from the personal
aspect .

‘ I see you — the Hon. Daines Barrington — are a gentleman of
great candour, and one that will make allowances ; especially
where the writer professes to be an outdoor naturalist, one who
takes his observations from the subject itself, and not from the
writings of others.’ — p. 136.

Give me original work, this Master cries ! ‘ We can all

do it. You — the reader — as well as. I can — the writer. We
want limited areas, plenty of time, for the work is slow, but

1919 June 1

O

202 Woodruff e-Peacock : The Witchery of Gilbert White.

none the less certain. Yes, I will take you farther into my
personal confidence.’

‘ Ray remarks that birds of the Gallinae order, as cocks and
hens, partridges and pheasants, etc., are pulveratrices, such as dust
themselves, using that method of cleaning their feathers, and ridding
themselves of their vermin. As far as I can observe, many birds
that dust themselves never wash ; and I once thought that those
birds that wash themselves would never dust ; but here I find myself
mistaken ; for common house sparrows are great pulveratrices,
being frequently seen grovelling and wallowing in dusty roads ;
and yet they are great washers . Does not the skylark dust ? ’ —
P- I55-

Who has not seen the sparrows ' wallowing ’ in the dust,
amid the yellow crocuses they so often destroy, or ‘ grovelling ’
in the pools left by the April showers, ere they hang like
wall-creepers with half-opened wings and outspread tails,
to the bricks on any wall facing the sun. It took me just
eighteen years to verify the fact that skylarks dust ; longer
still to observe swallows once doing so. Later still, when I
had to consider ' dusting ’ and ‘ washing ’ in quite a new
aspect, or from the position of distant seed -carriage, I found
more in Gilbert White than elsewhere, for he records what he
meets with even when he personally has no very special
interest in the subject.

His many notes on crop and gizzard contents are most
striking considering they were made a century and a half
back. Here was my first suggestion for what I have called
Secondary -B ird -Carr iage . *

‘ In its — the Peregrine Falcon’s craw were many barley-
corns, which probably came from the crop of the wood pigeon,
on which it was feeding when shot ; for voracious birds do
not eat grain ; but, when devouring their quarry, with
undistinguishing vehemence swallow bones, and feathers,
and all matters, indiscriminately.’ Only twice in forty
years have I seen a case of secondary-bird-carriage, so rare
is it to discover even when you are on the look out for it. f
What a fine grasp White had of the truth, when he wrote : —

‘ The standing objection to botany has always been, that it is a
pursuit that amuses the fancy and exercises the memory without
improving the mind, or advancing real knowledge ; and, where
the science is carried no farther than a mere systematic classification
the charge is true enough.’ — p. 247.

Then he goes on to describe what we now call ecological
observation which would change botany into a ‘ live science.’
He even noticed that white currants were not taken by
birds like the red ones (p. 320) ; and that thrushes alone —

* See The Selborne Magazine, 1918, pp. 39-41-

t On this Secondary-Bird-Carriage, see Darwin’s Origin, 6th edition,
vol. II., p. 146.

Naturalist

Woodruff e-Pecaock : The Witchery of Gilbert White. 203

not blackbirds — break the shells of snails on anvil stones
(p. 322); also that many Horsebeans ( Vida Faba L.), as
well as peas, are sown by birds (p. 361). He even suggests
‘ in particular by jays and pies ’ as sowing agents. I personally
have only seen rooks doing this seeding during forty years of
watching. What have other naturalists observed? This
book is a work of genius and of nothing less ! Considering,
its date, its range is simply wonderful. I know nothing
like it in literature. Darwin, Wallace, Hooker, all had a
vast grasp of facts as well as interests, but when we reflect
that this is a mid-eighteenth century work, we can only say
with the labouring man Whitist, ‘ They are mere noughters.
They tell you what they’ve done and found out, but not
how you are to do it by working yourself, as old Gilbert does !
That’s his secret !

Yet in other ways White was as much the child of his own
generation as we all are. This is easily detected, as for
instance, in his notices of the Royal Forest of Walmer (p. 17).
It was ‘ a tract of land about seven miles in length, by two
and a half in breadth — without having one standing tree in
the whole extent. ’ (p. 18. ) . In the very next letter to Pennant
(p. 24) he refers to ' the rabbit pest ’ as we call it now, on
this area, but he does not connect these two things. The
restless rodent which at all costs must keep its teeth ground
down — for that is the trouble — and the treeless sands, as
cause and effect ; though the ‘ subterraneous trees ’ under
the bogs, proved that a bosky and forest state there was a thing
of the not remote past. He not only pulls up Dr. Plot sharply
for saying ‘ positively that there were never any fallen trees
hidden in the mosses of the southern country ’ (p. 18) but in
a footnote goes on to explain how their situation may be dis-
covered on a winter’s morning by the hoar frost not melting
above them, where there is * a ground thaw ’ in contra-
distinction to e a wind or air thaw,’ but he does not distinguish
the two kinds of thaws. The lapwing can ! It only arrives
back in its spring haunts after the ‘ ground thaw ’ has done
its work.

The result is a book which has outlasted the works of
Pennant, Barrington and scores of others, as well-known in
their day, because it not only teaches how truth must be
sought, but shows the way that all must work to do anything
original. So much for the Natural History of Selborne.

I am convinced that Holt -White’s Life and Letters has
put the Sage of Selborne in a new and truer light as a man.
What more can be expected? Yet he was much more than
the teacher of now four generations of naturalists how to
observe and record — both difficult matters as all will allow.
His letters are better than his book, because more humanly

1919 June 1

204 Woodruff e-Peacock : The Witchery of Gilbert White.

interesting. He did not improve his style by correcting it,
his sentences only grow more wordy. Look at letter 11-8-1774
in the Life.

‘ I cannot procure a grass -hopper lark ’ (or warbler, as
we now say). ‘ They are such shy, skulking varlets ; such
troglodytes, such hedge - creepers, there is no knowing
where to have them/ Again in the same letter. ‘ Bear is a
sort of barley ; Mr. Pennant should have told his readers
as much in a note/’ What could be clearer than the para-
graph in letter 26-9-1774 on the shells of tortoises, too long
to reproduce here. He freely criticises others in his letters,,
and often much from the point of view from which he works
as a naturalist.

‘ Holdsworth I have procured ; but cannot say the work
gives me as much pleasure as it seems to have afforded you.

I did not find so many genuine criticisms drawn from the face
of the country and the modern practices in husbandry, as I
expected ; but rather a collection of parallel passages from
Cato and Columella. So much easier is it to compile than
to advance fresh remarks/ — (15-5-1776). That is, to observe
truly.

The Rev. John Mulso writes to Gilbert White, 16-8-1780,
of their old Oxford days, and White's love of sport — ‘ What
you was then is my son John now. I see him with his rod
at the canal, and his gun lodged against a tree, a complicated
murderer/ The last two words are splendid ! We have all
passed through that period, as our boys have too ; as our
master did, we know, had not his old friend reminded him.
Then there is the play of human nature in these letters.
We recognise too, exactly what Mr. Yalden meant when
White asked him whether he thought a certain farmer was a.
likely man to recognise swallows on the 7th of April. ‘ He
cried, “ O, yes ” — for he was a married man/ To which he
replied ‘ that though a very unworthy bachelor, I presumed I
knew swallows as well as most married men in England/

True enough, and yet Yalden’s philosophy was equally
to the point. There are certain facts which are ever brought
annually to our minds by our children or grandchildren.
The advent of the swallows and cuckoos are two of them.
For years I have been too deaf to hear the distant voice of
the ‘ gowk’s * calling, but I never fail to learn of their arrival
before I view them.

Then there is his relationship to the politics of his age. .
This is the only complaint I have ever heard against ‘ honest
Gilbert.’ It has been asserted that White observed his birds
and nature generally, while the world of his own day fell to
pieces. What would our time have lost if he had not done
so? Without the power of doing more good than he did.

Naturalist,

Northern News.

205

had he spent all his time in talking or writing of the American
revolution, who would have gained by it ? The world would
only have lost its ideal field naturalist for another forgotten
political scribbler. His book is not so good as his letters,
for it is not so rich in the varied aspects of his inner nature,
the result of human kindness, for he was a truly lovable and
beautiful character, at once unselfish, refined and Christian,
in the highest sense, of being all things to all men, who desired
bettering along the whole scale of human interests. His
book gives us the natural history side, his Life and Letters
.give us the personal side. The latter is ever nearest to us all ;
but the former was badly wanted as the sale of so many
^editions shows.

He was a bachelor, please note, but the words of * Proverbs,’
XIII., 22 : ‘A good man leaveth an inheritance to his

children’s children,’ will never fail of fulfilment as long as
either the Natural History or Life and Letters are read, or
vulgar errors and prejudices remain.

: o :

Mr. C. Mosley, of Huddersfield, sends us drawings of two carrots which
he has grown in his garden at Lockwood. One shows the carrot split
and divided down the entire length — the parts being spread out, umbrella
fashion. The other shows the specimen somewhat normal in shape, but
.split and opened out as though divided in half by a knife. These de-
formities probably indicate that the soil in the Lockwood garden is not
■all sandy loam.

Part 97 of The Yorkshire Archaeological Journal contains a paper on
‘ British Barrows round Boulby,5 which yielded earthenware vessels and
were therefore important, though the account of the work of examination
seems rather meagre. There is also a note, with photograph, relating to
' circular stone foundations near Blubberhouses.5 There is no doubt
these have been tampered with, or ‘ restored,5 and that consequently any
archaeological value they may once have had, has gone. The photograph
shows the stones ‘ whitewashed to make them more conspicuous.5

The thirtieth annual meeting of the Hull Geological Society was
held in the Royal Institution, Hull, recently. The Secretary's report
showed that the past year's work had been very satisfactory, although
the lack of railway facilities, and military exigencies, had prevented the
carrying out of geological investigations in the more remote parts of the
Last Yorkshire area. Local quarries and exposures had been visited
with good results. Now that the war was over, and the younger members
were coming back, it was confidently hoped that the coming season would
witness a renewed interest in the fascinating science of geology. The
Treasurer’s report showed that the financial position of the society was
very satisfactory, and that there was a good balance in hand to be used
towards the printing of the society’s Transactions. Mr. C. B. Newton,
the Hull Waterworks Engineer, was elected president of the society.
The other officers elected for 1919 were as follows : — Secretaries :
W. H. Crofts and J. W. Stather ; treasurer : J. H. Wilson ; recorders : T.
Sheppard, M.Sc., and C. Thompson, B.Sc. ; excursion secretary, W. C.
Ennis, B.Sc. ; special committees : the East Riding Glacial Committee
mid Photographic Committee were also appointed. A vote of con-
gratulation and good wishes was passed to Mr. G. Sheppard, B.Sc.,
on his appointment to nil important geological post in Canada.

1919 June 1

206

YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS AT COXWOLD.

With a County possessing such diversified scenery it might
be invidious, and perhaps controversial, unduly to assert
that the members of the Union were indeed wise in choosing
Coxwold for their inaugural excursion for the present year ;
a more charming and peaceful place could scarcely have been
decided upon. This pretty village nestling at the southern
end of the Hambleton Hills possesses an old-world charm
eminently satisfactory to the nature student, and the glorious
weather which prevailed — a touch of the real springtime — ■

Photo by] [ H . E. Wroot.

Gormire Lake.

added to the completeness of the joy which was felt by all
who were present, although the attendance was hardly up
to expectations. The whole life of nature was only too ready
to respond to the sunny days, and never a shadow crossed the
happiness of those who attended the excursion ; even when
rest was taken from work in the field memory was enriched
by the magnificient views which everywhere prevailed.

The President of the Union, Dr. W. G. Smith, was in
attendance throughout the excursion, and the members
greatly enjoyed his many chats upon the ecological features
of the woods and moors which were traversed.

Under the guidance of Mr. Willis, of York, the party

Naturalist

Yorkshire Naturalists at Coxwold. 207

shortly after noon on Saturday, April 21st, went by way of
field path and delightful country lane to the village of
Oldstead, cosily situate in a sheltered hollow ; afterwards
proceeding through Snever Wood, eventually reaching the
moor top near to the small commemorative tower known
locally as the ‘ Observatory/ From here the party descended
through the woods, which were rich in excellent examples of
conifers, to the hamlet of Wass. On the way back to Coxwold
an inspection was made of the ruins of By land, the largest of
the Cistercian Abbeys of Yorkshire.

In the evening the President opened a discussion on the
* Vegetation of Flushes/ pointing out many interesting
features which this phase of ecological study embodied, and
also dwelt upon the economic importance of flushes in the
improvement of pasturage.

On the following day after inspecting the pretty village of
Kilburn, the road was taken to Scotch Corner, up the old
Herd Road, on to the moor top, some of the party going forward
to Gormire Lake, and the remainder proceeding down Sutton
Bank, examining the ground along the base of Roulstone
Scar, afterwards climbing to the summit of the Scar, then to
the famous * White Horse * of Kilburn, white no longer owing
to lack of attention.

On Monday a visit was first paid to the grounds of Newburgh
Priory and afterwards, thanks to the kindness of Mr. Greevz
Fysher, the party was conveyed by his motor to Wass. An
investigation was made of the woods and ghylls in the immediate
vicinity of Wass Bank, and on reaching the top of the Bank
the party crossed the Byland Moors, returning to the village
of Wass through Raven Ghyll.

At the customary meeting held at the close of the excursion
the President occupied the chair, and after eight new members
had been elected, sectional reports were given, and thanks
accorded to Lady Julia Wombwell for permission to visit her
estates ; to Mr. Willis for acting as guide, and to Mr. Fysher
for so freely granting use of his motor car. — W. E. L. W.

Vertebrate Zoology. — Mr. Wattam writes Bird life
was fairly abundant. Of migrants the following species were
noted : — Willow Warbler (Coxwold and Oldstead) ; Yellow
and Grey Wagtails (Snever Wood) ; Common Curlew (Roul-
stone Moor) ; Ring Ouzle (Byland Moor). Mr. T. Cockerline
reported having heard the Cuckoo at Oldstead on the 18th'
April. Nests of Blackbird, Song Thrush, Missel Thrush,
Robin, Pheasant and Grouse, containing eggs were found.
The Rook, Jackdaw (Roulstone Scar), Peewit, Hedge Sparrow j
Great Tit, and Chaffinch were not uncommon birds. Mr.
Simpson reported having heard the ‘ call ’ of an Owl, and the

1919 June 1

2o8

Yorkshire N aturalists at Coxwold.

“ drumming ’ of Snipe during a walk on the evening of the
19th April.

A specimen of the Common Lizard was captured by Mr.
Mason on Roulstone Moor. Frogs and Toads, especially the
latter, were in great abundance at Gormire Lake.

Concholpgy,— Mr. Greevz Fysher writes : — The beautiful
fine weather kept most of the living terrestrial mollusca out
of sight, and the food plants were late and scanty. The follow-
ing species, identified by Mr. John W. Taylor, M.Sc., were
obtained alive : — Hyalinia cellaria, H. alliaria. H. nitidula ,
H. pura, Pyramidula rotundata, Helix hortensis , Helicigona
lapicida (Roulstone Scar), Ashfordia granulata, V allnia
pulchella, Clausilia bidentata, C. laminata, Pupa umbilicata
Zua lubrica , Limnea peregra, Planorbis leucostoma , Valvata
cristata. Four or five of the commoner kinds of slugs were
observed, as well as dead shells of Helix aspersa, H. nemoralis
and Vitrina pellucida.

Flowering Plants.— Mr. Wattam writes The flowering
plants were freely responding to the genial conditions. Con-
spicuous blossoms along the hedgerow banks were tuberous
moschatel, sweet violet (with white form), primrose, cowslip,
ivy-leaved speedwell, and purple dead nettle. Near the
village of Oldstead was noted an abundance of Chrysosplenium
alterni folium, Geranium phaeum, toothwort (on roots of broad-
leaved elm), greater celandine and Equisetum maximum.
Near the summit of Oldstead Bank the stinking hellebore was
a wonderful sight, and most prolific, and spurge laurel was
likewise a common plant of the hedgerow. Marsh marigold
glorified the swamps ; the ground carpet of the woodlands was
primrose, wood anemone, dog’s mercury, wood sorrel, wood
sanicle, and broad-leaved garlic. The woods near Wass
contain some excellent examples of conifers, among the species
noted being the Wellingtonia, the dark-leaved and glaucous-
leaved forms of Douglas Fir, Lawson’s Pine, Silver Fir, Spruce,
and Austrian Pine. In the Woods alongside Wass Bank
goutweed is common ; toothwort on the roots of Sycamore
was also noted, and Dr. Smith pointed out that the abundance
of Luzula pilosa here was indicative of the purity of the water
supply. During Saturday’s excursion traces of the primitive
oak wood, which formed the earliest woodland of the escarp-
ment, were observable. Many of the large coniferous plant-
ations, particularly in the neighbourhood of Wass, had been
completely felled, whilst others had been thinned of their
most useful commercial timber.

Mycology. — Mr. F. A. Mason writes : — Owing to the
backward season, few really typical spring species were noted
and agarics were comparatively rare. The larches in the Wass
Woods were seen to be suffering badly from Larch Disease, while

Naturalist,

Yorkshire Naturalists at Coxwold.

209

those on the Newburgh Estates were affected to a considerably
less extent. Few polypores were noted, the birch trees being
fairly free from attack by P. betulinus. The following list
gives the species recorded, those denoted by an asterisk having
been kindly identified by Miss E. M. Wakefield, of Kew : —

In the Woods at Wass : —

Collybia velutipes (Curt.) Fr.

C. dryophila Bull.

C. platyphylla Fr.

Polyporus betulinus (Bull.) Fr.

P. hispidus Fr., fallen weathered

specimens .

Fomes annosus Fr.

Polystictus versicolor Fr.

P . hirsutus Fr.

P . abietinus Fr.
t Irpex obliquus (Schrad.) Fr.
Stereum hirsutum (Pers.) Fr.

5. purpureum Fr.

S. rugosum Fr.

Corticium lacteum Fr.*

Coniophora puteana (Schum.) Fr.*
Exidia glandulosa Fr., on ash logs.*
Dacryomyces deliquescens Bull.

D. stillatus (Nees.) Fr.

Scleroderma vulgare Fr.

Nectria cinnabarina Tode.
Diatrypella quercina Pers.

Xylaria hypoxylon Linn.
Dasyscyptia Virginia Batsch.

D. nivea Sacc.

Trichoscypha ( =Dasyscypha ) caly-
cina (Schum.) Fckl.
Hyaloscypha ( =Dasyscypha ) hya-
lina (Pers.) Boud.

Mollisia cinerea (Batsch.) Karst.
M. melaleuca (Fr.) Sacc.

Stegia ilicis Fr.

Rhytisma acerinum (Pers.) Fr.
Phoma samarorum (Desm.) Sacc.
Trichodemalignorum (Tode) Harz.*
Tricothecium roseum (Link.) Grev.*
Botrytis cinerea Pers.

In the fields, Coxwold to Byland : —

Coprinus radiatus (Bolt.) Fr.) On Panaeolus campanulatus (Linn.)
C. ephemerus Fr . [manure Fr.

C. fimetarius Linn. j heap. Lycoperdon pyriforme Fr.

On hedgebanks : —

Uromyces poce Rabh. Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Lib . ) Schrot .

The ivy covering the walls of Coxwold Station was attacked
by Phyllosticta hederaecola, Dur. and Mont.*

Owl-pellets, collected in the woods, on moistening,
developed

Mucor mucedo (Linn.) Bref. Mucor racemosus Fres.

The latter species although rarely recorded in the field
frequently appears under cultural conditions-.

Three species of mycetozoa were found : —

Badhamia macrocarpa Rost., on Trichia affmis de Bary. Wass Woods.
Pine logs, Newstead. T. Botrytis Pers. Wass Woods.

Bryology. — Mr. W. Ingham, B.A., writes The best
ground for Mosses and Hepatics at Coxwold is in the wood
opposite Byland Abbey. Along a small rill the prominent
moss is Mnium punctatum, both male plants and fruiting
plants being common. Another moss, Mnium rostratum fruits

t Several normal specimens of this species were found, but one
•example showing an unusually even development of the ‘teeth’ was
forwarded to Miss Wakefield, who reported :—“I. obliquus (probably form
•of).”

1919 June 1

210 Yorkshire Naturalists at Coxwold.

freely there, the same moss being invariably barren in the lime-
stone districts of the Vale of York. Strange to say, the moss
Mnium hornum which covers the ground at the foot of trees
in other woods is sparingly produced in this wood.

Higher up the wood, a rare moss Mnium stellar e occurs,
both male plants and fruiting plants. The fruit of this moss
according to Braithwaite’s British moss Flora, has hitherto
been found only in Derbyshire and Herefordshire. Mnium
undulatum also grows here.

Tortula subulata was found in abundant fruit, also Barbula
cylindrica, and Barbula recurvifolia. A patch of Pylaisia
polyantha was found, and on a sloping clay bank Hypnum
stellatum var. protensum.

Weisia viridula and W. microstoma grow in this wood.
Hypnum cupressiforme, Eurhynchium myurum, and E.
myosturoides were sub-dominant mosses of the wood.

Of Hepatics, Pellia epiphylla is dominant, and covered with
fruit, also P. fabbroniana, and in one place Fossombronia
pusilla was found in abundant fruit.

No Sphagna were seen in this wood.

Coleoptera.— The Coleoptera Committee was represented
by Mr. M. L. Thompson and Dr. Fordham, who write : — ■
Fifty-two species of beetles were met with ; none of them,
however, being new to V.C. 62.

Mr. Thompson found twenty-four species in Elm Hagg
Wood, the most noticeable being Badister sodalis Duft. (two
specimens of this uncommon species) ; Dianous coerulescens
Gyll., Corticaria elongata Gyll., and Barynotus elevatus Marsh.

Mr. Wattam reported Necrophorus humator Goeze.,
Silpha thoracica L., and rugosa L. in carrion.

Dr. Fordham worked the lower part of Ravensgill and found
beetles commonly sunning themselves on a wall by the side of
the wood. Polydrusus cervinus L. was very abundant,
together with several Hy tastes palliatus Gyll. and Myclophilus
piniperda L., and many other commoner species.

Amara ovataF. occurred on the road at Byland and Bem-
bidium 4. maculatum L. was taken under a stone.

Diptera.— The handsome bee-like Bombylius major L.
was common in the wood at the lower part of Ravensgill and
occurred on the path and on primrose flowers. Specimens of
Musca corvina F. and Sepsis cy nip sea L. were also taken.

Hemiptera. — The only bugs taken were Lygus pratensis L.
and Anthocoris nemoralis F.

Hymenoptera. — The sawflies Dolerus hcematodes Schr.,
D. nitens Zadd. and Monophadnus albipes Grinl. (kindly
identified by Rev. F. D. Morice, M.A.), were taken near
Byland Abbey. The two latter are not previously on record
for the county.

Naturalist.

211

THE NIGHTMARE OF NAMES IN THE BED
OF ROSES.

F. ARNOLD LEES, M.R.C.S.

In half a century’s Wild -rose study, no single fact has struck me so in-
sistently as that, quinquennial after quinquennial, intermitting in-
spection of the same bush, or colony of bushes, fails ever to quite match
the gatherings of some prior date ! To be expected of growing things ?
Yes ! but we don’t realise it always that their cell expressions change
with time as human tissues are fabled to do, completely in less than a
generation. Then what of the defined names given them in the ‘ Books ? ’
If these.no longer fit, should not one or the other be altered? As for
the divergencies in frond contours or armature, which result from tran-
sitory conditions, or quite local but more permanent stresses, in air as
in water, did not W. P. Hiem, for the marginal expansions of leaves-
in the Batrachian Ranunculi shew that they are almost capable of ex-
pression in terms of mathematics? These stresses are obviously unap-
preciable by our eye, just as wind is, but its action may safely be inferred
from the result. There is, however, yet another powerful ever-acting
factor in vegetal volteface ; the Insecta that eclectically visit this or that
flower -basket, and, more or less, effectively smirch the sensitive repro-
ductive, elements with such contagion as they may carry. All this may
be an essential platitude, but we must not forget it on that account,
when studying the cross influences complicating plant -character.

The truth is that among the wild -roses of the hedge or field towan, or
rocky hillslope, a similar process — flower -time’s Valentine Day — of
inter-marrying is being conducted as takes place * among humans, only
more promiscuously. The event certainly is that the growth — easy to
dub ' hybrids ’or rosicrosses and have done with it, though it settles
nothing — of (say) Rosa mollis ,pimpinelli folia, Eglantevia and canina — the
progeny growths springing from one or other or possibly three of these
four, are not in themselves stable, year after year, as is what we botanists
beg the question by styling a ‘ strong ’ species ; but are mutable, and
variable in both vegetative particulars, ovarian maturation, and . the
ripening of viable seed. This is, I have long been- convinced, despite
the nightmare of names that contradict one who ' lays ’ on this ‘ bed of
Roses,’ due to the growths both in the ‘ wild ’ and the hortal garth,
being pollenerised in successive seasons by different cousin roses ! An
example to the point, since it can be demonstrated by preserved specimens
may be given. On August 16th, 1893— a nigh Tropic summer time —
walking with the late J. Farrah and A. Millward of Harrogate, along
the north side of the rural highway leading from Nidd Hall to Brearton,
in the’ rampant hedge west of the well-known r Beef-steak ’ (fungus)
bearing Oak, grew more than one huge rambling and grimpant bush of
agrestal Rosa canina, every leaflet bedewed with a host of clear glistening
glands — a sight to see, and not seen in York before by any of us ! — each
flowering branch orgillous with a fan of 3 to 5 or 7 smooth peduncled
blooms. This Gilbert Baker unhesitatingly determined as Rosa agrestis
Savi, practically the same thing as a later defined R. sepium (a hedge
rose) of Thuillier. Abundant material was collected and preserved
secondum artem, to the destruction of course, of the diamantine gemma-
tion. Sixteen years later (August 8th, 1909) with Arnold Bradley, I
again visited the Brearton Lane oak and rose, to find the lovelily untidy
hedge rose of ’93 had been hacked down, so impinging tilth-crop should
not be screened off from forenoon light, and the five or six main laterals
of the particular rose growth half-severed and horizontally wattled —
' plashed ’ is the rustic’s term, I believe — after hedger-and -ditcher’s
fashion, to form a sort of firm low rail fence. This had by no means
killed the Rose, for in all parts re -growth on a larger scale by mere

1919 June 1

212 The Nightmare of Names in the Bed of Roses.

measure had taken place, a few withy arms having attained flowering
age ; but with this result : the facies had been transmogrified ; and,
though glandulous, the plant would no longer pass as agrestis Savi. at
all ! It now answered much better to Baker’s frondosa or arvatica in
leaf serration and glandulosity ! The difference the passing of years
(some few — 4 or 5 at any rate) — plus the hedger’s cautchery and the
renewed stimulus (pollenergy) of the nigher-growing unmutilated
dog-rose pollinia was as amazing as immense ; an object lesson that gave
one pause in that impulse to label which is a botanist’s pitfall, if not
booby-trap, and made one ' furiously to think ’ as the Rosa gallica
fraternity phrase it. Anyone who had not been able to take oath as
to the identity of the stock, must have referred the product of 1909 to
a quite different section of the genus. In the main, however, it was
only the gland furnishing and vegetative characters that had changed.
The clumping of bloom and the pretty and profuse pinnation of the
sepals remained ; but the leaflets in the best developed were much more
regularly doubly serrate, so that they had come to resemble nothing so
much as the sphygmograph’s tracing of a normal heart’s beat ! Leaves
may be simply or doubly serrate, subserrate or irregularly (non -uniformly )
half one and half another in those minor fissions or lobations we call
tooth -like ; there must be a reason for each effect, but it has in the past
proved a mistake to divide up Roses into groups by any such marginal
casualties ; let alone, the convenient elastic but stultificatory use of
‘ plus-minus ’ — more or less, to qualify such an adjectival term as
hairy, glanduliferous, or what not: Nature mingles these ticks and
currents, for us hap -hazard ingredients indeed, in the confections she
sets before us. The solution of the puzzle — if a deduction may be a
solution, may seem cryptic to all but experienced Rose students : the
stock is still, as it must be, Savi’s agrestis, Thuillier’s sepium ; but it
has evolved or developed not into Baker's arvatica (a softly grey-hairy
dog-rose), but into Puget’s arvatica, a name founded most likely upon
a stage in growth with a passing facies, represented in the London Cata-
logue, I believe, by No. 595, b. Billietii of Hooker hi. These rose
names are very difficult to alio- and collo-cate with the growth of any
site.

A similar mixty-maxty of likes and unlikes is also seen in the case
of that famous ill-understood Calder Vale rose first recorded for Luddenden
Dene by S. King — R. inodora Fries., var. cryptopoda Baker, and now
after half-a-century known only in that nude, almost scentless (debased ?)
soft rose, with mingled younger straight and older hooking prickles
(suggestive of the Eglantine), which grows here and there, small single
bushes, on the north bank of Tag Lock, that disused lander of the Aire
and Calder Company, a third of the way west from Brighouse towards
Elland. Call it what one will, not altogether the same in physiognomy
from year to year, there it still survives to bewilder us of the exigeant
botanic Eye who look for everything on one root to be unvarying in its
outward presentment. Nature and tricksy six-leg wooers if they cannot
laugh at us, for all that play pranks with our understanding, sunlight
or moonlight, wet or fine, every season by every bank of verdure-clad
earth. A Midsummer Night’s (and Day’s) Dream of the Roses Family !
Yes, and the particular stage -entities, Baker, Crepin, Deseglise and others
of that ilk gave names to, ‘ are not,’ just there, now, and their successors
in their seats answer best to other nomina.

A probably parallel story lies behind the cloud of doubt which
surrounds that curious ‘ Cross' rose from Knipe wood maquis and talus-
screed declivity hard by Kettlewell. Joseph Woods and William Curtis
were there 75 (or so) years ago, and recorded roses spinosissima, involuta,
villosa and others thereabouts, where now grow scattered examples of
the first and third here named ; along with root-stocks of a larger spiny
hybrid which after having transplanted into his wild garden at Grey

Naturalist,

Northern News,

21$

Gables the late Sam Margerison showed to me, near some clump bushes
of R. Eglanteria (sweet-briar) and R. cinnamomea. These were so clear ly-
an undescribed cross that they soon came to be acceptably distinguished
and defined as X R. Margerisoni. The transplantation to rose -students’"
gardens has not yet solved the paternity or nominal identity, likely-
enough at first they were the ‘ involuta ’ of Wood’s time, preserved, to
undergo, at Margerison’s unintentional command, a still further modified
lease of life through pollination with some rose that never grew on their
original mountain limestone foot of earth.

And I fancy — though I have not the same familiarity with their-
mutations — on like lines of fertilisatory interventions and promiscuities,,
are the Brambles — botheration !— perhaps also the Willows (though these
are not capable of such bewildering variation ; and, notoriously those
Scanian air-colonisers the Hawkweeds. Speculation that way to me,,
however, madness lies ; and their study, for who cannot visit their strong-
holds in the mountains of the North ever any more, with a hawk’s eye
for the veils of variation each wild garden can assume, were a vocation
thrawn and profitless indeed.

: o :

The illustrations of birds’ heads given on page 189 are of the House -
Sparrow, Hedge Sparrow, and Corn-Bunting respectively.

Our congratulations to Mr. G. C. Druce, M.A., the well-known
botanist, who has been awarded the degree of LL.D., honoris causa, by
the St. Andrew’s University.

Dr. H. Smith Woodward has been unanimously chosen as the new
President of the Linnean Society of London. It is the first time this,
distinguished honor has been conferred on a Palaeontologist.

Under the title of ' The Latest Pre-historic Mare’s Nest,’ Sir Henry
H. Ho worth, K.C.I.E., F.R.S., the President of the Museums Association,
severely criticises Mr. J. R. Moir’s alleged carved chalk Mammoth.

We are glad to notice the name of Sir Richard A. Gregory in the recent
honours list. Prof. Gregory, as he was more familiarily known, has
been responsible for the editing of Nature for many years, and in several
ways used his influence in championing the cause of Science in this
country.

The collection of British birds made by the late Fergus Monteith
Ogilvie, consisting of 238 cases, has been presented to the Ipswich Museum
by Mrs. Ogilvie. The collection is said to be second to that in the
Booth Museum, Brighton. We have not seen the Ogilvie collection, but
should imagine that the series of birds included in the combined Sir Henry
Boynton, Pease, and Riley Fortune collections in the Hull Museum,
which include about 450 cases, would be a good second.

We notice from a contemporary that Mr. A. M. Browne -Anderson,
Curator of the Folkestone Museum, is appealing for gifts. It is stated
that he is the author of ‘ The Vertebrate Fauna of Leicestershire and
Rutland.’ We have an idea that the book in question was written by
Mr. Montague Browne, at one time Curator of the Leicester Museum, so
that either our friend has been re-labelled or there must be a work on
Leicestershire and Rutland with which we are unacquainted.

At a recent meeting of the Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological
Society, Mr. W. Mansbridge read his report as Recorder of Lepidoptera
for 1918. Four species new to Lancashire and Cheshire had been recorded
since the last report, viz. : — Liparis monacha and var. eremita, Bryophila
muralis, Mixodia palustrana and Anacampsis albipalpella. Exhibits
were as follows, viz. : — by Mr. W. Mansbridge, an asymmetrical ab. of
Sesia ichneumoniformis having the left wing tip yellow instead of red ;
he also shewed living specimens of Lithocolletis quercifoliella, L. viminiella
and L. sorbi.

1919 June 1

214

FIELD NOTE.

Spring -gun enclosed in Oak Tree. — While sawing a
hnge trunk of English oak recently, Messrs. Laverack and
Goddard, of Hull, found embedded in the centre, a poacher’s
iron alarm gun or spring-gun of an early type, similar
to one in the Horniman Museum, London. Evidently at
some period the alarm gun had been affixed to the trunk of

the oak tree and gradually was entirely encased by the growing
timber. There was no trace whatever on the outside of the
log of anything of the kind being inside, and it was only
when the teeth of the circular saw cut the piece of iron that
the discovery was made. The Spring-gun, as well as the oak
in which it was embedded, have been handed over to the
Hull Museum authorities by Messrs. Lavarack and Goddard.
— T. S.

: o :

The Proceedings and Report of the Ashmolean Natural History Society
of Oxfordshire for 1918 are largely occupied by ‘Additions to the Berkshire
Flora,' by G. Claridge Druce.

Naturalist,

215

CORRESPONDENCE.

FORMER STATUS OF THE STARLING.

The following words in Mr. Jourdain’s notes under the above heading
would seem to suggest that this bird depends upon trees for breeding
sites — ‘ large tracts of treeless country devoid of breeding sites.’ Here,
in the Scarborough district, with a full average amount of woodland
the Starling’s most usual, nesting haunts are holes in buildings,, cliffs,
quarries, etc.. Probably the removal of every tree in the district would
have very slight, if any, effect in' reducing the abundance of our breeding
Starlings. — W. Gyngell, Scarborough.

Referring to Mr. Jourdain’s remarks on this subject ( The Naturalist,
May 1919, p. 183), may I repeat that I am quite aware that the Starling
is much more numerous and evenly distributed in Britain than in former
years, but while admitting this, are we quite sure many of the traditions
handed down — more particularly between the years 1835-45, as to its'
absence or scarcity are all to be trusted. If so, it cannot be said that the
writers on ornithology have been very • successful in describing the
status of the Starling !

Mr. Jourdain writes that Mr. Neville Wood resided in the Dove Valley
and had no personal acquaintance with Lancashire, but still he writes
that the Starling is equally and plentifully distributed over the British
Islands, and this is dated April 1836 ; the Rev. L. Jenyns in his work
published in 1835 mentions the Starling as a plentiful and widely dis-
persed species, and Allis writing in 1844 states that the Starling is
universally common. If these writers are correct in their descriptions
of the status of the Starling during the years 1835-45, some of the tradi-
tional accounts which have been handed down can scarcely be considered
as accurate. At any rate, both statements cannot be true, and it was
with a view to elicit more .information that I first wrote on this subject.
I hold no brief for either side of the question which is here presented,
and have approached the subject with an open mind, and do not wish
the truth to be on my. side so much -as to be on the side of the truth. The
subject of my enquiry can be solved by facts, and these only. I do not
wish to traverse Harvie Browne’s statements as to the distribution of
the Starling in Scotland, so much as to call attention to the fact that
in some portion of Scotland at least there are two sides to the question
and this statement applies equally to Yorkshire. As regards Ireland,
I think it can hardly be supported by facts, that the Starling as a breeding
species is of recent date, as has been alleged. — E. P. Butterfield,
Wilsden.

: o :

The Transactions of the London Natural History Society. 1917, 47
pages, price 3/-, contain reports on the various sections of the Club’s
work, Birds of Epping Forest, and a paper on ‘ A Spring and Summer at
Oxshott,’ by Russell E. James, F.E.S. The Club makes a mistake in
numbering the pages of advertisements and in printing advertisements
on the same sheet as the printed matter, especially when there is a blank
page.

Mr. J. F. N. Green has two interesting papers bearing on the Lake
District in the Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association, Vol. XXIX.,
part 3, for 1918 (published 1919) ; these are The Mell Fell Conglomerate,
and the Skiddaw Granite ; a structural study.. In the same Proceedings
Mr. C. Davies Sherborn gives particulars of the dates of publication
of the various parts of the Association’s Proceedings since 1859, which
will be valuable to those Bibliographically inclined, and useful to workers
using this series of publications.

1919 June 1

2i6

NEWS FROM THE MAGAZINES, etc.

In the Geological Magazine for April, Dr. David Woolacott has
a paper on Borings at Cote field Close and Sheraton, co. Durham (Permian
and Coal Measures).

Mr. James Ritchie writes on ‘ Animals and Man/ in The Scottish'
Naturalist ‘Nos. 87 and 88/ for ‘ March -April/ (Why not have
simplified matters by labelling the part ‘ No. 87 for April? ’)

The Search, for Petroleum in Derbyshire now in Progress, by Theodore
Sington, is the title of a paper in the ‘ Transactions of the Manchester
Geological and Mining Society/ Vol. XXXVI., part 3. Mr. Sington’s
paper confirms the opinion already expressed in these columns that the-
oil prospects are not very hopeful.

The Museums Journal for May contains various papers referring to
the Museum in relation to the school, which were read at the Manchester
Conference of the Museums' Association last year, but which, as already
pointed out in these columns, did not convey much new information to
progressive museum curators. The same number contains a short note,
‘Local Museums and their role in national life/ by Mr. Renouf.

In The New Phytologist, Vol. XVIII., No. 1, are the following notes
under the general heading of ‘ The Reconstruction of Elementary Bot-
anical Teaching ’ ; Academic Botany and the Farm and Garden/ by
T. W. Woodhead ; ‘ On some aspects of the Plea for Reconstruction/

by V. H. Blackman ; ‘ No Department, the door of which should not

be opened/ by F. W. Oliver, and ‘ What is Botany/ by F. F. Blackman.

In Science Progress for April, Major R. A. Marriott has an article
entitled ‘ The Ice-Age Question .Solved/ In this he tries to show that,
as a result of the researches of ‘ Drayson/ all the difficulties of geologists
with regard to the cause and date of the Ice Age, are removed. Though
Major Marriott gives numerous references to papers and notes, important
and otherwise, he gives not even the remotest hint as to where the re-
searches of Drayson, upon which the whole paper is based, are to be seen.

We learn from the Museums Journal that : — ‘ A, striking illustration
of the popular belief that any kind of training fits a man to do museum
work has been experienced by a well-known public museum. In response
to an advertisement of a vacancy on the scientific staff, among about a
score of applicants were a political agent, a marine engineer, a foreman
of public works, a storekeeper, an insurance agent, three clerks, three
ex-soldiers (one “ with five medals and expecting at least one more ”),
three schoolmasters, three Ministers of the Gospel, and only three museum
officials/

The Lancashire and Cheshire Naturalist for March, received May 3rd,
is almost entirely occupied by a further instalment of H. J. Wheldon’s
‘ Fungus Flora of Lancashire/ From a short note at the end we gather
that the Editor, Mr. W. H. Western, severs his connexion with the
journal at the close of this, the tenth volume of the New Series. He
points out that hitherto the journal has been practically the work of one
man, but that in future will be conducted by a Committee. Lancashire
and Cheshire and other naturalists should certainly be grateful to Mr.
Western for his efforts to keep this journal alive for so long.

With reference to Mr. R. Moir’s paper in Man dealing with an alleged
palaeolithic carving, which we pointed out in The Naturalist for March
was no doubt a quite natural object, and showed no evidences of human
workmanship ; this opinion has since been voiced by others in Nature,.
The Geological Magazine and even in Man itself, and in reply to a note
in the first-named journal by Mr. C. W. Andrews of the British Museum,
Mr. Moir naively states that the owner of the object hopes to exhibit it
at a meeting of ‘some learned Society/ where an examination can be made.
It is a pity that this suggestion had not been acted upon before Mr. Moir
published his extraordinary article. Probably any geologist could have
told him what this specimen was, had enquiry been. made.

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NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE MYCETOZOA,*

Whether we regard these organisms as plants or animals,
they seem to possess great charm to those students who have
some insight into their life history and microscopic structure.
It is evident by Miss Lister referring to them as ‘ creatures '
that she regards them as Protozoa. The Memoir is full of
interesting matter from beginning to end. Chapter I. refers
to the study of Mycetozoa in Britain and traces the work from
John Ray (1627-1704), Dillenius (1684-17-), and Sir John
Hill (1716-75) to the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, M. C. Cookev
George Massee and Arthur Lister of our own times. The
authoress dwells charmingly on her father's work ; how
he was attracted by the orange coloured plasmodium of
Badhamia utricularis and the experiments made during its
cultivation, revealing the mysterious rhythmic circulation,
the movements of the plasmodia, the absorption and digestion
of bacteria by the swarm -spores, the mitotic division of the
nuclei in young sporangia and of the changes induced in
maturing sporangia by differences of heat and cold or of
drought and moisture.

AND THEIR HABITS.

Chapter II. is on * The Habitats of Mycetozoa generally/
and contains much new and valuable information on their
preferences for different kinds of food, explaining why certain
species are generally associated with certain situations ;
a list is given of habitats and food materials and the species
usually found under such conditions. This information, the
result of years of observation and experience, appears for the
first time in print, and students will warmly welcome this
helpful knowledge. Chapter III. is devoted to ‘ the Mycetozoa
of Essex/ each species recorded for the county is passed in
review and notes made on the rarity or abundance, and easy
means of field identification, concluding with a comparison
table of three other county records. The frontispiece is a
reproduction of a drawing by the authoress of three rare species
which have been found in the county of Essex, and there is a
good index. The Memoir will be of great assistance to begin-
ners, and contains much useful matter for experts. — W. N. C.

REFRACTORY SANDS.

Prof. P. G. H. Boswell has issued a memoir on British
resources of Refractory Sands for Furnace and Foundry

* A short history of their study in Britain ; an account of their
habitats generally ; and a list of species recorded for Essex. Essex
Field Club Memoirs, by Miss Gulielma Lister, F.L.S., London : Simpkin,.
Marshall and Co., demy octavo, 54 pp. Cloth, 3s.

1919 July 1

P

218

Notes and Comments .

purposes.* * The memoir is published at the. instruction
of the Ministry of Munitions of War, at the Imperial College
of Science and Technology and the University of Liverpool.
It deals in detail with sands from various parts of this country
and abroad, from the point of view of their suitability for
foundry purposes ; detailed analyses are given, together with
numerous plates showing micro -photographs, and there are
maps showing the distribution of these minerals in England
and Ireland. Elaborate chemical analyses are contributed
by H. F. Harwood and A. A. Eldridge ; the whole forming a
valuable contribution to a subject which has been brought
prominently before the manufacturing world since the sources
of supplies of these sands from abroad have ceased.

COAL AND ITS SCIENTIFIC USES.f

Both author and publishers are to be congratulated on
producing this valuable volume at a time when such a work
is so urgently needed. The Coal shortage which has caused
so much trouble and inconvenience in recent years is one
which might be obviated, or at any rate the difficulties might
be considerably lessened, if the contents of this useful
book were read and digested by everyone connected with
manufacturing and other industries consuming Fuel. We
have innumerable works dealing with the general geological
and botanical aspects of coal, but Prof. Bone is the first to
put clearly and concisely the case for the practical use of
Coal scientifically considered. Throughout his work, the
author has consistently endeavoured to give prominence to
the underlying scientific principles in connection with the
technical applications of Coal. He also deals with the
chemical composition of the mineral on the lines of recent,
research ; the combustion of Coal and its application to in-
dustry and domestic heating. Information is also given
relating to the abatement of. smoke, the gasification of Coal,
and a discussion of the problems in connection with Fuel
economy, particularly in relation to the manufacture of iron
and steel, in which connexion Great Britain is notoriously
behindhand when compared with America and the Continent.

OUR WHALES, ETC., IN 1918.

Dr. S. F. Harmer has recently published his Report on
Uetacea stranded on British Coasts during 1918, this being
the sixth of this valuable series. J Dr. Harmer first gives
details of corrections in previous reports, and then enumerates

* Part 1. Taylor and Francis (248 pp.) 8s. 6d. nett.

* By Prof. W. A. Bone, pp. xv. + 491, Longmans, Green and Co.,
2 is. nett.

* 24 pages with Map, British Museum (Nat. His.), 3s. 6'd.

Naturalist.

Notes and Comments.

219

particulars of 41 examples of Cetacea, records of which hef
has obtained from various parts of the British Isles. There
is also a list of the literature dealing with the subject. In this
particular report, records relating to the Northern Counties
of England are rather scanty, the only references being to
a Porpoise washed up at Hornsea in November, another at
Mablethorpe in July, a Bottle -nosed Dolphin at Maryport in
August, and a Common Rorqual at Silloth in September.
Dr. Harmer contributes many anatomical notes relating to
the species described.

PREVIOUS RECORDS.

In our f Notes and Comments ’ for February (p. 50)
reference is made to the occurrence of a Cuvier’s Whale
( Ziphius cavirostris) from co. Clare, and a Rudolphi’s Rorqual
(Balaenoptera borealis) from the Scilly Isles. Dr. Harmer
points out, however, that the specimen recorded as a Cuvier’s
Whale was not a Ziphius, as it is possible to show now that
the skull has been cleaned, but proves to be True’s Beaked
Whale, Mesoplodon mirus, known solely from the original
account of the type-specimen, which was obtained on the
eastern coast of the United States in 1912. Evidence is
given that the species which is thus added to the British
list is further represented by a skeleton from the Galway
Coast, which is preserved in the Museum of University
College, Galway. The specimen recorded as a Rudolphi’s
Rorqual is now correctly determined as the Common Rorqual
(Balaenoptera physalus).

BENEFICIAL BIRDS.

As ‘ Economic Series, No. 9,’ the British Museum (Natural
History) has issued * Birds Beneficial to Agriculture,’ by
F. W. Frohawk,* The handbook contains an article on
* Birds and their relation to injurious Insects,’ followed by
‘ Birds Beneficial to Agriculture.’ It enumerates 44 species.
The handbook is descriptive of a special exhibit in the Central
Hall in the Natural History Museum. With regard to the
above exhibit and the handbook, it must not be taken that
the 44 species represented comprise all the beneficial birds
in this country. The plates accompanying the memoir are
from Mr. Frohawk’s well known sketches.

THE VASCULUM.

A small loose printed slip inserted in The Vasculum,
dated December, 1918, received by us on May 6th, apologises
for the delay, in issuing this particular number. It would be
much more satisfactory if the date issued had been printed on

* 48 pages with 22 plates, 2s.

1919 July 1

220 Notes and Comments.

the cover or on the first page of the number. The publication
is especially full of good things, including ‘ The Dancers of
the Torrent/ by R. S. Bagnall ; ‘ The Harlequin Duck/

by the late A. C. Chapman ; ‘ The Whiskered Bat/ and

Ornithological Miscellanea/ by G. Bolam ; ‘ Borcovicus/

by A. S. Dean ; ‘ Fish and Frog Showers/ by H. S. Wallace ;
f The Flora of a North Tyne Farm/ by Miss C. E. Measham ;

‘ Alfred Mearle Norman ’ (obituary notice) ; ‘ The History
and Geography of the Bog Asphodels of the Genus Narthecium/
by J. W. H. Harrison ; ‘ The Significance of Local Lists/ by
G. B. Walsh ; and local Notes and Records.

THE NATURALIST’S NOTE BOOK, NEW SERIES.

Referring to our note on page 161, Mr. E. G. Bayford
informs us that the Barnsley Naturalists’ Society has three
numbers of the new series of this journal, and that evidently
at least four were published. There is nothing on the covers
to show the date, but from information inside it is apparent
that they were published in 1870. The first part of the new
series contains 48 pp. + xvi. pp. of advertisements, and was
issued in February, and the last part in the Society’s library
is for May, and contains pages 145 -192, with the same number
of pages of advertisements. The publication measures
8f ins. by 5I ins. There seems to be no reference to this
particular publication in the British Museum Catalogue of
Periodical Literature, and any further information relating
to it would be gladly received.

EDUCATIONAL GARDENING.*

Mr. Hogg has produced a clear and reliable guide on
School gardening. The book deals in a practical manner with
soils, their preparation and drainage. There are full details
on the making of a garden, and a good series of cropping
plans. The cultivation of vegetables, flowers and fruits,
the application and use of manures and fertilisers, and common
insect and fungoid pests and their treatment, receive adequate
attention. Lists of well-selected questions call attention to
the main plants to be observed and studied. Suggestive
experiments are given on soils, the need for and use of special
manures, also on germination, seed testing and values. Fruit
growing is carefully treated and the varieties most suitable
for cultivation are given. A chapter on winter handwork is
full of practical hints on the making of necessary contrivances
for the garden, which provide scope for handwork of a very
useful kind. In the section on Bee-keeping, the construction
of a hive is explained and very fully illustrated. In theory.

* By Robert Hogg, F.R.H.S. A. Brown & Sons. N.D. Pp. ix. +
159- 3/6 net.

Naturalist,

Notes and Comments.

221

gardening is a valuable aid in the training of the young, but
in practice the fundamental lessons are often lost sight of ;
this little book should help the teacher to make the best of
his opportunity.

THE LIFE OF THE GRASSHOPPER.*

This is another of the valuable selections of essays from the
Souvenirs entomologiques , and treats of Grasshoppers, Crickets,
Locusts and of such insects as the Cicada or Cigale , the Mantis
and the Cuckoo Spit, in fact, of all the orthopterous and
homopterous insects discussed by Fabre. The life histories
and habits of these insects are described in the author’s
inimitable manner — a combination of scientific accuracy,
patient observation and record, and the charming naivete,
which makes his writings so attractive. The insects dealt
with are lower in the scale than many of those of which Fabre
has written such entrancing details, but the volume is none the
less interesting on this account. Illustrations of the insects
described would add much to the value of the book.

DISTRIBUTION OF MARSH RINGLET.

In The Entomologist for May, Mr. J. J. Lister, F.R.S.,
has some interesting notes on some North-Country Species
and Forms of Lepidoptera. In his account of the distribution
of the forms of the Marsh Ringlet, Cceononympha tiphon, he
refers to Mr. Rowland-Brown’s admirable study of this
species, appearing in ‘ Etudes de Lepidopterologie Comparee.’
Three forms of tiphon occur in the British Isles, philo xenus
laidion, and the type. Philo xenus, the ‘ British Southern
Form ’ of Dr. Buckell, is found in the Lake District mosses,
and extends southward to Delamere Forest in Cheshire and
just over the northern borders of Shropshire and Staffordshire.
Laidion is the ‘British Northern Form,’ extending from the
Orkneys and Lewis and the extreme north of the mainland of
Scotland to Perthshire on the east and as far as Loch Lomond
on the west. The third and type form, the ‘ British Middle
form,’ occurs in Arran and the south-western counties of
Scotland, across the Border country (Morpeth, Penrith,
Carlisle), and down the moorlands on the east coast, through
Durham and Yorkshire to Thorne Waste, north-east of Don-
caster, and to the neighbourhood of Rotherham, thus extending
almost as far south on the east -side of England as does phil-
o xenus on the west side. It appears again in North Wales
(Merioneth) and over nearly the wdiole of Ireland. The
ocellation is intermediate between that of the two other forms.

* By J. Henri Fabre. Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos.
London : Hodder and Stoughton, 308 pages, 7s. 6d. net.

1919 July l

222

Notes and Comments.

THE Y.N.U.

The war has caused great ravages and dislocation in every
department of industrial, educational and social life, and we
are again called upon to ' do our bit * towards the restoration
of a normal course of life and work. In common with other
institutions the Yorkshire. Naturalists’ Union has paid its toll,
and many of its members and associates have made the great
sacrifice. On the other hand, increased expenditure, especially
in paper and printing, has so seriously burdened the Union
that an effort must now be made to restore it to its pre-war
level, both in membership and funds, so as to enable it to
maintain, and if possible increase, its output of useful Natural
History and Scientific work. We therefore appeal to all in-
terested in the study of Natural History to aid our work by
joining the Union, and the Secretaries would be glad to receive
from our readers the names and addresses of any interested
persons who might be induced to join the Union.

ICE TRANSPORT.

At a recent meeting of the Geological Society of London,
Mr. F. Debenham read a paper on ‘ A new Theory of Trans-
portation by Ice : the Raised Marine Muds of South Victoria
Land (Antarctica).’ A series of deposits of marine muds are
found on the surface of floating ‘ land-ice ’ in the deep bays
of Ross Sea (Antarctica). Similar* deposits are also found on
land up to a height of 200 feet, in some cases on old ice, in
other cases on moraine. The deposits are briefly described,
and former theories concerning them are discussed. A new
theory is put forward, prefaced by an account of the nature
of the typical ice-sheet which bears them. The upper surface
of the sheet is known to suffer a net annual decrease, and evi-
dence is given to show that the lower surface has a net increase
by freezing from below. The theory is that the sheet will -
freeze to the bottom in severe seasons, and enclose portions
of the sea floor. Owing to the method of growth of the sheet
by increments from below, the enclosed portions will ultimately
appear on the surface, thus being raised vertically as well as
translated horizontally. The application of the theory to
other localities is briefly sketched, with especial reference to
the shelly moraines of Spitsbergen and the shelly drifts of the
glacial deposits of Great Britain. The general results of such
a method of transportation are shown to be the raising of
marine deposits above their initial level, the preservation of
the organisms, the deposition of small patches of muds with
ordinary supra-glacial moraine, and the collection of remains
of fauna from different depths in one horizon.

YORKSHIRE SHELLY DRIFT.

The President, Mr. G. W. Lamplugh, said the paper was
of peculiar interest in bringing out clearly the extensive scale

Naturalist,

Notes and Comments.

223

on which marine material could be taken up from the sea-floor
into an ice-sheet. Such material would afterwards necessarily
be transported as far as the ice travelled. In the shelly drifts
of the Yorkshire coast it was evident that the material of the
sea-floor had in some cases been detached and transported in
strips and slabs, and the speaker had surmised the possibility
of ‘ anchor-ice ’ as an agent, but had been unable to find
evidence that ‘ anchor-ice ’ was formed in sea-water. The
idea that a floating glacier might receive continuous additions,
from below by the freezing of the sea-water at considerable
depths was new to him, as he had been accustomed to suppose
that the limit of downward freezing under such conditions was
soon reached. But, if the author was right in this respect, his
theory offered a simple explanation of the known facts.

A WELL-ARMED GLACIALIST.

Prof. P. F. Kendall said that glacial geologists would be
thankful to the author for furnishing their armoury with a new
weapon. It was over forty years since the suggestion was
made that the occurrence of marine shells in glacial deposits
could be explained without recourse to a marine submergence.
Three ways had been indicated by which remains of marine
organisms could be uplifted by ice, and the author had added
a fourth. Garwood and Gregory had found in Spitsbergen
that the Ivory Glacier, in passing over an upraised sea-floor,
had incorporated in its lower layers shells and other objects
which, farther down the valley, come out on the surface of the
glacier at an altitude of probably 200 feet or more above their
place of origin. They attributed this to the lessened mobility
of the debris-laden basal layers of the ice, which would offer
resistance to the flow and cause the development of a shear
that would bring the shells out on the surface of the glacier.
The case of the Sefstrom Glacier, described by the President
in a paper to the Yorkshire Geological Society, seemed to the
speaker to indicate the upthrust of subaqueous moraine by
the nose of the glacier.

ANCHOR ICE.

A third method of uplift mentioned by the President was
by the formation of anchor-ice. This, the speaker understood,
was a common occurrence in the Baltic, and fishermen, when
far from land, on the approach of winter, watched carefully
for the appearance of cakes of ice rising from the bottom
to give them warning of the imminence of a general freezing
of the sea. Sometimes the warning came too late, and the
boats were frozen in and had to remain until liberated by the
spring thaw. The author’s interesting communication indic-
ated yet another way in which uplift might be effected. It
is not clear how much of the shelly drift of the North of England

1919 July 1

224 Notes and Comments.

can be accounted for by each of these explanations. In the
Irish-Sea basin, where shells are found up to altitudes of 1200
and 1400 feet, it is significant that, as R. D. Darbishire pointed
out, the same suite of shells is found at the highest elevations
as in the low grounds ; moreover, the fauna is essentially a
shallow-water one, and the grouping characteristic of 200
fathoms is nowhere to be found. Again, the shells are of
various ages, many of them of Pliocene types, and they often
bear striations due to ice-action. A few small patches like
those found by the speaker in the Drift of the Isle of Man and
by the President at Flamborough Head appear to be true
fragments of contemporaneous sea-bottom.

ANOTHER MUSEUM FOR HULL.

We learn from The Museums Journal that ‘The Hull
Corporation Property Committee have adopted a recommenda-
tion by the Museums Sub-Committee that the Trustees of the
old Grammar School building be informed that the Corporation
will be willing to take over and preserve the building as an
object of antiquarian interest, and to utilize it for museum
purposes so long as it may be practicable to do so. With some
slight alterations the building could be admirably adapted to
suit the purpose of the Museums Committee. There is a large
well-lighted room on the ground floor, and upstairs a number
of smaller rooms which could easily be modified for exhibition
purposes by a number of partitions being reduced. For
some considerable time, collections have been made (which
are at present temporarily shown at the three museums, or
are in store) to illustrate what has been done in Hull and
district in connection with the Great War. Towards this,
complete series of various objects manufactured (some showing
the different processes) have been presented by various Hull
firms ; also larger specimens of considerable value have been
presented by the manufacturers in Bradford and Leeds, in
addition to which are several interesting relics handed over by
the military authorities. There is also an extensive collection
of Zeppelin bombs, badges, medals, posters, aeroplane photo-
graphs, war stamps, etc., which, together with the valuable
collection of trophies from the Local War Museums Committee,
will quite fill the large room on the ground floor, and form an
appropriate and valuable war memorial in a suitable quarter
of the city. With regard to the upper rooms, the curator has
for many years been gathering together a collection of ‘ by-
gones ' relating to the more recent history of the arts and
crafts and households of this area. Such exhibitions as these
are very popular on the continent, and the valuable series now
in store at Albion Street will enable Hull to take its place in
illustrating the folk-lore of the country.

Naturalist,

THE JEW’S EAR FUNGUS

(. Hirneola auricula-judce , Fr.).

225

WALTER JOHNSON, F.G.S.

At any exhibition of natural objects the curious-looking
iungus known as the Jew's ear, or Jews’ ears, is certain to

attract keen attention and to provoke a series of questions
which are not always easy to answer. The odd, outlandish
name, the physical properties and general ecology of the fungus,
its extraordinary shape and varied hue, not to speak of the
associated folk-lore, all excite the interest of the beholder.

When, in order to satisfy the inquiring visitors, we begin

r rwiv uy] [ jesse t'acKnum

Specimens of Jew’s Ear, from elder, showing various stages of development.
The middle specimen in the lower row has the under side exposed.

1919 July 1

226 Johnson : The Jew’s Ear Fungus .

to extend our own search, we find, as is not infrequently the
case, that the authorities, while agreeing in the main, are not
in complete accord concerning some of the desired details.
The discrepancies are partly due to the protean forms and
chameleonic colours, which the Jew's ear assumes in response
to atmospheric and seasonal changes, but partly also to the
too ready acceptation by successive writers, of statements
made by their predecessors. Other differences are the results
of the lack of definite observations, and one purpose of this
paper is to indicate where future investigations would be
useful.

The Jew’s ear belongs to the family Tremellaceae of the
sub-order Hymenomycetes, or, to put the matter both briefly
and generally, to a family, the members of which have a smooth,
and more or less gelatinous hymenium, or spore-bearing
surface, and to a sub-order in which the hymenium is fully
exposed to the air, if not from the first, at least before the
spores are mature. A few words will be said in a subsequent
paragraph respecting the use of the word ‘ spore.’ The
sub-order Hymenomycetes, and that of the Gasteromycetes,
together make up the grand Order known as the Basidiomy-
cetes, all the species of which produce ‘ spores ’ outside a
peg-like cell, or basidium. But the family Tremellaceae is
not quite normal in this respect, as will be seen later.

I. — Form and Colour. The popular name was obviously
given because the fungus sometimes resembles a human ear.
The likeness, however, is traceable only in mature specimens,
and even then much more rarely than is commonly supposed.
The younger specimens take the form of a shallow cup or
saucer, the margins of which are elliptical rather than circular.
At a more advanced stage, the fungus, while retaining its
concave upper surface, is no longer discoid, its margins
becoming irregular, and its thickness diminishing until, when
moist, it easily quivers on being touched. Meanwhile, the
whole surface, but especially the superior portion, has become
folded or corrugated into a series of raised and wrinkled
veins. These veins are often described as branching or
anastomosing, but this is not quite exact. In old specimens,
indeed, the plications branch from the middle part of the
fungus, but yet, even in these cases the convolutions are in
part disconnected. Mr. Massee’s description, ‘ variously
plicate,’ seems both apt and true.* The matter is not very
important, because the result is the same— the development
of a greater reproductive area.

Some writers are disposed to term the Jew’s ear sessile ;

* ‘ Brit. Fungus- Flora/ 1892, I., p. 58

Naturalist,

Johnson : The Jew’s Ear Fungus. 227

perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it is attached
to the host tree — usually an elder — by a very short stalk,
the narrow base of which is placed eccentrically. Now and
then one encounters a specimen which has a decided stem,
perhaps half an inch in length.

The colour of Hirneola varies with its age and the state of
the atmosphere. At once it should be explained that, when
dry, the fungus is rigid, horny, and moderately brittle. Let
it be moistened, however, and the substance of the * ear *
soon becomes soft, gelatinous, and as pliable as india-rubber.
Touch the thin tremulous margins, and the resemblance
to the cartilage of the ear will be apparent. Hold the fungus
to the light and it is seen to be faintly translucent. These
little experiments, which so much please the visitor at a con-
versazione, may be repeated again and again. It has been
asserted that if warm water be used, the Jew’s ear will not
be absorbent a second time, but this is incorrect, for several
immersions in fairly hot water do not destroy the absorbent
property.

A young Hirneola generally has a uniformly dull, grey-
olive tint, but at a later period this changes to brownish
flesh colour, with traces of pink and green. With the ab-
sorption of moisture the variations of hue become intensified,
and the whole fungus seems to have a velvety bloom, such as
is seen on a ripe black plum. In old age, the beautiful tints
shade off into a sooty-black.

The upper or fertile surface of the Jew’s ear is covered
with a smooth integument, while the ridges and areas near
the margin might even be termed polished. The term ‘ smooth,’
it should be explained, technically denotes the absence of
hairiness or woolliness, and a ‘ smooth ’ surface may be even
or uneven. Perhaps the best description of the under or
barren surface is ‘ minutely velvety,’ for it has a coating of
delicate down, curiously suggestive of the skin of a mouse.
Hence the term “ tomentose,” often applied, is not inaccurate,
but ‘ strigose,’ which is also used by certain writers, is mis-
leading, although a rampart of short, closely-packed hairs
may frequently be seen on the borders.

It has been noticed that, if the Jew’s ear be soaked in water
for a considerable time — I have found that about a fortnight
is required — the lining of the cup may be separated from the
underlying cavity, or excipulum.* In a natural state, Hirneola
seems to shrink and decay as a whole, and its blackened
surface is sometimes attacked by a parasitic mould.

II.— Reproduction. A reservation has already been
made with respect to the term ‘ spore.’ As is the case with

* J. Stevenson, ‘ Brit. Fungi,’ 1886, II., p. 315

1919 July 1

228

Johnson : The Jew's Ear Fungus.

the other Basidiomycetes, the reproduction of Hirneola is
asexual, and since a spore is strictly the product of an act of
fertilization, it is better to speak of the reproductive bodies
as conidia, or at least, to remember that ‘ spore ’■ is used
conventionally. In the typical basidiomycete, as for example,
in the common mushroom, the conidia are borne on short,
stout pegs or pedestals, known as the basidia.

After a period of dampness, combined with warmth, a
mass of hyphse springs from the cavity of Hirneola, and basidia
are formed directly from these. The basidia then become
constricted laterally into a number of cells, each of which
contains a single sausage-shaped conidium, when the hyphae
are first protruded the fungus looks as if it had been powdered
with vrhite dust.

I have not personally witnessed the dispersion of the
conidia, nor have I been able to get them to germinate success-
fully on selected pieces of decaying timber of various kinds.
Left to themselves, however, all went well. Where there were
jagged edges on a newly-broken branch of Totting wood,
these soon become dotted with minute pin-head bodies,
delicately hoary, and suggestive of the chalcedonic concretions
which line the interior of hollow flints. These minute bodies
soon began to increase in size, and a depression was formed
in each, until the young fungus resembled nothing so much
as a tiny sea anemone with its tentacles withdrawn.

Throughout the winter successive growths of Jew’s ear
wrere started. A few sharp frosts would kill some of the older
fungi, but others, chiefly young ones, seemed to survive
without much hurt. Some specimens, again, which appeared
to have been killed outright, were not really dead, but regained
their original appearance when once more moistened. What
are the limits of this endurance of frost ? Plainly, much
wider than those of the mushroom types of fungi.

It was rather curious that a branch of elm which did not
respond kindly to the cultivation of Hirneola, was afterwards
found to be well-coated with specimens of Exidia alba, so
that Nature found an easy means of approach for suitable
species where man failed with another kind.

III. — Host Trees. Text-books, in general, agree in
asserting that Hirneola grows on elder and elm trees. Some
authorities extend the statement thus, * on old trunks, especially
elder and elm,’* or they even add a vague, but comprehensive
* etc.’ One wonders how many records exist to justify these
assertions. In reality, the occurrence of Hirneola on any
tree but the elder must be deemed uncommon, and on any

l* \Y. G. Smith, ‘Guide to Sowerby’s Models of Brit. Fungi,’ (Brit.
Mus.), 1893, P- 62

Naturalist,

Johnson : The Jew’s Ear Fungus .

229

tree besides the elder and elm, a rare and noteworthy phenom-
enon. Fries, indeed, states that the fungus grows * Ad truncos
Sambucinos, vix alios,’* and again, ‘ in truncis Sambuci, raro
aliiSy\ — sufficient admissions of the rarity of other host
trees.

In 1911, I discovered Jew's ears growing on an elm, recently
cut down, at Middleton, near Bognor. On a second visit,
in 1918, the tree, as might have been expected, was found
to have been removed, but further search was made for similar
associations. Many elders, well loaded with Hirneola, were
soon encountered, but although elm trees also were common
in the neighbourhood, not a single Jew’s ear could be detected
on any of these.

Several years ago, Mr. W. J. Maxton, of Richmond, in-
formed me that he had seen Hirneola on an elm in Richmond
Park, and another botanical friend, Mr. C. E. Britton, more
recently made a like record in Spanker’s Hill Wood, a plantation
situated in the same royal domain. I took every opportunity,
therefore, to visit the spot repeatedly. The elders in the
plantation are not of great age, but some of them are liberally
studded with Jew’s ears. On the decaying branches of a few
elms, which are near at hand, and which were planted about
ninety years ago, there was also a good show of specimens.
Contrariwise, this indifference to habitat is markedly absent
at Wimbledon Common, about a mile and a half distant.
There, one may observe two remarkable cases, in one of which
a hawthorn, and in the other a thriving shrub of dogwood
( Cornus ), is closely intertwined with an elder, so intimately,
indeed, that it required careful examination to separate or
discriminate the two species, yet not a single Jews’ ear had
transgressed from the parent elder. Here there was no doubt
which tree was the favourite, nor, assuming, as I think from
observed facts, we are bound to assume, that Hirneola does
not necessarily require a dead host, were there lacking suitable
areas for attack on the hawthorn and dogwood which twined
with the elders.

There exists one striking record of the discovery of Hirneola
growing on the barberry, a record which is especially valuable
because it is undeniably sound. When the Yorkshire Natur-
alists’ Union visited Boynton, near Bridlington, in 1912, the
Botanical Section observed, at the gate of the village church-
yard, a tall bush of barberry, free from micro-fungi, but
bearing specimens of Hirneola. I

A far more curious record has been published, but it must

* E. Fries, ‘ Systema Mycologicum,’ 1823, II., p. 222.
f ‘ Hymenomycetes Europeai,' 1834, p. 695
X Naturalist, 1912, p. 212

1919 July 1

230 Johnson : The Jew's Ear Fungus.

be quoted with reserve, since it is probably faulty owing to
the mode of expression employed by the Recorder. In 1894,
the late John Farrah wrote thus to The Naturalist : ‘ Hirneola
auricula-judae — “ Jew’s Ears ” and Morchella esculenta — ■
the “ Morell,” were fairly abundant on a sandy portion of
the south bank of the Nidd, at Killinghall Bridge, during
the early part of May/* The competency of Mr. Farrah as
an observer is, I believe, beyond question, else one might
suppose that some species of Peziza had been mistaken for
Hirneola. The difficulty is probably a capital illustration
of striving to be brief and becoming obscure, as the Horatian
phrase has it. If that be so, the note would mean that Mor-
chella was fairly abundant on a sandy bank, as was also Hirneola
on [? an elder] growing on the same bank.f

One has often paused to reflect on the strong predilection
which Hirneola displays for the elder. This preference is
doubtless based on some physico-chemical condition which
may never be quite understood. As well might we ask why
the beef-steak fungus, ( Fistulina hepatica) is found almost
solely on the oak. Why does Viola hirta love the chalk
downs, or Erica the hungry moorland, or Beta maritima
the sea-coast ? And so on, throughout the whole realm of
animated nature. These, as Lord Avebury used to say, are
‘ the things we don’t know.’

, As a plain fact, we have seen that the Jew’s ear can exist
as a parasite on the barberry, and I once found, in Richmond
Park, Fistulina growing on an ash. A distinguished botanist
to whom these oddities were mentioned, laconically remarked,
* Why not ? ’ That would seem to be the accepted philosophy
of the matter, and these very exceptions, while indeed rendering
the problem more complex, illustrate a favourite maxim of
the present writer : ‘ Plants grow where they can, not where
they would.’ This, however, does not close the discussion. J

( To he continued ).

: o :

Coleoptera Illustrata, Vol. I., No. 4, Garabidae, by Howard
Notman. Brooklyn, N.Y. : 136 Joralemon Street. Plates I. to

XLIX. Price one dollar. This part concludes Vol. I., index to which
is issued with it. The line drawings are of the same excellence as in the
previous three parts, and illustrate members of the genera Omophron,
Notiophilus, Dyschirius, Laemostenus, Sphodrus, Calathus, Dolichus,
Anchomenus, Pterostichus, Lebia, etc.

* Naturalist, 1894, p. 21 1

t There is little doubt that Farrah means to refer to the fact that the
sandy bank yields the two species, leaving it to be assumed that elder grew
thereon.

X For instance, how can we tell plants would’nt grow where they
must ? — [Ed.]

Naturalist,

231

MORE SONGS OF THE BIRDS.

WALTER GARSTANG, M.A., D.SC.
Professor of Zoology in the University of Leeds.

These additional songs, two of them in an abbreviated form,
have already appeared in the Yorkshire Weekly Post during
the past month. They are now presented in complete and
revised form.

Some of my readers have experienced difficulty in getting
hold of the Swing of the Redstart’s ‘ Ode.’ If they will note
the metre of my rendering of the bird’s own phrase (stanza 3,
line 2) —

they will find that each of the first three stanzas begins with
a similar line (strikingly Alcaic in spite of the differences),
and that the words and breaks have been adjusted to indicate
the rhythm as naturally as possible. The last three stanzas
have been freely smoothed to English measures.

VII. — The Redstart’s Ode.

Shall we wait now ? Ah ! do you see on the rail

Yon sprightly bird ? There — with the flickering tail !

He turns ! Just note that lovely head !

He is off ! Mark the flash of his tail dull red !

Handsome Redster ! Soon will he sing and you’ll hear
His music wild, — short, unmistakable, clear : —

Some opening notes, a brazen shriek,

Then a swift double flourish quite unique.

Back he comes ! Now hark ! over here, in the tree :
Wee-jee ! Jee-jee l WIZZ ! Did-ju-ee ! Did-ju-ee !

With wanton notes oft added on, —

For he’s nightingale, robin and chat in one !

Gay troubadour, thanks ! The romances you tell
In metre so quaint admiration compel !

But just this point I fain would clinch :

Are you finch playing warbler ? or warbler, finch ?

1919 Ju-ly 1

232

More Songs of the Birds.

Your strain with its touch of Alcaeus’s lyre.

Its challenging notes and its climax of fire,

Was surely learnt in Lesbian' climes
Far away from a land where the Muse needs rhymes !

Or did you from Horace derive your neat ode
When haunting the groves of his Sabine abode ?

Hear Tyndaris Teian ballads sing
By Digentia’s stream or Bandusia’s spring ?

VIII. — The Whitethroat’s Dancing Song,

Watch this artful White thro at prancing
Just in front with wing-steps light,

Fancy rings of music dancing

’Long the hedge with May-bloom wrhite ;

Creeping through the thicket, cheeping
With alarm when we delay ;

Heaping melodies and leaping
Loops of joy when on we stray ;

Till triumphantly he utters
Something very like a scoff.

Almost in our faces flutters,

Clears the hedge and then is off !

Zee-o, Cheechey, Wdochey, Weechey
(Quick now ! Quick as you can be !)
Wee-zo, Choo-eechey, Choo-eezo, Choo-eechey ,
Zeecheo, Weecheo, Zeeo-choo-ee !

Beating back to take a greeting
To his mate upon her nest :

‘ Meeting fleeting ! They’re retreating !
All goes well ! Had such a jest ! ’

Now he freely gambols, skipping
High on light fantastic wings ;
Tripping two steps, one step dipping,
See ! right o’er yon tree he sings !

Naturalist,

More Songs of the Birds.

233

IX. — The Jewel Song of the Garden Warbler.

A song of rich jewels all linked in a chain
And freely in sunshine displayed ;

Soft lilt of pure melody, — pearls for a strain
Low-warbled in orchard and glade !

But none of these gems in its beauty conceals
Dark stories of greed and of strife :

As his cadences flow the grey minstrel reveals
Just the joys of a sweet simple life.

Would you hear him ? Then come where this grass is so lush —
Put everything else from your mind ; —

You shall hear his low gush of rare music, — Oh, hush ! — -
Near the top of that willow behind !

( Allegro ma non troppo ; dolce ; legato.)

Joo-riddy, joo-reedy, joo-riddy, joo-ay
— Zo ; Wayzo, Wayzo, Diddy-deroo ;
Joo-ee-o, Joo-ay-diddy, Droo-ey, Droo-ay
— Do ; Wee-jeroo, Wee-jeroo, Joo !

(. Da capo).

So babble clear waters that break from a rill
Upon moss-covered boulders in spray ;
So tinkle light pearls, that a casket may fill,
When poured on a velvet-lined tray ;

Like the low lullaby that a mother knows how
To croon o’er the babe at her breast ;

Like the ripple of wavelets that welcome the prow
Of a bark sailing home to its rest.

Singing Way jo, Wayjo, Wayjo,
Diddy, Ter 00, Ter 00 ;
Wayjo, Wayjo, Wayjo,

Jirra, Jerooble-oo !

1919 July 1

Q

234

THE BRISTLY MILLIPEDE IN NORTH LINGS.

T. STAINFORTH, B.A., B.SC.

On the occasion of the excursion of the Hull Scientific and Field
Naturalists’ Club to Barton-on-Humber, on May ioth, I was
pleased to find the Bristly Millepede, or Pencil Tail (Poly xenus
lagurus) , occurring in some abundance. The habitat, namely,
the squared beams forming a very low parapet to the culverts
that cross the ditches in Dam Road not far from the Humber
shore, was somewhat unexpected. Not only was the habitat
quite different from that in which I had previously found the
species in East Yorkshire (see The Naturalist, 1916, p. 181,
where an illustration is given), but the nature of the subsoil
was also different. At Brantingham, they lived on the side of
a steep chalk wold, while at Barton the ground consists of
Humber silt, and is very low and flat. They occurred on
the ends and sides of the beams in small groups and when
disturbed, glided rapidly and gracefully into cracks in the
wood. Some were quite openly exposed on the sides of the
beams overlooking the ditch., while others were hidden behind
tufts of grass growing from the ground on the inner sides and
ends. The beams were covered with dried Protococcus or an
incipient grey lichenous growth.' I searched the loose bark
on some hawthorn bushes near but without success, and a
careful search under willow bark at Blow Wells a short dis-
tance away brought about a similar result. I visited the
locality again on June 15th, and found them occurring on the
same beam equally as commonly as on the first occasion.

I kept some alive for a week or so on pieces of rotten'
timber, but they did not take kindly to confinement and
gradually died off. To anyone in search of a delightful
living object to exhibit under the low powers of the microscope
I can strongly recommend this graceful little creature, and this
may perhaps afford a incentive towards the discovery of the
species in other localities. Not only are the tufts of scales on
the sides of the body and especially those on the terminal
segment very striking, but the coloration of the living creature
is also decidedly effective, a character which cannot be seen
in the usual mounted examples. It glides rapidly about and
is able to walk with ease on the undersurface of a sheet of glass.

As far as records at my disposal show, it has not been noted
in Lincolnshire before. The late W. D. Roebuck writes in his
‘ Presidential Address to the Lincolnshire Naturalists’ Union,
1910,’ (Lines. N.U. Trans. 1910, p. 169), ‘ of the Myriopoda
.... we appear only to have one single note, one by Mr.
F. M. Burton of Scolopendra electrica in 1851 at Lincoln.’ I
cannot find that any further records of Millipedes or Centipedes
have been made since 1910.

Naturalist.

THE SPIDERS OF YORKSHIRE.

235

WM. FALCONER,
Slaithwaite, Huddersfield

( Continued from page 140).

T apinocyba subitanea Camb.

Usually plentiful among hay and straw refuse in barns, stables, etc. ;
less common in the open and occasionally in cellars ; noted for
Dorset, London, Kent, Sussex, Cheshire, Cambs., Staffs., N. Wales,
Lancashire, Northumberland, Cumberland and Edinburgh ; abroad,
France and Switzerland. Adult summer onwards to winter. First
occurrence — the author, Rillington, August, 1906. Probably a
common species in the county in barns and stables, in which I have
never failed to find many examples.

V.C. 61. — Burton Constable, one and Hull, in a cellar, one Cold
Harbour Lane (Hull), one T. S. ; Rillington, numerous.

V.C. 62. — Redcar, on rubbish heap, east of promenade, one <^, several $s.

V.C. 63. — Hurst Wood (Shipley), one W. P. W. ; Wilberlee and
Broad Oak, in barns, numerous ; Almondbury (Huddersfield),
one cellar, numerous in stables ; Farnley Tyas, stable refuse
thrown into a quarry, both sexes, numerous.

V.C. 64. — Howden, one $, under bracken, W. P. W.

T. pallens Camb.

On record for Lanarkshire, Pentland Hills and Rothiemurchus ;
Northumberland, Staffordshire and Cheshire ; Isle of Man ;
abroad, Sweden, France and Central Europe ; like the last absent
from Irish list ; at the roots of grass, and amongst fallen leaves and
moss in woods. Adult autumn to spring. First occurrence — the
author, Almondbury, April, 1899.

V.C. 61. — Houghton Woods, both sexes, Holme-on-Spalding Moor,
$s, T. S. ; Riccall Common, both sexes, T. S., W. F.

V.C. 62. — Wilton Wood, Normanby Intake Plantation, Bilsdale
Head, Eston Moor, common, J. W. H. ; Ringingkeld Bog, R. A. T. ;
Lazenby, two $s ; Raincliff Woods, $s.

V.C. 63. — Woods about Shipley and Cottingley ,W. P. W. ; Crims-
worth Dene, W. P. W., W. F. ; woods, and in many of them
plentiful, about Slaithwaite, Marsden, Meltham, Honley, Hudders-
field, Storthes Hall, Almondbury and Stocksmoor ; Hardcastle
Crags ; Hebden Bridge ; Coxley Valley ; Deffer Wood.

V.C. 64. — Howden Ghyll, W. P. W. ; Sawley High Moor, S .M., W. F. ;
Grassington ; Harewood Park ; Rigton ; Roundhay Park, Leeds ;
Meanwood ; King Wood and Adel Moor.

T. insecta L. Koch.

A rare British spider, first taken in Northumberland, October, 1903,
then in Yorkshire, April, 1904, and more recently at Bexhill in Sus-
sex, and in Ireland (Co. Carlow) ; abroad, France and the three
Central European countries. First occurrence- — the author,
Roundhay Park, April, 1904.

V.C. 63. — Honley Old Wood, near Huddersfield, one $ among leaves,
September, 1907.

V.C. 64. — Roundhay Park, Leeds, an adult male from heap of ac-
cumulated dead leaves in the old quarry behind the artificial
ruins ; Spa Gill, near Stephenson Bridge, Grantley, one $ amongst
fallen leaves, May, 1915.

Gen. Metopobactrus Sim., 1-1.

M. prominulus Camb. ( Microneta tenita Camb. §).

Uncommon, reported from Dorset, Sussex, Kent, Glamorgan,
Staffs., Notts., Cheshire, Northumberland and Scotland, but very

1919 July 1

236

Falconer : The Spiders of Yorkshire.

widely distributed on the Continent ; amongst moss and the roots
of grass. Adult. $ May to July; • $, until autumn. First occur-
rence— the author, Wessenden Valley, June 1901.

V.C. 61. — Sutton Drain Bank, one $, T. S.

V.C. 62. — Staithes, J. W. H. ; Scarborough, one R. A. T. ; Cayton
Bay, three ^s ; Kilton Wood, one $.

V.C. 63. — Both sexes at the following places ; — Above Mont Sarah’s,
Scammonden ; Bottoms Wood (Slaithwaite) ; Wessenden Valley ;
most frequent about Standedge and Pule in dampish places ;
Woodsome ; Honley Old Wood ; Morton Wood, Holmfirth ;
Dunford Bridge ; Deffer Wood ; Askern.

V.C. 64.— Ilkley, W. R. B. ; Goredale, $, W. P. W. ; Hackfall, five
§s ; both sexes at Bishop Wood ; Adel Moor ; Bolton Woods.

Gen. Pocadicnemis Sim., 1-1.

P . pumila Bl. ( Susarion neglectum Camb. $).

Abundant and widely dispersed in Gt. Britain and fairly so on the
Continent ; recently found in Ireland ; amongst grass and low
vegetation. Adult — May to July ; $s until autumn. First
occurrence — the author, Slaithwaite, May, 1901. Widely dis-
tributed in Yorkshire, having been noted for every locality in-
vestigated, and in many of them abundantly.

Gen. Eboria Falcr., 1-1.

E. caliginosa Falcr.

The only other locality for this very rare spider is Scafell Pike,
at an elevation of 1,500 feet, 1^, April, 1911, an example which I
have seen. For description and' figures see The Naturalist, 1910,
February, pp. 83-88, and July, pp. 253-4.

V.C. 63. — Clowes Moor, Marsden, in swamp, on right hand side of the
Old Packhorse Road to Rochdale, one <3, one $, May 15th, 1909 ;
at other times two ^s and ten $s, at roots of rushes growing up
through sphagnum, elevation 1,000 ft. ; above Nont Sarah’s,
on right hand side of road immediately below the footpath to
Cupwith Reservoir, a few of each sex, June, 1911.

Gen. Entelecara Sim., 4-7.

E. acumiuata Wid.

Only one other northern record for this spider : ‘ near Carlisle,
a few adult males,’ F. O. P. Cambridge ; but widely distributed and
not uncommon in the south of England ; not on Irish list. Adult
May to July. First occurrence — the author, Askern, June, 1908.

V.C. 61. — Deepdale Woods (Beverley), three $s, Houghton Woods
(Market Weighton), one <3, several $s, T.S. ; Riccall Common,
three rfs, two $s.

V.C. 62. — Hinderwell, several $s, J.W.H.

V.C. 63. — Between Askern and Owston, two rfs, one $, among reeds
in a dried-up ditch.

V.C. 64. — Bishop Wood (Selby), two ^s, three $s, T. S.

E. erythropus Westr.

Recorded for many localities from Dorset to Inverness, Ulster,
and the countries of N. and Central Europe ; on vegetation, the
foliage of trees and bushes, among vegetable debris on the ground
and occasionally under stones. Adult May and June. First
occurrence — the author, Slaithwaite, June, 1898.

V.C. 61. — Bridlington, H. C. D. ; Snake Hall, Inglemire Lane and
Pickering Park (Hull), Kelsey Hill, Meaux, Burton Constable, $s,
T.S. ; Riccall and Skipwith Commons.

V.C. 62. — Scarborough, H.C.D. ; Scarborough Mere ; Ravenscar ;
Boulby ; Kilton Woods ; Riftswood (Saltbum).

Naturalist,

Falconer : The Spiders of Yorkshire.

237

V.C. 63. — Askern ; many localities about Bradford, Bingley and Ship-
ley, Huddersfield, Hebden Bridge, but not in any numbers,
W. P. W., W. F.

V.C. 64.— Howden Ghyll, Elam Wood (Keighley), W. P. W. ; Wharfe-
dale, from Bolton Woods to Tadcaster ; Kettlewell, Ingleton,
Menston, Hackfall, Sawley, Adel, Brandon, Bishop Wood.

V.C. 65. — Tanfield.

E. trifrons Camb.

Uncommon and local, on record for Dorset, Northants., Staffs.,
Lines., Norfolk, Wicken Fen, Cumberland, Northumberland, Loch
Shiel, Midlothian, Leinster and Ulster ; abroad, N. France, Belgium
and Kamtschatka. Adult April to June. First occurrence — the
author, Malham, June, 1910.

V.C. 61. — Spurn, one adult male and a few immature females, 1913.
V.C. 64. — Spa Gill Wood, Sawley, S. M., one adult male, 1915.;
Malham, swampy ground in enclosed part of the Tarn, one 3»
two 5s*

E. thorellii Westr.

Rare, reported from Southport, one 3» Leinster, one 3> one $ ;
Bavelaw Moss (Edinburgh), one 3 ; Northumberland, few ;
Penrith; Cleethorpes, one $ {vide The Naturalist, August, 1911) ;
abroad, Sweden, France and Bavaria. Adult May and June.
First occurrence — Eston,, J. W. H. Harrison.

V.C. 61 — Riccall Common, one 3» one $, T. S., May, 1912.

V.C. 62. — Eston, one $, J. W. H. ( teste Rev. J. E. Hull) ; Langdale
End, near Scarborough, one 3> June, 1913. R.A.T.

Gen. Styloctetor Sim., 1-3.

S. penicillatus Westr.

On record for Dorset, Hants., Essex, Cambs., Staffs., Cheshire,
Northumberland, Cumberland and Rannoch (Scotland), and not
common ; in the cracks of tree bark ; abroad, Sweden, France
and Central Europe. Adult 3> June and July ; $s until autumn.
First occurrence — the author, Mollicar Woods, September, 1907.
V.C. 61. — Snake Hall, N. Cave, Birkhill Wood (Cottingham), Rudston,
a female at each place, T. S.

V.C. 62.— Middlesbrough, J. W. H.

V.C. 63. — Harden, one 3> one $, W. P. W. ; Y.N.U. Cawthorn,
Deffer Wood, on sycamores, W. P. W., W. F. ; Mollicar Woods
(Huddersfield), oaks, five §s ; Storthes Hall Wood, two §s.

V.C. 64. — Grassington, one §, Harewood Park, two $s> W. P. W. ;
Bishop Wood, one <3 ; Birkham Wood (Knaresborough), two ,3s.

Gen. Dicymbium Menge, 2-2.

D. nigrum B.

Widely distributed in Great Britain as far north as Aberdeen and
St. Kilda, and in Ireland ; abroad, Sweden, Belgium, France and
Central Europe ; roots of grass and heather, fallen leaves and moss.
Adult throughout the year. First occurrence — the author, Dean
Head, September, 1900.

V.C. 61. — Skipwith Common, Weedley, Waudby Green, Park Avenue
(Hull), Humber Bank East, Marfleet Drain, Bielsbeck, Flam-
borough Head, T. S. ; Humber Bank West, Welton, Pulfin Bog
and Bentley Woods (Beverley), E. A. P. ; banks of river above
Selby, W. P. W., W. F.

V.C. 62. — Eston, Redcar, Bilsdale Head, Farndale, Greenhow Botton,
Turkey Nab, J. W. H. ; Cayton Lane and Raincliff Woods, R. A. T. ;
Scarborough ; Ringingkeld Bog ; Marske.

V.C. 63.— Calverley, S. M. ; Moorhead (Shipley), W. P. W. ; Y.N.U.
Deffer Wood ; Lane, Windsor. Castle, Merridale, Ainley Place,

1919 July 1

238

Falconer: The Spiders of Yorkshire.

Wilberlee and Royal Clough, near Slaithwaite ; Dean Head ;
Drop Clough and Wessenden Valley, near Marsden ; Crosland
Moor (Huddersfield).

V.C. 64. — Saltaire, W. P. W. ; Bishop Wood ; Roundhay Park (Leeds),
Brandon, Alwoodley ; Grimbold’s Crag and Birkham Wood (Knares-
borough) ; Hackfall.

D. tibiale Bl.

More restricted in distribution and of more northern and western
range in the British Isles than the last ; on record for Devon,
Warwickshire, Glamorgan, N. Wales, Cheshire, Staffs., Cumberland,
Northumberland and Berwick ; Donegal County in Ireland ;
abroad, Sweden, France and Central Europe ; usually in damp
places in woods. The females of the two species are indis-
tinguishable. Adult throughout the year. First occurrence —
the author, Dean Head, September, 1900.

V.C. 61.— Weedley Springs (S. Cave), T. S.

V.C. 62. — Eston, Farndale, Turkey Nab, J. W. H. ; Aireyholme
Wood (Ayton), W. P. W. ; Ringingkeld Bog, R. A. T. ; Lazenby.

V.C. 63. — Cottingley Wood, Harden and Old Spring Wood (Shipley),
W. P. W. ; Hebden Bridge and Crimsworth Dene ; much commoner
in woods about Slaithwaite, Marsden, Saddleworth, Meltham,
Stocksmoor, Honley, Holmfirth and Huddersfield than the pre-
ceding species ; Coxley Valley ; Deffer Wood ; Dunford Bridge.

V.C. 64. — Bishop Wood, T. S. ; King Wood (Adel) ; Bolton Woods ;
Ingleborough, near the summit ; Malham ; Stubbing Moor.

V.C. 65. — Y.N.U. Upper Teesdale.

( To be continued ).

: o :

We have received the Report of the Marlborough College Natural
History Society for the year ending 1918. It contains some very useful
records in various branches of natural history, as well as meteorological
observations.

The New Phytologist, Vol. XVIII., Nos. 3 and 4, for March and April,
1919, published May 14th, 1919 [why not Vol. XVIII, No. 3 ?], includes
the following items : ‘ Origin of the Compositae,’ by James Small ;
a contribution to the Life History and Cytology of Synchytrium endobio-
ticum Schilb. Percival ; the cause of Potato Wart Disease, by K. M.
Curtis ; On the Retention of Vitality by Algae from old stored Soils, by
B. Muriel Bristol.

We have received the Flora of the Northern Territory (Australia), by
Prof. A. J. Ewart and Miss Olive B. Davies, which gives the results of
the Barclay Expedition and also incorporates the work of previous
collectors in the region. There is a sketch map showing the route of
the expedition, and the characteristic vegetation. Four appendices
deal with Cyperaceae, Myrtaceae, Eucalypts and Acacias and there are
lists of the economic and poisonous plants of the territory. Four new
genera and about thirty new species are described and these are illustrated
on twenty -seven plates.

The Journal of the Fell and Rock Climbing Club of the English Lake
District, Vol. IV., Part 2 (3 /-) ; edited by Mr. and Mrs. W. T. Palmer,
is an exceptionally optimistic number. It contains a remarkable col-
lection of interesting notes, (many of which are well illustrated), on such
subjects as : — Botterill’s Slab, Scafell, Nights Out, Making the best of it,
A Day Trip to Scafell, Gaspard of Wasdale Head ; Three Climbers, To
the I ells. Camping amongst the Crags in 1885, Ropes and Belays, Doe
Crags (Climbing Song with Music), Two New Climbs on Doe Crags,
Shadows and the Rocks, Wanderings in Skye, An Old Mountain Track,
etc. The Roll of Honour is grand.

Naturalist,

239

WESTMORLAND COLEOPTERA.

F. H. DAY, F.E.S.

(' Continued from p. 79).

PUYTOPHAGA.

Donacia crassipes F. Windermere (Fowler).

D. clavipes F. Sunbiggin (Britten).

D. thalassina Germ. Rydal (Black).

D. simplex F. Cliburn Moss, Melkinthorpe, Sunbiggin Tarn (Britten).

D. cinerea Hbst. Rydal (Black).

D. sericea L. Rydal (Black), Cliburn Moss (Britten).

D. discolor Pz. Rydal (Black).

D. af finis Kunz. Ulleswater (Wood).

Lema cyanella L. ( lichenis Voet.). Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe,
Cliburn, Glenridding (Britten), Witherslack (Day).

Crypto cephalus labiatus L. Cliburn, Melkinthorpe (Britten), Witherslack
(Day).

C. moraei L. Clappersgate (Blackburn),

Gastroidea viridula De G. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten).

G. polygoni L. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten), Lowther Park

(Day).

Clirysomela staphylea L. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten),
Kirkby Stephen (Thompson).

C. hyperici Forst. Cliburn (Britten).

C. varians Schal. Tebay (Bowman).

C. polita L. Kirkby Stephen (Thompson), Melkinthorpe, Cliburn, Whinfell
(Britten), Witherslack (Day).

Phytodecta pallida L. Tebay (Bowman).

Phyllodecta vulgatissima L. Tebay (Bowman).

P. vitellinae L. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe, Cliburn, Clifton
(Britten), Gaisgill (Day).

Hydrothassa aucta L. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten).

H. marginella L. Melkinthorpe (Britten), Kirkby Stephen (Day).
Prasocuris phellandrii L. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe, Cliburn

(Britten) .

P. junci Brahm. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Phaedon cochleariae F. Melkinthorpe (Britten), Kirkby Stephen (Day).

P. tumidulus Germ. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten), Wither-
slack, Kirkby Stephen (Day).

P. armoraciae L. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe, Clifton (Britten),
Kirkby Stephen (Day).

Luperus longicornis F. (rufipes Brit. Cat.). Witherslack, Ravenstonedale
(Day).

L. flavipes L. Tebay (Bowman), Witherslack, Lowther Park (Day),
Melkinthorpe, Cliburn Moss (Britten).

Lochmaea suturalis Th. Tebay (Bowman), Cliburn, Whinfell (Britten),
Witherslack (Day) .

Galerucella grisescens Joann. ( sagittariae Brit. Cat.). Cliburn Moss
(Britten) .

G. lineola F. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

G. tenella L. Melkinthorpe, Cliburn Moss (Britten).

Sermyla halensis L. Melkinthorpe, Cliburn (Britten).

Derocrepis ( Crepidodera ) rufipes L. Melkinthorpe (Britten), Lowther
Park (Day).

Crepidodera transversa Marsh. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten),
Lowther Park (Day).

C. ferruginea Scop. Witherslack (Day).

1919 July 1

240

Westmorland Coleoptera.

Chalcoides fulvicornis F. ( smaragdina Foudr.). Melldnthorpe (Britten).

C. aurata Marsh. Melkinthorpe (Britten). .

Hippuriphila modeeri L. Cliburn Moss, Melkinthorpe (Britten), Wither-
slack (Day).

Mantura obtusata Gy 11. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

M. rustica L. Melkinthorpe (Britten) .

Plectrocelis concinna Marsh. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten),
Witherslack (Day).

Psylliodes napi Koch. Melkinthorpe (Britten), Kirkby Stephen (Day),

P. cuprea Koch. Sunbiggin (Britten).

P. affinis Pk. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Haltica oleracea L. Witherslack (Day).

H. pusilla (Duft. ?). Tebay (Bowman).

Batophila rubi Pk. Witherslack (Day) .

Phyllotreta sinuata Steph. Witherslack (Day).

P. undulata Kuts. Tebay (Bowman). Melkinthorpe (Britten), Wither-
slack (Day).

P. nemorum L. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Aphthona coerulea Geoff. ( nonstriata Brit. Cat.). Melkinthorpe (Britten).
Longitarsus luridus Scop. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe, Cliburn
(Britten), Witherslack, Lowther Park (Day).

L. atricillus L. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten).

L. suturellus Duft. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

L. gracilis Kuts. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

L. melanocephalus De G. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

L. pratensis Panz. ( pusillus Gyll.) Melkinthorpe (Britten).

L. jacobaeae Wat. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Apteropeda globosa 111. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

A.orbiculata Marsh. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Mniophila muscorum Koch. Melkinthorpe, Cliburn, (Britten).
Sphaeroderma testaceum F. ( cardui Gyll.). Melkinthorpe (Britten),
Witherslack (Day).

S.rubidum Graells. ( testaceum Gyll.). Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Cassida viridis L. Melkinthorpe, Glenridding (Britten).

C . sanguinolenta F. Tebay (Bowman).

Pachymerus ( Bruchus ) chinensis L. ( pectinicornis L.). Tebay (Bowman).

Rhynchophora.

Anthribus (Br achy tarsus) variegatus Fourc. ( varius F.) Melkinthorpe
(Britten) .

Otiorrhynchus ligneus Ol. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten).

O. dubius Strom. ( maurus Gyll.). Helvellyn, Place Fell (Wood).

O. singularis L. ( picipes F.) Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe, Cliburn,
Glenridding (Britten), Witherslack (Day).

O. sulcatus F. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

O. rugifrons Gyll. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten).

O. ovatus L. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

O. desertus Rosen. Ab. muscorum Bris. Melkinthorpe (Britten).
Phyllobius glaucus Scop. ( calcaratus F.). Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe,

Cliburn (Britten).

P. urticae De G. ( alneti F.). Melkinthorpe, Cliburn (Britten), Raven-

stonedale, Lowther Park (Day).

P. pyri L. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten), Witherslack,
Ravenstonedale (Day).

P. argentatus L. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe, Glenridding (Britten),
Ravenstonedale (Day).

P. maculicornis Germ. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

P. oblongus L. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten), Witherslack,
Ravenstonedale (Day).

Naturalist,

Westmorland Coleoptera, 241

P. viridicollis F. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten), Witherslack,
Kirkby Stephen (Day).

P.pomonae Ol. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten).

P. viridiaeris Laich. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten), Raven-
stonedale (Day) .

Polydrosus mollis Stroem. ( micans F.). Kirkby Stephen (Thompson),
Rydal (Black).

P. cervinus L. Melkinthorpe, Glenridding (Britten), Witherslack (Day).
P. tereticollis De G. Tebay (Bowman).

P. pterygomalis Sch. Melkinthorpe, Cliburn (Britten), Witherslack,
Lowther Park (Day).

Sciaphilus asperatus Bonsd. ( muricatus F. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe
Britten), Witherslack (Day).

Brachysomus echinatus Bonsd. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Barypithes araneiformis Schr. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Strophosomus melanogrammus Forst. ( coryli F.). Tebay (Bowman), Melkin-
thorpe, Cliburn (Britten), Witherslack (Day).

5. capitatus De G. ( fulvicornis Walt.). Melkinthorpe (Britten).

5. faber Hbst. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

S. lateralis Pk. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

5. retusus Marsh. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Sitona regensteinensis Hbst. Tebay (Bowman), Cliburn (Britten).

5. lineatus L. Witherslack (Day).

S. suturalis Steph. Melkinthorpe (Britten), Witherslack, Kirkby Stephen
(Day).

5. sulcifrons Thunb. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten).

S. flavescens Marsh. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten), Kirkby
Stephen (Day).

S. hispidulus F. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten), Witherslack

(Day).

5. humeralis Steph. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Barynotus obscurus F. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten).

B. moerens F. Tebay (Bowman).

B. squamosus Germ. ab. schonherri Zett. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe
(Britten) .

Tropiphorus tomentosus Marsh. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten).

T. obtusus Bons. Tebay (Bowman).

Alophus triguttatus F. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Hylobius abietis L. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe, Cliburn, Whinfell
(Britten) .

Liosoma deflexum Pz. ( ovatulum Clair.) Tebay (Bowman), Cliburn, Melkin-
thorpe (Britten), Kirkby Stephen (Thompson, Day).

L. deflexum Pz. ab. collare Rye. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Phytonomus {Hyper a) punctatus F. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

P. rumicis L. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

P. nigrirostris- F. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten).

P. arator L. [polygoni L.) Melkinthorpe (Britten).

P. pedestris Pk. {suspiciosus Hbst.) Tebay (Bowman).

P. plantaginis De G. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten).

P. variabilis Hbst. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

P. trilineatus Marsh. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Grypidius equiseti F. Witherslack (Day).

N otaris ( Errirhinus ) acridulus L. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten).
N. bimaculatus F. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Dorytomus longimanus Forst. {vorax F.) Melkinthorpe (Britten).

D. tremulae Pk. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

D. taeniatus F. {maculatus Marsh). Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe
(Britten), Witherslack (Day).

D. melanophthalmus Pk. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

D. rufulus Bed. {pectoralis Gyll.) Melkinthorpe (Britten).

1919 July 1

242

Westmorland Coleoptera.

Ovthochaetes setiger Beck. Tebay (Bowman).

Cryptonhynchus lapathi L. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Coeliodes ruber Marsh. Melkinthorpe, Cliburn (Britten).

C. dry ados Gmel. ( quercus F.). Melkinthorpe (Britten), Lowther Park
(Day).

C. rubicundus Hbst. Rydal (Black), Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Cidnorrhinus (Coeliodes) /{-maculatus L. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe,
Cliburn, Clifton, Whinfell (Britten), Witherslack, Kirkby Stephen
(Day).

Allodactylus ( Coeliodes ) affinis Pk. ( geranii Pk.). Tebay (Bowman), Melkin-
thorpe, Tirril, Pooley Bridge (Britten), Lowther Park, Ravenstone-
dale, Gaisgill (Day).

Rhinoncus castor F. Cliburn, Whinfell (Britten).

R. pericarpius L. (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten), Witherslack (Day).
Phytobius comari Hbst. Sunbiggin (Britten).

P. 4-tuberculatus F. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Ceuthorrhynchidius troglodytes F. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe, Cliburn,
Strickland (Britten).

Micrelus ( Ceuthorrhynchus ) ericae Gyll. Whinfell, Cliburn Moss (Britten).
Witherslack (Day).

Ceuthorrhynchus floralis Pk. Melkinthorpe (Britten), Witherslack (Day).

C. pyrrhorhynchus Marsh. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

C . pollinarius Forst. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

C. pleurostigma Marsh. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

C. assimilis Pk. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten).

C. quadridens Pz, Melkinthorpe, Cliburn, Clifton (Britten), Witherslack
(Day).

C. erysimi F. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

C. contractus Marsh. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe, Cliburn, Glenridding
(Britten), Lowther Park (Day).

C. chalybaeus Auct. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe- (Britten).

(To be continued).

:o:

No. 293 of The Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society , issued on
May 6th, contains the Society’s Proceedings from November 7th, 1917,
to June 19th, 1918, so this publication is gradually getting up to date.

We have received the Transactions and Journal of the Eastbourne
Natural History , Photographic and Literary Society for April. The publi-
cation contains a number of items on general subjects coming within
the scope of the Society’s work, together with some of distinct local value.

The Transactions and Proceedings of the Perthshire Society of Natural
Science, Vol. VI., Part 5, contains details of the meetings of the Society,
together with a presidential address ; ‘ Some Glimpses of Life in Perth
300 years ago,’ by W. Barclay ; a presidential address by Mr. G. F.
Bates, entitled ‘ Rocks found in the Bore at Waterhouse.' There is
also a paper on Bronze Age Burial Urns, and on a Stone Cist found at
Kildinny, both by T. M’Laren ; Iceland and Its Birds, by J. G. M.
Gordon ; A Perthshire Naturalist — James Stewart McGregor, of Glenisla,
by Peter Baxter, and other items.

The Journal of the Northants Natural History Society and Field Club,
Vol. XIX., contains a valuable series of papers bearing upon the county,
including such items as ‘ The River System of Northamptonshire,’ by
Beeby Thompson ; James Dickson’s List of Naseby Plants, by G. C.
Druce ; An Early Northampton Natural History Society, by Beeby
Thompson and G. C. Druce ; The Roman Occupation, by T. J. George ;
Northamptonshire Printing, etc., by R. W. Brown ; Meteorological
and other reports, as well as the reports of the Kettering and District
Naturalists’ Society and Field Club. The volume contains an excellent
portrait of Mr. G. C. Druce in his robes as Mayor of Oxford.

Naturalist

243

THE BRISTLY MILLIPEDE AT SALTWICK BAY,
NEAR WHITBY.

J. WILFRID JACKSON, F.G.S.,

Manchester Museum.

Whilst on a geological excursion to Saltwick Bay, on April
13th last, I had the good fortune to find several specimens of
the Bristly Millipede, Polyxenus lagurus Linne. Being
without suitable collecting tackle, I was unable to gain
possession of more than two examples, which are now in the
collection of the Rev. S. Graham and Dr. Hilda K. Brade-

Photo by] Saltwick Bay, near Whitby. U-WJ.

Habitat of Polyxenus lagurus on grassy mound at extreme right.

Birks, to whom I am indebted for kindly confirming my
identification. The millipedes appeared to me to be in-
habiting a remarkable situation as I found them on the under-
side of a piece of alum shale which I turned over in search of
fossils. The habitat was quite close to the sea-level and
no vegetation except short grass was present. The accom-
panying photograph shows the habitat, which is on the grassy
mound at the extreme right of the picture.

In The Naturalist for June 1st, 1916 (p. 181), this millipede
is recorded from East Yorkshire by T. Stainforth, who reports
having met with numerous examples among debris at the foot
of larch trees in the higher part of Brantingham Dale, near
Hull.

1919 July 1

244 Jackson : Bristly Millipede at Saltwick Bay.

Through the kindness of the Rev. S. Graham and Dr. Hilda
K. Brade-Birks I am enabled to incorporate in this note some
particulars, not hitherto published, of the discovery of this
species near St.. Andrews. The specimens were obtained
from debris at the foot of the Spindle Rock, on the East Shore
of St. Andrews, in April and May, 1917, by Dr. W. E.
Collinge, who reports that they were first noticed there by
his son in August, 1915. Some of these specimens were sent
by Mr. Brade-Birks to Professor Silvestri, the Italian expert,
who first described Polyxenus lapidicola (a halophilous species) .
After careful comparison, this authority came to the con-
clusion that the St. Andrew's examples were P. lagurus , and
in his reply states that ‘ it is very possible that this species
contains some sub-species or varieties, but for such a conclusion
it would be necessary to have a great deal of material from
various countries.'

On referring to R. S. Bagnall’s paper, ‘ On some Lancashire
Myriapods new to the British Fauna, with Comments upon
Halophilous Species ' (Lancs, and Ches. Nat., July, 1917,
[publ. Aug. 23rd, 1917], pp. 104-109) I find that these St.
Andrew’s and Saltwick Bay records add another Diplopod
to our coastal fauna, Isobates . (Thalassisobates) littoralis
Silvestri and Cylindroiulus frisius Verhoeff alone being the
previously recorded halophilous members of this class
(Diplopoda).

: o :

DIPTERA.

Yorkshire Diptera Notes. — Amongst the few flies seen
when walking up Inglebro' at Easter two seem hitherto
unrecorded for the County : — Hydrophorus nebulosus Fin.
of which several specimens were taken, and Orphnephila
testacea Ruthe. The only well distributed species seen was
Sepsis cynipsea L. At x*\ustwick beck -head Liancalus virens
Scop, was taken. This was also caught in Heseltine Ghyll in
December. On the road home on April 22nd, Bombylius
major L. was noted on Celandine at Eshton, Hetton and
Beamsley, and the same fly being seen on garden arabis at
Arnside on May 10th. Another addition to the Yorkshire
list is Orthocladius do lens Wlk. in fair number at Bramhope
ponds on May 4th, it is a large slow-moving fly with black
body and whitish wings almost like a Bibio in appearance
when flying. Mr. J. H. Ashworth has examined the three
additions with me and H. nebulosus has been compared
with Dr. Meade’s specimens at the Leeds University. — -
Chris. A. Cheetham.

Naturalist,

245

FIELD NOTES.

FISHES .

Large Yorkshire Trout, — I think Mr. H. B. Booth is in
error in claiming as the record Yorkshire river trout, a fish
weighing io lbs. 9 oz. This will, I believe, take second place,
the heaviest of which I have any knowledge being a fish taken
many years ago in the stream at Driffield. It weighed 12 J lbs.,
and is now preserved in the Museum at Scarborough. Probably
the enormous fish which he records as found after a flood on
the Wharfe last December would have beaten it for size and
weight. — W. J. Clarke.

CONCHOLOGY.

Vertigo pygmaea Drap. — This can only be considered a
rare shell in this county. My father and I took one specimen
while gathering the seeds of Sagina opetala on the stone steps
going down to the lawn, in the Vicarage garden, Melton
Ross, 23th July, 1916. We could never obtain another till
this day, 16th May, 1919, when we found four on the very
same spot, three living and one dead. — Tom W. Woodruffe-
Pe acock.

SPONGES.

A Freshwater Sponge. — When the River Ancholme,
which was canalled in 1688, was run off on April 25th, I took
at the outfall of the Thirty Foot Drain, Cadney, a specimen
of Ephydatia mulleri, one of the fresh -water sponges. It
was originally over a foot in diameter. Mr. R. Kirkpatrick,
of the British Museum, who has kindly named it for me, says,

‘ The specimen is crowded with innumerable gemmules or
winter-buds — the minute millet seed-like bodies you could
not understand. This species is rather rare in England.’ My
father thinks it undoubtedly duck — carried to us. — Tom W.
Woodruffe-Peacock, Cadney, Brigg, 1st May, 1919.

: o :

In British Birds for June, Miss E. L. Turner has a well illustrated
paper on ‘ The Bittern in the Norfolk Broads/ and Mr. W. H. Mullens
writes on ‘ The Ruff — an Early Record/ giving reproductions of some
quaint old wood -cuts.

The Geological Magazine for June, in referring to the death of Sir
Frank Crisp, Bart., states that ‘ His rock-garden at Friar Park, Henley,
crowned with an accurate model of the Matterhorn, needed for its con-
struction no less than 20,000 tons of Carboniferous Limestone from
Yorkshire, and with the other gardens, caves, lakes, and cascades, renders
this beautiful spot one of the finest gardens in England.’ There is
also a note ‘ On a Scandinavian Erratic from the Orkneys/

1919 July 1

246

CORRESPONDENCE.

HARMFUL AND USEFUL BIRDS.

Referring to the ‘ Diagrammatic Representation of the Percentage
of Food of the Jackdaw,’ on page 193, if something on a larger scale and
showing the damage and vice versa, done by other birds, for the birds
that ought to he preserved, and on varnished paper, or linen, and on rollers,
suitable for hanging in public schools, etc., could be prepared, they
should be of use in teaching the generation to come, and probably
instruct some of the teachers ! — Albert Ernest Hall, Southwell, Notts.

[We are making this suggestion to the Board of Agriculture. — Ed.1
• o — —

UNDOCKED DOGS THE QUICKER.

c I have a reprint of the first edition of The Origin of Species ,’ writes an
old correspondent. ‘ Speaking of the tail of the dog as an aid in turning,
Darwin says, “ the aid must be slight, for the hare, with hardly any
tail, can double quickly enough.” I cannot find this passage in the
badly indexed 6th edition, and so cannot give the volume and page.

‘ Now, some few months ago, I saw a fox-terrier with a tail the natural
length, and made some remark about it to its mistress. She told me that
her husband found “ that terriers with shortened tails were much less
quick after rabbits and vermin, so he did not crop the tails of any of
the puppies he had.” Now if this is true, and I see no reason to doubt
it, either the tail in long -tailed animals is a greater help than Darwin
thought, or the spine is made less supple by cutting off its continuation.
Perhaps the quickness of the hare in turning depends on a general supple-
ness of limbs and spine, or some other quality which makes up for
shortness of tail.' I cannot say, but someone else may be able to do
so? — E. Adrian Woodruffe-Peacock, 22nd May, 1919.

o

DO LEAVES WANT WATERING ?

‘ This will no doubt interest you,’ writes a friend. ‘ I have some of
the hybrid primulas which sprang from contiguity of plants at Kew, and
are so called Primula kewensis. All through the winter though well-
watered, so far as the roots were concerned, the leaves lay flat and looked •
unhealthy. Some days ago when the weather was warm I watered the
leaves with soft water. From being quite flaccid, in an hour or two
many of the leaves had risen up . Why was this ? Do they absorb
water through the stomata, or have the stomata to be wet with dew or
rain or mist to act fully ? If not, how does water applied to the leaves
affect them differently from water supplied to the roots ? Ferns like
the Maidenhair ( Adiantum capillus -veneris L.) must have the fronds
watered by showers at intervals, if they are to thrive indoors. These
mountain Primulce and their hybrids may be the same, for most of them
I believe are from the highlands and mountain tops of the tropics or
sub -tropics, so they generally love damp situations and moist air- — -but
why cannot the water derived from the root fibres act on them like water
(or presumably dew) falling directly on their foliage ? Not only did the
leaves rise up, but they became active too, greener and healthier looking
quite suddenly.’ I cannot answer this fully. Can any reader of The
Naturalist ? — E. Adrian Woodruffe-Peacock, 18th May, 1919.

Many leaves are unable to absorb water falling on them, and numerous
surface modifications, such as wax and hairs, which prevent wetting, are
familiar. But more commonly than is usually supposed, some leaves
are able to absorb water and thus supplement their supply, as appears
probable in the above case. The grower has here a nice little problem

Naturalist.

Northern News.

247

for study ; let him repeat the experiment, determine that the leaves
do absorb water and how much, also under what conditions wilting
takes place. By means of sections examine the structure of the leaf,
particularly the epidermis, and he will not only find much to help towards
a solution, but incidentally his account of the results would prove inter-
esting to others. — Ed.]

: o :

NORTHERN NEWS.

Professor G. Elliot Smith has been elected President of the Manchester
Literary and Philosophical Society.

Among the new Fellows of the Royal Society we notice the names
of Dr. J. W. Evans and Mr. Edward Heron-Alien.

By an unfortunate slip the three illustrations of birds' heads given in
our last issue were wrongly described on page 213. ‘ Tree Sparrow '

should have appeared instead of Hedge Sparrow.

The original matrix of the seal of the Linnean Society, which has been
missing for some years, has been discovered among the property of an
old resident in Sussex. One wonders how he got it?

We should like to congratulate Dr. Harold Wager, F.R.S., one of
the past -presidents of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, on his election
as the vice-president of the Linnean Society of London.

The Doncaster Scientific Society and other institutions with which
the late Mrs. Corbett was connected, are inviting subscriptions towards
a memorial to Mrs. Corbett, to take the form of a contribution to the
National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, in which
Mrs. Corbett took a great interest. Subscriptions should be sent to
Mr. G. B. Bisat, Hon. Sec., 30 Nether Hall Road, Doncaster.

At the Annual Meeting of the Durham and Northumberland Arch-
seological Society at Durham the question of whether the society should
be continued was raised. The Chairman, Mr. J. S. Robson, of Newcastle,
said he could not see the slightest reason why they should not continue.
It would be a poor tribute to their late and venerable president (Dr.
Greenwell) if they ceased their operations because he had gone. It was
agreed that the society should be continued.

At the last Annual Meeting of the Yorkshire Numismatic Society
there was an unusually large attendance of members and visitors. The
annual reports, as submitted by the hon. secretary and hon. treasurer
respectively, were adopted unanimously, and officers and council for the
new session were elected as follows — President, Mr. G. L. Shackles ;
vice-presidents, Messrs. J. F. Musham, F.E.S., and J. E. Bedford ;
hon. editor, Mr. T. Sheppard,, M.Sc. ; hon. treasurer, Mr. E. Croft ;
Council, Messrs. Brigg, Edwards, Ladell, Hutton, Turpin, Wroot and
Kirkwood ; hon. secretary, Mr. J. Digby Firth.

This year’s meeting of the British Association — the 87th — is to be held
at Bournemouth from September 9th to 13th. The president, the Hon.
Sir Charles A. Parsons, K.C.B., will deliver his address on ‘ Engineering
and the War.’ The following presidents of sections have been appointed :
Professor Andrew Gray, F.R.S. (Mathematical and Physical Science) ;
Professor P. Phillips Bedson (Chemistry) ; Dr. J. W. Evans (Geology) ;
Dr. F. A. Dixey, F.R.S. (Zoology) ; Professor L. W. Lyde (Geography) ;
Sir Hugh Bell (Economic Science and Statistics) ; Professor J. E.
Petavel, F.R.S. (Engineering) ; Professor Arthur Keith, F.R.S. (An-
thropology) ; Professor Noel Paton, F.R.S. (Physiology) ; Sir Daniel
Morris (Botany) ; Sir Napier Shaw, F.R.S. (Educational Science) ;
and Professor W. Somerville (Agriculture). Sir Arthur Evans, F.R.S.
will give a lecture on the evening of September nth on the Palace of
Minos and the prehistoric civilisation of Crete, and the next evening
Mr. Sydney G. Brown, F.R.S., will speak on the Gyroscope and Compass.

1919 July 1

248

Northern News.

The Journal of the Board of Agriculture for May contains notes on
' Silver Leaf in Fruit Trees * ; and ‘ Onion Smut, a Disease new to
Britain,’ by A. D. Cotton.

The Board of Agriculture and Fisheries has issued a number of Guides
to Smallholders at twopence each, post free. The following have already
been received : Pig-keeping ; Farm Crops ; Soils and Manures ; Fruit
Growing on Small Holdings in England and Wales ; Potato Growing
on Small Holdings.

In ‘ Notes on British Odonata, 1918/ appearing in The Entomologist
for May, are the following records of Lancashire and Cheshire Dragonflies,
Enallagma cyathigerum, Rostherne, Cheshire, and Agecroft and Middle-
ton, Lancashire; Aeschna grandis, Ringley, near Manchester, and Prest-
wich; Ischnura elegans, Middleton, near Manchester.

Mr. S. S. Buckman has been successful in completing the second
volume of his Yorkshire Type Ammonites, with Part XVIII. recently
received. This contains a title-page to the volume, appendix, index, as
well as figures and descriptions of Arieiites impendens, Longaeviceras
longaevum, Pseudocadoceras boreale, Gagaticeras funiculatum, Beaniceras
costatum, Fimbrilytoceras fimbriatum .

We learn from the Yorkshire Post of May 10th, that the death is
announced of Mr. Samuel Lister Petty, of Dykelands, Ulverston, who
was a recognised authority on the flora of the Lake District, and on this
and other subjects was an occasional contributor to The Yorkshire Post.
He was a member of the Cumberland and Westmorland Archaeological
and Antiquarian Society, the Viking Society, the Concho logical Society,
and the North Lonsdale Field Club. He had served for about 20 years
as a Guardian and Urban Councillor. He leaves a widow and two
daughters. Mr. Petty was a frequent contributor to the pages of The
Naturalist.

From the following entry in a recent second-hand book catalogue
issued in Birmingham, we should guess that there is a scarce Staffordshire
figure, in colours, for sale : — ‘ Staffordshire Figure. — The Proposal,
Very Scarce. — A very scarce and genuine old Staffordshire Figure, showing
a young gentleman “ proposing ” to the lady of his choice. The lady
seated upon a couch, and the gentleman is kneeling beside her ( in
colours ). [ ! ]. On the lady’s arm is a bird, beautifully coloured, but un-
fortunately the head has been broken off. Stands 11 inches high on an
oblong base, 7^ inches long by 2^ inches. A very scarce old Staffordshire.
Figure in Colours .’

Referring to the remarks made in these columns respecting Mr. J.
Reid Moir’s Mammoth -ammonite, Mr. Moir has written to Man, strongly
protesting against Sir Henry Howorth’s criticism of his paper ! He now
agrees that the specimen is a cast of one of the chambers of an ammonite,
but is preparing a further memoir in order to endeavour to prove
that it has been carved. Mr. Moir has not yet complained to The
Naturalist, though we have every reason to think he has seen our criticisms .
We still contend that it would be much more satisfactory to the scientific
world if Mr. Moir carried out his promise and exhibited the specimen
at a meeting of some learned society.

The Chief Librarian at Worthing, having recently taken charge
of the Museum there, has already produced a well printed and well
illustrated guide to the collection, for the modest sum of two pence.
Worthing is fortunate in being close to the famous British site at Cissbury ,
and in a centre where important Bronze-age, Roman and Saxon relics
occur, many of which are described. The Museum seems to have a col-
lection of well-mounted birds, Sussex antiquities, etc. ‘ Local ’ is
evidently the key note of the Worthing Museum. The objects found in
the district are worthy of a more detailed description, and we would
suggest that someday some more detailed account of the treasures be
published.

2 JUL.1919

Naturalist,

Books by T. SHEPPARD, M.Sc„ F.G.S

Geological Rambles in East Yorkshire.

With over 50 illustrations from Photographs, etc., by Godfrey
Bingley and others, and a Geological Map of the District.
247 pages. Demy 8vo, suitably bound in cloth, 3/9 net.

The Lost Towns of the Yorkshire Coast, and

other Chapters on the Geography of the district.

Profusely illustrated by plans, engravings, etc, 320 pages.
Demy 8vo, with over 100 illustrations, stout cloth, 7/6 net.

The Evolution ot Kingston-upon-Hull— as shown by
its Plans.

204 pages. Demy 8vo, fully illustrated and with copious
Index. Bevelled cloth boards, 3/6 net.

The Making of East Yorkshire— a Chapter in local
Geography.

Demy 8vo, illustrated with full page plates on art paper, and
strongly bound in stout covers. 1/- net,

Yorkshire’s Contribution to Science— based upon the
Presidential Address to the Yorkshire Naturalists’
Union, delivered at the Leeds University, with a
complete Bibliography of Yorkshire scientific literature.

240 pages. Demy 8vo, illustrated, tastefully bound in cloth
boards with gilt top and gilt lettering. §/- net.

Bibliography of Yorkshire Geology, 1534-1914.

This forms Vol. XVIII. of the Proceedings of the Yorkshire
Geological Society. Contains full references to maps, books,
etc., relating to the geology and physical geography of York-
shire. With an elaborate Index of over 26,500 references.
8vo, xxxvi. -f 629 pp. 15/- net.

Correct Arms of Kingston-upon-Hull.

47 pages, with sketches and illustrations, tastefully bound in
cloth. 2/6 net.

London : A. Brown & Sons, Limited, 5 Farringdon Avenue, E.C.4

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Editor - COLONEL SIR RONALD ROSS, K.C.B., F.R.S.

This Quarterly is now in its fourteenth year of publication. Its
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“ Science Progress, which has now reached its thirty-ninth
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makes it a force as well as a source of light.” — The Times,

Map of Watsonian Vice Counties of Yorkshire

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Printed at Browns’ Savilk Press, 40 George Street, Hull, and published by;
A. Brown & Sons, Limited, at 5 Farringdon Avenue, in the City of London.

July 1st, 1919 *

AUG. 1919.

No. 7Si

(No. 525 of ourront oorles.

A MONTHLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF

NATURAL HISTORY FOR THE NORTH

EDITED BY

T. SHEPPARD, M.Sc., F G.S.,

The Museums, Hull ;

AND

T. W. WOODHEAD, Ph.D., M.Sc.

Technical College,

WITH THE ASSISTANCE AS REFEREES IN SPECIAL

J. GILBERT BAKER, P.R.S. F.L.S., GEO. T. PORRITT, F.L.«.,
Prof. P. F. KENDALL, M.Sc., F.G.S., JOHN W. TAYLOR,

RILEY FORTUNE, F.Z.S.

Contents

PAGE

Notes and Comments The Museums Association; The Dinner; The President’s
Address; The War and Art Treasures; A Minister’s Action; Salaries of Curators;
Papers Read; Visits to Museums ; Studies on Acari : Yorkshire Millstone Grit ; Songs
of the Birds ; Nature Poems '

The Jew’s Ear Fungus (Hirneola auricula- judas Fr.). — Walter Johnson, F.G.S .

Ornithological Observations and Reflections in Shetland— Edmund Selous

Common Wild Birds of the Scarborough District— W. Gyngell

The Spiders of Yorkshire— Wm. Falconer

Yorkshire Naturalists at Ryhill— W.E.L.W ,

In Memoriam: William Ernest Sharp— WJ.F. ...

H. A; Paynter (illustrated)— H. B.B.

249-254

255-258

259-262

263-266

267-270

271-273

274- 275

275- 276

Field Notes :— The Greenfinch’s Nest ; Nightingales in Shropshire ; Cucullia verbasci near

Bingley ; Cocoons of the Horse Leech 277-278

Correspondence: — Thomas Martyn’s * Figures of Non Descript Shells’,; Cause of

Melanism in Phigalta pilosaria 279-280

News from the Magazines ... 273

Northern News 262, 266, 270, 276, 280

Illustration ... 276

LONDON :

A. Brown & Sons, Limited, 5, Farringdon Avenue, E.C 4.
And at Hull and York.

Printers and Publishers to the Y.N. U.

Prepaid Subscription 8/6 per annum, post free.

BOOKS WANTED.

Alford Nat. Hist. Soc. Reports. Set.

Barrow Nat. Field Club Trans. Vol. VII.

Bath Field Nat. and Arch. Soc. Vols. VIII. -XI.

Bedfordshire Natural History Society Proceedings. Set.

Birmingham Nat. Hist, and Phil. Soc. Proc.- Vol. I., part 2.

Brighton and Sussex Natural History Society Reports, 1870, 1872-3.

Burnley Lit. and Sci. Soc. Parts 8, 12, 13, 16-27, 29~

Chester Soc. Nat. Science : Ann. Reports, i.-iv.

Cleveland Lit. & Phil. Soc. Trans. Science Section or others.

Croydon Nat. Soc. 6th Report.

Dudley and Midland Geol. etc., Soc. Vols. II. -IV.

Discovery. (Liverpool, 4to). 1891.

Derby Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc. Parts 20, 21.

Devonshire Assoc. Adv. Science. Vols. I., II., III., XXXV., 47-
Dublin Geol. Soc. Vol. I., pt. 1, 1830? ; Vol. VII., parts 1-3 (or cdmplete
Vols.). 1855.

Eastbourne Naturalist (1 part).

Eastbourne Nat. Hist. Soc. Vols. II. -III. (or parts), and part 6 of new series.
Frizinghall Naturalist. (Lithographed). Vol. I., and part 1 of Vol. II.
Garner. No. 60.

Geol. and Nat. Hist. Repository, Mackie’s. Vols. II., III.

Geol. Assoc. Proc. Vol. I., Part 1.

Geological Maps, Early.

Geol. Soc., London, Trans. 4to. 2nd series, Vols. IV. -VII. Pts. 1-3 (1836-52).
Geol. Soc. Quarterly Journal. Parts 5 and 7.

Geological Magazine, 1890-1-2-4.

Huddersfield Arch, and Topog. Society. 1st Report, 1865-1866. (38 pp.).

Illustrated Scientific News. 1902-4. (Set).

Journ. Micrology and Nat. Hist. Mirror. 1914 —

Keighley Naturalists’ Society Journal. 4to. Part 1.

Lancs, and Cheshire Antiq. Soc. Vols. IV.; V., VIII., XXVI.

Lancs, and Cheshire Entom. Soc. Reports 1-9, n, 12, 14. 18

Apply — Editor, The Museum, Hull.

BOOKS FOR SALE.

Great Astronomers. Sir R. S. Ball. 3/-
In Starry Realms. Sir R. S. Ball. 3/-
In the High Heavens. Sir R. S. Ball. 3/-

Rambles of a Canadian -Naturalist. Coloured Illust/ S. T. Wood. 3/6
How to Lay out Suburban Home Grounds. Kellaway. (Pubd. at 8/6; . 3/6
What is Instinct ? C. Bingham Newland. 2/6
Vigour and Heredity. J. Lewis Bonhote. 6/6

The Practical Principles of Plain Micrography. George West. 3/-
Andrew Marvell. G. A. Aitken. 2/6

The Stars and tlow to Identify them. E. W. Jaunder. 1/-

White’s Natural History of Selborne. Coloured Illustrations by Collins, 6/-

Hitciicock Religion of Geology. 2/-.

British Organic Remains (Geol Survey). Decades I., II., VII., 1/6 each.

Hunting in British East Africa. Madeira. 10/-

The Yorkshireman. By a Friend. Vol. I., Pontefract, 1833. 3/6

Derby : Its Rise and Progress. Davison. 2/6

Animal Romances. Renshaw. 4/-

Xatural History of Animals, 8 vols. 4/6 per vol.

The Scientific Enquirer. Cloth. Vols. I. and III. 2/- each.

The Making of Species. Dewar and Finn. 4/- .

The Greatest Life. Leighton. 3/-

Published Records of Land and Fresh -Water Mollusca, East Riding
(Maps). T. Petch, B.Sc., B.A. 1/6

Di atomace/e of Hull District. (600 illustrations). By F. W. Mills, F.R.M.S.,
and R. H. Philip. 4/6

Apply.— Dept C, C/0 A. BROWN & SONS, Ltd., Hull.

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

249

THE MUSEUMS ASSOCIATION.

The Annual Conference of the Museums Association was
held at Oxford on July 8th, 9th and 10th, under the genial
presidency of Sir Henry H. Howorth, K.C.I.E., M.P., etc.,
who described himself as a f boy of 76/ and certainly his
energy, versatility and boyish enthusiasm were envied by the
hundred persons interested in museum matters who were
present. Oxford, with its glorious colleges, churches, libraries
and museums, including the oldest museum in England — the
Ashmolean — was a delightful setting for a successful meeting,
and the total absence of anything in the form of local social
functions or entertainments (even the theatres being closed !),
resulted in the members finding their three days’ constant
attendance at the papers and discussions and visits to museums
and libraries rather tiring. Notwithstanding this, the ‘ feast
of reason and flow of soul ’ which a conference provides,
found small parties sitting up till very late (or early)
hours — albeit the same gentlemen were usually the first down
to breakfast.

THE DINNER.

The thirtieth annual dinner of the Association was held at the
headquarters, the Randolph Hotel, and there were over seventy
present. Museum Curators are proverbially ‘ damned bad
singers,’ as they were told by a Bradford Alderman some years
ago, and on this occasion ‘ God Save the King,’ by no means
an original melody, and the annual ‘ War Song of the Savages ’
— this year altered to ‘ Peace Song,’ providing merriment
in its ‘ hits’ at well-known members of the Association, although
the only songster available was suffering from a bad cold — was
accompanied by a pianist from Cardiff on a piano which had
seen better days. But all joined in the chorus ! Among the
speakers, all entertaining and some amusing, were Sir Henry
Howorth, Sir Herbert Warren, Sir Arthur Evans, Sir Martin
Conway (the President-elect) ; Miss M. Frost, Miss Blackman,
Professor Sollas, Professor Poulton, Professor Myers, Dr.
Bather, Dr. Hoyle, Mr. Balfour, Mr. Grant Murray and Mr.
Sheppard. It had apparently been arranged that as far as
possible each speaker should refer to the subject upon which
he was least familiar — in this way it fell to the last-named
to propose the toast of the ladies ! On the previous evening
the members of the f O.B.L.’,* a mysterious body of past-
presidents and others, bearing a somewhat similar relationship
to the Museums Association, that the * Red Lion Club ’ does to
the British Association, dined. For three hours these B'.L.’s
revelled in the rights of the Order — the President, Sir Henry H.
Howorth, proving himself to be a capable and delightful

* Order of the Blameless Life !

1919 Aug. 1

R

250

Notes and Comments.

addition to the Order, and greatly pleased the members by
wearing the badge conferred upon him at the secret initiation
ceremony, for the rest of the meeting.

THE PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS.

As was expected, Sir Henry Howorth covered much ground
in his presidential address, and spoke well, for over an hour, on
matters important to museum curators and committees. He
pointed out that they had seen for the last five years what was
a terribly depressing spectacle in what a highly-taught and
trained race of men had been capable of perpetrating after so
many centuries of idealistic teaching and aspiration. A
ruthless destruction of some of the worlds’ greatest treasures,
such as monuments of human art and records of human know-
ledge, which had left gaps that could not be filled, was terrible
enough, but it seemed to him that far more terrible were the
pitiless cruelties to unoffending men, women and children, and
the use of weapons, which some of them hoped had passed
into oblivion, and meant only to inflict physical pain and terror,
and the trampling underfoot of the ethical teaching and stand-
ards which a hundred generations of noble men had accumulated.
Not only so, but the nightmare that pursued their thoughts was
that the work had been done wilfully, with premeditation,
not by uneducated savages, like Huns and Mongols, Vandals
and Goths, but by a whole race of more than a hundred million
people, in many ways the best-trained and most widely taught
in the world, led by their professors and pastors, and endowed
with special scientific aptitude and skill in discovering and
applying the latest machinery in the art of teaching, and in the
method of research.

THE WAR AND ART TREASURES.

The whole German race had been enthusiastically united,
so far as they knew, in applauding its soldiers when they
desolated the glorious scenery and monuments of Belgium,
Europe's lovely garden, and laid low such matchless monuments
of art, religion and history as the Town Hall of Ypres, the
Cathedral of Rheims, the venerable streets of Louvain, and
notably its rich library, together with hundreds of matchless
villages and churches. Some of them might think this
irrelevant, but he would remind them that they were all
teachers of men. Put the problem as they would, analyse it
as they would, the result came out that neither mental gifts,
nor trained intellects, nor indomitable industry and self-
confidence and unbounded physical courage could save men
from becoming animals and savages if they were so fashioned
and trained, while all their knowledge would only enable
them to invent and use more cruel and more efficient weapons
for the destruction of every high aspiration.

Naturalist,

Notes and Comments.

251

a minister’s action.

He asked what had been the effect of the great war upon
the institutions of which they were largely the guardians and
custodians. A movement, fanned by the Philistine elements
among them, clamoured for the closing of all museums and
similar institutions. Fortunately, and largely by the efforts
of themselves, this clamour was resisted in nearly all cases
in the provinces and rural districts, and it was made possible
to keep open the libraries, museums and picture galleries as
before. Unfortunately this was not the case in the metropolis,
and the whole machinery of research, in so far as it was pre-
formed in museums, was paralysed and wasted for five whole
years. But this was not all, for it was coincident with the
crowding of the 'metropolis with hundreds of thousands of
soldiers from our colonies and dependencies, the very cream
of the manhood of our race beyond the seas in all walks of
life. It was deplorable to see thousands of these men thronging
to the closed gates of the British and other London museums
and sent away in crowds or admitted only to a very small
portion of the collections, and these to be the least informing
and least interesting. It was quite a consistent finale to the
whole thing when the Minister chiefly responsible for it all
announced in the House of Commons that he proposed, when
things returned to their old status, to re-open first the taverns
and public-houses which had been appropriated, and then to
do the same with the galleries of science and art.

SALARIES OF CURATORS.

In conclusion, he said that in part a museum might be
defined as an institution for the teaching of knowledge, and it
was really astonishing that, this being the function of a museum
curator, what a number of gifted men had been enrolled under
this banner when they measured their duties with their quite
inadequate remuneration, especially when they remembered
that the cost of living had been doubled during the last five
years, and that, in the meanwhile the wages of the artisan
class had been pushed up by leaps and bounds. It was, he
understood, the intention of the Government to introduce
legislation to meet the case of those employed in the great
museums, and this action ought to spur local authorities to
do the same in many of the smaller towns which had museums
and libraries.

PAPERS READ.

Among the papers prepared and discussed — usually at some
length — were ' The Pitt-Rivers Museum,’ by Mr. H. Balfour ;

‘ The Oldest Museum in England,’ by Mr. E. T. Leeds ;

‘ Timber Collections for Museums,’ by Mr. H. Stone ; ' An

1919 Aug. 1

252

Notes and Comments.

Exhibit for Children/ by Mr. F. R. Rowley ; ‘A Revolving
Frame for exhibiting Coins/ by Mr. E. E. Lowe ; * Preparing
and Mounting Museum Specimens/ by Mr. L. P. W. Renouf ;
f Open-Air and Folk Museums/ by Mr. G. R. Carline ; ‘ The
Hope Department of the University Museum/ by Professor
Poulton ; ‘ The Geological Collections at the University

Museum/ by Professor Sollas ; ‘ War Memorial Exhibitions/
by Mr. F. Leney ; * The Need for an Imperial Department of
Illustrated Public Information/ by Mr. J. A. C. Deas ; ‘ Care
and Cleaning of Oil Paintings/ by Mr. E. Howarth ; ‘ A Bureau
of Exchange/ by Mr. J. H. Allchin ; ‘ Suggestions for a Peace
Museum/ by Professor J. L. Myers ; and the question of
transferring the control of Museums to the Education Authority,
by Mr. E. E. Lowe. The suggested discussion on ‘ The
Desirability of a Diploma for Museum Curators and the
necessary course of Training/ which was to have been opened
by Dr. Hoyle, Dr. Bather and Mr. I. J. Williams, had to be
deferred on account of time.

VISITS TO MUSEUMS.

Much useful information was gathered by the members
as a result of the visits to the various museums, under the
guidance of the experts, while the famous Bodleian Library,
the Cathedral, the Colleges, etc., were also examined ; the
Cathedral being in many ways a veritable museum of art and
antiquities. With Professors Bourne, Poulton, Sollas, Bow-
man and Messrs. Leeds and Balfour as guides, it will be under-
stood that the glorious museum treasures of Oxford were
examined under the most favourable circumstances.

STUDIES ON ACARI .

The British Museum (Natural History) has issued a pub-
lication of particular interest and value at the present time,
namely : — Studies on Acari. No. i. The Genus Demodex,
Owen, (with thirteen plates and four text -figures ) . By
Stanley Hirst, at the price of ten shillings. From Dr. S. F.
Harmer’s Preface, we learn that although certain species give
rise to troublesome affections of the skin, others are not
definitely known to be harmful. D. folliculorum, a parasite
which is so common that it has been stated to occur in
‘ practically every human being/ is regarded as harmless by
the majority of the authorities who have studied it, although
it has been accused by other students of the group of being
instrumental of carrying certain grave diseases. Since these
animals live embedded in the skin of their host, their de-
tection is not easy without practice ; but the success of the
author in finding them in Mammals in which they had not
bem previously reported, or had been supposed to be rare,
makes it appear probable that many species remain to be

Naturalist,

Notes and Comments.

253

discovered. The plates accompanying this report are ex-
ceptionally clear and will prove of service to students in
this not altogether pleasant branch of Natural History.

YORKSHIRE MILLSTONE GRIT.

At a recent meeting of the Geological Society of London,
Dr. A. Gilligan gave a remarkably full and detailed account
of the Petrography of the Millstone Grit of Yorkshire, an
excellent summary of which appears in the Abstracts of the
Proceedings of the Geological Society of London, No. 1040.
He shows that the most probable source of the material
lay in a land-mass of continental extent, of which Scandinavia
and the North of Scotland represent the remaining fragments.
In these areas alone can the mineralogical demands of the
Millstone Grit be satisfied, and the author institutes a com-
parison between the Torridon Sandstone and the Millstone
Grit, which shows that their similarity of constitution is
altogether too great to be merely fortuitous. He infers that,
despite their disparity in age, they had a common source
in that northern continent. That continent had probably
been base-levelled in pre-Millstone Grit times, and the advent
of this period was brought about by renewed uplift rejuvenating
the rivers, which removed the old rotted soil-mantle and
exposed fresh unleached rock. The extension of the land-
mass across the North Atlantic would produce a monsoon type
of climate, and the rock-debris broken up under semi-arid
conditions, as seems clear from the extreme freshness of the
felspars in the grits, would be swept along rapidly by floods
to the deltas of the large rivers. The author concludes by
postulating one such large trunk river flowing southwards
from the northern continent, and receiving tributaries from
what are now Northern Scotland and Scandinavia, debouching
somewhere off the north-east coast of England, the deltaic
material of which (now consolidated) forms the Millstone
Grit.

SONGS OF THE BIRDS.

We have had many communications in reference to Prof.
Garstang’s ' Songs of the Birds/ and one suggestion which
has been made may prove of service to some of our Museums.
It is that a series of small cases containing commoner British
songsters be set apart for the benefit of the younger visitors,
and that a copy of the poem taken from The Naturalist relating
to each particular species, be placed near the case of the bird
described, so that the child may form some idea of the nature
of its note.

NATURE POEMS.

The other day we observed that Mr. W. Percival Westell
had written a volume of Nature Poems, and as The Naturalist

1919 Aug. 1

254

Notes and Comments.

is interested in Nature Poems, we expected a copy would be
sent for review. This did not happen, and we consequently
wrote for a copy, but received no encouragement. Being
somewhat poetically inclined, we purchased a copy, which
cost 2/6. We do not propose' to review it, but we can say
that the book is for sale if any of our readers care to buy it,
and as some possible inducement we just quote four verses
selected from different poems : —

A Poplar Hawk went flying by
■ With clean-cut wings astir,

A Sparrow watched its airy course
And made a dart at her ;

It missed its aim, and in disgust
Returned to think it out,

To fret and fume at such a loss
And turn and twist about.

Weather-worn headland,
Rugged and torn
Silvered with lichen,
Tossed by the storm ;
Guarded by wild flowers,
Red, white and blue,
Nature's own emblems
Of all that is true.

, I love the Sun at all times,
I feel its warm embrace,

I love its magic life-flow,
And hail its smiling face !

It’s a faithful flower
That I, love to see,

When the sunset's evening glow
Makes the heart beat true,

With a song anew,

In the soul of a friend I know.

We remember hearing a story some time ago of two young
ladies who were examined in singing. On comparing notes
afterwards, one of the damsels asked the other if the examiner
were religious, as all the time she was singing the examiner
had walked up and down the room exclaiming : ‘ Oh ! my God,
Oh ! my God ! ’ Somehow, we were reminded of this story
on reading these ‘Nature Poems.’

Naturalist.

THE JEW’S EAR FUNGUS

( Hirneola au ricu la-judce , Fr.).

255

WALTER JOHNSON, F.G.S.

[Continued from page 2 go).

Looking day by day at two separate series of Jew's ears,
growing respectively on the elm and the elder, I became aware
of slight differences. The elm-nourished specimens had, on
the whole, a smoother hy menial surface, the veins were less
prominent, and the substance appeared to become thinner,
by comparison, as old age approached. The specimens on
the elder were a little more pruinose and opalescent. These
divergences may not indicate more, for instance, — taking
two phanerogams by way of illustration — than do the variations
of the common rest-harrow ( Ononis arvensis) in its spiny
and its spineless condition, or of herb Robert ( Geranium
robertianum) when growing respectively in the hedgerow and
on the sandy shore.

On consulting Berkeley, I found that the smoothness of
the elm Jew's ear had been noticed by this writer. With
reference to his illustration representing the Jew’s ear, he
says, ‘ Our figure is from specimens on elms, which have the
surface of the hymenium freer from folds. I do not, however,
consider it a distinct species.'*

IV. — Relation to Host Tree. A subsidiary question
concerns the physical condition of the host tree, and the
portion most favoured by the fungus. The older semi-scientific
writers are scarcely to be relied upon as to habitat. Sir Thomas
Browne (1646), who calls the Jew's ear Fungus sambucinus ,
speaks of it as ‘ an excrescence about the roots of elder, 'f
and William Coles (1656), who uses the same Latin nomen-
clature, says that it is ‘a kind of Sponge of a dusky-brown
colour, growing at the roots of Trees, but especially of the
Elder.’ J These old authors may at once be dismissed, unless
by ‘ roots ’ they mean ‘ stumps,’ in which case the statements
are partly true.

Fries, as we have seen, assigns the Jew’s ear to trunks
of elder. Worthington G. Smith says, ‘ Local on old trunks,
especially elder and elm.’§ George Massee says, * on old
elder trunks,’ || and M. C. Cooke, ‘ not uncommonly found
on old elder stumps, and sometimes on elms.’**

* M. J. Berkeley, ‘Outlines of Brit. Fungology,’ i860, p. 289.
f Pseudodoxia Epidemiea [Works/ ed. S. Wilkin, 1884, I., p. 214]

X ‘ The Art of Simpling,’ 1656, pp. 39-40.

§ ‘ Guide to Sowerby’s Models of Brit. Fungi,’ (Brit. Mus.), 1893, p. 62.
|| ‘ Brit. Fungi,’ [1911], p. 446.

** ‘ Brit. Fungi,’ 5th edition, 1884, p. 91

1919 Aug. 1

256 Johnson : The Jew's Ear Fungus.

Next, as to the condition of the tree which is attacked,
we have Berkeley’s dictum, * * * § living trees, especially elder,’*
against which we may put Kerner and Oliver’s observation,
'not infrequent on dead branches of elder. ’f Finally, to
complete the circle, Prantl speaks of this fungus as one of
those 'not rare on rotten wood.’J Collating these various
statements and comparing them with one’s own observations,
one would say that Hirneola grows on stumps, trunks, and
branches, but chiefly on the two last-named, that the elder
(or elm) is nearly always a living specimen, but that decay
is usually to be discovered in some portion of the tree. The
tree need not necessarily be very old, though aged elders
support the finest Jew’s ears. The fungus thrives both on the
bark and on the bare wood from which the bark has fallen.
In these cases, some kind of disease has probably commenced,
and Hirneola hastens its course. Viewing all the facts, it
seems preferable to call the Jew’s ear a parasite, or A wound-
parasite, like Fistulina, rather than a saprophyte, but usage
is here very tolerant.

Concerning distribution, the adjective ' common ’ is fairly
applicable, if the word ‘ local ’ be added. The range seems to
embrace most parts of England and Wales — I cannot speak
for other British areas. The South of England, and more
particularly the Southern coast, presents the greatest profusion,
both as regards the number and the size of specimens. Ber-
keley, by the way, declares that the Jew’s ear is ' a perfect
cosmopolite,’ § but he must have been thinking of the genus,
not the species. Nevertheless his statement is made with
definite reference to our own species of Hirneola. No other
European species appears to be known, though there are thirteen
other species scattered in various parts of the world. ||

V. — Arrangement and Size. The fungus is found both
in isolated positions on the host tree, and also in groups or
clusters, but the scattered members commonly represent
the pioneers of a new colony. The clusters are arranged shelf-
wise, with imbrication of the individual ‘ ears.’ The younger
fungi lie closely pressed on the tree, but the older ones develop
a pendulous, overhanging lip. There is also a tendency,
proved by a balance of observations, to seek the underside
of the branch, or at least the northern side. It has been noted
that, when the Jew’s ear grows on a perpendicular stump,

* In Sir J. E. Smith’s ‘ Eng. -Flora,' 1836, V. pt. 2, pp. 217-8.

t ‘ Nat. Hist, of Plants,’ 1902, II., p. 687.

X K. Prantl, ‘ Elem. Text-Book of Botany,’ ed. S. H. Vines, 1892,
p. 141.

§ ‘ Cryptogamic Botany,' 1857, p. 355.

|| E. Fries, ‘ Hymenomycetes Europaei,' 1834, p. 695.

Naturalist,

Johnson : The Jew’s Ear Fungus .

257

it ‘turns upward/* and Mrs. Hussey considered that this
point alone separated the species from Exidia glandulosa,\
that strange fungus popularly called ‘ witches’ butter/

In the case of the mushroom type of Hymenomycetes,
the umbrella-like cap is believed to furnish a protection of
the spore-bearing surface against dust and rain, as well as
from snails and slugs. | The flap, or cowl, of HirneoJa would
be a far less adequate safeguard against these foes. Dust
and grit lodge within the folds of the hood. Woodlice, at all
stages of their metamorphoses, hide in the dark spaces between
the fungus and the tree. The larvae of small beetles, with an
occasional caterpillar or earwig, explore each recess, and do
not seem to enjoy expulsion. Whether these creatures aid
greatly in the dispersion of the conidia — they must do so to a
limited extent — I do not know. But even if wind be alone
sufficient for the purpose they may supplement its work.
Access to the spore-bearing surface then, is easy both for living
and inorganic agents ; the hood is not a serious hindrance.
Again, rain may shoot off the hood, and this is a service to
the Jew’s ear. Since, however, dampness, along with warmth,
is essential to the germination of the conidia, protection
might possibfy be too complete. The speculation here arises
whether the overfold is not in some manner associated with
avoidance of direct sunlight. Incidentally, it may be added
that, after keeping Hirneola in a damp dish for a week or two,
the glass covers, frequently become clouded with numbers of
a species of nematode worm, resembling the familiar ‘ vinegar
eels’ ( Anguillula aceii). These thread-like worms may
perhaps emerge from the decaying wood.

Fully grown specimens of the Jew’s ear are, by the text
books, accorded a diameter of from one to three inches. In
the Landslip, near Lyme Regis, I have often seen examples
reaching a diameter of three and a half inches, while on an
aged elder which grew on Nine Barrow Down, near Swanage,
I noted individual ‘ ears ’ of four and five inches. The largest
specimen shown in the photograph, and gathered in Richmond
Park, measures four inches in long diameter. Extraordinarily
fine specimens may be found in Devon and Cornwall, more
particularly on the coast, for some reason not easy to suggest.

A writer on popular botany gives a whimsical account of
the size of Jew’s ears found in Wiltshire : ‘ The plants reminded
us of large ears ; as long, and thrice as broad, as those of a full-
sized lop-eared tame rabbit.’ § The comparison reminds

* J. Stevenson, op. cit., II., p. 315

t T. J. Hussey, ‘ Illus. of Brit. Mycology,’ 1847, facing PI. liii.

I Massee, ‘Brit. Fungi,' p. 10.

§ Margaret Plues, ‘ Rambles in search of Flowerless Plants,’ 1868,
p. 270.

1919 Aug. 1

258 Johnson : The Jew’s Ear Fungus.

one of the Yorkshireman’s phrase, f as big as a lump of
chalk/

VI. — Scientific Name. The earliest record of a definite
Latin name for the Jew's ear -seems to belong to the year
1:597, when Gerard alludes to it as ‘ a certaine excrescence
called Auricula Judas, or Iewes Eare, .... somewhat like
now and then to a man’s eare.’ * * * § In Thomas Johnson’s
edition of Gerard, published in 1633, the same name is given,
with the fanciful description little altered, f Writing not
many years after this date (1646), Sir Thomas Browne, as we
have already seen, speaks of Fungus sambucinus. Coles, in
1656, copies Gerard’s nomenclature. J

Coming to Linnaeus, we find that he recognized two names,
P eziz a auricula fudae § and Tremella auricula judae, || and it
would seem, assuming he is always cited correctly, that there
were variations of these. The several groups, of. corpse, had
not been carefully differentiated at that period.

Fries, in 1823, adopted the name Exidia Auricula Judae,
dividing his Exidia group into six tribes, one of which was
composed of the Auriculae. If In 1834, Fries gave the emend-
ation Hirneola auricula judae,** * * §§ and by this name the fungus
is now commonly known. There have been trifling vicissitudes
with respect to capital letters and the hyphen, but these are
unimportant. In strictness, Auricula, as an old name, should,
I believe, have a capital. Berkeley, in 1836ft and 18574 +
and Mrs. Hussey, in- 1847, §§ were still using the earlier of the
names employed by Fries, and it was not until i860 that we
find Berkeley adopting the emended form.|||| To this form,
most of the succeeding writers, such as Cooke, Massee, Hay,
Worthington Smith, Stevenson, Britten and Holland, have
yielded assent, but there have been exceptions. The British
'Mycological Society, I understand, has adopted Auricularia
Auricula- Judae, but perhaps with questionable advantage.

( To be continued ).

* J. Gerard, ‘ Herball,’ 1597, II., p. 1233 (Bk. iii., c. 71).

f p. 1421-2.

X Coles, op. cit., pp. 39-40.

§ ‘ Species Plantarum,’ 1763, II., p. 1651.

II Op. cit., II., p. 1625.

• ‘ Systema Mycologicum,' II., pp. 221-2.

** ‘ Hymen. Europ.’, p. 695.

tt In Smith's ‘ Eng. Flora,’ loc. cit.

♦ ♦ ‘ Cryptog. Botany,’ p. 355.

§§ 4 Ulus, of Brit. JVIycol,’ loc. cit.

(HI 4 Outlines of Brit. Fungology,’ p. 289.

Naturalist*

ORNITHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS AND
REFLECTIONS IN SHETLAND.

259

EDMUND SELOUS.

(1 Continued from page 168).

Darwin, I think, somewhere remarks that any special
kind of voluntary association between one species and another
must be for the mutual advantage of both. This is no doubt
true, if we look to origins only, and if, in the definition of
' advantage,' we include a mere feeling of satisfaction, without
further benefit ; for it seems to me quite possible that this
may sometimes alone have led to the tie, though we may not
be able to analyse the sensation — the imponderabilia are
not quite confined to Homo sapiens. Once formed, however,
any kind of commensalism, or, at least, the appearance of
it, might conceivably continue, through inheritance, long
after the mutual advantage on which it was founded had ceased
1 to exist. Thus, should the Rhinoceros, before it is extermin-
ated, cease, for some reason, to harbour parasites, it is, I
think, by no means, unlikely that the Rhinoceros-bird would
continue to attend it ; and it is even possible that the still
more intimate relations which exist between the crocodile and
Crocodile-bird of the Nile, would not, in such a case, be immedi-
ately broken. So, too, the habit which Starlings have of
associating themselves with cattle and sheep may have com-
menced— or rather it certainly did commence at a time when
it was more profitable to do so (and this on both sides) owing
to these animals being then less attended to by their masters—
pre-dip days we may call them — and be continued now through
tradition, each generation of Starlings passing on the habit,
though now without relevancy, to the next. A habit, in fact,
once formed, becomes a pleasure, which is not only profit
enough, but there is little profit without it. In so far as
the Starlings are concerned, these remarks would more specially
apply to the Shetlands, where the winds and poverty of vegeta-
tion, more than the climate, probably, are less favourable to
insect life than on the mainland.

October 22ND..— Just before it got too dark to use the
glasses, I saw something, for the first time, of the f Dos ’
(anglice Rock- Pigeons — Columbia livia*) in their ‘ hellirs ’ or
caves.

A huge buttress in the line of the cliffs had been eaten
subaerially, or perhaps blasted, through the explosive agency

* So known to Darwin. I cannot understand any naturalist, after
him, wishing to change the name, but another one seems in use now.

1919 Aug. 1

260 Ornithological Observations and Reflections in Shetland.

of the sea, as may be seen on a smaller scale in Portland,*
out of the hillside, making a precipice, with its face from the
sea, which, by reason of a similar projection almost fronting
it, at a much lower level, ended in a deep, gloomy pit. In
the seaward side of this was the cavern, into which the sea
entered through two small tunnels in the overhanging rock,
above the inland outlet of which the birds have their dormitories.
Looking down from above, these appeared to be situated on
ledges, and fairly roomy ones, but resolved themselves, on my
getting close beneath them, into mere scoops or scrapes, as one
may call them, in the rocky wall, and so little removed from its
own inclination that it seemed wonderful any bird should be
able to keep its place, much less sleep, in them — so, at least, it
looked. I counted about a dozen of these clefts, in each of
which sat a single bird only, a fact which goes to confirm
my impression of their small size, for surely, otherwise, so
conjugal a species would have preferred to roost conjugally.
Still it may be said that this is evidence to the contrary, and
that, were such their choice, the birds would select other
roosting places, in conformity with it. Possibly, however,
such ideal caverns are limited in number, and the best must
be made of such as are available. It would be interesting
therefore to compare the habits, in this respect, of these wild
Blue-rocks, with those of their domestic descendants. On
the piled rocks and boulders immediately under these roosting
places, and forming the bottom and narrowest part of the pit,
were masses of the birds’ droppings, which, in places, had
assumed the form of a sugar-loaf. One of these rose six and a
half inches from the rock on which it stood, was two feet eight
inches in circumference at its base, and some two inches broad at
its apex. Another was an inch higher, but rose from a narrower
base. I cannot, myself, estimate the length of time during
which these birds must have roosted, for these heaps to have
accumulated. Not very great, perhaps, but, during such time
as it took, their sanctum had, in all probability, remained un-
visited, for few — and certainly no boy — would have left, as I
did, such monuments standing. There was no trace or sign of
any of the clefts having held nests, nor did this seem possible.

* This explanation was given me by a shepherd there. The ground,
here more level, was, he said, speaking as of something well known locally,
blown away, in the manner and with the sound of an explosion. He
imagined it to have been owing to the uprush of compressed air. enclosed
by the sea at the end of the narrow, tongue-like tunnel which it had
excavated beneath, as could be seen through the rent thus made, in
trying to jump which, two soldiers, I was afterwards told, had been
drowned. Whether this would hold I do not know, but it seemed to me
a creditable surmise — if indeed it was original — for a man of my in-
formant’s calling.

Naturalist,

Ornithological Observations and Reflections in Shetland. 261

That they could hold the birds themselves, or the birds hold
on to them, was, I thought, sufficiently wonderful. However,
what seemed so where I was, might, perhaps, on close inspection
have proved simple enough.

Hooded Crows, this morning, picking about, on the rocks.
One lifts his head from this employment, with some small,
hard thing in his bill — evidently a shell-fish, probably one of
the small limpets, with smaller clinging things upon them,
as most of them have. He holds it nicely and fingeringly, as
one might say, between just the two tips of the mandibles,
but the next moment he has turned away from me, so that
I do not see him swallow it. Afterwards, having again bent
his head and raised it, he turns round and presents the tip of
his bill to his partner, who leans forward from another rock,
and touches it with hers. This was what it looked like. That
there was something held by the tip of the bill, and that this
was the real object presented, may I think be assumed, but
I did not actually see it, so cannot vouch for the delivery,
against the possible alternative explanation of such an action
being no more than a billing. This, then, is to be set against
anything suggestive of conjugal egotism in this species, as
recorded by me.

A Whimbrel is standing in the sea amidst floating brown
seaweed, some way up his shanks, seeking for what he can
get. Others are on the wet tidal sands at the head of the
voe, and one of these is a good deal disconcerted by a ‘ Hoodie ’
who, leaving his fellows, advances upon him, hopping in the
most absurd manner, the Whimbrel retreating with little
picked steps, and a sort of shocked, drawing-room manner.
The contrast between the two birds and the two gaits was
most ludicrous, the Crow like a vulgar blackleg, or lower-
class man-about-town, the Whimbrel an affected fine lady,
of elegant carriage, and with pretensions to nerves and sensi-
bilities. Of the two I preferred the Crow.

Whilst watching the Crows, I heard from the voe that
sudden, unaccustomed cry — short, loud and pain-fraught —
which a Herring Gull utters, as I think now, only under the
stress of pain. Looking up, I saw a full-sized one, but in
juvenile plumage, just rising from the water, with two Shags
unusually close to him. Something peculiar in the appearance
of the latter was, at once, noticeable. They were excited,
evidently — pleasantly excited I thought — as though something
eventful had just happened. They seemed rejoicing together,
and, on the impetus of this mutual emotion, they, both at
once, rose and flew away over the voe. Beyond a doubt,
when I first heard the Gull’s cry, one or both of them had
attacked him under the water, in the way I have before
noticed.

1919 Aug. 1

262 Ornithological Observations and Reflections in Shetland.

I get, too, now, a hint of some hostility on the part
of Herring Gulls towards Eider Ducks, though, for a standard
work (but that's no standard) it might hardly pass as conclusive.
I have, however, little doubt, myself, as I saw one of the former
in the brown stage of plumage, fly right at one of the latter —
a male — who dived, to avoid him, from some little distance,
and I had all but seen— caught glimpses, that is, out of the
corner of my eye — of some previous incidents of the same
sort. The brown Herring Gull was almost on the Eider
Duck's back, and covered the same water, as he went down,
so that I can see no other explanation. The particular bird
thus singled out was one of a small band that had been swimming
and diving in the neighbourhood of some rocks, as the tide
was going out, and the Herring Gull in question also belonged
to a party there or adjacently established. Both the two
species feed largely on Crustaceans and Molluscs, and, after
his own very imperfect manner (which I have described*), the
Herring Gull dives for them equally with the Eider Duck.
Having the same habits, in this respect, therefore, and
haunting the same spots along the coastline, they would
naturally come into competition. This, then, in all probability,
is the explanation of the above incident, but it is not equally
clear why the Shag should nourish hostility against the Herring
Gull — as it certainly does— for the latter can hardly be said
to trespass on its preserves, which are under water, over the
seas at large. Moreover, there are fish enough for all and
to spare, even with man thrown in. There is perhaps a greater
amount of causeless aggression in Nature — by which I
mean not due to the struggle for existence — than is generally
recognised.

(To be continued ).

: o :

At the. last annual meeting of the Darlington and Teesdale Naturalists'
Field Club, it was reported that the evening meetings had been very-
successful and well attended, and had been held weekly throughout the
year. The excursions, however, due to the prevailing conditions, had
not been so satisfactory. The membership had increased from 81 to 90,
and the Society had a balance in hand of ^23, notwithstanding the fact
that £15 14s. had been spent on cabinets and books during the year. The
following resolutions were unanimously passed : — ‘ This club expresses
its hearty approval of the proposal to establish a public Museum in Dar-
lington, and is prepared to offer its support and assistance in every way,’
also : ‘ That “ Arbor Day,” October 21st, of each year, be observed by
the Club and that one or more trees be planted and a record kept of all
necessary data for the observation of its characteristics and suitability
to the soil of the district.’ The President is Mr. J. W. Burchby, the
Treasurer, Mr. W. K. Wooler, and the Hon. Secretary, Mr. J. E. Nowers,
of 6 East Mount Crescent, Darlington.

* See ante. p. 385.

Naturalist

263

COMMON WILD BIRDS OF THE SCARBOROUGH

DISTRICT.

W. GYNGELL.

{Continued from page 176).

The Short-eared Owl (Asia accipitrinus Pallas). This winter visitor
is only common on occasion, and is better known to sportsmen who flush
it whilst shooting over turnips and stubbles. Sometimes two or three
may be seen flying over the moorlands, the carrs or along the cliffs in
broad daylight, but its numbers vary much from year to year. The
earliest record of its appearance is September 18th.

*The Tawny Owl ( Syrnium aluco L.). This bird is the largest, noisiest
and commonest of our local owls. It inhabits almost every old wood
in the district and may be found high up the moorland ravines where
only a few stunted birches and rowans are found. Its loud and distinctly
musical hoot may be heard almost any night within the borough, and it
often hoots in the daytime. I heard it at 2 p.m. yesterday. In the quiet
of the open country its voice is clearly audible at a distance of two miles.
During the day it roosts chiefly in large holes in trees or clefts in cliffs
and quarries, and in such places it nests at about the same time of the
year as the long-eared species. Eggs of both having been found by March
nth. In addition to such favourite eyries, rabbit burrows are regularly
selected and eggs are often laid and broods reared in old nests of the carrion
crow. Once whilst hunting for crow’s nests I flushed a large bird from a
large nest in a tall tree top. Having climbed to within two yards of
the nest I distinctly heard the chirping of young birds that I presumed
were crows. Arrived immediately below the nest I put my hand over the
side and felt something soft within the cradle of sticks. Another pull
upwards and I could see within. No young birds at all but two white
eggs, obviously not crow's eggs which are green and spotted ; and lying
beside them two dead field voles, the something soft that I had felt,
The chirping was still to be heard, but it came from within the eggs then
just splitting open. It was the menage of a tawny owl. So much for
circumstantial evidence ! The young tawny owl is more easily reared
from the nest than are the other common species. He thrives on any
sort of animal food, but best on that which is furred or feathered ; and
he will soon accommodate himself to snails, worms, fish or insects, and
become very tame. This would be an outrageously long chapter did I
say all I would about this, one of my most favourite .birds. The tawny
owl sits very closely, and I have more than once caught it in its nest,
but it is a powerful bird with claws sharp as needles and needs careful
handling. The globose eggs weigh about i|- oz., each. The food that
I have found in the owl’s larder has usually been voles, but half-grown
rats and rabbits and on one occasion two young thrushes have also been
found.

The Sparrow-Hawk ( Accipiter nisus L.). It is difficult to say if this
hawk or the Kestrel is the more common. If we judged by the numbers
seen, the latter would seem to be ten times as numerous as the former,
for the Kestrel seems as though it might have an object in calling our
attention to its presence, as it hangs like a kite suspended in air, curves
round for a short distance and then hangs up again, perhaps within fifty
yards of us. Should there be a Kestrel anywhere within a mile, one is
certain to see it very soon. Very different is the behaviour of the dashing
sparrow-hawk, that may come upon us from round the corner, catch up
its prey from under our nose and be off like lightning before we can say
‘ What was that.’ At another time we may surprise it, a lark or a finch
will be dropped at our feet and again we know that it was a sparrow-hawk.

1919 Aug. l

264 Common Wild Birds of the Scarborough District.

I have seen it leave its nest and fly off with such rapidity that the impression
gained was that of a swift rather than a hawk. At other times it may be
seen skimming along more leisurely. If I might judge by the sparrow-
hawks’ nests that I have found, this bird is more common than the Kestrel.
My experience, of the sparrow hawk is that it builds its own nest, and that
this nest is usually, even when seen from the ground below, quite un-
mistakable for anything else. Often it is conspicuously placed in the
crown of an oak tree of only moderate height, is a larger structure than
that of all common woodland birds, the Carrion Crow excepted, and
here where the crow rarely nests in our largest wood, the large nest of the
sparrow hawk is not rare. Even where there is suspicion that the hawk
was not the architect, the common presence of large sticks that have
been broken off with green leaves upon them is sufficient proof that at
least there has been some recent original work done. But the nest may
be in a scotch fir or spruce or amongst the small branches against a tree
trunk. Sometimes as low down as 18 feet. I have never found more
than five eggs in a nest. They are laid on alternate days and weigh
three quarters of an ounce each.

*The Kestrel ( Falco tinnvinculus L.). This and the last-named species
still hold their own against the gamekeeper in about the same numbers as
thirty years ago. The Kestrel is as much at home on the sea-cliffs as about
the inland country side, and it nests regularly within the borough, where
it has suitable cliff and woodland sites. Here, when an old nest is adopted,
it is most frequently that of a rook or carrion crow, but that of the Magpie
is not despised when placed sufficiently high. April 22nd is my earliest
date for eggs and six the largest number found in a nest, they weigh -68
oz.

I have seen many instances of this hawk’s fearlessness of man. Once
here on the esplanade one passed within six feet of me and flitted up
underneath the balcony of a hotel. Another time one hovered over the
Spa grounds within 20 feet of me. Whilst watching the hovering Kestrel,
always head to wind, one sees that the bird’s position does not change,
neither rising, falling nor moving to left or right when seen silhouetted
against distant objects.

The Cormorant {Phalacrocorax cavbo L.). A common resident bird,
it nests regularly at the Peak, and occasionally on the cliffs north of Filey.
Here it may be seen sitting on eggs as early as May 6th.

The Common Heron ( Ardea.cinerea L.). There is still a small nest-
ing colony or heronry in our district, and birds may be seen fishing on
our shores or on the becks and rivers at all times of the year. In swamps
nests are sometimes built in trees within 25 feet of the ground, but the
tallest trees available are usually selected. I have found as many as five
eggs in a nest.

♦The Mallard ( Anas boscas L.). A very common winter visitor and
commoner now than formerly as a breeding species. Usually the nest
is placed by stream or mere fairly close to the water, though I have found
them hundreds of yards away from it, quite exposed in open park land.
A few hours after hatching, the young can swim, chase and catch insects
with great facility. The egg of the Mallard’s mate weighs 1-82 o?.

♦The Pochard (Fuligula ferina L.). On our large ponds this is our
most abundant duck in winter, when scores may be seen together on one
piece of water. In recent years it has returned to one of its first known
breeding haunts in Britain, Scarboro’ Mere, where it now nests again
annually. Most nests that I have seen have been built in the water
among grass or aquatic herbage, but occasionally they are met with in
dense beds of dead rushes. On leaving its nest, the pochard flies low
and settles on the water. I have found as many as eleven eggs in a
nest, weight 2-08 to 2-49 oz.

The Common Scoter ( Oedemia nigra L.). This, our commonest sea
duck, may often be seen in winter in little bunches floating just beyond

Naturalist,

Common Wild Birds of the Scarborough District. 265

the breakers off the Spa grounds. Continually diving and rising again,
sometimes the whole party may be immersed at once, but generally there
are some upon and others below the surface, constantly changing places.
I have taken hundreds of marine mollusca mostly Rissoa parva, from the
crop of a bird that had been shot locally.

*The Ring Dove ( Columba palumbus L.). An abundant resident bird,
nesting not only in all large woods and fir plantations, but also in isolated
bushes well out on the high moors. Its well-known coo may be heard
from Jan. 21st until October 3rd and as early as 3-40 on a midsummer morn.
The complete coo note is always of five syllables, the last two in
quicker time than the first three. When this has been repeated several
times it is followed by a final faint and quick ‘00.' It may be heard
from January 21st until October 3rd. I have found eggs in the nest,
never more than two, by April 5th. The nest, usually placed amongst
the branches, I have on one occasion found on the flat top of a pollard
willow. Built at a fair height above ground, it is occasionally no more
than 4 feet. It generally has a foundation of larch twigs, with birch
twigs above, heather twigs are sometimes used in Moorland districts,,
grass roots and some feathers are commonly added. An egg weighs
•87 oz.

*The Stock-Dove ( Columba cenas L.). A common but little known
resident bird though much less abundant than the Ring-Dove. It is
equally at home in the woods and on the sea-cliffs where nesting in crevices
it is sometimes confounded with the Rock Dove and often so called. It
nests in inland cliffs and quarries and also in holes in trees. There is
usually a nest in one of the Bride-stones. I have never found any nest
lining in these holes, whether in cliff or tree. The two eggs each weighing
half an ounce are of a very pale cream color. This fact and the more
rapid wing movements of the bird, when it left its nest were noticed
by the writer when finding his first nest. ‘ Hoo-wook’ is the very quiet
song it sings from March 12th onwards, but I have not heard it continued
late in summer. Eggs may be found by April 15th.

The Rock Dove ( Columba livia J. F. Gmelin). A fair number of birds
nest regularly in some of the caves of Speeton and Filey cliffs, whence
eggs and young birds are from time to time taken by fishermen and others,
but judging from the large size of most of the eggs that I have seen from
these haunts, I imagine that domestic pigeons often join and interbreed
with the wild birds. Though not referring to this species in a wild state,

I may here note a strange occurrence respecting a tame pigeon that I saw
at Filey. The bird flew up and down over the sea, close to the sea-wall
and repeatedly attempted to alight on the water, once seeming actually
to touch it. It came again and again to about the same spot, rounded up
to windward and tried to settle just as a gull would do. Eventually it
flew away over the town. Though somewhat like, it was not a pure
Columba livia.

The Turtle Dove (Turtur communis Selby). A summer visitor that
has greatly increased in numbers during the last thirty years, and one
that nests regularly so near the Borough, that I was tempted to put the
asterisk before its name. I have no certain date of its first arrival, but
have seen eggs in its transparent nest on May 17th. This is generally
placed from 5J to 13 feet only above ground, usually in thin hawthorn
bush or hedge, though I have found it in spruce. Made of larch twigs
and lined with fine roots, the two eggs each weigh -27 ozs. One nest found
was built on the top of an old blackbird’s nest a very unorthodox pro-
ceeding. The ‘ coo ’ would be better described as a purr — corr-oo, corr-oo,
the 00 sounded more like o and the r given its full northern sound, not as
a southern Briton would give it, who makes the word porter rhyme with
water. I have never but once seen our beautiful English Turtle dove
kept in a cage, whereas all are familiar with the Collared Turtle Dove
T. visorius and its ‘ Cook’-er-a-coo.’

1919 Aug. 1

266 Common Wild Birds of the. Scarborough District.

The Red Grouse {Lagopus scoticus L.). Common and resident it breeds
on all the local moors from within three miles of the town. When the cock
gives up crowing I cannot say, but I have heard his full ‘ Birbeck, go-back,
go-back, go-back,’ on December 28th. Eggs may be found by May
6th. They w.eigh -88 oz. The nest is in both short and rank heather.

*The Pheasant. Both Phasianus colchicus L. and P. torquatus are
‘ preserved ’ in the district, often straying into town and nesting some-
times in allotment gardens. They are also occasionally kept in confine-
ment. A cock bird and two hens so domesticated, produced 122 eggs in
one season. I once found a nest containing twenty-two eggs, all addled,
and the devoted bird still sitting on August 1 5th. This set was evidently
the production of two hens for half the eggs were of the normal size and
colouring, the remainder being smaller and of the blue color not very
uncommonly found here. I broke the lot and thus relieved the poor sitting
bird.

I have not found eggs before April 26th. Their full weight is 1-09
ozs., but some weigh much less: The nest, made of dead grass, herbage,

leaves and feathers, may be found in open fields as well as in woods, and
often out on the grouse moors. The pheasant when flying away after
being suddenly flushed makes a peculiar sharp squeak when a few yards
off the ground. The call note may be spelt Kurdwrk, Kurdwrk, Kurdwrk.

*The Common Partridge ( Perdix cinerea Lathom). Common here,
as in most English counties, I have seen them in covies as late as January
24th. The earliest date for eggs is May 1st, and the latest that I have
known June 22nd. Nests are usually amongst rough herbage at the
sides of fields and in hedge-rows. One I found contained much chopped
straw, perhaps not the work of the bird. Eighteen eggs is the largest
number that I have found in a nest. An egg weighs half an ounce.

The Red-legged Partridge (Cacabis rufa L.) scarcely known in the dis-
trict thirty years ago, this bird has steadily increased in numbers in recent
years, and is now comparatively common, sometimes nesting within the
borough. Its speckled eggs weigh -7 oz.

*The Land-rail (Crex pratensis Bechstein). It is remarkable that
whilst complaints of this bird’s steadily diminishing numbers are reported
every summer from most parts of the Kingdom, here in our district it is
as common as ever. The probable explanation is to be found in the late-
ness of our hay harvest which enables the bird to hatch off her brood
before the mowing machine destroys the eggs. Our earliest date for the •
arrival of the Corn-crake is April 22nd and it has been known to remain
until September 14th, though not heard after August 10th. It sings
all day and at any hour of the summer night. An egg weighs -51 oz.

The Water- Rail ( Rallus aquations L.). Rarely seen, though certainly
more common than is generally supposed. But it has not been known
to nest within our district. In other parts of the country, I have found
its nests in tufts of rushes growing in the water, as well as in such dry
spots as one would expect to find the Redshank nesting. Eggs weigh from
•42 to -47 oz.

(To be continued).

: o :

Among the contents of The Journal of the Quekett Microscopical Club
for April, we notice a New Incandescent Light for Microscopical Illumina-
tion, by A. Ashe ; Observations on Capillitia of Mycetozoa, by A. E.
Hilton ; The Use of Amylic Alcohol and Sandarac in Microscopy, by T. E.
Wallis ; A New Form of Polariser, by E. M. Nelson ; The President’s
Address : —Some Cases of Adaptation among Plants, by A. B. Rendle ;
Hydracarina : The genus Oxus, by C. D. Soar; and Amphora inflexa,
a rare British Diatom, by G. West. Mr. Soar’s article includes descrip-
tions of Oxus oralis from Lincolnshire and O. strigatus from Cumberland.

Naturalist,

THE SPIDERS OF YORKSHIRE.

267

WM. FALCONER,
Slaithwaite, Huddersfield.

( Continued from page 238 ).

Gen. Lophomma Menge, 3-5.

L. pun datum Bl.

Hygrophilous and common in many places in Great Britain and on
the Continent ; rare in Ireland, one locality ; in moss and at the
roots of grass and rushes in boggy ground. Adult throughout the
year. First Record — R. H. Meade, Hornsea, 1854, S. G. B. I.
V.C. 61. — Hornsea, one $, R. H. M. ; Sandholme, Risby, Kelsey Hill,
Kelley thorpe, cliffs north of Bridlington, T. S. ; Pulfin Bog, E.A.P. ;
not in any quantity at the above localities ; more numerous Riccall,
and Skipwith Common, W. P. W., W. F.

V.C. 62. Eston, J. W. H. ; Scalby Beck and Ringingkeld Bog.

V.C. 63. — Hurst Wood and Naylor Rough (Shipley), W. P. W. ; Lin-
thwaite, in a dry barn ; common in the Slaithwaite and Marsden
districts ; Dean Head ; Chew Valley (Greenfield) ; Marsden and
Ramsden Cloughs (Holmfirth) ; Meltham ; Carr Wood, Wood-
some ; Coxley Valley.

V.C. 64. — Bishop Wood, T.S. ; Adel Bog ; Brim Bray (Sawley),.

L hevbigradum Bl.

Abundant in many parts of England ; rare in Scotland ; absent
from Irish list ; abroad, Sweden, France, Hungary, Bavaria,
Italy ; among grass, heather and fallen leaves in both dry and moist
situations. Adult throughout the year. First occurrence — the
author, Slaithwaite, June, 1897.

V.C. 61. — Carey chalk-pit, near Willerby, Hornsea Mere, Bielsbeck,
Flamborough Head, Houghton Woods (Market Weighton),
Weedley, X. S. ; Hesslewood, E. A. P.

V.C. 62. — Cleveland, ‘ every locality visited,’ J. W. H. ; Thornton
Dale, R. A. T. ; Scarborough Mere, Saltburn, Marske.

V.C. 63 and 64. — Generally distributed and common, especially
abundant in the Colne and Calder drainage.

V.C. 65. — Y.N.U. Upper Teesdale ; Cautley and How Gill, W. P. W.

L subcequale Westr. (Tapinocyba subcequalis Westr. and Cnephalocotes
fuscus Camb.).

A rare spider, noted for Hants., Sussex, Cambs,. Northants.,
Lancashire, Cheshire, Staffs., Northumberland ; Banff ; Dublin ;
foreign distribution uncertain as it has been confounded on the
Continent with L. laudatum Camb. ; amongst grass and herbage.
Adult <$. April to August ; $ throughout the year. First

occurrence — the author, Ram Clough, October, 1903.

V.C. 61. — Saltend Common, one E. A. P. ; Mt. Airey, S. Cave, one
$, T. S.

V.C. 63. — Head of Ram Clough, Wessenden Valley, Marsden, six 2s ;
Holthead, near Slaithwaite, in old steep stony lane leading to the
‘ Dyers’ Arms,’ one £, six $s, October, 1904.

V.C 64. — Birkham Wood, Knaresborough, one April, 1906.

Gen. Thyreosthenius Sim., 1-1

T. biovatus Camb.

A myrmecophile, living in the nests of the wood-ant, Formica rufa ;
widely distributed in Great Britain ; Surrey, Sussex, Dorset,
Hants., Devon, Staffs., Durham, Northumberland, Cumberland ;
Inverness ; abroad, France, Germany, Holland. Adult : May

to August ; $s throughout the year.

V.C. 63. — Denby Dale, near Huddersfield, an adult <$, August, 1912.

1919 Aug. l

268

Falconer : The Spiders of Yorkshire.

Gen. Evansia Camb.-, i-i.

E . merens Camb.

A myrmecophile discovered at Glenfarg (Perthshire) in 1899 ; since
found associated with Formica rufa at Carlisle, Barmouth and in
Tynedale, and with Donisthorpea nigra in Glamorgan and Durham ;
recently on Hill of Howth (Leinster), south of Scotland and Keigh-
ley taken wandering at large. In Yorkshire it associates with both
these ants and in Cleveland also with L. umbratus. Two other
myrmecophile species, Cryphoeca diver sa Camb. and Tetrilus arietinus
Thor, (if not the same), frequent the nests of F. rufa and may
occur in our area. Adult <$, spring and autumn, $s throughout
the year. First occurrence — the author, Drop Clough, May, 1906.
V.C. 62. — ‘ Everywhere in Cleveland with both ants, quite melanic on
Redcar coast,’ Gt. Ayton with Lasius umbratus, J.W.H.

V.C. 63. — All with D. nigra : Drop Clough, Marsden, several of both
sexes ; Helme (Meltham), 1^, 1$ ; Crosland Moor, Huddersfield,
1$, 4$s ; Sun Dean, $s ; Chew Valley, Greenfield, 2<^s.

V.C. 64. — Rivock near Keighley, at large beneath bracken, W.P.W. ;
Grassington, 1^, 2$s, R.B.

Gen. Walckencera, 5-5.

W. acuminata Bl. '

Widely distributed in the British Isles and on the Continent ;
commoner in the north than in the south ; amongst grass, fallen
leaves, moss, etc., and under stones, both in dry and moist situa-
tions, open ground and woods. Adult $ mainly in autumn ;
until spring. First record — Yorkshire, S.G.B.I., R.H.M., Bradford,
V.C.H.

V.C. 61. — Humber Bank, between Hull and Hessle, Skidby, Houghton
Woods, Leconfield, Riplingham, Bielsbeck, Filey cliffs, Brantingham
Dale, Sunk Island, Saltend Common, Snake Hall, South Cave,
Holme-on-Spalding Moor, T.S. ; Riccall Common, T.S., W.F.

V.C. 62, 63, 64. — Common and widely distributed.

V.C. 65. — Y.N.U., Upper Teesdale.

W. obtusa Bl.

A very rare British spider recorded from Dorset, North Wales,
Cheviots, Northumberland and County Durham ; abroad —
Hungary, Bavaria and Switzerland.

V.C. 63. — Calverley, 1 adult <$, S.M., May, 1909.

IV. nudipalpis Westr.

Not a common spider, though now on record for Scotland as far
north as Forres and St. Kilda, Ireland, and a dozen widely separated
English counties ; abroad — Sweden, Denmark, Prussia, Poland,
North Hungary, Tyrol and North France ; amongst moss, grass-
spring. First occurrence — the author. Isle of Sky, October, 1898.
roots, under stones, etc.; usually in damp ground. Adult autumn to
V.C. 61. — Hornsea Mere, $s, Houghton Woods, $s, Weedley Springs,
$, Wilberforce House and New Joint Dock (Hull), £s, T.S. ; Skip-
with and Riccall Commons, 1$ at each place.

V.C. 62. — Cleveland, ' every locality visited,’ J.W.H. ; Eston.

V.C. 63.— Hurst Wood, Shipley, 1$. W.P.W.

Numerous localities about Huddersfield, Colne Valley, Saddle-
worth, Greenfield, Holmfirth, Honley, Brockholes, Woodsome,
Shepley, Meltham, Lepton, but not in any quantity ; Defier Wood.
(Cawthorn) ; Crimsworth Dene.

V.C. 64.— -Thorparch ; Adel Moor and King’s Wood ; Alwoodley ;;

Ingleborough, near the summit.

V.C. 65. — Y.N.U. Upper Teesdale, Winch Bridge.

Naturalist,

Falconer : The Spiders of Yorkshire.

269

W. capito Westr.

A very rare British spider, noted for Dorset, 1^, North Wales,
Paisley, $, Sea Fell, ad. $, imm. Ben Nevis, $, Cairntoul, $ ; $
not yet certainly apportioned to the male known by this name.
V.C. 64. — Ingleborough, on the summit, 1 adult under a small flat
stone, 14th June, 1913.

W . nodosa Camb.

Also very rare ; reported from Dorset, Staffs., Northumberland and
Cumberland, and from Monaghan, 1$, Ireland ; abroad. North
France.

V.C. 64. — Ascent of Ingleborough, immediately above Clapdale, 2
adult females, in swampy ground, 14th June, 1913.

Gen. Wideria Sim., 3-4.

W . cucullata C. L. Koch.

A local spider found in woods, but sometimes plentiful where it
does occur, noted for Dorset, near London, Essex, Sussex, Staffs.,
Cumberland and Northumberland ; the Trossachs and Rothie-
murchus Forest in Scotland ; abroad, Sweden, France and Central
Europe ; amongst fallen leaves. Adult autumn to spring. First
occurrence — the author, Butternab Wood, October, 1902.

V.C. 61. — Market Weighton, on the road to Holme-on-Spalding Moor,
1 $, Houghton Woods, 4$s, T.S.

V.C. 63.— Cottingley Wood, 1° Hurst Wood (Shipley), 1$, 1$, W.P.W.
Both sexes plentiful at Butternab Wood, Honley Old Wood,
Woodsome, Smith Wood and Storthes Hall Wood (near Hudders-
field), Hardcastle Crags and Hebden Bridge, Defier Wood (Caw-
thorn). Less commonly at Drop Clough, Armitage Bridge and
Lower Stones Wood ; Maltby, 1^.

V.C. 64. — Adel Moor and King Wood, several females.

W . antica Wid.

Widely distributed in the British Isles and on the Continent ; but
in unequal quantity ; amongst roots of grass, heather and herbage,
moss, fallen leaves and beneath stones. Adult in autumn, $ on to
spring. First occurrence — the author, Drop Clough, July, 1899.
V.C. 61. — Humber Bank West, Brantingham Dale, T.S. ; Skipwith
Common, and river bank above Selby, 1 $ at each ; Skeffling, 1$.
V.C. 62. — Cleveland, 'every locality visited,’ J.W.H. ; Scarborough
R.A.T. ; Marske ; Ringingkeld.

V.C. 63. — Cusworth, T. S. ; Harden, W.P.W. ; on' the moors, in the
doughs and woods about Slaithwaite, Marsden, Saddleworth,
Greenfield, Honley, Meltham and Huddersfield, not uncommon ;
Holme Moss and Holmfirth.

V.C. 64. — Bolton Woods, W.P.W. ; Ilkley, Sawley High Moor, Adel
Moor, Stubbing Moor, Boston Spa ; Heath, near Wakefield.

W . fugax Camb.

A very rare British spider recorded from Dorset, Burnham Beeches,
Nottinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Staffordshire, Cheshire and
Northumberland, but not yet from either Scotland or Ireland ;
abroad, France and Central Europe ; amongst moss and at roots
of grass. Adults, both sexes, taken from autumn to spring. First
occurrence — the author, Drop Clough, December, 1902.

V.C. 62.— Raincliff Woods, 1 <?, R.A.T.

V.C. 63. — Drop Clough, Marsden, 4 <^s ; Bottoms Wood, 2 <^s, 2 £s‘
and Scout Wood (Slaithwaite), 2 $s ; Wessenden Valley, in wood
on slope above Butterley Reservoir, 2 §s ; Butternab Wood,

1 1 and Mollicar Woods (Huddersfield), 1 <$ ; Deffer Wood

(Cawthorn), 1 $.

1919 Aug. l

270

Falconer : The Spiders of Yorkshire.

Gen. Prosopotheca Sim., 2-2.

P. monoceros Wid.

A rare spider occasionally taken as at Weston-super-mare, South-
port, Rye, Aberavon, North Berwick and in Yorkshire near the
sea, or as in Northumberland, Cumberland, Staffordshire and the
Huddersfield district on high inland moors ; abroad, Sweden,
France, Germany, Tyrol and Switzerland. Adult autumn to
spring. First occurrence — the author, Crosland Moor, September,
1903.

V.C. 61. — Spurn, 1 $, and in a beech wood at South Cave, 1 1909,

T.S.

V.C. 63.— Crosland Moor, Huddersfield, 4 <^s, 14 $s, all from heather
on various dates.

P. incisa Camb.

Two previous examples only, both females, one at Llanrwst,
N. Wales, i860, under a stone, and the other near Paris.

V.C. 61. — Birkhill Wood, Cottingham, 1 adult^, June 5th, 1915, T.S.

Gen. Cornicularia Menge, 4-5.

C. cuspidata Bl.

Widely distributed in the British Isles and on the Continent ;
amongst roots of grass and heather, dead leaves and moss, oftenest
in damp places. Adult autumn to spring. First record — York-
shire, S.G.B.I. ; Bradford, R.H.M. (V.C.H.). Widespread and
usually common in Yorkshire, the recorded stations in V.C. 62,
63, 64, being numerous. It appears to be more uncommon in

V. C. 61, North Cave, Swine Woods, Barmby-on-the-Marsh, Hull
Bank, Hull, Newland, Coniston Coppice, Hall Ings and Birkhill
Wood (Cottingham), Beverley Long Lane, T.S., probably from
the lack of suitable habitats in a more highly cultivated and
drier area

C. unicornis Camb.

Less common than the last, on record for a dozen widely separated
English counties as far north as Northumberland, and two Irish
localities ; abroad, Sweden, France and Central Europe ; amongst
grass, furze and heather debris, usually not rare where found.
Adult autumn to spring.. First occurrence — the author, Dalton
Lane, May, 1903.

V.C. 61.— Kelsey Hill, Pulfin Bog (Beverley) and Spurn, T.S., E.A.P. ;
Patrington Haven, Withernsea Carrs, Market Weighton, Bielsbeck,
Snake Hall, Welwick, T.S. ; Riccall and Skipwith Commons,

W. P.W., W :F. ; Scampston,

V.C. 62. — Cleveland, ‘ every locality visited,’ common, J.W.H. ;
Forge Valley, South Cliff (Scarborough), and Langdale End, R.A.T.
Ringingkeld Bog ; Marske ; Tees mouth.

V.C. 64. — Linton Common, Stubbing Moor, Dalton Lane, East
Keswick, Adel Moor, above the seven Arches, and Brim Bray
(Sawley), but not in any quantity ; Chandler’s Whin, York,
many of both sexes.

( To he continued).

We learn from The Yorkshire Post that ‘ a notable student of the
natural history of Cumberland and Westmorland has passed away in the
person of Mr. Samuel Oglethorpe, of Penrith, at the age of 65. He had been
in business as a watchmaker for forty years, and was the last of a long
line of craftsmen. His hobby for the greater part of his life-time was
entomology, and he had a remarkable collection of moths and butterflies,
all of which he had taken in Cumberland and Westmorland.’

Naturalist.

271

YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS AT RYHILL.

The excursion fixed for Thursday, May 15th, proved very popular,
quite a large assemblage of nature enthusiasts taking advantage of the
Union’s first visit to Ryhill, near Wakefield, and enjoying immensely
the resplendent birth of springtime and the scenic charms along the
traversed routes. The effect of the period of warmth was best evidenced
in hedgerow and woodland ; aquatic plant- life had not been so rapidly
stimulated to growth. One party met at Walton, and proceeded along
the canal path to the grounds of Walton Hall, finding much of interest
en route, especially in birdlife, and before leaving visited the grave of;
that famous Yorkshire naturalist, Charles Waterton. They next passed
through Haw Park Wood (which has been thinned of practically the whole
of its best commercial timber, and partially replanted with Larch), to
the reservoirs, meeting the party arriving from the direction of Nostell.
The wood and the reservoirs provided a happy hunting ground until
adjournment was necessary for tea at ‘ The Cottage in the Wood.’ Dr.
Corbett presided over the meeting held at the close of the excursion,
when six new members were elected and the usual sectional reports
were given. — W.E.L.W.

Vertebrate Zoology. — Mr. W. H. Parkin writes : — The grounds of
Walton Hall would send the thrill through any bird lover, to roam once
more about the place where Charles Waterton spent so many happy
hours watching the birds, out of little shelters fixed for that purpose,
long before the photographer with his tent came along for similar work.
All were very much alive on that perfect day and not a man amongst
us but will remember it with ‘ better feelings than we set out. ’ Old
Waterton, to quote him more fully, said : ‘ when the vexations of the world
have broken in upon me I go away for an hour or two amongst the birds
of the valley, and I seldom fail to return with better feelings than when I
set out.’

And once more we stood, perhaps, on the very spot, and saw the birds
around us, the Jackdaws flying from the same buildings, nesting in the
same old crannies ; Great Crested Grebes in their full summer beauty
diving as only Grebes can dive, their long thin necks showing off the pro-
fuse crests or tippits to perfection. We note too, the appearance of the
half-submerged bodies and the difference in the water from other water
fowl when swimming. The nest was placed only a few feet out on a broken
drooping branch of a willow, well in the water. Not far away a Coot
had also selected its nesting habitat and the seven eggs were plainly
visible. A few Canadian Geese were also on the lake. It is almost a
pity these birds should be introduced for they interfere more or less
with the wilder associations and surroundings.

In the small scrubby plantation we heard those' charming songsters,
the Garden Warbler and the Blackcap Warbler. The Common White-
throat was nesting, but we failed to see or hear the Lesser Whitethroat.
Wagtails were well represented by the Pied, Grey and Yellow species.
A Magpie had built its nest very low down, ten feet from the ground ;
other nests of this species were seen and it is as well to note on the marked
increase of this bird during the last four years.

Whilst the party were resting on the bridge at the bottom part of the
lake a Kingfisher reviewed itself before us. In one of the holes in an old
oak was a nest of a tit, and on investigation a quantity of duck’s down
was found which seemed to be that of the Tufted Duck, but this latter
bird was not seen. A Turtle Dove was heard in the coppice, and its nest
was located, but not examined. The Wood Pigeon and Stock Dove were
also noted.

Willow Warbler, Tree Pipits, Redstart, Blue, Great and Cole Tits, and
Lesser Redpolls were all seen as well as many of the commoner species.
The Chiff Chaff was not heard nor seen as far as could be ascertained.

1919 Aug. 1

272

Yorkshire Naturalists at Ryhill.

Yet twenty years ago there were a few pairs here and this bird is fairly
constant in its well-established habitat.

Conchology.— -Messrs. J. Digby Firth and Mr. J. A. Hargreaves
write : — The leaders of this section were ably supported by Messrs. Thornes,
Lumb and several members of the Doncaster Scientific Society. Twenty-
four freshwater and ten land species were taken, the scarcity of the latter
being probably due to the dry weather.

The following is a complete list of species taken, with the exception
of the Pisidia, which have not yet been determined : —

Agviolimax agvestis.
Hyalima alliaria.

H. nitidula.

Euconulus fulvus.
Avion ater.

A. hortensis.
Pyravnidula votun data.
Hygromia hispida.
Cochlicopa lubvica.
Succinea putvis.

A cvoloxus lacustris.
Limncea auviculavia.
L. pevegev.

L. palustvis.

L. truncatula.

L. stagnalis.

L. glabra.

Planovbis albus.

P. cavinatus.

P. umbilicatus.

P. vortex.

P. spivorbis.

Physa fontinalis.

Aplecta hypnovum.

Paludestvina jenkinsi.

and var. cavinata.

Bithynia tentaculata.

Vivipava vivipava.

Nevitina fluviatilis.

Dreissensia polymovpha.

Unio pictovum.

U: tumidus.

Anodonta cygncea.

Sphaevium covneum.

Pisidiuni ? (two or more species).

Hymenoptera. — Dr. H. H. Corbett writes : — In a district that was
worked by the late F. Smith new records were not likely to occur. On
a sandy bank by Ryhill Reservoir were Nomada alternata, Andvena
albicans, A. minutula and Halictus vubicundus. On a sunny bank beside
the road that skirts the reservoir were Nomada alternata, Andvena cine-
raria and Sphecodes sp. ? On flowers of Scilla festalis in Haw Park Wood
were Bombus latreillellus v. distinguendus , B. hortovum and B. tevrestris.

Plant Galls. — Mr. W. Falconer writes : — The foliage just being
newly unfolded, no fresh galls were noted but only old ones of the follow-
ing : — Hymenopterous, Andvicus cuvvatov Hartig, ‘ curved twig,’ in
plenty on an oak tree en route from Sandall to reservoirs. Dipterous,
Rhabdophaga salicis Sch. on sallow, one bush only, Wintersett reservoir
(flies emerged in mid-May) ; Perrisia cvataegi Winn, remains plentiful on
hawthorn hedges.

Lepidoptera. — Mr. B. Morley writes : — Butterflies were represented
by a few Vanessa urticae and the three species of common Pievidea.
A specimen taken of P. napi had a strikingly asymmetrical underside, the
right side being typical, but with the ground colour of the under wing
very yellow and with strong -green veins, while the left side has the upper
half similarly coloured but the lower half has a white ground and grey
veins. Of Moths, Tephrosia biundulavia was most noticeable by reason
of the great inconsistency of colour, ranging from extreme light through
various intermediate shades to the dark delamevensis form. Panagva
pelraria was common among the dead bracken. The commonest species
by far was the pretty little Heliozele seviciella which flew in swarms
around almost every mountain ash, and the equally pretty Lithocolletis
quercifoliella about oak. Other species seen were Nemophora swammev-
damella, Coccyx argyrana, Dasycera sulphurella, Micvopteryx subpuvpuvella,
and a welcome pair of Coccyx splendidulana.

Coleoptera. — Dr. Fordham reports : — The Coleopterists present were
Mr. E. Bayford, Dr. Corbett, Mr. A. E. Thornes and the writer, who
were ably assisted by Mr. Falconer, who collected fourteen species at

Naturalist,

Yorkshire Naturalists at Ryhill.

2 73

Wintersett and seven at Cold Hiendley. Forty-four species altogether
were noted — Blethisa multipunctata L. occurred in fair numbers in one
part of the margin of the Reservoir, together with an abundance of Elaphrus
cupreus Duft, E. riparius L., Agonum marginatum L. and Bembidium
dentellum Th. [flammulatum Clair).

Other noteworthy species were : —

Pterostichus anthracinus 111. R. Several.

P. macer Marsh ( picimanus Duft). R.

P. minor Gyll. Cold Hiendley.

Agonum viduum Pz. var. moestum Duft. R.

A. piceum L. R. Wintersett.

A. fuliginosum Pz. R. Wintersett. Cold Hiendley.

Amara communis Pz. R.

A. plebeia Gyll. Wintersett.

Bembidium gilvipes Stm. Wintersett, Cold Hiendley.

Dromius melanocephalus Dj. Wintersett.

Staphylinus pubescens De G. R.

*Lathrobium quadratum Pk. R. Wintersett.

Coccinella hievoglyphica L. R.

CEceoptoma (Silpha) thoracicum L. Haw Park.

Xylodrepa ( Silpha ) 4 punctata L. Haw Park.

Rhagium mordax De G. ( inquisitor Brit. Cat.). Haw Park.

* = New to V.C. 63. R. =Ryhill.

Arachnida. — Mr. Falconer writes : — Collecting was not possible
along the whole of the route traversed, and the time was mostly spent
in sifting the withered or damp debris left stranded at high water mark at
Wintersett reservoir, and only the species likely to be taken in such a
situation were met with. Much of the material was immature and in-
determinable ; individuals were numerous, but there was little variety,
the following being the species : — (Edothorax retusus Westr., (E. fuscus Bl.,
Leptyphantes zimmermanii Bertk.-, Pachygnatha clerckii Sund. (also Mr. Bay-
ford), Trochosa terricola Thor., Pirata piraticus Clerck and an odd Dictyna
uncinata- Thor. The common scarlet earthmite, Sericothrombium holo-
sericeum L., was plentiful at both reservoirs, also young Ritteria nemorum
Koch., but oply a few examples of Gamasus crassipes Linn, were noted.

Bryology. — Mr. J. W. H. Johnson, M.Sc., whites : — Messrs. W. H.
Burrell, C. A. Cheetham and I represented this section and succeeded5
in finding the following species : — Tetr aphis pellucida, Cathavinea undulata,
Dicranella hetevomalla, Ceratodon purpureus, Weisia tenuis, Webeva
nutans, Mnium hovnum, M. punctatum, Plagiothecium denticulatum,
P. latebricola, Hypnum cuspidatum, H. cupres si formed Scapania dentata
(Haw Park Wood), Scapania undulata (Walton Park).

: o :

The Geology of the Refractory Materials of the North of England,
by J. B. Atkinson and J. T. Stobbs, is the title of a paper in The Quarry
lor July.

A report having appeared that a solid block of limestone weighing
300 tons, quarried at Wirksworth, Derbyshire, was ‘ the largest block of
limestone ever quarried in this country,’ Mr. J. N. Wilson reports in The
Quarry for July that a block weighing 320 tons was recently quarried at
the Little Orme’s Head Limestone Quarries, North Wales.

British Birds for July contains notes on Norfolk Bitterns, by Emma L.
Turner ; Pied and White Wagtails, by H. F. Witherby ; the Drumming of
Woodpeckers, by J. S. Huxley, and the Birds of Bardsey Island, by
N. F. Ticehurst. Among the short notes is one on Fulmar Petrels in
Yorkshire, in Summer, in which a pair of Fulmars is recorded at Speeton,
and we agree that ‘ whether the birds are actually breeding remains to
be proved.’

1919 Aug. l

274

3n fIDemoriam.

WILLIAM ERNEST SHARP.

1856-1919.

By the sudden death of Mr. W. E. Sharp, F.E.S., at Crowthorne,
Berks, on May 20th, at the age of 63 years, northern Coleop-
terists have lost a valued friend and helper. Well known per-
sonally to most of the members of the Yorkshire Coleoptera
Committee, Mr. Sharp was always ready to assist in identifying
their more critical captures, and his remarks on the specimens
submitted contained valuable observations on structure and
habits drawn from his own personal experience.

A native of Cheshire, he resided in that county until he
took up his residence in 1898 in the neighbourhood of London,
retiring from thence when compelled by failing health in 1913
to the pleasantly situated village of Crowthorne.

During his residence near Liverpool he was a prominent
member of the Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society,
and compiled a list of the Coleoptera of those counties, which it
published in 1908. This contains many interesting notes on
the 45 per cent, of the British Coleoptera recorded for the two
counties, and forms a valuable contribution to the study of
the distribution of British beetles, a subject upon which he
spoke with authority ; his conclusions being quoted by Dr.
Scharff in his work on the Distribution of European Animals.

Mr. Sharp was elected a Fellow of the Entomological Society
of London in 1902, and at one period served on the Council of
that body. The Naturalist for 1892 contains an article by
him on the Hydradephaga of Lancashire and Cheshire. After
he left Cheshire for the Metropolis, his business activities
frequently brought him into the North, and on these visits he
managed to spare a little time for his favourite study in the
company of one or other of his numerous friends. The writer
has pleasant memories of several week-ends spent together in
East Yorkshire, and his suggestions resulted in the addition of
many species to the County List. An article from his pen on
the Coleoptera of Bishopdale, Yorks., will be found in The
Naturalist for 1913.

In 1913, together with Mr. E. A. Newbery, he compiled a
list of British Coleoptera, bringing the nomenclature of the
order into line with continental usage — a change that at the
time appeared somewhat drastic, but which has now become
almost universally adopted.

Mr. Sharp was a man of artistic temperament, combined
with a scrupulous regard for scientific exactitude. His letters
and numerous writings in our entomological periodicals and
elsewhere were scholarly, and some of his descriptive pieces
remind one of the word-pictures of another coleopterist dear
to Yorkshiremen — the late Rev. W. C. Hey.

Naturalist,

In Memoriam : H. A. Paynter.

275

A few years ago, he published a book on “ Common Beetles
of our Country Side,” designed primarily for all nature lovers,
but unlike some ‘ popular ’ nature study books, a book which
every real student of the order can read and delight in, and the
matter of which is accurate and clothed in attractive language.

At Crowthorne he delighted to entertain his friends and
shew them the specialities of the district, and the writer will
ever remember the hours spent in his company, whether in the
woodlands round the village or with a pipe in the evening over
his collection, books and water-colour sketches— for he was an
artist of no mean ability. On the occasion, of one of his visits
to the writer he had left his tobacco pouch with another north-
country coleopterist, who returned it promptly with the label
' Marsupium oblitum var. Sharpi.’

His articles on the Coleoptera of the parish in the Entomo-
logist’s Monthly Magazine have made Crowthorne classic
ground ; the rarities, Pterostichus angustatus, Agonum 4
punctatum and 6 punctatum and Melanophila acuminata, being
among the aristocrats of its beetle inhabitants. Mr. Sharp by
no means confined his attention to beetles, other orders,
including Hemiptera, coming under his notice, though the
greater part of his published work relates to the Coleoptera.

Space will not permit of a complete bibliography of his
writings, but sufficient has been said here to indicate what a
loss his death has been to all those to whom he had endeared
himself so much by his unfailing geniality and whole-hearted
friendship.— W. J. F.

: o :

H A PAYNTER.

1846-1919.

It is with extreme regret we have to record that Henry Augustus
Paynter passed away at Yeovil, Somerset, on May 16th, at
the age of 73. Many of us, members of that very successful
and old established wild birds’ protection society, known as
the Fame Islands Association, have vaguely wondered whatever
would become of it, if anything should happen to Mr. Paynter.
He was the life and soul of the Association, and besides being
honorary secretary and treasurer he might almost be called
sole manager. He dearly loved the work and all the birds.
At times when the writer has suggested a reduction in the
numbers of the Lesser Black-backed Gulls that nest on the
islands by pricking their eggs (in the interests of other species)
he would listen most respectfully, but always took care not to
have it carried out ! Again in 1917 and 1918 when we suggested
sending the Gulls’ eggs to the larger towns to assist the food
supply during the war, he could not bring his mind to such a
wholesale measure — his love for the birds was too great.

1919 Aug. 1

276 In Memoriam : H. A. Paynter.

Mr. Paynter was one of the original members of the Fame
Islands Association on its formation in 1881, and for the past
thirty years he has acted as its sole honorary secretary and
treasurer — -issuing yearly reports to the subscribers. He was
a solicitor by profession, and although he had the appearance
of a typical Northumbrian — standing well over six feet in
height — he was really a Cornish man by birth — being born at
Penzance on April 2nd, 1846. But he had lived and practised

for a great number of years at Alnwick. This Spring, after a
severe illness, he was ordered to the South of England, but he
delayed going until he could make some arrangements for his
beloved birds, and probably thereby hastened his end. His
remains were laid to rest on May 20th, in the little churchyard of
Lufton, near Yeovil, where many of his relatives are also buried.

Fortunately for the Fame Islands Association, and more
particularly for the birds that nest on the islands in such vast
numbers, Mr. Collingwood F. Thorp, another Alnwick Solicitor,
has taken over the work as honorary secretary and treasurer,
and the bird-watchers are on the islands as usual this season.
— H.B.B.

:o:

A well-known bookseller’s catalogue recently offers The Floral Magazine,
Figures and Descriptions of Popular New Flowers ‘ for the Garden Stove
and Controversy ’ !

Naturalist,

277

FIELD NOTES.

BIRDS.

The Greenfinch’s Nest. — Howard Saunders rightly says
the nest of Ligurinus chloris Linn, is commonly a rather loose
and slovenly structure. It usually is, but there are some
pretty exceptions, and I came across one at Howsham to-day.
Children had wantonly pulled it out of a garden bush, just
after it was finished, but before any eggs were laid. It was.
a beautifully regular construction of grass and other garden
roots, moss, fowls' smaller feathers, very old, much weathered
and falling-to-pieces string. It had an inner lining not of
boar's, but of Lincolnshire curly white Pig's hair. In the
winter and spring this hair, after pig-killing, is thrown away
on the ash -heaps of our villages. Later on the Greenfinches
may be seen gathering it as the final lining of their nests. —
E. Adrian Woodruffe -Peacock, Cadney, Brigg, 25th
May, 1919.

It is no uncommon event to find a really tidy and compact
Greenfinch's nest. — R.F.

— : 0 : —

Nightingales in Shropshire. — The present is quite a
f Nightingale Year,' in Shropshire. The species occurs
regularly every year in the Severn Valley as far northwards as
Iron Bridge. Further north and west its occurrences are
irregular, but every now and then comes a season when the
Nightingale seems to bound forward in a north-westerly
direction. At first I thought that the species was extending
its range into North Wales, but an experience of 25 years
during which I have kept records, shows that such is not the
case. The nightingale's range here is limited to the area
mentioned above, and the occasional overstepping of the
boundary is only temporary. An interval of five or six years
generally elapses between one ‘ Nightingale Year ' and the
next. During the present season one of these songsters
took up quarters in the outskirts of Shrewsbury itself, to the
delight of the local residents who could listen to it while
snug in bed. Two others were located within a mile of the
town, and others further off. But the most noteworthy
occurrence was a bird which I heard myself at Middletown,
exactly on the borders of Shropshire and Montgomeryshire,
on 22nd May. This is a most unusual locality, and I was not
aware that the Nightingale had ever visited it before. A
local resident, however, informed me that about five years
ago there were two in the same neighbourhood — one about
half-a-mile off and the other about a mile on the Welshpool
road. As all the birds mentioned remained constantly in
one spot there is little doubt that each had a mate nesting

1919 Aug. 1

2 yS

Field Notes.

there. I have several times known males to come to a spot and
sing for a night or two, and then disappear. These were
evidently without a mate. — H. E. Forrest.

— : o —

ENTOMOLOGY .

Cuculiia verbasci near Bingley. — Referring to Mr.
Porritt’s note in The Naturalist for August, 1918, (page 268)
and Mr. Carter’s note (page 288) when at Eldwick on the 20th
June last, I was asked to inspect some caterpillars which were
feeding upon a cultivated variety of figwort in a garden. I
found them to be what I take to be C. verbasci, in two or three
various stages of growth, three or four larvae of which I brought
home of the largest size which are almost now (July 9th)
full fed. I have never previously taken this species in this
district ; indeed the ‘ sharks ’ are comparatively scarce in this
neighbourhood. Cuculiia umbratica was fairly common here
in the year 1899. — E. P. Butterfield, Bankdlouse, Wilsden,
near Bingley, July 19th. 1919.

Larvae of C. verbasci have again occurred freely here this
year, in Mrs. Whiteley Tolson’s garden at Dalton. The
species is evidently thoroughly establishing itself in this part
of the county. — G.T.P.

— : o : —

ANNELIDA .

Cocoons of the Horse Leech. — On the 22nd of June,
the Rev. W. W. Mason and I took some curious cocoons from
under a log of carr-oak, lying by, but not in, the Aplex
hy prior um pasture pond at Cadney. I sent some specimens,
but not the largest, to the British museum, South Kensington.
Mr. F. Jeffrey Bell replies to me ' The cocoons are undoubedly
those of a leech, perhaps of the horse-leech ( Aulostomum
gulo) . But of this I cannot be quite sure ; they are somewhat
smaller than the cocoons of that species as figured by Mocquin-
Tandon. ’ I did not send the very largest, and as this and more
of our ponds abound in Horse Leeches I have no doubt about
the species. We have another rare spotted Leech ( Glossi -
phonia sexoculata) in Cadney parish, but not in this pond.
Fully forty years ago my brother, Max, in autumn, shot a
duck from the Elodea canadensis pond at Yaddlethorpe, which
was then perfectly isolated. On the feet of this bird when it
fell were Horse Leeches and Limncea peregra, both young ;
no doubt lifted from the pond, where it most certainly had
been resting some hours, for it was 2-30 p.m. In this way our
swimming and wading birds carry them. — E. Adrian Wood-
ruffe-Peacock, Cadney, Brigg, 7th July, 1919.

Naturalist,

279

CORRESPONDENCE.

Mr. A. E. Hall sends the following note : — ' I have a copy of Thomas
Martyn’s “Figures of Non Descript Shells/’ collected in the different
voyages to the South Seas since the year 1764, published by Thomas
Martyn and sold at his house. No. 16 Great Marlborough Street, London.
Inside the volume is an autograph letter as under : —

‘ Sir,

As my great work of an Universal Conchology, exhibiting the figure
of every known shell, daily grows under my hands, I feel myself more
solicitous about the event. No labour, no expense, and no avocation
shall deter, or divert me from the completion of this extensive design.
But sickness, or other unforseen misfortune, may retard the prosecution
of it. A fire may destroy what is already finished, and death may
prevent what yet remains to be begun. To guard therefore, in some
measure against such accidents, I wish to deposit with some eminent
person, equally distinguished for their taste and judgment in the fine
arts, and sciences, a permanent and indisputable proof of the progress
which I had made previous to the publication of my first volume.
That volume will afford sufficient specimen of the first part of my plan,
comprehending the non descript shells from the South seas, and the
collection of paintings which I have now the honour to present to you
from my 5th, 6th, 7th and subsequent volumes, are designed as an
example of the same superior manner in which I propose to execute
those subjects of Conchology that have been already described. To
these monuments of my exertions in Natural History, I cannot make
choice of a more proper Trustee than Sir William Hamilton, as possessing
in a superior degree all those desirable qualifications so rarely united
in an individual. The approbation with which you have been pleased
to flatter me, gives me every reason to hope that you will deign to
accept the trust. With all possible respect, I beg leave to subscribe
myself,

Sir, your most humble and obedient servant,

Thomas Martyn.

London : 25 King Street, Covent Garden,

September 1st, 1784.

Sir William Hamilton, K.B.,

His Majesty’s Envoy Extraordinary

and Plenipotentiary to the Court of Naples.

— — o-

CAUSE OF MELANISM IN PH IGA LI A PILOSARIA.

From the third week in February last to the beginning of March I paid
many visits to Bingley Wood, along with my son, Rosse, and one or two
of my friends ; our purpose being to secure a few dark specimens of this
insect which was very abundant this year, perhaps more so than for the
previous fifteen years, and fully fifty per cent, of those seen last February
were dark — some very dark — and one which might have been termed
black, the others were more or less approaching the type in colour, but
nearly all were more or less inclined to melanism. When I first became
acquainted with this species in the early ’seventies of the last century
and for a few subsequent years, I cannot remember having seen one
very dark specimen, and it was not until the early ’eighties that melanism
began to show itself in any marked degree. What can be the cause of this
sudden change which seems to have set at defiance all previous known
laws which have been thought to be the cause of variation ; such as the
influence of food, protective resemblance, hereditary transmission, natural
selection, all of which seem to me inadequate to account for the above
facts ? I rather incline to the belief that the cause of this melanism is to
be attributed to retarded development owing to climatic conditions whilst

1919 Aug. l

28o

Northern News.

in the pupal stage. — E. P. Butterfield, Bank House, Wilsden, June
17th, 1919.

Exactly the same thing has occurred here, a proportion of the males
being now uniformly ink black, and varying from this black, through
dark to paler olive greens, up to the old mottled type forms. The females
are now mostly perfectly black. Last Saturday I found the larvae of the
species in greater abundance in Lepton Wood than I ever remember to
have seen them in this district. Some of the trees were almost defoliated,
apparently chiefly by this species, and large numbers had no doubt
already ‘ gone down,’ as those I beat out seemed mostly full fed, and a
number of those brought home had ‘ gone down ’ by next day, and during
the next several days most had disappeared. I was not in the wood
at the beginning of the year, but apparently the moth must have then
been very common. But what does Mr. Butterfield mean by saying
that he believes ‘ retarded development ’ to be the cause of this melanism ?
There is no retarded development, climatic or other, that did not apply
to the species fifty years ago, just as it does now. — G. T. Porritt, Hudders-
field.

: o :

Dr. W. M. Tattersall, of the Manchester Museum, has been appointed
Secretary of the Museums Association.

The Report of the Norwich Museum for 1918 records the gift of a cabinet
containing 600 bird skins collected by Mr. Hamon le Strange, in Mexico,
in 1865-6, and three cabinets containing a representative collection of
4,000 Pliocene and Pleistocene Mollusca, a collection of 600 water colour
sketches of plants made by the late Miss A. M. Barnard, and a collection
of pre-histoiic remains founcLby the late W. H. Clarke.

We receive many curious communications from time to time. The
following is the most recent from a lady in Kent : — ‘ Sir no doubt you
will be suprised to hear from me but last week I wrote to the Editor of
Tit- Bits. Result an answer to the effect that he thought you would
kindly help me I should be so glad if you would I must tell you about
my trouble tho’, I have a large Aspidastra (sic) , which has had, as far as
I know, every care, yet lately the leaves have started turning yellow at the
tips I have not been able, by altering the possition of the pot, from the
light to a darker place, to stay the fault, now Mr. Editor said he felt
sure you could tell me, the cause, and what to do to remedy it, also could
you tell me of any pot manures suitable for them. I am very fond of
ferns and indoor plants and would not mind spending money on any good
fertilizer suitable. I shall look eagerly forward to your reply (a stamp
for which I enclose) and trust you will forgive my boldness in writing to

you thanking you. — I remain, yours truly, Mrs.

At the Annual Dinner of the Museums Association, held at Oxford,
the first verse of ‘ Ye Peace Song of ye Savages,’ read : —

Once again in bonnie Oxford
Do we pitch our moving tent
With its ancient seats of learning
Where the wicked ones are sent.

Where they teach them Bridge and Cricket
And a lot of little things.

And they turn them out like angels.

But they have not got the wings.

Fortunately there was present Sir Herbert Warren, Poet and Critic, and
he amended the first few lines as follows : —

Once again in bonnie Oxford
We have found a pleasant pitch
With its ancient seats of learning
Where the wicked ones are sich !

6 AUG.1919

The Birds of Yorkshire.

By T. H. NELSON, M.B.O.U.,

With the co-operation of W. Eagle Clarke, F.R.S.E., and F. Boyes.

Demy 8vo, containing 901 pages of letterpress and upwards of 200
illustrations beautifully printed in double tone ink on best Art Paper,
from photos by R. Fortune , F.Z.S. , and other well-known naturalist
photographers , also three-colour plates and specially designed title pages
in colours, strongly bound in fast coloured cloth binding .

25/- net for 15/- net.

Mr. Kearton, F.Z.S., in his review of this work for the Daily Chronicle writes : —
** Having- been born and brought up amongst the birds in one of the wildest parts
of the ‘ County of Broad Acres,’ I found myself more or less qualified to test the
accuracy of the author’s statement when his two handsome volumes came into my
possession, and I am bound to confess that he does not in the least overstate the
claims of the work. I have again and again put its accuracy and fulness to the
severest of tests, and in each instance it has come out triumphant. Mr. Nelson
and his literary and pictorial helpers have placed all British ornithologists under a
deep debt of gratitude by the production of one of the best and completest county
histories of birds ever published.”

London: A. BROWN & SONS, Ltd., 5, Farringdon Avenue, E.C.

AND AT HULL AND YORK.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF

YORKSHIRE GEOLOGY

*

By T. SHEPPARD, m.sc., f.g.s., f.r.g.s., f.s.a.(scot.)

8vo, xxxvi. + 629 pp. 15/- net.

This forms Volume XVIII. of the Proceedings of the Yorkshire
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sections, published between 1534 and 1914. In its preparation over
700 sets of Scientific Journals, Reports, Transactions and Magazines
have been examined There is an elaborate index containing over
26,500 references to subjects, authors and localities.

THE HON. LIBRARIAN, YORKSHIRE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY,
THE UNIVERSITY, LEEDS.

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A Quarterly Review of Scientific Thought,
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Editor - COLONEL SIR RONALD ROSS, K.C.B., F.R.S.

This Quarterly is now in its fourteenth year of publication. Its
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contains Recent Advances in Science (by a number of experts).
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“ Science Progress, which has now reached its thirty-ninth
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The Story of the
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368 pages Crown 8vo , printed on Art Pctper and bound in Art Cloth |
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A BOOK OF GREAT INTEREST TO YORKSHIRE PEOPLE |

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Printed at Browns’ Savile Press, 40 George Street, Hull, and published b)|
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Aug. 1st, 1919.

SEPT. 1919.

No. 752

(No. 526 of ourront oorles.

A MONTHLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OP

NATURAL HISTORY FOR THE NORTH OF ENGLAND

EDITED BY

T. SHEPPARD, M.Sc., F Q.S., F.R.Q.S., F.S.A.Scot

The Museums, Hull ;

AND

T. W. WOODHEAD, Ph.D., M.Sc., F.L.S..

Technical College, Huddersfield.

WITH THE ASSISTANCE AS REFEREES IN SPECIAL DEPARTMENTS OP

J. GILBERT BAKER, P.R.S. P.L.S., OBO. T. PORRITT, F.L.S., P.BiS.,
Prof. P. P. KENDALL, M.Sc., P.G.S., JOHN W. TAYLOR, M.Sc.,

RILEY FORTUNE, P.Z.S.

Contents : —

Notes and Comments British Association Report for 1918 : Sunset and Soul-shine ; The
Selous Collection; Lancashite and Cheshire Naturalist] Early Record of Cypripedium
calceolus] Sir William Boyd Dawkins ; Fossil Skulls, and Compression ; Brachy- and
Dolicho-cephalic ; The Galley Hill Skull; British ‘Oil-Pools’; Palasontographical
Society ; Illustrations ; Preserving Plants in Formalin ; South-Eastern Naturalists : The

Bulletin 281-286

The Jew's Ear Fungus {tiirneola auricula- judas Fr.). — Walter Johnson, F.G.S. ... 287-290

Fallen Blocks near Blea Wvke Point (illustrated)— F. G. Percival, B.Sc., F.G.S. ... 291-292

Bones of Bear from York (illustrated)— T. Sheppard, M.Sc., F.G.S 293-294

New and Rare British Spiders (illustrated)— Wm. Falconer 295-302

Yorkshire Naturalists at Hawes— W.E.L.W 303-3C8

Yorkshire Naturalists at Pateley Bridge — W.E.L.W 308-310

Correspondence: — Undocked Dogs ; Sounds that resemble the Songs and Calls of Birds... 311-312

Field Notes: — Sirex gigas in Sheffield; Calosoma inquisitor at Coniston ; Lesser Shrew
(Sorcx minutus) in Cumberland ; White Grouse Chick; Accident to a Skylark; Black-
birds using th<jf same nest twice .. 292, 294, 302

Reviews and Book Notices 310

Northern News 286, 312

News from the Magazines 312

Illustrations 291,293,295

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28i

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

BRITISH ASSOCIATION REPORT FOR 1918.

The Report of the British Association for 1918 was issued
in August, and like the 1917 volume is very ‘ thin.’ We shall
hope for better things next year. It contains the Report of
the Corresponding Societies’ Committee, already dealt
with in these pages ; the report of the Council and certain
Committees of Research. We are sorry to see that this year
the editors have reverted to the old-fashioned and inconvenient
method of having two or more sections — each separately
paged — a method which is not in the interests of the advance-
ment of science. For instance ‘ Rep. Brit. Assoc, for 1918,
page 4/ may refer either to Seismological Observations ;
Colloid Chemistry; Publications for Sale ; or (if written, ‘ iv/)
a list of the Officers of the Association. We would suggest
that the editors of this report act on the advice given to
editors of Scientific publications generally, which they will
find in their earlier volumes.

SUNSET AND SOUL-SHINE.

Nightly the setting sun irradiates

The western sky with his mote-spangled sheet
Of blue, green, gold and crimson — all too fleet ! —
Blending his blue with the azure at heavn’s gates,

And with his crimson glory spread behind
The dark horizon throwing in bold relief
Masts, roofs and trees. . . Thus may the clouds his sheaf
Of many-coloured rays flaunt and unbind.

And as the perfect light of day each hue
In due proportion needs, so with the rays

Which from our souls around we daily spread.

Be mine no broken sheaf ! — for could I shed
Beams that should pierce the fogs with crimson blaze,
Inviolate must they leave the tender blue !

Plymouth , 14^ August, 1919. Walter Garstang.

THE SELOUS COLLECTION.

Mrs. Selous has offered to present to the Natural History
Museum the magnificent collection of big game trophies
formed by her husband, the late Captain F. C. Selous, D.S.O.
The Trustees of the British Museum have accepted the gift
and in due course the collection will be transferred from its
present home at Worplesdon to South Kensington. It will
be kept together as the f Selous Collection ’ for a period of
years, and we understand that the Trustees propose to prepare
a special catalogue of the specimens. The collection consists
of about 500 trophies of the chase, most of them unusually
fine examples of their species . The greater part of the collection

1919 Sept. 1

T

282

Notes and Comments.

is African, but there are also several heads of moose, wapiti,
and caribou from Canada and Newfoundland, chamois from
the Southern Carpathians, and wild goat from. Asia Minor.
Mrs. Selous’ gift also includes Captain Selous’ European
collection of bird’s eggs, one of the' finest private collections
of the kind in the kingdom.

LANCASHIRE AND CHESHIRE NATURALIST.

The first part of Volume XII. of The Lancashire and
Cheshire N aturalist , with its new Editor (Dr. W. M. Tattersall)
and new publishers (The Manchester University Press) is
distinctly an improvement on its predecessors, though we
must bear in mind that when Mr. Western commenced its
publication in 1907, the price was one penny, whereas it is
now ninepence. An editorial appropriately refers to Mr.
Western’s work, though we don’t agree that he provided
‘ the only medium which Lancashire workers have at their
disposal for the publication of their results.’ Dr. Tattersall
will find, if he enquires, that a journal called The Naturalist
Las been publishing valuable papers on the geology and
natural history of Lancashire and Cheshire for about twice as
long as he has been born, and is still prepared to print really
important records dealing with those counties. Personally
we should have thought a publication ostensibly dealing with
two important counties would have been more scientifically
valuable if it confined its records to those counties ; but
we notice the editor will consider ‘tany paper read before
any of the local societies, even though the subject matter does
not deal with our area ’ ; and ‘ Madeira and its Flora ’ is
the title of the first article in the new issue. We fear, however,
that naturalists interested in Madeira1 will hardly think of
consulting The Lancashire and Cheshire Naturalist.

EARLY RECORD OF CYPRIPEDIUM CALCEOLUS.

In the memoirs and proceedings of the Manchester Literary
and Philosophical Society, Volume LXIII., Part 1, is an
interesting account of ‘ The Herbarium of John Dalton,’ by
R. S. Adamson and Alison Me. K. Crabtree. The collection
is contained in eleven volumes, and we note that 'among
these is a very fine specimen of the now exceedingly rare
Ladies’ Slipper, Cypripedium calceolus (v. 14) from Arncliffe,
Yorkshire. This specimen is undated, but as the volume
contains most of the Manchester records, and as early in the
next volume are plants dated 1797, it was in all probability
before that date. If so, the record would antedate those given
for this region in Lees’ ’ Flora of West Yorkshire,’ where
1805 is given.’ The note accompanying the specimen is
Ladies’ Slipper, from the Marshes about Arncliffe, in Craven.
Presented to me by Nancy Wilson, of Thornton- in-Craven.’

Naturalist.

Notes and Comments. 283

The word ‘ locality ’ would fit the facts better than ‘ region ’
in the above account.

SIR WILLIAM BOYD DAWKINS.

Our sincere congratulations go to a past president of the
Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union whose name appears among the
list of Knights, just published. Our readers know Sir
William’s many qualifications for the honour. The following
are those given in the daily press y — ‘Professor William
Boyd Dawkins, the distinguished geologist, has been in great
demand as an expert in works of public utility, and among the
problems he has had to deal with are those of the Channel
Tunnel, the water supplies of some of the largest towns in the
kingdom, the Manchester Ship Canal, and the Dover coalfield.
His connection with Manchester began in 1869, when he was
appointed curator of the Manchester Museum. A year later he
became Lecturer on Geology in the Owen’s College, and in
1874 he was appointed Professor of Geology and Palaeontology.
On his retirement in 1901' he was elected honorary professor,
and his interest in the University' has never flagged. His
travels have been world -wide.’

FOSSIL SKULLS,

In Man for August, Dr. S. Hansen has an article on
‘ Posthumous Deformation of Fossil Human Skulls,’ which
should be carefully read by those interested in pre-historic
human remains. He points out that : ‘ As a rule it is not

possible to see whether a -fossil skull has been compressed or
not, nor how far the compression has gone. It is, however,
a well-known fact that even thick, hard-baked pieces of
pottery found with such skulls are not rarely compressed to
such an extent that a similar compression of the skulls them-
selves is at all events highly probable.

AND COMPRESSION.

Fossil skulls are usually found lying on their sides. They
must, therefore, when compressed have a lesser breadth and
a greater length than they had before death. The cephalic
index must, in other terms, be reduced, and it can easily be
shown that a considerable reduction may be due to a very
slight compression. It is, as is well known, generally agreed
that long or dolichocephalic skulls are those in which the great-
est breadth is less than four-fifths, and round or brachycephalic
skulls those in which it is more than four -fifths of the greatest
length. Suppose, now, we have a skull measuring 180 mm.
in length and.153 mm. in breadth, and suppose, also, that this
skull, whose cephalic index is 85, has been compressed from
side to side only 5 mm., and at the same time elongated
equally 5 mm., you will then have a skull measuring 185 mm.
in length and 148 mm. in breadth, and giving a cephalic index

1919 Sept. 1

284

Notes and Comments .

of 80. Such very slight compression has thus turned a fairly
round or brachycephalic skull into a mesaticephalic one/
BRACHY- AND DOLICHOCEPHALIC.

‘ If we take another skull, still brachycephalic, measuring
184 mm. in length and 152 mm. in breadth, giving a cephalic
index of 82-6, and suppose it to be compressed in the same way
to a breadth of 147 mm. and elongated to a length of 189 mm.,
giving a cephalic index of 77- 8, then this skull has become a
dolichocephalic one, I leave it to the reader to pursue the
argument .

THE GALLEY HILL SKULL.

No doubt many fossil human skulls have been compressed
far more than 5 mm., not to mention such a one as the famous
Galley Hill skull, which was not compressed but crushed, and
afterwards restored, with a quite phantastic length. I do
not wish to exaggerate the importance of posthumous deforma-
tion, and the foregoing figures sufficiently prove that this
importance is great enough for my purpose. A difference in
cephalic index of about five units is considerable, and always,
when true, indicates a clear racial difference. The extent of
the compression depends, however, on the manner of burial.
A corpse buried in loose soil will usually have the skull more
compressed than one buried in a protecting chamber or cist,
where the skull is perhaps not compressed at all. This means
that a different cephalic index may be due solely to a different
form of burial and, further, that a cephalic index of a living
population greater than that of its ancestors in the same
country may be due solely to a posthumous compression of
the skulls of the latter/

BRITISH ‘ OIL-POOLS/

In The Geological Magazine for August, Mr. V. C. Illing
refers to the recent ‘ discovery ' of oil in Britain. He points
out that the question ‘ of the possible occurrence of oil-pools
in Great Britain .... is essentially a geological one, and the
British School of Geologists holds no uncertain views about
the project, yet these views have been completely overshadow-
ed by the insistent utterances of a few individuals/ Also,
‘ small quantities of oil and gas locally preserved among the
impervious strata are both possible and probable. Such
occurrences, however, are too small to be of commercial
importance/ We are glad to find that Mr. Illing so forcibly
supports the opinion we have all along expressed as to the
fallacy of expecting large quantities of oil from British
strata.

PAL^ONTOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.

Volume LXXI. of the Palaeontographical Society’s
Memoirs contains further instalments of three valuable

Naturalist,

Notes and Comments.

285

monographs, as well as the Index to Volume I. of The
Pliocene Mollusca/ by F. W. Harmer. The Secretary,
Dr. A. Smith Woodward, completes his work on ‘The Fossil
Fishes of the English Wealden and Purbeck Formations/ and
after very careful comparison concludes that the fishes of
these formations are essentially Jurassic and not mingled
with any typically Cretaceous forms. ‘ Most of them are,
indeed, the specialised and evidently final representatives of
the Jurassic families to which they belong, and very few can be
regarded as possible ancestors of fishes which followed in
Cretaceous and later times/

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Mr. W. K. Spencer gives a further instalment of his
monograph of British Palaeozoic Asterozoa, in which new
species are described, accompanied by figures showing extra-
ordinary detail, and Mr. Philip Lake contributes Part V. of
his ‘ Cambrian Trilob ites/ The illustrations, as usual, are
excellent, even Mr. Harmer’s Index being accompanied by a
view' of ‘ Pit of Waltonian Crag at Little Oakley from which
the author has obtained shells of about 650 species or well-
marked varieties of Mollusca, besides upwards of 100 specimens
•[? species] of Polyzoa, etc/ With regard to the illustration of
Hybodus from the Weald Clay (Plate XXVI., Fig. 3) we are
glad this specimen has been described by a geologist, had it
fallen into the hands of a ‘ pre-historian ’ it would surely have
been introduced to the scientific world as a ‘ sculpture ’ of a
hippopotamus, carved by palaeolithic man.

PRESERVING PLANTS IN FORMALIN.

At a recent meeting of the Linnean Society, Miss M.
Rathbone exhibited a series of specimens preserved by sub-
mitting them to the action of formalin vapour. She stated :

‘ Some years ago it occurred to me to try to find some method of
preserving plants which would not destroy either their form
or colour. I began by trying liquid paraffin, and this at
first gave very promising results ; but after a time the speci-
mens became mouldy, and, if antiseptics such as salicylic
acid were added, the colour disappeared. It then occurred
to me to try formalin vapour, hoping that in this way the
tissues of the plants might be hardened, and at the same
time that the colour might be preserved. Unfortunately,
the results have fallen far short of my ideal ! The colour fades
after a time, and the stalks and petals often become limp.
However, in spite of these drawbacks, the method may have
its uses, as, in plants preserved in this way, the microscopic
characters of the tissues and the form of the flower and relation-
ship of its parts are less altered than in dried specimens,

1919 Sept. 1

286

Notes and Comments .

whilst for travellers specimens preserved in this way are
lighter and more convenient to carry then plants preserved
inspirit. I found that it was best to dilute the formalin
with water, one part formalin to one or two parts of water
and possibly an even weaker solution might answer. Cotton-
wool soaked in this solution is put at the bottom of the bottle,
or it may be tied round the stalks of the plants, enough being
used to ensure a damp atmosphere. The bottles or boxes
in which the plants are kept should be air-tight, and I found
that candle-grease dropped over the cork answered very well/
SOUTH-EASTERN NATURALISTS.

The South Eastern Union of Scientific Societies held its
Annual Conference in London, June nth to 14th, under the
Presidency of Sir Daniel Morris. Arrangements had been
made for the members to visit various places of antiquarian
and general interest in and around London, and addresses
were delivered by the President-elect, Dr. Arthur Smith
Woodward, on ‘ Giant Reptiles of the Weald ’ ; by Mr. L. W.
Chubb, on ‘ The Woodlands of London * ; by Dr. A. R. Rendle ;
by Captain A. W. Hill on * Care of our Soldiers’ Graves in the
Military Cemeteries Abroad ; and by Mr. R. A. Smith on
‘ Palaeolithic Remains in London/ Special interest was
attached to the visits paid to the printing offices of some of
the leading London daily papers.

THE BULLETIN.

Under the editorship of Mr. E. A. Martin, a daily Bulletin
was issued, giving particulars of the various meetings and
excursions, in addition to which the editor discoursed on
various subjects connected with the Societies’ meetings, gave
biographies of the lecturers, and information of more or less
general interest relating to such subjects as f the recent find
of Roman remains in Scotland,’ * Oil in Derbyshire,’ and other
matters on which presumably the members of the conference
required information. We notice that in his account of the
‘ Reptiles of the Weald,’ the editor refers to ‘ Flying Reptiles,’
which landed ‘ Hawker-like ’ in the quickly flowing waters,

‘ and were not able to rise again.' We hope Mr. Hawker does
not see this ! We learn from Bulletin number 28, that a
catalogue of the Union’s books has appeared in The Naturalist ,
whereas, if we remember rightly, it was The Naturalist which
criticised the unnecessary amount of type expended in the
preparation of this catalogue, which appeared in another pub-
lication called The South Eastern Naturalist.

0

Dr. A. Smith Woodward has been elected a trustee of 'The Percy
Sladen Memorial Fund,’ in place of Sir John R. Bradford, who has
retired.

Naturalist,

THE JEW’S EAR FUNGUS

{Hirneola aurtcula-judce , Fr.).

287

WALTER JOHNSON, F.G.S.

( Continued from page 258).

Occasionally the older name Exidia creeps in,* but more
astonishing is the use of Auricularia sambucina — a curious
revival and recombination — in a modern standard work on
botany, f Auricularia is now, however, held to comprise
those bracket-like fungi, silky and zoned above, in which the
hyphae are so interwoven as to form a coriaceous cap, and in
which the inferior fertile surface is broken up like a honeycomb.
True, Auricularia is gelatinous when moist, and horny when
dry, like Hirneola , moreover the name means ‘ a little ear.'
But the critical points of the fructification are different. J

Linnaeus was plainly wrong, from our point of view, in
accepting the Jew's ear as a Peziza, for this genus is now recog-
nized as belonging to an entirely different order, the Ascomy-
cetes, in which the spores are borne in tiny sacs, or asci. For
the use of the name Tremella there was more reason, but there
are numerous points which separate this genus from Hirneola.
For instance, in Tremella, the cup is wavy, plaited, or foliaceous,
the fertile surface covers the whole fungus, and a specimen,
when handled, tends to deliquesce.

James Sowerby, who, in his three volumes issued between
the years 1797-1809, gave beautiful illustrations of over 400
species, unfortunately does not depict the Jew’s ear, hence
his nomenclature is also lacking.

Fries, as already stated, at first termed the Jew’s ear an
Exidia, and this genus is more difficult to define. The soft
cheesy substance of the members of this group, as exemplified
in ‘ Witches’ butter ’ (E. glandulosa) , the irregular shape,
and the papillations or warts which are sometimes found
on the hymenium are distinctive points. § The minute warts
or papillae are sometimes observed on Hirneola, for Fries
wrote, * In disco nitido quoque observantur papillae minutis-
simae sparsae. V aria de hujus usu disserunt veter es. || Yet
Berkeley clearly states that the hymenium of Jew’s ear lacks
papillae. ij The truth, so far as I can observe, seems to be
that some specimens only have the warts, in other examples

* See W. Miller, ‘ Diet, of the Eng. Names of Plants,' 1884, p. 70.
f A. Kerner von Marilaun and F. W. Oliver, ‘ Nat. Hist, of Plants,’
1902, II., p. 687.

J Massee, ‘ Brit. Fungus-Flora,’ I., pp. 53-58.

§ Massee, ‘ Brit. Fungi,’ pp. 444-6.

|| ‘ Syst. Mycol,’ I., p. 222.

If ' Outlines,’ p. 289.

1919 Sept, l

288 Johnson : The Jew's Ear Fungus.

they are either absent or feebly developed. Exactly what
were the features which led Fries to reconsider his nomenclature
I do not pretend to know, but one assumes that the claims of
Hirneola rest little upon priority, but much upon diagnostic
features. The name for which Fries ultimately made himself
sponsor was apparently, for the sake of euphony, modified
from hirnella or irnella ( = a little jug, probably the diminutive
of hirnea, a jug).* * * §

In one of his numerous works, Cooke consistently wrote
the second part of the specific name, ‘ Judaae,’ f but this
retention of the a in the genitive is not justified, either in the
Greek or the Latin form of the disciple’s name.

VII.-— Popular Name and Folk-Lore. The popular
name, ‘ Jew’s ear,’ were it not traceable backwards for several
centuries,, would naturally be considered merely as a stupid
mistranslation of Auricula judae , which obviously signifies
‘ Judas’s ear.’ The Latinized form of ‘ Jew ’ is Judaeus,
with its genitive Judaei, yet we found that Gerard,
while using ‘ Judae,’ interprets it by the folk-name ‘ Iewes
Eare.’ .Strangely enough, few writers have called attention
to the discrepancy. Sir Thomas Browne, indeed, declares
that the name ‘ concerneth not the nation of the Jews, but
Judas Iscariot, upon a conceit he hanged on this tree. |
Rabelais, in ‘ Pantagruel,’ has the correct rendering, when,
in a list of salads, he speaks of -‘ d’aureilles de Judas ( c’est
une forme de hinges is sans des vieulx suzeaulx [sureaux=
elders]).’ § Mrs. Hussey carefully lays stress on ‘Judas’s
ears,’ || .while Delisle Hay, after calling the fungus ‘ St. Judas
Iscariot’s mushroom,’ adds ‘ Saint’s Day, April 31st, (?).
Appearing about this date is the Jew’s Ear . . . . TJ In another
place he refers to the association of the fungus with Judas’s
ear as a ‘monkish legend.’** The magnificent ‘New Oxford
Dictionary,’ from which I have obtained several useful clues, .
calls attention, as might have been anticipated, to the confusion
between the popular and the Latin names.

The name Jew’s ear goes back at least a generation before
the date of Gerard’s great work, for Thomas Phaer, or Phaire,
writing in 1560, speaks of ‘ the musherom yt groweth upon an
elder tree called in englyshe Jewes eares (for it is indede croncled
and flat, much like an eare’).|f

* I. J. G. Scheller, * Lat. Diet./ ed. Riddle, 1835; Short, ‘ Lat. Diet.’,
gives also hivnula.

f ‘ Brit. Edible Fungi,' 1891.

X Op. cit., I. p. 214.

§ ‘ GEuvres,’ ed. Le Duchat and Le Motteaux, 1879, t. iv., p. 194.

II loc. cit.

• ‘ Elem. Text-book of Brit. Fungi,’ 1887, p. 228.

** Op. cit., p. 133.

ft ‘ Tbe Regiment of Life/ 1560, sig. T, j. page b.

Naturalist

Johnson : The Jew's Ear Fungus. 289

Taking these references by themselves, * Jew’s ear ’ might
appear to be the older name, yet other considerations, and
notably those associated with the folk-lore of the elder, render
it almost certain that a particular Jew, the traitorous disciple,
was involved in the tradition. How and when the change
was made is not known. Mr. Edward Step shrewdly suggests
that the alteration occurred at one of the periods when
Judenhetze, or persecution of the Jews was rife, and he asserts
that an eax was no uncommon adornment of the ancient
pillory. * The theory may well stand until a better is offered.
At all events, the fungus was famous in ancient times, as noted
by Fries, who observed that it had at length been illustrated
by Clusius. (Antiquitus celebrata, jam a Clusio depict a) . f

The tradition to which allusion has iust been made is that
the elder was the tree on which Judas hanged himself. The
earliest reference to the legend, so far as I can discover, is that
of the English Munchausen, Sir John Maundeviie, (c. a.d. 1355),
who, relying upon the credulity of those who might read his
travels, thus wrote, ‘ And fast by, [in Jerusalem] is yet the
Tree of Elder that Judas hanged himself upon.’ J Unfortun-
ately for this story, the elder, as Prof. G. S. Boulger notes, is
not a native of Syria. § Rather later than Maundeviie,
(c. a.d. 1377), we have an interesting passage in the ‘ Vision of
William concerning Piers the Plowman ’ :

“ Iudas he iaped. with iiwen [Jewen] siluer.

And sithen or an eller. honged him after.’ [|

Passing over three centuries, we observe that Shakespeare
makes Holof ernes say, ‘ Begin, sir ; you are my elder ’ : to
which Biron replies, ‘ Well followed : Judas was hanged on
an elder.’ Again Ben Jonson has a similar remark : ‘ He
shall be your Judas, and you shall be his elder-tree to hang on.’**
From this time onwards we meet numerous references both
to the elder superstition** and the virtues of the Jew’s ear ;
‘a few of these will be mentioned in the next sections. Mean-
while, it is necessary to state that there are other claimants
to notoriety as gallows-trees.

The fig tree has been put forward as the tree selected by

* ‘ Sketches of Country Life,’ 1910, p. 39.

f ‘ Hymen. Europ.,’ p. 695. The reference is presumably to Charles
de L’licluse, who wrote at the end of the 16th and the early part of the
seventeenth centuries.

X ‘ The Marvellous Adventures of Sir John Maundeviie, Kt.’, ed.
A. Layard, 1895, p. 112.

§ ‘ Familiar Trees,’ N.D., I., p. 138.

|| Skeat’s edition, 1888, Passus I., 11. 67-8.

11 ‘ Love’s Labour’s Lost,’ Act. V., Sc. 2, lines 609-10.

** ‘ Every Man out of his Humour,’ Act. IV., Sc. 4. The elder is
still called ‘ Judas tree ’ in Kent, (Eng. Dial. Diet., s.v.).

1919 Sept. 1

290 Johnson : The Jew’s Ear Fungus.

Judas, perhaps not altogether foolishly. * A Wendish legend
claims the aspen, while at Palermo, the tamarind is fav-
oured. f A more serious rival to the elder, however, is the
* Judas tree ’ (Cercis Siliquastrum) 3 specifically so called.
This leguminous tree, with its curious orbicular leaves and
handsome rosy flowers, is seen in England only as an exotic
in our parks and public gardens, but it has the advantage,
in its appeal, of being found in a wild state in Palestine. J
Both Gerard and Johnson, his editor, call this tree Arbor
Judes, and remark that it may be called, in English, Judas
tree,’ because it was thought to be the tree on which Judas
hanged himself, and not the elder. § One infers that Gerard
did not invent the name Arbor Judes, but no earlier record
seems to be forthcoming. The German Judasbaum, and the
French, Arbre de Judee, || (which, however, means ‘ Tree of
Judaea -) are also interesting, but in the absence of dates
concerning these names we cannot compare one legend with
the other.

The pretensions of Cercis were rudely brushed aside by the
late Dr. Cobham Brewer, who declared that the name ‘ Judas ’
in this association was really a corruption of the Greek word
kuamos, the ‘ bean '* * § tree, and that the confusion gave rise
to the tradition. U Cercis, it is true, is a leguminous tree,
with a fruit like that of a bean — one may sometimes see the
brown pods in Kew Gardens — and a kind of bean (kuamos)
is known to have been used in Athens for the electing of
officers by lot.** On the other hand, Dr. William Smith
definitely asserts that kuamos was the equivalent of the Latin
faba, and certainly represented some kind of field bean. If
Even were the case otherwise, Dr. Brewer is a broken reed
in matters of etymology, and the supposed transformation of
the words, philologically considered, seems very improbable.
Such questions are fit only for academic pastime ; it is enough .
for us to know that there was a tradition connected with the 4
British elder, and that the tradition tinged the vulgar ideas
about the parasitic fungus.

(To be continued ).

* J. Timbs, ‘ Things not generally known/ new edition, p. 98.

f Publns. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer., 1916, xxxi., p. 183, and note.

t J. C. Loudon, ‘ Arboretum et Fruticum Botanicum,’ 1838, II., p. 658.

§ Gerard, II., p. 1240; Johnson, p. 1428.

|| Loudon, loc. cit.

i[ L. Cobham Brewer,’ Diet, of Phrase and Fable,’ 24th edition, p. 466.

** If. Nettleship and J. E. Sandys, ‘ Diet. Class. Antiqs.,’ 1899 p. 426a.
tf ‘ Diet, of Greek and Roman Antiqs.,” 1866, p. 57.

II Moreover, under ‘ Arbor Judae,’ he declares that these words are
a corruption of the Spanish Arbol Judia, the bean-tree. It is true that
the Spanish word judia means both a French bean and a Jewess, but the
term used for Cercis is Arbol de amor.

Naturalist,

291

FALLEN BLOCKS NEAR BLEA WYKE POINT.

F. G. PERCIVAL, P>.SC., F.G.S.

On April 1 2th, while walking from Ravenscar along the coast
to Hayburn Wyke, we came across two interesting structures

while still in a plastic condition. The accompanying photo-
graph renders further description unnecessary.

The second block was not so easily explained. The surface
of the block was roughly four feet long and two feet across,
and was pitted with squarish hollows, each about an inch
across. It is perhaps possible that these markings were due
to two systems of ripple-marks crossing each other, but this is

in fallen blocks of Lower Estuarine Sandstone. The first was
a sandstone which had apparently been subjected to folding

1919 Sept. 1

292

Field Notes.

unlikely for two reasons; first, many of the hollows were
undercut, and secondly there appeared to be small ‘ tubercles *
in many of the pits. It seems possible that the marks are the
cast of a reptilian skin, the hollows corresponding to scutes,
and the smaller * tubercles J to pittings in the scutes.

About forty feet above the top of the Dogger, at Blea
Wyke, are a couple of coal seams. These come down to the
shore southwards, and the block was found a few yards from
the cliff base, near the point where these coal-seams can be
reached from the beach, about three-quarters of a mile south
of Blea Wyke point.

: o :

Sirex gigas in Sheffield . — A few days ago, a fine specimen
of Sirex gigas was seen flying in one of the principal streets
in the centre of Sheffield. It finally alighted on a boy’s
shoulder. I can recollect that some years ago a specimen of
this insect entered at the open windows of a school, situated
only a very short distance from the same place.- — J. M. Brown,
Sheffield, 19th July, 1919.

— : o ; —

Calosoma inquisitor at Coniston. — During a visit to
Coniston about the first week in June .(1919) I took four
females of Calosoma inquisitor , all running on the road near
Tilberthwaite. They have been identified by Mr. J. W.
Carter, of Bradford, from whom I gather that this beetle has
not previously been recorded in the North of England. —
Geo. Grace, The Museum, Keighley.

— : o : —

Lesser Shrew (Sorex minutus) in Cumberland. —

The Lesser Shrew is probably distributed sparingly throughout
the Lake District, but there seem to be few actual records of
its occurrence. A couple of handfuls of pellets of the Tawny
Owl— at least such I judged them to be from their size and the
place where they were found — that I gathered last June from
beneath a fir tree in a plantation on the bank of Crummock
Water yielded four skulls of the Lesser Shrew (Sorex minutus) ,
eighteen of the Common Shrew (S. araneus) , four of the Long-
tailed Fieldmouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) , and forty-six of
the Field Vole (Microtus agrestis). The analysis revealed a
limited range of diet : no Water Shrew, no Bank or Water
Vole, no Rabbit, and no bird of any species, but its chief
interest consisted perhaps in the relative plenty of the Lesser
Shrew. Out of twenty-two Shrews’ skulls four, or eighteen
per cent, were referable to that species, a ratio that is much
higher than is usual in owl-pellets in most parts of England. —
Chas. Oldham, Berkhamsted, Herts.

Naturalist

BONES OF BEAR FROM YORK.

T. SHEPPARD, M.SC. , F.G.S.

On page 36 of Volume V. of The Natural History Journal
published at York by the Society of Friends’ Schools, in 1881,
appears the following note: ‘A bone identified by James
Backhouse, of York, confirmed by Mr. W. Davies of the
British Museum, as the metatarsal of the Cave Bear or else
Ursus arctos, was given me by a workman at the Bishopthorpe

Views of Metatarsal of Bear found at

gravel pits. He found it about 10 ft. below the surface,
which is here the summit of a ridge, about 40 ft. above the
river, dividing it from Knavesmire. So far as I am aware
this is the first bone obtained from these gravel pits, and the
first near York of a carnivorous animal, facts which give it
considerable importance.’

The note is illustrated by three views of the bone, on
plate 2.’ On reading the note at the time, it occurred to
me that in all probability this bone was a relic of the old
whaling days, and had somehow been thrown out among some
rubbish, eventually finding its way into a field, being found
again during the excavations for gravel. In the old days it

1919 Sept. 1

294

Field Notes.

was a common practice for the feet of polar bears to be very
crudely stuffed with sawdust, a large disc of wood being placed
where the foot was severed from the leg, and these ‘ curios *
were preserved in various houses until. such time as the primi-
tive method of preservation resulted in the specimen harbouring
moths, and becoming offensive, when they were thrown away,
together with the contained small bones, claws, etc.

A little while ago Mr. S. H. Smith sent me for examination
a quantity of glacial-borne boulders and bones, from the
Dunnington gravel pits at York, which were owned by Messrs.
J . H . Walker and Co . The boulders were typical of the glacial
moraine in which the gravel pit occurs, and include rocks from
Teesdale and the Lake District. The bones were obviously
quite modern, and from the surface soil, and among them was
the canine tooth of a polar bear, obviously comparatively
modern and having no connexion with the gravel. These
teeth are occasionally turned up in different parts of the dis-
trict. We obtained one a little time ago among some seven-
teenth century rubbish during excavations in Hull.

As a result of this second find at York I communicated with
Mr. J. E. Clark, who fortunately had preserved the bone of
the bear, and this he has kindly presented to our Museum.
A careful examination convinces me that the suggestion I
have just made is correct, and that it had nothing to do with
the gravel from which it was picked up, and this opinion is
also that of the late E. T. Newton, F.R.S., who examined
the bone for me.

It seems odd that remains of the bear should have occurred
in two different gravel pits at York, five miles apart, but their
age must be put down to that of about a century ago, when
the well-known jaw-bones of whales and other Arctic relics
were distributed over the country, especially in the vicinity of
rivers and canals.

As the record in The Natural History Journal for 1881 may
be included in palaeontological literature, if not corrected,
this note has been written.

White Grouse Chick. — On one of the Bolton Abbey
Moors the keeper told me there is a brood of young grouse, one
bird of which is pure white. It is not known if the eyes are
pink or normal. — Jasper Atkinson.

Accident to a Skylark. — Casualties caused by entangle-
ment to horsehair used in nest linings are not uncommon to
bush -breeding birds, but a similar accident to a ground-
breeder must be unusual. I had a Skylark under observation
and visited the nest to see if the eggs had been hatched out.
The bird was dead on the nest with its beak driven into the
nest bottom and the head was held firmly down by a horsehair
across the back of the neck. — Jasper Atkinson.

Naturalist,

295.

NEW AND RARE BRITISH SPIDERS.

WM. FALCONER,
Slaithwaite , Huddersfield

During recent years many rare spiders have passed through
my hands, and a few of the most noteworthy are here given
more accessible and permanent record than that afforded by
my note-books, together with the descriptions and figures of
two species which I believe to be new to science. Collectors
and localities : — R.A.T. the Rev. R. A. Taylor, of Burnley,
Cornwall, 1913-17 ; W.P.W., Mr. W. P. Winter, of Shipley,

Troglohyphantes margerisoni sp. nov.

Epigyne of female. Fig. 1, from below ; fig. 2, from the side and a little below.

Enoplognatha mandibularis Luc.

Fig. 3. Epigyne of female.

Maro humicola sp. nov.

Epigyne of female. Fig. 4, view of lower surface. Fig. 5, view of upper surface.
Fig. 6, in profile.

Maro minutus Camb.

Fig. 7. Epigyne of female.

Maro falconerii Jacks.

Fig. 8. Epigyne of female.

Gloucestershire, 1912-14 ; T.S., Mr. T. Stainforth, of Hull.
Norfolk, July, 1916, Sussex, 1917 ; S.M. Mr. S. Margerison,
Cumberland, 1913 ; uninitialled, the writer, Lancashire,
1903 and 1912, Isle of Man, 1908, Sussex, 1911.

Drassus minusculus L. Koch. Yarmouth, T.S. ; the few other
records known to me are all for the south of England.

Prosthesima nigvita Fabr. Charlton Common, W.P.W., wide-
spread but rare.

1919 Sept. 1

296

Falconer : New and Rare British Spiders.

Clubiona ccerulescens L. Kd>ch. g , Arnside Knot, beneath debris
of conifers, August, 1903 ; reported from a few places in the south ;
the only other northern record, Aberdeen (‘ Spiders of Dorset ').

C. subtilis L. Koch. Both sexes, Yarmouth, T.S., a southern,
mostly dune, spider, but plentiful on Spurn and in Wicken Fen.

Agroeca striata Kulcz. Puckham, W.P.W., noted for a few
places on the south coast.

Scotina gracilipes Bl. Four ^s, Point of Ayre, Isle of Man.

Cryphoeca silvicola C.L.K. Andover and Leckhampton, W.P.W.,

a northern form, stated not to occur south of Norfolk, but as it has
also been taken in Glamorgan (Dr. Jackson), it is thus found to
extend farther along the western than the eastern side of Great
Britain .

Theridion blackwallii Camb . , <£, Poulton, Lancashire, R.A.T.,
July, 1917 ; rare, on record for Surrey, Oxford, Wicken Fen and
Northants.

Teutana grossa C. L. Koch, a melanic Lizard Peninsula,
R.A.T. ; very rare as a British species, reported from S.W. Ireland
and two or three localities in S.W. England; a Mediterranean species.

Enoplognatha mandibularis Luc. $, Yarmouth, T.S. Previous
records, Dorset and Channel Islands ; abroad, extending from the
Mediterranean countries eastward to China. As no figure or des-
cription of the epigyne appears in any English work, I give both.
The organ (fig. 3) is minute, inconspicuous and the details not
easily made out ; it is transverse and close up to the epigastric
border ; anteriorly there is a small, narrow transverse process, directed
slightly inwards ; behind this a transverse ventlike orifice, having
at each end a tiny round tubercle ; the posterior margin curves in-
wards .

Laseola inornata Camb., Point of Ayre, Isle of Man ; other
records are all for the south.

Troglohyphantes margerisoni sp. nov. (figs. 1 and 2). One $,
south of Buttermere, Sept., 1913, S.M., to whose memory I have the
greatest pleasure in dedicating it. Description and figures, pp. 295
and 297.

Hilaira excisa Camb. Lizard Peninsula, R.A.T., I know no
other southern records, except for Glamorgan and Dorset.

Coryphceus dentichelis Sim. ( Tmeticus simplex). Fairhaven,

near Lytham, on foreshore ; widely distributed but uncommon, often
occurring in sewage works.

Sintula cornigera Bl. ^ Grange -on -Sands. Widespread, but rare.

Maro humicola sp. nov; (figs. 4, 5, 6). $s, Ainley Place beck,

Slaithwaite, odd examples every year since 19 11 (April and May) ;
1$ Hardcastle Crags, Hebden Bridge. In the former place confined
to a small recess between the wood and the miniature ravine. Per-
sistent search there and elsewhere has failed to turn up the male.
Other rare species of the same genus ( minutus Camb. and falconerii
Jacks.) equally as small occur with it, but more frequently in both
sexes. Description and figures pp. 295 and 300.

Entelecara thorellii Westr. §, Cleethorpes, E. A. Parsons, May,
1910, reported from Northumberland, Cumbs., Westmorland, Yorks.,
Southport and Edinburgh.

Stylocteior penicillatus Westr. Cheltenham, W.P.W.

Prosopothcca monoceros Wid. Crickley and Cheltenham, W.P.W.

W alchenaer a nodosa Camb. <$, 5, Buttermere, S.M. ; on record for
Ulster, Northumberland; Cumbs., Yorks., Staffs., Dorset and North
France.

Meta menardi Latr. Chapel-en-le-Frith, C. Hastings ; Butter-

mere, both sexes, S.M. ; Cave at Killibegs, Donegal, October, 1911,
R. Sanderson.

Naturalist,

Falconer : New and Rare British Spiders.

297

Philodromus praedatus Camb. £ , Maresfield, Sussex, T.S. Its
validity as a species distinct from P. aureolus Clerck has been
questioned, but it differs somewhat in markings and is of stouter
build ; its palp and palpal organs are on a larger scale, and the
spines beneath the palpal tibiae are more numerous and stronger.
Simon, the most noted of arachnologists, believes it to be a good
species. On record for Dorset and Delamere (Cheshire).

Oxyptila flexa Camb. Puckham, W.P.W. For many years
it has been known that the names O . flexa and O . praticola attached
to figs. ire. and ne. PI. B. Proc. Dorset Field Club, Vol. XVI.,
1895, are wrongly placed and should be transposed to be correct,
but Mr. Cambridge for some reason or other never published the
correction .

0. sanctuaria Camb. Clarach Valley, Aberystwith, 1^, August*
1911, W.P.W. ; Polegate, Sussex, 1^.

Xysticus ulmi Hahn. Two $s, adult and imm. examples, Martin
Beck Wood, V.C. 63, Dr. Corbett, new to Yorkshire. The examples
stated to have been taken in Yorkshire (Trans. Linn. Soc., Vol.
XXVII., 1870, p. 405, sub Thomisus westwgodii Camb.) were really
from Oxfordshire.

DESCRIPTION OF NEW SPECIES.

TrOGLOHYPH ANTES- MARGERISONI, Sp. nov.

Female, length 2.6 m.m., figs. 1 and 2.

Cephalothorax, wholly suffused blackish, with a slender darker
marginal line ; broadly ovate, a little longer than wide, well atten-
uated forward. Caput distinctly defined by wide, deep, converging
lateral depressions ; a little elevated behind the eyes and sloping
forward. Profile line thence curving to the thoracic junction,
where there is a long linear dark reddish brown strie, behind which
the posterior slope, triangularly excavated, descends gradually to
the widely and shallowly emarginate posterior margin. Thoracic
sutures widely sunk. Hairs, few, 3-4 stiff forward curved ones in
1 longituduinal line centrally placed behind the posterior eyes.

Ocular Area, prominent, the eyes occupying the whole of the
upper front ; provided with a few strong hairs.

Eyes, eight in two rows. Posterior row somewhat recurved, eyes
moderate in size, well separated, equidistant, the centrals apparently
a little the smaller. Anterior row slightly procurved, the central
pair somewhat projecting, much the smallest of the eight and closer
to each other than to the laterals, which are apparently larger than
the posterior ones. Lateral eyes on strong prominences. Central
eye space a little longer than wide, and much narrower in front than
behind. The limits of the eyes, however, are ill-defined and the
pigmentation is weak, and details therefore difficult to make out
correctly.

Clypeus, a little higher than the ocular area and concave below
it, (the concavity all the more conspicuous by reason of the advanced
position of the eyes) and then inclined to the frontal edge, near
which is a transverse line of 6-7 short spines.

Falces, Maxillae, Labium and Palpi, dull yellow brown,
slightly suffused blackish.

Falces, strong, without basal smooth area, much exceeding the
clypeus in length, vertical, cylindrical towards base, then somewhat
convex in front and behind, finally attenuated and a little divergent
towards extremity and roundly truncated on apical inner margin.
Towards the inner edge of each a longitudinal row of three long
strong bristles directed across each other. A little below the middle
of the inner face, a group of small, irregularly disposed spines.

1919 Sept. 1

U

Falconer : New and Rare British Spiders.

Upper fang groove armed with 3 spaced conical teeth, the middle
one the longest, the third shorter and blunter, all well removed
from the insertion of the fang, which is long, curved and sharply-
pointed. Lower fang groove with 4 small contiguous granular teeth.

Maxillae, about ij times as long as broad, internally curved
towards the labium, obliquely truncate at apex, leaving an obtuse
angle above, near which is a short, slender, black, sloping serrula ;
this angle and the inner margin as far as the labium clothed with a
dense scopula of long hairs. On the outer surface a number of
•scattered stiff hairs, longer and more numerous on external margin,
one especially so and strong.

Labium soldered to abdomen, much wider than high, and deeply
impressed below. Apex roundly re flexed, with two pairs of hairs
on inner margin and one pair on the outer.

Rostrum, projecting conspicuously above the labium ; its
posterior face with some very minute spines, but difficult to make out.

Palpi, fairly long. Trochanter, very short. Femur, long and
curved, without spines, a little shorter than the tarse. Patella,
very little longer than wide with a very long outer apical spine,
about equal to four times the diameter of the joint. Tibia, nearly
twice as long as the patella, very slightly enlarged upwards with
three spines close to the apex, two of them on inner side ; an acoustic
seta in the middle. Tarsus, acuminate, ending in a long almost
straight claw ; about double the length of the tibia ; well supplied
with spines, towards the base two dorsal and one internal, near
the middle two lateral spines, in terminal half five lateral spines
(three internally and two externally).

Sternum, suffused blackish, large, heartshaped, about as wide as
long, convex especially behind, inflexed between the posterior
legs in a broad parallel-sided prolongation equal to the diameter
of the coxae ; scattered over the surface a number of long straight
black hairs, 4 (a central pair and lateral 1-1) near posterior margin
especially long and bristly and upturned.

Legs, order of length, 1, 4, 2, 3, very long and slender, yellowish
brown, well provided with hairs and except the coxae, trochanter and
tarsi with spines. Coxae viewed from below longer than wide. I. and

II. equal and slightly longer than III. and IV. Trochanters, small,

wider than long; I., II., III., with a short obtuse infero- lateral pro-
jection on outer side, bearing at summit a long hair and one or two
of less length. Femora, all with long infero -lateral bristles, one pair
near the distal end very long and projecting obliquely forward ;•
femur IV. much longer than the others, unarmed and bowed to the
curvature of the body ; I., II., III., with a short dorsal spine, in I.
and II. slightly in apical half ; I., also with an internal lateral

spine in the same half. Patellae, wider than long with a long slender
spine at the apex, and an internal low protuberance. Tibiae, equal
to the femora and about double the length of the tarsi ; with two
dorsal spines, one towards the apex, the other in the basal half ;
also a pair of lateral spines in the terminal third ; I. and II. with
two rows of long straight spines beneath (four or five in each row) ;

III. and IV., one spine beneath in terminal third. Metatarsi,
a little shorter than tibiae, with one spine near the middle and an
acoustic seta a little behind it. Metatarsi IV., and tarsi IV., much
slenderer than in the other legs. Tarsi, shorter than the metatarsi,
without spines, cylindrical, with three slender slightly curved claws,
the inferior one very small.

Pedicle, short, in two pieces, the anterior convex, the posterior
concave, chitinous.

Abdomen, oblong, oval, high and very convex in front, pro-
jecting over the cephalothorax and a little narrowed behind ; without

Naturalist,

Falconer : New and Rare British Spiders. 299

a pattern, dull clay colour above and black beneath, well clothed all
over mostly with shortish strong, curved hairs, springing from raised
black bases ; just above the pedicle, hidden from above and trans-
versely arranged — an equal number on each side of the medium
line — some eight very long slender stiff black bristles directed
forward ; on ventral surface in front of spinners a long narrow
transverse straight vent, the entrance to the tracheal breathing
apparatus ; the pulmonary stigmata in the usual position, one on
each side of the epigaster.

Anal Tubercle small, sub -triangular, obtusely rounded at
distal margin, provided with long bristles.

Spinners, six in number, the median pair small, concealed between
the others, one jointed. Upper and lower pairs about equal in size,
stout, truncate -cone -shaped, dull dusky brown in colour ; two-
jointed with the terminal part short.

Epigyne, figs. 1 and 2, an oval, reddish brown, transverse, convex
chitinous plate, thickly rimmed laterally, close to epigastric border,
hollowed out on the sides, and near its termination becoming shortly
and somewhat narrowly tongue-shaped and deeply canaliculate
with the end rounded and bent slightly inwards. Beneath this
covering plate is another one membranous and pale, of which the
lateral lobes and terminal crochet are exserted as an incomplete
ring of processes around the end of the outer tongue.

T. margerisoni has the general appearance and build of
one of the long-legged Linyphieae. Its nearest British relative
is Taranucnus setosus Camb., both species being distinguished
from all others of the same group by one or more of the follow-
ing features : — wide sternum, high clypeus, the armature
of the legs, especially on the metatarsi and dorsum of the
femora of one or both posterior pairs. In T. setuosus there
is a dorsal femoral spine on both these pairs, but in T.
margerisoni , this spine is wanting on legs IV. ; further, their
epigynes are quite unlike each other (see below). Of the
foreign forms the new spider approaches most nearly Troglo-
hyphantes cantabricus Sim. (1911), especially with respect
to the epigyne, but that species is larger (3.4 m.m.) and its
third pair of legs longer than the fourth ; its epigyne is more
raised above the surface of the abdomen, the median tongue-
shaped process not so narrow, and the exposed lobes of the
internal membranous plate take a much rounder, wider
sweep .

T. margerisoni introduces a genus, Troglohyphantes,
(Dr. Joseph, 1881), new to the British fauna. Half of the
species in it were previously included in the Gen. Taranucnus
Sim. and three others in Gen. Typhloneta Kulcz. The
allocation of these spiders to one and the same genus has
lately, after exhaustive study, been made by Dr. L. Fage*

* Archives de Zoologie Experimentale et Generale, Tome 58, Fascicule
2, Jan., 1919.— ' Etudes sur les Araignees cavernicoles. III. Le Genre
Troglohyphantes.1 Prof. L. Fage, to whose kindness I am indebted
for copies of the three parts so far published .

1919 Sept. 1

300 Falconer : New and Rare British Spiders .

of the Laboratoire Arago, Southern France. He also proposes
briefly (leaving the details to a future memoir) a new natural
classification of the Linyphieae into two divisions, based
on the structure of the copulatory organs in both sexes.

Div. I., the palpal organs of the male provided with a
long filiform, often rolled style ; the copulatory pouch of
the female, large/spacious, devoid of internal organs, e.g.,
Linyphia, Labulla, Bathyphantes, Lessertia, Porrhomma.

Div. II., the style of the male palpal organs short, thick,
lamellar and generally truncate at extremity ; the copulatory
pouch of the female more or less filled with an internal plate
or tongue, e.g., Leptyphantes, Microneta, Centromerus.

Taranucnus setosus Camb. belongs to the first division
and T. margerisoni to the second, so that from this point of
view they are far removed from each other, the former in
fact being left the sole representative of its genus.

The Troglohyphantidae occupy a narrow tract of territory
between 42 ° and 46° N. Lat. from the Pyrenees to the Tran-
sylvanian mountains. They are mostly cave-dwellers, and
the species local in distribution. A few of these are found
out in the open also, and two species occur on high mountains
in the vicinity of glaciers. Except their known restricted
range, there is no reason, either geological or climatal in
character or in that of their affinities, why a new species
should not occur in Cumberland. • Although no details of its
habitat were obtainable, the latter would probably be similar
to that of the forms which live in the open, viz., the base of
herbage in swampy places nearly in the water ; the cave-
dwellers also choosing the wettest spots in the crannies of
the stalactites.*

Maro humicola, sp. nov.

Females, length 1.3 to 1.6 m.m., figs. 4-5-6.

Forepart of the spider yellowish brown ; the legs and palpi of a
clearer tint and the cephalothorax of a darker shade. Pubescence
sparse .

Cephalothorax, longer than wide, oval, narrowed a little forward
from level of coxse of legs I, rounded both before and behind, widely
so in front so as to form a distinct constriction in the marginal
outline. Caput distinctly defined by converging lateral impressions,
convex behind the eyes and the profile line well curved to the thoracic
junction, behind which the posterior slope is short and a little
excavated ; thoracic sutures indistinctly indicated by faint slightly
darker lines. No marginal or other markings.

Ocular Area, occupying the whole width of the upper front.

Eyes, eight in two rows, all on black spots, moderately large and
very closely grouped, the anterior centrals only dark coloured, the
rest pearly white.

* Histoire Naturelle des Araignees, 2nd Edit., Tome I. Eugene
Simon, p. 690, sub. Taranucnus.

Naturalist,

Falconer : New and Rare British Spiders. 301

Posterior row, very slightly, if any, backwards, the centrals a little
the smaller and a diameter apart and distinctly nearer to the laterals
than to each other. Anterior eyes nearly contiguous to each other,
and with the laterals of the hinder row forming a regular semicircle
directed forward, the centrals on a common suffusion much the
smallest and the laterals the largest of the eight.

Lateral eyes on each side in contact and situated on a feeble common
oblique prominence. Central eye space longer than broad and much
narrower in front than behind.

Clypeus, much less in height than the ocular area.

Falces long, stout, vertical, somewhat oblong, slightly curved
externally and divergent on inner margin near apex. Upper fang
groove with four pointed teeth. Lower fang groove, four close
minute granular teeth. Fang, long, slender, tapering.

Maxillae, moderately long and strong, oblong, well inclined
inwards, the internal margin a little bent over the labium ; truncate
at summit near which a short black serrula ; outer margin and face
with a few shortish stiff hairs.

Labium, wide and short, depressed transversely below and bluntly
rounded at extremity.

Sternum, slightly diffused blackish or not, almost round, convex,
squarely truncate in froht and shortly drawn out between the posterior
coxae in a wide blunt process, with slightly converging sides : thinly
supplied with upturned hairs.

Palpi, short, without a terminal claw. Femora, long, slender,
curved, slightly enlarging upwards. Patellae very short, with weak
apical spine. Tibiae enlarged gradually upwards from base. Tarsi,
more than one-and-a-half times as long as the tibiae, acuminate,
provided with hairs and a few long slender black spines.

Legs. Order of length, 4, 1, 2, 3 ; long and strong, moderately
supplied with hairs, more plentifully and serially arranged on tarsi,
and rising from slightly raised black bases. Femora I. and IV., long
and curved ; in I. the end of the joint is straightened, giving the
pair together a lyriform shape ; II. and III., shorter and nearly
straight. Patellae short, twice as long as wide, with a slight apical
bristle and a small blunt protuberance on outer margin tipped with
a single slender bristle. Tibiae III. and IV. with a long .slender
erect dorsal spine near the base, absent in I. and II. Tib. IV., with
a long erect acoustic seta in the middle. Metatarsi and tarsi sub-
equal, the latter if anything slightly the longer, and very slightly
tapering. Claws 3, the two upper long, slender, curved, the lower
one very small.

Abdomen, oblong oval, rounded before and behind, pale yellow
brown, very slightly suffused blackish and projecting over cephal-
othorax. Pubescence little apparent.

Spinners, short, stout, truncate -cone shaped, surrounded by a
lighter space ; pale yellow brown in colour, clothed with short hairs.

Spiracular and Epigynal Areas. The same colour as the
abdomen, the margin of the former being sometimes faintly indicated
by a dark line.

Epigyne stands out at right angles to the abdomen, thus exposing
both the upper and lower surfaces ; somewhat complex in structure,
large in proportion to the size of the animal, and its base close to
the epigastric fold. Three figures, 4, 5 and 6, are given of this
organ, and reference to them will obviate any necessity for further
description. For purposes of comparison figures of the epigynes of
the two allied species are also given, minutus fig. 7, and falconerii
fig. 8.

Maro humicola, which, as its name implies, frequents

1919 Sept. 1

302 Falconer: New and Rare British Spiders.

humus, agrees in general characteristics, disposition of eyes,
build, etc., with M. minutus Camb., but the examples taken
so far are a little larger and have a darker cephalothorax.
It differs also in the structure and position of its epigyne,
that organ in both M. minutus Camb. (fig. 6) and M . falconerii
Jacks, which occur with it, being adpressed to the abdomen.
No male has been met with, which could not be allocated
either to one or other of the above two species. This sex
not having materialised, the possibility must not be over-
looked that the newly described species may only be another
form of the female of M. minutus, but if so, the direction
taken by the variation is, as far as I am aware, unique in the
spider world. Until, however, this can be proved it will
be as well to regard it as a distinct species. I may say that
the Rev. O. Pickard Cambridge, to whom I sent a specimen,
considered it to be such, and its publication has been until
now withheld in the hope of obtaining a male.

: o :

Blackbirds using the same nest twice. — With the
exception of the Hirundines (Swallow and Martins) and perhaps
the Dipper, it is very unusual for passerine birds to use the same
nest for two broods. I can only recollect three such instances,
viz., a Blackbird, a Robin and a Pied Wagtail ; but in each
case I had to presume that it was the. same pair of birds that was
using the nest twice. This year, however, in April, I found a
Blackbird’s nest in a bush about four yards from my dining
room window, and with a little judicious trimming of the bush
I was able to watch the proceedings throughout, at any time,
from inside the room. Four eggs were laid, duly hatched and
the four young birds left the nest about the middle of May.
About a fortnight later we were much surprised to find the hen
again sitting (I don’t think the male Blackbird assists in in-
cubating, I never remember having seen one, although he
does his share in feeding the young ones). However, a second
clutch of four eggs was hatched and four healthy youngsters
left the nest on June 15th. So far as I could see the nest had
not been repaired or altered in any way for the second brood.
In this case there was not the slightest doubt about it being
the same pair. The male was distinctly undersized, and had a
slight (but very distinct) affection of the wings, which was most
perceptible during the first few wing-beats when he took flight.
I have no doubt that it was the same hen bird too, by several
little incidents ; one of which was she was so tame that she
would allow several persons to stand quite close to the nest,
when she was brooding, without showing any alarm. Baby
Blackbirds always appear to me to leave their nests several days
before they are competent to do so, which must result in great
mortality among them. — Harry B. Booth, Ben Rhvdding.

Naturalist,

303

YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS AT HAWES.

To those members of the Union who were able to take advantage of the
excursion arranged for the Whitsuntide recess, June 7th to 9th, the
gathering at Hawes proved a happy outing, not alone from the knowlsdge
gained from the investigations along the traversed routes, but also from
the loveliness of springtime which the neighbourhood of Hawes, at what is
practically the head of Wensleydale, produced . The sunshine and warmth
which prevailed also contributed to the enjoyment of the gathering,
even though the drought militated against the numerous water-falls for
which the district is noted, chief of which are those of Cotter and
Hardraw, being seen in the fulness of their power.

It is thirty -five years since the Union made headquarters at Hawes,
but the lower parts of Wensleydale, from Askrigg downwards, and their
immediate vicinity have in that period of time received much attention.
This part of our county is considered to rank next to Teesdale in the variety
and scope which it affords to the lover of nature, due to a great extent to
the mountainous character of the scenery, intersected by fertile valleys.

Headquarters were ideal, the creature comforts being well provided
for at Simonstone Hall, a delightfully situated guest house, over-
looking Hawes, from which it is distant one-and-a-quarter miles.

On Saturday the party proceeded to Appersett, traversed Widdale
beck, and on nearing the head of the valley crossed the fellside, examining
the two plantations, afterwards climbing over the shoulder of Widdale
Fell, making the descent into Mossdale, the scenic charms ot which were
most restful.

Sunday morning was spent in climbing the very rough road to the
famous ‘ Buttertub ' potholes. Inspiring indeed were the views
afforded of the ‘ roof of Yorkshire, ’ Ingleboro’ being especially prominent .
The potholes and adjacent ground gave ample opportunity for study to
the botanist. An investigation of the magnificent amphitheatre, known
as ‘ Hardraw Scar, ’ occupied the afternoon . There was no great volume of
water coming over the lofty rock ledge, but the delightful ground flora,
so varied in colour and extensive in species, and the tree embowered
semi -circle of rocks, was a charming combination. The woods immediately
above the fall have been to a great extent felled, and cleared, and part
of the trees remaining are also marked down for commercial use.

Monday was a memorable day. Crossing the common the party
descended to admire the scenic setting of Cotter Force, and proceeding
up the valley eventually reached the small hamlet of Cotter, in the fold
of the fells. After refreshment, Abbotside Common was traversed to
the top of Lund’s Fell, onwards to the Westmorland border. Here the
cotton grass moor showed some excellent examples of retrogression,
and re-invasion, while extensive remains of birch proved a notable
feature. The views were pleasing, some of the giants of the Lake moun-
tains being easily defined. Following the County boundary descent was
made to Hell Ghyll, which was explored down to the force. On reaching
Aysgill the party drove back to headquarters, a drive of seven-and-a-half
miles. The day’s outing was such as described in verse by F. Wight-
man :

‘ All t 'woods, an’ glens, an’ watter falls,

An’ t’wide far stretchin’ heath ;

An’ t’Bar guests haunts, an’ goblins’ halls
I’ t ’caverns underneath ;

An’ t 'meadows sweet, dahn bi t ’river’s brim.

Are all Dame Nature's plan

For buildin’ up wi’ life an’ vim

The gurt big heart of a Yorkshire -man.’

Sectional reports were given at the usual meeting held at the close of
the excursion on Monday, Mr. W. N. Cheesman, J.P., occupying the

1919 Sept, l

304

Yorkshire Naturalists at Hawes.

chair. Twelve new members were elected. Hearty thanks were accorded
to the divisional secretary, Mr. J. Hartshorn, for the excellent arrange-
ments made by him in connexion with the excursion, and to Mr. J. W.
Astley for permission to traverse Abbotside Common. — W.E.L.W.

Geology. — Mr. John Holmes writes In the country round Hawes
the succession of the Yoredale Rocks may be studied low down the valley,
but to understand the causes which have determined the physical structure
of North-west, Yorkshire, a knowledge of the higher region is essential.

It was in this district — nearly three-quarters of a century ago — that
Phillips carried out the classic investigations so eloquently described in
his works on the Physical Geography and Geology of Yorkshire. .

The whole area has been glaciated and much drift remains in
the valleys. The glacier appears to have been of local origin, and
probably descended from the eastern slopes of Baugh, Swarth and Wild
Boar Fells. The distribution and composition of the drift was noted
in Widdale Gill, Mossdiile, Cotterdale, and on the right bank of Hell
Ghyll Beck. No far -travelled erratics were found, the boulders being
chiefly sandstone' and limestone.

Masses of crinoids were noticed in the bed of Widdale Beck where the .
Great Scar Limestone forms tabular ledges over which the stream flows in
cascades. In the Yoredales, the Hardraw Scar Limestone was examined
at Hardraw and Cotter Forces. The Simonstone Limestone is exposed
in Cotterdale where it is succeeded by a dark shale containing a remarkable
variety of fossils. The higher beds in the Yoredales were often covered
with drift along the routes followed, but the Main Limestone was seen on
both sides- of Widdale Fell and on Lund’s Fell. A coarse grit occurs
above the Main Limestone on both sides of Cotterdale.

The picturesque waterfalls at Cotter, Hardraw and Aysgill Forces are
fine examples of ravine formation under different conditions. At Cotter
the stream flows down ledges of limestone, at Hardraw, owing to the rapid
weathering of the shales under the limestone, the water has a free leap of
nearly ioo feet, at Aysgill on the opposite side of the main valley, the
shales are not undercut but actually project beyond the overlying beds.

The action of water charged with carbonic acid on limestone was seen
at the Buttertubs, a series of pot-holes in a shelf of the Main Limestone
which is crossed by the road from Hawes to Muker. ( See photograph in
The Naturalist, 1910, Plate IX., Fig. 1).

The deep gorge of Hell Ghyll has been carved out of the Main Lime-
stone by the chemical action of the water combined with the grinding of
sand and pebbles caught by eddies in the clefts.

The rivers Eden and Ure both rise near the northern extremity of *
Lund’s Fell and flow in nearly parallel courses down into the low ground
between Lund’s Fell and Wild Boar Fell. From the bottom of Hell
Ghyll to the railway bridge, the party walked along this portion of the
watershed, and it was noticed that a bed of glacial drift deflects the Eden
on its northerly course to the Solway, while the Ure flows south, and then
east, to the North sea.

On Tuesday morning a small party ascended Gayle Beck south of
Hawes, up to Aysgill Force where sections similar to those seen in
Widdale Beck were found. In the afternoon a visit was paid to Staggs
Fell Quarries where flaggy sandstones have been worked in levels. A
member of the party having provided candles, magnesium wire and a ball
of twine, one of the levels was penetrated to the working face, a distance
of 90 yards. In the evening a still smaller party walked to Fossdale
Colliery where a seam of coal above the Main Limestone is worked by
an adit. The coal, which is of poor quality and contains iron pyrites, is
burnt by some of the cottagers of Hawes and Hardraw.

Bird Life.— Mr. R. Jones writes : — The migrant birds seen or heard
around Simonstone and on the excursions were as follows : — Swallow,
House Martin, Sand Martin, Willow Wren, Spotted Flycatcher, Tree-

Naturalist,

Yorkshire Naturalists at Hawes.

30 5

Pipit, Wheatear, Curlew, Dipper, Cuckoo, White-throat, Whinchat,
Corncrake, Ring Ouzel and Redshank. Other birds of note that were
seen were the Wren, Gold-crested Wren, Lapwing, Blue Tit, Cole Tit,
Grey Wagtail, Carrion Crow, Kingfisher, Magpie and Wood Pigeon.
There was quite a number of Gulls on the river. I identified two —
the Herring Gull and the black -headed . I also found a young duck,
only a few days old, on one of the pools in Mossdale, probably the chick
of a wild duck. I saw no sign of the parent birds although I stayed a
considerable time to watch. I was told the grouse observed was the
‘black’ variety (a tail feather produced partly confirmed this) which has
been introduced into Swaledale and spread about the district.

The Yellow Wagtail was observed in large numbers. I never Saw so
many. The absence of the Yellow-hammer, Green-finch, Hedge-sparrow
and Brown Linnet was very marked, probably due to the absence of
hedgerow and scrub. On the other hand the stone walls should have
attracted the Redstart and Stonechat, but neither was observed. A
Wren and a Spotted Flycatcher were found nesting high up Cotterdale,
where there was hardly a bush, and no tree of any kind.

Conchology. — Mr. Greevz Fysher writes : — The continuance of the
very dry weather was not favourable to the observation of terrestrial
mollusca. The following shelled species were taken alive, and have been
identified by Mr. John W. Taylor

Clausilia bidentata
Pupa umbilicata
Zua lubrica
Pyramidula rotundata
Ancylus fluvialilis

Helicigona, arbustorum
Hygromia striolata '

— hispida
Hyalinia alliaria

— - nitidula

— cellaria

Several of the commoner slugs were also seen.

Diptera.— Mr. C. A. Cheetham writes : — The steep wooded bank in
Widdale offered the best collecting ground and three additions were made
here to the published county lists : —

Chilosia fraterna Mg. C. maculata Fin. Tetanocera sylvatica Mg.

C. maculata is in the unpublished lists of the Bradford Naturalists’
Society. I saw it the following week-end at Ling Ghyll and Mr. Rosse
Butterfield tells me he has seen it at Barden. C. fraterna I had taken the
previous week at Austwick.

Neuroptera. — Mr. Cheetham states that he captured Pyrrhosoma
nymphula Sulz. in Widdale.

Isopoda. — Mr. Falconer writes : — Oniscus asellus Linn, and Trichonis-
cus pusillus Brndt. were found everywhere in suitable situations from
Hawes to Masham. Porcellio scaber Latr. near Bainbridge and Philoscia
muscorum Scop, at Cotter Force.

Arachnid a. — Mr. Falconer writes : — During an extended stay in the
district 61 species of spiders, only three of them at all rare or restricted
in distribution, viz. : — Theonoe minutissima Camb., Cnephalocotes
elegans Camb., Anyphaena accentuata Walck., were met with, and as
there had been no previous investigation, all were for the first time
definitely noted for Wensleydale, while 24 of them have not before been
recorded for V.C. 65 : — Theridion sisyphium Clerck., T. pallens Bl.,
Phyllonethis lineata Clerck., Theonoe minutissima Camb., Cnephalocotes
obscurus Bl., C. elegans Camb., Troxochrus hiemalis Bl., Cornicularia
cuspidata Bl., Neriene rubens Bl., Oreonetides montana Bl., Agyneta
cauta Camb., A. decora Camb., Leptyphantes obscurus Bl., Clubiona
reclusa Camb., C. pallidula Clerck., C. diversa Camb., C. comta C. L.
Koch, Anyphaena accentuata Walck., Tegenaria derhamii Scop., Antistea
elegans C. L. Koch, and Neon reticulatus Bl., Labulla thoracica Wid.,
Epeira diademata Clerck, Oxyptila trux Bl. Particulars of these will
appear in due course in the ‘ Spiders of Yorkshire.’ The following
are already in type and the new stations are added

1919 Sept, 1

306

Yorkshire Naturalists, at Hawes.

Amaurobius fenestralis Stroem. and A. similis Bl. — Askrigg.

Robertus lividus Bl.— Semmerdale.

Savignia frontata Bl. — Cotter Force.

Diplocephalus cristatus Bl. — Whitfield Force.

Dismodicus bifrons Bl. — Whitfield Force.

Gongylidium rufipes Sund. — Aysgarth.

Agyneta conigera Camb. — Hardraw.

Four common harvestmen occurred not uncommonly, three in the
immature condition, Oligolophus morio Fabr., O. ephippiatus C . L. Koch,
and Liobunum rotundum Latr., and one adult, both sexes, Nemastoma
lugubre Mull. The false -scorpion, Obisium muscorum Leach was taken
at Mill Gill and Whitfield Forces, but I failed to turn up Chthonius
rayi L. Koch at Aysgarth.

Only the most obvious mites could be taken without apparatus,
e.g., Gamasus crassipes Linn., Ritteria nemorum Koch, Anystis baccarum
Linn, and Linopodes motatorius Linn, which were frequent.

Coleoptera. — Mr. M. L. Thompson writes : — Mr. A. E. WTinter, of
Scarborough, who was present on the Saturday, met with 24 species of
beetles in the following localities : —

Between Appersett Bridge, up Widdale Beck to Widdale Carr
Plantation, viz. : —

N otiophilus biguttatus F.

Clivina fossor L.

Stomis pumicatus Pz.
Pterostichus s trio l a Gy 11.

Trechus micros Hbst.

Deronectes depressus F.
Hydroporus septentrionalis Gy 11.
Aleochara fuscipes F.

Ocypus cupreus Ross.
Lathrobium fulvipenne Gr.
Stenus guttula Mull.

Geodromicus nigrita Mull.

Liodes humeralis Kug.

* His ter unicolor L.
ByrrJius pilula L.
Corymbites cupreus F.

var. aeruginosus F.
Corymbi tes quercus Gy 1 1 .

* — aeneus L.
Helodes minuta L.

* — marginata F.

Telephorus pellucidus F.
Rhagonycha limbata Th.

*Malthodes dispur Germ.
Phyllobius urticae DeG.

In the vicinity of Hawes, Simonstone, and the pastures at Appersett
he found : —

Nebria brevicollis F.
Pterostichus madidus F.
Calathus melanocephalus L.
Anchomenus albipes F.
Dianous coerulescens Gy 11.

Creophilus maxillosus L.
Aphodius fossor L.

— fimetarius L .
Geotrupes stercorarius L.
Tropiphorus tomentosus Marsh.

On the Monday I found the following species along the Cotterdale
and West Gill route : —

Nebria gyllenhali Sch.
Anchomenus albipes F.

Quedius molochinus Gr.

Dianous coerulescens Gyll.
Brachypterus urticae F.
Cryptohypnus dermestoides Hbst.
var. 4 -guttatus Lap.

Corymbites cupreus F .

var. aeruginosus F.
Telephorus nigricans Mull.
Malthodes minimus L.
*Gastroidea viridula DeG.
Coeliodes 4-maculatus L.
— geranii Pk.

The species marked with an asterisk are new to V.C. 65.

Flowering Plants. — Mr. J. Hartshorn writes Much of the area
investigated was being visited by the Union for the first time and there
were interesting records calling for confirmation. Trientalis europaea
rewarded the effort necessary to reach its habitat, though the number of
blooms seen by the party was few. The record of Meum athamanticum in
Mossdale was not confirmed. In the higher Gills, Asplenium viride was
as frequent as its congener A. trichomanes. At lower elevations Lastrea

Naturalist,

Yorkshire "Naturalists at Hawes.

30 7

Filix-mas gave place to L. montana in the Trientalis Wood ; L. spinulosa
was common. Cystopteris fragilis grew well in characteristic situations
and Polystichum aculeatum, varieties of the Lady-fern, the Beech -fern,
Moonwort and Adder’s -tongue were all noted. Of the two latter Ophio-
glossum was much more in evidence than Botrychium. On the moors of
Widdale Fell, as of Little Fell, Rubus Chamaemorus was observed but not
in sheets, neither did many flowers reward search. The round-leaved
sundew gave interest to the sphagna in many places, and the Cranberry,
Oxy coccus quadripetalus was quite plentiful near Hell Ghyll. Upper
Wensleydale cannot vie with Teesdale above Middleton in its stretches of
Globe-flower and it was the more pleasing to see it near the railway
between Mossdale and Hawes in quantity. A feature of the pastures was
the Crane’s-bill, Geranium sylvaticum. Arenaria verna and Hutchinsia
petraea are species with restricted distribution and it was a treat to add
them to the list of ‘ finds,’ as it was also to note the prevalence of that
fine composite the Melancholy -thistle. Lycopodium clavatum was found
on Stag’s Fell.

Orchids were not so numerous either in individuals or species as ex-
pected, perhaps because of the nature of the season. Listera cordata was
not diligently looked for and Habenaria conopsea, H. albida and Orchis
latifolia are the only species of note. Other species of interest in their
respective orders noted were : — Saxifraga hypnoides , Dr aba incana,
Pinguicula vulgaris, Hypericum pulchrum and Juniperus communis .

Mosses. — Mr. C. A. Cheetham writes Mr. W.H. Burrell and I made
a somewhat hurried investigation of the Widdale and Mossdale area.
The following are perhaps the most noteworthy species : —

Poly trichum alpinum L. — Mossdale.

Seligeria pusilla B. and S. — Mossdale.

Blindia acuta B. and S. — C.fr. — Mossdale.

Weissia verticillata Brid. C. fr.— Mossdale and Widdale.

Zygodon viridissimus R.B. — Mossdale, on rocks.

Ulota crisp a Brid. — Mossdale.

Breutelia arcuata Schp. — Mossdale.

Plagiobryum Zierii Lindb. C. fr. — Mossdale.

In Mossdale was Catharinea crispa James in fair quantity above the
big waterfall, this is an additional species to the North Riding lists.

That part of Mossdale near the waterfall would repay more careful
work.

Hepatics.— -Mr. F. E. Milsom, B.Sc., reports that at Buttertubs pass
he found a nice quantity of Scapania undulata, both male and female,
and fruit. In Cotterdale twelve common species were noted, chief of
which was Preissia quadrata in fruit.

Mycology. — Mr. F. A. Mason writes : — The only agarics nofed were
Panus torulosus Fr. and Mycena epipterygia Scop., both identified
by Mr. Cheesman, and the polypores were represented by a single
species P. squamosus Fr. Several common discomycetes occurred freely
in the damper places by the beck sides, and the variable ascophores
of Ombrophila clavus Cke. grew plentifully on the dead sticks kept con-
tinuously wet by the spray under Hardraw Force. Special attention
was devoted to an examination of the herbage along ghyll sides and road-
side banks for ‘ rust -fungi ’ parasitic on leaves and stems, and together
with two or three undetermined specimens the following species wTere
observed : —

Cystopus candidus (Pers.) de Bary. On Arabis hirsuta.

Uromyces geranii Otth. et Wart. iEcidia on G. sylvaticum.

U . alchemillae Lev. Uredospores on A . vulgaris.

TJ . ficariae Lev. Teleutospores on R. Ficaria.

U. poae Rabh. iEcidia on R. Ficaria.

Puccinia obtegens r Tul. Uredospores on C. arvensis.

1919 Sept. 1

3° 8

Yorkshire Naturalists at Pateley Bridge.

Puccinia chondrillae Corda. d^cidia, uredospores and teleutospores
on Lactuca muralis.

P. variabilis Grev. iEcidia on T . officinale.

P. taraxaci Plowr. Uredospores on T. offiicinale.

P. hieracii Mart. Uredospores on H . Pilosella.

P. leontodontis Jacky. Uredospores on L. hispidus.

P. betonicae D.C. Teleutospores on B. officinalis.

P. hera'clei Grev. iEcidia on H. Sphondylium .

P. violae D.C. iEcidia on V . odorata.

P. obscura Schrot. Uredospores on Luzula sylvatica.

P. winteriana Magn. ^Rcidia on Allium ursinum.

P. poarum Niels. iEcidia on Tussilago Farfara.

Triphragmium ulmariae Wint. Uresdospores on S. Ulmaria.
Coleosporium senecionis Fr. iEcidia ( Peridermium acicolum ) on
Pinus sylvestris.

TJstilago violacea Fckl. On the anthers of Lychnis diurna.
Urocystis violae Fischer. On leaves and petioles of V . odorata.
Mycetozoa. — The season was not at all favourable to the development
of these organisms, but Mr. Cheesman succeeded in making gatherings of
the undermentioned species : —

Physarumviride Pers. Comatricha nigra Schrot.

P. nutans Pers. Reticularia ly coper don Bull.

Craterium minutum Fr. Trichia affinis de Bary.

Leocarpus fragilis Rost. T. varia Pers.

Didymium nigripes Fr. Arcyria pomiformis Rost.

D . squamulosum Fr. A . incarnata Pers. .

Stemonitis fusca Roth. Perichaena corticalis Rost.

: o :

YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS AT PATELEY BRIDGE.

The attendance at the excursion to Pateley Bridge on Saturday, July
5th, was very disappointing, especially when it is considered that the
area selected for investigation possesses phases of study for practically
all sections of natural history. The reason is unexplainable, possibly
due in part to the unsettled state of the elements, most certainly it
cannot be attributed to the tendency of the Union to visit Pateley Bridge
too often, for thirty-four years have passed since it made its last visit.

A spare hour in Harrogate by some of the enthusiasts who had to
travel early to reach their destination was agreeably spent, especially
in the vicinity of the Pump House, where facial muscular contraction
on the part of those ‘ toning ’ their system with the ‘ waters ’ could be
studied to perfection.

On arrival at Pateley Bridge the party placed themselves under the
guidance of Mr. C. A. Cheetham, and proceeded at once to Ravensgill,
where the time available passed all too quickly. This glorious glen was
indeed a beauty spot and a veritable moss and fern paradise. There
were great areas dominated by the beech and oak ferns, the latter with
fronds of large size. Nor were these the sole members of the Filices.
Canopies of the Filmy fern ( Hymenophyllum unilaterale) showing bead-
like fructification, on the gritstone boulders ; interstices of rocks, and
moss covered boulders homed by the common polypody and northern
hard ferns ; handsome specimens of male and female showing variation ;
the fragrant Lastrea Oreopteris ; the darker fronds of L.. dilatata and L.
spinulosa, were all in great abundance: The ground carpet of blossom

did not evidence much variety, the steepness of the ground and shade
accounting in a great measure for this, but where open spaces occurred
the wood loosestrife, and Orchis maculata, with a charming white -
flowered form, were conspicuous plants.

On emergence from the glen the moor was traversed to the old lead

Naturalist,

Yorkshire Naturalists at Pateley Bridge.

309

workings where Arenaria verna whitened the refuse heaps with profuse
bloom, and along with it was Thlaspi alpestre. On leaving here, the
Greenhow ridge was traversed, an old quarry showing well the nature of
the limestone. Amongst the varied grass sward the frog orchis and
Botrychium Lunaria were noted. The walk down Greenhow Hill gave
opportunity to study the picturesque beauty of the Pateley Valley. On
nearing the base of the hill the fields were crossed into the woods, where
Trientalis europaea in developing fruit was seen in profusion. From the
woods access was gained to the grounds at Eagle Hall, where the party
delighted themselves for some time. Here are magnificent specimens of
conifers of the genera Cedrus, Pinus and Cupressus ; various varieties
of oak, and excellent examples of Japanese Maple. A choice collection
of heaths, which included Menziesia polifolia proved very interesting.
The chief occupant of the lakes was Myriophyllum spicatum. On arrival
at the Hall Mr. Charles Ratcliffe, on behalf of Colonel Sir E. A. Brother-
ton, M.P. gave a hearty welcome to those present. After afternoon tea
the usual meeting was held. Prof. J. H. Priestley occupying the chair.

After leaving Eagle Hall, the party, by special invitation, inspected
the gardens and ornamental grounds at Bewerley Hall, under the guidance
of Mr. T. E. Yorke and the Misses Yorke. Features of these grounds
are the excellent examples of Yew and Portugal Laurel, the latter in
full blossom, and particularly, a magnificent specimen of the Beech.
The rock garden, designed by Mr. Yorke, was full of delight to the botanist,
and time was well spent admiring its many inhabitants.

Within the grounds is an ancient chapel erected by Abbot Marmaduke
Huby of Fountains, for the herdsmen, and in an alcove to the gardener’s
house the ceiling is decorated by a large female figure with chalice in
hand.

At the close of the excursion hearty appreciation was expressed to
Col. Sir E. A. Brotherton for his hospitality and permission to visit his
estate, and also to Mr. T. E. Yorke for permission to visit his estate, and
the additional pleasure given to inspect the gardens and grounds attached
to his residence. — W.E.L.W.

Bryology. — Mr. W. H. Burrell reports : — About sixty mosses and
liverworts were noted, including several rarer species known to occur in
the district. Bartramia pomiformis var. crispa B. and S. was on rocks
in Ravensgill Beck, in deep tufts with rusty coloured tomentum, and
capsules more or less overtopped by the growing stems ; Trichostomum
tenuirostre Lindb. and Schistostega osmundacea Mohr, were in rock clefts
at Guy’s Cliff ; Tetraphis Browniana in good condition clothed large
surfaces of rock, and shewed positive geotropism, which is one of its
characteristics when growing in suitable positions ; other interesting
features of Ravensgill were the extreme variation of Eurhynchium myos-
uvoides, which on rocks exposed to water action in the stream bed assumed
the rigid massive habit and dark colour of var. rivulare Holt., while in
drier shady places several gatherings were made having the delicate
attenuated growth of var. cavernarum Mol., and the rampant growth of
Dicranum fuscescens , frequently showing the strongly curved leaves of
var. falci folium Braithw., which on rocks appeared to dominate the more
common D . scop avium. Absence or scarcity of some of the very common
species was perhaps the most persistent problem of the day’s work. In
a glen sufficiently humid to favour Hymenophyllum, it "was unexpected
that no trace of Frullania and Metzgeria should be found and that the
two genera of arboreal mosses, Ovthotvichum and Ulota, should not be
represented amongst the large quantity of Hypnum cupressi forme, Di-
cranum scoparium, Dicranoweisia cirrhata and Lophocolea that festooned
many of the trees.

Mycology. — Mr. M. Malone reports that he and Mr. R. Fowler Jones
noted eighteen species. Most interesting of these was Cor dy ceps capitata
(Holmsk. ) growing from the body of a fly. It was first recorded by

1919 Sept. 1

3io

Reviews and Book Notices.

Bolton of Halifax in 1788 from Ramsden Wood. Another species of
which I can find no record was found by Prof. J. H. Priestley growing
on Thlaspi ctlpestre . I took it to be a Puccinia at the time, but I had
not sufficient material to make it out correctly.

Birds. — Mr. E. P. Butterfield reports that on the Darley side of
Guy’s Cliff a colony of Sand Martins was nestings — a rather high altitude
for this species. An abundance of Swifts was noticed all down the Nidd
Valley. Indeed this was the most noticeable ornithological feature, in
contrast to the status of this species in the Wilsden part of the Aire
drainage, where it is a very scarce breeding species.

Diptera. — Mr. C. A. Cheetham reports : — The most interesting fly
seen on the excursion was Dolichopeza sylvicola Curt., the Phantom
Daddy-long-legs, this being frequent in Ravensgill and its curious flight
very noticeable ; with the exception of the long white tarsi the insect
is very dark brown, when flying the legs (which are very elongate and
out of proportion) are widely spread, the anterior pair out in front, the'
middle out at the sides, and the hinder out behind, and all appear quite
unattached to anything. Limnia rufifrons, F. also occurred here and an
Hilaria, which Mr. P. H. Grimshaw kindly identified as H . quadrijaria
Stobl., this latter having only been known from the South of England
previously.

The weather was too dull for many species to be on the wing. Mr.
R. Butterfield kindly handed me specimens taken whilst sweeping, very
few of the larger syrphids were captured, only single specimens of Eristalis
arbustorum L., Catabomba pyrastri L. and Helophilus pendulus L.

Hymenoptera. — Mr. R. Butterfield writes : — In Ravensgill I made
special search for the red ant Formica rufa. Many old and deserted nests
were found, though I did not see one tenanted, or an example of the ant.
About twenty years ago it was common enough in Ravensgill, and of
course it is possible it is still there. This ant has dwindled in numbers
recently in the hilly parts of the West Riding, and it gave satisfaction
to see the nests in the wood near Eagle Hall. I caught a specimen of
the bee Halictus freygessneri Alfk. near Pateley Bridge.

Lepidoptera. — I captured a specimen of Plusia inter rogaiionis on the
moor near Ravensgill ; Venusia cambrica was noted on the trees in
Ravensgill ; specimens of Bornbyx quercus were seen on the moor, and I
secured a specimen of Anaitis plagiata in the grounds of Eagle Hall.
Mr. E. P. Butterfield saw Acidalia fumata near Guy’s Cliff, and also near
to the same locality Phycis carbonariella, Tortrix viburnana, T. forsterana,
and Gelechia ericetella.

Neuroptera. — A specimen of Cordulegaster annulatus Latr., was
caught on the moor edge at Ravensgill.

: o :

Tommy Smith again at the Zoo, by Edmund Selous. Methuen
and Co., 180 pp., price 2/9. This is a companion volume to ‘ Tommy
Smith at the Zoo, ’ recently noticed in these columns . Like its predecessor
it will strongly appeal to young visitors to the Zoological Gardens, and
our contributor has been able to put his store of animal lore into simple
language. The animals dealt with in this volume are the Polar Bear,
Great Bird of Paradise, Hippopotamus, Giraffe, Snowshoe Rabbit,
Sea-bear, and Wolverine, each of which is illustrated.

The Human Skeleton : an Interpretation, by H. E. Walter.

The MacMillan Co., 214 pp. The author tells us that every person has
a skeleton of his own. To become better acquainted with it is a source
of intellectual delight and satisfaction. The author, in an unusually
entertaining manner, gives an excellent account o-f the wonderful
mechanism of the human skeleton, comparing parts with the bony frame-
work of other organisms. There is a wealth of illustration, many of the
diagrams being on original lines, and occasionally even amusing.

Naturalist

CORRESPONDENCE.

3ii

UNDOCKED DOGS.

The Rev. Woodruffe -Peacock will find the passage respecting which
he inquires (ante p. 246) in ‘ The Origin,’ Chapter VI. under the caption
‘Organs of little apparent importance,’ but it runs ‘ the hare . , . can
double still more quickly’ (edition 1902). It may here be of interest
if I mention an experiment tried with a tailless Manx Tom-cat. In a
naturalists’ periodical, the opinion was expressed that this deprivation
would cause difficulty in alighting when dropped. To test this, I held
Mick by the feet back downwards, at a height of three feet above a door-
mat. After falling a foot, he gave a quick and agile twist upwards to
his back and came down quite squarely on all fours, thus proving himself
a true son of the Isle whose boast is expressed in the well-known motto,

‘ Quocunque jeceris stabit.’— J. H. Payne.

o — : —

SOUNDS THAT RESEMBLE THE SONGS AND CALLS OF BIRDS.

With eye and ear always on the alert for signs of birds one is often
deceived by common-place sounds which resemble their notes. I here
give some of my own self-deceptions : — \

A man cleaning a street lamp made a noise with his wash-leather
which exactly resembled the song of the linnet.

Walking over hard snow my walking-stick alternately thrust into the
snow and withdrawn made a noise like the call of the common partridge.

My neighbour’s mangling-machine at work made sounds like the
singing of a robin.

A man sweeping an asphalted yard with a yard broom produced the
call of the corn-crake whose harsh note I have also heard ‘ mimicked ’
by another man’s squeaky boots. When one wishes to imitate this bird
one’s thumb-nail drawn across the teeth of a comb is the best means.

Preparing to use my thermos- flask the air escaping through the cork
gave me, in effect, the grass -hopper warbler’s ‘ song.’

I have actually mistaken the bleat of a lamb for the 1 drumming ’ of
a snipe.

Less excusable, however, was my mistaking the bleat- of a goat for the
chattering of a magpie. But I take some comfort from the fact that on
this occasion, however, I was not the only one deceived.

A boy in the street, with a blade of grass held between his thumbs
by blowing through the same made noises resembling the calls of more
than one species of sea-gull.

I have heard the damping-rollers used in our office produce the shrill
squeak of the golden-crested wren, ‘ chick-a-wee, chick-a-wee, ’ etc.

Stirring my cup of Oxo the spoon made a noise exactly like the ‘ come-
back ’ of the guinea-fowl and this was recognised quite independently by
my daughter.

Sharpening a lead pencil with a pocket knife in fancy I heard the alarm
note of the garden-warbler.

It was in the office also that by scraping my foot on the cross bar of a
stool I imitated the call of the coot.

One day when travelling by rail some portion of the moving woodwork
of the carriage brought to mind the common sandpiper’s ‘ willy- wicket. ’

One night I dreamed that I was searching for the nest of the yellow
wagtail. On awaking I found that in breathing I was making with my
nose a noise resembling the call of this bird.

Sitting quietly at home at about 11 p.m., in early September, I actually
mistook for the calls of migrating birds noises produced by a kettle just
after boiling on a gas-stove. And again on November 20th I was deceived
in the same way by a kettle on the hob. In these cases, of course, the time
of day and year helped the deception by the association of ideas. When
all is quiet here on an autumn night we can often hear the ‘ gabble-ratchet ’
within closed doors.

1919 Sept. 1

312

News from the Magazines, etc.

Once the voice of quite another sort of animal made me think that I
had found a new bird. This was in spring whilst walking through Rain-
cliff Wood, hoping to hear some newly-arrived summer visitor. And I did
hear what seemed to me a new and most bird-like sound which, followed
up was found to come from a stoat. The little * fitch ’ was standing
with head held erect on a little mound, and if not actually singing I don’t
know how otherwise to describe his vocal efforts. I certainly thought
they were the song of a bird. — W. Gyngell, Scarborough.

:o:

NEWS FROM THE MAGAZINES, etc.

Dr. O. T. Jones has been elected to the Professorship of Geology in
the University of Manchester.

Mr. James Morrison has a paper on ‘ The Shap Granite Minor Intrusions’
in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, issued in July.

The Scottish Naturalist for July -August is devoted to the ‘ Report on
Scottish Ornithology in 1918 ’ (1/6), which is a very good report.

Besides several short notes, British Birds for April contains ' The
Birds of Bardsey Island,’ by N. F. Ticehurst ; and 'Down Tracts in
Nestling Birds,’ by C. Ingram.

The Journal oj the Board of Agriculture for July contains some remark-
able photographs, showing the result of some drainage operations carried
out by the Norfolk War Agricultural Executive Committee, with the
aid of German prisoner labour.

The New Phytologist, issued July 15th, contains ‘ The Origin and
Development of the Compositae,’ by James Small ; ' The Cytology of

two species of Characiopsis, ’ by Nellie Carter, and Field Observations
on the Development of Potato Blight, by F. T. Brook ; but 5/- for 70
pages seems rather ‘ stiff.’

With reference to Major Marriott’s paper on ‘ The Ice-Age Question
Solved,’ (briefly referred to in The Naturalist, p. 216) Mr. H. Spencer
Jones writes to Science Progress for July to say that astronomers generally
do not accept Drayson’s theory. This being so, the Ice-age question is
by no means ' solved.’ In the same journal Mr. H. Bury has an interesting
paper on •' Some Palaeolithic Problems ’ which should be carefully read by
those who think that remains of early man can be classified like coins or
foreign stamps.

At a recent meeting of the Linnean Society was exhibited a medallion
portrait in bronze, hitherto unknown, of Carl von Linne, and wanting in
Professor T. Tullberg’s ‘ Linneportratt,’ the comprehensive catalogue
of Linnean portraits. The base of the head showed the name ‘ G. Wallis.’
George Wallis (1811-91) was an art teacher in Manchester, London and
Birmingham, and became Keeper of the Art Collections, South Kensing-
ton, in 1858, which he retained till the year before his death. Like
nearly all plastic representations of Linne, it was made from portraits,
as the period of the artist declares.

Under the heading of ‘ A Geological Find — Discovery by Scottish
Professor ’ — the Glasgow Herald says : — ‘ Sir Henry Jones, of Glasgow
University, has just made a discovery which will probably have a very
i mportant bearing on the accepted theories of palaeozoology. In a narrow
rock fissure on the hills in the neighbourhood of Tighnabruaich, Argyll,
20 feet below the ground level, he observed a protrusion quite unlike
any of the geological remains of the neighbourhood. The general appear-
ance of the fossil was that of a petrified fish, but it had evidence of teeth
and eye sockets quite unusual in the particular strata of the neighbourhood.
Sir Henry called in the expert advice of the Scottish Archaeological Society

t<> examine the find, and meanwhile for the sake of convenience it has been
classified among the caproids. The importance of the discovery lies in
th< fa( t that hitherto this order has not been found earlier than in the
’ pliocene I 1_ 1 m unhid jjtrr strata than the Argyllshire hills.’

Naturalist

3SEP.1919

The Birds of Yorkshire.

By T. H. NELSON, M.B.O.U.,

With the co-operation of W. Eagle Clarke, F.R.S.E., and F. Boyes.

Demy 8vo, containing goi pages of letterpress and upwards of 200
illustrations beautifully printed in double tone ink on best Art Paper ,
from photos by R. Fortune, F.Z.S. , and other well-known ?iaturalist
photographers, also three-colour plates and specially designed title pages
in colours, strongly bound in fast coloured cloth binding .

25/- net for 15/- net.

Mr. Kearton, F.Z.S., in his review of this work for the Daily Chronicle writes : —
■** Having been born and brought up amongst the birds in one of the wildest parts
F of the ‘ County of Broad Acres,’ I found myself more or less qualified to test the
accuracy of the author’s statement when his two handsome volumes came into my
possession, and I am bound to confess that he does not in the least overstate the
claims of the work. I have again and again put its accuracy and fulness to the
severest of tests, and in each instance it has come out triumphant. Mr. Nelson
-and his literary and pictorial helpers have placed all British ornithologists under a
l -deep debt of gratitude by the production of one of the best and completest county
* -histories of birds ever published.”

London : A. BROWN & SONS, Ltd., 5, Farringdon Avenue, E.C.

AND AT HULL AND YORK.

162 pages , Crown 8vo , tastefully bound in cloth , 4/6 net.

“ALL TOO HUMAN?”

AN ESSAY IN CHRISTIAN APOLOGETIC

SAMUEL PROUDFOOT.

Sometimes it is said that Christianity is not divine, but human — -
all too human to be a revelation from God.

The writer of this book admits that Christianity is a human — an
intensely human — religion. But it is for this very reason that he
regards it as a perfect religion for humanity.

For he believes that the “divineness” of Christianity is to be
looked for in its being perfectly human ; just as the “ divineness ” of
Christ for us, is to be looked for in His being perfect Man.

Thus, Christianity is human, but it is not “ all too human.” If
it were less human it would fall short of being divine.

London : A. BROWN & SONS, Ltd., 5 Farringdcr Averue, E.C. 4.
and at Hull & York

—

J^ESIDERATA.- — Rare Works on Natural History by
Private Collector to improve Library. State Title Page,
Condition and Price : —

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WATKINS & DONCASTER

NATURALISTS,

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SCIENCE PROGRESS

A Quarterly Review of Scientific Thought,
Work and Affairs.

Editor - COLONEL SIR RONALD ROSS, K.C.B., F.R.S.

This Quarterly is now in its fourteenth year of publication. Its
object is to give all readers of wide culture and interest in science
a knowledge of the numerous advances which are being continually
made in connection with scientific work and thought. Each number
contains Recent Advances in Science (by a number of experts).
Articles, Popular Science, Essay-Reviews, Correspondence, Notes,
Essays, many Reviews, and a Book List. Published early every
quarter by John Murray, 50a Albemarle Street, London, W. Annual
Subscription 25/6 and price of one number 6s. Subscriptions
through bookseller or direct to the Publisher.

“ Science Progress, which has now reached its thirty -ninth
number, not only covers a remarkable wide field with great
ability, but has had impressed upon it, by the energetic and
humane spirit of its editor, a certain dynamic quality which
makes it a force as well as a source of light.” — The Times,

NATURAL HISTORY BOOKS AND SERIALS.

JOHN WHELDON 8c CO. have the largest stock in
the country of Books in all departments of Natural History
and Science, also Transactions and Journals of Learned
Societies, etc., in sets, runs, and single volumes or numbers.

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Printed at Browns’ Savile Press, 40 'George Street, Hull, and published bv
A. Brown & Sons, Limited, at 5 Farringdon Avenue, in the City of London.

Sept. 1 st, 1919.

A MONTHLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF

NATURAL HISTORY FOR THE NORTH OF ENGLAND

OCT. 1919.

No. 753

(No. 527 of currant aorles.

EDITED BY

T. SHEPPARD, M.Sc., F Q.S., F.R.Q.S., F.S.A.Scot,.

The Museums, Hull ; .'••A-

AND

T. W. WOODHEAD, Ph.D., M.Sc., F.L.S.,

Technical College, Huddersfield. V

WITH THE ASSISTANCE AS REFEREES IN SPECIAL DEPARTMENTS OF

J. GILBERT BAKER, P.R.S. P.L.S., GEO. T. PORRITT, P.L.S., P.B.S.,
Prof. P. P. KENDALL, M.Sc., P.G.S., JOHN W. TAYLOR, M.Sc.,

RILEY FORTUNE, P.Z.S.

Contents : —

PAGE

Notes and Comments 1 Oil Spurts in a Rectory ’ ; Mixed Spirits ; The Cause; A Peace
Souvenir ; Marine Biology; British Mycetozoa; Type Ammonites ; Bradford Antiquaries ;
Derbyshire Naturalists, and their Publication ; Sands; Iron Ores; Lincolnshire Ores ;
Septarian Structure ; The Drake Collection ; The Bower Collection .. 313-318

The Jew’s Ear Fungus (Hirneola auricula- judas Fr .). — Walter Johnson, F.G.S. ... 319-322

The Spiders of Yorkshire— Wm. Falconer 323-326

Westmorland Coleoptera — F. H. Day, F.E.S. 327-328

Two Phytophagous Chalcids — Rev. E. Adrian Woodruff e-Peacock, F.L.S., F.G.S. etc. ... 329-330

Some Derbyshire PIant=GalIs— James Meikle Brown, B.Sc., F.L.S., F.G.S 330-332

Common Wild Birds of the Scarborough District— IT. Gyngell 333-336

Field Notes : — Jackdaw’s Unusual Nesting Site ; Woodcock near Doncaster ; Tree Creeper
(Ccrthia familiaris) : Palmated Newt {Molge palmata) in the Lake District; More Plusia

moneta ' 318, 336, 337

British Association Notes 338

Correspondence : — Cause of Melanism in Phigalia pilosarici ;
Starling ; Cypribedium Calceolus

News from the Magazines

Proceedings of Provincial Scientific Societies

Reviews and Book Notices

Northern News

Large Pike and Herons ;

339-341

332, 337, 344

341, 344

342-343

328,338,341,343,344

LONDON :

A. Brown & Sons, Limited, 5, Farringdon Avenue, E.C. 4.
And at Hull and York.

Printers and Publishers to the Y.N. U.

Prepaid Subscription 8/6 per annum, post free.

YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS’ UNION.
BOTANICAL SECTION.

Tlic Botanical Section will meet in the Botanical Department at Leeds
University on October iith, 1919, at 3-30 p.m.

Business. — To discuss and adopt the Annual Report and select officers
and committees for election at the Annual Meeting.

CHRIS. A. CHEETHAM,

Stone Bridge Mills, Wortley, Leeds.

GEOLOGICAL SECTION.

President : Dr. GILLIGAN, F.G.S.

A Meeting will be held in the Geological Dept., Leeds University, on
Saturday, October i8th, 1919, at 3-30 p.m.

Business. — To consider and pass sectional reports for 1919, and to elect
officers for 1920.

To discuss the future work of the various Committees and other matters.

Short papers will be given by several members of the Section.

Any Member or Associate of the Yorkshire Naturalists5 Union is invited to
attend and to bring notes, specimens, etc., and is requested to bring forward
matters of interest connected with the work of the Section and to take part in any
discussion. Will officials of Affiliated Societies kindly notify their Members?

A1137 further particulars from

J. HOLMES {Hon. Sec.), Crosshills, Keighley.

VERTEBRATE SECTION.

President : A. HAIGH LUMBY, Esq., Shipley.

Meetings will be held in the Co-operative Society’s Buildings, Albion Street
(close to Midland and N.E. Railway Stations), Leeds, on Saturday, October
25th, 1919. Afternoon at 3-30. (Members of the Wild Birds and Eggs Pro-
tection Act Committee meet at the same place at 2-30 p.m.).

Business :

Election of Officers ; Report of Protection Committee ; North, East and
West Riding and York District Faunal Reports for the year. Short papers
on Zoological topics.

Specimens, notes, photographs, etc., from any member or associate will be
gladly welcomed.

Will Secretaries please announce to their Societies.

WALTER GREAVES, Hon. Sec.,

1 Chapel Avenue, Hebden Bridge.

ENTOMOLOGICAL SECTION.

President : — G. T. Porritt, Esq., F.L.S., F.E.S.

Two meetings will be held in the Institute, Cookridge Street, Leeds, on
Saturday, October 25TH, 1919, viz., at 3-15 p.m., to consider and pass
the Sectional Reports and to elect Officers for 1920; and. at 6 p.m., at which
entomological topics will be discussed.

Exhibits of all orders of insects are invited, and exhibitors should attac t
their names to their exhibits and label the specimens with names and data.
Members and Associates of the Union are cordially invited. The Secretaries
< nrnestly solicit note's and records made during the season on entomological
'iibje< ts in the county, and specially ask that these should be in their hands
'■v October jth for inclusion in the Annual Report of the Union.

SECRETARIES.

I.cpidnptera B. Moki.ly (Skelmanthorpe) and H. H. Corbett, M.R.C.S.

(Doncaster ) .

H \ mnmptera, Hemiptera and Diptera. — J. F. Musham, F.E.S. (Selby).

AT uroptcra, Orthnptera and Trichoptera. — Q. T. Porritt, F.L.S. (Huddersfield).
Colcoptcrci. — W. [. Fokdmam, M.R.C.S., F.E.S. (Bubwith).

B. MORLEY {Sectional Secretary), Skelmanthorpe.

313

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

‘ OIL SPURTS IN A RECTORY.’

Under the above heading appears a notice in the daily-
press describing ‘ remarkable happenings at the residence of
the Rev. Hugh Guy, rector of Swanton No vers, near Melton
Constable, Norfolk, since August 8, when explosions and
earth tremors were observed. The rector and his family
have noticed peculiar smells, due to the presence of oil on
the walls and ceilings. On returning from a fortnight’s
holiday, the family found that their furniture had been ruined
by spurts of oil, bursting out of the ceilings and floors. The
spurts occurred every hour or so, especially if any movement
took place in the house. It was impossible for the family
to take up residence, for the oils were of a very high grade
and distinctly inflammable. For a time the well of the house
was not contaminated, but now it is impossible to draw a
supply of liquid to the top without its being largely oil. The
oil, it is stated, can be heard coursing up the walls, and along
the plaster, and from the top storey petrol splashed into the
room below. The oil flares and burns without giving off
smoke.’

MIXED SPIRITS.

The report goes on, ‘ a singular thing is that from the second
floor, paraffin of a good quality is given forth, while other
samples are benzoline and a liquid resembling methylated
spirits. The house is in one of the highest parts of Norfolk.
On Monday the principal liquid forthcoming was water,
which flooded the scullery. This was succeeded on Tuesday
by petrol, on Wednesday by pure paraffin, on Thursday by a
mixture of petrol and paraffin, while on Friday water again
predominated.’ [We wonder what happened on Saturday
and Sunday — something drinkable for the Rev. Guy, we hope !]

‘ The petrol drips at the rate of about a quart in 5 minutes,
but it evaporates in about ten minutes. The district is 30 or
40 miles east of the shale fields near King’s Lynn, where
shafts are being sunk.’

THE CAUSE.

From a subsequent report we learn : — ‘ Mr. Williams
dismissed the girl for three days and caused the house to be
shut up. During this interval no liquid fell. In the meantime
Mr. Williams cut off the water supply and removed all liquids
except several pails containing water strongly salted.
On the return of the girl she reported two more falls of
liquid. This was found to be salted water. As the floor
boards of the upper room had been removed there was an
aperture through which what was happening down below
could be seen. The girl took up a glass and threw some of

1919 Oct. 1

x

314

Notes and Comments.

the salted water up to the ceiling. The girl, after first denying
her hoax, made a clean breast of the matter, and burst into
tears. Most of the experts who had investigated the
‘ mystery ’ were agreed that there' was no hoax, and the
Government experts even suggested that the house should be
pulled down in order to begin boring operations !

A PEACE SOUVENIR.

Various places have celebrated Peace in various ways,
but the City of Hull has, among other things, issued a souvenir
which will be more permanent than many will be. Each of
the 55,000 school children has been presented with an artistic
and well-illustrated volume entitled, ‘ Kingston-upon-Hull :
before, during and after the Great War/ It contains 120
pages and several plates and cost £2,500 to print. The volume
contains a history of the city and district from the earliest
times ; an account of the progress of this country and of
the formation of her colonies, as well as a record of the
work done in Hull during the Great War. The book has been
written by Mr. T. Sheppard, M.Sc., and published by Messrs.
A. Brown & Sons.

MARINE BIOLOGY.

Volume XII., No. 1, of the new series of The Journal of
the Marine Biological Association ■ (1 57 pp., 3/6), contains
‘ A Contribution to the Quantitative Study of Plankton/ by
Dr. E. J. Allen ; Feeding Habits of some young fish ; Food of
Post-Larval Fish ; the young of the Gobiidae (two notes) all
by M. V. Lebour ; the Development of the species of Upogebia
from Plymouth Sound, by Gladys E. Webb ; A suggested
scheme for the investigation of Marine Bacteria, by H. S.
Holden, and Seashore Diptera, by Col. J. W. Yerbury. We
notice that the shortage of fuel resulted in the pumping
of sea-water through the tanks being stopped for six hours
each day, but the animals do not seem to have suffered. Steady
and useful work has been accomplished at the Laboratory by
Dr. Allen, Dr. Marie Lebour, Miss Webb, Mrs. Sexton and
Dr. W. Wallace. There are several plates and illustrations
in the text.

BRITISH MYCETOZOA.

The increasing interest taken in the study of our Mycetozoa
is evinced by the British Museum's issue of a new (fourth)
edition of the Guide to the British Mycetozoa.* Three new
genera, Colloderma, Leptoderma and Hymenobolus are described
and thirty-five new species are recorded since the issue of
the third. edition in 1909. Of the 260 known species 181 have

* ‘ Guide to the British Mycetozoa,’ British Museum (Nat. Hist.),
8vo., 62 pp., is.

Naturalist,

Notes and Comments.

3i5

been found in Britain. Students will be pleased to see that
habitats are now given for each species as well as the derivations
of the generic and specific names, the descriptions considerably
amplified and the nomenclature brought up to date in con-
formity with the International Rules. An outline of the life-
history of these organisms is given in the Introduction, and
reference is therein made to the discovery that the swarm
cells (amoebulae) fuse in pairs and that the resulting zygote
forms the plasmodium. The authoress. Miss Gulielma Lister,
F.L.S., reveals the secret for making really permanent mount-
ings for microscopic examination and gives full instructions
for the cultivation of plasmodia in which the mysterious
rythmic circulation can be seen, also of the amoebulae which
may frequently be observed feeding on bacteria. A useful
glossary is now added and an illustration showing microscopic
characters is given of a typical species of each genus, by which
the determination of specimens is greatly simplified. We com-
mend this booklet to naturalists in search of ‘ pastures new’ as an
easy introduction to a charming group of organisms.— W.N.C.

TYPE AMMONITES.

With part xix., which forms the first part of the third
volume, Mr. S. S. Buckman alters the title of his publication
to ‘Type Ammonites/ omitting the word ‘Yorkshire/ The
present publication is smaller than usual and we find the price
has been increased to 10/-, which we fear will seriously interfere
with the circulation. The species figured are : — A. bucklandi,
ammonoides, cylindroides, perexpansum, intricatum , victoris,
perfoliatum, and serpentinum. In an interesting editorial
Mr. Buckman tells us the theory that the forms now
called nomomorphs are the females, and the phaulomorphs
the males, but, on the authority of Buckman and Bather,
‘ there are not enough husbands to go round/ though why
ammonites should be monogamous in the same way as the more
civilised examples of Homo sapiens are supposed to be, is
difficult to say. A photograph of Martin Simpson is given as
a frontispiece.

BRADFORD ANTIQUARIES.

We are glad to note that the Bradford antiquaries have been
able to re-issue their interesting publication, ‘ The Bradford
Antiquary/ part 20 of the new series of which is before us,
and has been edited by Dr. J. H. Rowe and Mr. P. Ross.
There is a strong ‘ Roman ’ flavour in the volume, but whether
the Roman Roads, etc., are really as perfect as represented
is another matter. There is an excellent map of the Roman
Road from Ilkley to Aldborough as far as the River Nidd,
and, being joint Editor, Mr. Ross contributes the first four
articles to the Journal, namely : — The Roman Road from

1919 Oct. 1

3i6

N o tes and C ommen ts .

Ilkley to Aldborough as far as the River Nidd ; Flint Arrow
Head found at Baildon ; Roman Road Excavation on Otley
Chevin ; The Roman Mile calculated from the Milestones
found south-east of Carlisle. Other contributions are : —
Thornton Old Chapel, by W. E. Preston ; Some Bradford
Bridges, by Miss J. S. Sunderland, and The Early Volunteer
Movement in Bradford, by H. J. M. Maltby.

DERBYSHIRE NATURALISTS,

Vol. XLI. of The Journal of the Derbyshire Archceological
and Natural History Society (192 pages) has been issued, and
is quite up to the standard of this Society’s publications.
Among the contents we notice : — Notes on the History of
Tideswell and its Manor, by J. M. J. Fletcher ; Notes on an old
Churchwardens’ Account Book (1597-1718) (St. Werburgh, in
Derby), by Thomas L. Tudor ; The Earliest Registers of
Weston-upon -Trent, Derbyshire, 1565 to 1605, by L. L,
Simpson ; Derbyshire Grammar Schools— with a description
of the seals, by Rev. Henry Lawrence, M.A. ; House-Burial,
with Examples in Derbyshire, by S. O. Addy, and Pleasley
Church, by W. Stevenson. Of more particular interest to
our readers are : — Ornithological Record for Derbyshire,
1918, by N. H. Fitz Herbert ; Some Notes on collecting
Lepidoptera at Repton, 1918, by H. C. Hayward.

AND THEIR PUBLICATION. '

In regard to the volume generally, the papers are princi-
pally of archaeological interest, one of which, by S. O. Addy,
deals with ‘ House-burial.’ We are afraid that Mr. Addy
sees dwellings in trees, houses in the running brooks, ‘ Little
Places ’ in books, and mud huts in everything ; and certainly
the illustrations of two British Cinerary Urns on page 88,
which he calls 1 urns representing huts with posts and wattles,’
are about as far-fetched as anything we have seen, and could
be more readily described as Zulu tom-toms, or ladies’ work-
baskets, though, with a little imagination they could be almost
anything. Mr. FitzHerbert’s Bird Notes are illustrated by a
peculiar example of a pied Moor-hen killed at Somersal.

SANDS.

Dr. P. G. H. Boswell’s Inaugural Lecture delivered at the
University at Liverpool, on November 16th, 1917, was entitled
‘ Sands, Considered Geologically and Industrially, under War
Conditions.’ The address has been published by the University
Press of Liverpool (38 pages, 1/-). Dr. Boswell gives details
of various methods of examining sands, and his address is
illustrated by numerous diagrams and photomicrographs.

Naturalist,

Notes and Comments.

3i 7

IRON ORES.

In the Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry for
June, Dr. F. H. Hatch prints a lecture delivered at the Royal
School of Mines, entitled ‘ Recent Iron-Ore Developments
in the United Kingdom.’ This contains many valuable
references to the Iron-Ore of the Northern Counties, including
the following relating to Yorkshire and Lincolnshire : —
* The Cleveland Ironstone is siliceous and requires lime to
flux it. It is high in alumina and sulphur and this feature
militates against its use for making basic pig-iron, since the
alumina content makes it difficult to carry sufficient lime in
the slag to ensure the production of a basic pig low in silicon
and sulphur. To produce a suitable pig a considerable
proportion of ores low in alumina, mainly of foreign origin,
has to be added to the furnace charge. But, by using molten
metal direct from the blast furnace and desiliconising it in a
mixer, basic open-hearth steel can be made from Cleveland
ores without admixture with foreign ores.’

LINCOLNSHIRE ORES.

The Frodingham ironstone almost invariably contains
sufficient lime to be fluxed without the addition of limestone.
It also carries about one per cent, of manganese and can there-
fore be smelted without the addition of manganese ore. Thpse
self-fluxing properties make it a most valuable ore, in spite of
its low iron-content which averages only 22 per cent. The
sulphur content is *16 per cent, and the phosphorus, *31 per
cent. The Marlstone of South Lincolnshire, Leicester and
Oxfordshire is on the whole a Uimey ’ ironstone and is often
self-fluxing. In places, however, where the surface waters
have leached out the lime, it is siliceous. Its phosphorous-
content averages *25 per cent ; sulphur -i per cent.

SEPTARIAN STRUCTURE.

In the Mineralogical Magazine , No. 86, for May, Mr. W. A.
Richardson has a paper on ‘ The Origin of Septarian Structure,’
in which he reviews the various theories as to these peculiar
features in nodules, and concludes ‘ That septarian structure
consists of a polygonal system of cracks corresponding to a
mud desiccation structure. That the cracking of the nodule
is* due to the desiccation of a colloidal centre by chemical
means. That the nodules originated by the rhythmic pre-
cipitation of solutions diffusing through a colloid according
to Liesegang’s laws.’

THE DRAKE COLLECTION.

Two important geological collections of more than local
interest have recently been acquired by the Hull Municipal

1919 Oct. 1

318

Notes and Comments.

Museum, viz., the Drake and Bower collections. The first
was formed by the late H. C. Drake, F.G.S., who spent many
years in the Scarborough district, and also collected largely
among the saurian and other vertebrate remains of the Oxford
Clay in the Peterborough area. Mr. Drake was an exceptionally
keen and patient collector and was very successful in extracting
difficult specimens from their matrix. From the Oolites of the
Scarborough and Malton districts he obtained a remarkably
fine series of fish and reptilian teeth and bones, some being of
altogether exceptional interest. He also carried out original
work among the cephalopods. Many additional records to the
fauna of these rocks have been made as a result of Mr. Drake’s
researches. He was also successful in securing many important
vertebrate remains from the chalk of North Lines, which have
been described in The P ala eonto graphic at Society’s Memoirs ,
The Geographical Magazine, The Naturalist and other pub-
lications. Some years ago he considerably augmented the
Geological collections in the Hull Museum, several cases being
entirely occupied by his gifts. He also assisted in preparing
the catalogues of this collection. The specimens recently
obtained will be shown with his other fossils in due course.

THE BOWER COLLECTION.

The other collection was formed by the Rev. C. R. Bower.
Many of the specimens are described and some figured in
his paper on ‘The Zones of the Lower Chalk of Lincolnshire/
in the Proceedings of the Geological Association for 1918.
This collection consists of over a thousand excellently cleaned
chalk fossils, carefully labelled and localised, including many
of those which have been figured in his paper, as well as one of
the two known examples of Actinocamax boweri, the other
specimen being in the British Museum. The collections are
largely from the Lower Chalk of Lines., from the chalk of
Yorkshire, and there is an interesting series from the Upper
Cretaceous of Dover, Folkestone, Kent and Norfolk. Most
of these specimens have been examined and verified by Dr.
A. W. Rowe and Mr. C. Davies Sherborn.

: o :

Jackdaw’s Unusual Nesting Site. — A Jackdaw in this
parish has built its nest, containing 3 eggs, in the top of
a spruce fir, of no great height. The nest is a bulky structure,
composed outwardly of a mass of sticks, and lined with straw
and sheep’s wool, there being also included among the materials
a porti n of a newspaper, and a piece of cloth to which a button
is attached. — W. W. Mason, Melmerby, Cumberland, May 23rd,
I9I9*

Naturalist,

319

THE JEW’S EAR FUNGUS

( Hirneola au ricu la-judce , Fr.).

WALTER JOHNSON, F.G.S.

( Continued from page 2 go).

From personal experience, one gathers that the name
Jew’s ear has not survived to any great extent among country-
folk. This is not surprising when we recollect dozens of similar
cases, in which the loss is due both to a decline in actual know-
ledge and to a growing distrust in the medicinal efficacy of
simples, when self-prescribed. There can be little doubt
that monastic gardeners, peasant herbalists, and ‘ wise women ’
of the hamlet knew the Jew’s ear well. Unfortunately, the
popular name has come to be applied in a very liberal manner,
for the valuable investigations of Messrs. Britten and Holland
show that it is shared among Hirneola and three species of
Peziza ( P . coccinea , P. cochleala, and P. venom). * The last-
named species is also known — presumably in the north country
— as f Jew’s lugs.’ f It is of some interest to recall that this
application of ‘ Jew’s ear ’ to Peziza runs parallel with one of
the generic names adopted by Linnaeus.

A hint has been already given that the association of the
elder with Judas and the employment of the fungus in popular
medicine, are involved in a mass of folk-lore concerning the
tree itself. It would be manifestly out of place here to discuss
fully the folk-lore of the elder, but a few references may be
welcome to some readers. J One legend must here suffice :
in Haute Bretagne there was a belief that, until the suicide
of Judas, elder-berries were delicious ( les baies de sureau
etaient autrefois excellentes), but after that event, they
became too bitter for eating. §

VIII. — Edibility and Medicinal Reputation. To' those
mycologists who consider the question of edibility of prime
importance, it may at once be said that the Jew’s ear, if not
savoury, is at least non-poisonous. A tiny nibble at the fungus
will prove that it is almost tasteless, though it possesses slightly
the odour which is characteristic of many of the mushroom
group. Massee says that Hirneola is * in all probability, edible,’
although he is ‘ not aware of its having been tested ’ ; || while
Hay, who pronounces it ‘ insipid,’ and ‘ a tasteless mucilaginous
viand,’ speaks from personal experience. ‘ I have tried the

* J. Britten and R. Holland, ‘ Diet, of Eng. Plant-Names/ 1886, p. 279.

f Phavmaceut. Journ., 3rd Ser., II., 1871, p. 878.

X Notes and Queries, 10th Ser., vii., 1907, pp. 211-13 ; nth Ser., xii.,
1915, pp. 361, 410, etc. Folk-lore, 1905, xvi ; 1912, xxiii. ; 1913, xxiv ;
1914, xxv.; E. Step, op. cit., pp. 41-2. J. Grimm. ‘ Teut. Mythology/
ed., J. S. Stallybrass, 1883, II., pp. 651-2.

§ P. Sebillot, ‘ Le Folk-Lore de France/ 1906, t. III., p. 369.

|| ‘ Brit. Fungi/ p. 444.

1919 Oct. 1

320

Johnson : The Jew’s Ear Fungus.

Jew’s ear/ he writes, ‘ both there [China] and here, but do
not find it nice/ * This opinion coincides with that of Mr.
E. W. vS wanton, of the Haslemere Museum. In his useful
little monograph he indeed classes Hirneola with the esculent
fungi, | yet in a private note to the present writer he says that
it is ‘ rather poor stuff/

Some years ago Mr. W. N. Cheesman in The Naturalist
related how he had been invited to dine with a farmer on
‘ Jew’s Ears’ Pie.’ This pie was not composed of fungi alone,
but was rendered more palatable and succulent by the addition
of beefsteak. The farmer having stated that the ‘ Jew’s
ears ’ were gathered on a ‘ dry bank/ the guest made a careful
examination of a portion, and found that the fungus was a
species of Peziza ( P . repanda) — a good illustration of the
confusion lurking behind popular names. J

The use of the Jew’s ear in salads is not a thing of yesterday.
As previously noted, such dainties were referred to by
Rabelais. The editors of Rabelais, after citing Vigneul-
Marville (1713) to the effect that ‘ ily a d.anger de mort a manger
de cette sorte de champignons ,’ themselves declare that ‘ les
Gastrolatres n’y regardoient pas de si pres .’ § In this country,
too, the fungus was similarly employed, for in an old play by
Hey wood and Broome (1634) we read • ‘ All the Sallets are
turn’d to Iewes-eares and Puckfists [=puffballsj / |[

The particular species of Hirneola which is chiefly valued
for food is H. polytricha, Mont. This fungus, which is said to
grow on decaying trees in Australia, New Zealand and Africa,
has, according to Massee, been noticed on timber imported
into Britain, though it is not a British species. If China
appears to be the only market for this delicacy, but since the
average price is £45 a ton, Mr. J. H. Holland is justified in
stating that the species is ‘ one of the few that can be classed
as being of any commercial value.’** There is another esculent
species, H. rufa Fr. which grows in like habitats in Japan,
Ceylon, South America, and Australia, ff

The ‘ Chinese ’ Jew’s ear, H. polytricha — for it grows
naturally on the bark of the wild cherry in Central China §§ — -
has often been confused with our own species when the question
of edibility has been proposed. A long account of H. polytricha,
or ‘ mu-esh,’ as it is called by the Chinese, is given by Cooke
in his ‘ British Edible Fungi.' In addition to the supply ob-
tained from the wild cherry, quantities of ‘ mu-esh ’ are

* Op. cit., p. 133. -j- ‘ An Annotated Catalogue of Edible Brit. Fungi,’

1900, p. 7. I Naturalist, 1902, p. 273. § Rabelais, ed. cit., t. iv., p. 356.

|| T. Heywood and R. Broome, ‘ The late Lancashire Witches,’ 1634,
(no pagination), E. 3, 4. Pearson's edn. of ‘ Works,' 1874, iv., p. 207.

' Brit. Fungus-Flora,' I., p. 58. ** Naturalist, 1903, pp. 53-4.

tt Naturalist, 1904, p. 117. §§ Cooke, ‘ Brit. Edible Fungi,’ p. 177.

Naturalist,

Johnson: The Jew's Ear Fungus.

321

cultivated in a rather elaborate manner on the rotting bark
of the China oak (Quercus sinensis), at Yun- Yang, whence it
is exported to all parts of the country. There is also a species,
reputed by some to be separate and non-indigenous to China,
originally grown in New Zealand, Australia, New Guinea,
and certain small islands of the Pacific. The Chinese value
the Jew’s ear both as a medicine and as the chief ingredient
in making soup, the mucilaginous nature of the fungus appealing
strongly to their palate. The popularity of this dainty seems,
however, to be on the wane.*

Cooke was eager to ascertain, as have been numerous
inquirers since his day, the exact food- value of Hivneola.
Taking an air-dried specimen, he found that the Jew’s ear
differs from most of the other fungi in its low per-centage of
albuminoids. Seventy-five per cent, of the whole consists of
digestible carbo-hydrates, the principal of which is a gum-
like body known as bassorin. Bassorin swells in water, and
is soluble in dilute, warm solutions of caustic alkalies. These
solutions gelatinize on cooling, f

The medicinal fame of the Jew’s ear reaches back for several
centuries. Primarily, it was deemed a sovereign remedy for
throat affections. Phaer bids folk ‘ heate it agaynst the fire,
and put it note in any drynke, and the same drynke is good
and holsome for the quinsye.’ So precious is the specific
that he recommends its being carried about on * journeies.’ J
Gerard declares that * the gelly of the Elder, otherwise called
Iewtfs eares, hath a binding and drying qualitie : the infusion
thereof in which it hath been steeped for a fewe howers, taketh
away inflammations of the mouth, . . . .’ § Coles, after
describing how the Jew's ear, placed in warm water, ‘ swelleth
and openeth extreamly,’ indicates its usefulness ‘ for curing
Squinances, and Inflammations of the Throat.’ ||

Sometimes the remedy was applied in the form of ‘ oil of
Jew’s ears.’ This was prepared by boiling the fungus in
‘ oyl-olive ’ until it was crisp, and then pressing out the oil-TJ
A further use of the Jew’s ear was to cure coughs. Anne
Pratt quotes an old rhyme, the antiquity and provenance of
which would surely be of interest if more information could
be obtained. The lines run thus : — -

‘ For a cough take Judas’ Eare,

With the paring of a Peare ;

And drinke this without feare
If you will have remedie.’**

The explanation underlying the belief in the potency of

* Op. cit., pp. 177-180. f loc. cit. X Phaer, loc. cit.

§ op. cit., II., p. 1235. || Coles, loc. cit. W. Salmon, ■ Phar

macopoeia Bateana,’ 1713, p. 705. ** A. Pratt, * Flowering Plants and

Ferns of Great Britain,’ N.D., III., p. 131.

1919 Oct. 1

322 Johnson : The Jew's Ear Fungus .

Hirneola is perhaps to be partly found in the old ‘ doctrine of
signatures.' There may have been a fancied resemblance
between the wrinkles on the fungus and the human fauces. * * * §
Furthermore, as Mr. T. A. Cook states, in a volume full of new
suggestions, the fungus was considered a good remedy for
ear-ache by reason of its shape — an illustration of the same
doctrine, f

A secondary use of the fungus, obviously based upon its
physical properties, was to serve as a sponge for applying
lotions to weak and diseased eyes. | From this employment
as a medium for other remedies, the step towards faith in the
virtues of the fungus itself as an eye-specific was very short,
but, with Delisle Hay, we may well believe that the trust
was misplaced. Yet so late as 1857, Berkeley could write
that the Jew's ear was still occasionally sold at Covent Garden
as a remedy for sore throats. § About a quarter of a century
afterwards, Cooke wrote that, of late years it had seldom been
met with in herbalists' shops, || and to-day it is doubtful
whether any tradition concerning the. curative properties of
the Jew’s ear anywhere survives.

IX. — Unsettled Problems. This paper is frankly
tentative, and there are large gaps in the writer’s knowledge.
It may, therefore, be well to conclude by indicating points
upon which further research and information would be welcome.

(1) The occurrence, and the frequency of occurrence,
of Hirneola, upon trees other than the elder.

(2) The significance of the variations in the fungus,
when grown on the elder and the elm respectively.

(3) The temperature required for the germination
of the conidia.

(4) The probability that a specimen which has
borne conidia and has withstood the winter, may again
be fertile ; in other words, whether Hirneola, under
favourable conditions, may be accounted a perennial.
(There is no question, of course, of zoning, as in certain
of the polypore group).

(5) The possible value of the fungus, commercially,
as a mucilage.

Other problems will present themselves, but it may be
that readers of The Naturalist have already answered some
of those propounded above.

* Step, op. cit, p. 40.

f T. A. Cook, ‘ The Curves of Life/ 1914, p. 131- (I am indebted to
Mr. Alfred Ela, of Boston, Mass, for this clue.)

\ Cooke, ‘ Brit. Fungi,’ pp. 90-91.

§ ‘ Crypt. Bot.,” p. 355.

|| ‘ Brit. Fungi,’ pp. 90-91.

Naturalist,

THE SPIDERS OF YORKSHIRE.

323

WM. FALCONER,
Slaithwaite , Huddersfield.

( Continued from page 2J0 ).

Cornicularia vigilax Bl.

A rare British spider, reported from Dorset, Glamorgan, North
Wales, Staffordshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, Northumberland,
Loch Shiel and Galway ; abroad, France, Central Europe and
North America. Adult autumn to spring. First occurrence —
the author, Coatham Marshes, August, 1909.

V.C. 61. — Hornsea Mere, i(J, and brickponds, Ryde Street, Hull, 1
Welwick, 1 $, T.S.

V.C. 62. — Basedale, Westerdale Moor, Eston, Normanby Intake,
‘ not rare locally,’ J.W.H. ; Coatham Marshes.

V.C. 63. — Wholestone Moor, both sexes, not uncommon, and in a
sphagnum bog below Dean Head Church, both near Slaithwaite.

C. hochii Camb. (C. valida Jacks. $).

Rare, on record for Cheshire, Northumberland, and Lincolnshire,
where the discovery of both sexes together established the fact
that C. valida was the hitherto unrecognised female of this species.
A male was submitted to the Rev. O. P. Cambridge, who confirmed
the identification, but doubted its identity with the spider of the
same name both in Kulczynski’s Araneae Hungariae, and in Simon’s
Histoire Naturelle des Araigndes and Les Arachnides de France. Vide
The Naturalist, 1909, August, pp. 295-8, and September, 332-3.
In Northumberland it occurs on the hills, and in the other localities
on the coast. First occurrence — T. Stainforth, Saltend, May,
1909.

V.C. 61.— Saltend Common and Spurn, both sexes, E.A.P., T.S. ;
Humber Bank, at Welton, 2 qs, E.A.P. ; Hornsea Mere, 3 £s,
Humber Bank, between the New Joint Dock and Lord’s Clough,
1 <$, Broomfleet, (Js, $s, Sunk Island, T.S.

V.C. 62. — Grangetown, 1 1 Tees Mouth, within the breakwater,

sub C. karpinskii Camb. (The Naturalist, January, 1915), Redcar,
1 J.W.H.

Gen. Tigellinus Sim., 1-2.

T. furcillatus Menge.

Very rare, having occurred in one or two localities in the south
of England, and in Cheshire and Northumberland ; abroad,
France, Prussia, and Bavaria.

V.C. 63. — Wessenden Valley, an adult June, 1900, Honley Old
Wood, 3 $?s, 1907 and 1909.

Gen. Typhochrestus Sim., 1-1.

T. digitatus Camb. (T. dorsuosus Camb.).

A rare British spider, usually found near the sea, as in Dorset,
Glamorgan, Anglesey, Cheshire, Southport, North Berwick and
Edinburgh, and Meath ; in the Colne Valley (Yorkshire), Stafford-
shire and Northumberland, on high inland moors ; abroad,
Holland and South of France. Adult autumn to spring. First
occurrence — the author, Crosland Moor, November, 1903.

V.C. 61. — Bielsbeck, 1 T.S. ; Spurn, 1

V.C. 62.— Eston, 1 $, J.W.H.

V.C. 63. — Crosland Moor, Huddersfield, both sexes, plentiful in a
sandy spot, beneath a furze bush, less so beneath neighbouring
ones ; Blackmoorfoot, Meltham and Slaithwaite Moor, a $ at
each ; Wholestone Moor, 2 $s.

1919 Oct. 1

324

Falconer : The Spiders of Yorkshire.

Gen. Neriene Bl., 2-2.

N. rubens Bl.

Widely distributed in the British Isles and on the Continent,
found also in North America ; usually common amongst grass and
other herbage, fallen leaves, moss, etc. Adult autumn to spring.
First record — R. H. Meade, Yorkshire, S.G.B.I. (Bradford, V.C.H.).

In V.C. 61, 62, 63, 64, found wherever investigation has been made
and recorded stations numerous,

N. rubella Bl.

Not such a common spider as the last, but well distributed both
in the British Isles and on the Continent ; in some . localities,
abundant locally ; generally amongst low vegetation in woods,
or on the ground. Adult autumn to spring. First occurrence —
the author, Leeds, December, 1902.

V.C. 61. — Boynton Woods, 1 <^, T.S.

V.C. 62. — Eston and Lonsdale, not common, J. W. H. ; Kildale
Woods, 1 <$, 1 $, W.P.W. Robin Hood Bay, 1 $, W.E.L.W.

Raincliff Woods, Hayburn Wyke, Riftswood (Saltburn), Kilton
Woods.

- V.C. 63. — About Bradford, Saltaire, Shipley, Cottihgley, Harden,
G.H.O., W.P.W. ; Askern, Deffer Wood (Cawthorn), Denby
Dale, Clowes Moor (Marsden), Chew Valley (Greenfield), Upper
and Lower Stones Woods, Hey Wood, Honley Old Wood, Wood-
some, Saville Wood, Lepton Great Wood, all in Huddersfield area,
but not in any quantity ; Morton Wood, Holmfirth, Sun Dean,
South Crosland, Hebden Bridge, Crimsworth Dene.

V.C. 64.— Ilkley, W.R.B. ; Elam Wood, Howden Ghyll and Rivock
(Keighley), W.P.W. ; Guisburn, F.R. ; Sawley district, S.M.,
W.F. ; Roundhay Park (Leeds), Adel, Wharfedale from Bolton
Woods to Boston Spa, Hackfall.

V.C. 65. — Y.N.U., Upper Teesdale, Mickleton.

Gen. Enidia F. P. Smith, 2-2;

E. cornuta Bl.

Commoner in the south of England and Ireland than in the north
of these countries ; not yet noted for Scotland ; European dis-
tribution wide (north and centre) . Most of the following were
taken amongst ground vegetation, but it may be beaten from the
foliage of trees. Adult in May and June. First occurrence — the
author, E. Keswick, June, 1905.

V.C. 61. — Deepdale Woods. (Beverley), a few of each sex, T.S. ; -
Skipwith Common, many <^s and $s, W.P.W., W.F. ; Rillington
and Scampston, several females.

V.C. 62. — Eston, ‘ not common,’ J.W.H.

V.C. 64. — Malham, below the cove, 1 (J, W.P.W. ; Bolton Woods,
a few females ; Harewood Park, 1 $ ; East Keswick, 2 <£s ;
Dalton Lane, i<$.

E. bituberculata Wid.

Widely distributed in the British Isles ; abroad, Sweden, Denmark,
France, Central Europe and South Russia ; amongst grass, rushes
and moss, often in damp places. Adult April to June ; $s also
a little earlier and later. First occurrence — the author, East
Keswick, June, 1905. In V.C. 61, 62, 63, a plentiful spider in
suitable situations, and widely diffused. It does not, however,
seem at all a common spider for a wide area around Huddersfield ;
in boggy ground, near Goathill Farm, on Slaithwaite Moor, few
females ; Clough House Wood, 1 $ • Harden Clough (Meltham) ;
Morton Wood (Holmfirth), 1^, Hardcastle Crags, by river, amongst
wood-rush, opposite the Pavilion, $s. The same remark applies
to the hilly western areas.

Naturalist,

Falconer : The Spiders of Yorkshire.

325

V.C. 64. — Howden Ghyll, Morton Moor, Shipley Glen, W.P.W. ;
Bishop Wood, TVS.. ; Y. N. U., Harewood Park, and Woodhall ;
Sawley district, S.M., W.F. ; Malham Tarn ; Bolton Woods,
East Keswick, Stubbing Moor.

Gen. Dismodicus Sim., 1-2.

D. bifrons Bl.

Widespread and usually common in the British Isles ; abroad,
Sweden, France, Germany and Hungary ; at the roots of grass
and herbage, and amongst low vegetation. Often in damp ground.
Adult May to July. First occurrence — the author, Dean Head,
May, 1908. Widespread and plentiful in the county, the recorded
stations being very numerous.

Gen. Gongylidium Menge, i-i.

G. rufipes Sund.

Widely distributed in the British Isles and on the Continent ;
amongst low vegetation and fallen leaves, sometimes beneath
stones, especially in woods ; common in many areas, but apparently
not so in Yorkshire. Adult May to August. First occurrence —
the author, Dalton Lane, June, 1903.

V.C. 61.— Widely diffused, but not yet noted for the dune area, or
the tidal affluents of the Humber.

V.C. 62. — Eston and Lonsdale, ‘ not very common on cro wherry,’
J.W.H. ; Ayton Village, W.P.W. ; Kirby Moorside, H.C.D. ;
Scarborough, Cay ton Bay, Lewisham, Kilton Woods, Rifts wood
(Saltburn).

V.C. 63. — Very scarce, apparently. Hurst Wood (Shipley), W.P.W. ;
Campsall.

V.C. 64. — Elam Wood (Keighley), Burley-in-Wharfedale, W.P.W. ;
Y. N. U., Bishop Wood ; Adel Moor and King Wood ; Wharfedale,
from Bolton Woods to Linton Common, and Boston Spa, Stubbing
Moor, etc. ; Washburn Valley ; Spa Gill (Sawley) ; Hackfall.

V.C. 65.— Croft, E.A.P.

Gen. (Edothorax Bertk., 6-7.

(Gen. Gongylidium Menge. ad part.).

( E. fuscus Bl.

A common, and often abundant spider, -widely distributed at
home and abroad, in a variety of situations. Adult most months
of the year. First occurrence — the author, Slaithwaite, September,
1897.

In V.C. 61, 62, 63, 64, found wherever investigation has been made,
and recorded stations very numerous.

(E. agrestis Bl.

Closely allied to the last and widely distributed in Great Britain
(as far north as the Grampians) and on the Continent ; only
noted for a few localities in Ireland ; amongst grass, fern debris,
etc., and sometimes under stones. Adults most months of the
year. First occurrence — the author, Slaithwaite, April, 1900.

V.C. 62. — Eston Moor and Marton, ‘ sparingly,’ J.W.H. ; Goathland,
Kilton Woods, Riftswood (Saltburn).

V.C. 63. — Bradford, Bingley, Saltaire, Shipley, Harden and Cottingley,
but not in any quantity, R.B., W.P.W. ; Crimsworth Dene,
W.P.W., W.F. ; Deffer Wood (Cawthorn) ; Bottoms Wood
(Slaithwaite) and Drop Clough (Marsden), both sexes abundant ;
less plentifully Clowes Moor (Marsden), Chew Valley (Greenfield),
Wilshaw and Meltham, Marsden Clough (Holmfirth), Lower
Stones Wood (Stocksmoor), Saville Wood (Huddersfield), and
Ainley Place.

1919 Oct. 1

326

Falconer : The Spiders of Yorkshire.

V.C. 64. — Wharfedale, from Bolton Woods to Harewood, W.P.W.,
W.F. ; Shipley Glen, and Saltaire Park, W.P.W. ; Knaresborough,
Adel Moor, Brim Bray (Sawley).

V.C. 65. — Y.N.U., Upper Teesdale.

CE. retusus Westr.

Widely distributed in the British Isles as far north as Inverness,
and abroad extending from Novaya Zemla and Siberia to North
Africa. Season as in the last. First occurrence — the author.
Drop Clough, May, 1899.

V.C. 61, 63, 64, taken wherever investigation has been made and
recorded stations numerous in all parts.

V.C. 62. — Kildale and Grangetown, G.BAV. ; Lonsdale, J.W.H. ;
Thornton Dale and Oliver’s Mount, R.A.T. ; Raincliff Woods.
Goathland, Boosbeck, Marske.

V.C. 65. — Y.N.U., Upper Teesdale.

CE. apicatus Bl.

Apparently nowhere common, but widely distributed in Great
Britain and occurring in several countries in the centre and north
of Europe ; 1 $ recently taken in Ireland; at grass roots and
beneath stones. First occurrence — T. Stainforth, North Cave,
August, 1908.

V.C. 61. — North Cave, shore at North Ferriby, Mar fleet Creek,
Saltend, Ryehill, Patrington Haven, Spurn, Bielsbeck, Bridlington,
Burton Constable, Houghton Woods, T.S.

V.C. 62. — Coatham Marshes, 1$.

CE. gibbosus Bl.

This and the next are obtained in marshy ground usually in each
other’s company, together with females. No reliable means of
separating the latter sex in the two species exist, and even the
discovery of a pair in copula at Delamere Forest, in June, 1906,
did not lead to the discovery of an}" differential character. Pro-
bably, therefore, there is but one species with dimorphous males ;
both widely distributed in the British Isl'es ; abroad, France
and Bavaria. Adult May and June, 2s later also. First occurrence
— the author, Drop Clough, June, 1899.

V.C. 61. — Puffin Bog (Beverley), T.S., E.A.P. ; Weedley Springs,
Hornsea Mere, Kelleythorpe, King's Mill Marsh (Driffield), T.S. ;
Skipwith Common, W.P.W. , W.F.

V.C. 62. — Cleveland, ‘ every locality visited, common,’ J.W.H. ;
Ringingkeld Bog., R.A.T.

V.C. 63. — Stony Ridge, Moorhead and Hurst Wood (Shipley), W.P.W. -
Plentiful in bogs in Huddersfield district, Slaithwaite Moor, Royal
Clough (Scammonden), below Dean Head Church, Drop Clough,
Wessenden Valley, Standedge and Pule, Clowes Moor, Chew
Valley, Meltham, Honley, Marsden Clough (Holmfirth).

V.C. 64. — Morton Moor, Keighley, W.P.W. ; Adel Bog ; Sawley
District ; Chandler’s Whin and Askham Bog.

V.C. 65. — Y.N.U., Upper Teesdale.

CE. tuberosus Bl.

Recorded also for Egypt and Algeria — see the last. First occur-
rence— the author, Drop Clough, June 1900.

V.C. 61. — Hornsea Mere, Saltend Common, Weedley Springs, King’s
Mill Marsh (Driffield), T.S. ; Skipwith Common.

V.C. 62. — Cleveland, ‘ ever}" locality visited, common,’ J.W.H.

V.C. 63. — Naylor Rough and Hurst Wood, Shipley, W.P.W. ; for
Huddersfield area see previous species.

V.C. 64. — Valley of Desolation (Bolton Woods), W.P.W. ; Gargrave,
R.B. ; Chandler’s Whin and Askham Bog ; Adel Bog ; Malham
Tarn ; Brim Bray (Sawley).

(To be continued) .

Naturalist,

327

WESTMORLAND COLEOPTERA.

F. H. DAY, F.E.S.

( Continued from page 242).

Poophagus sisymbrii F. Melkinthorpe (Britten), Kirkby Stephen (Day).
Orobitis cyaneus L. Tebay (Bowman).

Limnobaris T -album L. Cliburn Moss (Britten), Witherslack (Day).

L. pilistriata Steph. Glenridding (Britten).

Calandra oryzae L. Tebay (Bowman).

Balanobius ( Balaninus ) salicivorus Pk. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

B . pyrrho cer as Marsh. Melkinthorpe (Britten), Witherslack (Day).
Anthonomus comari Crotch. Sunbiggin Tarn (Britten), Witherslack (Day).
A. inversus Bed. ( ulmi Brit. Cat.). Melkinthorpe (Britten).

A. pedicularius L. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Elleschus bipunctatus L. Tebay (Bowman).

Anoplus plantaris Naez. Melkinthorpe, Cliburn, Whinfell (Britten),
Witherslack (Day).

Orchestes quercus L. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

O.pilosus F. ( ilicis F.). Melkinthorpe (Britten).

O. fagi L, Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe, Cliburn (Britten), Lowther
Park (Day).

O. rusci Hbst. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

O. salicis L. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

O. stigma Ger . Witherslack (Day).

O. foliorum Mull. ( saliceti F.). Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Rhamphus pulicarius Hbst. (flavicornis Clairv.). Melkinthorpe, Cliburn
(Britten), Witherslack (Day).

Mecinus pyr aster Hbst. Melkinthorpe, Cliburn, Glenridding (Britten),
Witherslack (Day).

Gymnetron labile Hbst. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

G. beccabungae L. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Cionus scrophulariae L. Melkinthorpe, Cliburn, Glenridding (Britten),
Witherslack, Gaisgill (Day).

C. pulchellus Hbst. Glenridding (Britten).

Apion carduorum Kirb. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

A. ulicis Forst. Kirkby Stephen (Thompson), Cliburn, Clifton (Britten).
A.pallipes Kirb. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

A. seniculum Kirb. Melkinthorpe (Britten), Witherslack (Day).

A. frumentarium Pk. Rydal (Black), Whinfell, Cliburn Moss (Britten),
Witherslack (Day).

A. nigritarse Kirb. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

A. flavipes Pk. Melkinthorpe, Cliburn (Britten), Witherslack, Kirkby
Stephen (Day) .

A.assimile Kirb. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten).

A. apricans Hbst. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

A. curtirostre Germ. ( humile Germ.). Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe,
Cliburn, Strickland, Whinfell (Britten), Witherslack, Kirkby
Stephen, Lowther Park (Day).

A. marchicum Hbst. Rydal (Black), Melkinthorpe, Cliburn (Britten),
Witherslack (Day).

A. violaceum Kirb. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten), Withers-
lack, Kirkby Stephen (Day).

A.platalea Germ. ( unicolor Brit. Cat.). Melkinthorpe (Britten).

A. viciae Pk. Melkinthorpe (Britten), Witherslack (Day).

A.pisi F. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten).

A . punctigerum Pk. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

A. aethiops Hbst. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

A. striatum Kirb. Cliburn (Britten).

1919 Oct. l

328

Westmorland Coleoptera.

Apion ervi Kirb. Melkinthorpe (Britten), Witherslack (Day).

A. virens Hbst. Melkinthorpe (Britten), Witherslack (Day).

A. tenue Kirb. Melkinthorpe (Britten), Witherslack (Day).

A. loti Kirb. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

RhynchitesbetulaeE. Melkinthorpe, Cliburh (Britten)., Witherslack (Day).

R. mannerheimi Humm. [megacephalus Germ.). Melkinthorpe, Cliburn
(Britten) .

R. germanicus. Hbst. ( minutus Brit. Cat.). Melkinthorpe, Cliburn

(Britten), Witherslack (Day);

By discus betulae L. ( betuleti F.}. Melkihthorpe, Cliburn (Britten).
Eccoptogaster ( Scolytus ) scolytus F. [destructor Ol.). Melkinthorpe (Britten).
Lowther Park (Day).

Phloeophthorus rhododactylus Marsh. Cliburn (Britten)..

Hylesinus crenatus F. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

H.fraxini Pz. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

Myelophilus piniperda L. Tebay (Bowman), Cliburn, Whinfell (Britten).
Hylastes ater Pk. Cliburn (Britten).

H. palliatus Gy 11. Cliburn (Britten).

Pityogenes bidentatus Hbst, Tebay (Bowman) Cliburn (Britten).

Heteromera.

Oedemera lurida Marsh. Witherslack (Day).

Sphaeriestes ( Salpingus ) aeneus Steph. [aeratus Muls.). Melkinthorpe
(Britten), Witherslack (Day).

S. castaneus Pz. Tebay (Bowman), Cliburn, Whinfell (Britten).
Rhinosimus viridipennis Steph. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

R.ruficollis L. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

R. planirostris F. Melkinthorpe (Britten), Lowther Park (Day).

Anthicus floralis L. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe, Cliburn, Glenridding,
Pooley Bridge (Britten).

Meloe proscar abaeus L. Tebay (Bowman), Melkinthorpe (Britten).

M. violaceus Marsh. Brothers Water (Wood).

Anaspis frontalis L. Melkinthorpe (Britten), Witherslack, Kirkby Stephen
(Day).

A. garneysi Fow. Melkinthorpe (Britten).

A.regimbarti Schils. (ruficollis ‘Brit. Cat.’). Melkinthorpe, Cliburn,
Glenridding (Britten), Witherslack, Lowther Park (Day).

A. geoffroyi Mull. Melkinthorpe, Cliburn (Britten), Lowther Park (Day).
A. maculata Fourc. Melkinthorpe, Cliburn (Britten), Witherslack, Gaisgill,
Kirkby Stephen, Lowther Park (Day).

A. rufilabris Gyll. Melkinthorpe, Cliburn (Britten), Witherslack, Lowther
Park, Ravenstonedale (Day).

Melandrya caraboides L. Ulleswater district (Wood), Rydal (Black).
Gonodera ( Cistela ) murina L. Witherslack (Day).

Cteniopus sulphur eus L. Kendal (Fowler).

Blaps mucronata Latr. Melkinthorpe, Askham (Britten).

Latheticus oryzae Wat. Tebay (Bowman).

Tribolium navale F. (ferrugineum F.). Tebay (Bowman).

T. confusum Duv. Tebay (Bowman).

Gnathocerus cornutus F. Tebay (Bowman).

: o :

Dr. E. J. Russell gives an account of ‘ The Work of the Rothamsted
Experimental Station from 1914 to 1919 ’ in The Journal of the Board
of Agriculture for August.

Part 3 of Witherby’s Practical Handbook of British Birds (pp. 129-208,
4s.) deals with species from the Rustic-Bunting to the Pied Wagtail.
There is an admirably coloured plate showing the heads of various species
of Wagtails ; another plate illustrates some of the Pipits and Larks,
and there are the usual illustrations in the text.

Naturalist,

329

TWO PHYTOPHAGOUS CHALCIDS.

REV. E. ADRIAN WOODRUFFE -PEACOCK, F.L.S., F.G.S., ETC.

On 30th March, 1919, I tubed up seeds of Crataegus Qxyacantha
and also of C. oxyacanthoides , which had passed through the
alimentary canal of the Blackbird, and had been left in a
hollow, produced by sa^-wood decay, along the whole length of
the top bar of old Pep 'rdale House pasture-gate in Cadney
parish. On 29th June, 1919, I opened my collection of
Rosaceae seeds to show the Rev. W. W. Mason, of Melmerby,
Cumberland, some typical and off -type specimens. We
found in the tube referred to, which was only one of many, a
living chalcid fresh from a boring in one of the Oxyacantha
stones, for I have never yet obtained this chalcid from a
oxyacanthoides seed. It was exactly like a dead one I had
found in one of my tubes, from a seed of the 1917 crop, gathered
practically under like circumstances from the dung of a
Blackbird. This was provisionally named Tomyrus elegans
(See Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1918, p. 164) — a name which now
appears was not correct, for this living specimen has now
been provisionally named Syntomapsis druparum Bohem., by
Mr. Waterston of the British Museum (Natural History), who
has now returned from the war, and is at work arranging the
Chalcidae. He is much interested in this species, which is
known to be phytophagous, and amongst other things feed
on the seeds of apples.

I took, on 13th March, 1918, some seeds of Pyrus acerba — «
not the hybrid mitis, which has been crossed with garden
apples— curiously eaten, from the centre of an apple, which
had been on a bush with over thirty others during the 1917-18
frosts, and were yet still fertile. At that early date I only
found a larva, not a chalcid, in this apple which showed no
external opening. I will go into this matter fully next spring.

These chalcids, I have no doubt, are not difficult to procure,
if anyone will take the trouble to collect the nuts of the common
white thorn from the droppings of the Turdi, especially those
of the Blackbird, from gate-post and such like localities, or
from the cleaned stones of the gizzard-regurgitated seeds,
left by the song thrushes at their drinking places. The
stones can be stored in cotton-wool-stoppered tubes or under
inverted tumblers.

There is a commoner, but far more minute chalcid, which I
now believe to be phytophagous too, specimens of which I
have placed in the British Museum of Natural History. It
is found on the cottonwool of tubes containing even small
gatherings of the seeds of the Rough Chervil ( Chaerophyllum
temulum) . They may also be found in seeds kept in the

1919 Oct. 1

Y

330 Brown : Some Derbyshire Plant Galls.

field paper packets, for I took a second lot in the spring of
1917, from seeds still in paper, gathered for me in 1916, by
by Miss W. Fowler, then of Liphook, Hants. This chalcid is,
I believe, as yet unnamed.

: o :

SOME DERBYSHIRE PLANT GALLS.

JAMES MEIKLE BROWN, B.Sc F.L.S., F.C.S.

Sheffield.

The occurrence of plant-galls has received somewhat scanty
attention from field-naturalists in this country, though it
is difficult to understand the reason, as their study suggests
some very interesting problems for solution. With regard
to their distribution in Derbyshire for example, but one paper
appears to have been published on the subject.* * * §

Some of the gall-causing species, such as Aulax glechomae,
seem to be rare with us, or at any rate local (on present
information), though Swanton found the galls of this species
in large numbers at Weston-super-Mare. Many of them,
however, are probably ubiquitous, and make their appearance
wherever the appropriate host -plant occurs. Thus, on com-
paring the present list with those of galls noted for the
Huddersfield district,! and for the Bridlington district,! by
W. Falconer, and for South Denbighshire, § by A. A. Dalman,
it will be seen that many species occur in all these localities.

The galls caused by the fifty-two agents named in the
following list were all obtained during August last, largely
in and about the meadows alongside the River Wye, at
Bakewell and in Monsal dale ; in the Lathkil dale ; and in
the Via Gellia, during a short stay in that neighbourhood..
Besides these, a number noted at Cordwell, in Ryecroft Glen,
and on the moors near Sheffield, have been added. The district
thus worked lies to the north of that mentioned by H. J.
Burkill, and to the west of that defined by E. & H. Drabble in
their paper on the ‘ Flora and Fauna of N. E. Derbyshire/ 1|
but overlapping this last for a short distance in the neighbour-
hood of Cordwell.

Hymenoptera.

Cynips kollari Hart. On Quercus Robur L. and Q. sessiliflora Salis.
Biorhiza pallida Oliv. ( Tevas terminalis Fab.). Old galls were seen
on Quercus Robur L.

* ' Plant -galls of Thorpe and District,’ by H. J. Burkill, in Journ.
Derbyshire Archceol. Soc., 1916, p. 29 et seq.

t The Naturalist, May 1918, pp. 166-168.

X The Naturalist, December, 1918, p. 384.

§ The Naturalist, May, 1919, pp. 164-166.

The Naturalist, January, 1919, pp. 10-12.

Kfcti.ralist,

Brown : Some Derbyshire Plant Galls .

33i

Dryophanta divisa Hart. Common on leaves of both species of oak.

D. agama Hart. Common in Ryecroft Glen, at Cordwell and elsewhere.

D. disticha Hart. Plentiful at Cordwell. Flies were emerging on (and
probably before) August 20th. Connold describes this gall as
‘ nowhere plentiful.’

D. scutellaris Hart. (D. Taschenbergi Sch. forma folii L.). Very plentiful
and widely distributed.

Neuroterus numismatis Oliv. ( N . vesicator Schl. forma numismatis Oliv.
This gall does not seem to be plentiful in the district. Found
at Cordwell.

N . lenticularis Oliv. ( N . baccarum L. forma lenticularis Oliv.). Common

and widely distributed.

Andrians fecundatrix Hart. (A. pilosus Adi. forma fecundator Hart.).
Common and widespread on both species of oak.

A.ostreus Gir. On leaves of Q. Robur L. in Ryecroft Glen and at
Cordwell.

A. curvator Hart. Common and widespread on twigs of oak.

A. inflator Hart. Common.

Other forms of oak-gall, such as those caused by N euro terns
■ baccarum L. and Andricus quadrilineatus Hart, occur in the
district earlier in the year.

Pontania proxima Lepel. Common on leaves of Salix fragilis L., etc.

P pedunculi Hart. This gall seems to me scarce in the district. On
leaves of Salix Caprea L. at Cordwell.

Rhodites eglanteriae Hart. On leaflets of Rosa canina L. Bakewell,
Ryecroft Glen, Beauchief and elsewhere.

R. rosae L. Common on Rosa canina L. forming the ‘ Bedeguar gall *
or ‘ Robin’s Pincushion.’

Aulax glechomae Hart. This very interesting gall does not seem common
in our district. On leaves of Nepeta hederacea Tre. in the Via
Gellia.

Xestophanes brevitarsus Thoms. On Potentilla erecta Hampe.

COLEOPTERA.

Mecinus beccabungae L. Common on Scrophularia nodosa L. in the
Via Gellia. No appearance of this gall was seen on 5. aqualica L.
which grows plentifully along the River Wye.

Diptera.

Perrisia fraxini Kieff. Very plentiful and^widely distributed, on leaves
of Fraxinus elatior L. B

P. marginem-torquens Winn. Frequent on leaves of Salix viminalis L.

P. ulmariae Brem. Very plentiful indeed on leaves of Spircea Ulmaria L.
The majority of the plants along the banks of the River Wye at
Bakewell, and the River Lathkil seem to be attacked, many of
the leaves being almost entirely covered with galls.

P. veronicae Vallot. Widely distributed and common on Veronica
Chamaedrys L.

P. crataegi Winn. Very plentiful on Crataegus Oxyacantlia L.

P.urticae Perr. Plentiful on leaves of Urtica dioica L.

P. aparines Kieff. On the inflorescence of Galium Aparine L. in Via
Gellia.

P . filicina Kieff. Very plentiful on Pteris aquilina L. at Holmesfield

and elsewhere .

P. viciae Kieff. On Vida sepium L. in Ryecroft Glen, at Beauchief and
Cordwell ; and on Lotus corniculatus L. at Dore Moor.

Oligotrophus annulipes Hart. Very plentiful on leaves of Fagus sylvatica
L. at Bakewell, Holmesfield, etc.

O . capreae Winn. On leaves of Salix Caprea L. at Cordwell.

1919 Oct. 1

332

News from the Magazines.

Oligotropkus bursarius Bre. On leaves of Nepeta hederacea Tre. in Via
Gellia, at Cord we 11 and Beauchief.

O. taxi Inc. Plentiful on Taxus baccata L.

Rhodophaga rosaria H. Low. Fairly common on Salix aurita L. at Bake-
well .

A trichosema aceris Kieff. Galling the petioles of the leaves of Acer
campestre L. in Lathkil dale. .

Rhopalomyia millefolii H. Low. At the base of leaves of Achillea
Millefolium L.

Contarinia helianthemi Hardy. On leaves of Helianthemum Chamcecistus
Mill, in the Via Gellia.

Homoptera.

Psylla buxi L. On Boxus sempervirens L.

Pemphigus bursarius L. Common on petioles of Populus nigra var.
italica (Moench . ) .

Aphis pyri Fon. On leaves of Pyrus Malus L., at Totley.

A . padi L. On leaves of Prunus spinosa L. at Totley and Beauchief .
Brachycolus stellariae Hardy. Fairly common on the upper leaves of
Stellaria Holostea L.

Acarina .

Eriophyes laevis Nal. On leaves of Alnus rotundi folia Mill. Very
common. Many of the trees by the River Wye at Bakewell were
very thickly galled.

E. nalepai Fock. Also very common on leaves of Alder.

E. brevitarsus Fock. Also on Alder foliage.

E. rudis Can. Common in the buds of Betula alba L.

E. Avellanae Nal. Plentiful in buds of Corylus Avellana L.

E. tiliae ( typicus ) Pagn. A very characteristic gall on the foliage of
Tilia europcea L., Bakewell.

Phyllocoptes acericola Nal. Very plentiful on the foliage of Acer Pseudo -
Platanus L. The leaves are often practically covered with the
galls.

P. fraxini Nal. Frequently producing rolled and thickened margins

to the leaflets of Fraxinus elatior L.

Fungi.

Cystopus candidus Lev. On Capsella Bursa pastoris Med.

Exoascus turgidus Sad. Forming ' witch’s brooms’ on Betula alba L.
and other trees.

Exobasidium vaccinii Wor. Common on the leaves of Vaccinium Vitis-
idqga L.

The Yorkshire Weekly Post heads an article : ‘ Is a whale a fish or an
animal? ' But isn’t a fish an animal ?

In The Entomologist’ s Monthly Magazine for June is a paper ‘ On the
Aquatic Coleoptera, etc., of the Trent Valley in the neighbourhood of
Long Eaton,’ by H. H. Wallis, M.A. There is a list of the species found
in the area contained partly, within the three counties of Derbyshire,
Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire. The open-air swimming-bath at
Trent College yielded about twenty-five species. Among them was
Ijyliscns circumcinctus, a new record for the Midlands, and Haliplus
mucronatus. Among Carabidae which Mr. Wallis obtained were the
following new to Nottinghamshire : — Bembidium articulatum and
Anchomenits thoreyi.

Naturalist

333

COMMON WILD BIRDS OF THE SCARBOROUGH

DISTRICT.

W. GYNGELL.

( Continued from page 266 J.

*The Moor Hen { Gallinula chlovopus L.). Locally it is quite as often
called the Water-Hen. A very common resident bird about every stream
and pond that has any sort of ‘ cover ’ attached to it. About such haunts
its nest is usually placed in or near the water, often on a prostrate tree
branch. One nest found was eleven feet above ground, in a spruce fir.
In this case, the nest foundation was of twigs, in addition to the usual
dead rushes and other soft material. Usually not more than seven eggs
are laid. I once found thirteen in a nest, but half of them were fresh
and the others much incubated so probably two hen birds were concerned.
Eggs vary in weight from -56 to *85 oz. The Moor-hen does not seem to
agree well with the Coot, at least this is so at Hornsea Mere where the
former is rare and the latter bird abundant. Many Moor Hens frequent
Throxenby Mere near Scarborough, and on March 12th, 1899, owing
possibly to the great disturbance of the birds' haunts by toad-hunting
boys, the birds had all left the Mere and taken refuge in the trees some
200 to 300 yards away up in the wood where I discovered them at about
3 P-m.

*The Coot ( Fulica atra L.). About twenty-eight years ago, the
Scarborough Field Naturalists’ Society recorded this bird as ‘ rare generally
throughout the district, though breeding in some numbers at Scampston.’
For some years now, it has nested in increasing numbers at Scarborough
Mere a very popular haunt many years ago. All nests that I have seen
have been in the water up to about three feet deep and composed of dead
rushes. Eggs may be found by May 17th. Usually not more than seven ;
I have found ten in a nest. They are subject to exceedingly little variation
in ground colour and markings. Indeed, I should say that in this respect
they are less variable than almost any other British bird’s eggs that show
any markings at all. Perhaps nowhere in England is the Coot more
abundant as a breeding species than at Hornsea Mere, where in May, I
have seen thirty birds swimming in company. On the Norfolk Broads,
even where cover is good, 1 have been surprised by their scarcity in summer.

The Golden Plover ( Chavadvius pluvialis L.). Best known as a
winter visitor in flocks on the lowland fields. In the breeding season,
“though well distributed over the Moors, the pairs are very few and far
between. Eggs may be found in the nest by May 1st. The young in
riown, to my eye, are more brightly spotted than their parents, are quite
conspicuous on the heather and thus anti-protectively coloured. But I
know that it is rank heresy to fry this. The academic naturalist is a most
devoted nurse to theories.

The Lapwing ( Vanelhis vulgaris Bechstein). A resident and abundant
bird, locally known as the ‘ teafit ’ or peewit. The feeble and rather mel-
ancholy night cry may be heard at all times of the year, but the full spring
song, Cut-a-coo-ee ; Keeta — Keeta, Cooee. I have not heard before
March 19th. Eggs locally taken are sometimes exhibited for sale by March
28th. A marked variety that I have known to be found in the district
as of a pale bluish ash ground colour. The birds nest upon ploughed
fields, marshy carrs and on the high moors amongst short heather. Rarely
several pairs may be found nesting in close proximity. In one field and
within a radius of fifty yards, I have found five nests all containing eggs
on the same day. It is a large egg that weighs one ounce. By July
5th, the pairs have usually broken up and the birds have begun to flock
again. On March 4th, 1905, I was much interested in the behaviour of a

1919 Oct. 1

334 Common Wild Birds of the Scarborough District.

pair of birds on a ploughed field. The male flew and twisted about
overhead noisily saying all he knew, whilst the female followed his move-
ments on the ground below repeatedly stopping and calling Kee-Kee-Kee-
Kee, something like the cry of the Kestrel heard at a distance. And all
the time, she was bowing to the ground, raising her tail and slightly
spreading her wings most amorously. The Lapwing, besides being a most
useful bird to the farmer is often an able assistant to the gamekeeper,
the bird by its loud and agressive call note and movements calling the
watcher’s attention to undesirables on -the land. The night poacher 'lies
low when he hears the teafit.

The Woodcock ( Scolopax rusticula, L.). Chiefly a winter visitor whose
earliest recorded arrival is September 20th. The Woodcock now nests
regularly in the district and much more commonly than formerly. I know
the bird best in the dusk of an early summer evening when it flies around
and over the trees in open woodlands repeatedly calling ‘ wawk.’ The
woodcock’s egg weighs about three quarters of an ounce.

The Snipe ( Gallinago coclestis Frenzell). A better known bird than
the last, resident and breeding commonly on the moors, carrs and swampy
fields very near our town. In spring a score or more birds may be flushed
from one small favourite swamp where not more than two pairs may be
nesting. The well-known ‘ drumming ’ of the Snipe is produced by the
rush of air through the bird’s quill feathers in its descending flight. I have
heard the exact sound reproduced on Scarborough esplanade by the sea
breeze passing through the feather in a lady’s hat, and a friend who alsa
knows the sound well tells me that he, too, has heard it under similar
circumstances. The nest is usually on a tuft of coarse grass no better
concealed than a lapwing’s, but one I found near here was well hidden
inside a tuft of long thick grass and amongst sweet- gale bushes. My
earliest date for eggs is April 5th. The weight of one is .43 oz.

The Dunlin ( Tvinga alpina L.). A winter visitor in varying numbers.
Scarce or abundant according to circumstances. Quite likely it nests in
our district but at present it is not known to do so.

*The Common Sandpiper ( Totanus hypoleucus L.). A summer visitor,
most at home ‘ along the river’s stony marge,’ and the shingle beds of
our moorland streams. Here it breeds in some numbers as well as
occasionally by still lowland waters and regularly now near Scarborough
Mere. The nest is placed on the flat shingle bed or the grassy slope of
the river bank and is made of dead grasses and leaves. The alarm note
sounds to me like pee, hee-hee, hee, hee quickly uttered, but ‘ willy wicket,’
one of its local names, is suggested by its cry. Eggs may be found by
May 10th, the weight of each being .39 oz.

The Redshank ( Totanus calidvis L.). Thirty years ago described as
‘ rare in summer but fairly common on migration.’ This bird now breeds,
regularly in at least three localities in both the North and East Riding
portions of our district. Though quite as noisy it is not quite so threaten-
ing as the peewit when the nest is approached. Nests that I have found
have been in more or less swampy fields, in tufts of grass which partially
cover and hide the eggs, but the nests are not so well made as those of
snipe or lapwing. It is wonderful what very short grass, under the birds’
manipulation, serves to hide the eggs. These vary in weight from .71 to
.75 oz. The Redshank often perches on a bush, wooden fence or shed.

The Curlew ( Numenius avquatus L.). More noticeable than numerous
in its wild summer haunts where it may be heard and seen a mile away.
Scattered pairs nest annually on our higher moors where the nest of dead
grasses and leaves may be found in swampy hollows as well as on dry
ridges. The earliest date that I have known for eggs is May 5th. They
weigh from 2.50 to 2.88 oz. $

The Whimbrel ( Numenius phceopus L.). Easily recognised by its
whistling call when flying, though not numerous it is very well known
here at most times of the year.

Naturalist,

Common Wild Birds of the Scarborough District. 335

The Black-headed Gull ( Larus vidibundus L.). An abundant bird at
almost all times, inland and on the coast but chiefly when wearing its
winter white head. A few black-headed birds breed in swampy parts of
the higher moors and more would doubtless do so were such haunts less
easily accessible. I have never taken an egg in this district, but have seen
many hundreds in other counties. Usually three form a clutch, rarely
there are four in a nest and they weigh from 1.25 to 1.43 oz. Birds with
black heads may be seen as late in the year as November 27th. When in
winter this gull associates with other birds in flocks feeding in the fields it
seems to be a very irritable creature. It may just tolerate the lapwing,
but it bullies the golden plover.

The Common Gull (Larus canus L.). A common winter visitor whose
earliest recorded arrival is August 7th and whose departure in spring has
sometimes been delayed as late as April 8th. Perhaps from fear of the
Herring Gull who generally ‘ bosses ’ the harbour, the smaller bird usually
feeds just off the outer pier.

The Herring Gull ( Larus argentatus J . F. Gmelin) . Resident and abun-
dant in winter and summer, bold and familiar at all times. It nests
regularly on the higher cliffs a very few miles both north and south of the
town. Usually on the most precipitous portion of the cliffs. Sometimes
the nest is built on the grassy slopes easy of access to man from above or
below. When obtainable moss seems to be the favourite building material.
Eggs may be found by May 6th, and young sometimes seen in the nests at
the end of June. The bird’s ordinary call note sounds to me like Kay-
ee-yee ; the breeding note, a grand wild sound is a quick cow-wow-wow-
wow. These gulls spend a lot of the daylight hours on the fields miles
inland and at the first approach of dusk fly seawards in ‘ skeins ’ or
V-shaped flocks. Thus seen, or in their beautiful aerial gyrations, and
indeed at all times this is one of the finest common British birds.

The Lesser Black-backed Gull ( Larus fuscus L.). A fairly common
bird at times from August 7th onwards through the winter, most con-
spicuous when a few of them are seen in company with more of the last-
named species on the sands at low tide.

The Great Black- backed Gull (Larus marinus L.). Scarcely to be called
common even in the most stormy weather when they come farther in shore.

The Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla L.). Locally called Kitty, this is a
common bird in its own particular summer haunts, the chalk cliff ledges,
usually low down, at and near Bempton. Here it makes, for a gull, a
fairly substantial nest, somewhat comparable to that of the moor-hen.
When the disturbed birds fly around an intruder on their haunts they
screech what sounds like ‘ get-a-way-you ’ to the conscience-stricken
culprit. At certain times they may be seen about our harbour, but they
are not usually very familiar. The bird’s egg weighs 1.60 oz.

The Razorbill ( Alea tor da L.). Locally called the sea-awk. A
common resident bird nesting in large numbers at Bempton and adjoining
cliffs. Less exposed sites than those chosen by the. Guillemot are usually
occupied, crevices and hollows under rocks being situations most favoured
whilst a puffin’s burrow is occasionally shared. An egg weighs 3.11 oz.

The Guillemot ( Uria troile L.). The ‘ Scoot ’ of the fisherman, this
bird is extremely abundant on the cliffs between Speeton and Flamboro ’ in
the breeding season and as the egg collectors say that this year 1919 has
been a good one, the birds numbers are doubtless well maintained. The
Guillemot haunts the bare ledges of the most precipitous cliffs as high up
but also lower down, that is, nearer to the sea than the razorbill does.
Eggs weigh from 3.75 to 4.50 oz.

The Little Auk (Mergulus alle L.). A winter visitor from October 29th
to February 25th according to my dates. Usually only odd birds are
seen but thousands appear in some winters, and then for some unexplained
reason (perhaps they have a ‘ food controller ’) many are found dead or
dying on the shore.

1919 Oct. l

336 Common Wild Birds of the Scarborough District.

The Puffin (F rater pula avctica L.). A common summer visitor whose
haunts are the same as those of the razorbill and guillemot. In sandy
slopes the bird, I believe, makes its own burrow which is narrower than a
rabbit’s. Some sort of nest of grass or straw is made at the extremity of
the hole which is often beyond arm’s length, though occasionally the
dirty egg is within reach. The egg though sometimes scarcely distinguish-
able from a common hen’s egg in size and absence of colour is, I think,
never quite spotless, the under surface markings being usually apparent
when a blown egg is held to the light. -

The Red- throated Diver (Coly mbits septentrion alls L.). A fairly
common visitor, often seen fishing near and sometimes within the harbour.

*The Little Grebe [Podicipes fluvicitilis Tunstall). Locally known as
the dabchick, Tom puddin or puffer. It nests regularly on waters within
and near the borough, shifting its ground, or rather water from time to
time. The floating nest of dead rushes is usually, but not always, well-
concealed. I have found it in quite open water. When the bird leaves
her eggs she covers them with green water -weed. An egg weighs .47 to
.51 oz. The breeding call note ‘ uddy-iddy, uddy-iddy,’ very rapidly
uttered may be heard from March 27th to July 8th.

* * * * * * :js #

The weights of the eggs of a few birds not included in the preceding
list are, given in ounces, as follows : — Reed Warbler, .65 ; Golden Oriole,
.25; Red-backed Shrike, .13; Blue-headed Wagtail, .065; Cirl Bunting,
.11 ; Ringed Plover, .35 to .39.

— : o :

Woodcock near Doncaster. — I have just examined a
$ Woodcock, shot at Burghwallis. The breast was bare of
feathers, but new ones were growing. She was fat and in
good condition, and looked as if she had nested here and not
like a recent arrival. On the qth inst. I heard the Chiff-chaff
singing at Doncaster. — H. H. Corbett.

As Woodcocks now nest pretty freely in the County, it
may be taken as almost certain this was a local nesting bird.
— R.F.

Tree Creeper (Certhia familiaris) . — On all my rambles
this year not a single specimen has been observed. Previously
I have invariably turned up an odd nest or two without
looking for them specially. A few little plantations near my
home generally contain a pair of these interesting birds.
I have just returned from a holiday in Wharf edale where it
is not unusual to note a few of this species during a few hours’
ramble. As time went on, I went out to the likely places in
order once more to identify them, but alas without result.
The Gold Crest, too, is certainly in very diminished numbers.
Just an odd pair in Grass Woods and one only noted at Bolton
Woods. — W. H. Parkin.

In the Harrogate district Tree Creepers have almost
disappeared and many familiar nesting sites have not been
occupied for the last two seasons. Gold Crests too, in common
with many of the small species, have had their numbers
considerably reduced. — R. F.

Naturalist.

337

FIELD NOTES.

Palmated Newt (Molge palmata) in the Lake District.

— When collecting mollusca of the mountain tarns in the Lake
District and North Wales in summer and autumn I have
often captured larval batrachians which I could not identify,
hut which I suspected were Palmated Newts. This suspicion
was strengthened this year by finding dead adults— a single
male in each case — in three different tarns in the Lake District
mountains, Lingmoor Tarn, Langdale, Westmorland, 1300
feet, on June 15th ; Dale Head Tarn, Borrowdale^ Cumber-
land, 1600 feet, on June 21st ; and an unnamed tarn on the
Haystacks, Buttermere, Cumberland, 1700 feet, on June 25th.
In none of the tarns did I see a living adult, but by the latter
half of June most of them had no doubt reverted to the ter-
restrial life that the breeding -season had interrupted. Ento-
mostraca, upon which the larval newts feed, abound in many
of the tarns, and a search in May when spawning takes place
would probably show that the Palmated is not on \y the newt
of the hills, but is widely distributed. — -Chas. Oldham,
Berkhamsted, Herts.

— :o: —

More Plusia moneta. — On August 10th last I took
Plusia moneta, a comparative recent addition to the British
list. I took it from a spider's web on a garden wall near the
east end of Glen Road, Eldwick. Ever since its first
appearance in Britain, about thirty years ago, this beautiful
Plusia has been extending its range northwardly apd.west-
wardly. Another rare insect, or at least one which has been
recorded only from a few localities, Scoparia conspicualis , has
been rather commoner in the Wilsden district this year than
for the previous few years ; indeed, this genus, which is well
represented, has, on the whole, been scarce. The small
Tortoiseshell butterfly ( Vanessa uriicae) occurred here in
thousands in early August, particularly on the high ground
where it revelled among the flower heads of; the ragwort.
In normal years this is a scarce insect . The small Copper
butterfly, which in most years is very rare, has also been
common amongst the ragwort ; and in my neighbour’s garden
in June, I took a. crippled specimen of the Cinnabar moth,
Euchelia jacobeae, which is rare here, for I never have pre-
viously taken the imago of this moth. — E. P. Butterfield.

: o

British Birds for September contains ‘ Observations on the Cuckoo,’
by E. Chance ; The British Birds Marking Scheme — Progress for 19 iS,
by H. F. Witherby ; a,nd The Birds of Bardsey Island, by N. F. Ticehurst.
It seems a pity to occupy the first page each month with the list of
contents, as these pages do not improve the appearance - of the volume
when bound up .

1919 Oct. 1

338

BRITISH ASSOCIATION NOTES.

According to the Bournemouth papers, the recent meeting of the
British Association was the most successful the Association has ever held.

There were nearly 1,500 members and associates present.

Next year the Association visits Cardiff, Edinburgh the following
year, and after that, it is hoped, Hull.

Professor W. A. Herdman, of Liverpool, who has been one of the
Secretaries of the Association for so many years, is the next President.

The Anthropological Section (H) was described as that which included
everything fro in the Pliocene to the Obscene periods.

Bishop Welldon was frequently seen in ‘ L,’ and spoke there, well.

At the reception, the cream of Britain’s intellectual greatness was
‘ entertained ’ by a party apparently from, a neighbouring Music Hall,
who gave ' No John, No John, No John, No,’ and other similar treats.

At the same function hats and coats were piled up in heaps on the floor
and we hope everybody got the right ones. One well-known member
after an hour’s search gave it up, but succeeded in rescuing his coat the
following morning.

Many well-known scientists were seen wandering round the streets
adjoining the Winter Gardens, shouting out for their taxis or cars, while
their ladies waited in crowds on the steps of the hall.

Bournemouth has much to learn in little details of this sort.

The gardens were beautifully illuminated, two men-of-war were off
the shore, and a sea-plane race gave interest to the visit.

The retiring president spoke rather lengthily, and, to most of the
audience, inaudibly, before the new president, Sir Charles A. Parsons,
was abie to speak.

The weather was perfect, but the work of the Conference of Delegates,
and some of the Sections, prevented several members taking part in the
afternoon excursions. But the evenings were pleasant and cool.

Science and the War was the subject discussed in the presidential
address, and at various sections. Tanks,' airships, submarines and para-
vanes were described in detail, with the aid of cinematograph illustrations.

The magnificent Municipal College, started in 1910 and not yet quite
complete, provided the reception rooms, writing rooms, secretarial
offices, and accommodation for most of the sections.

Sir Robert Baden-Powell told the story of the unkempt, careless
guttersnipe, who turned first into a clean, punctual boy scout, and died as
Jack Cornwall, V.C.

The treasurer was well pleased with the financial success of the meeting,
especially as an anonymous donor headed a subscription list with ^1,000
to replace serious war losses.

The Committee on Photographs of Geological Interest presented its
nineteenth report, which included photographs from Cumberland (4) ;
Derbyshire (1) ; Durham (4) ; Lancashire (4) ; Lincolnshire (12) ;
Nottinghamshire (3) ; and, probably for the first time, none from York-
shire. The Committee, of which Professor Reynolds, of the University,
Bristol, is the Secretary, asks for picture post-cards of geological interest.

:o:

Insects on Sea Buckthorn, by F. V. Theobald ; Notes on British
Orthoptera in 1918, by W. J. Lucas ; and British Braconidae, by G. T.
Lyle, are among the contents of The Entomologist for August.

We regret to record the death of Professor F. W. Moorman, of the Leeds
University, whose work we recently referred to in these columns. He
was accidentally drowned while bathing on the Skirfare, Yorkshire,
and the sad news of his death, at a comparatively early age, was received
during the meeting of the British Association, where were many of his
personal friends. He did much to perpetuate ‘ the King’s English,’
and was keenly interested in the preservation of local dialects. His loss
is great.

Naturalist,

339

CORRESPONDENCE.

CAUSE OF MELANISM IN PHIGALIA PI LOS ARIA.

In The Naturalist for August, 1919, page 280, Mr. Porritt, whilst
admitting the facts in my note, page 279, on Melanism in P . pilosaria
in this district, denies the inference from these facts and asks : — | But
what does Mr. Butterfield mean by saying that he believes “ retarded
development ’ 5 to be the cause of the melanism ? There is no retarded
development, climatic or other, that did not apply to this species fifty
years ago, just as it does now/ which statement, as far as the mean
annual temperature is concerned, may be true, notwithstanding I am
frequently coming into contact with people who declare that the weather
has greatly altered since their youth.

Whether this be true or not, it will be admitted by all entomologists
that there has been of late years a tendency to melanism in many insects,
and that this tendency began at first to manifest itself under conditions
associated with a low temperature, and experiments have proved that
retarded development of insects in the pupal stage has the effect of darken-
ing the scales of lepidopterous insects, and even in other orders, and if
this be true I can well conceive that if unfavourable weather prevails
and this is repeated when the insect should emerge, it is likely to remain
in the pupa state another year. As already stated, there was little or
no tendency to melanism in this species in this neighbourhood previous
to the eighties of the last century, after which it began to shew signs of
melanism .

The winter of 1879-80 was one of the worst on record, and I believe
the year 1881 was preceded by a very cold winter, and I am inclined to
the belief in the absence of any other facts that there may be some
correlation between this cold weather, which greatly retarded the emer-
gence of Pilosaria , and the sudden tendency to melanism.

All causes of variation hitherto known I take to be quite inadequate
in explanation of the above phenomenoh*

Melanism in this district is shewn most markedly in those species
of insect which should usually emerge at the season of the year when
retardment in the pupal stage is most likely to occur, viz., early spring.
Insects generally which are due about midsummer do not shew the same
tendency to melanism.- — E. P. Butterfield, Wilsden.

Neither I nor anyone else knows any more as to the cause of melanism
in Lepidoptera than we did twenty or more years ago, and that was
practically nothing. About that time much discussion on the subject
took place in The Entomologist’ s Record and other entomological journals,
and a number of theories were advanced, but not one of them seemed to
apply to all cases. The summary of my own observations will be found
in the Supplement to the ‘ List of Yorkshire Lepidoptera/ and still
more so in the paper I read before the British Association at York some
ten years ago, which was published in the Report of that Association.
The most generally accepted theory has always been that known as
the ' smoke theory . ’ As melanism chiefly occurs in the manufacturing
districts of Yorkshire and Lancashire, it is argued that the smoke, by
blackening the trunks of the trees, etc., causes the elimination through
insects’ enemies of the pale forms, and leaving the dark forms through
being less easily seen. But, as I have stated before, that does not always
apply, for, in the case of Acronycta meny anthidis , a species which occurs
in South West Yorkshire commonly, right in the localities where melanism
is rampant, it still retains its original pale colour almost entirely (I only
know of two melanic specimens having been found in such district).
Yet, at Sandburn, near York, and at Skipwith Common, near Selby,
where there is comparatively little smoke, the form of this insect is
mainly the melanic form. And so with other species. Still, I quite
think that smoke is one of the most potent causes, but that possibly
different causes account for melanism in different districts.

1919 Oct. l

340

Correspondence.

Mr. Butterfield’s theory of retarded development does not work out
in general experience . Perhaps the most recent and most rapid case of
melanism in this district is that of Abraxas grossulariata. A dozen years
or so ago the variety nigrosparsata was unknown as occurring here ; now
the district probably produces more of the form than any other area
in the kingdom ; in one district of the town a considerable percentage
of the specimens are of the form, some of them quite black — thorax,
abdomen and wing, and many almost black. Yet the larvae feed up
in May and early June, and the pupal stage lasts only about three weeks.
And this short pupal stage apples to many melanic species. Nor does
the smoke theory apply altogether to Abraxas grossulariata, as the form
nigrosparsata only occurs freely on one side of the town, other parts of
it, apparently quite, or still more smoky, producing scarcely any of it
though the moth is equally abundant there. — G. T. P.

o

LARGE PIKE AND HERONS.

The Squire of Rainworth Lodge, Notts., in Scribblings of a Hedgerow
Naturalist, p. 70, says : f Yesterday (June 20th, 1903), I went to see

the pond in Berry Hill Park let off ; it is about one and a half acres
and in one part ten feet deep. We got about forty carp from five to
nine pounds, no small one ; three tench, largest two pounds, and a small
perch. As the pond had not been let off for over thirty years, it is very
remarkable that there were no big pike, and- none of us can understand
the reason why.’

The matter is simplicity itself when you know it. It was explained
to me over fifty years ago by the Rev. Robert Sutton of Scawbv Hall,
Brigg. In very, early April I found round the gull pits at least half
a dozen pike from five to ten pounds in weight. These, Mr. Sutton
explained to me, had been taken out of the shallows by herons. That
most ancient and wise of fishermen could not swallow these large fish
or cut them into fragments for eating, but he could rpmove them from the
'shallows, over which he himself loved to be king pin sole sovereignty.
When they are regularly removed by fishing herons, no large pike are ever
found in ponds. — E. Adrian Woodruffe-Peacock, May 24th, 1919.

It is extremely doubtful if a heron would attack and lift a ten-pound
pike : indeed, I should imagine it an impossible feat. Some fifteen
or more years ago, I took part in the netting of a large lake at Allerton
Park, the seat of Lord Mowbray and Stourton. This lake had always
maintained a large head of pike, judging by the sport one regularly
obtained. Only a short time previous to the netting, I was discussing'
the matter with Lord Mowbray, and the subsequent stocking of the lake
with trout of the Loch Leven and Rainbow variety, and, whilst conversing,

1 was casually spinning my bait, casting from the bank, with the result
I caught eight pike, without moving more than a few yards. This
caused us to contemplate the quality and size of the fish that would
. be obtained when the netting took place. The lake was drained for some
weeks previous to the final operations, the water passing down a small
runner into the River Nidd, and incidently large quantities of eels passed
that way also. The mud at the bottom of the lake, the accumulation of
generations, was very deep, as we found out when the pools left, after
draining away as much as possible, were netted. Immense quantities
of roach and rudd were caught and transferred to other lakes close by,
also large quantities of tench, one draw resulting in the capture of over
two hundred and fifty of these fish, and, strange to relate, they were almost
<•11 of uniform size, viz., two and a half pounds. Some large carp were
also obtained, the largest weighing over fourteen pounds. These were
also transferred to the other waters. The most astounding result was
the almost entire absence of pike, very few indeed were netted and these
mostly small in size ; the only conclusion I could come to was that they

Naturalist,

Proceedings of Provincial Scientific Societies. 341..

had . buried themselves in the deep mud, as there is no doubt the pike
were there previous to the draining and subsequent netting, and it isr
also equally certain they did not get away into the river. — R. Fortune.

STARLING.

Referring to Mr. Selous’s observations, pp. 167-8, might I suggest
as the probable cause that cows, when walking, disturb winged insects,
which are thus easier for the birds to catch : also, that they find under-
ground grubs easier under close ly-cropped grass. This appears to be
the reason in the south, as they follow horses also, but I have never
visited the Shetlands.— F. D. Welch, M.R.C.S., Kent.

— — o —

CYPRIPEDIUM CALCEOLUS : EARLIEST RECORD.
Referring to the Note in September Naturalist, page 282, one can only
rejoin that the inference made from the specimen in the John Dalton
Manchester Herbarium is very likely the right one ; but undated specimens
in herbaria cannot well be quoted as definite dates. For Yorkshire as a
whole, the orchid has been known since Parkinson’s day (1640) ; but the
local ascription in the Memoir quoted is curiously vague— ‘ from the
marshes about Arnecliffe,’ whereas the Lady in Slippers never affects
such places, but only mossy shaded rubbly grips and screes in maquis on
a limestone soil.

Again, on page 437 of the flora referred to occurs the quoted curiously
differing statement, ‘ Root from Grassington Wood, 1797, J- Dalton,
Herb ’ ! f Grass Wood ’ is only a very few miles away from Arnecliffe,
and ‘ about Kilnsey Crag ’ is getting ‘ warmer ’ still in the slipper hunt.
The (probable) exact location nearest Arnecliffe was Sleight’s Wood, by
the Skirfare, a little above where it joins Wharfe. It occurred here in
my earlier days of botanical squirrelity, but for inferrible reasons I don’t
think this preciser indication has been published.

Again, the Rev. John Dalton had, or made a duplicate FLortus siccus.
That I quoted was the York one, of the Phil. Society, and in Hy. J.
Wilkinson’s Catalogue thereof, published, as to the final Part XI. (p. 264)
about 1910, appears the ‘ root from Grassington ’ entry as, prior to 1887,
I took it from the sheet.

This and other explications shall find a place in my ' held-up ’ chrono-
logic ‘ Vegetation of Yorkshire ’ flora, if ‘ comps’ ’ pay and price of paper
ever permit my script to see the black of printers’ ink. My time feels
slipping away. — F. Arnold Lees, September 8th, 1919.

: o :

The daily press early in September records a 47 -lb. salmon in the
Ouse, and a barbel in the same river, weighing 7 lbs. 5 ozs.

The Forty-eighth Report of the Chester Society of Natural Science,
Literature and Art is to hand, and contains an account on the year’s
work of the Society and its Museum, as well as a report of the Kingsley
Centenary Celebration.

The Annual Report and Proceedings of the Belfast Naturalists’ Field
Club for 1918-19 has been issued, and gives a record of this Society’s
work up-to-date. The present conditions have necessitated abbreviated
reports and brief abstracts of the lectures, among which we notice one on
the Fen land of East Anglia, by Prof. R. H. Yapp.

Mr. J. Wilfrid Jackson favours us with a copy of his paper on ‘ A
New Middle Carboniferous Nautiloid,’ issued in the Memoirs and
Proceedings of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society (Vol.
LXIII., Part 1). In this he illustrates and describes two specimens
from the lower Coal Measures near Colne, Lancs., and from the Pendleside
Series, Pule Hill, Marsden, Yorks., under the name of Coelonautilus
trapezoidalis .

1919 OcL l

342

REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES.

Yorkshire Moors and Sea, by Ernest E. Taylor. Northern
Echo Office, Darlington. 96 pp., 6d. Tourists will find this guide
useful, with its maps and illustrations, hints, and descriptions of places
in North-east Yorkshire. The author, in- his preface, states : ‘ The

whole district is so full of interest for the naturalist and archaeologist
that I must confine myself to referring him to the individual sections
of the Guide.' The archaeologist is certainly catered for, but all that
The Naturalist can find is a repetition of the statement that ' The Botany
of the District is given in the V.C.H. [Victoria County History] of York-
shire,’ a work which few tourists are likely to have about with them.

The Flower and the Bee, by John H. Lovell. London : Constable,
1919, pp. xvii. -fi-: 286, 10/6 net. This is a popular account of flowers
and insects, of a very refreshing kind, and deals chiefly with wild and
cultivated plants of North America. The author is botanical editor
of the A.B.C. of Bee Culture, and he shows a first-hand knowledge of the
habits of insects and their work as flower pollinators. The book will be
useful to English readers as it deals with many familiar wild and cul-
tivated flowers . It also has the further merit of usually giving the scien-
tific as well as the popular names of the species dealt with and thus
confusion is frequently avoided. In this connexion, however, the
Common Loosestrife is mentioned under Lysimachia vulgaris on p. 112,
and Steironema ciliatum on p. 201. Bees are not the only insects dealt
with, as the book covers all the main types of pollination, even pollination
by the wind. There are 119 illustrations from photographs, usually show-
ing the flowers life size, many of which are very successfully reproduced.

Educational Gardening, by Robert Hogg. London : A. Brown &
Sons, Ltd., pp. viii. and 159, 3s. 6d. net. The author of this little
book claims many virtues for school gardening, viz., that it stimulates
intelligence, gives ample scope for observation, initiative and discovery :
that it provides a good training in patience, perseverance, skill and
industry, and correlates intelligently and systematically most school
subjects. The useful lists of questions in the book indicate the valuable
lessons to be derived from its study, but similar claims may be made of
many subjects other than gardening, in all cases much depends upon the
capacity and enthusiasm of the teacher, and these qualifications cannot
be replaced either by subject or text -book, hence school gardening often
fails to achieve the advantages claimed for it. Nevertheless, teachers
anxious to make the most of their school gardens will find this book
full of useful, practical and reliable hints and exercises. Every branch
of the subject is clearly dea,lt with and illustrated by means of
numerous text figures, plans and photographs. The book concludes
with fully illustrated sections on Winter Handwork, including the making
of almost every garden requisite. The construction of a bee hive is
elaborately shown by upwards of seventy figures.

Text Book of Embryology, Vol. II. — Vertebrata, with the ex-
ception of Mammalia, by J. Graham Kerr. Macmillan & Co., 591 pp.,
31 0 net. Naturalists must be grateful to the publishers for producing
this valuable volume, with its lavish display of illustrations, at a time
when it is so much needed by students, but when the cost of production
makes any chance of profit well nigh impossible. As the author
points out, it has hitherto been one of the misfortunes of vertebrate
< mbryology that its teaching has been dominated by general ideas based
upon insufficient data. In an evolutionary science like morphology
the real fundamental principles are to be elicited by enquiry into
the more archaic types of existing animal life. It follows there-
fore, that at the present time with a knowledge of the more archaic
-ub-divisions of the vertebrata not accessible to early naturalists, it is
1 H-cessary to regard the historical foundations of vertebrate embryology
rather critically in the light of the fuller knowledge of to-day. The
author has had at his disposal — for the first time in the history of em-

Naturalist,

Northern News.

343

bryology — developmental material of all three genera of Dipnoi, as well
as of Polypterus — in addition to the more accessible material of the
other archaic group contributed by the Elasmobranchs, Actinopterygian
Ganoids, and Urodele Amphibians. This has rendered possible an all-
round survey of the problems of vertebrate embryology, for the first
time. Quite apart from the extraordinary amount of original work in
the book — the copious lists of references to papers and memoirs dealing
with each branch of science touched upon, makes the work indispensable.

Botany of the Living Plant, by F. O Bower, F.R.S. London :
Macmillan, 1919, pp. x. + 580, 25/- net. Botanists have recently
been taking stock of their subject and methods, and have endeavoured
to prove their educational and practical value. The general conclusion
drawn is that the most useful lessons are those dealing with plants as
living organisms, and the title of Prof. Bower’s book is suggestive of this
spirit. The volume is framed on the lines of the annual course of ele-
mentary lectures on Botany given in the Glasgow University. The first
300 pages deal with the morphology, structure and physiology of the
flowering plant, the remaining divisions deal in turn with gymnosperms,
club-mosses and ferns, mosses and liverworts, and algae and fungi. Two
chapters in a general conclusion treat on sex and heredity, and alternation
of generations and the land-habit. In addition, there are two appen-
dices. Significantly one of these, ‘types of floral construction in Angio-
sperms,’ is a substitute for a systematic section on flowering plants, in
which flower types representing twenty -four families are described ; the
other deals with vegetable food stuffs. As an elementary statement of
the facts, the chapters on the morphology and anatomy of the flowering
plant leave nothing to be desired, though the suggestion that the pro-
embryo ‘ may have a phyletic meaning as indicating an ancestral fila-
mentous constructon ’ will be regarded by some as straining the point.
As may be expected from the author, the summaries of the various plant
groups are exceedingly well done. So much, however, can hardly be said
of the section on plant physiology, and on the whole, one is more impressed
with the morphological and structural aspects than with those relating
to the ‘ living plant.’ The chapter on modifications of form in the
vegetative system, with a section on plant communities, reminds one
more of the lecture-room than the field. This course of lectures shows
how over-burdened elementary courses are in our Universities, and it is
obvious that the average student cannot obtain an intelligent apprecia-
tion of a ‘ living plant ’ when required to memorise during a first year’s
course, in addition to several other subjects, the large field of work
here indicated. Nevertheless the volume is a valuable addition to
English text-books ; it is well printed and profusely illustrated with
447" excellent figures, a large number of which are original. There is a
good index which also serves as a useful glossary. The treatment is
clear, quite elementary and written in an interesting style, but the price
is that of an advanced work, perhaps an indication of the coming burdens
which students will be called upon to bear.

o

We learn from the press that a roach weighing 2 lbs. 14 ozs., and
ijl inches long, has been caught in Hornsea Mere, this being the
‘ record ’ roach for the Mere.

Sir Henry H. Ho worth’s presidential address to the Museums’
Association, delivered at Oxford, appears in The Museums Journal for
August, together with an excellent portrait.

The death is announced of Mr. Aquila Dodgson, of Leeds, in his
ninetieth year. He took much interest in the work of the Leeds
Literary and Philosophical Society, and helped considerably with its
•coins and antiquities.

1919 Oct. 1

344

NORTHERN NEWS, etc.

Mr. Anthony Wallis, H.M. Inspector of Schools for Cumberland,
has died at the age of 40. He was a keen naturalist, was especially
interested in botany and made additions to the fungi and grasses of
Cumberland .

The Rev. F. D. Morice describes Lygaeonematus wesmaeli Tischb., a
hitherto unrecorded British Sawfly (from Yorkshire), in The Entomolo-
gist's Monthly Magazine for October. They were attacking larch trees
on the Amcliff Estate.

From its Report we gather that the additions to the Rochdale Museum
during the past year consist of a fine collection of British and Foreign
shells, an inlaid oriental table, local prints and photographs, and
twenty -two cases of British birds and ‘ animals.'

The Great Central Railway Company has issued the third edition of
' The Magnet of British Commerce,’ containing interesting information
and useful statistics relating to Coal, By-products of Coal, Engineering,
Electricity, Textiles, Timber and other Industries (pp. 174-j-cxxxvi. is.).

We learn from The Yorkshire Post, of September 5th, that a record
salmon has been caught in the River Ouse at Howdendyke, near Goole.
by a local fisherman, Joe Oldridge. It was fifty inches in length, twenty -
seven inches in girth, and weighed forty -seven and three-quarter pounds.

Part 2 of Vol. LXII. of Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester
Literary and Philosophical Society, is entirely occupied by a memoir
on ‘ The Fossil Foraminifera of the Blue Marl of the Cote des Basques,
Biarritz ’ (pp. xxiv. A 145, and 9 plates, 8s. 6d.). The illustrations
show many extraordinary forms of Foraminifera.

The death is announced of Sir W. H. St. John Hope, Litt.D., D.C.L.
He was an authority on heraldry and on monastic buildings and did
some excellent work in Yorkshire among its fine abbeys. As Director
of the Archaeological Institute and Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries
he accomplished much good work in the interests of archaeology. He
was bom at Derby, in 1854.

The Lancashire arid Cheshire Naturalist for August Contains a continua-
tion of Mr. J. Wilfrid Jackson’s paper on ‘ Shell-Pockets,’ Lepidoptera, by
Wm. Mansbridge, note on Car aphr actus cinctus Hal. in Manchester in
1918, by H. Britten, in which he figures a specimen illustrated in The
Naturalist some time ago under the name of Polynema natans. Mr.
G. Bolam records a Bank Vole nesting above ground. Mr. W. J. Lucas
has some notes on ‘ Odonata,’ with an excellent figure of JEschna grandis .
Mr. S. Brade-Birks corrects a previous record he has made, which is
unfortunate .

The death is announced of John Hopkinson, F.L.S. He was a native of
Leeds, though most of his time was spent at Watford, Herts., where he
founded the Watford Natural History Society, and later the Hertfordshire
Natural History Society and Field Club. He edited the publications of
these societies since their foundation and contributed various valuable
publications on meteorology, microscopy, etc., to the proceedings. Far
many years he has been the secretary of the Ray Society, and under his
careful editorship many most valuable monographs have appeared ;
in connection with some of which we received a communication from him
only a few days before his death. He was the founder of the Conference of
Delegates of the British Association and, as recorded in our pages, was
recently the president. He was an ardent bibliographer, and as such he
did much work for the benefit of others. Most subjects dealing with
natural history came under his ken and he wrote well on many ; but as a
capable editor his accomplishments were more than the scientific world
usually knows. His early work on the graptolites — a very difficult order
should not be overlooked, but the present writer will ever remember him
for his sound advice on scientific publications generally and for his ready
willingness to assist a really serious student.

Naturalist,

WATKINS & DONCASTER

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“ALL TOO HUMAN ? ”

AN ESSAY IN CHRISTIAN APOLOGETIC

SAMUEL PROUDFOOT.

Sometimes it is said that Christianity is not divine, but human-
all too human to be a revelation from God.

The writer of this book admits that Christianity is a human — an
intensely human— religion. But it is for this very reason that he
regards it as a perfect religion for humanity.

For he believes that the “divineness” of Christianity is to be
looked for in its being perfectly human ; just as the “ divineness ” of
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Oct. 1st, 1919.

NOV. 1919.

No. 754

(No, 528 of current aorles.

A MONTHLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF

NATURAL HISTORY FOR THE NORTH OF ENGLAND,

EDITED BY

T. SHEPPARD, M.Sc., F Q.S., F.R.Q.S., F.S.A.Scot.,

The Museums, Hull ;

AND

T. W. WOODHEAD, Ph.D., M.Sc., F.L.S.,

Technical College, Huddersfield.

WITH THE ASSISTANCE AS REFEREES IN SPECIAL DEPARTMENTS OF

J. GILBERT BAKER, P.R.S. P.L.S., GEO. T. PORRITF, F.L.S., P.B.S.,
Prof. P. P. KENDALL, M.Sc., P.G.S., JOHN W. TAYLOR, M.Sc.,

RILEY FORTUNE, P.Z.S.

Contents : —

Notes and Comments : — The Geological Magazine ; The Cause of the Crisis; Past and
Present; Lancashire Naturalists; Entomological Magazines; The South Eastern
Naturalist-, Treasure Trove, etc ; Rats; ‘Blue John’; Evolution of the Ammonites ;
Leading Principles; Kelestominse ; Dr. J. W. Evans’s Address; Local Geologists;
Wasted Energy ; North of England Borings ; Museums ; Prehistorians

Whitethorn Seed Notes — Rev. E. Adrian Woodruff e-Peacock, F.L.S., F.G.S. etc.

Additions to the Spiders of Wicken — Wm. Falconer

Ornithological Observations and Reflections in Shetland — Edmund Selous

Some Yorkshire Arthropods — T. Stainforth, B.A.,B.Sc

Marine Biology at Scarborough— A . I. Burnley

The Spiders of Yorkshire— Wm. Falconer

West Yorkshire Botanical Notes—/! . Wilson

Field Notes: — Common Seals in Morecambe Bay; The Little Owl ; Herons Nesting in
Nidderdale ; Black-necked Grebe in Washburn Dale; Cormojrant at Doncaster;
Cyprihedium Calceolus L. ; Size of Specimens of Acer camptstre

Correspondence ‘ Sounds that resemble ’ ; Blackbirds using the same Nest twice ;

Cypripedium Calceolus L. ; Cause of Melanism in Phigalia pilosaiia

Reviews and Book Notices

News from the Magazines

Proceedings of Provincial Scientific Societies
Northern News

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360,

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353-355

356

357-360

361-362

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365-368

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Alford Nat. Hist. Soc. Reports. Set.

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Brighton and Sussex Natural History Society Reports, 1870, 1872-3.

Burnley Lit. and Sci. Soc. Parts 8, 12, 13, 16-27, 29'

Chester Soc. Nat. Science : Ann. Reports, i.-iv.

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Croydon Nat. Soc: 6th Report.

Dudley and Midland Geol. etc., Soc. Vols. II. -IV.

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Derby Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc. Parts 20, 21.

Devonshire Assoc. Adv. Science. Vols. I., II., III., XXXV., 47-
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Eastbourne Naturalist (1 part).

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345

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE.

We learn from the October issue of The Geological Magazine
that a crisis has arisen in its affairs ‘ gravely imperilling its,
future existence/ and unless there is a considerable increase
in its revenue, ‘ the sole alternative is to cease publication at
the end of the present volume/ It is an unfortunate circum-
stance that this crisis coincides with the appearance of the
name of Mr. R. H. Rastall as joint editor. To meet the
situation the editors propose to raise the price to 2/6 per part,
or 30 /- per annum. Personally we doubt the wisdom of this
course, as a magazine essentially devoted to a special subject,
is not likely to have an enormous sale, and this gradual increase,
in the price will surely result in fewer subscriptions.

THE CAUSE OF THE CRISIS.

We learn that the cause of this crisis is ' a further sudden
rise in the cost of production/ If this refers to the cost of the
printing and paper, we fail to see where it comes in. We
know — to our cost — that the prices are now far above the
pre-war prices, but there should be no ‘ sudden rise ’ at the
present time. If anything, owing to the fall in the price of
paper, prices should be lower. This is the case in the provinces,
anyway, where several London publications are printed.
Have the editors considered changing the printers ? Such
things have been done, with advantage, although we must
admit that in the geological world business methods are often
found to be sadly lacking. In any case we certainly consider
that a few pages less each month would appeal better to the
subscribers than an increased subscription. We could well
afford to lose the ‘ Editorial Notes ’ — a recent innovation —
which often mean abstracts of papers which also appear in a
number of other publications. There are also numerous
papers and lists of titles of papers relating to various foreign
countries — which can only appeal to a very few. Why not
confine the journal to British Geology ? For example, take
the present part (October), which contains 48 pages. There
are 3 pages of ' editorial/ a paper on Iceland, occupying 12
pages ; a list of American papers on volcanoes, principally
referring to Japan, 2 pages. The other papers consist of ‘ a
remarkable Carboniferous Coral/ by R. G. Carruthers, 6 pages ;
Morphological Studies in the Echinoidea Holectypoida and
their Allies, IX. — Pyrina, Conulus and Echinonius,’ by H. L.
Hawkins, 10 \ pages ; ‘ The Magnesian Limestone of Durham/
by D. Woolacott/ 13J pages ; ‘ The Distribution of “ Tere-
bella ” cancellata,’ by F. A. Bather, 1 page; and Correspond-
ence, 2 pages.

1919 Nov. 1

z

346

Notes and Comments.

PAST AND PRESENT.

We know in these times is is exceedingly difficult to print
papers on Geological subjects which' can be appreciated by
others than specialists, but if The Geological Magazine is to
succeed, it must endeavour to print more papers of general
interest, written in ordinary English language. We are quite
aware that all scientific magazines must print some papers
which can only appeal to a very few; The Naturalist is in
this position, but these journals must not be entirely too
technical or they will suffer. In recent years quite a large
proportion of papers have appeared in The Geological Magazine
which were probably not really read by half-a-dozen of the
subscribers. When we turn back to the early volumes of this
journal we find that from cover to cover they contain delightful
papers easily read and readily understood, even by an amateur ;
and these papers were written by the leading geologists of their
day. The lengthy articles nowadays appearing, dealing with
special subjects, are of course of value, but we certainly consider
that a more general interest would be paid to the publication
if the long papers were divided, and not more than about
eight pages of any particular paper appear in one month.

LANCASHIRE NATURALISTS.

We have received the Lancashire and Cheshire Naturalist for
September, and October, by the same post. The former con-
tains obituary notices of W. E. Sharp, J. Wiglesworth and S. L.
* Perry/ The last name, which occurs methodically five times,
is surely a misprint for Petty. There are many interesting
short notes dealing with the counties covered by the magazine,
including an elaborate report on Protozoa. In the October
number of the same journal, Mr. T. A. Coward gives a list of
papers and journals which have been examined in connexion
with the Fauna Committee. There are notes on Myriapoda
and Diptera, and ‘ Entomological Notes from Dove Dale,
Derbyshire/ In this number under the word * correction/ it is
stated that owing to an unfortunate mistake the name of Mr.
S. L. ‘ Petby ’ (!) was misprinted Perry. We look forward with
some concern to the appearance of the November issue !

ENTOMOLOGICAL MAGAZINES.

During the past few years we have recorded the decease
of many scientific magazines — a few, with regret. Some were of
good age and, as in the case of The Zoologist, supplied a distinct
want. To serious students, who are anxious to keep their
magazines by them for constant reference, this has come as
a mixed blessing. Our entomological friends, however, who
have not always money to spare for purchases of this kind,

Naturalist,

Notes and Comments.

34 7

are very unfortunately placed. There are three monthly
magazines to meet their needs — The Entomologist (12/- a
year), The Entomologist1 s Monthly Magazine (9/- a year),
and The Entomologist’ s Record (10/- a year). How each of
these has managed to weather the storms of the past few years
we do not know, as with the enormous increases in the cost of
printing, postage, etc., they must have had a bad time. We
have nothing to say against any of the three journals ; each
is good in its way — each prints original papers on various
aspects of entomological science — sometimes referring to
foreign countries— each gives short notes on interesting cap-
tures, etc. ; in fact, each one seems to cover very much the
same ground. And the unfortunate entomologist has to spend
31/- a year if he wishes to keep up to date. We do not suggest
for a moment that any particular one is better than the others,
but we do think it would be an advantage to the magazines
themselves, and to their readers, if the three could be amal-
gamated. If the question of which title is the difficulty— a
new title altogether might be given, such as the * British Ent-
omological Record.’ The editorial and sub-editorial difficulty
might be surmounted by forming a Committee from the
editorial staffs of the three journals. If such amalgamation
is not possible, we would suggest that the three journals
mutually agree to follow up some definite line — one for example
might be devoted to British lepidoptera and perhaps coleoptera,
another to the various other branches of British entomology,
and a third to foreign entomology — or some such arrangement.

THE SOUTH EASTERN NATURALIST.*

The South Eastern Naturalist, which is well up to the
usual standard, was received by us in September, 1919, and
although the editor deplores the ‘ considerable delay * in
its appearance, this does not justify the date 1918 appearing
on both the cover and title page. There is an admirable
series of reports of the various committees, the Presidential
address of Sir Daniel Morris on ‘ A Chapter in the Geographical
Distribution of Plants ’ [a larger and more definite title is
given in the address® * Roman Mints in South-east England,
by P. H. Webb (this, according to the ‘ Contents ’ ; the paper
itself being entitled ‘ Romano-British Mints ’ — which is
rather a different subject) ; ‘ Mosquitoes [Mosquitoes and
Malaria in the paper] in Britain,’ by Col. Sir Ronald Ross ;

‘ Meteorological Instruments and how to read them,’ [‘ use ’
them in the paper itself], by R. Cor less > and ‘Allotment
Pests,’ by Lieut. R. W. Ashcroft.

* Being the Transactions of the South-Eastern Union of Scientific
Societies for 1918, pp. xc.-j-ic>4, 3/6..

1919 Nov. l

348

Notes and Comments.

TREASURE TROVE, ETC.

The remarks in the report on Treasure Trove include some
interesting items ; for instance, ‘ Some early eighteenth
century tobacco pipes and pottery, believed to be Roman,
have been dug up on the Barclay estate. ’$$The Daily Chronicle
states that ‘ by ancient law stranded whale is treasure trove/
The list of additions to the library given in the Report
still seems to occupy too much valuable space by unneces-
sary detail.

RATS.

The Zoological Society of London has published a Report
on Methods of Rat Destruction, by the Curator of Reptiles.
Mr. E. G. Boulenger (18 pp., 6d.). The results of various
elaborate experiments in rat extermination are given and the
pros and cons of each carefully considered. The following
important record occurs : — ‘ We ascertained in the course
of our investigations that not only had the Common Brown
Rat very greatly increased in numbers in recent years, but
that since 1910 the Old English Black Rat had become much
more abundant, and in London both species are now in some
parts living in harmony, not only on the same premises, but
in the same rooms. On the one floor of a factory in Holborn
we captured both species of rats, and also specimens of the
Alexandrine Rat — the brown variety of Rattus rattus, and the
black variety of Rattus norvegicus. A well-known London
rat-catcher, who has kept records of his captures, informs me
that he is at the present time catching as many Old English
Black Rats as Common Rats in localities where, prior to the
War, the latter only were found. This recent increase of the
old English Black Rat is disquieting, and can only be checked
by the enforcement of stricter measures for their destruction
on incoming vessels/

‘ BLUE JOHN.’

In Volume CXV. of the Transactions of the Chemical
Society, Messrs. B. Blount and J. H. Sequeira give details of
some elaborate experiments they have carried out with regard
to the colouring matter in ‘ Blue John/ and other forms of
Fluorite, from Derbyshire and Durham. From these experi-
ments, it appears that there is no substantial difference between
white fluorspar and ‘ Blue John/ except in respect of the
small amount of organic matter which gives the colour of
* Blue John/ The same seems to hold for ' Green John ’ and
for the amethystine varieties. It appears that the colouring
matter is, after all, organic. The influence of X-rays and of
radium on natural fluorspar appears similar to that on glass.
The causa ca> sans is unknown. From a series of experiments
which have now lasted more than two years, there is no reason

Naturalist,

Notes and Comments.

349

to suppose that what in the earlier trials seemed to be a rea-
sonable hypothesis, namely, that the colour of ‘ Blue John,’
and other varieties of coloured fluorspar owes its origin to
radioactive effect, has any foundation/

EVOLUTION OF THE AMMONITES.

In the Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, Vol.
XXX., part 2, Dr. W. D. Lang has a paper on this
subject, which concludes : — ‘ Nautilus, the only recent
Cephalopod with an external shell, can be traced back to
the Palaeozoic, when it had numerous and variform relations.
When the nautiloids have been followed backwards through
loosely-coiled gyrocones, curved cyrtocones to straight
orthocones, Orthoceras is still found to be without the calcareous
protoconch invariably present in ammonoids. Gn the other
hand, Orthoceras, or perhaps an Orthoceras- like form, in which
a chitinous protoconch had become calcified, gave rise to
the straight ammonoid shell or bactriticone, with its ventral
siphuncle ; and this progressed along many lineages, through
loosely coiled mimocones to ammoniticones. Ammoniticone
lineages with comparatively simple sutures are Goniatites ;
and by further complication of the suture-line becomes
Ammonites/

LEADING PRINCIPLES.

‘ The leading principles exhibited in this evolution are
(i) Recapitulation, (2) Orthogenesis and (3) Independence
of Characters. Modifications of these have been con-
sidered in connection with the evolution of Ammonites
as such. Tachygenesis or accelerated development, Lipo-
genesis or the skipping of stages and Renewed Anagenesis
are special modifications of Recapitulation ; and Correlation
of Characters is a secondary principle imposed upon and
modifying Independence of Characters. Catagenesis is seen
possibly to have been confused with senility, and not
necessarily to be concerned in the causes of extinction.
Renewed anagenesis is an expression of the principle of
Periodicity in evolution, which in its turn marches with
some ideas hitherto considered as belonging to pure philosophy.
Finally, it is possible that the complexity of the suture,
correlated as it is with great tenuity of the shell, may have
some connection with difficulties experienced by the organism
on acquiring the habit of calcium -carbonate secretion/

KELESTOMINJE .

In The Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, Vol.
LXXIV., pt. 3, Dr. W. D. Lang has a paper on ‘ The
Kelestominae : a Sub-family of Cretaceous Cribrimorph

1919 Nov. 1

350

Notes and Comments.

Polyzoa/ which concludes : — P The Kelestominse are a sub-
family of Pelmatoporidae characterized by a bifid apertural
bar. By stripping the diagnostic characters from the various
Pelmatoporid sub -families, a hypothetical Primitive Pel-
matoporid is, obtained, from which the Kelestominse (as
well as other sub-families) can be derived. Similarly, a
hypothetical Primitive Kelestomine may be re -constructed,
from which the two Kelestomine genera (. Kelestoma and
Morphasmopora) can be independently derived. Kelestoma
is chiefly characterized by its great oecial length and the
large number of its costae ; and evolution within the genus
is mainly concerned with an anabasis of colonial characters
and oecial length, and a catabasis of costal number ; and
is expressed in the single lineage K. elongatum — K. gradatum
— K. scalar e.

DR. J. W. EVANS’S ADDRESS.

In his address to the Geological Section of the British Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science, Dr. J. W. Evans
covered a variety of ground. He considered the methods
by which the progress of geological research may be most
effectively promoted, and pointed out some directions in which
he thought it possible important advances may be made in
the early future. It was an amateur geologist, a country
solicitor, who saved from the roadmender’s hammer the
Piltdown skull, that in its main features appears to represent an
early human type, from which the present races of man are
in all probability descended. Another amateur, who was
engaged in the brick-making industry near Peterborough,
has provided our museums with their finest collections of
Jurassic reptiles. A third, a hard- worked medical man,
was the first to reveal the oldest relics of life that had at that
time been recognised in the British Isles ; and many more
examples could be instanced of the services to geological
science by those whose principal life-task lay in other directions.

LOCAL GEOLOGISTS.

‘ It would be a good plan for the Survey to appoint a local
geologist, an amateur or member of the staff of a university or
college, in every area of twenty or thirty square miles to act
as their representative and as a centre of local geological
interest. He would be expected to give his assistance to other
local workers who stood in need of it. He would receive little
official remuneration, but inquirers in the neighbourhood
would be referred to him, and where commercial interests were
involved he would, subject to the sanction of the Central Office,
be entitled to charge substantial fees for his advice. He would
report to the Survey any event of geological importance in
the area of which he was in charge — whether it was the dis-

Naturalist,

Notes and Comments.

35?

covery of a new fossiliferous locality, the opening of a new
quarry, the sinking of a well, or the commencement of boring
operations. Many of these matters would be adequately
dealt with by local workers, but in other cases it might be
desirable for the Survey to send down one of their officers to
make a detailed investigation.’

WASTED ENERGY.

‘ A good illustration, and one of many that might be cited, of
the misdirected energy that is sometimes expended in prospect-
ing operations, was afforded a few years ago by a company
that put down a boring for oil through more than a thousand
feet of granite without being aware of the nature of the rock
that was being traversed. In this case a percussion drill was
employed, but a few minutes’ examination of the material
should have enabled the engineer in charge, supposing he had
even an elementary knowledge of geology, to save hundreds of
pounds of needless expenditure. The sum total of the funds
which have been uselessly expended in this country alone in
hopeless explorations for minerals, in complete disregard of
the most obvious geological evidence, would have been sufficient
to defray many times over the cost of a complete scientific
underground survey.’

NORTH OF ENGLAND BORINGS.

‘ In the North of England, again, there are many points
where the strata exposed at the surface are low down in the
Carboniferous, and it would be comparatively easy to ascertain
the nature of the earlier rocks beneath them, with regard to
which we are much in need of information. It would be easy
to cite other cases where information of considerable geological
value could be obtained by boring at comparatively small
expense, and would in all probability in the majority of cases
lead ultimately to results of economic importance. It is
obviously only right that any commercial advantages resulting
from investigations carried out at the public cost should accrue
to the State, and, if this principle were adopted, expenditure
by the Government or geological research on the lines I have
suggested would be sooner or later recouped by the mineral
wealth rendered available to the community.’

MUSEUMS.

‘ No less important than the work of the Geological Survey is
that of our great national museums. I have already alluded to
the need for local collections to illustrate the geology of the
areas in which they are situated. The museums of our larger
cities and our universities will naturally contain collections of a
more general character, but it is to our national museums that

1919 Nov. 1

352

Notes and Comments.

we must chiefly look for the provision of specimens to which
those engaged in research can refer for comparison, and it is
imperative that they should be maintained in the highest
state of efficiency, if the best results are to be obtained from
scientific investigations in this country. The ability and in-
dustry of the staff of the Mineralogical and Geological Depart-
ments of the National History Museum are everywhere recog-
nised, as well as their readiness to assist all those who go to them
for information, but in point of numbers they are undeniably
insufficient to perform their primary task of examining,
describing, arranging, and cataloguing their ever-increasing
collections so as to enable scientific workers to refer to them
under the most favourable conditions. Even if the staff were
doubled, its time would be fully occupied in carrying out these
duties, quite apart from any special researches to which its
members would naturally wish to devote themselves. The
additional expense incurred by the urgently needed increase
of the museum establishment would be more than repaid to
the country in the increased facilities afforded for research.'

PREHISTORIANS.

The first part of Vol. III. of the Proceedings of the Pre^
historic Society of East Anglia, has recently appeared (164 pp.,
5s.). It is, as usual, crammed with articles dealing with various
aspects of pre-historic archaeology, and no one can complain
of the lack of illustration. We must admit that the figures
are of a better type, and that the large out-line drawings
which previously marred the pages of this publication have
disappeared. The Society seems to cover a larger area than
its title warrants, as we find papers dealing with Aberdeenshire,
Cornwall, Devon, Sussex and the Continent. That the Society
is not prejudiced is shewn by the appearance of two papers on
the so-called Rostro-carinate flint implements, which are
alleged to be of much greater antiquity than the Palaeolithic
Age ; Mr. F. N. Haward considers that these flints are perfectly
natural, while of course Mr. J. R. Moir thinks that they are
purely artificial. We must admit that Mr. Haward asks some
very awkward questions. There is an admirable portrait and
obituary notice of the late Dr. W. Allen Sturge.

: o :

We learn from The Entomologist’ s Record that the late F. Du Cane
Godman , F.R.S., bore all the expense of the publication of the fifty -eight
large quarto volumes of the Biologia Centrali- Americana, including the
necessary staff of collectors. The type-specimens and series of many
thousands of new species described and illustrated in its pages have been
presented to the National Museum. Flis contributions in Lepidoptera
alone amounted to 107,000, without counting sundry entire collections
separately purchased.

Naturalist,

WHITETHORN SEED NOTES.

353

Rev. E. A. WOODRUFFE-PEACOCK, F.L.S., F.G.S., F.E.S., etc.

The study of the seeds of Crataegus oxyacantha and of C.
oxyacanthoides is a ‘ liberal education ’ in itself, if it is fully
followed up, in seed dispersal by bird carriage. It also illus-
trates the way that certain members of the vertebrata are
dependent on one another for food, especially in long snow-
frosts like those of the winters 1916-17 and 1917-18.

Take the seeds from the Pepperdale gate top — referred to
under my Two Phytophagous C haloids paper* — as an example
of what I mean, when the whole country is held fast in the
grip of a deep snow-frost. With one single exception, which
I carefully tubed up, because it had been blown from the high
hedge on the west, and so had not lost its ‘ pulp/ all the seeds
on the top of that gate had been left there after passing through
the alimentary canal of one of the Turdi. In this case, from
what my old eyes have seen after much watching, I do not
doubt that of a blackbird. Song Thrushes generally regurgitate
them from their gizzard, and as far as I could observe, there
was not a single Song Thrush left in the centre of this parish.
The few which had not migrated south were on the beck
banks feeding on Helix nemoralis, as their anvils proved, and
only visiting certain bushes of Whitethorn near at hand
along with Fieldfare. These species are not gate-top perchers,
and not a Redwing could I discover in the parish, and they
do not visit gate tops either.

After the droppings on this gate had been broken up by
weathering in snow- and rain-wash, a Long-tailed Field Mouse
climbed the gate or one of its posts, and opened a number of
the nuts to obtain their seed for food. I did not see it there,
as it may often be seen in old Turdi nests in Whitethorn fences,
but its work is so characteristic on Crataegus, both species,
Rosa and Taxus seeds, it cannot be mistaken by anyone who
has once seen it. Yet how they get the nut out of the minute
hole they make I cannot say, for though I have watched most
carefully, they would never work on the platform of an old nest
in a hedge, when I was standing by to observe them. They
simply watched me with curious and fearless gaze apparently.

Then I judge a Hawfinch visited this spot, as also perhaps
a Greenfinch too, for most of the seeds were opened by some
birds which knew exactly their weak line for cracking them.
I say * perhaps a Greenfinch ' advisedly, for the work of the
two birds just named is so alike I have only found one means
of distinguishing them. The Hawfinch is a master artist at
Whitethorn nut opening, and most justly gets its English
name from our forefathers having noted its clean work. Like

1919 Nov. 1

* The N aturalist for October, p. 329.

354 Woodruff e- Peacock : Whitethorn Seed Notes.

the Nuthatch, which with a glance at a hazel nut knows
whether it has a sound kernel in it or not, the Hawfinch
passes from stone to stone opening each in turn without a single
mistake. Though I have been a seed student with a type
collection of seeds for fifty years, I cannot attain to this pro-
ficiency with either hazel nuts or haw-stones. I have never
known a Hawfinch glance twice at a haw-nut, which had
been opened by a mouse. Now on the gate top referred to, as
in many other places, where Greenfinches have been seen at
work, were a few shells which clearly showed that they had
been opened by a mouse to extract the seed before they had
been split by a bird, which I take to have been the more
bungling Greenfinch or some other imperfect worker. Both
these birds open and eat the seeds in the stones of yew berries,
as the mouse does also, opening it in its own particular way,
but only where the Greenfinch feeds along with the mouse do
yew seeds show secondary working.

Quickfall, now only a personal name I believe — unlike
byblow and bastard^-is the old English name for haws which
have passed through a bird's gizzard. I only once heard it
on the lips of a man who was bQrn in 1822. The Rev. Canon
J. T. Fowler has shown in the Glossary to The Fountains
Abbey Rolls (Surtees Society), that our forefathers in the 13th
century distinguished between quicksets and quickfall, knowing
no doubt, as well as we do, that quickfall was a year in advance
of haws sown in their ‘ pulp,’ i.e., if they had not passed
through the alimentary canal of a bird. This is my up-to-date
list of birds which eat the ‘ pulp ' or the seeds of this species,
and therefore sow them — Blackbird, Bullfinch, Crossbill,
Ring Dove, Stock Dove (in snow storms), Fieldfare, Goldfinch,
Greenfinch, Black Grouse, Red Grouse (in snow storms).
Hawfinch, Nuthatch, when it is short of hazel-nuts, Common
Partridge (only in deep snowstorms), Red-legged Partridge,
the same, Pheasant every season, Redwing (in snowstorms),
Song-thrush the same, Black-throated Thrush (in snowstorms),
Mistle-Thrush, Long-tailed Tit, Marsh Tit, Turkey and Waxing
Wing. I have no doubt the Rook, Jackdaw and Jay too, but
as yet I have no proof. The nuts are, in the case of the smaller
birds, carried to new situations and sown, or in that of the
larger birds are swallowed and passed without destroying
their vitality or that of the Chalcids they may contain. They
were formerly fed to Turkeys before being sown to ‘ gain an
entire year in the growth of the quick ’ (Lyell’s Principles ,
12th ed. 1874, Vol. II., p. 389).

Secondary bird and mammal carriage is also known in
this species, for Hawks swallow Blackbirds and other species
whole and regurgitate the nuts in their casts. (Darwin’s
Origin, 6th ed., Vol. II., p. 146). Mammals too, as. the stoat,

Naturalist

Woodruff e-Peacock : Whitethorn Seed Notes. 355

kill Blackbirds feeding under hedges, and drag them to their
underground lairs. I have often found whitethorn seed from
the crop, gizzard, or alimentary canal, in the refuse of their
powerfully odoriferous dens. Also collateral bird carriage, as
when it is scattered from the crop of a Ring Dove struck down
by a Peregrine Falcon, as I have observed here in and after long
snow frosts. It is also carried by millions down our becks,
and is the commonest seed found in their alluviums, but never
to live, so far as I have been able to observe ; and also by the
winds universally, as can ever be proved by finding the seed
in its f pulp.’ ‘ Why then/ asked the late Rev. Canon W.
Fowler, ‘ is it so rare in pasture and meadow ? ’ He might
have added, road sides and other places that stock reach. For
the simple reason, its early leaves are beloved by them, and it
is therefore eaten to death. It is sown on our coast meals
and inland sand-dunes ; and is practically found in every wood
where Blackbirds roost. The best example that I know of
illustrating what birds and wind can do in the way of sowing — ■
though I have plenty of examples in this parish of Cadney, as
also at Crowle and elsewhere — is to be seen on the Keuper
marl, on the east side of the Great Northern Railway in the
parish of Gamston, I believe, about three miles south of East
Retford in the county of Nottingham. This soil ‘ tumbled
down ’ to ‘ pasture of a kind ’ before 1 877. Nothing can better
illustrate the influence of wind and birds sowing on Crataegus ;
and of how stock later (for years the pasture referred to was not
stocked at all), keeps the bushes eaten down, when they can
get at them fairly young.

: o :•

The Iron and Steel Industry of the United Kingdon under War
Conditions. A record of the work of the Iron and Steel Production
Department of the Ministry of Munitions. By F. H. Hatch. Privately
printed for Sir John Hunter, K.B.E., 167 pp. Dr. Hatch has had a
glorious opportunity of showing how the great iron and steel industries
in this country met with the extraordinary requirements during the
war, and of this he has taken full advantage. ‘ In spite of difficulties
which at times appeared to be well-nigh insuperable, Sir John Hunter’s
Basic Iron Programme obtained a high measure of success, and enabled
the urgent and incessant calls for ship plates, shells and other munitions
requiring steel in their manufacture, to be punctually and duly met. It is
a remarkable tribute to the latent organising power of the nation that,
under the adverse conditions of a great war, it should have been possible
to raise the steel production of the country to the highest point it has
ever reached in the history of the country.’ Dr. Hatch’s narrative is
fascinating — his facts are astounding, and the diagrams and statistics
form a worthy record. Illustrations are given showing the various
remarkable developments in the iron and steel industries, not the least
interesting being two views of the enormous appliance for removing
the surface material from the ironstone at Frodingham, which is certainly
an advantage over the somewhat primitive methods with which we were
familiar in pre-war days.

1919 Nov. 1

356

ADDITIONS TO THE ‘ SPIDERS OF WICKEN.’

WM. FALCONER.

Previously the writer has recorded 141 species of spiders and
9 of harvestmen for this famous locality.* He can now
add 13 more of the former and one of the latter. Two years
ago the Rev. J. E. Hull determined and communicated the
names of captures made in the fen in November, 1916, by
Messrs. M. R. Hull and H. Jeffreys ; four of these, asterisked
in the list, were new to it. The rest except one were taken by
the writer in September, 1917.

ADDITIONS.

Spiders.

~ Clubiona terrestris Westr. Two <^s, garden of the Sycamores.

C. reclusa Camb. One § as above.

Tapinopa longidens Wid. Two 2s, Lepidopterists ’ Drove ; one
2 at Wicken lode.

Floronia frenata Wid. Both sexes from sedge litter in the Lepi-
dopterists ’ Drove ; one 2 from left side of the fen.

*Linypkia pusilla Sund. the fen.

*Leptyphantes tenebricola Wid., <-£, the fen.

*Bathyphantes setiger F.O.P. Cb. <Js, the fen ; previously reported
from Co. Carlow, Ireland, Penrith, Staffordshire, Yorkshire and
Norfolk (sub. B. spretus Camb.) ; not found on the Continent.

*Centromeria bicolor Bl. §, the fen.

CE do thorax agrestic Bl. Both sexes beaten from low herbage in
the Drove.

Neriene rubens Bl. Both sexes, the fen and the Sycamores.

Zilla atrica C. L. Koch. Bushes near the fen.

Oxyptila atomaria Panz. The fen, Mr. C. Warburton, in Section
Arachnida, p. 199, ‘Natural History of Cambridgeshire (Marr and
Shipley ) ; not a common spider, but widely distributed as far north
as Oban and Moray Firth.

Trochosa ruricola De Geer. $ , $, the Sycamores.

Harvestman.

Phalangium opilio Linn. Sycamores.

Of those previously recorded, Mengea warburtonii Camb.
both sexes, Wider ia melanocephala Camb., one §>, and a black
5 of Cnistulina sticta Camb. again occurred in the fen ; and
many Oxyptila praticola C. L. Koch, $s, and two of the same
sex of Euophrys frontalis Walck. were beaten from dwarf
box at the Sycamores. The last were of a unicolorous yellow
brown, and until examined under the microscope were taken
to be a new species. Zora letifera and Neon valentulus Falcr.
and Marpessa pomatia Walck. were in abundance in the
fen, the Ten Acres and Edmund Fen.

* Vide The Naturalist, Oct. 1912 ; June and July 1915.

Naturalist,

ORNITHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS AND
REFLECTIONS IN SHETLAND.

357

EDMUND SELOUS.

( Continued from page 262 J.

For the last two days, since witnessing the interesting
phenomenon of the congregating and flight of the Kit ti wakes,
I have come to the same part of the coast, and waited about
till the fall of the evening in hopes of seeing it again. Not
only, however, have I been disappointed in this, but hardly
a Kittiwake in the same stage of coloration and markings as
were these birds, is now to be seen, their place being entirely
taken by those in the more black-barred and collared state
of plumage. The greater number of these, as they fly, seem
to have a broad black triangle upon their wings and shoulders.
This may not be quite accurate, but it has that effect. What
I witnessed, therefore, may have been — -probably was — not
the gathering of the Kittiwakes to roost, but their much more
important gathering previous to migration, and then the
migration itself, for it is now, as Hay tells me, about the time
of their departure. The state of excitement in which the birds
were, their wild clanging cries, making a music in dissonance,
the whole general character, in fact, of what I witnessed, is
in accordance with this explanation, whilst the marked absence
of the like-plumaged birds, now, on but the second day after,
is thus simply accounted for. It would appear, therefore,
that I have been witness of something very interesting,
and which is only to be seen by good fortune. Did the
Kittiwakes go to roost in this way, I must have seen the
same thing, as also, in all probability, the same birds, to-night,
but there was nothing of the sort ; no such marked or special
feature was discernible amongst them. It would appear,
too, that the migration of these birds takes place in the order
of their ages, and that the older ones go first.

October 23RD. — I went, after breakfast, along the loch,
near the voe here, to see if the Kittiwakes were still banded
together in any of their gathering places. All were empty,
except one at the farther end, where there were just eleven of
them, in ripe plumage, with three Herring Gulls — one still
brown — keeping them company. Later, I went to the same
part of the coastline as yesterday, and now, amidst a great
majority of the younger black-barred bi ds, I could see some
grown beyond this. Probably they leave, not only senior es
priores, but in batches, also, whether young or old, at intervals
of a few days, as did the Stone Curlews whose several departures
I witnessed when living in Suffolk.

A Herring Gull had found something on the voe beach,

1910 Nov. 1

358 Ornithological Observations and Reflections in Shetland.

and two cowled Crows [cucullus non facit monachum) stood
quite near him, watching him eat it, and wishing, evidently,
they could do so themselves. The Gull resented their presence,
and would, sometimes, leaving his repast, advance against
one or other, of them, who would, forthwith, retreat, by hops,
but with great sangfroid, and at no greater speed than was
necessary to keep out of reach. Now would have been the
opportunity for the other Crow to make a raid on the coveted
morsel, but the Gull was aware of this and took care to get
back in time, the hunted Crow then instantly returning, to
stand close, on one side of him, as his comrade did on the
other. Evidently they entertained hopes, but, for all their
satanic bearing and suggestion of deep cunning in their every
look and movement, as no less when they stood still, the Gull,
though inferior in appearances, was, in all else, quite a match
tor them, and managed to bring his meal to a successful con-
clusion. He then turned, and was walking, complacently,
down to the sea, when one of the Crows, hopping up lightly
behind him, gave him a revengeful peck in the back. The
indignant Gull turned to resent this injury, but the Crow was
already some hops in retreat, with the other prepared to
support him, in case of emergency, so, knowing with whom he
had to deal, he turned, again, and was soon in the water.

It was a day on two ago that I watched a band of Oyster-
catchers feeding on the rocks, and presenting a very handsome
appearance. If it was not on shell-fish they were feeding, I
cannot imagine what else it was, but the beak was not used in
any special manner that I could observe — as in striking a
sudden blow— but only in picking, pecking and pulling.

Shags are sometimes washed and carried about by the
currents of the waves, close to the rock they wish to land
on, for some time before they can get up on it. It is odd that
they do not under these circumstances, prefer to fly up, but
they seem bent on landing from the waves.

October 27TH. — What is the percentage of success that
sea-birds (Gulls for the nonce) have in their fishing? At
Gutcher, to-day, I saw one Kittiwake catch, on the third
attempt, another on the sixth — except that I cannot be perfectly
sure I did not confound this last with another, that, after the
third or fourth dive, crossed it in its flight. However, I
think it was the same. After this, I watched the general
fishing, and saw two catches, and eight plunges, without
result, before ceasing to pay attention. It seems evident,
therefore, that several — perhaps many — unsuccessful attempts
precede a successful one. In the catches I saw — all made by
Kitti wakes— the fish was, each time, of a fair size, once,
perhaps, double that of a Cornish sardine — so-called — which
is as much beyond that of a true two-gold-medal one (if there

Naturalist,

Ornithological Observations and Reflections in Shetland. 359

are any of these now) as it comes halting after in flavour.
Some skill and perseverance was required on the part of the
captor to dispose of these bon-bouches. One, a good deal
smaller, was caught by the tail— just above the caudal fin—
and here again care was necessary to get it down head first.
But care and skill are both in the Kittiwake’s possession, and
it cannot be said that any real difficulty is experienced. To
catch the fish, however, is a fairly difficult feat, to go by the
number of misses which precede success. Here, then, we
have, in two elements, a parallel to the well-known Darwinian
illustration of competition in speed and dexterity as between
the hare and greyhound.

October 28th. — This morning, I watched a Great Black-
backed Gull feeding in Cullivoe Bay. His modus op er an di
was exactly the same as the Herring Gull’s— that is to say, he
rose to a height of some two or three feet from the water, and
then plunged head first. He made two or three plunges,
apparently to no purpose before bringing up a mass of green
seaweed, of the volume, perhaps, of a lady's soaked pocket-
handkerchief. Whether he was successful in picking anything
out of this I cannot say, and the seaweed itself he consigned
to the water again, and, soon afterwards, flew away.

I have now several times, seen a Gull pursued by another
one, not a Skua, but in much the same way, and I think,
with the same object. More than once, however, it was by

one in brown plumage, and, I think, of its own species

possibly, therefore, its own offspring seeking for food in the
orthodox manner. Both since and before this, however, I
have seen many examples of the first kind of pursuit — which
was often successful— amidst crowds of Gulls in Lerwick Har-
bour. Here the part of pirate and merchantmen was plainlv
played, both by one or other of the same species, and miscel-
laneously, between them all, though, on account of the greater
number being Herring Gulls, it was usually the first, as it
would be, perhaps, in sequence. It is out of this general,
undeveloped sort of piracy that the specialised and exclusive
kind of the Skuas has, as I suppose, arisen. But in what lay
its first origin? I should think, myself, in the chase, for this
end, of the parent Gull by the young one. As the latter is
fed, habitually, through the act of disgorgement, we have
here, from the very beginning, the purpose which is wanted
to give the essential similarity between these two kinds of
pursuit. At a certain point in the more legitimate one.
parental complacency, though now somewhat tried, would be
reinforced by the wish to escape molestation in the readiest
way, and gradually the latter motive might come to take the
place, altogether, of the former one. From this it would be
a small step for the importunate offspring to pester birds not

1919 Nov. 1

360 Ornithological Observations and Reflections in Shetland.

its parents, but so like them that — -being probably, by now,
accustomed to mingle, in a general. way, with its kind — it
would no longer seek, or, perhaps, no longer be able, to
discriminate between one and the other. The habit being
thus more or less established, as between members of the
same species, it might, through the intermingling of several
begin to pass these limits, and, when once it had, causes would
not be wanting to develop and specialise it in this direction.
The chief of these is embodied in the scriptural pronouncement
(to which, however, the words ' too much ’ must be added)
that a house divided against itself cannot stand. If no in-
dividual of a gregarious species, could get a meal in peace,
for its fellows, that species would wane and disappear, and
moreover, a general necessity to do so would have prevented
such a state of chaos ever arising. But one species can prey,
in this way, upon many, as we see in the case of the Skuas,
and might do so, for all that appears to the contrary, upon
one only, if this one greatly outnumbered it. In the Shet-
lands, at any rate, both these limiting conditions conjoin ;
at least the second one applies to most of the birds so victim-
ised, but, I think, to all. It does not, of course, follow that
because this piratical habit might, in the way I have imagined,
become fastened by one species upon' another, it must. therefore
be a common one, which, as a matter of fact, it is riot. The
particular circumstances and individual variations would
have, first to arise, but the Skuas are not the only example
that we see of it, even in our own islands. The Black-headed
Gull, is also a professional pirate, and, so far as I have myself
been able to observe, it carries on its trade at the expense of
the Peewit alone. And here the interesting point arises that,
although, where I have seen this, the numbers of these two
species were, perhaps not so very unequal, yet, in the coming
into play of the habit, they were, since some three or four — at
the most, I should say, half a dozen — of the Gulls divided
between them a considerable portion of pasture or arable land
on which many Peewits wejre feeding. In this we seem to
see a differentation of habit as between the individuals of the
same species, and change in habit must in time produce a
corresponding change in structure, and so (I do not mean
specially to apply it to this case ; we can imagine others
where the principle would be brought more into play) to the
multiplication of species.

{To be continued).

: o :

Dr. David Forsyth, who is now seventy-four years of age, has been
presented with his portrait on retiring from the Leeds Central High
School.

Naturalist,

SOME YORKSHIRE ARTHROPODS.

361

T. STAINFORTH, B.A., B.SC.

Armadillidium pulchellum Brandt. While searching for
Coleoptera on Langdale End, near Hackness, Scarborough,
towards the end of May, I found three examples of this pretty
little pill woodlouse, not previously, I believe, recorded for
the county. The specimens occurred together under a stone
on Lower Calcareous Grit, the locality being one eminently
suited to a limestone-loving species. This isopod has been
observed by Mr. R. S. Bagnall in association with Formica
fusca, but although a neighbouring stone covered a colony of
a form of Myrmica, I saw no relationship between the ants and
the woodlice on this occasion. In his interesting list of ‘ The
Terrestrial Isopoda (Woodlice) of Yorkshire,’ Mr. F. Rhodes*
states that he has found A . pulchellum in the bordering counties
of Lancashire, Westmorland and Derby, but not in Yorkshire.
The species of Armadillidium may be recognised by its small
size (5mm.) and by the distal joint of the flagellum being three
times as long as the basal.

Among other isopods I have taken during the year are
Cylisticus convexus De Geer, from Scalby Mills, near Scar-
borough ; Porcellio rathkii Brandt., from the East Park, Hull ;
and Dunswell ; and Armadillidium nasatum Budde-Lund,
from the greenhouses of the East Park, Hull. I am indebted
to Dr. W. E. Collinge for the determination or confirmation
of the above records.

Polyxenus lagurus L. Further search, during the present
year, has proved that the Bristly Millepede is not only common
but widely distributed in the East Riding. It still occurs at
Brantingham Dale, the first Yorkshire locality in which it was
discovered. Mr. E. Bilton found several examples there on
May 24th, under the charred bark on the stump of a felled
larch. Other localities in which I have taken it are Risby
Fish Pond Woods, numerous examples on the posts of
the gate leading into the woods ; Beverley Long Lane, three
specimens under a piece of loose wood on a rotten gate post,
on June 21st ; near site of Meaux Abbey (also by Mr. A. R.
Warnes), numerous examples under loose bark of fence and
under bark of a Wych Elm, on September 21st ; and North
Cliff, one example under loose bark on a gate post, on September
6th. It will thus be seen that it has been found on the Wolds
area, as well as both east and west of it, and in the district east
of the River Hull.

Miscodera arctica Payk. Towards the end of August, I
paid a visit to Allerthorpe Common, near Pocklington, and
while searching at the roots of heather was surprised to find

* The Naturalist, 1916, pp. 99-102 and 121-123.

2919 Nov. 1

2 A

362 Some Yorkshire Arthropods.

a specimen of this beetle. Subsequent search on this occasion
and a few days later resulted in the discovery of three further
living and one dead example. They were all found partially
buried in the sandy soil underneath tufts of heather scattered
about a portion of the common -which was burnt a few years
ago. Miscodera is well known as a mountain or high moorland
species and as such occurs, perhaps, with greater frequency
than is indicated by the records, in the western and northern
parts of the county where, the habitat is suitable. The oc-
currence of the species, however, at Allerthorpe Common,
which is only at a small elevation above sea level, is somewhat
remarkable. It is true that Mr. G. B. Walsh* found the
species on low saltmarsh, near Middlesbrough, but here its
occurrence -could easily be accounted for by the proximity of
the high moorland of Bston Nab. Mr. Walsh informs me
that the late W. E. Sharp obtained the species on low-lying
moorlands in Cheshire.

Carabus nitens L. I made my first acquaintance with this
species in forma viva at Scalby High Moor, not far from the
Druidical Circle, torwards the end of May. I am not yet
grown too old in coleopterology to appreciate brilliancy of
colour, and I felt some of the delight of my younger
entomological days on finding several specimens running in
bright sunshine over a patch of green Sphagnum moss.
Eventually my companion, Mr. G. B. Walsh, and I captured
six examples, all of them running about in the sunshine and
evidently preferring the damp places.

Later on in the year, at the end of August, I made my
second acquaintance with this brilliant beetle, but on this
occasion at Allerthorpe Common, in my native vice-county.
They were not running about, however, but had to be sought
for under tufts of heather just as Miscodera noted above.
On two days’ visits I found five specimens.

Pterostichus lepidus F. In the same locality (Allerthorpe
Common) I found two of the metallic species of Pterostichus,
one of which proved to be P. lepidus, the other P. versicolor.
The former is, I believe, new to the East Riding.

Examples of each of the specimens enumerated have been
placed in the Hull Museum Collection.

Mr. A. Newstead describes Boarmia biundularia Esp. form venosa,
form, nov.; Biston strataria Huff, form ochrearia, form. nov. ; Crocallis
elinguaria Linn, form signatipennis , form. nov. ; and Nyssia zonaria
Schiff. form ochracea, form, nov.; in The Entomologist for October. In
the same journal Mr. H. Rowland-Brown makes ' A Plea for Pioneer
Work ‘ which is well worth perusal by all entomologists and collectors.

* Coleoptera of the Grangetown Slag-heaps, The Naturalist, 1910,
PP- 339-40-

Naturalist,

363

MARINE BIOLOGY AT SCARBOROUGH.

A. I. BURNLEY,

Scarborough.

The Annual Meeting of the Marine Biology Committee of the
Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union was held at Scarborough from
September 26th to September 29th.

On Friday the 26th, and Monday the 29th, the members
investigated, at low tide, two distinct areas in the South Bay,
and on Saturday, the 28th, they visited Carnelian Bay.

To enumerate the many living marine organisms, secured
or noted, seems unnecessary, as most of the names have
appeared in previous reports upon the work of the Committee
printed in The Naturalist.

Several interesting object lessons in coloration and mimicry
in connexion with the communal life of various creatures
were particularly instructive. On the under surfaces of large
stones were found several varieties of sponges and compound
tunicates, with nudibranchs, hydro-zoophytes, and other
species of animal life predisposed to such an environment.
One of the six or seven sponges seen is a new record, though
the species is not yet determined. Of the tunicates, Polyclinum
aurantiacum and Botryllus babius are new to the county list,
and Aplidium ficus, though recorded for Filey in 1913, is new
to Scarborough. Leptoclinum durum was also a new record.

Two living specimens of the small hairy crab, Pilumnus
hirtellus, were obtained at Carnelian Bay ; it had previously
been recorded at Filey. The bleached and empty test of the
pea urchin, Echinocyamus pusillus, was found by Mr. Har-
greaves in the South Bay. These empty tests are picked up
from time to time, though the living animal has not been
reported, and they may be taken as evidence that it exists on
our coast.

A perfect and most lively specimen of Caprella lobata,
figured in Bate and Westwood’s ‘ Sessile-eyed Crustacea ’
(Vol. II.), hitherto unrecorded for Scarborough, was taken by
Mr. Cross. A nemertean worm, Borlasia elizabethae , new to
this district, is now listed; also the flat worm, Cycloporus
papillosus, commensal on Botryllus.

An unusual find was a patch of what seemed to be mud,
on a small Laminaria frond which was floating in deepish
water over a sandy bottom. The patch was irregularly
square and three quarters of an inch long. Magnified, it proved
to be a collection of mud tubes, each of which was occupied
by a protruding amphipod guarding its progeny. Within
this three-quarter-inch square there were one hundred and
twenty tubes, somewhat variable in dimensions and arrange-
ment, the average size of a tube being one fortieth of an inch

.1919 Nov. 1

364 Proceedings of Provincial Scientific Societies.

in diameter and one eight of an inch in height. This tube-
building amphipod, Podoceros pelagicus , is a new record for
Scarborough. The creature, when extended, measures three-
eighths of an inch in length. The tubes, doubtless, are but
temporary nests for the young, and are marvellously constructed
considering their floating foundation and the peculiar arrange-
ment of the builders’ limbs.

: o :

‘ The Report of the Departmental Committee on Bird Protection ’ is
given as a supplement to Bird Notes and News, Vol. VIII., No. 7. •

The Brighton and Hove Natural History and Philosophical Society is
to be congratulated on its recently issued Annual Report (59 pp.), which
contains abstracts of papers, etc., largely of local interest.

The Annual Report of the Manchester Microscopical Society (39 pp., 1/6)
is confined to an account of the various activities of the Society in its
different sections. There are no papers printed — doubtless owing to the
present price of paper, etc.

The Bootham School Natural History, Literary and Polytechnic
Society has issued its Eighty-fifth Annual Report. Would that more of
our schools could show such a good record of natural history work.
Among the various branches of natural history it is surprising again to
find that geology is not represented.

Part 1 of Vol. XXX. of the Proceedings of the Geologists' Association is
almost entirely occupied by Mr. G. Barrow’s Presidential Address on
‘ Some Future Work for the Geologists’ Association.’ It is accompanied
by an excellent coloured map to illustrate the Great Denudation since the
Deposition of the High Level (? Pliocene) Gravels.

We have received the Annual Report of the National Trust for Places
of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, and from the extraordinary
record therein contained, this Society is doing a work which future
generations will perhaps appreciate much more than the present one
does. It is apparent that quite large areas of some of the most charming
pieces of country in the British Isles are now the Nation’s property
for all time, and the Trust deserves every help and support that can be
given to it.

No. 26 of the Journal and' Transactions of the Leeds Astronomical
Society for 1918, edited by Mr. C. T. Whitmell, (Leeds : 70 pp., 2s. 6d.),
has been received. Besides the usual Editorial Notes, Obituaries, the
Record of the Society’s Work, and numerous short notes, the part
contains the following papers : — ‘ The Universe of Suns,’ by Rev. I.
Carr-Gregg ; ‘ The Significance of Parabolic Cometary Orbits,’ by

Dr. A. C. D. Crommelin ; ‘ Nova Aquilse, 1918,” by Mr. C. L. Brook ;
and ‘ Some Astronomical Discoveries,’ by A. Grace Cook. Several of
the shorter notes are written by the Editor. Altogether the publication
is very creditable to the Leeds Astronomers.

In addition to the interesting Memoir on ‘Sands,’ by Professor
P. G. H. Boswell, referred to in this Journal for October, we have
received a series of interesting papers dealing with the subject upon
which Prof. Boswell is so great an authority, namely, ‘ A Comparison
of British and American Moulding-sand Practice,’ read to the British
Foundry men's Association, Liverpool ; ‘ The Geology of Sands and
Aggregates for Concrete Making,’ read to the Concrete Institute ;

‘ Ferruginous and Other Bonds in Moulding Sands,’ read to the American
Foundrymen’s Association ; and ' British Supplies of Potash-Felspar,
considered from the Glass Making Point of View,’ from. The Transactions
of the Society of Glass Technology .

Naturalist,

THE SPIDERS OF YORKSHIRE.

365

WM. FALCONER.

Slaithwaite , Huddersfield.

[Continued from page 326).

Gen. Notioscopus Sim 1-1.

N. sarcinatus Camb.

Yorkshire is so far the only British county where this rare spider
has been found ; abroad it occurs in France and Bavaria ; in
marshy ground. Adult autumn to spring, $s all the year round.
First record — -J. W. Harrison, Eston, 1909.

V.C. 62. — Cleveland, ■ every suitable locality visited, in very shallow
slacks on Eston, Westerdale, Gt. Ay ton, Easby, Kildale and
Basedale moors, also in Farndale, where such slacks contain long
reasonably dry tufts of rushes,’ J.W.H., vide bibliography under
Hull and Harrison, and The Naturalist, October, 1918, p. 316;
Boosbeck.

V.C. 64. — Sawley High Moor near Ripon, 8 $s.

Gen. Gongylidiellum Sim, 3-7.

G. latebricola Camb.

Local and rare, on record for Dorset, Staffs., Cheshire, Northum-
berland and Paisley. Adult autumn to spring.

V.C. 63. — Honley Old Wood, 2^s, 8^s, March 1907, from moss and
fallen leaves ; Chew Valley (Greenfield), 1$ ; Brogden Wood
(Soyland), 1$.

G. vivum Camb.

Uncommon and often rather local, but now noted from eight
widely separated English counties, south Wales and more recently
Ireland and Scotland ; abroad, France and Germany. First
occurrence — the author, Drop Clough, July 1900. In this locality
it has occurred somewhat freely and numbers of females have
several times been seen guarding their eggsacs in little cavities
beneath the cover of large stones in the old quarry.

V.C. 61. — Hornsea Mere, 1^, i^, Houghton Woods, 1 9, King’s Mill
Marsh (Driffield), 1^, Hornsea Mere, 1^, 3$s, Binnington, 1$,
T.S. ; Tunstall, 1$, E.A.P. ; Skipwith Common, 1^.

V.C. 62.— Eston, 1$, J.W.H. ; Ringingkeld Bog, i<J, R.A.T.

V.C. 63.— Black Hills (Bingley), $, W.P.W. ; Bottoms Wood, Owlers
Wood, Boothbanks, Ainley Place, Merridale, Royal Clough, Cup-
with, Dean Head, in Slaithwaite district ; Bury Mill, Scammonden ;
Ripponden ; Drop Clough, Ram Clough and Wessenden Valley
(Marsden), Chew Valley, (Greenfield) ; Marsden Clough (Holmfirth).
V.C. 64. — Shipley Glen, W.P.W. ; Ilkley ; Alwoodley Plantation ; East
Keswick.

G. paganum Sim.

When found, new to the British Isles ; in 1907, both sexes, Fenagh
co. Carlow; Staffs.; abroad, Southern France and Switzerland.
First occurrence — the author, Drop Clough, February, 1903.

V.C. 63. — Drop Clough, Marsden, 1^, 1$ ; Ainley Place Wood, 1$ ;

Deffer Wood (Cawthorn), i£ ; Morton Wood (Holmfirth), 1$.
V.C. 64,— Rivock (Keighley), 1$, W.P.W.

Gen. Maro Camb., 3-5.

M. minutus Camb.

The following are the only known stations for this rare spider,
which is the type of the genus ( Proc . Dorset F. Club, 1906). Adult
males and females (autumn and spring). First occurrence — Drop
Clough, March 1905.

19^9 Nov. l

366

Falconer : The Spiders of Yorkshire.

V.C. 63. — Drop Clough, Marsden, 13$, various dates, occurring

only in a space of 2 square yards in made ground composed of
stones and soil thrown on one side during the construction of a
cartroad to the adjacent quarry ; to obtain them it was necessary
to break the ground up carefully and search amongst the debris ;
Scout Wood (Merridale), 1$, 1$ from moss ; Ainley Place Beck
(Slaithwaite), on right bank, a few examples of both sexes, from
grass roots, and the Brinks, higher up the stream, year after year.

M. falconevii Jacks.

Described in Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc. of Northumberland, Durham
and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, New Series, Vol. III., part 1, 1908 ; on
record also for Delamere Forest (Cheshire), Y.N.U., Upper Teesdale,
Durham, 1^ ; the Rev. O. P. Cambridge had previously examples
from Herts. 1$ and Cumberland, 1$, but they had been laid on
one side and forgotten ; recently in the Grampians and Northum-
berland. Season as in the last.

V.C. 63. — Drop Clough, itf, 1$, from the same made ground as M.
minutus Cb. April 27th, 1967 and subsequent dates ; Ainley Place
Beck ; also with M. minutus Cb., a few of each sex in successive
years.

M. humicola Falcr.

Described and figured in The Naturalist, Sept., 1919, pp. 300-1.
Closely allied to M. minutus Camb., but usually a little larger and
with a darker cephalothorax and the epigyne standing out at right
angles to the abdomen ; frequents humus. Season probably as
in the last.

V..C. 63. — In little recess on right bank of stream between Ainley
Place Wood (Slaithwaite) and the miniature ravine, in company
with both sexes of the two previous species, odd females each year
from April, 1911 ; Hardcastle Crags, i£, April 1915.

Gen. Erigone Aud-Sav., 6-9.

E. longipalpis Sund.

Of general occurrence on the coasts of the maritime counties of
the British Isles, as well as of North and Central Europe ; com-
moner in the north than in the south of this country. Adult April
to September. First occurrence — T. Stainforth, Hull, July 1908.

V.C. 61.- — Abundant, Humber mud flats east and west of Hull under
plants and pieces of driftwood, Saltend, Marfleet, North Ferriby,
Welwick, Stoneferry, Barmby, T.S. ; Humber Bank, between
Hull and Hessle, E.A.P., T.S., Welton and Spurn, E.A.P.

V.C. 62. — Coatham Marshes, Marske.

E. promiscua Camb.

Widely distributed in the British Isles and with the other species
of the genus frequenting grass, fallen leaves, low vegetation, beneath
stones or as aeronauts, usually common ; abroad, France and the
Continent. Adult throughout the year. First occurrence — the
author, Slaithwaite, July, 1898.

V.C. 61 : — Barmby on the Marsh, Weedley, Snake Hall Moor, Humber
Bank East, Sutton Drain, Kelsey Hill, Withernsea, Hornsea,
Sand-le-Mere, Bridlington, Beverley, Brantingham Dale, Hunman-
by, Hull, Barmby, T.S. ; Saltend, E.A.P. ; Spurn and Kilnsea.

V.C. 62. — Eston Moor, J.W.H. ; Cayton Bay, Raincliff Woods and
Ringingkeld Bog, R.A.T. ; Scalby Mill and coast at Scarborough ;
Redcar, Marske.

V.C. 63. — Harden, Cottingley, W.P.W. ; Glasshoughton Sewage
Works, J. W. H. Johnston ; many localities about Slaithwaite,
Marsden and Meltham ; Outlane ; Crosland Moor and Butternab
Wood (Huddersfield) ; Mirfield ; Wakefield ; Gunthwaite ; Deffer
Wood.

Naturalist,

Falconer : The Spiders of Yorkshire.

367

V.C. 64. — Bishop Wood, Y.N.U. ; Roundhay Park, Leeds ; Adel
Moor, Washburn Valley, Linton Common, Ingleborough summit.

E. dentipalpis Wid.

Common not only in the British Isles and Europe, but also extends
to Syria, N. Africa, Azores, N. America and Siberia ; adult through-
out the year. First occurrence — the author, Slaith waite, July
1898.

In V.C. 61, 62, 63, 64, plentiful and widespread.

V.C. 65. — Y.N.U. , Upper Teesdale.

E. atra Bl.

Like the last extending beyond the confines of Europe to Siberia,
Azores and N. America and with the same season. First occurrence
— the author, Slaith waite, March 1899.

In V.C. 61, 62, 63, 64, a common species and recorded stations numerous
in all parts,
var. lantosquensis Sim.

V.C. 61, Spurn.

V.C. 62., — Greenhow Bolton and Eston Moor, ‘ not uncommon.’ —
J.W.H.

E. avctica White.

Only recently recognised as British, having been confounded with
E. longipalpis ; occurs at various places on the coasts of Dorset,
the north of England, Scotland and Ireland, in the last also in one
inland locality. The Yorkshire examples have been mainly the
var. mavitima Kulcz., but Mr. Harrison has met with typical avctica
also in Cleveland. First record — G. B. Walsh, Marton, Cleveland,
December 1907.

V.C. 61. — Spurn, rare, T.S. ; Bub with, J.F.

V.C. 62. — Marton, 1$, under stack rubbish, G.B.W. ; Grangetown to
Saltburn, ‘ abundant,’ J.W.H. ; Redcar, Coatham Marshes, Tees
Mouth ; Marske.

V.C. 63. — Castleford and Glasshoughton Sewage Works, many of both
sexes, J.W.H. Johnston.

E. spinosa Camb.

The only other British record for this rare spider, which had previ-
ously occurred at Cairo, Jerusalem, Rome and Paris, is Lichfield
in Staffs., 1$, vide Naturalist, October 1908, pp. 378-9 and p. 385.
First record — T. Stainforth, Saltend, May 1908.

V.C. 61. ■ — Saltend Common near Hull, both sexes, May, June and
July, 1908, vide H.M.P., No. 59 ; 3$s, May 1910, E.A.P., T.S. ;
1$, 3$s, West ponds, near the embankment, June 1911 ; 1$, 1$,
October 1915, T.S.

Gen. Maso Sim., 1-3.

M . sundevallii Westr.

Widely distributed in the British Isles as far north as Loch Lomond,
and on the Continent, amongst fallen leaves, moss and grass roots
in fields and woods ; in many places common. Adult <$, May to
August, $ throughout the year. First occurrence — the author,
Merridale, June, igpo.

In V.C. 61, 62, 63, 64., widely diffused and recorded stations numerous
in all parts.

Gen. Hypselistes Sim., 2-2.

(Gen. Entelecara Sim. ad. part).

H. florens Camb.

First described from North America where it is said to be ‘ common
on bushes.’ The following are the only European records. fcw
V.C. 62. — Eston Nab, in one of the bog holes on the north slope, first
occurrence, October 1909, both sexes, vide bibliography under

1919 Nov. 1

368

Falconer : The Spiders of Yorkshire.

heads Hull and Harrison, for figures of $ and $ ; a mile also from
original locality in 1912. It seems to have established itself in
this spot as Mr. Harrison notes its tabloid shaped egg cocoons.
For latest notes on this and the next species see The Naturalist,
October 1915, p. 316.

H. jacksonii Camb.

Rare, discovered by Dr. Jackson in a swamp in the Rhondda Valley,
Glamorgan, 1901 ; since noted for Delamere Forest, Burnham
Beeches and Penrith. Adult in autumn.

V.C. 62. — Eston Moor, ‘ in great abundance in one particular spot,’
J.W.H.

Sub.-Fam. Linyphie;e, 81-112.

Gen. Hilaira Sim., 2-5.

H. excisa Camb.

This species and the next are mainly northern forms and occur
among moss, grass and rushes in wet places. H. excisa is on
record for Dorset, Cornwall, Glamorgan, Staffs., Durham and
Northumberland ; Berwick, Paisley and Rothiemurchus ; and
Ulster ; abroad, France, where it is rare. Adult $ June to Nov.,
$s throughout the year. First occurrence — the author, Dean
Head, May, 1899.

V.C: 62.-A-Gt. Ay ton, Eston and Westerdale Moors, Basedale and
Turkey Nab, J.W.H. ; Lindale, J.F. ; Ringingkeld Bog; Hayburn
Wyke.

V.C. 63. — Naylor Rough (Shipley), W.P.W. ; Crimsworth Dene,
W.P.W., W.F. ; in the Calder and Colne Drainage, plentiful where
there are suitable sphagnum bogs, less common in other damp
places ; Slaith waite ; Scammonden, Marsden, Saddleworth, Green-
field, Holmfirth, Shepley, Stocksmoor, Meltham, Savile Wood
and Pennyspring Wood (Huddersfield) ; Sun Dean (S. Crosland) ;
Hebden Bridge and Hardcastle Crags ; Coxley Valley.

V.C. 64.- — Ingleborough, both sexes ; Malham Tarn ; Adel moor and
bog.

H. uncat a Camb.

On record for Ulster, Connaught, Aberdeen and Edinburgh, Cum-
berland, Northumberland, Lancashire, Cheshire, Norfolk, Essex,
Staffs, and Dorset ; abroad, Central France. Adult £ autumn
to spring, $ throughout the year. First occurrence — the author,
Wessenden Valley, Oct., 1900.

V.C. 61. • — Hornsea Mere, both sexes, T.S. ; Skipwith and Riccall
Commons, v£s.

V.C. 62.-r-Lonsdale, i<^, G.B.W. ; Turkey Nab, Eston and Great
Ayton Moors, common, Basedale, J.W.H.

V.C. 63. — -An inhabitant of almost every sphagnum bog in the
Huddersfield area, Ainley Place, Slaithwaite Moor, Cupwith, Dean
Head, Wholestone Moor, Boothbanks ; Drop Clough ; Wessenden
Valley, Standedge, Pule, Clowes Moor ; Chew Valley ; Ramsden
Clough (Holmfirth) ; Broad Oak, Linthwaite, both sexes in a dry
barn.

V.C. 64. — Elam Wood (Keighley), 1$, W.P.W. ; Sawley High Moor
and Brim Bray, both sexes, S.M., W.F.

( To he continued ).

— : o : —

' Fuel Control ’ is the title of the Presidential Address to the Hull
Shakespeare and Playgoers’ Society by Mr. T. Sheppard, who happens
to be the Secretary of the Fuel and Lighting Committee for Hull.

Naturalist,

36g

WEST YORKSHIRE BOTANICAL NOTES.

A. WILSON,

Sedbergh.

Yorkshire Mid -west, V.C. 64.

Cnicus pratensis Willd. This occurs in fair quantity (but
not flowering much owing to being eaten down by sheep) in
a rough pasture near Lower Bentham, where grows a white-
flowered form of Primula farinosa. The locality is about a
quarter of a mile from the Lancashire boundary. I believe
that the only record previously for this vice -county is in the
extreme east, viz., ' marshy fields bordering Askham Bog,’
(see ‘ Flora of West Yorkshire/ p. 279).

Gyrophora cylindrica Ach. This grows on a large detached
Yoredale grit rock on the south end of Greygarth Fell at
about 1,900 feet altitude. The plants are small, but
characteristic. Not previously recorded for ‘ West Yorks./
but it occurs in Teesdale in Yorkshire north-west, V.C. 65.

Placodium cirrochroum Hepp. This lichen (easily recog-
nised by the citrine-yellow soralia) is abundant on a limestone
scar near the foot of Kingsdale.

Yorkshire North-west, V.C. 65.

Erigeron acre L. On Great Scar Limestone near the foot
of Garsdale, August, 1919. Not previously recorded for the
Lune drainage area.

Urtica urens L. By a farm in Howgill. An addition to
the Lune area.

Salix herbacea L. Very fine on Millstone Grit rocks, north
side of Dent Crag (Yorkshire side of Barbon High Fell),
July, 1919.

Malaxis paludosa Sw. I counted 48 plants this year (1919)
in the locality near Sedbergh, where I found it a year ago.

Lister a cordata Br. Amongst heather, Frostrow Fell, near
Sedbergh, July, 1919.

Neottia nidus-avis Rich. About 20 plants growing near
together in a shady wood on the bank of the Rawthey, near
Sedbergh, June, 1919.

Chara fragilis Desr. In a small tarn on Holme Fell. An
addition to the Lune area ?

Spiachnum ampullaceum L. Boggy field near Gawthorp,
Dentdale, July, 1919.

Parmelia pubescens Wain. (P. lanata Wallr.). On Mill-
stone Grit rocks below the scar on Dent Crag. New for
West Yorks. I believe (see ‘ Flora of West Yorks., p. 642.).

Diploschistes gypsaceus Zahlbr. ( Urceolaria gypsacea Ach.).
On limestone rocks in Uldale, Baugh Fell.

1919 Nov. 1

370

FIELD NOTES.

MAMMALS,

Common Seals in Morecambe Bay. — For some peculiar
reason the appearance of a seal in Morecambe Bay is of very
rare occurrence. I was informed by several Morecambe
fishermen that until the present season it was about twenty
years since they had seen one in the Bay. On Sunday, July
27th, a Seal was watched for some hours swimming about off
the stone pier at Morecambe. As the tide went out the Seal
entered the fish-baulks opposite to Sandylands, and no doubt
temporarily enjoyed a great feast, until it was captured and
brought ashore. It was purchased by three working men for
£3, and was exhibited by them as a sideshow, as “The Baby
Sea-lion caught in Morecambe Bay, Admission 2d., including
Entertainment Tax.” I found it to be a half-grown female
Common Seal (Phoca vitulina), probably between two and
three months old. Within a fortnight of capture it became
very tame and docile, and would allow itself to be handled by
its owners, and when out of the water, it would hold up its
flipper when asked to ‘ Shake hands.’ They fed it on small
fish that were left stranded in the baulks, and although it
appeared always to be hungry yet it resolutely refused to take
any kind or size of ‘ flat-fish.’ It grew perceptibly during
the fortnight that I had it under observation, and appeared
to be in good health. Although the ground colour of this
seal was the usual grey, it shaded into a distinct orange-brown
on the back of the upper neck and the top of the head. Since
the above was written I have seen a note in The Field of Sept.
13th, 1919, p. 378, under the signature of Col. J. E. Willan,
from which I take the following extract : ‘ On September

4th, John Wilton, a fisherman, of Silverdale, caught a Common
Seal [Phoca vitulina) uninjured in a tide-net. It was partly
grown and only about 32 ins. in length. He carried it home
on his back, and put it in a boat Filed with water.’ I at first
thought the young Morecambe Seal may have escaped, or had
been liberated ; but on making inquiries found that it was
still in captivity towards the end of September. Silverdale
lies almost at the extreme head of Morecambe Bay. — H. B.
Booth, Ben Rhydding.

— : o : — 5

BIRDS.

The Little Owl. — As the spread of the Little Owl is a
matter of some concern to lovers of our native fauna, it may
be worth while to record that it appeared in the neighbourhood
of Bridgnorth, Shropshire, some two years ago, and was found
nesting at the Croft, near Morville, during the past spring by
Mr. T. H. Robins. The nest, in a hollow tree, was at first

Naturalist,

Field Notes.

37*

supposed to be that of a Brown Owl and the real occupants
were not discovered until they were ready to fly. When
Mr. Robins found what they were he shot one of the young
ones (Sept. 2nd) and sent it to me. It was fully fledged,
but unmist akeably only just out of the nest. As quite a
number of Little Owls have been seen in the vicinity it is
probable there was a second nest somewhere near.— Frances
Pitt.

Herons nesting in Nidderdale. — It can do no harm
now to record the fact that two pairs of Herons nested in
Ridding’s Gill, in the years 1914 and 1915. Unfortunately
war-time measures subsequently resulted in the felling of
the timber there, and the prospective new heronry was
destroyed. It might be interesting to note that some of the
trees when measured were found to be a hundred and twenty-
five feet high. — R. Fortune.

Black -necked Grebe in Washburn Dale.— A pair of
Black -necked or Eared Grebes ( Podicipes nigricollis)

frequented the reservoir at Fewston for over a fortnight
last May, and would probably have stayed to nest, did not
the receding waters make these sheets of water rather
unsuitable sites for breeding purposes. At the same time
seven Great Crested Grebes were to be seen on the same waters.
This species endeavours to nest almost every season, but their
efforts are usually futile, for the above reason. — R. Fortune.

Cormorant at Doncaster. — For the past three or four
weeks a Cormorant has roosted every night on the north-west
pinnacle of the tower of the Parish Church here. From the
amount of whitish colour on the breast, it appears to be a
bird of the year. It arrives at its roosting place every evening
at about sunset. Yesterday (October nth) I saw its arrival.
It first appeared at a great height and circled round the Church
three or four times, gradually getting lower. When at the level
of the top of the tower it made a feint of alighting but passed
on for one more fly round. Finally it landed with out-stretched
wings against the side of the finial and thence, with many
flounderings and flapping of wings, climbed to the apex. Here
it at once settled down, preening its feathers and looking
around it. Its presence has caused much excitement in the
town, hundreds of people going to look at it, and all manner
of wild rumours are current. A few days ago the Vicar,
Archdeacon Sandford, met me and said : ‘ Eh ! ’av yer

seean t’eagle ? Eh ! its got wings nine foot long, an’ its got
a bairn oop theer, it belongs a woman i’ Tgh Fishergate, an
she’s i’ sich a way abart it, an’ that lazy Maister Marsden (the
Verger) weant goo up an’ fetch it darn fur ’er.— This is what I
am hearing in my parish. Can you explain it ? ’ — H. H.
Corbett.

1919 Nov. 1

372

Reviews and Book Notices,

BOTANY.

Cypripedium Calceolus L. — The mention of this rare
species in the October number of The Naturalist calls to
mind that in the Flora of West Yorkshire, p. 436, there is a
note from Blackstone (1740) that a '‘Mr, Thornbach . . .
informs me that it has been lost in Helks Wood for some
years/ It may be of interest to say there is a specimen from
‘ Flelks Wood, Xngleborough, June, 1840/ in Winch’s Her-
barium, formerly at the Linnean Society, but now, I believe,
at Newcastle. There is a note in The Naturalist, 1902, p.
120, ‘ Helks Xngleton (plenty) 1782. — Rev. W. A. Shuffray/ — -
A. Bennett, October 6th, 1919.

Size of specimens of Acer campestre. — As some authors
speak of this plant as ‘ a shrub/ and others ‘ a small tree/ I
should like to enquire whether specimens I mention below are
of common occurrence in the British Isles. Two growing in a
sheltered valley, west of Louth, near a stream, have the following
dimensions : (a) 63 inches round trunk, 4 ft. from ground ;

(b) 54J inches. Both are from 36 to 40 feet in height. In the
same .valley, a hawthorn is about the same height, but the
main trunk has bifurcated near the ground, both limbs running
up very close together at first, and round the point of juncture,
about 2 feet above the ground, the measurement is 70 inches.
— J. Larder, The Museum, Louth.

: o :

Structural Geology by G. K. Leith. New York : Henry Holt &
Co., 169 pp., 8/6 net. This work is a little late in reaching us but is
a welcome volume on this particular aspect of geology. By the aid of
numerous diagrams, plans and sections, and illustrations of practical
experiments the student should be able readily to form an idea of the
various structural changes in the geological history of the world.

Fossil Plants — A Text Book for Students of Botany and Geology,
Vol. IV., Ginkgoales, Coniferales, Gnetales. By A. C. Seward.

Cambridge : University Press, 543 pp., 7t/i/- net. We can quite

believe that it is ‘ with a certain sense of relief ’ that Professor Seward
has concluded what he calls a ‘ text book, ’ though the four volumes
appear to form a palseobotanical monograph. There are nearly 200
illustrations and by their aid it can be safely stated that the latest
researches in fossil botany are here summarised, in addition to which
are the results of Professor Seward’s life’s work. An idea of the scope
of the work can be gathered from the fact that the Index of Genera alone
occupies fourteen columns, while the index of names of plants, etc.,
described in Volume IV. alone occupies 30 columns, and the list of works
referred to in the text of Volumes III. and IV. (other than those included
in Volumes I. and II) occupies 50 pages. It will thus be seen that the
literature relating to fossil botany is enormous, and probably no one
knows it so well as the author, and few have added to it so serviceably.
Professor Seward hopes to supplement these volumes by a general review
of the Floras of the Past which ‘ will be published as an independent
work, ’ though personally we think it should form another volume in
the admirable ‘ Cambridge Biological Series.’

Naturalist,

373

CORRESPONDENCE.

‘ SOUNDS THAT RESEMBLE

Reading a certain article in the September number of The Naturalist,

I was strongly reminded of the melodious ( ? ) voice of a certain animal
which, according to tradition, once protested against chastizement by

its owner, saying ' Am I not thine ’ ; and which is, by some people,

considered as a sure indication of a downfall in the near future from the
watering pot of Jupiter pluvius. — Mark L. Sykes.

o

BLACKBIRDS USING THE SAME NEST TWICE.

Mr. H. B. Booth (see The Naturalist for September, page 302) records
the Blackbird utilising one nest for the rearing of two broods in one
season. This year a Blackbird laid its eggs twice in one nest, which was
built near the Council School in the village, but whether both clutches
were the produce of one female I am not in a position to say, since I
was not informed of the event until it was too late. A few years ago
a Song Thrush laid twice in one nest, which was built in a garden in
Thornton, and probably both clutches in this case were laid by one
female. — E. P. Butterfield, Bank House, Wilsden, Bradford, 2/9/19.

o

CYPRIPEDIUM CALCEOLUS L.

Respecting the interesting notes in The Naturalist for September, p. 282,

I venture to say that Dr. Lees, in his ‘ Flora of West Yorkshire,’ p. 436,
gives a very complete history of Cypripedium Calceolus L. in West York-
shire. I am looking forward to the publication of his ‘ Vegetation of
Yorkshire ’ to reveal additional information about this and other interest-
ing plants. The Hortus siccus referred to by Dr. Lees in The Naturalist
for October, p. 341, was presented to the Yorkshire Philosophical Society,
York, in 1827, by the Rev. James Dalton, M.A., F.L.S. (1764-1843), who
was the godfather of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, and who was the first to
record Scheuchzeria palustris L. for Britain.

The Herbarium of John Dalton mentioned on p. 282 was formed by
John Dalton (1766-1844), Chemist ; pupil-of John Gough [see Biographical
Index of British and Irish Botanists compiled by James Britten, F.L.S.
(1893), p. 44;. I cannot find any family connection between the John
Dalton, Manchester, and James Dalton, York, although I believe they
corresponded with each other. — Henry J. Wilkinson, York, Oct. 15/19.

o —

CAUSE OF MELANISM IN PH IGA LI A PI LOS ARIA.

In view of the extreme importance of this subject I should like to refer
to Mr. Porritt’s remarks in reply to my notes in The Naturalist for October,
1919, pp. 339-340. Mr. Porritt, I presume, will not deny that there
must be a cause for this melanism, and that it is comprehensible, or else
it would be better to cease making any further investigations into the
matter. As far as P. pilosaria is concerned, at least for this district,
the ‘ smoke theory ’ as an explanation of the cause of melanism utterly
breaks down. The dark or black forms of this moth in this district are
not less, but more easily seen when at rest, on the trunks of oak trees,
which is the predominant tree in Bingley Wood, and therefore the dark
forms are less protective than the type. According to my experience
pilosaria has not very many enemies when it is on the wing, which is
roughly in February ; the Titmice, perhaps, are the worst, and their
attacks are chiefly confined to the wingless females. Pilosaria did not
show any tendency to melanism until the year 1880 or thereabouts,
after which it began to change rapidly, but this melanism did not
synchronise with any increase of smoke in the atmosphere . Indeed , there
are grounds for believing that there was actually less smoke in this district

1919 Nov. 1

374

Correspondence.

at the first appearance of melanism than previously, since the local
authorities were beginning to bring more pressure to bear on the mill
owner to abate the smoke nuisance. If we assume the ‘ smoke theory ’
as an explanation of the cause of melanism, its operation must be due to
natural selection, according to which, as Darwin informs us, works by
exceedingly small and almost invisible transitions, which is in strange
contrast to the case under discussion, which changed suddenly. Mr.
J. W. Carter, of Bradford, and I, spent a few days at Grassington last
September, and Mr. Carter called my attention to Folia chi, which was
not at all uncommon in that locality, and made the remark that it was
very true to type, and not so inclined to melanism as in this neighbourhood.
The explanation was to be found, perhaps, not because there was less
smoke than here, but because the district generally was at a much lower
altitude. I think there can be no questioning the fact that this species
here is much more inclined to melanism in the higher than in the lower
altitudes, and the same remarks, I think, applies to pilosaria. Mr.
Porritt remarks that my theory of retarded development does not
work out in general experience, and then quotes a recent and most
rapid case of melanism in the Huddersfield district, namely, Abraxas
grosulariata, where a dozen years ago the variety nigro-sparsata was un-
known, now the district probably produces more of this form than any
area in the Kingdom ; he also quotes A . menyanthidis, a species which
occurs in South-west Yorkshire commonly, right in the localities where
melanism is rampant, it still retains its original pale colour almost
entriely. The latter insect, menyanthidis, has' of late years shown a
marked tendency to melanism in this neighbourhood, whilst the variety
nigro-sparsata may be after all associated with a low temperature, for I
am not in a position to say what a prolonged low temperature may have on
a caterpillar, whilst in a hybernating condition. I am quite sensible
of the fact that my theory does not cover all cases of melanism, but the
broad fact remains that the tendency to melanism began to show itself
first in high latitudes or high altitudes. Even in Britain, at the present
time, melanism is much more marked in the north than in the south, in
the mountainous districts than in the plains, and I think there can be no
denying the fact that this melanism manifests itself chiefly in those
insects which are due on the wing when the weather is most likely to
retard their development in the pupal stage, that is, in early spring and
autumn . I am prepared to face the fact that there may be and are
exceptions to this theory, but in these matters we must not infer the
general from the particular, but vice versa. The average size of the dark
forms of pilosaria is inferior to the size of type — a fact one would naturally
expect to follow on retarded development. I think Mr. Porritt will not
deny that melanism might be artificially produced, at least to some extent,
by subjecting pupae to a prolonged low temperature. From what little
I know of physics I should have thought that a low temperature brought to
bear on the pupal stage of an insect would have had the opposite effect,
that is a whitening effect, but such is not the case. Most of the melanism
which has arisen within recent years has been associated with a low
temperature. It certainly has not been associated, nor originated in
the warmer parts of the country where melanism has made such rapid
strides. — E. P. Butterfield, Bank House, Wilsden, Binglej/, Oct. 8/19.

Tt is a surprise to me, as I fancy it will be to most lepidopterists, to read
that the melanic form of Phigalia pilosaria is more easily seen on oak
trunks than is the type. On the pale oak trunks, no doubt, all the forms
of the species are readily seen, but here the melanic form is largely found
on the black trunks of beech, sycamore, hawthorn, etc., where it is
infinitely less conspicuous than is the type form. Mr. Butterfield is
mistaken in saying that melanism is much more marked in the mountain-
ous districts than in the plains. Where it does occur in mountainous

Naturalist,

375

News from the Magazines.

districts in Yorkshire and Lancashire it is almost always in the vicinity
of large smoky manufacturing districts. It occurs scarcely at all in the
still more mountainous districts of the Lake District, nor in such districts
in Scotland ; indeed, in Scotland, the lepidoptera are usually quite as
pale as in the south of England. I well remember with what astonish-
ment I first saw A crony eta leporina on sugar, at Rannoch. The moth
looked absolutely white, and was as pale as any south of England specimen
and altogether different from our smoky form. Another instance is in
the pure white ground coloured Chelonia plantaginis var. hospita, which
is abundant on the mountains of the Lake District, but is never seen in
the high districts of Yorkshire, where the ordinary form is common.
The whole subject has to be looked at broadly and universally. I am not
arguing that the ‘ smoke theory ’ covers all cases — it does not ; but the
‘ low temperature ’ theory does so I think even much less, though possibly
it does account for some, as for instance Polia chi, the dark forms of which
have been noticed to be commoner in dull wet years than in bright dry
seasons. — G. T. Porritt.

:o:

The Irish Naturalist for September contains a paper on the ‘ Relation
of Song to the Nesting of Birds,’ by J. P. Burkitt.

Those interested in Museum News should read an article * Museums,
Education, and the Board,’ in Nature, October 9th.

In The Irish Naturalist for July-August there is a portrait and an
obituary notice of the late William Spotswood Green, also notes on the
Wren, by J. P. Burkitt.

A damaged Choerocampa nerii is recorded at Huddersfield in September
( Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine, October). There is only one previous
record of this species for the county, which occurred at Sheffield in 1867.

British Birds for October contains some excellent illustrations of a
sparrow-hawk and its young, with notes, by J. H. Owen ; a report on the
recovery of marked birds ; The Birds of Bardsey Island, part 4, by N. F.
Ticehurst, and several short notes, including one on the status of the
Yellow Wagtail in Westmorland.

According to The Quarry a Slate Company at Bethesda is utilizing
slate waste for the manufacture of bricks, cement, asphalt, abrasive soap,
glass, linoleum, paints, distemper, slabs, tiles, insulators, disinfectant
powders, toilet powders, glass bottles, erasing rubbers, distemper washes
and pottery. We feel relieved that foodstuffs were not included.

Science Progress for October contains the usual review of current
scientific literature written by specialists; reviews, correspondence, and
the following articles : — < Optical Activity,’ by Dr. F. D. Chattaway ;
‘ Impact Testing of Metals,’ by Mr. F. C. Thompson ; ‘The Capillary
Circulation,’ by Prof. W. M. Bayliss ; ‘ Pure Science in Relation to the
National Life,’ by Prof. A. Schuster ; ‘ The Nutritive Value of Feeding
Stuffs,’ by Mr. J. A. Murray; ‘Detoxicated Vaccines,’ by Dr. D.
Thomson ; ‘ Dust Inhalation and Miner’s Phthisis,’ by-Mr. H. W. Davies.

Volume XIX., part t, of The Essex Naturalist is to hand and contains
quite a valuable series of communications, mostly bearing upon the
county. Among these we notice — ‘ A Whirlwind and Wind Rush at
Gosfield on 26th July, 1918,’ by A. C. W. Lowe ; ‘ Hornets, Wasps and
Flies Sucking the Sap of Trees,’ and ‘Samuel Dale (i659?-i739) of
Braintree, Botanist, and the Dale Family,’ by Miller Christy; ‘ Climbing
of the Water Shrew,’ by Fred J. Stubbs ; ‘ A Three-Spurred Form of the
Larger Butterfly Orchis,’ by G. Lister ; ‘ Three Old Essex Herbaria ’ and
‘ Some Essex Plant Records,’ by W. G. Clarke ; and ‘ Supplemental
Report on the Lichens of Epping Forest,’ by Robert Paulson and Percy
G. Thompson. In addition to these there are reports, on the Club’s
meetings during 1918-19, Mr. W. Whitaker’s Report on the Conference of
Delegates of the British Assosiation. held in London in July, 1918, and
a note on a ‘ Pied Blackbird from War ley Place.'

1919 Nov. 1

376

NORTHERN NEWS.

An invitation has been sent by the Hull City Corporation for the
British Association to visit Hull in 1922.

Such is the popularity of the Museum of Fisheries and Shipping at
Hull that a 6th edition of the Illustrated Guide has just been published,
the list of exhibits being brought up to date. ' (A. Brown & Sons, Ltd.,
Hull — price 3d.) ■

The death is announced of Prof. F. Haverfield, the authority on
Roman remains, who for a considerable number of years has been looked
upon as our greatest expert, and has assisted in excavations and in
deciphering inscriptions in almost every part of the country. Many
valuable catalogues and other works stand to his credit, and there is
no doubt the position he occupied will be difficult to fill. He was present
at the Museums Conference held a little while ago at Oxford, and then
seemed to be in his usual health.

Mr. Hey wood Sumner, F.S.A., has produced a Descriptive Account
of the Roman Pottery made at Ashley Rails, New Forest (London:
Chiswick Press, 37 pp., 2s. 6d. net.), in which he describes an interesting
find of some kilns and accompanying earthenware of Roman date, and
gives some valuable details of the manufacture and ornamentation of
the Pottery and of the kilns in which it was baked. The pamphlet is
illustrated by a number of exceptionally charming maps and views,
and also by several sketches shewing details of the different kinds of
Pottery excavated. In addition there is a geological map of the district.

A remarkably fine coloured plate of various species of Tits, as well as
a plate of Wagtails, another of Tits, and numerous illustrations in the
text, appear in part 4 of Witherby s Practical Handbook of British Birds.
Judging by the detailed descriptions of the various species and sub-
species of these birds, it would seem that the list of British Birds is likely
to be considerably extended before the handbook is completed. From
a careful perusal of the descriptions, we fear that the distinguishing
features of some of these so-called sub-species or varieties are rather
minute, and it is just a question whether in this particular case the
handbook will be helpful to ornithologists or whether it will confuse
them .

The Annual Meeting of the Hull Scientific and Field Naturalists’
Club was held on September 24th. The Annual Repbrt pointed out
that the times of reconstruction were affecting the affairs of local
societies. In some degree the year passed had witnessed a rebuilding
of the society, for most of the younger members had now returned from
the army. Meetings had been held on nearly every Wednesday evening
during the year. An outstanding feature of the year had been a keen
interest in outdoor natural history work, as had been proved by the
interesting and numerous exhibits brought before the meetings. An
exceptionally large number of new members had joined during the year.
The officers elected for the ensuing year were -.—President, Mr. T.
Stainforth, B.A., B.Sc. ; Vice-Presidents, Miss L. Stevens and Messrs.
M. Ling, C. F. Procter and F. Turner ; Committee , Mrs. B. Cook, Miss
L. Martin, Mrs. A. R. Warnes and Messrs. B. Cook, G. R. Cook, W. C.
England, G. L. Harrison, H. Knight, C. W. Mason and W. G. B. Page ;
Recorders, (Microscopy) H. M. Foster, (Photo -Micrography) Dr. J.
Hollingworth, (Chemistry) A. R. Warnes, F.C.S., (Vertebrates) C. F.
Procter, (Protozoa) W. H. Arnott, (Mollusca) J. W, Boult, (Lepidoptera )
J. Porter, (Coleoptera) E. Bilton, (Arachnida and Myriopoda) T.
Stainforth, (Flowering Plants, Ferns and Algae) J. F. Robinson, (Mosses)
T. Dennis, (Fungi) W. Robinson, D.Sc., (Geology) T. Sheppard, M.Sc.,
F.G.S., (Palaeontology) M. Ling, and (Photography) S. H. Couldwell.
Mr. T. Sheppard was appointed Editor ; Mr. F. Turner, Lanternist ;
Mr. T. Brogden, Treasurer ; and Mr. C. F. Procter, Secretary. The name
of the retiring President, Mr. J. Porter, was added to the list of Past
Presidents.

Naturalist,

The Birds of Yorkshire.

By T. H. NELSON, M.B.O.U.,

With the co-operation of W. Eagle Clarke, F.R.S.E., and F. Boyes.

Demy 8vo, containing goi pages of letterpress and upwards op 200
illustrations beautifully printed in double tone ink on best Art Paper,
from photos by R. Fortune , F.Z.S. , and other well-known naturalist
photographers , also three-colour plates and specially designed title pages
in colours, strongly bound in fast coloured cloth binding.

25/- net for 15/- net.

Mr. Kearton, F.Z.S., in his review of this work for the Daily Chronicle writes : —
4‘ Having been born and brought up amongst the birds in one of the wildest parts
of the ‘ County of Broad Acres,’ I found myself more or less qualified to test the
accuracy of the author’s statement when his two handsome volumes came into my
possession, and I am bound to confess that he does not in the least overstate the
claims of the work. I have again and again put its accuracy and fulness to the
severest of tests, and in each instance it has come out triumphant. Mr. Nelson
and his literary and pictorial helpers have placed all British ornithologists under a
deep debt of gratitude by the production of one of the best and completest county
histories of birds ever published.”

London : A. BROWN & SONS, Ltd., 5, Farringdon Avenue, E.C.

AND AT HULL AND YORK.

162 pages , Crown 8vo , tastefully bound in cloth , 4j6 net.

“ALL TOO HUMAN?”

AN ESSAY IN CHRISTIAN APOLOGETIC

SAMUEL PROUDFOOT.

Sometimes it is said that Christianity is not divine, but human —
all too human to be a revelation from God.

The writer of this book admits that Christianity is a human — an
intensely human — religion. But it is for this very reason that he
regards it as a perfect religion for humanity.

For he believes that the “divineness” of Christianity is to be
looked for in its being perfectly human ; just as the “ divineness ” of
Christ for us , is to be looked for in His being perfect Man.

Thus, Christianity is human, but it is not “ all too human.” If
it were less human it would fall short of being divine.

London : A. BROWN & SONS, Ltd., 5 Farringdor: Avenue. E.C. 4.
and at Hull & York

J)ESIDERATA. — Rare Works on Natural History by
Private Collector to improve Library. State Title Page,
Condition and Price : —

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WATKINS & DONCASTER

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SCIENCE PROGRESS

A Quarterly Review of Scientific Thought,
Work and Affairs.

Editor - COLONEL SIR RONALD ROSS, K.C.B., F.R.S.

This Quarterly is now in its fourteenth year of publication. Its
object is to give all readers of wide culture and interest in science
a knowledge of the numerous advances which are being continually
made in connection with scientific work and thought. Each number
contains Recent Advances in Science (by a number of experts).
Articles, Popular Science, Essay- Re views, Correspondence, Notes,
Essays, many Reviews, and a Book List. Published early every
quarter by John Murray, 50a Albemarle Street, London, W. Annual
Subscription 25/6 and price of one number 6s. Subscriptions
through bookseller or direct to the Publisher.

“ Science Progress, which has now reached its thirty -ninth
number, not only covers a remarkable wide field with great
ability, but has had impressed upon it, by the energetic and
humane spirit of its editor, a certain dynamic quality which
makes it a force as well as a source of light.” — The Times,

NATURAL HISTORY BOOKS AND SERIALS.

JOHN WHELDON & CO- have the largest stock in
the country of Books in all departments of Natural History
and Science, also Transactions and Journals of Learned
Societies, etc., in sets, runs, and single volumes or numbers.

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Printed at Browns’ Savile Press, 40 George Street, Hull, and published by
A. Brown & Sons, Limited, at 5 Farringdon Avenue, in the City of London.

Nov. 1st, 1919.

DEC. 1919.

No. 755

(No, 529 of ourrent terles.

Contents : —

Notes and Comments Bournemouth Naturalists ; The Cheviots ; Lincolnshire Natural-
ists ; Liverpool Naturalists ; Roman Brooches ; Hull Naturalists ; East Riding
Antiquaries ; Odonata 377-380

Ornithological Observations and Reflections in Shetland— Edmund Selous 381-385

Yorkshire Naturalists at Spurn —T.S. 386-389

Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union— Botanical Section —C.A.C 389

The Distribution of Gentiaaa verna — F. Arnold Lees, AI.R.C.S 390-391

Plant Galls from the Scarborough district —Wm. Falconer 392-393

Additional Yorkshire Diptera —Chris. A . Cheetham 394-395

Fungus Foray at Helmsley (1919)— A. E. Peck 396-399

Field Notes : — Xiphura atrata L. in Yorkshire ; Sympetrum sanguineum Mull., a Dragonfly

new to Yorkshire; Cypripedium Calceolus — Earliest Record for England 380, 399

The Spiders of Yorkshire— Wm. Falconer 400-403

In Memoriam Thomas Boynton, F.S.A. ; Thomas Hey — A. E. Peck 404-405

Correspondence:— Large Pike and Herons 405-406

Yorkshire Entomology — B. Motley 407-408

Reviews and Book Notices 393

Proceedings of Provincial Scientific Societies 391,408

News from the Magazines ... 406,408

Northern News 385, 391, 395, 408

LONDON :

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NATURAL HISTORY FOR THE NORTH OF ENGLAND

EDITED by

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BOOKS WANTED.

Kendal Ent. Soc. 3rd Report.

Lancs, and Cheshire Antiq. Soc. Vols. IV., V., VIII., XXVI.

Louth Ant. and Nat. Soc. Reports, 1-12, 19.

Liverpool Marine Biological Com. 1st Report.

Liverpool Geol. Association Proc. Parts 1, 3, 16.

Liverpool Nat. Journ. Parts 1, 3, and 20.

Manchester Geol. Soc. Trans. Vols. XV., XVI., XIX.-XXIII.

Marine Biological Assoc. Journal. Vol. I., Pts. 2 and 3.

Naturalists' Guide (Huddersfield). Parts 1-38.

Naturalists’ Record. Set.

Newbury District Field Club Transactions. Vols. III. and on.

North Staffordshire Field Club Reports for 1869, 1871-2, 1876.

Peterborough Natural History Society. Reports 1-8, 11-12. 14-2*3.

Quarterly Journal of Science. 1878-9, 1882-3, and 1885.

Quekett Club Journ. 1st Series, No. 25.

Royal Cornwall Geological Society Trans. Vol. V. to date.

Salisbury Field Club. Transactions, Vol. II.

Scottish Naturalist. 1881-1891.

Simpson’s Guide to Whitby. 1st ed., 1862.

Smith’s New Geological Atlas of England and Wales. 1819-21.

Sussex and Hants. Naturalist. 17 parts.

Sussex Arch. Collections. II. -V.

Tweddell’s Bards and Authors of Cleveland. Parts 9-12.

Union Jack Naturalist. Any.

Vale of Derwent Nat. Field Club. Old Series, Vols. I. -III.

Wakefield Lit. and Phil. Soc. Reports. Set.

Woolhope Club Trans. 1866-80.

Yorks. Nat. Club Proc. (York), Set. 1867-70. *

Yorks. Nat. Union Trans. Part 1.

Young England. Set.

Zoologist, 1905.

Apply — Editor, The Museum, Hull.

BOOKS FOR SALE,

Great Astronomers. Sir R. S. Ball. 3/-
In Starry Realms. Sir R. S. Ball. 3/-
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Rambles of a Canadian Naturalist. Coloured Illust. S. T. Wood. 3/6
How to Lay out Suburban Home Grounds. Kellaway. (Pubd. at 8/6). 3/6
What is Instinct ? C. Bingham Newland. 2/6
Vigour and Heredity. J. Lewis Bonhote. 6/6
The Stars and How to Identify them. E. W. Jaunder. 1/-
Whitf’s Natural History of Selborne. Coloured Illustrations by Collins, 6/-
Rambles in the Vaudese Alps. F, S. Salisbury. 2/-
Investigation of Mind in Animals. E. M. Smith, 1/-
Report on Agricultural Damage by Vermin and Birds in the Counties
of Norfolk and Oxfordshire in 1916. R. T. Gunther. 1/6
Trans. Manchester Geol. Soc. Vol. I., 5/-.

Tewitt’s Reliquary. Vol. III., 3/6.

Lee’s Note Book of an Amateur Geologist. 4/6.

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LX)R SALE. — Price £40 — Entomological Cabinet, 35 drawers
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2,000 species of Moths, Butterflies and Preserved Larvae, British
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many local and rare.

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377

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

BOURNEMOUTH NATURALISTS.

We have received Vol. X. of the Proceedings of the Bourne-
mouth Natural Science Society (79 pp.) which gives a record of
the Society’s work during 1917-18. It is fortunate in having
Sir Jethro J. H. Teall as President, and the proceedings
contain two of his papers, * Some Aspects of Egyptian
Geology,” and * The Evolution of Igneous Rocks.’ A fair
proportion of the other notes relate to the Bournemouth area,
and among the abstracts printed are ‘ The Mistletoe : Its

Life History and Associations with Primitive Religion,
Folk-Lore and Superstition,’ by Sir Daniel Morris ;
Analyses of Local Waters, by A. J. Tyrrell ; Anopheles in
the Bournemouth Area ; and reports on the work of the various
sections. Judging from the publication before us this Society
is doing excellent work, and is apparently very well supported
locally.

THE CHEVIOTS.

Sir Jethro Teall’s paper already referred to is accompanied
by Microphotographs [? photomicrographs] of rock sections,
one being of Hypersthene-augite-andesite. Cheviot Hills x
30. f The larger constituents are labradorite (colourless) ,.
hypersthene (grey with dark patches due to alteration)
and augite (grey with parallel lines representing cleavage
planes). The groundmass or matrix contains small felspars,
grains of augite, etc. , and a considerable quantity of glass which
can only be distinguished under a higher power. This rock
is of Devonian age, but it is a common type in Tertiary and
recent volcanoes, especially those surrounding the Pacific
Ocean.’

LINCOLNSHIRE NATURALISTS.

The Transactions of the Lincolnshire Naturalists’ Union for
1918 (pp. 99-142) contains the Rev. F. L. Blathwayt’s presi-
dential address on ‘ The Birds of Lincolnshire, Past, Present,
and Future ’ ; ‘ Birds of Skegness and District,’ by Frank

Hind ; ‘ Anopheline Mosquitoes of Lincolnshire,” by

W. Wallace, and sectional reports of the year’s working, as
follows : — Botany, Rev. A. E. Woodruffe -Peacock ; Conchol-
ogy, J. F. Musham ; Entomology, G. W. Mason ; Vertebrata,
Rev. F. L. Blathwayt ; Geology, H. Preston. There are one
or two shorter notes, including a note on ‘ The presidents
(sic) of the Lincolnshire Naturalists’ Union, Miss S. C. Stow/
and an Obituary notice of W. D. Roebuck, and the Secretary’s
Report.

LIVERPOOL NATURALISTS.

The nature of the contents of the Proceedings of the
Liverpool Naturalists’ Field Club for the year 1918 is

1919 Dec. 1

2 B

37§

Notes and Comments.

explained in the sub -title, ‘ With President’s Address,
account of the excursions, and notes of the botanical work
of the year, List of prize winners, and names of Hon. and
ordinary members ’ (46 pp.). The President’s address is
by Mr. W. S. Laverock, of the Liverpool Museum, who gives a
few practical hints on 4 The Collecting of Flowering Plants
and Ferns, and the making of a Herbarium.’

SEDBERGIAN SEDGWICK SOCIETY.

We ar,e glad to find that the Sedgwick Society in connexion
with the Sedbergh School, has published a magazine, the first
part of which is for the October term, and is before us. It
contains an editorial note from which we gather that last
season the Society had 250 members, more than 75 per cent,
taking an interest in natural history or photography. There
are some interesting notes on the work of the summer term, on
the lectures and meetings, and on finds and captures. There
are records of birds, moths, plants, etc., but in view of the
peculiar geographical position of Sedbergh it would be more
valuable in case of really important records, if the exact
locality and date were given in each case in future. We also
hope the editors will give a short history of the Society since
its formation. We trust that the little magazine will appear
regularly and no doubt in time it will form a receptacle for
many valuable records relating to the Sedbergh area.

ORNITHOLOGICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Part i of ‘A Geographical Bibliography of British Ornith-
ology from the earliest times to the end of 1918. Arranged
under counties, being a record of printed books, published
articles, notes and records relating to local avifauna, by W.
H. Mullens, H. Kirke Swann and Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain,’ — -
a title which fairly well describes the scope of the work, will
be completed in six bi-monthly parts, the first of which (Wither-
by & Co., 96 pp., 6/-) has been received. It begins with a list
of general works of reference, which includes the titles of about
a hundred and fifty publications, the first being Turner’s
4 Avium Praecipuarum,’ of 1544. In the list are some recent
' books ’ which we were at first surprised to see quoted at all,
but we suppose bibliographers must not discriminate. Follow-
ing, are the lists for Bedfordshire (5 pp.) ; and other counties,
in alphabetical order, up to Essex; Cheshire occupies 8 pp.,
Cumberland 7 pp., Derbyshire 8 pp., and Durham 6 pp. The
paper upon which the book is printed, when cut, resembles a roll
of cotton-wool.

PROF. J. E. MARR, SC.D., F.R.S.

We are pleased to learn that Prof. J. E. Marr, Sc.D., F.R.S.,
of Cambridge, has accepted the invitation of the Yorkshire

Naturalist,

Notes and Comments.

379

Naturalists’ Union to be its President for 1920. Prof. Marr
is well known to our readers, and his fine work in the Lake
District and in the north-west corner of our county makes us
look forward to his address next year with unusual interest.
Prof. Marr’s popular lectures, his numerous popular handbooks
on geological and geographical subjects, and his scientific
knowledge generally, more than justify his name being added
to the list of those who have occupied the Presidential Chair
of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union.

ROMAN BROOCHES.

In The Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland
Antiquarian, etc. Society (N.S. XIX.), the late F. Haverfield
describes ‘ The Tullie House Fibulae,’ from which it would
appear that the Roman brooches found in the Carlisle area
bear a striking resemblance to the collection from South
Ferriby,* and evidently indicate contemporary occupation in
the two areas. We certainly think Haverfield was in error
however, in describing his fig. 17 as a Zoomorphic fibula . . .
no doubt some animal was represented, perhaps a fish.’ We
think it clearly represents the sole of a sandal ; a precisely
similar brooch was found at South Ferriby ; another is figured
in May’s ‘Warrington’s Roman Remains,’ and others are
recorded elsewhere. In the same publication C. R. B. Mc-
Gilchrist writes on ‘ The Roman Road in Eskdale,’ though both
the editor (W. G. Collingwood) and F. Haverfield, are not in-
clined to accept all the conclusions arrived at. There are other
papers of antiquarian interest.

HULL NATURALISTS.

Vol. IV. of the Transactions of the Hull Scientific and Field
Naturalists ’ Club is completed with part 6 just to hand (A.
Brown & Sons, pp. 281-348, 4]-), which, in addition to containing
detailed reports of the Club’s work between 1912 and 1918,
(thus bringing the narrative of the Club’s history to date), also
contains the title page and index to the volume. Mr. T.
Stainforth writes on ‘ The Thomas Stather collection of Lepi-
doptera,’ which includes many interesting particulars of early
East Yorkshire records of butterflies and moths. Mr. T.
Sheppard follows with a lengthy paper on ‘ Our German
Ancestors : being an account of the Anglo-Saxon Remains
found in East Yorkshire.” This paper has its humorous
element, but at the same time contains details of the Anglo-
Saxon relics of the district. The publication is well printed
and we are glad to see that the Hull Society is able to continue
its valuable work.

* See Hull Museum Publications, Nos. 38 and 39.

1919 Dec. 1

380

Notes and Comments.

EAST RIDING' ANTIQUARIES.

The Transactions of the East Riding Antiquarian Society,
Vol. XXII. (pp. xxiv-f 81) contains the following papers :

‘ Documents at Everingham,’ by Rev. C. V. Collier ; ‘ Danes’
Dyke, Flamboro,’ and ‘ Whaling Relics,’ both by the Editor
(Mr. T. Sheppard), and the report of the Secretary, Rev. A. N.
Cooper. Among many shorter, though none the less interesting",
papers, we notice * The Spalding Gentlemen’s Society’s Minute
Book,’ ‘ The Old Hull Grammar School ; ” “ Assize of Bread ; ’’
‘A Hull Silver Tankard ; ’ and ‘ Local Archaeological Notes,’
all of which are well illustrated. The Society has also issued,
separately, the Index to the first twenty volumes of its tran-
sactions, by the late J. C. Cox (24 pp.) We certainly think
this system of issuing separate indices to a series of volumes,
is an admirable one.

ODONATA

We have received a reprint of Mr. W. J. Lucas’s paoer on
‘ The Odonata of the Lancashire and Cheshire District,’ from
The Lancashire and Cheshire Naturalist.’ On a comparison
with the ‘ List of Yorkshire Odonata/ it is interesting to note
that exactly the same number of species is recorded for both
districts — twenty-one. And as might have been expected,
they are pretty much alike. In the Lancashire and Cheshire
list are four species not yet recorded for Yorkshire, Sympetrum
flaveolum, Orthetrum caerulescens , Cordulia aenea and Erythrom-
ina naias. On the other hand, four species have been recorded
tor Yorkshire which are not in the other list, Sympetrum
sanguineum , Libellula fulva, Anax imperator and Brachytron
pvatense. We believe we have seen 0. caerulescens on the
wing on Strensall Common, but failed to catch a specimen for
confirmation. And it is equally likely that B. pratense occurs
in the Lancashire and Cheshire area. A valuable feature of
Mr. Lucas’s paper is the full-page plate containing the specially
fine enlarged figure (with details) of the nymph of Aeschna
grandis from a Manchester specimen, a complete description of
which appears in the text. — G.T.P.

: o :

Xiphura atrata L. in Yorkshire. — At the meeting of the
Entomological Section in Leeds, Mr. B. Morley exhibited a
fine female of this large dipteron. It is a striking and handsome
species and a notable addition to the Yorkshire lists which
previously only possessed a single and very old record of any
of the species of the Ctenophora Mg. group of Tipulidse. Mr.
Morley took the specimen on June 9th, 1919, in Edlington
Woods. — C, A. Cheetham.

Naturalist

38i

ORNITHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS AND
REFLECTIONS IN SHETLAND.

EDMUND SELOUS.

( Continued from page j6o ).

My slight contribution to that kind of natural history to
which the humble word ‘ field ' is prefixed, ends here with the
trip which produced it. I brought nothing else back with
me. I collect habits only, since, for me, the unnecessar}/
taking of animal life, at least in its higher developments, is
simply murder. Why should it not be? The human charac-
ter of much that I saw — especially in that incident of the
Gull and two Crows — will hardly be disputed. Let us suppose
it granted, and that I had concealed myself behind a rock,
with that gun which, for more than thirty years, now, I have
regretted ever once having carried, and shot these birds. It
would seem to follow that I should, in that case, have killed
beings very human in such and such a way, and I ask how
would that have differed, essentially, from killing human
beings. Unessential differences are not really differences at
all, and what other ones are there here ? What are they, these
differences ? There is that of form, but the latter-day natura-
list knows that, by a process of generation and development,
common to man and birds, one form has passed into another,
not only in that chain, the links of which are free-moving
species and varieties, but also in that other one where each
individual has itself mounted up through these species, to
be born, as it were, into its own.* Man being, as yet, at
the end of the chain, it is hardly possible to kill any form of
life without taking human life, at one or other of these stages.
No essential difference, then, in the field of comparative entic-
ide, insofar as the form — the structure— goes . But the
mind? — the degree of intelligence? That, however, is
included in the evolution of structure, either as a mere function
of, or, at least, as dependent on the state of some part of the
latter. The kinship, therefore, is not dissolved in this factor,
so that if, notwithstanding, we make it the criterion of the
nature of killing, deeming that a greater or less degree of
intelligence constitutes it murder, in the one case, and an
innocent act in the other, then, in the latter category, we
should place the killing of all babies, as well as that of many
adult human beings, less intelligent than dogs or even birds,
and for whom there is no development. But we call wilful
baby-killing murder, as such, nor would the plea of unintelli-
gence in the victim, avail, with judge or jury, for the destroyer
of the very feeblest -minded, at any age. Moreover, as every

* See ‘ The Descent of Man,’ Ch. i., with fig. i in illustration.

1919 D&c. 1

382 Ornithological Observations and Reflections in Shetland.

species has sufficient intelligence for its needs, since it could
not otherwise have been evolved, to urge this plea would be
equivalent to a presumptuous or childish arraignment of
nature herself, indistinguishable from blasphemy, or, at
least, from absurdity, which is as far as we need here follow
it. Clearly, then, this point of distinction is as meaningless,
and therefore untenable, as it would be arbitrary.

We may cudgel our brains as we will, but, the more the
matter is looked into, the more does it become apparent
that the killing of any being— not merely of any human
being — can only really be justified by the strength of the
reason for doing so, i.e., through necessity ; and when we
think of the pain which is often inseparable from the act, of
the well-being and happiness, the affection, the tenderness,
even — eocperto crede — -which, by it, we destroy, and of the
absence of all crime and wickedness in those non-human lines
thus made to cease, reason no less than morality, must tell us
that such necessity ought, by no means, to be lightly admitted,
but only on the same principles and with equal reluctance as
we admit it for ourselves. To act on the assumption that man
— just one being — nan, simply for his pleasure,* yet morally,
sweep other beings out of existence, is, for us, at any rate,
who are not Huns, to drop ethics, in practice, as it likes us,
whilst still illogically maintaining that might is not right*
How can one be moral in patches ?— I mean, of course,
rationally, for, in fact, that, at best, is what we are.

It may, perhaps, be argued that if guilt really attended
the unnecessary taking of non -human life, so moral a product
as civilised man could not, possibly, sin comfortably, as
he notoriously does, in this way. But let those who may
be inclined to reason thus, consider that this same moral
being has, at various periods of history (if indeed not always)
been equal to performing this apparently difficult feat, even
as against his own species, not individually, merely, through
a long line of murderers, but collectively, in the shape of
the average man. The Spartans, though homely, were
acquainted with virtue, and deeply religious, yet, on but
slight consideration they would put their Helots to death,
without scruple — at least moral scruple — whilst the Greeks,
as a body — even the Athenians — were accustomed to slaughter
their prisoners. If not always, yet it was commonly done,
and was not, apparently, thought immoral. The Romans, in
their prime and vigour, were a moral people, yet they daily
enjoyed the public spectacle of men forced to butcher each
other as experts, and held down their thumbs j- in sign that

* ‘ Or slight profit, at any rate, I would add.’
f Or up, but the point is immaterial.

Naturalist,

Ornithological Observations and Reflections in Shetland. 383

butchery should take place without any ‘ compunctious
visit ings of conscience.'* The Spaniards, when they dis-
covered America, were a brave, high-souled people, with no
lack of other fine qualities. Yet in Cuba alone, they soon got
rid of twelve million Indians (more than the Herreros) and
Las Casas has told us how they did it.f Then, not so far back,
there was Negro slavery (approved, in its day, by the rigidly
moral, and still regretted by many) ; later still the Congo and
Putomayo, the Germans as colonists, and lastly, this fiend -
enkindled War. Clearly then, if, in a human being, the moral
sense can become hopelessly atrophied, in regard to large
sections of fellow human beings, it is absurd to suppose that it
cannot become equally so where animals, merely, are con-
cerned ; and this is, in fact, the only explanation of the way
in which wild animals are treated by us, unless we draw a
distinction between atrophy and non -development. Con-
sidering, however, the feelings which we lavish on our dogs,
cats and horses — creatures not more intelligent and suffering
no whit more than their wild representatives — it seems doubt-
ful if this distinction exists, or if it does, then perhaps it does
equally in many of the inter se cases.

But what is non-development but that state at which
atrophy arrives ?— or atrophy but the point from which
development begins? Both, in this connexion, mean moral
insensibility, and I maintain that it is moral in-
sensibility alone J which can make the sportsman blythe and
gay amidst the tortures he inflicts and the innocent happiness
he destroys. It is not lightly that I maintain this, for I have
gained the knowledge through my own proper experience. So
long as my mind was quite aloof from that of the beings I
meddled with, whose path I merely crossed, they were but
points within the periphery of what was my natural, and
seemed, therefore, my legitimate field of pleasure ; but when I
began to watch them with intensity, seeking to penetrate the
causes of their actions through the teachings of evolution,
which now, all at once, seemed to pass from books into being,
then each one of them became a centre of intellectual and,
also, to a high degree, of sympathetic interest, and whereas it

* See Cicero, who was a kind and gentle master to his slaves, yet
enjoyed these entertainments, though the Greeks — prisoners notwithstand-
ing— did not, but thought them horrible.

f As much as he has been allowed to, that is to say, for the powers,
I understand, that be, and were, in Spain have never, from patriotic
motives (* his an ill bird that fouls its own nest ') permitted the whole to
be printed. If so, then what has been passed by the censor arouses specu-
lations truly awful, since, what with all-night roastings and the cutting
off the arms of live children to feed dogs (bloodhounds) withal, it does not
seem easy to transcend this.

X I include in the term those for whom natural history means killing.

1919 Dec. 1

384 Ornithological Observations and Reflections in Shetland.

had seemed nothing, before, to bang a mere bird into nothing,
it came to me, now, as something monstrous, and only befitting
a savage, to annul all that that I knew a bird to be and contain,
merely because it was a bird, and not human. For a bird
has apt intelligence, quick sensibilities, lively emotions,
affectionate solicitude, parental and conjugal devotion and
tenderness, loye of and pride in its. family, heart -overflowings,
cheerfulness, triumphings, serenity, comfort, contentment,
the joy of life — -consciousness too. All this we know, or may
know through our reading,* but it is one thing to read it, quite
another to see it in action. When one does so see it, and keeps
seeing it — day by day, hour by hour— (for the mind is not
* dyed by its thoughts/ all at once) inevitably that process
legins and goes on in one which is known as ‘ entering into/
without which and the dread of public opinion, enforceable
by the gallows, many a man would as cheerfully shoot other
men as- pheasants and be as pleased with his skill in doing
so. Indeed we see this in all wars, for these curbs being
then (however high -mindedly) withdrawn, natural repugnance,
which, were it more strongly developed, might be a sufficient
one, passes away. Having gone through such a process, f
then, I can, on the principle of cogito, ergo sum, speak to its
reality, and since it is one from callousness to sensibility,
from destruction to observation, from the cramped application
to ourselves and our proteges only of what we call * the golden
rule/ to its reasoned extension to embrace all sentient
existence, it must, as I hold, be along the path of development.
If so, it would surely become the civilised man to crush
down and stifle in his heart that joy to slay wild animals,
which once, through necessity, a hardy virtue, is now by
lapse of time and changed conditions, become a mere stupid
barbarity, linking him, through the chain (and chains) of
heredity, to far-off savage forefathers ‘ with foreheads villain-
ous low.’

This path lies open, and it can hardly be doubted that

* I may quote a fellow bird-watcher who is also a man of science.
Professor Julian Huxley, writing in ‘ The Auk ’ of April 1916 (‘ Bird- watch-
ing and Biological Science, ' pp. 147-8) says : ‘ Those who wish to penetrate
into those arcana and mysteries of science, where the beginnings of con-
sciousness are being shaped and added to life, cannot do better than
observe the behaviour of a single species of wild bird or mammal, and,
having observed, try to understand.' And again : ‘ Do not think me

fantastic if I say that, even in birds, I believe that the fine emotions and
most comfortable happiness are, as in man, associated with that form
of monogamy in which male and female bear approximately equal parts.’
Are we lightly to kill beings having ‘ fine emotions ' and enjoying ‘ com-
fortable happiness ? ’

t In which I may compare myself to some Maori or other South Sea
Island chief, who having been once a cannibal, now feels his gorge rise
at it.

Naturalist,

Northern News.

385

mankind, by degrees, will advance along it. Whether much
more of the estate on which it lies will be left, in the not so
iar future, than of that one of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, which
all went in costs, thus bringing the case to an end* is another
matter, and a question to be asked. But, however, this estate
is a larger one, and there is some hope, perhaps, that posterity,
for whom it should, indeed, be held in trust, may come into
some permanent fraction of it, sufficient to give future ob-
servers (how great and great-achieving who can say ? ) material
to continue to work upon. Let us hope so, for when a species
goes, all that potential expansion of our knowledge, both of it
and through it, which otherwise it holds for all time, goes with
itself, and is no more. This, in so far as preventable, should
certainly be prevented, even if we take no more ethical view
of the matter. We should think it sufficient to have lost what
we could not keep. The world of life, before man lived in it,
is all gone. We know the bones of some of those old species,
but can only conjecture, except in broad generalities, how
they looked and how they lived. We do not, as Darwin
somewhere says, know a single one of all their instincts. I
have often thought of this whilst watching some odd actions
of birds, and so, perhaps, will the bird watcher of 2,000 and
odd, as he ruefully gazes at Gould’s ‘ great collection ’ of ex-
tinct stuffed Birds of Paradise (if not dust by then), and says :
"Yes, but where are the notes?

: o :

We quote the following from Punch, which is a humorous journal
' According to a Nature Journal a new species of snail has been dis-
covered at Fryerning, in Essex. We are glad to learn that it will not
attack passers-by unless provoked.’

We are pleased to record that the Crown has confirmed the late Bishop
of Lincoln’s appointment of the Rev. E. Adrian Woodruff e -Peacock to
the Rectory of Grayingham, two miles south of Kirton-in-Lindsey,

. N . Lines . The future Rector of Grayingham is not unknown to our
subscribers, as our present impression shows, for he began writing for
The Naturalist in 1884, and we have no reason to believe that he is likely
to discontinue his contributions.

The death is announced of Samuel Jefferson, familiarly known as
Professor ' Jeff,’ at Harrogate, in his eightieth year. He was a native
of Leeds and was formerly a familiar figure at the Meetings of the York-
shire Naturalists’ Union. He was a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical
Society, an honorary member of the Liverpool Naturalists’ Field Club,
of the Liverpool Astronomical Society, and of the Harrogate Literary
Club, and was at one time President of the Leeds Naturalists’ Club.
He was well known as a popular lecturer and a great educationalist,
being at one time secretary to the Yorkshire Board of Education. He
was an author of some repute, among his books being ‘ Sonnets on
Nature and Science.’

1919 Dec. 1

See ‘ Bleak House,’ Ch. 65.

386

YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS AT SPURN.

Notwithstanding every possible effort having been made to secure
accommodation for the members of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union at
Withernsea, Patrington, Easington, Kilnse'a, .and other places in the
area, the extraordinary rush to the seaside on August Bank Holiday
week-end resulted in absolutely no rooms being available ; where
promises had been given, these were subsequently cancelled. In

addition to this, the difficulties of train service made an excursion to-
Spurn appear practically impossible.

However, it was felt that the Meeting should be held, and the usual
programme was published, though it was fairly obviously indicated
that the prospects were not tempting. Notwithstanding, about two-
dozen members took part in what proved to be an exceptionally pleasant
and profitable ramble.

Some arrived by train, some had cycles or motor cycles, some walked,
some slept in tents, and a very few, not to be daunted by threats, arrived
at Patrington and managed to find beds somehow, somewhere.

The party was successful in securing headquarters at the Hildyard
Arms Hotel, Patrington, after which the usual meeting was held, under
the Chairmanship of Mr. T. Sheppard, M.Sc., when it was found that
there were representatives of twelve societies present, and reports were
given on the day’s work by Messrs. Stather, Stainforth, Porter, Robinson,
Greevz Fysher, and others.

A few of the members spent a successful week-end in the District and
were joined by the party leaving Patrington on Monday morning in wagon-
ettes, who drove as far as Ki Insea, walked along to Spurn, back again
along the coast to Dimlington, returning by the road to Easington, and
thence to Patrington in wagonettes.

Naturalists, in common with everybody else, had been prevented
from visiting this area for some years, on account of the war, and
naturally keen interest was. taken in many of the extraordinary changes
which have taken place in this quiet corner of our county. As we
approached Easington, on the sky line were observed the two huge towers
supporting the enormous range finders, which formed quite a feature in
the landscape. Near these were the large 9 -2 guns, and quite a
little village of new houses and huts. Looking towards the Humber one
saw the enormous piles forming a barrier stretching almost all the way
across the Estuary, which had evidently been put there to prevent enemy
submarines entering the river. In the centre of the Estuary was a huge
Island Fort which had sprung into existence since our last visit, and the
Spurn Point itself was connected with the mainland by a railway, which
the members were able to use, though station buildings, ticket collectors,
and even tickets and fares, were dispensed with.

In view of the extraordinary changes which had taken place in this
otherwise quiet district, the naturalists feared that the flora and fauna
might have suffered, but it was pleasing to find this was not the case.
Walking along narrow sand-dunes forming the Spurn, the prevalence,
in apparently increasing quantities, of the beautiful .Sea-Holly was
especially pleasing, and notwithstanding the traffic and the innumerable
soldiers in the area during the past few years, bird life seemed to be quite
in evidence, and though the breeding quarters of the Ringed Plover and
Lesser Tern had shifted somewhat, the birds were still there and all
fears of the extermination of the interesting colony therefore disappear.

The geologists were under the leadership of Messrs. Stather and
Sheppard, and in addition to exploring the northern beach of the Spurn
peninsula, examined the cliff as far as Dimlington. They were pleased
to report that in addition to certain works necessary in connexion with
military operations, a large area had been protected by an excellent
series of groynes which had been erected during the war. This has-

Naturalist,

Yorkshire Naturalists at Spurn.

387

unquestionably done much toward the protection of a fragile fragment
of our coast -line, though to the north of these groynes it was evident
that erosion was taking place with its characteristic persistence.

The members had the pleasure of seeing once again innumerable
erratics from the Lake District, Scotland and Scandinavia, and the
younger members of the party were pleased to gather fossils from the
various strata of the Yorkshire Coast between Whitby and Bridlington.

Mr. Stather pointed out certain discrepancies between the descriptions
of the various glacial beds exposed in South East Yorkshire, as given
by different early writers, and pointed out the necessity for a thorough
revision of the glacial series of Holderness.

While in the neighbourhood the members had an opportunity of
investigating details of the borings for water which had been made during
the war, and from which it was apparent that the rumours which had been
prevalent that beds of flint had been met with in these borings, were
unfounded. It was also clear that some confusion had arisen with regard
to the exact localities of the different wells which had been sunk. These
points, however, were cleared up by careful enquiry made on the
spot.— T.S.

Geology. — Mr. J. W. Stather writes : — The Spurn peninsula seems
stronger and more stable, the sand and shingle being banked up on the
sea -side the whole length- — probably due to the groynes and sea defences
made by the military. The sand dunes, held together by the broad-
leaved marram grass, are now well above the level of ordinary tides.
The same applies to the river side of the peninsula, as carts can now get
along on firm sand from the Warren right up to the lighthouse. If this
thin sandbank could be permanently strengthened and the beach stuff
hindered from going south the great shallow bay between the Spurn and
Sunk Island would form a very favourable area for warping operations on
a large scale — with no fear of the sea getting' in from the east. If the
beach is stopped travelling the growth of the Spurn head southwards
will be checked.

When at Spurn we heard rumours of bores being put down through the
sands, etc., to the chalk in search of water, and we wait the publication
of the details with much interest. We fear from the experience in Holder-
ness generally that the finding of good water in large quantities is very
unlikely.

Another effect of the heaping up of the Spurn sandbank is that the large
\ boulders, in thousands, which used to be visible on the beach between
Kilnsea and Easington are now invisible, being buried in sand.

After five years’ interval the Dimlington sections appeal to the
glacialist very strongly. Here, if anywhere in Yorkshire, is the key to
the succession of the drift beds. Each division is distinct, in colour,
position and contents, from its neighbour. If one has not studied the
Dimlington Cliffs, he has much to learn about Yorkshire Boulder Clays —
and their differences. These sections are beyond compare the clearest and
best in Yorkshire.

In cycling round Sunk Island and looking at the semi -circle of low
hills, taking in Pauli, Boreas Hill, Burstwick, Keyingham and Patringtcn,
one was impressed with the fact that they all told the same story, viz.,
that they represented some glacial or very early post-glacial deposits,
modified and rearranged by the Humber of that period.

Birds. — Mr. E. W. Wade writes : — The time of year is not favourable
for bird observation, the breeding birds having reared their young and
departed from the nurseries, whilst the migrants, for which Spurn is so
famous, have only just commenced to arrive. The birds in song were
Titlark, Corn Bunting, Yellow Hammer, Grey Linnet. The three last-
named are still breeding. A flock of ten Lesser Tern flew over, and one
pair, distinguishable by their cries of alarm, were still frequenting the
shingle beach at Kilnsea Beacon. A Kestrel which flew over was re-

1919 Dec. l

388

Yorkshire Naturalists at Spurn.

peatedly mobbed by them, and after an hour’s watching they flew over
with sand eels and settled in the shingle. Walking to the spot we found
a solitary young one about a week old crouching on the sand. Many
Ringed Plover were feeding close by with full-grown young, and were
joined by a flock of Dunlin.

Eight Oyster Catchers flew down the coast and a solitary Whimbrel
followed by five more came in from the sea flying towards the Humber.
On the Humber mud-flats we observed Curlew, Blackheaded, Lesser
Black-backed and Herring Gull, and Kittiwakes on the cultivated fields.

Numbers of Skylarks, Titlarks and Grey Linnets were feeding on the
saltmarshes and an occasional Whitethroat was seen in the hedges.

Lepidoptera. — Mr. J. Porter writes : — The following is the very
meagre list of things I saw at Spurn : — Imagines, two Whites, Pier is
bvassica ; P. rapae ; Tortoise shell, Vanessa urticae ; Meadow brown,
Satyrus janira\ Yellow shell, Camptogramma bilineata\ Ribbon wave,
Acidalia aversata, and on the buildings at Easington, Bryophila perla.

Larva, Common blue, Lycaena alexis, Heliothis marginatus, and three
or four undetermined species.

Diptera. — Mr. C. A. Cheetham writes : — The Diptera seen were
chiefly- sand-dune species, and are additions to the county lists. The
high winds and lack of bright sunshine possibly account for the absence of
svrphids, etc.

One of the first captures, afterwards seen in plenty , was a fine robber
fly, Philonicus albiceps Mg., £ and in fairly even quantity ; this was
found on the sand in places sheltered from the wind. With it were two
species of Thereva — T. annvAata F., a pretty silvery -white insect, no
females were seen of this, and T. bipunctata Mg. ; three $’s with the very
distinctive frons calli and four <y’s which would have been difficult to
identify in the absence of the females. The handsome bee-like Anthrax
paniscus Rossi was also fairly common., the $’s being most numerous.

Another frequent fly here was the large golden faced blue bottle,
Cynomyia mortuorum L. (this generally breeds in putrid carcases of dogs,
etc.), it was very variable in colour and size, and the males most numerous.
Mr. A. R. Sanderson and I have each taken an odd specimen at. Austwick
previously.

About the brackish ditches a little Stratiomyid, Nemotelus uliginosus L.
could be had by sweeping the sides, the difference between the sexes in
colouration is very striking, the males being in excess. A Dolichopod,
Scellus not'd tus Fabr. was also taken on the sandhills. I had previously
had this at Bubwith in June this year. The foregoing are here recorded
for the first time.

Besides these some few others await further examination. Although
no Anopheles were seen Culex pipiens L. was too plentiful in the evenings.
We were assured that the Clegs were abundant on the dunes but the only
ones seen were captured by one of the farm lads on the cattle ; these were
not the common species, but Haematopota crassicornis Wahl.

From these results of two windy days it is evident that one or two
visits at different seasons with hot sunshine would result in many more
additions to the lists.

Conchology. — Mr. Greevz Fysher writes : — This excursion was on the
whole favoured with such fine dry weather that the terrestrial mollusca were
not much on the move, and none but the dominant and. commoner kind
were observed, such as the black and grey slugs, and a couple of Species of
snail, Helix vivgata which is not easily discouraged even by bright
sunshine, and. an occasional Helix nemoralis.

On the Humber shore a dead and battered example of My a truncata
(both valves hinged together) was obtained.

The shells of the oyster, cockle, and mussel were abundant, and
Tellina balihica, Littorina littorea, L. rudis and a large population of

Naturalist,

Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union : Botanical Section. 389

Rissoidae were living on the mud and under stones — some of which bore
an unpleasant coating of black oil.

Botany. — Messrs. Cheetham and Burrell report that Spurn being
an unfamiliar district to them they were unable from personal knowledge
to compare present with pre-war states of vegetation. Sea protection
and military works had caused local disturbances and considerable areas
had been lightly burnt, perhaps by cinders from the locomotive that now
travels daily between Kilnsea and the Point. In addition to the plants
named in Circular No. 281, the following were noted on dunes and mild
flats south of Kilnsea village : — Anthriscus vulgaris Bernh., Valeriana
sambucifolia Mikan., Dipsacus sylvestris Huds., Erigeron acre L., Filago
germanica L., Cichorium Intybus L., Helminthia echio'ides Gaert., Thrincia
hirta Roth., Plantago maritima L., Salicornia ramosissima Woods,
J uncus Gerardi Lois, Car ex arenaria L., Glyceria maritima Wahlb.,
Lepturus filiformis Trin. White -flowered Musk Thistle and numerous
large mats of white flowered Stork’s Bill were seen ; Clavtonia, although
abundant, was at first overlooked on account of its being cropped, pre-
sumably by rabbits, of which, however, very few were visible ; no un-
injured plants were detected, but the tufts of pink leaf stalks with here
and there new growth showing became conspicuous when once recognized.
A blue flowered Delphinium and a large capsuled Poppy on Kilnsea
Warren were possibly escapes from the garden of a ruined bungalow near
by.

The comparatively few wayside flowers met with whilst travelling
by road half way across the country accentuated the wealth of bloom that
delighted the eye on the few miles of sand dune at Spurn ; big clumps
of Musk Thistle occupied disturbed ground ; Ragwort, Wild Celery,
Carrot, Sea Rocket and Sea Holly gave masses of colour, the beauty of
which was enhanced by contrast with the yellow sands and the foliage of
Sea Wormwood, Sea Buckthorn and dune grasses.

Mosses bulked largely in the dune flora but were few in species,
viz. : — Ceratodon purpureus Brid., Fissidens taxifolius Hedw., Tortula
ambigua Angstr., T. ruralijormis Dixon, F unarm hygrometrica Sibth.,
Weber a nutans Hedw., Bryurn capillare L., Br achy the cium albicans
B. and S., B. purum Dixon, Hypnum cupressiforme L., H . aduncum
Hedw., Hylocomium triquetrum B. and S., Aneura multifida L., Lophocolea
bidentata L.

: o —

YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS’ UNION.

BOTANICAL SECTION.

The Annual Meeting of this section was held on October nth, in the
University, Leeds, by the kind invitation of Professor Priestley.

The influence of the abnormal weather of the year on various flowering
plants provided matter for an exchange of views which are incorporated
in the Annual Report, this was adopted and officers were suggested for
election at the Annual Meeting of the Union in December.

Dr. F. Arnold Lees, whom the members were pleased to welcome,
read an exceedingly suggestive and interesting paper on the subject of
G-entiana verna in the Cleveland district.

Mr. W. H. Pearsall, M.Sc., gave an account of aquatic vegetation
in the Lake district, his remarks being illustrated by a series of maps
based on his own investigations. He showed how the underwater plant
distribution is affected by surface currents due to prevalent winds and
also by the shore line contours.

At the close of the meeting he also exhibited herbarium sheets of the
plants dealt with. — C. A. C.

1919 Dec. 1

390

THE DISTRIBUTION OF GENTIAN A VERNA .

F. ARNOLD LEES, M.R.C.S.

On September nth, in the ‘ Out of Doors ’ column of the Yorkshire
Observer, what was styled a ‘ secret,’ viz., the occurrence of the Spring
Gentian (G. verna ) ‘ in one spot, unrecorded in the books ’ in Cleveland,
among the hills behind Robin Hood’s Bay, was made public. I have
not seen it myself, and had only a ' rumour ’ passed on to me some little
time back under a bar not to publish it, and I do not in. the least know
the actual author of the discovery. Yet this, if bona-fide, is of the utmost
interest to those who study natural botanic chronology. Next Spring the
ground upon Fylingdales moor, and all about the stony howes there
in the vicinity of Lilhowe Cross should be investigated, and the florula
carefully noted, together with details of the calcareous or arenaceous or
combined character of the surface soil. When I first heard the rumour I
let it lie in my mind as a probable or possible reliquarial persisting ;
but on surveying the facts of its assurgence of old time, and more recently,
in West Ireland and Teesdale— Westmorland, I can scarcely believe it
to be quite that — a survivor from Eld — much more likely a natural
modern=day originating, similar in a sense to the appearing, assurgent
spread of Arenaria ciliaia in 1892 or 1893 ? above Selside and Ribblehead
lime-cart trackways ; or to Polygala am'ara in Mid-Wharfe and the
adjacent launds of Upper Airedale at a later date.

The District all around Lilhowe Cross is a high denuded moorland,
ling clad in patches, but with alpine turf in others : it has produced many
montane rarities, ranging from Cornus suecica (in several other spots
besides the classic Hole of Horcum) to Car ex fiauci flora — this last thought
to have long ‘ miffed out ’ until Mr. Burnley, of Scarborough, ascertained
it to be still there this year. Fylingdales high moor all has Lower Oolite,
a sandy calcareous stone for its strata base ; though the lithologic
constitution of the soil does not greatly matter — it does not inhibit the
growth of the Spring Gentian upon it. Wind-blown semina doubtless
would germinate if the other circumstances (eco logic). of such a supposed
windfall were favourable, far-fetched as such a supposition may seem.
Another is even wilder : that the seeds could have been transported by
the Ice-cap that in a Glacial Period travelled east from west, dropping
and catching as it melted away, all sorts and conditions of debris besides
those travelled boulders that we hold as evidence of that aeonic Stone-Age
apotheosis — before Man, and I daresay some will say before any green
Gentian .

This raises another enquiry : Is the vernal Gentian in Yorkshire an
ancient species at all ? I fancy not, and that its chron-history was
sequent on its ‘ head -centre ’ in West Ireland, and only antedated the
Arenaria or the Poly gala I have referred to by a century or so. It was
known on the low-lying tabular limestones of Mid -west Ireland long ago,
having been first published in 1650 in How’s Phytologia. In Teesdale
it was recorded in 1797; and judging by its downspread (where conditions
allowed) and the status assigned to it in consequence by Gilbert Baker, in
1863, and the older James Backhouse, from the higher north and eastern
facing sugar-limestone lynches of Mickle Fell — my own observations
were only from 1870 to 1885 — it is that of a comparatively Recent-age
Natural -colonist, at the beginning or in the earlier years of its ‘ cycle ’
of assurgence. All species must have a beginning, a jumping-off stage,
though we cannot fix it to a generation or a decade. However natural,
or ‘ accidental ’ (let us say) in a particular place, if the ground, climate,
drainage conditions, etc., are ready for them, set down somehow, they
follow a certain course : ripple-like they enlarge their area, whereas
Man -introduced species mostly tend to die out, or at least remain where
put down.

Naturalist,

Northern News.

39i

Violent winds, Atlantic gales, will carry small seeds, as well as
spores of ferns, hundreds of miles : it has been proved. The parachute of
a dandelion deposited in a lull on an alpine boggy slack like Widdy-bank
fell or the Cronkley plateau, germinates, and by slow degrees, protecting
itself phyllarically, and in a lustrum or two dots the wet bog with
Taraxacum palustre D.C. or T. udum Jord., distinct phytal evolutions.
The feather-arrow of a montane willow-herb, blown from its lowland hearth
will show under the stable high-level conditions of matrix and climate as
Epilobium collinum or montanum -palustre, modifying, or mutating after
the manner of an Evening -Primrose. And in Baker’s day Gentiana vevna
had occurred as low down as a pasture by the Tees near Darlington.

And there is another consideration : plants (of the humbler sort
certainly) have their natural and yet inevitable comings sequent upon
other things besides cataclysms of nature, landslips, such as afforestations
of bare land, or roydings of sylvanic areas. Festuca sylvatica has too
frequently to be coincidental followed plantings of trees in our civic
water-supply areas. So has Goody era repens the planting of fir (the
sapling soil bringing or gradually elaborating, the needful fungoid
bio -genetic adjunct for its growth. So is Hypericum dubium sequent on
understood disturbances or interferences of surface soil. So is Pyrola
minor associated, after a lapse of a few years, with larch plantationing.
So, near Leeds, has been the increasing colonies of Linton’s Helleborine
( Epipactis atro-viridis ) through the heying of cemetery areas, of parks
and mansion grounds, with beech trees.

But these are after all only new instances of what collation of dates
of discovery with dates of afforestings have told us before, only the
earlier modern botanists like Sir J. E. Smith did not ‘ tumble ’ to it :
Orobus niger, Ornithogalum verticillatum, Cynoglossum montanum, perhaps
Pulmonaria officinalis in Suffolk, Stachys germanica, certainly Omphalodes
verna and Lycopodium annotinum at Buttercrambe ‘ wood,’ near York,
are all sequents upon forestal reinforcements of prior dates. Of York’s
novelties the only exception is the Thistle-rape ( Orobanche reticulata) of
the Permian limestone ; and that possibly was known earlier under another
name.

The facts are not yet available for decision as to what rank (and why)
we must assign Gentiana verna in Cleveland : it is a serendipity, anyhow,
and I, for one, welcome it as a new integer for vice -county 62. It is
difficult of access, hard to grow in alp-gardens, and if truly the happy
accident I have dubbed it, is no more likely to be reived of the plant-
hunter than a Cornus or a Trientalis.

: o ;

Part 5 of Witherby’s Hand-book of British Birds (pp. 273-336,
4s. net.), deals with the species from the Masked Shrike to the great
Reed-Warbler. There is a fine coloured plate, half natural size, of
Chiffchaffs and Warblers, from a drawing by Gronvold/and other plates
and illustrations.

The Botanical Society and Exchange Club Report for 1918, edited
by G. Claridge Druce (Vol. V., part 3, pp. 267-480, 7s. 6d.) and the
report for 1918 of the Botanical Society Exchange Club , by W. C. Barton
(Vol. V., part 4, pp. 483-535, 3s. 6d.) are to hand. The former contains
particulars of ‘ Plants mostly new to the British Isles,’ various obituaries,
and notes of ‘ New county and other records,’ with the following two
Supplements : Monograph of the British Batrachians, by W. H. Pearsall,
and Additions to the Berkshire Flora, by G.. C. Druce. Mr. Barton’s
report refers to 5340 sheets covering 453 gatherings sent in by 33 con-
tributors. Critical remarks on the various species are offered. There
is some little confusion with regard to the similiarity of the titles of
these two publications, but bibliographers will be assisted by he parts
and numbers of the volumes.

1919 Dec. 1

392

PLANT GALLS FROM THE SCARBOROUGH
DISTRICT.

WM. FALCONER.

Slaithwaite, Huddersfield.

The following galls (fifty-two in number) were incidentally-
met with during the second week in September, and their
localisation is in general therefore indicative neither of their
frequency nor their distribution in the district.

Hymenoptera.

The first four on willows and the next five on oaks —

Pontania proximo, Lep. On long-leaved willows, Peasholme, Scalby and1
cliffs south of the town. On 5. Caprea, Hayburn Wyke.

P. pedunculi Htg. On S'. Caprea, Falcon Inn, plentiful.

Cryptocampus venus tus Zadd. As the last.

C. ater Jur. As the last, but fewer.

Neuroterus albipes Schr. f. laeuiusculus Schr.

N. baccarum Linn. f. lenticularis Oliv.

N . vesicator Schl. f. numismatis Oliv.

These three at Cayton Bay, Staintondale, Hayburn Wyke, but
the first much less plentiful than the other two. On one leaf
were counted no less than 140 of the last named.

Dryophanta taschenbergi Schl. f. folii Linn. Raincliff Woods.

Andricus marginalis Adler. Hayburn Wyke, one example past maturity.
Rhodites rosae Linn. On Rosa mollis, by the roadside at Ravenscar, one
bush, on leaves and stems.

Diptera.

Perrisia marginem-torquens Winn. On long-leaved willows, everywhere
P. ? Sp. On long-leaved willows, like P. terminalis H. Low, but
larvae yellow ; Peasholme and Staintondale.

Rhabdophaga nervorum Kief. On S. Caprea, Falcon Inn. On S. cinerea,.
Ravenscar ; infrequent.

Oligolophus capreae Winn. On S. Caprea, Falcon Inn ; plentiful. On
S. cinerea, Ravenscar.

Contarinia betulina Kief. On birch, Ravenscar.

Mikiola fagi Htg. On beech, Hayburn Wyke.

Perrisia urticae Perr. On nettles, general.

Contarinia steini Karsch. On pink campion, cliffs south of Holbeck
Gardens.

Perrisia ulmariae Bremi. On meadow sweet, Cayton Bay.

P. engstfeldii Rubs. As the last.

P. rosarum Hardy. On wild rose, south of- Holbeck Gardens.

P. crataegi Winn. On hawthorn, general and abundant.

'Contarinia loti de Geer. On birdsfoot trefoil, cliffs south of Holbeck
Gardens .

Perrisia viciae Kief. On Vida sepium, Scalby, on the railway side.

P. jraxini Kief. On ash, near the cavalry barracks and Staintondale.
P. veronicae Vallot. On Germander speedwell, cliffs south of Holbeck
Gardens .

P. ? Sp. Massed terminal leaves, purple at the base, as the last, on
Galium verum, similar to that found at Bridlington ( The
Naturalist, December, 1918, p. 384).

Trypeta reticulata Sch. On Hieracium boreale, Ravenscar.

TJrophora solstitialis Linn. On Centaurea nigra, south of Scarborough.
Stictodiplosis hypochaeridis Rubs. On Hypochaeris radicata Linn., the
cliffs south of Holbeck Gardens.

Phorbia seneciella Meade. On ragwort, Cayton Bay.

Naturalist,

Reviews and Book Notices ,

393

Homoptera.

Chernies abietis Kalt. On spruce, Hayburn Wyke.

Pemphigus affinis Kalt. On black poplar, cliffs south of Holbeck Gardens.
Schizoneura ulmi Linn. On elm, Cayton flay.

Myzus ribis Linn. On gooseberry, in a ghrden at Staintondale.
Rkopalosiphum ribis Linn. On black currant, in a garden at Cloughton.
Aphis padi Linn. On blackthorn, general and abundant.

A. sorbi Kalt. On mountain ash, Staintondale.

Psyllopsis fraxini Linn. On ash, Scarborough and Staintondale.

Acari.

Eriophyes salicis Nal. On 5. Caprea, Falcon Inn, Ravenscar and Hayburn
Wyke.

E. nalepai Fckn. On alder, general and plentiful.

E. brevitarsus Fckn. On alder, Cayton Bay.

E. avellanae Nal. On hazel, Raincliff, enlarged buds.

E. ribis Nal. On black currant, Cloughton.

E. similis Nal. On blackthorn, on the cliffs by the cavalry barracks.

E. crataegi Can. On hawthorn, one bush, near Scalby.

Phyllocoptes acericola Nal. On sycamore, Staintondale.

Fungi.

Exoascus alnitorquus Winter. On alder, blisters on the leaves and
deformation of cones, Cayton Bay.

Taphrina aurea Fries. On black poplar, cliffs south of Holbeck Gardens,
and Ravenscar.

Fungus ? Sp. On Poterium sanguisorba Linn ; yellow spore clusters and
swollen stems, petioles and midrib, cliffs south of Holbeck
Gardens .

: o :

Popular Oil Geology by Victor Ziegler. New York : J. Wiley
and Sons. London : Chapman and Hall, 149 pp, 11/6. This little

volume with its stout covers and rounded corners is evidently intended
to be carried about in the pocket. It is by the Professor of Geology and
Mineralogy at the Colorado School of Mines, and deals with the im-
portant oil industry of North America. ‘ It is not intended to be a
general treatise on the subject of oil and gas geology, nor is it intended
for the experienced oil geologist. It is written for the man without
technical or scientific training in this branch of geology.’ It is well
illustrated by a remarkable series of diagrams, maps, etc., the view of
‘ Spindle Top Field, Beaumont, Texas,’ being truly American. The
price seems rather high for so small a book, although it is well ‘ got up.’
Shropshire : The Geography of the County. By W. W. Watts.
Shrewsbury: Wilding & Son, 254 pp., price 3/6. We thought the
style of this little book seemed familiar, and find from the Preface that
it was originally written for one of the Cambridge County Geographies,
but as it was written a little more fully and had rather more illustrations
than usual in that series, it was considered advisable to print it inde-
pendently rather than, presumably, undergo the disagreeable process of
pruning. Personally we think the Cambridge people were ill advised in
not including this excellent volume in their series, especially when at
least three of the series — Cambridgeshire, East London and West London
respectively, seem quite as voluminous and as well illustrated. However,
Professor Watts’ reputation is such that doubtless he and the publishers
will benefit ; those who use the Geography will certainly have an
advantage, and a future Cambridge volume dealing with Shropshire
will be a difficulty.

2 C

1919 Dec. 1

394

ADDITIONAL YORKSHIRE DIPTERA.

CHRIS. A. CHEETHAM.

Corynoneura minuta Winn. This very minute species occurred
in numbers on the under sides of the wall stones near
waterfalls on Austwick Beck (2 1-4- 19b

Ptychoptera lacustris Mg. In fair numbers and both sexes
near Austwick Moss (21-6-19).

Molophilus ater Mg. A curious species with very small wings
and legs well developed, evidently adapted for running
rather than flying. Curtis gives some interesting notes
on it (PI. 444, Brit. Ento.). It was taken on Fleet Moss,
Oughtershaw at above 1800 feet elevation (8-6-19).

Tipula pagana Mg. Frequent at Austwick (20-9-19) the
females are practically wineless.

Oxycera pygmcea. Fin. 2 $s, Austwick (12-7-19).

0. morrisii Curt. 2 9s, Austwick (21-6-19).

Odontomyia viridula F. 1 9, Bubwith (25-6-19).

Chrysops ccecutiens L. 1 several 9s, Austwick Moss, June,
1919.

Acrocera globulus Pz. A single specimen taken at Lawkland
Moss (13-7-19). A very curious insect looking almost like
a spider ; more strangely still, it is parasitic on spiders.
Wingate has made an error in his key to this genus : his
Oncodes and Acrocera should be transposed.

*Tachypeza nubila Mg. On tree trunks, Bubwith f (25-6-19) ;
Draught on (19-7-19). This species runs swiftly to the
opposite side of the tree trunk from the collector, but
does not attempt to fly.

Poecilobothrus nobilitatus L. The males of this beautiful
species were fairly frequent at Bubwith (25-6-19).

Diaphorus oculatus Fin. Austwick and Lawkland Mosses,
(July and August, 1919).

Porphyrops crassipes Mg. With the last-named.

Scellus nctatus F. Bubwith (25-6-19).

Callimyia amcena Mg. A small and beautiful fly, Bubwith
(25-6-19).

Pipunculus campestris Ltr. Austwick, Farnley, etc., July and
August, 1919.

Paragus tibialis Fin. 2 Q.s, Lawkland Moss (28-6-19).

Chrysogaster hirtella Lw. Frequent in June, 1919, at Austwick.

* These species are recorded for the county in the unpublished lists of
the Bradford Naturalists’ Society.

f Dr. Fordham informs me that the wood where I took all cited as
Bubwith, except Odontomyia and Helophilus , is at Melbourne near
Bubwith.

Naturalist,

Northern News.

395

Melanostoma dubium Ztt. Mr. Jas. E. Collin * says that a
syrphid taken in numbers on Cloudberry flowers on
Pennyghent, June 9th, 1919, must belong to this species,
but there is some doubt as. to whether so-called M. dubium
is a good species and I have, at his request, forwarded the
whole series taken on this occasion for his further ex-
amination, as he thinks they may help to make the matter
clearer.

Syrphus torvus O.S. Mr. P. H. Grimshaw has kindly confirmed
this and the following Syrphus sp., for me, 1 $ taken at
Farnley (16-10-19).

S. vittiger Ztt. A fair number of $s at Austwick Moss (24-5-19) .
*S. umbellatarum F.

S. labiatarum Verr.

These two and the closely related S. compositarum Verr.
were taken together at Nidd (7-9-19) and Adel (28-8-19).
Can they be members of one variable species ?

Eristalis rupium F. Austwick Moss and Ling Ghyll, June,
1919.

Helophilus transfugus L. 1 $, Gormire (7-8-19).

H. lineatus F. 1 5, Austwick Moss (1-6-19), C c?> Bubwith
(25-6-19), 2 (J, Gormire (7-8-19).

Xylota sylvarum L. A $ of this fine species taken at Gormire

(7-8-19).

Phorbia cepetorum Meade. From pupae collected by J. A. Fisher
at Skipton. This is the Onion fly.

Tetanocera umbrarum L. Austwick Moss (12-6-19 and 14-

7-19)-

Elgiv a dorsalis F. Farnley (July), Adel (August, 1919).
Sepedon sphegeus F. Fairly frequent around one shallow
pond at Pilmoor (8-8-19).

Ceroxys crassipennis F. 2 $s, Bubwith (25-6-9).

: o :

Lord Bolton has presented a collection of South American shells
to the York Museum.

The suggested excursions for the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union in
1920 are : — Skipton, Easter ; Richmond, Whitsuntide ; Martin Beck
near Bawtry, June ; Kirkham Abbey, July ; and Beverley, August.

The Geological Society of London has issued Nos. 1027-1042 of its
Abstracts of Proceedings (1918-1919, 112 pp,, 6/-). Included are
summaries of several papers bearing upon the geology of the northern
counties.

We regret, to record the death of Alfred White, principal of the firm
of F. Lawrence & Co., Taxidermists, Leeds, in his 65th year. He was
a native of Boston and at one time attended the meetings of the York-
shire Naturalists’ Union and the Leeds Naturalists’ Society. A Fellow
of the Zoological Society, he took a keen interest in the natural history of
the neighbourhood, and he introduced a number of wild fowl on the
ornamental waters of Roundhay Park.

1919 Dec, 1

396

FUNGUS FORAY AT HELMSLEY (1919).

A. E. PECK,
Scarborough .

The Two Hundred and Eighty-second Meeting of the York-
shire Naturalists' Union was held October 4-9, at Helmsley,.
for a further investigation of the Fungus Flora of the district,
notwithstanding the interference of the railway strike.

Mr. Greevz Fysher and Mr. R. Fowler Jones cycled from
Leeds and York respectively. Mrs. Fysher made the journey
by motor car. The writer, with his wife, motored from
Scarborough. Mr. Ackroyd from Batley had reached Malton
by train on Saturday evening and arrived on foot at Helmsley
Headquarters (Black Swan Hotel) in time for Sunday morning
breakfast.

The strike ceased on the Sunday night and Mr. Malone,
arriving from Bradford by train on Tuesday afternoon, com-
pleted the party.

The meeting had purposely been fixed for a date later in
the year than usual, in the hope that there might be moister
conditions. This hope, however, remained unrealised.

One could not avoid contrasting the present visit to Helms-
ley with that of 1903, so ably recorded by the late Charles
Crossland in The Naturalist for November, 1903, No. 562,
pages 425-436.

Therein he describes the ground of these charming wood-
lands as ‘ moist, just the right kind of place for our purpose,'
whilst upon the present occasion this same ground was described
by someone as ‘ dry as snuff.’ The ‘ shady ' sides of these,
dales, however, hold much more moisture than those which
are more exposed to the sun, and to the former, therefore,,
chief attention was directed, with more gratifying results.

On the first outing Tricholoma leucocephalum with its
strong odour of * new meal/ was found in a pasture to the right
of the road to Rievaulx, and troops of Hebeloma sinapizans
occurred in an adjoining pasture. Psalliota campestris (the
common mushroom) here was also found in fair quantity and
this species, throughout our visit, agreeably added to the
menu.

The Park and plantations near Duncombe Hall proved
dry and unproductive except for a few of the Hygrophori.
Returning to Helmsley by the river side, however, Polyporus
sulphureus was growing from a new fence of dressed wood,
whilst several clusters of Pholiota squarrosa were growing from
stumps.

On Monday the party walked to Rievaulx Abbey, but
nothing more interesting than Tricholoma humile. was noted

Naturalist,.

Peck : Fungus Foray at Helmsley (1919). 397

in the roadside pastures. On the side of the road leading
down to Rievaulx village was the beautiful Otidea aurantia
with Hypholoma velutinum in close proximity. The Abbey
having been inspected as well as the works of excavation apd
restoration which are now proceeding, it was decided to retutn
to Helmsley by the vale of the Rye. In the wood great numbers
of dried specimens of Polyporus drvadeus (being previous
years’ growths) were observed on living oaks. The beef-
steak fungus, Fistulina hepatica, was here gathered from the
same host. Descending to the flat meadows, Tricholoma
personatum was gathered for the pot along with more P.
campestris. A showy cluster of Pholiota adiposa grew on a
riverside stump.

Exceptionally near views of a heron, several dippers and a
herd of deer added to the interest and pleasure of this day’s
excursion.

On Tuesday the Terrace of Rievaulx was visited in the
strong hope that Entoloma farrahi Massee and Crossland,
here originally discovered by John Farrah and party in 1903
and named in his honour, might again be recorded. Interest
deepened when a lady presented for inspection an agaric with
deep blue cap and stem undoubtedly of the genus Entoloma.
More specimens were brought to hand and some little excitement
was manifest as to what microscopic examination of the spores
would reveal, the form of the latter being the deciding factor.
Alas, they proved to be globose (scarcely angular and certainly
not nodulose), whereas smooth elliptical spores are the chief
characteristic of E. farrahi. We had to be content with record-
ing Entoloma bloxami, a very handsome species but without the
local association possessed by E. farrahi. Also on the Terrace
were noted Entoloma ameides and Hebeloma crustiliniformis ,
the latter with the odour of radishes common in the genus,
whilst on a stump near was Polyporus elegans with tube
stratum scarcely thicker than blotting paper.

A short visit to Ryedale above Rievaulx led to the discovery
of a fine specimen of Polyporus squamosus 18 inches in diameter,
Lactarius torminosus with its parasitic fungus Hypomyces
torminosus, Tricholoma flavo-brunneum and the only Boletus
seen throughout the Foray and this being in too poor condition
for positive identification.

The outward and return journeys were made in members’
motor cars.

On Wednesday Beckdale was visited and proved to be the
best ground yet explored. Large clusters of Armillaria mellea
grew luxuriantly on and about stumps on the damp level
ground, whilst the wooded slopes (chiefly the left hand which
held far the more moisture) produced Tricholoma nudum,
Hypholoma leucotephrum, Bulgaria polymorpha, Clitopilus

1919 Dec - 1

398

Peck : Fungus Foray at Helmsley (igig).

orcella, Leotia lubrica, Nolanea pisciodora, Psalliota sylvatica,
Lentzites abietina, Mycena poly gramma, Polyporus dryadeus
(fresh specimens) etc., the whole forming an interesting variety
not elsewhere met with this Foray.

This concluded the outings, Thursday being devoted to
clearing up and ‘ clearing out/

A new feature of the Foray was the visit to the Exhibition
Room of the boys of the Earl of Feversham School with their
Master, Mr. E. W. Williams.

Here the writer gave a little discourse upon Fungi,
illustrating his remarks by reference to specimens on view. This
should have been followed by a Lantern Lecture on ‘ Edible,
Poisonous and other Interesting Fungi/ but the necessary
supply of Oxygen was held up by the railway conditions.
The strike was also responsible for the absence of Dr. Wager
and Mr. Cheesman and their promised lectures.

At the ‘ business ’ meeting held on Wednesday night,
Officers were re-elected, a votes of thanks accorded to Colonel
Duncombe for permission to visit the Estates and a recommend-
ation to the Executive Committee that the Mycological
Meeting of 1920 should be held at Helmsley was passed.

In the list of records the writer is chiefly responsible for
the Agarics, Polypores, etc., whilst Mr. Malone dealt with the
Ascomycetes, the Uredinaceae, the Mycetozoa and other

species.

Of the total of 179, as compared with 430 in 1903, the
following 70 species are new records for the Helmsley district.

Basidiomycetes .
(Gastromycetes )

Ly coper don caelatum.

(Hymenomycetes )
Tricholoma flavo-brunneum,
, , leucocephalum .

,, humile.

Clitocybe fragrans.

Collybia ingrata
Mycena flavipes .

,, excisa.

,, vitilis.

,, colariata.

Pleurotus revolutus.

,, acerosus.

Hygrophorus olivaceo-albus.

,, fornicatus.

Lactarius torminosus .
Russula rubra.

,, fellea.

Lenzites betulina.

,, abietina.

Entoloma bloxami.

,, ameides.

,, jubatum.

Clitopilus orcella.

Leptonia lazulina.

Nolanea pisciodora.

Pholiota erebia.

,, adiposa.

Inocybe s caber.

Tubaria furfuracea.

Cortinarius (Ino.) violaceus.

,, (Derm.) tabularis .

Hypholoma velutinum.

,, leucotephrum.

Psathyra corrugis.

Polyporus elegans.

,, sulphur eus.

Radulum quercinum.

Stereum rugosum.

Hymenochaete tabacina.

Corticium laeve.

,, • sanguineum.

Clav aria per similis .

Puccinia violae.

,, primulae.

, , hypochoeridis..

,, taraxaci.

Triphagmium ulmariae (on
Meadow-sweet) .

Naturalist •

Peck: Fungus Foray at Helmsley (1919).

Ascomycetes.

Hypomyces torminosus (on Lactarius
torminosus ) .

Phyllachora pteridis (on Bracken).
Heptameria acuta.

Phyllactinia suffulta..

Erysiphe graminis .

,, galeopsidis (on Wound-

wort).

,, cichoracearum (on Bur-

dock) .

Capnodium salicinum (Sooty
Mould).

Hysterium pulicare.
Hysterographium fraxini.

Humavia carbonigena.

(On burnt ground ) .

Lachnea hirta.

, , umbrorum (on the ground ) .

399

Helotium virgultorum.

,, caly cuius (on dead

branches ) .

Belonidium pruinosum.

Mollisia melaleuca.

Ph YCOM YCETES .

Synchytrium mercurialis .

Sphaeropsidales .

Phoma longissimum.

HyPHOM YCETES .

Monilia fructigena (on an apple
from Lastingham).
Penicillium glaucum.

Stilbum tomentosum (on Trichia).

Mycetozoa.

Didymium farinaceum var. minus.

Sympetrum sanguineum Mull., a Dragonfly new to
Yorkshire. — A week or two ago, Mr. J. Beanland brought me
a dragonfly he had not seen before. On comparing with the
authorities, we were pleased to find that it was without doubt
Sympetrum sanguineum, a species hitherto unrecorded for
Yorkshire. Mr. Porritt has kindly examined the specimen and
confirms our determination. Three specimens were taken at
Hawkesworth near Bradford, on August 30th, 1919, by Mr.
Morrell. — J. W. Carter, Bradford.

— : o : —

Cypripedium Calceolus — Earliest Record for Eng-
land.— Mr. Arthur Bennett points out to me that the earliest
notice for Yorkshire of Ye Ladye’s Slipper goes back further
than the date — 1640, ‘ In a wood called the Helkes in Lancas-
hire, neere the border of Yorkeshire, given bv me in Flora of
West Yorkshire, to 1629, on P- 34& of Parkinson’s earlier
herbal ‘ Paradisi in sole ... a garden of all sorts of pleasant
flowers which our English ayre will permitt to be noursed up —
a very scarce work not available either to me in 1887, nor to
Mr. W. A. Clarke in 1896, though it is quoted among the List
of books referred to in the 2nd edition, issued by West, Newman
& Co. in 1900. The Helk’s wood near Ingleton is now accounted
to be within Yorkshire’s county boundary, but in the 16th and
early 17th centuries, like an adjacent pa?rt of Westmorland, it
was not so, I believe. The relationship of John Dalton (1766-
1844) to the Rev. James (1764-1843) still awaits explication ;
but I fancy they were brothers, John the younger, and the
birth dates and the fact that the one sent the other plants
seems a strange coincidence, if it was not so. — F. Arnold
Lees.

1919 Dec. 1

4oo

THE SPIDERS OF YORKSHIRE.

WM. FALCONER.

Slaithwaite, Huddersfield.

(Continued from page 368).

Gen. Porrhomma Sim., 7-1 1.

Some of the species of Porrhomma are very closely allied and
British records, before the revision of the genus by comparison
with the actual type specimens by Dr. Jackson in 1912,* are not
always specifically correct.

P. pygmceum B.l

Widely distributed in the British Isles and on the Continent, and
usually common amongst moss and leaves, and at the roots of
herbage in both dry and moist situations ; occasionally on railings ;
not ascending to any great height. Both P. pallidum and P.
montanum Jacks, had previously been referred to this species or
to P. oblonguni Camb. ; for this reason I have omitted all stations
about which there may be doubt, preferring in these species a shorter
rather than an erroneous list of records. Adults most months
of the year. First occurrence — the author. Drop Clough, June,
1901.

Y.C. 61. — Birkhill Wood (Cottingham), Hornsea Mere, New Joint
Dock and Humber Bank (Hull), Brantingham Dale, T.S. ; Skipwith
Common.

V.C. 62. — Middlesbrough, Guisborough Park Wood, sparingly,
J.W.H. ; Cayton Bay, Raincliff Woods, Langdale End, R.A.T.
V.C. 63. — Rivock (I£eighley), R.B. ; Shipley, W.P.W. ; Scout Wood
(Slaithwaite) ; Drop Clough and Wessenden Valley (Marsden) ;
Askern.

V.C. 64. — Burley-in-Wharfedale, W.P.W. ; Roundhay Park (Leeds) ;
Stubbing Moor ; Wothersome ; Chandler’s Whin (York) ; Picking
Gill (Sawley).

P. pallidum Jacks.

Of northern range, Moray (Scotland), Northumberland, Cumber-
land, Cheshire, Staffordshire ; amongst moss and dead leaves in
woods. Adults most months of the year, reaches an elevation of
2,000 feet. First occurrence — the author, Slaithwaite, June, 1899.
V.C. 62. — Wilton Wood, rare, J.W.H. ; Scarborough, R.A.T.

V.C. 63. — Calverley, S.M. ; Rivock (Keighley), Shipley, W.P.W.;
Defter Wood (Cawthorn) ; Goxley Valley ; Hebden Bridge : Owler’s
and Bottoms Woods, Scout Wood, Ainley Place, Barrett Clough,
Royal Clough, Cupwith, Dean Head, all near Slaithwaite ; Drop
Clough, Wessenden Valley, Pule, near Marsden ; Chew Valley,
Greenfield ; Honley Old Wood and Hey Wood ; Morton Wood
(Holmfirth) ; Mollicar Woods, Storthes Hall Wood, Smith Wood,
Woodsome, Armitage Bridge.. Butternab Wood, all near Hudders-
field ; Harden Clough (Meltham) ; Askern.

V.C. 64. — Morton Moor and Howden Ghyll (Keighley), Shipley Glen,
W.P.W. ; Roundhay Park, Meanwood and Adel, near Leeds.

P. montanum Jacks.

Of northern range, Ben Voirlich and Edinburgh, Rothiemurchus,
Northumberland, Cumberland, Snaefell (Isle of Man), and Cheshire,
reaches an elevation of 3,000 ft. First occurrence— -the author,
Slaithwaite, June, 1901.

V.C. 62. — Farndale, common, J.W.H.

* ‘Trans. Notts. Nat. Soc.’ for 1911-12, pp. 30-46 (1913).

Naturalist,

Falconer : The Spiders of Yorkshire.

401

V.C. 63. — Bottoms Wood, Slaithwaite 5 Slaithwaite Moor ; Drop
Clough ; Clowes Moor (Marsden) ; Standedge ; Crimsworth Dene ;
Hardcastle Crags.

V.C. 64. — Sawley High Moor ; Ingleborough.

P. errans Bl.

Other species have been confounded with P. errans Bl., and some
records, both British and Continental, are not to be relied on ; it
is certainly known from Bloxworth (Dorset), Hoddesdon (Herts.),
Penrith (Cumberland), Ninebanks (Northumberland) and Co.
Carlow (Ireland) ; usually on fences and railings.

V.C. 63. — Bradford, R.H.M. (V.C.H.). Dr. Meade’s specimens are
true errans, but the locality as given is not definite, and they may
have come some distance away from the city.

P. microphthalmum Camb.

Previous records not all reliable (see next species), but certainly
known from Dorset, Sussex, Kent, Middlesex, Herts, Suffolk,
Cambs., Staffs., Cheshire and Northumberland ; amongst herbage
and beneath stones, occasionally in outhouses. Adult summer and
autumn. First occurrence — the author. Stubbing Moor, June,
1903. Apparently scarce in Yorkshire.

V.C. 61. — Bridlington, <j>, Humber Bank, near the New Joint Dock,
i<J, Kelsey Hill, 2$s, Mar fleet Creek, Wei wick on Humber Bank,
1$, 1$, Leconfield, T$, T.S. ; Riplingham, 1$, E.A.P. ; Kelsey
Hill, 2$s, E.B. ; Skipwith Common, $, Spurn 2§s.

V.C. 62. — Eston, J.W.H. ; Ringingkeld, 1$.

V.C. 63. — Calverley, S.M.

V.C. 64. — Harewood Avenue, 1$, W.P.W. ; Stubbing Moor, 1 $ ;
Kettle well, 1$, in an outhouse.

P. thorellii Herm.

Previously confused with P. microphthalmum Camb., and so
recorded ; noted for outdoor localities, Huddersfield, Hexham,
Tynemouth, Seascale, Co. Carlow and Co. Antrim ; caves in Co.
Fermanagh, Lambay Island, Cheddar ; coal-pits in Co. Durham ;
cellars, Yorkshire and Northumberland. Adult summer and
autumn. First occurrence — the author, Slaithwaite, July, 1901.
V.C. 63. — Glasshoughton Sewage Works, 2^s, g2s from filter walls and
clinkers, 4$s from grass, J.W.H. J. ; Cellar at Slaithwaite, 2^s,
9$s ; Drop Clough, from vegetable debris, several $s ; sewage
works. Berry Brow, numerous <£s, $s ; Hardcastle Crags, 1 £, 2$s,
from beneath stones.

P. egeria Sim.

Rare, recorded from Dorset, Isle of Wight, Somerset, New Forest,
Suffolk, Derbyshire, Durham, Northumberland, Leinster and near
Edinburgh ; in cellars, barns, houses and caves, or in the open
under stones or on railings ; abroad, France and Hungary. First
occurrence — the author, Pole Moor, October, 1902.

V.C. 62.— Raincliff Woods, 1$, R.A.T.

V.C. 63.— Pole Moor (Scammonden), 1^, i^, beneath stone ; Butternab
Wood (Huddersfield), 1$ ; Drop Clough (Marsden), 4$s from grass
surrounding an embedded stone ; Ellen Springs, Dunford

Bridge, 1$.

Gen. Tmeticus Menge, 3-3.

T. af finis Bl.

A very rare British spider, recorded for Dorset, Derbyshire, Cam-
bridgeshire, Yarmouth (sub Anglia hancockii F. P. Smith), Chester
and Hertfordshire ; in damp ground or near water. First record —
R. H. Meade, Hornsea Mere, 1854, S.G.B.I.

V.C. 61. — Hornsea, R.H.M. , $ the type specimen ; Hornsea Mere,
2(?S, 2$s, T.S.

V.C. 63. — Harewood Park, 3^s, 3$s, on borders of mere.

1919 Dec 1

402

Falconer : The Spiders of Yorkshire.

T. graminicola Sund. ( Gongylidium graminicola Sund.)

Common in the south of England, but scarcer in the north, in.
Scotland, and in Ireland (Co. Waterford and Co. Wexford) ; abroad,.
Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, France, Germany and Siberia ; among-
grass. Adult spring to summer. First occurrence — the author.
Hare wood Avenue, June, 1903.

V.C. 61 — Hornsea, 1^, and Humber bank between Hull and Hessle,.
1$, T.S. ; Hornsea Mere, E.A.P.

V.C. 64. — Harewood Avenue, Linton Common, E. Keswick and by
river at Tadcaster, both sexes numerous ; Chandler’s Whin, York,

T. dentatus Wid. ( Gongylidium dentatum Wid.)

Widely distributed in Gt. Britain as far north as Inverness, but
not common in Ireland and in many English localities ; abroad,
in Europe, Africa and Syria. Adult, throughout the year. First
occurrence — T. Stainforth, Hornsea Mere, April, 1908.

V.C, 61. — Weedley Springs, Marfleet Creek, Kelsey Hill, Swine Woods,
Birkhill Wood, Leconfield Moat, Pulfin Bog (Beverley), Market
Weighton, Bielsbeck, Hornsea Mere, King’s Mill Marsh (Driffield),,
brickponds at Hull, Snuff Mill Lane (Hull), Barmby, T.S. ; Selby,.
Riccall and Skipwith Commons, W.P.W., W.F.

V.C. 62. — Carr Naze, Filey, T.S.

V.C. 64. — Harewood Park, both sexes.

Gen. Macrargus Dahl., 1-1.

[Gen. Tmeticus Menge, ad part.]

M, rufus Wid.

Usually common amongst fallen leaves, at the roots of grass and
under stones, but rare in some parts of the British Isles, as in
Ireland and the south of England ; abroad, Scandinavia, Belgium,
N.E. France, Germany and Hungary. Adult £ autumn to spring ;
$ throughout the year. First occurrence— the author, Slaithwaite
September, 1898.

V.C. 61. — S. Cave, Bielsbeck, Houghton Woods, T.S. ; Scampston.
V.C. 62.— Eston Nab, G.B.W. ; Farndale, Lonsdale, Guisborough,
Normanby Intake Plantation, Eston, common, J.W.H. ; Egton,
W.P.W. ; Lindale, J.F. ; Raincliff, Oliver’s Mount, Scarborough
and Ravenscar, R.A.T.

V.C. 63, 64.— A common inhabitant of woods or beneath trees, wherever
investigation has been made ; occasionally on the moors in the
Huddersfield area.

Gen. Halorates Hull. 1-1.

[Gen. Tmeticus Menge ad part.]

H. reprobus Camb.

Widely dispersed, but local, haunting the coast just above high
water mark, noted for about one dozen localities from Dorset to
the Orkneys, and in Ireland at Dublin Bay ; not usually in quantity,
but so on N. Wales coast, 1916. First occurrence — T. Stainforth,
Humber Bank West, July, 1908.

V.C. 61. — Humber Bank between Hull and Hessle, i<$, 3$, Marfleet
Creek, 1^, 7^s, Saltend Common and N. Ferriby, T.S. ; Hessle,
E.A.P.

V.C. 62. — Grangetown, mud flats, J.W.H. ; Skinningrove, west of
jetty, both sexes, adult and imm. beneath a heap of stones on shore.

Gen. Phaulothrix Berth., 2-2.

[Gen. Tmeticus Menge ad part.]

P. hardii Bl.

Mainly of northern range, and unknown in the south of England
and in Ireland ; recorded from several Scottish localities as far

Naturalist

Falconer : Thr Spiders of Yorkshire.

403-

north as Moray Firth, and from Westmorland, Cumberland,
Southport, Wallasey (Cheshire), Wicken Fen, Snowdon and
Northumberland ; abroad, France (once), .Bavaria, Prussia,
Finland and Norway ; occurs on the sea coast or on high inland
• moors. Adult in autumn. First occurrence^ — the author. Saddle-
worth, October, 1902.

V.C. 62.— Eston, $, J.W.H.

V.C. 63.-^ — Pole Moor, 1^, Wholestone Moor, 1$, moor near Jerusalem
Farm (Slaith waite), $, Drop Clough, i2, Butternab Wood (Hudders-
field), 3$s, Honley Old Wood and Harden Clough, 1 <$, i£, Saddle-
worth, near the “ Pots and Pans ” Rocks, irf, all from heather.

V.C. 64.— King Wood (Adel), i<J.

P. - Tiuthwaitii Camb.

Widely distributed in the British Isles, as far north as Inverness
and St. Kilda, and in some places as in the north of England not
uncommon ; abroad, Sweden, and Central Europe ; amongst
grass and rushes usually in damp ground. Adult autumn to
spring. First occurrence — the author. Dean Head, Sept., 1900.

V.C. 61. — Pulfin Bog (Beverley), 1^, 2$s, E.A.P. ; Brough, Sandholme,
Hornsea Mere and Kelley thorpe, $s, Bridlington Cliffs, both sexes,
Binnington, Broomfleet, T.S. ; river bank above Selby, both sexes,
W.P.W., W.F. ; Bubwith, J.F.

V.C. 62. — Grangetown, 2$s, G.B.W. ; Tees mouth, common on both
sides, J.W.H. ; Hayburn Wyke, 1^, 1$.

V.C. 63. — Loversal, H. V. Corbett ; Lower Dungeon Wood and banks
of the Aire (Shipley), Harden, W.P.W. ; Dolly Clough (Meltham),
both sexes, W.P.W. , W.F. ; Bottoms Wood, Lane, Scout Wood,
Slaithwaite Moor, Cupwith Reservoir, Barrett Clough, Ainley
Place and Clough House Woods, Dean Head, both sexes but not
in any quantity except Ainley Place and Clough House Woods —
all near Slaithwaite ; Drop Clough, 2(Js ; Marsden Clough (Holm-
firth) ; Pennyspring Wood (Huddersfield) ; Lepton Great Wood.

V.C. 64. — Saltaire, $, and Horton in Ribblesdale, 1$, W.P.W. ; Litton-
dale, F.B. ; East Keswick in a field at Argyle House, i(J, 1$.

Gen. Mengea F.O.P. Cb., 2-2.

[Gen. Tmeticus ad part.] •/

M. wavbuvtonii Camb.

A local spider noted for Southport, Glamorgan, Staffs., Cheshire,
Penrith, Northumberland and Wicken Fen ; in swampy ground,
usually plentiful where it occurs. First occurrence — T. Stainforth,
Hornsea, Aug., 1908.

V.C. 61. — Hornsea Mere, 3^, 4^s, Sandholme, 1$, T.S.; Skipwith
Common, 1^, 6§s.

V.C. 62. — Eston Moor, 1$, J.W.H.

M. scopigeva Grube.

A northern species on record for the six northern counties, Staffs.,
Isle of Man., Forres and Glasgow, and Glamorgan the only southern
county ; irj, Co. Carlow, Ireland ; abroad, Sweden, France,
Prussia and Siberia ; among grass and herbage, heather and furze.
Adult August and September. First occurrence — the author,
Ravenscar, Aug., 1904.

V.C. 61. — Boynton Woods, 1$, T.S.

V.C. 62. — Cleveland, ‘ fairly plentiful everywhere/ J. W. H. ; Ravens-
car, 1^, Goathland, 1$, Marske, cliffs near cemetery and beneath
furze bushes near the fox covert, both sexes, adult and immature.

V.C. 64. — -Valley of Desolation, Bolton Woods, both sexes, adult and
immature and Lower Dungeon Wood, Shipley, 2<^s, W.P.W.

( To be continued ).

1919 Dec. 1

4©4

3n flDemonam.

THOMAS BOYNTON, F.S.A.

The death is announced of Thomas Boynton, F.S.A. , of
Bridlington, at the age of 89, and thus passes away the last
of a trio of antiquaries who have spent long lives in investigating
and collecting pre-historic and other antiquities in East York-
shire. J. R. Mortimer (whose collection formerly at Driffield
— now at Hull — is well known), died at the advanced age of
87,* : Canon Green well — also well known for his explorations
in local barrows — died at the advanced age of 98. f And now
Thomas Boynton follows in his ninetieth year. Evidently the
collecting of prehistoric antiquities is not a hobby likely to
shorten one’s life.

Mr. Boynton, while farming at Ulrome, in Holderness,
made the discovery of the well-known pile dwelling — the
■oldest in the country — the relics from which are now in the
British Museum. On retiring to Bridlington, many years
ago, he was able to spend much of his time in the neighbouring
villages and in this way obtained a really fine collection of
weapons of the New Stone and Bronze Ages, as well as later
antiquities. Pottery and China were also sought, and in
addition Mr. Boynton, being a remarkably good shot, had some
line birds — some of great local interest. Mr. Boynton was not
married, and his collection will, no doubt, be placed in the
National or other museums.

THOMAS HEY.

Thomas Hey, who for more than twenty years regularly
attended the Yorkshire Fungus Forays, died at Sheffield on
October 15th, 1919. Although he had resided in Derby
during his many years’ service with the Midland Railway
Company, Mr. Hey was a Yorkshireman by birth. He might
be termed an ‘ all round ’ Naturalist, as he had in turn taken
up Conchology, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera and Botany, with
Mycology acknowledged as his favourite pursuit in later years.

He was also a capable taxidermist and photographer. His
cameras were usually home made, and he also constructed his
own microscopes. As a pedestrian he frequently recalled notable
achievements, and his many tales of adventure with the
sporting gun disclosed his attachment to and ability in the
use of this weapon.

He was one of the founders of the British Mycological Society,

*See Naturalist, 1911, pp. 329-330.
fSee Naturalist, 1918, pp. 104-6.

Naturalist,

Correspondence.

405

and also the founder and for many years President of the
Midland Railway Natural History Society, with which the
Derby Naturalists’ Society (of which he was also a member)
became incorporated.

At the Annual Fungus Forays of the Midland Railway
Society, it was Mr. Hey’s delight to have present one or two
Yorkshire Mycologists. The late Chas. Crossland, Mr. Alfred
Clarke and the present writer have all been recipients of free
railway passes to Derby for these popular functions, at which
were also usually present the late Thomas Gibbs and Mr. T^
B. Roe, now of the Mycological Commit ee of the Yorkshire
Naturalists' Union. The programme consisted of the adjoining
districts being worked by several collecting parties on the
Saturday afternoon, a display of named specimens in the
excellent Midland Railway Institute in the evening, with an
address by the visiting Yorkshireman to follow. Mr. Hey, as.
president, occupied the Chair upon these occasions. A numer-
ous attendance of the public was always assured. The ‘ critical
species ’ were usually worked out on the following day. Faci-
ally, the deceased, it was often remarked, strongly resembled
Bismarck. Although in his eightieth year, Mr. Hey remained
hearty and active, and only a fortnight before his decease he
accompanied a party of Naturalists on a fifteen miles' walk.
The interment was at Wharton, near Carnforth. — A. E. Peck.

: o :

CORRESPONDENCE.

LARGE PIKE AND HERONS.

Judging from Mr. Riley Fortune’s addendum to my notes on this subject,
the modus operandi of herons in removing large pike from water has not
been generally observed by naturalists. Few of them have studied
field ponds, small water areas and lakelets presumably ; my lot has been
cast among such trifling waters. I even now cannot see in my accounts
of what once took place at Twigmoor anything that suggests the lifting
of a ten-pound pike by a heron. Certainly such an idea has never entered
my brain, powerful though the heron is for its size. All the fish that I
have seen at Twigmoor, and one elsewhere, had been ‘run out ’ of the
water in April. The late Rev. R. Sutton pointed out to my father and
me that all these fish had a hole or holes in their backs behind their
shoulders. He practically gave us the following explanation of the
heron’s method of work : — ‘ Suddenly struck by the bird with its terrible
beak, when the fish was in the shallows for breeding purposes, and tha
bird between it and “ the deeps ” the pike usually frequent ; the fish’s
own struggles to escape propel it landward, along with the push of the
bird assisted by its powerful wings. The fish could only move in one
direction, i.e., the opposite one to which it was struck by the bird, to
escape the terrible thrust of its dart-like bill from behind.’ The larger
fish were laid about three feet from the water’s edge. The smaller a
little more distant perhaps. They had been a fair time out of the water,
all I should judge some days, when I saw them ; and at that time there
was no visible trace of any struggle, as the soil is sandy there.

Now at the time there was a heronry of about sixty nests, according

1919 Dec. 1

406

Correspondence ,

to the then keeper, in Broughton Woods, less than one mile away, and
Mr. Sutton wag one of the best ornithologists of his day. , He said : ‘ Pike
were only- thrust out of the water in the months of March and April by
my ponds.’ That is to say, only when they are in the shallows for
breeding, not feeding, purposes. He also pointed out to us that all the
fish had been practically struck in the same place and at the same angle,
that is, .from behind in the direction to cause motion towards the ,lan<J by
a bird on the deep-water side of them. This was the fact excepting in
the case of a much smaller fish, perhaps of two pounds weight, which
was lying from fifteen to twenty feet at least from the pond’s edge. This"
had marks on both sides of it. An. effort may have been made to swallow
it, though I have been told by keepers a two-pound trout will ‘ throttle /
a heron. I have no personal experience of this.

I saw these fish in April, 1868 or 1869, when hybernated specimens
•of the female Brimstone ( Gonepteryx rhamni) were on the wing by the
wood-side or sucking nectar from the Primrose flowers within the tree-
shade. It was a red-letter day for me, I had never seen them before..
Again in April, 1888, at a bend of the brook at Harrington, Northampton-
shire, which had a much greater water flow then, than in later years when
I have -visited it, I met with another case. This stream at that date
was much frequented by herons, which bothered me sadly when duck
shooting, and it was there that I thoroughly studied the ways of breeding
pike. As I was on my way to shoot a pike with my rifle, I found an
unspawned and holed female fish landed on a mud bank two or three feet
from the water. It was, I judged, an eight -pounder, holed behind the
shoulders in Mr. Sutton’s critical spot, precisely like those of my native
county. There was only this difference, because the pike had only been
landed just before I arrived, that on the Upper-Lias clay which forms
the bed of Harrington Brook, I could observe the track the fish had
followed in being run up and along the mud bank, for its line of movement
was plainly to be seen from the water’s edge to the spot it was lying on,
as also the footprints of a fully grown, I ghould judge, aged heron.

I know no other bird which has fished for pike in ,the Twigmoor ponds
except the Osprey, and, as every naturalist knows, it is- well -furnished for
cutting up large fish. So the fish I saw with Mr. Sutton and my father on
the land cannot have been the result of an Osprey’s stoop. At times
there were plenty of otters on the Brook at Harrington, as I have them
here in the river or becks at Cadney now and again. Their mode of eating
their prey is quite characteristic — they take the shoulders of the fish and
little else, and never hole them to my knowledge. A five to six-pound
fish is the largest I have ever seen otter eaten anywhere. There was no
‘ trail ’ of the otter at the time on Harrington Brook near this heron
stranded fish. I have had the fullest opportunities of studying the ways
of herons, and my notes may come later. Here it is enough to remark
that it is a pity that the Rev. R. Sutton was no writer, his knowledge
of the heron and black -headed gull was unique. His collection of the
eggs of Larus ridibundus made during a life-time on the Twigmoor Ponds
was the finest type collection I ever saw, and no doubt in its day the
finest that existed. — E. Adrian Woodruffe-Peacock, Cadney, Brigg,
Lines.

:o:

In Man for November, Sir W. Ridgway describes a peculiar chevron
decoration round the collar of a bronze axe from Ireland, which he
considers to be unique.

The Lancashire and Cheshire Naturalist for November contains
notes on local Coleoptera by H. Britten ; Bank Vole, by G. W. Ellison ;
Planorbis dilatatus and Physa heterostropha at Dukinfield, by J. W.
Jackson and J. G. Kitchen, and reports of meetings. We are sorry
the editor has given up the attempt to print •' S. L. Petty ” correctly.

Naturalist

407

YORKSHIRE ENTOMOLOGY.

The Annual Meeting of the Entomological Section of the Yorkshire
Naturalists’ Union was held in the Leeds Institute on October 25th,
1919, Mr. G. T. Porritt presiding. There was a large attendance of
members from all parts of the county.

The following records are additional to those referred to in the Annual
Report. Mr. Rosse Butterfield observed that Theda rubi is extending
its range in Wharf edale. Mr. T. Ashton Lofthouse reported Syrichthus
alveolus from Pateley Bridge and Dasychira pudibunda from Eston,
the latter new to North Yorkshire. Mr. B. Morley remarked on the
great abundance of Hybernia aur antiaria in High Hoyland Bank Wood,
near Barnsley, and also on the general invasion of the West Riding by
Exapate congelatella in great numbers, whereas only a few years ago
the species was largely confined to the Moors. Cerigo matura has been
taken at Wetherby, and Luperina cespitis at Sandburn by Mr. A. Smith,
of York, and Macroglossa stellatarum and Plusia moneta at York, by
Mr. W. Fabian, also at Driffield by Mr. Harman.

The following lepidoptera were exhibited

By Dr. H. D. Smart : Yorkshire and Irish Plusia intervogationis ;
a fine series of Pieris napi containing a banded form, and Irish specimens
with a bright yellow ground colour; melanic A crony da leporina from
Cannock Chase, blue females of Lycaena icarus from Sandsend ; melanic
Psilura monacha, a variable series each of Polia chi, Hepialus hedus. and
Cidaria testata and a male Ematurga atomaria with female coloration.

By Mr. G. T. Porritt : Nigrosparsata-varleyata and a varleyata with
the forewings entirely black of Abraxas grossulariata, a series each of
Zygaena achilleae from Scotland, and the new British tortrix Poedisca
pomedaxana from Exeter.

Mr. T. H. Fisher : a short series of Arctia caia with lake. coloured
underwings from Skelmanthorpe. Dr. Corbett : variable series each of
Phigalia pedaria and Hybernia leucophaearia from Doncaster ; Mr.
Rosse Butterfield : a large series of P. pedaria, the majority being melanic,
from Keighley. Dr. Croft : a specimen of Thecla quercus var. bellus
from Lancashire, and a large series of Vanessa io, many of which were
var. cyanostida from Grange. Mr. Musham : a series of light Polia

chi from Selby, bred from larvae found feeding on garden beans ; Mr.
Ashton Lofthouse : black P. pedaria from Ingleby Greenhow, variable
H . leucophcearia from the same place, Notodonta chaonia, Great Ayton ;
Ebulea crocealis, Linthorpe ; Leptogramma literana and Tinea tapetzella,
Ingleby Greenhow ; Penthina betulcetana from Eston ; Coccyx vacdniana
Rosedale, and Eupcecilia affinitana from Grangetown. Mr. B. Morley :
a series of Argyresthia conjugella and its black form cerariella from Haw
Park, a variable series of males of Himera pennaria, a long series of
Crocallis elinguaria showing great variation in the width of the centre
bar of the forewings, all from Skelmanthorpe. In the series was a
specimen of the newly named var. signatipennis and others closely ap-
proaching it. Mr. Stanger : many of the larger species of British larvae
preserved and mounted on their respective food plants.

Coleoptera. — The most noteworthy exhibit was that of four
specimens of the black variety, funebris Sturm, of the tiger Beetle,
taken near Leeds by Mr. A. E. Thornes, who also shewed a fine
series of colour varieties of Strangalia armata from Ryhill. Dr. Corbett
brought some interesting beetles from the Doncaster district, taken
by the late Capt. H. V. Corbett, and Mr. G. B. Walsh exhibited many
beetles new to the Scarborough district, including Euthia schaumi Kies,
Micrambe villosa Heer, and Anoplus roboris Suf. Dr. Fordham’s exhibit
was mainly confined to the orders Hymenoptera and Diptera, but he
shewed several interesting East Riding beetles, including Agrilus
angustulus lie., Aleochara cuniculorum Kr. and A theta languida Er.

The exhibits of Hymenoptera were by Mr. Lofthouse : a female

1919 Dec l

408

Northern News, etc.

Mutilla europcea from Glaisdale ; Mr, Rosse Butterfield : A series of
male Bomb'us soroensis from Grassington to show variation, and a new
variety in a species of inquiline in this species. On behalf of Mr. Musham
Crabro cribrarius and its prey, and a split cane showing pupae of Odynerus.

Mr. J. W. Carter : a peculiar abnormal specimen of Sirex noctilio
taken by Mrs. Haigh-Lumby at Scarborough. From the apex of the
basal joint of the right antenna there is a third antenna about half length
of the normal, but while the normal is entirely black the additional
one is testaceous.

Dr. Corbett : Aphelochirus aestivalis (Homoptera) from Lincoln.

Mr. Butterfield : a few Yorkshire diptera of the genus Criorrhina
including C. asilica\ and Mr. Morley a specimen of Xiphura atrata from
Edlington Wood.

Mr. Rhodes : a group of mud nests and specimens of a large mason
wasp, together with its parasite, and a number of carpenter bees from
Malay. — B. Morley.

— : o —

British Birds for November contains some remarkable photographs
of the Black-necked Grebes which nested in Hertfordshire last year.

The Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association, Vol. XXX., part 3,
besides many illustrated reports of Excursions, contains an address by
Dr. W. D. Lang, on “ Old Age and Extinction in Fossils.’'

On November 6th a turtle was found on the Cleethorpes beach. It
measured 4 feet by 3, and weighed about 2 cwt. It was sold for five
guineas. Probably it was a captive from some sunken ship.

We learn from the press that at the sale of the late Sydney Webb’s
collection of British lepidoptera at Stevens’s Rooms, London, fifteen
specimens of the large copper butterfly secured sums totalling ^112 7s.,
while an empty pupa case fetched £5 . A number of * well authenticated ’
British specimens of the Camberwell Beauty — (taken 1840-1888) were
knocked down at prices ranging from 10s. to £2 each, whilst a variety of
the common Pearl Bordered Fritillary, the ordinary form of which is
worth only 2d., fetched £21. Nine other varieties of the Fritillary
realised £76 12s. Another rarity — the Queen of Spain Fritillary — had
15 representatives included in the sale captured in the sixties and seventies.
These fetched only ^15 7s. 6d., though three varieties of that extremely
common insect the Small Tortoiseshell (normal value id.) were purchased
for -£36. Likewise, 14 specimens of that rare visitor to Britain, the Bath
White, realised only ^13 15s. 6d. ; while three varieties of the common
Brimstone Butterfly (normal value i^d.) fell to bidders at sums totalling
£23 17s.

A conference was called last January by the joint invitation of the
president of the Royal Society, the president of the British Academy,
and others representing both those bodies and a large number of others,
interested both in the production and distribution of knowledge, to
frame, if possible, a scheme for a journal which should present in
popular form the most recent results of research in all the chief subjects
of knowledge. This conference appointed a committee, and their report
was presented and adopted at the adjourned meeting held recently in
the rooms of the Royal Society. The Rev. Canon Temple presided.
The meeting approved the name ‘ Discovery ’ for the new journal and
established a trust for its maintenance, the first trustees being: Sir
Joseph J. Thomson, Sir Frederic G. Kenyon, Professor A. C. Seward,
Professor R. S. Conway. The meeting approved of the agreement made
provisionally with Mr. Murray as publisher, and of his and the commit-
tee's joint recommendation of Captain A. S. Russell, M.C., D.Sc., of the
University, Sheffield. The first number will be issued on January 15th
next, at the price of sixpence.

Naturalist,

4og

CLASSIFIED INDEX.

COMPILED BY W. E. L. WATTAM.

It is not an index in the strictest sense of that term, but it is a
classified summary of the contents of the volume, arranged so as to
be of assistance to active scientific investigators ; the actual titles
of papers not always being regarded so much as the essential nature
of their contents.

CONTRIBUTORS.

Atkinson, Jasper, 88, 294

Bayford, E. G., f.e.s., 75-76
Bell, Alfred, f.g.s., 57-59
Bennett, A., f.l.s., 372
Booth, H. B., f.z.s., m.b.o.u., 34-35,
150-151, 275-276, 302, 370
Brown, J. M., b.sc., f.l.s., f.c.s.,
63-66, 79, 292, 330-332
Burnley, A, I., 363-364
Burrell, W. H., f.l.s., 41, 309
Butterfield, E. P.„ 110-111/215, 278,
279-280, 310, 337, 339, 373, 373-374
Butterfield, R., f.e.s., 40, 79, 310

Carter, J. W., 399

Cheesman, W. N., j .p., f.l.s., 3 14-315
Cheetham, C. A., f.l.s., 41, 44-45,
96, 151, 182, 244, 305, 307, 310, 380,
388, 389, 394-395
Clarke, W. J., f.z.s., 36, 245
Corbett, H. H., m.r.c.s., f.l.s., 158-
160, 272, 336, 371
Couldwell, Charles, 182

Day, F. H., f.e.s., 46, 77-79, 239-
242, 327-328

Dallman, A. A., f.c.s., 164-166
Drabble, Eric, d.sc., f.l.s., 10-12,

151

Drabble, Hilda, 10-12, 151

Falconer, Wm., 21-25, 40-41, I37-I4°,
235-242, 267-270, 272, 273, 295-302,
305-306, 323-326, 356, 365, 368, 392-
.393, 400-403

Firth, J. Digby, f.l.s., f.e.s., 272
Fordham, W. J., m.r.c.s., l.r.c.p.,
f.e.s., 13-16, 39, 70-71, 102-104,
168, 210, 272-273, 274-275
Fortune, R., f.z.s., 79, 336, 340-341,
37i

Forrest, H. E., 104, 277-278
Fysher, Greevz, 208, 305

Garstang, Professor W., m.a., d.sc.,
89-96, 123-134, 195-198, 231-233
Grace, George, b.sc., 292
Gyngell, W., 17-20, 72-74, 105-106,
174-176, 215, 263-266, 311-312,

333-336

Hall, A. E., 246, 279
Hartshorn, J., 306-307
Hawks worth, E., 43
Hewett, W., 36-37
Holmes, John, 42, 304

Ingham, W., b.a., 42, 209-210
Irving, J., m.d., 38-39

Jackson, J. W., f.g.s., 243-244
Johnson, J. W. H., m.sc., 273
Johnson, Walter, f.g.s., 225-230,

255-258, 287-290, 319-322
Jones, R., 304-305
Jourdain, F. C. R., 183

Larder, J., 372

Lees, F. Arnold, m.r.c.s., 188, 211-
213, 341 » 390-391, 399

Malone, M., 309-310
Mansbridge, W., f.e.s., 46, 135-136,
I5L 213

Mason, F. A., 208-209, 307-308
Mason, Rev. W. W., 318
Milsom, F. E., b.sc., 307
Morley, B., 39, 272, 407-408
Musham, J. F., f.e.s., 38-39, 40, 182

Oldham, Charles, 292, 337

Parkin, W. H., 271, 336
Payne, J. H., 181, 311
Peacock, E. A., Woodruffe-, f.l.s.,
f.g.s., f.e.s., 199-205, 246-247,

277, 278, 329-330, 340, 353-355
405-406

1919 Dec. 1.

2 D

4'io

Classified Index ,

CONTRIBUTORS — continued.

Peacock, Tom W. Woodruffe-, 245
Pearson, Wm. Hy., f.l.s., 136, 160
Peck, A. E., f.l.s. , 42, 396-399. 404:
4°5

Percival, F. G., b.sc.', f.g.s., 291-292
Pitt, Frances, 370

Porritt, G. T,, f.l.s., f.e.s., 40,

47-48, 278, 280, 339-340, 374-375.
380

Porter, J., 388
Proctor, Charles F., 183

Robinson, J. F., 41
Rowan, W., 9, 32

Schlesch, Hans, 29-32

Selous, Edmund, 167-168, 259-262,

357-36o, 381-385

Sheppard, Thomas, m.sc., f.g.s.,

F.R.G.S. , F.S.A. (SCOT.), 97-IOI’, IO7-
109, 141-142, 161-163, 2I4. 293-294,
386-389, 404

Smith, Joseph, m.r.i.a., 60-62, 169*

*73

Snelgrove, E., f.l.s., 177-180
Stather, J. W., f.g.s., 387
Stainforth, T., b.a., b.sc., 234, 361-
362

Sykes, Mark L., f.r.m.s., 373

Taylor, J. W., m.sc., 122, 143-149
Thompson, M. L., f.e.s., 210, 306
Trueman, A. E., d.sc., f.g.s., 5-9,

67-69

Wade, E. W., m.b.o.u., 35-36, 387
Wattam, W. E. L., 26-28, 33-43,
109, 206-210, 271-273, 303-308,

308-310

Welch, F. D., m.r.c.s., 47, 341
Wilkinson, Henry J., 373
Wilkinson, Johnson, m.b.o.u., 37-38
Wilson, A., 369

Woodhead, T. W., ph.d., m.sc., f.l.s.,

33-43

Wroot, H. E., 136

BOOK NOTICES.

Acari.

British Museum Publications (Natural
History) Studies on Acari, No. 1.
The Genus Demodex — Stanley Hirst,
252

Biology.

Journal of the Marine Biological
Association, 314

Ward, H. C. and Whipple, G. C.—
Fresh-water Biology, 134

Birds.

British Birds, 245, 273, 337, 376, 391

British Ornithology, A Geographical
Bibliography of, 378

Selous, Edmund — Tommy Smith again
at the Zoo, 310

Witherby, H. F. — A Practical Hand-
book of British Birds, 120, 189

COLEOPTERA.

Notman, Howard — Coleoptera Illus-
• trata, 230

Flowering Plants.

Bower, F. O., f.r.s; — Botany of the
Living Plant, 343

Lovell, John H. — -The Flower and the
Bee, 342

Oliver, F. W., f.r.s. — The Exploita-
tion of Plants, 66

Ramsay, F. M. — Everybody’s Flower
Book, 66

Fungi.

Lister/Miss G., f.l.s. — The Mycetozoa
a short history of their study in
Britain, 217 -

Guide to the British Mycetozoa,

3i4

Geology and Palaeontology.

Bone, Prof. W. A. — Coal and its
scientific uses, 218

Boswell, Prof. P. G. H. — Refractory
Sands, Part I., 217, 316
Buckman, S. S. — Yorkshire Type
Ammonites, Part XVII., 59 ;
Part XVIII., 248 ; Part XIX., 315
Hatch, F. H. — The Iron and Steel
Industry of the United Kingdom
under War conditions, 355
Leith, C. K. — Structural Geology, 372
Seward, A. C. — Fossil Plants — A
Text Book for Students of Botany
and Geology, Vol. IV., 372
Ziegler, V. — Popular Oil Geology, 393

Mammalia.

Kerr, J. G. — Text Book of Embryo-
logy, Vol. II., Vertebrata, 342
Harmer, Dr. S. F. — Fifth Report on
Cetacea stranded on the British

Naturalist

Classified Index.

41 1

BOOK NOTICES— continued

Coasts, 1917, 50 ; The same, 1918,
218-219

Selous, Edmund. — Tommy Smith
again at the Zoo, 310

Museums.

British Museum (Natural History),
Booklet on Birds Beneficial to
Agriculture — F. W. Frohawk, 219

Studies on Acari, No. 1 — The

Genus Demodex — Stanley Hirst, 252
Halifax, Bankfield Museum, Notes of,
No. XI., 85

Hull Museum, Publications of, (Nos.
113-116), 181

Norwich Museum, Report of, 280
Wales, National Museum of, Annual
Report of, 88

Worthing Museum, Publications of,
248

Odonata.

Lucas, W. J. — The Odonata of the
Lancashire and Cheshire District, 380

Orthoptera.

Eabre, J. Henri. — The life of the
Grasshopper, 221

Scientific History.

Adami, J. G. — Medical contributions
to the study of Evolution, 185
Bradford Antiquary, Part XX., 315
■Carey, A. E. and Oliver, F. W. — -
Tidal Lands : A Study of Shore

Problems, 185

Lssex Naturalist, Part XII. of Vol.

XVIII., 87 ; Vol. XIX., 375
Hogg, Robert, f.r.h.s. — Educational
Gardening, 220, 342
Lancashire and Cheshire Naturalist,
80, 216, 282, 346

Sheppard, Thomas, m.sc., f.g.s. —
Kingston-upon-Hull : before, dur-
ing and after the Great War, 314
Taylor, Ernest E. — Yorkshire Moors
and Sea, 342

alter, H. E. — The Human Skeleton :
an interpretation, 310
Watts, W. W. — Shropshire : The

Geography of the County, 393

Societies.

Belfast Naturalists’ Field Club,
Transactions of, 341
Bootham School, York, Natural
History , etc., Society, Annual
Report of, 81, 364

Botanical Society and Exchange Club,
Report of for 1918, 391
Bournemouth Natural Science Society,
Proceedings of, Vol. X., 377

Brighton and Hove Natural History
Society, Annual Report of, 364
British Association, Annual Report
for 1918, 281

Chester Society of Natural Science,
Transactions of, 341
Croydon Natural History and Scientific
Society, Proceedings of, 12
Cumberland and Westmorland Anti-
quarian, etc.. Society, Transactions
of, Vol. XIX. (N.S.), 379
Derbyshire Archaeological and Natural
History Society, Transactions of, 316
East Anglia Prehistoric Society, Pro-
ceedings of, 82, 352
East Riding of Yorks. Antiquarian
Society, Transactions of, Vol.
XXII., 380

Hull Scientific and Field Naturalists’
Club, Transactions of, Vol. IV., 379
Leeds Astronomical Society, Trans-
actions of, 80, 364

Lincolnshire Naturalists’ Union,
Transactions of 1918, 377
Liverpool Naturalists’ Field Club,
Proceedings of 1918, 377
London .Natural History Society,
Transactions of, 1917, 215
Manchester Literary and Philosophical
Society, Transactions of, 344
Manchester Microscopical Society,
Transactions of, 364
National Trust for Places of Historic
interest, etc., Annual Report of, 364
Northumberland, Durham and New-
castle-on-Tyne, Natural History
Society, Transactions of, 81
Northants. Natural History Society,
Journal of, 242

Palaeontographical Society, Trans-
actions of, Vol. LXXI., 284
Perthshire Society of Natural Science,
Transactions of, 242
Sedbergian Sedgwick Society, Trans-
actions of, 378

Selby Scientific Society, Annual
Report of, 84

South-Eastern Union of Scientific
Societies, Transactions of, 347
Yorkshire Geological Society, Trans-
actions of. Part IV. of Vol. XIX., 2

Miscellanea.

Millais, J. F. — Life of Frederick
Courtenay Selous, d.s.o., 4
Moorman, Prof. F. W. — Songs of the
Ridings, 191
Vasculum, The, 219

1919 Dec 1.

412

Classified Index

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Birds.

Bunting, Corn, 189
Bunting, Snow, Juvenile, Plate I.
Jackdaw and other Birds, Dia-
grammatic representations of Food
percentages of, 193, 194
Lark, Sky-, Juvenile, Plate I.

Lark, Wood-, Juvenile, Plate I.
Pigeon, Wood, contents of crop, 122
Pipit, Richard’s, First winter, Plate I.
Pipit, Rock, Juvenile, Plate I.
Sparrow, House, 189
Sparrow, Tree, 189

COLLEMBOLA.

Megalothorax minimus, 63
Fish.

Hearing Organs of Fishes, 61, 171
Fungi.

Hirneola auricula-judae, Fr., 225
Lichens on Vertebra of a Sheep, 87

Geology and Palaeontology.
Ammonite or Mammoth? 116, 117

Mollusca.

Admete viridula sheppardi sp. nov., 57
Astarte apiculata sp. nov., 57
Vertigo alpestris, 31

eumicra Bourguignat, 29

genesii Gredler, 29

Portraits, Views and Maps.
Barnes, Richard, 44
Cross land, Charles, 177
Drake, H. C., f.g.s., i, 107
Gibbs, Thomas, 177
Gormire Lake, 206
Lamp lough, Edward, 18 1
Nottingham and Bi thorough, Sketch
map of lane between, 6
Parkin, George, 75
Paynter, Henry Augustus, 276
Roebuck, W. Denison, m.sc., F.L.s.,143
Saltwick Bay, Whitby, 243
Spring-gun enclosed in Oak Tree, 214

SPECIES AND VARIETIES NEW TO SCIENCE BROUGHT
FORWARD IN THIS VOLUME.

Mollusca (Marine).

Admete viridula sheppardi sp. nov.,
figured and described, and Astarte
apiculata sp. nov., figured and
described, both from the Holderness
Basement Clays, Yorkshire, A. Bell,
57-59

Arachnida.

Troglohyphantes margersoni, sp. nov.,

taken south of Buttermere, and
Maro humicola, sp. nov., taken at
Slaithwaite and Hebden Bridge,
figured and described, W. Falconer,
295-302

Diptera.

Ceratopogon braueri Wasmann, taken
at Grassington by Mr. Rosse
Butterfield, noted, 157

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

January. — Petroleum — Linnean
Species of Mollusca — Yorkshire

Geologists — Science and Nation-
ality— Yorkshire Natural Science —
Yorkshire Naturalists — Selous —
The Sportsman, 1-4.

February .-A wet month — Terrestrial
Acari — Yorkshire Specimens — An

.Entomological Contortionist —

British Whales — Popularising Sci-
ence— Leeds War Memorial: — Fossil
Earthquakes — Old River Channels
— Earthquake Phenomena —
Puzzles for Mining Men — ' Lurch-
ing 1 Rock-Riders in Cumber-
land ’ — Sandstone Dykes — Age of
Dykes — Durham Glacial Beds —

Loess — A Yorkshire Comparison — ■
Carboniferous of Clitheroe—
Goniatite Zones, 49-56
March . — Bootham School Naturalists
— Northumberland Naturalists - — -
Britain’s Mineral Resources —
Whitby Jet — East Anglian Pre-
Historians — I Illustrations — The
Report — Other Contributions— The
Vasculum — Selby Naturalists — An
Ancient ‘ Comb ’ — A Mammoth’s
Nest — One of the Fibulariidae —
Origin of Flint — Essex Naturalists
— A ‘ Crop ’ — Science Progress—
A National Museum, 81-88
April . — The Natural History Mus-
eum— An Appointment — A Detri-

Naturalist,

Classified Index.

413

NOTES AND COMMENTS — continued.

ment to Science — The ‘ Creators ’ — -
Natural History Museum — An
-Appointment made — Dr. Harmer’s
Qualifications — Church and Science
— Ammonite or Mammoth — The
‘ All-seeing Eye ’ — : An Archaeo-
logist’s Eye — Man Proud Man — The
first restoration of an Extinct
Mammal — Underground Geology —
A Yorkshire analogy— A side issue
— Summary of Arguments — A Hand-
book of British Birds — The Plan —
Plovers and their Eggs— A Pigeon’s
Crop, 1 13-122

JVlay . — Problems of Coal — Waste of
Coal — Campodeidae : a plea for

Material — Yorkshire Campodeae —
A check list of Myriopods— Diplo-
podic Synonymy — A deduction —
A variety promoted — A larval
species — Colour-sense of Wasps —
Female Fellows — Myrmecophilous
Notes, 153-157

June. — Tidal Lands — Royal Com-
missions— Blakeney Point — Medical
Contributions — And the Study
of Evolution — A discussion — Sum-
mary of Contents— The British
Museum — Cheiranths II., 1 9 1 9 — -
Moir Jaw- — Practical Handbook of
British Birds — Local Societies and
Adult Education — Exeunt Sea-
Eagle— Dates of Publication — A
new Songster — Food of Wild Birds
— A Verdict, 185-194

J uly . — The Mycetozoa - — Refractory
Sands — Coal and its Scientific uses
— -Our Whales, etc., in 1918—
Previous Records — Beneficial Birds
— The Vasculum — The Naturalist’s
Note Book, New Series — Educa-
tional Gardening— The life of the
Grasshopper— Distribution of Marsh
Ringlet — The Yorkshire Naturalists
Union — Ice Transport — Yorkshire
Shelly Drift — A well-armed Glac-
ialist— Anchor Ice— Another Museum
for Hull, 217-224

August . — The Museums Association
— The Dinner — The President’s

Address — The War and Art Treas-
ures— A Minister’s Action — Salaries
of Curators — Papers read — Visits
to Museums — Studies on Acari —
Yorkshire Millstone Grit — Songs of
the Birds — Nature Poems, 249-254

September. — British Association
Report for 1918 — Sunset and Soul-
shine - — - The Selous Collection —
Lancashire and Cheshire Naturalist
— Early Record of Cypripedium
Calceolus — Sir William Boyd Daw-
kins— Fossil Skulls — And Com-
pression, Brachy and Dolicho-
cephalic— The Galley Hill Skull —
British ‘ Oil-pools ’ — Palaeonto-
graphical Society — Illustrations —
Preserving Plants in Formalin —
South-Eastern Naturalists — The
Bulletin, 281-286

October — ‘ Oil Spurts in a Rectory ’
— Mixed Spirits — The Cause — A
Peace Souvenir — Marine Biology —
British Mycetozoa — Type Am-
monites — Bradford Antiquaries —
Derbyshire Naturalists — And their
Publication — Sands — Iron Ores —
Lincolnshire Ores — Septarian Struc-
ture— The Drake Collection — The
Bower Collection, 313-318

November . — The Geological Maga-
zine— The Cause of the Crisis —
Past and Present - — Lancashire
Naturalists — Entomological Maga-
zines— The South-Eastern Natural-
ist— Treasure Trove, etc. — Rats —
‘ Blue John '—Evolution of the
Ammonites — Leading Principles —
Kelestominae — Dr. J. W. Evan’s
Address — Local Geologists — Wasted
Energy— North of England Borings
• — Museums — Prehistorians, 345 -352

December .—Bournemouth Natural-
ists — The Cheviots — Lincolnshire
Naturalists — Liverpool Naturalists
* — Sedbergian Sedgwick Society —
Ornithological Bibliography — Prof .
J. E. Marr, sc.d., f.r.s. — Roman
Brooches — Hull Naturalists — East
Riding Antiquaries — Odonata, 377-
380

CHESHIRE.

Hymenoptera. — Acanthomyops I ological Society, W. Mansbridge,
alienus Forst, taken at Wallasey ' 15 1, 213

noted, 157 Geology and Palaeontology . — Bibli-

Lepidoptera . — Reports of Meetings ography with respect to the Geology
of Lancashire and Cheshire Entom- and Palaeontology of the North of

.1919 Dec 1.

4i4.

Classified Index

CHESHIRE — -continued.

England (Yorkshire excepted) dur-
ing 1918, T. Sheppard, 96-101,
141-142

Scientific History. — Lancashire and

Cheshire Naturalist, 80, 344, 346'

406

Societies . — Chester Society of Natural
Science,. Transactions of, 341

CUMBERLAND.

Arachnida. — New and rare British
Spiders, figured and described,
including Cumberland records, W.
Falconer, 295-302

Birds. — Jackdaw’s unusual nesting
site, W. W. Mason, 318
Coleoptera. — Calasoma inquisitor
taken near Tilberthwaite, G. Grace,
292

Flowering Plants .—Occurrence of
Goodyera repens at Armathwaite
and Corby, F. H. Day, 46
Geology and Palaeontology. — Bibli-
ography with respect to the Geology
and Palaeontology of the North of
England (Yorkshire excepted )
during 1918, T. Sheppard, 96-101,

141-142 ; Report on Dr. A.
Gilligan’s paper 'On Sandstone
Dykes or Rock-Riders in the Cum-
berland Coalfield,’ read at Meeting
of Geological Society of London,
53-54

Mammalia . — Sorex minutus (Lesser
Shrew), occurrence of in Lake
District, C. Oldham, 292

Reptiles . — Palmated Newt taken from
two Cumberland tarns, C. Oldham,
337

Societies. — Cumberland and West-
morland Antiquarian, etc., Society,
Transactions of, Vol. XIX. (N.S.),
379

DERBYSHIRE.

Acari . — Some Derbyshire Plant Galls,
J. M. Brown, 330-332
Coleoptera. — Some Derbyshire Plant
Galls, J. M. Brown, 330-332
Collembola. — The Apterygota of

Yorkshire and Derbyshire, with
figures of Magalothorax minimus,
J. M. Brown, 63-66
Diptera.- — Some Derbyshire Plant
Galls, J. M. Brown, 330-332
Flowering Plants . — A few notes of
plants occurring in North-east
Derbyshire (incorporated in List
of Butterflies for that area), E. and
H. Drabble, 10-12

Fungi . — Some Derbyshire Plant Galls
J. M. Brown, 330-332
Geology and Palaeontology. — Note
on boring for petroleum at Hardstoft,
near Chesterfield, 1 ; Bibliography
with respect to the Geology of the
North of England (Yorkshire ex-

cepted) during 1918, T. Sheppard,
96-101 ; Notes on ‘ Blue John/
348

Homoptera .—Some Derbyshire Plant
Galls, J. M. Brown, 330-332
Hymenoptera. — Some Derbyshire

Plant Galls, J. M. Brown, 330-332
Lepidoptera . — The Butterflies of
North-east Derbyshire, E. and H.
Drabble, 10-12 ; Further note
thereon, 15 1 ; Further Derbyshire
Butterfly records, J. M. Brown, 79
Protura. — The Apterygota of York-
shire and Derbyshire, with figure of
Megalothorax minimus, J. M.
Brown, 63-66

Societies .—Derbyshire Archaeological
and Natural History Society, Trans-
actions of, 316

Thysanura. — The Apterygota of
Yorkshire and Derbyshire, with
figure of Magalothorax minimus,
J. M. Brown, 63-66

DURHAM.

Geology and Palaeontology . — Bibli-
ography with respect to the Geology
and Palaeontology of the North of
England (Yorkshire excepted)
during 1918, T. Sheppard, 96-101,
141-142 ; Report on Mr. C. T.
Trechmann’s paper ‘ On a Bed of
Interglacial Loess and some Pre-
glacial Fresh-water Clays of the

Durham Coast, read at meeting of
Geological Society of London, with
a Yorkshire Comparison, 54-55 ;
Notes on ‘ Blue John,’ 348

Societies. — Northumberland, Dur-

ham, and Newcastle -on -Tyne
Natural History Society, Trans-
actions of, 81

Naturalist,

Classified Index ,

415

ISLE OF MAN.

Arachnida. — 'New and rare British
Spiders, figured and described, in-
cluding records from the Island,
W. Falconer, 295-302

Geology and Palaeontology . — Bibli-

ography with respect to the Geology
and Palaeontology of the North of
England (Yorkshire excepted)
during 1918, T. Sheppard, 96-101,
141-142

LANCASHIRE.

Arachnida. — New and rare British
Spiders, figured and described, in-
cluding Lancashire records, W.
Falconer, 295-302

Geology and Palaeontology . — Bibli-
ography with respect to the Geology
and Palaeontology of the North of
England (Yorkshire excepted)
during 1918, T. Sheppard, 96-101 ;
Report on Drs. Wheelton Hind and
A. Wilmore’s paper on ‘ The Car-
boniferous Succession of the Clith-
eroe Province/ read at a meeting of
the Geological Society of London, 56

Lepidoptera . — Reports of Meetings of
Lancashire and Cheshire Entomo-
logical Society, W. Mansbridge,
I5L 213

Mammalia . — Records of stranded
Cetacea on British Coasts, 1917,
50 ; Common Seals in Morecambe
Bay, H. B. Booth, 370
Neuroptera. — Note on Dragon fly
records, 248

Personal Notices . — In Memoriam
notice of S. L. Petty, 248
Scientific History. — Lancashire and
Cheshire Naturalist, 80, 344, 346,
406

Societies . — Manchester Literary and
Philosophical Society, Transactions
of, 344 ; Manchester Microscopical
Society, Annual Report of, 364 ;
Liverpool Naturalists Field Club,
Proceedings of 1918, 377

LINCOLNSHIRE.

Annelida .—Note on Cocoons of the
Horse Leech found at Cadney, E. A.
Woodruffe-Peacock, 278
Arachnida. — New and rare British
Spiders, figured and described,
including Lincolnshire records, W.
Falconer, 295-302

Birds .—Structure of Greenfinch’s
Nest, E. A. Woodruffe-Peacock,
277 ; Herons and Pike, E. A. W.
Peacock ; Footnote by R. Fortune,
340-341 ; Further note thereon,
E. A. W. Peacock, 405-406
Campodeae — Note on Lincolnshire
species, 154

Chalcidae .— Syntomapsis druparum
Bohem, from seed of Crataegus
oxyacanthoides, and an unnamed
Chalcid from seeds of Chaero-
phyllum temulum, taken at Cadney,
E. A. W. Peacock, 329-330
Crustacea . — Occurrence of Polyxenus
lagurus (Bristly Millipede) at Bar-
ton-on-Humber, T. Stainforth, 234
Flowering Plants . — -Whitethorn Seed
Notes, E. A. W. Peacock, 353-355 ;
Large . specimens of Acer campestre
at Louth, J.. Larder, 372

Hymenoptera . — Myrmica laevinodis
Nyl, var. rugindo -laevinodis Forel,
taken at Cadney by Rev. E. A.
Woodruffe-Peacock, new county
record, noted, 157 ; Syntomapsis
druparum Bohem from seed of
Crataegus oxyacanthoides, and an
unnamed chalcid from seeds of
Chaerophyllum temulum, taken at
Cadney, E. A. W. Peacock, 329-330
Geology and Palaeontology . — Bibli-
ography with respect to the Geology
and Palaeontology of the North of
England (Yorkshire excepted) dur-
ing 1918, T. Sheppard, 96-101, 141-
142 ; Notes on the Iron ore of the
Northern Counties, 317
Mammalia. — Records of stranded
Cetacea on British Coasts, 1917, 50
Mollusca (Land and Fresh -water). —
Vertigo pygmaea (Drap.) found at
Melton Ross, T. W. Woodruffe-
Peacock, 245

Societies . — Lincolnshire Naturalists'
Union, Transactions of 1918, 377
Spongida . — Finding of fresh-water
Sponge Ephydatia mulleri at Cad-
ney, T. W. Woodruffe-Peacock, 245

1919 Dee. 1.

416

Classified Index .

NORTHUMBERLAND.

Geology and Palaeontology . — Bibli-
ography with respect to the Geology
and Palaeontology of the North of
England (Yorkshire excepted) during
1918, T. Sheppard, 96-101, 141-142

Societies. — Northumberland, Dur-
ham and Newcastle-on-Tyne Natural
History Society, Transactions of,
81

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE.

Geology and Palaeontology. — Bibli-
ography with respect to the Geology
and- Palaeontology of the North of
England (Yorkshire excepted) during
1918, T. Sheppard, 97-101, 141-142

Mollusca (Land and Freshwater). —
The Common Banded Snail : a

study in variation, A. E. Trueman,
5-9, 67-69

WESTMORLAND.

Coleoptera. — List of Westmorland
Coleoptera, F. H. Day, 77-79,
239-242, 327-3^8

Flowering Plants . — Occurrence of
Goodyera repens near Carlisle, F. H.
Day, 46

Reptiles . — Palmated Newt from Ling-
moor Tarn, Langdale, C. Oldham, 337
Societies . — Cumberland and West-
morland Antiquarian, etc., Society,
Transactions of, Vol. XIX. (N.S.),
379

YORKSHIRE.

Acari. — List of Yorkshire species of
Terrestrial Acari, dealing with
the Thrombidiidae and Gamasidae
mentioned in Rev. j. E. Hull’s
Terrestrial Acari of the Tyne
Province,’ 49 ; Species noted on
visit of Yorkshire Naturalists’
Union to Ryhill, W. Falconer, 272 ;
Some Derbyshire Plant Galls, in-
cluding Sheffield district records,
J. M. Brown, 330-332 ; Plant galls
noted in the Scarborough District,
W. Falconer, 393

Arachnida. — The Spiders of York-
shire, W. Falconer, 21-25, 137-140,
235-242, 267-270, 273, 323-326,

365-368, 400-403; Annual Report of
Arachnida Committee of Yorkshire
Naturalists’ Union, for .1918, W.
Falconer, 40-41 ; Species noted on
visit of Yorkshire Naturalists’
Union to Ryhill, W. Falconer, 273 ;
New and Rare British Spiders,
figured and described, including
Yorkshire records, W. Falconer,
295"3°2 ; Species noted on visit of
Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union to
Hawes, W. Falconer, 305-306

Archaeology. — An Ancient ‘ Comb,’
illustrated, 85

Birds. — Abundance of Wheatear at
Eastby, near Skipton, W. Rowan,
9; Common Wild Birds of the

Scarborough District, W. Gyngell,
17-20, 72-74, 105-106, 174-176,

263-266, 333-336 ; Resolution in
regard to protection of the Green
Plover throughout the county,
passed at Annual Meeting of the
Union, 1918, 26-27 > Note on

Yorkshire Herons, W. Rowan, 32 ;
Annual Report of Vertebrate Section
of Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union for
1918, as to West Riding by H. B.
Booth ; as to East Riding by E. W.
Wade ; as to North Riding by
W. J. Clarke ; as to York District
by W. Hewett, 34-37 ; Annual
Report of Yorkshire Naturalists’
Union Wild Birds, etc., Protection
Committee for 1918, Johnson
Wilkinson, 37-38 ; Moorhen nesting
in a tree, E. P. Butterfield, with
footnote by R. Fortune, 79 ; Corn-
crake calling whilst perched in
hedge, E. P. Butterfield, 79 ;
Birds in North-west Leeds, J.
Atkinson, 88 ; Cuckoo’s Eggs and
foster parents, E. P. Butterfield,
no ; Former Status of the Starling,
E. P. Butterfield, iio-m, 215;
Further Notes thereon, F. C. R.
Jourdain, 183 ; W. Gyngell, 215 ;
Late stay of Swifts, E. P. Butter-
field, in ; Protection of Plover and
Eggs in West Riding, 121 ; Song

Naturalist,

Classified Index .

417

Y ORKSHIRE — continued.

■of the Birds, being poems on the
song of the Chaffinch, Greenfinch,
Wren, Hedge Sparrow, Willow-
Warbler, and Tree-Pipit, Prof. W.
Garstang, 195-198 ; Bird-life noted
on visit of Yorkshire Naturalists’
Union to Coxwold, W. E. L.
Wattam, 207-208 ; Songs of the
Redstart, Whitethroat, and Garden
Warbler, expressed in verse, Prof.
W. Garstang, 231-233 ; Bird life
noted on visit of Yorkshire Natural-
ists Union to Ryhill, W, H.
Parkin, 271 ; White Grouse Chick
at Bolton Abbey, J. Atkinson,
294 ; Skylark killed by horsehair
entanglement, J. Atkinson, 294 ;
Blackbirds using same nest twice,
H. B. Booth, 302 ; Bird life noted
on visit of Yorkshire Naturalists’
Union to Hawes, R. Jones, 304-305 ;
Bird life noted on visit of Yorkshire
Naturalists’ Union to Pateley
Bridge, E. P. Butterfield, 310 ;
Note on Woodcock shot at Burgh -
wallis, H. H. Corbett, with foot-
note by R. Fortune, 336 ; Dis-
appearance of Tree Creeper from
familiar nesting sites, W. H.
Parkin ; Footnote by R. Fortune,
336 ; Herons and Pike, E. A. W.
Peacock ; Footnote by R. Fortune,
339-341 ; Nesting of the Heron in
Nidderdale, R. Fortune, 371 ;
Black-necked Grebe in Washburn
Dale, R. Fortune, 371 ; Comorant
at Doncaster, H. H. Corbett, 371 ;
Blackbird and Song Thrush using
same nest twice, E. P. Butterfield,
373 ; Bird life noted on visit of
Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union to
Spurn, E. W. Wade, 387

dampodeae. — Notes on Yorkshire
species, 154

doleoptera. — Notes on the Ento-
mology of the Bubwith District
(including Skipwith Common),

W. J. Fordham, 13-16, 70-71 ;

Annual Report of Coleoptera Com-
mittee of Yorkshire Naturalists’
Union for 1918, W. J. Fordham,
39 ; Yorkshire Coleoptera in 1918,
including seven additions to the
County List, W. J. Fordham,
102-104 ; Species noted on visit of
Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union to
Coxwold, M. L. Thompson and
W. J. Fordham, 210 ; Species noted

on visit of Yorkshire Naturalists’
Union to Ryhill, W. J. Fordham,
272-273 ; Species noted on visit of
Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union to
Hawes, M. L. Thompson, 306 ;
Some Derbyshire Plant Galls, in-
cluding Sheffield District records,
J. M. Brown, 330-332 ; Notes on
rare species of Coleoptera taken in
the East and North Ridings, T.
Stainforth, 361-362 ; Report of
Meeting of Entomological Section of
Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union held
at Leeds in October, B. Morley,
407-408

Collembola. — The Apterygota of
Yorkshire and Derbyshire, with
figures of Megalothorax minimus,
J. M. Brown, 63-66

Crustacea . — Occurrence of Polyxenus
lagurus Linne (Bristly Millepede)
in Saltwick Bay, with illustration
of site, J. W. Jackson, 243-244 ;
Species noted on visit of Yorkshire
Naturalists’ Union to Hawes, W.
Falconer, 305 ; Notes on Armadil-
lidium pulchellum (Brandt) and
other rare Yorkshire species taken
in the East and North Ridings, T.
Stainforth, 361-362

Diptera. — Notes on the species
occurring in the Bubwith District
(including Skipwith Common), and
new county records, W. J. Fordham,
14-16, 70-71 ; Annual Report of
Diptera, etc., Committee of York-
shire Naturalists’ Union for 1918,
J. F. Musham, 40 ; Orthocladus
albolincatus Mg. and Limosina
crassimana Hal., both new to
Yorkshire, captured near Moughton
Scar, C. A. Cheetham, 96 ; Cerato-
pogon braueri (Wasmann), new to
Britain, taken by Mr. Rosse Butter-
field at Grassington ; Also occur-
rence of Microdon mutabilis at
same place, 157; Pachyrrhina
imperialis (Mg.) and Mycophaga
fungorum (Deg.) taken at Farnley,
Leeds, new county records, C. A.
Cheetham, 182 ; Species noted on
visit of Yorkshire Naturalists’
Union to Coxwold, W. J. Fordham,
210 ; Yorkshire Diptera notes, in-
cluding new county species, C. A.
Cheetham, 244 ; Species noted on
visit of Yorkshire Naturalists’
Union to Hawes, C. A. Cheetham,

1919 Dec. 1.

Classified Index ,

4i8>

Y ORKSHIRE — continued.

305 ; Species noted on visit of
Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union to
Pate ley Bridge, C. A. Cheetham,
310 ; Some Derbyshire Plant Galls,
including Sheffield district . records,
J. M. Brown, 330-332 ; Xiphura
atrata L. taken in Edlington Woods,
C. A. Cheetham, 380 ; Species
noted on visit of Yorkshire Natural-
ists’ Union to Spurn, C. A. Cheetham
388 ; Plant galls noted in the Scar-
borough District, W. Falconer,
392 ; Additions to the List of
Yorkshire Diptera, C. A. Cheetham,
394-395 ; Report of Meeting of
Entomological Section of York-
shire Naturalists’ Union held at
Leeds in October, B. Morley, 407-
408

Fish. — Annual Report of Fish, etc.,
Committee of Yorkshire Naturalists’
Union for 1918, J. F. Musham, 38 ;
Fossils of the Holderness Basement
Clays (Mollusca and Fishes), with
descriptions of new species and
illustrations, A. Bell, 57-59 ;
Large Wharf e Trout and Chub,
FI. B. Booth, 150-15 1 ; I.arge
Yorkshire Trout, W. J. Clarke, 245 ;
Large Salmon and Barbel taken in
the Ouse, noted, 341, 344 ; Large
Roach caught in Hornsea Mere,
noted, 343

Flowering Plants. — -Annual Report
of Botanical Section of Yorkshire
Naturalists’ Union for 1918, C. A.
Cheetham and J. F. Robinson, 41 ;
Annual Report of Botanical Survey
Committee of Yorkshire Nautralists’
Union for 1918, W. H. Burrell, 41 ;
Note on Vegetative reproduction in
Grasses, W. E. L. Wattam, 109 ;
Linum angustifolium (Huds.) noted
in Goosedale, Cloughton, H. E.
Wroot, 136 ; Poem on Cheiranths,
F. A. Lees, 188 ; Species noted on
visit of Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union
to-Coxwold, W. E. L. Wattam, 208 ;
The Nightmare of Names in the
Bed of Roses, F. A. Lees, 21 1 -213 ;
Note on eariy record of Cypri-
pedium calceolus in the herbarium
of John Dalton, 282 ; Further note
thereon, F. A. Lees, 341 ; Further
note thereon, H. J. Wilkinson, 373 ;
Occurrence thereof in Helk’s Wood,
Ingleborough, A Bennett, 372 ;
Further note thereon, F. A. Lees,

399 ; Species noted on visit of
Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union to
Hawes, J. Hartshorn, 306-307 ;
New vice -county records, and notes
on rarer Yorkshire plants, A.
Wilson, 369 ; Species noted on
visit of Yorkshire Naturalists’
Union to Spurn, C. A. Cheetham,
389 ; Report of meeting of Botanical
Section held at Leeds in October,
C. A. Cheetham, 389 ; The distri-
bution of Gentiana vema, F. A.
Lees, 380-391

Fungi. — Annual Report of Myco logi-
cal Committee of Yorkshire Natural-
ists' Union for 1918, A. E. Peck,
42; In Memoriam Notice of
Thomas Gibbs, with portrait, E.
Snelgrove, 177-180 ; Omphalia
telmatiaea collected in Rotherham
district, J. H. Payne, 18 1 ; Species
noted on visit of Yorkshire Natural-
ists' Union to Coxwold, F. A.
Mason, 208-209 ; Species noted on
visit of Yorkshire Naturalists’
Union to Hawes, C. A. Mason, 307-
308 ; Species noted on visit of
Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union to
Pateley Bridge, M. Malone, 309-
310 ; Some Derbyshire Plant Galls,
including Sheffield district records,.
J. M. Brown, 330-332 ; New Lichen
records for the county and vice-
counties, A. Wilson, 369 ; Plant
galls noted in the , Scarborough
District, W. Falconer, 393 ; Report
of Fungus Foray held at Helmsley
in October, with list of 70 additions
for that district, A. E. Peck, 396-
399 ; In Memoriam notice of
Thomas Hey, A. E. Peck, 404-405

Geology and Palaeontology. — An-
nual Report of Geological Section of
Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union for
1918, John Holmes, 42 ; Report 011
Prof. P. F. Kendall’s paper on
‘ Wash-outs in Coal Seams and the-
Effects of Contemporary Earth-
quakes,’ read at meeting of Geo-
logical Society of London, 51-53 ;
Report on Mr. C. T. Trechmann’s
paper ‘ On a Bed of Interglacial
Loess and some Pre-glacial Fresh-
water Clays of the Durham Coast,
read at meeting of Geological Society
of London, with a Yorkshire Com-
parison, 54-55 ; Report on Drs.
Wheelton Hind and A. Wilmore’s-

Naturali3t,

Classified Index.

419

YORKSHIRE — continued.

paper on ‘ The Carboniferous Suc-
cession of the Clitheroe Province,
with Yorkshire references, read at
meeting of Geological Society of
London, 56 ; Fossils of the Holder-
ness Basement Clays (Mollusca and
Fishes), with description of new
species, Admete viridula shep-
pardi sp. nov. and Astarte api-
culata sp. nov. and illustrations,
A. Bell, 57-59 ; Note on Whitby
Jet, 82 ; An Ancient ' Comb,'
illustrated, 85 ; Notes on Under-
ground Geology, with a reference to
the Jurassic Rocks of Yorkshire,
119-120 ; Milk Tooth of Elephas
primigenius found at Aldborough,
C. F. Proctor, 183 ; Note on York-
shire Shelly Drift, 222 ; Note on
Dr. Gilligan’s address to the Geo-
logical Society of London on the
Petrography of the Millstone Grit
of Yorkshire, 253 ; Fallen blocks of
Lower Estuarine Sandstone, near
Blea Wyke point, illustrated, F. G.
Percival, 291-292 ; Bones of Bear
from York, the reason thereof
explained, illustrated, T. Sheppard,
293-294 ; Geological notes on visit
of Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union to
Hawes, John Holmes, 304 ; Notes
on the Iron-Ore of the Northern
Counties, 317 ; Notes on the
acquisition by the Hull Municipal
Museum of the Drake and Bower
Collections, 317-318 ; Carboni-
ferous Nautiloid, Caelonautilus tra-
pezoidalis, from the Pendleside
Series, Pule Hill, Marsden, noted,
341 ; Geological notes on visit of
Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union to
Spurn, J. W. Stather, 387
Hemiptera . — Notes on the species
occurring in the Bubwith District
(including Skipwith. Common), and
new county records, W. J. Fordham,
15-16, 70-71 ; Annual Report of
Hemiptera, etc., Committee of
Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union for
1918, J. F. Musham, 40 ; Species
noted on visit of Yorkshire Natural-
ists’ Union to Coxwold, W. J.
Fordham, 210 ; Melanism in
Phigalia pilosaria, E. P. Butterfield,
G. T. Porritt, 279, 339-340, 373-
375 ; Plant galls noted in the Scar-
borough District, W. Falconer, 393
Homoptera . — Some Derbyshire Plant

Galls, including Sheffield district
records, J. M. Brown, 330-332.

Hymenoptera . — Notes on the species
occurring in the Bubwith District
(including Skipwith Common) and
new county records, W. J. Ford-
ham, 13-16, 70-71 ; Annual Report
of Hymenoptera, etc., Committee
of Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union for
1918, J. F. Musham, 40 ; Correction
as to first North of England record
of Polynema natans (Caraphractus
cinctus Holiday), C. A. Cheetham,
15 1 ; Note on Dr. H. Wager’s paper
on ‘ The colour Lsense of wasps,’
156 ; Leptothorax acervorum taken
at Rumbolds Moor, and curious
female of same species taken at
Keighley, 157 ; Aculeate Hymen'-
optera of a Doncaster Sand Pit,
including Several new county
records, H. H. Corbett, 158-160 ;
Allantus perkinsi (Morice) taken at
Askham Bog, and larvae of
Phadinoceraea micans at same place,
new county record, W. J. Fordham,
168 ; Species noted on visit of
Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union to
Coxwold, including two new county
records, W. J. Fordham, 210 ;
Species noted on visit of Yorkshire
Naturalists’ Union to Ryhill, H. H.
Corbett, 272 ; Sirex gigas at Shef-
field, J. M. Brown, 292 ; Species
noted on visit of Yorkshire
Naturalists’ Union to Pateley
Bridge, R. Butterfield, 310 ; Some
Derbyshire Plant Galls, including
Sheffield district records, J. M.
Brown, 330-332 ; Lygaeonematus
wesmaeli (Tischb.), new British
Sawfly, from Arncliffe estate, noted,
334 ; Report of meeting of Entomo-
logical Section of Yorkshire Natural-
ists’ Union held at Leeds in October,
B. Morley, 407-408
Isopoda. — Species noted on visit of
Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union to
Hawes, W. Falconer, 305 ; Notes on
Armadillidium pulchellum (Brandt)
and other rare Yorkshire species
taken in East and North Ridings, T.
Stainforth, 361-362
Lepidoptera. — Notes on the Entomo-
logy of the Bubwith District (with
Shipwith Common ), including
numerous new County records, W. J.
Fordham, 13-16, 70-71 ; Annual

1919 Dec. l.

420

Classified Index.

YORKSHIRE — continued.

Report of Lepidoptera Committee of
Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union, for
1918, B. Morley, 39 ; Micro-
Lepidoptera captured in Wharf e-
dale, W. Mansbridge, 135-136 ;
Abnormal Zygaena lonicerae taken
at Flamborough Head, and curious
larva of Euchelia jacobeae taken
at Spurn, C. Could well, 182 ;
Species noted on visit of Yorkshire
Naturalists’ Union to Ryhill, B.
Morley, 272 ; Larvse of Cucullia
verbasci taken at Eldwick, E. P.
Butterfield, 278 ; Re-occurrence of
larvae of Cucullia verbasci at Dalton,
G. T. Porritt, 278 ; On the cause of
melanism in Phigalia pilosaria,
E. P. Butterfield, with footnote
thereon by G. T. Porritt, 279, 339-
340, 280 ; Species noted on visit of
Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union to
Pate ley Bridge, R. Butterfield, 310 ;
Plusia moneta taken at Eldwick,
and notes on other species, E. P.
Butterfield, 337 ; Chaerocamps nerii
(second county record) taken at
Huddersfield, noted, 375; Species
noted on visit of Yorkshire Natural-
ists’ Union to Spurn, J . Porter, 388 ;
Report of Meeting of Entomological
Section of Yorkshire Naturalists’
Union held at Leeds in October,
B. Morley, 407-408

Lichens. — New county and vice-
county records, A. Wilson, 369

Mammalia .—Annual Report of Mam-
mals, etc., Committee of Yorkshire
Naturalists’ Union for 1918, J. F.
Musham, 38 ; Records of stranded
Cetacea on British Coasts, 1917, 50 ;
Bones of Bear from York, the reason
of their occurrence explained, illus-
trated, T. Sheppard, 293-294

Marine Biology.— Annual Report of
Marine Biology Committee of York-
shire Naturalists’ Union for 1918,
J. Irving, 38-39 ; Report of meeting
of ' Marine Biology Committee of
Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union at
Scarborough, A. I. Burnley, 363-

364

Mollusca (Land and Fresh -water) . —
Annual Report of Conchological
Section of Yorkshire Naturalists’
Union for 1918, J. F. Musham, 39 ;
Limnea truncatula and Physa
fontinalis in greenhouses at Selby

Park, J. F. Musham, 182 ; Species
noted on visit of Yorkshire Natural-
ists’ Union to Coxwold, G. Fysher,
208 ; Species noted on visit of
Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union to
Ryhill, J. D. Firth, 272 ; Species
noted on visit of Yorkshire Natural-
ists’ Union to Hawes, G. Fysher,
305 ; Species noted on visit of
Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union to
Spurn, G. Fysher, 388
Mollusca (Marine). — Fossils of the
Holderness Basement Clays (Mol-
usca and Fishes), with description
of new species, Admete viridula
sheppard i sp. nov. and Astarte
apiculata sp. nov. and illustrations,
A. Bell, 57-59 ; Species noted on
visit of Yorkshire Naturalists’
Union to Spurn, G. Fysher, 388
Mosses and Hepatics .—Annual
Report of Bryological Committee of
Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union, for
1918, W. Ingham, 42 ; In
Memoriam Notice of Richard
Barnes, with portrait, C. A. Cheet-
ham, 44-45 ; Cephalozia fluitans
(Nees) Spruce found near the Upper
Tarn, Ilkley, W. H. Pearson, 106 ;
Species noted on visit of Yorkshire
Naturalists’ Union to Coxwold,
including new Yorkshire record, W.
Ingham, 209-210 ; Species noted on
visit of Yorkshire Naturalists’
Union to Ryhill, J. W. H. Johnson,
273 ; Species noted on visit of
Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union to
Hawes, C. A. Cheetham and F. E.
Milsom, 307 ; Species noted on
visit of Yorkshire Naturalists’
Union to Pateley Bridge, W. H.
Burrell, 309 ; Species noted on
visit of Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union
to Spurn, C. A. Cheetham, 389

Museums. — Halifax, Bankfield,
Museum, Notes of, No. XI., 85 ;
Hull Museums, Publications of,
(Nos. 113, 114, 115, 116), 181 ;
Acquisition of Hull Old Grammar
School, 224

Myriopoda .—Notes on new York-
shire species, 155

Neuroptera, etc. — Notes on the
species occurring in the Bubwith
District (including Skipwith Com-
mon), W. J. Fordham, 14 ; 70-71,
Annual Report of Neuroptera, etc..

Naturalist

Classified Index.

42r

YORKSHIRE — continued.

Committee of Yorkshire Naturalists’
Union for 1918, G. T. Porritt, 40 ;
Species noted on visit of Yorkshire
Naturalists’ Union to Hawes, C. A.
Cheetham, 305 ; Species noted on
visit of Yorkshire Naturalists’
Union to Pateley Bridge, R. Butter-
field, 310 ; Sympetrum sanguineum
Mull., captured at Hawkes worth,
an addition to the County List,
J. W. Carter, 399,

Personal Notices . — In Memoriam
Notice of Richard Barnes, with
portrait, C. A. Cheetham, 44-45 ;
In Memoriam notice of George
Parkin, with portrait, E. G. Bay-
ford, 75-76 ; In Memoriam notice
of H. C. Drake, f.g.s., with por-
trait, T. Sheppard, 107-109 ; In
Memoriam notice of W. Denison
Roebuck, m.bc., f.l.s., with por-
trait, J. W. Taylor, 143-149 ; In
Memoriam notice of Thomas Gibbs,

with portrait, E. Snelgrove,

177-180 ; In Memoriam notice of
Edward Lamp lough, with portrait,
T. Sheppard, 18 1 ; In Memoriam
notice of Prof. F. W. Moorman,
338 ; In Memoriam notice of Aquila
Dodgson, 343 ; In Memoriam notice
of John Hopkinson, f.l.s., 344; In
Memoriam notice of Sir W. H. St.
John Hope, litt.d., d.c.l., 344;
In Memoriam notice of Samuel
Jefferson, 385 ; In Memoriam
notice of Alfred White, 395 ; In
Memoriam notice of Thomas
Boynton, f.s.a., T. Sheppard, 404 ;
In Memoriam notice of Thomas
Hey, A. E. Peck, 404-405

Protura.— The Apterygota of York-
shire and Derbyshire, with figure of
Megalothorax minimus, J. M.
Brown, 63-66

Reptiles . — Annual Report of Reptiles
etc., Committee of Yorkshire
Naturalists’ Union for 1918, J. F.
Musham, 38

Scientific History. — Annual Report
of Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union for
1918, T. W. Woodhead, W. E. L.
Wattam, and E. Hawkes worth,
33-43 ; Yorkshire Type Ammonites,
Part XVII., S. S. Buckman, 59 ;
‘ Nature and Man,’ being the Presi-
dential Address to the Yorkshire
Naturalists’ Union at Leeds, Decem-
ber, 1918, 89-96, 123-134 ; Further

notes on Old Scientific Magazines,
additions to ‘ Yorkshire’s Con-
tribution to Science,’ T. Sheppard,
161-163, 220 ; ‘ Kingston -upon-

Hull : before, during and after the
Great War,’ being the peace
souvenir presented to the School
children of Hull, T. Sheppard, 314;
The Bradford Antiquary, Part XX.,
315

Societies . — Bootham School, York,
Natural History, etc., Society,
Annual Report of, 81, 364 ; East
Riding Antiquarain Society, Trans-
actions of, Vol. XXII., 380 ; Hull
Geological Society, Report of An-
nual Meeting, 205 ; Hull Scientific
and Field Naturalists’ Club, Re-
port of Annual Meeting of, 376;
Transactions of, Vol. IV., 379 ;
Leeds Astronomical Society, Trans-
actions of, No. 25, 80, 364 ; Sed-
bergian Sedgwick Society, Trans-
actions of, 378 ; Selby Scientific
Society, Annual Report of, 84 ;
Yorkshire Geological Society,
Transactions of, Part IV. of
Vol. XIX., 2 ; Yorkshire Natural
Science Association, Notes upon,
2-4

Thysanura. — The Apterygota of
Yorkshire and Derbyshire, with
figure of Megalothorax minimus,
J. M. Brown, 63-66

Tunicata. — New county records made
during meeting of Marine Biology
Committee of Yorkshire Naturalists’
Union at Scarborough, A. I. Burn-
ley, 363

Yorkshire Naturalists Union.—

Report of Annual Meeting held at
Leeds, December, 1918, W. E.
L. Wattam, 26-28 ; Annual Report
of the Union for 1918, T. W.
Woodward, W. E. L. Wattam and
E. Hawkesworth, 33-43 ; ‘ Nature

and Man,’ being the Presidential
Address to the Yorkshire Naturalists’
Union, at Leeds, December, 1918,
89-96, 123-134 ; Protection of

Plover and Eggs in West Riding,
121 ; Visit of Yorkshire Naturalists’
Union to Coxwold, W. E. L.
Wattam, 206-210 ; Visit of York-
shire Naturalists’ Union to Ryhill,
near Wakefield, W. E. L. Wattam,
271-273 ; Knighthood for Past-
President, Prof. Wm. Boyd Daw-

1919 Dec. 1.

-422

Classified Index.

YORKSHIRE — continued.

kins, 283 ; Visit of Yorkshire
Naturalists’ Union to Hawes,
W. E. L. Wattam, 303-308 ; Visit
of Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union to
Pateley Bridge, W. E. L. Wattam,
308-310 ; Report of meeting of
Marine Biology Committee at
Scarborough, A. I. Burnley, 363-
364 ; Election of Prof. J. E. Marr,
sc.D., f.r.s., as President of the

Union for 1920 ; Visit of Yorkshire
Naturalists to Spurn, T. Sheppard,
386-389 Report of meeting of
Botanical Section, C. A. Cheetham,
389 ; Report of Fungus Foray held
at He lms ley in October, A. E.
Peck, 396-399 ; Report of meeting
of Entomological Section held at
Leeds in October, B. Morley, 407-
408

MISCELLANA,

Acari. — Galls of species noted in
upper part of Ceiriog Valley, South
Denbighshire, A. A. Dallman, 165-
166

Arachnida. — New and rare British
Spiders, figured and described, W.
Falconer, 295-302 ; Additions to
the List of Spiders of Wicken
Fen, W. Falconer, 356
Hirds^ACuckoo’s Eggs and Foster
parents, E. P. Butterfield, no ;
Former Status of the Starling,

E. P. Butterfield, no-111, 215 ;
Further notes thereon, F. C. R.
Jourdain, 183 ; W. Gyngell, 215 ;
Late Stay of Swifts, E. P. Butter-
field, in ; Notes on Contents of a
Wood Pigeon’s Crop, with illus-
tration, 12 1 -122 ; Ornithological
Observations and reflections in
Shetland, E. Selous, 167-168 ; 259-
262, 357-362, 381-385 ; Note on the
last of the Sea-Eagles, 190 ; Food of
Wild Birds, with diagrammatic
representations, 192- 194 ; Harmful
and useful Birds, A. E. Hall, 246 ;
Nightingales in Shropshire, H. E.
Forrest, 277-278 ; Note on pre-
sentation of Selous collection of
European Birds’ eggs to Natural
History Museum, London, 281 ;
Sounds that resemble the songs and
calls of Birds, W. Gyngell, 311-312 ;
Note thereon, M. L. Sykes, 373 ;
Herons and Pike, E. A. W. Peacock ;
Footnote by R. Fortune, 340-341 ;
Further note thereon, E. A. W. Pea-
cock, 405-406 ; Starling Note,

F. D. Welch, 341 ; Little Owl
nesting at Bridgnorth, Shropshire,
Frances Pitt, 370

Botany. — The Nightmare of names
in the Bed of Roses, F. A. Lees,
2 1 1 - 2 1 3 ; Do leaves want watering ?

E. A. Woodruffe-Peacock, 246 ;
Note on experiments in preserving
plants in Formalin, 285-286 ; The
Distribution of Gentiana verna, F.
A. Lees, 390-391

Correspondence. — 47-48, iio-m,

183, 215, 246, 279-280, 31 1, 312,
339-34U 373-375

Fishes. — The Hearing Organs of
Fishes, with illustrations, J. Smith,
60-62, 169-173

Diptera. — Galls of species noted in
upper part of Ceiriog Valley, South
Denbighshire, A. A. Dallman, 164-
165

Fungi. — The Jew’s Ear Fungus
(Hirneola auricula-judae Fr.), its
life history and distribution, with
illustrations, W. Johnson, 225-230,
255-258, 287-290, 319-322

Geology and Palaeontology .—Re-
port on Prof. P. F. Kendall’s
paper on ‘ Wash-outs in Coal
Seams and the Effects of Con-
temporary Earthquakes,’ read at
Meeting of Geological Society of
London, 51-53 ; Report on Dr.
A. Gilligan’s paper ‘ On Sandstone
Dykes or Rock- Riders in the Cum-
berland Coalfield,’ read at Meeting
of Geological Society of London,
53-54 ; Report on C. T. Trech-
mann’s paper ‘ On a Bed of Intef-
glacial Loess and some Pre -glacial
Fresh-water Clays of the Durham
Coast, read at Meeting of Geological
Society of London, with a York-
shire Comparison, 54-55 ; Report
on Drs. Wheelton Hind and A.
Wilmore’s paper on ‘The Car-
boniferous Succession of the
Clitheroe Province,’ read at a
Meeting of the Geological Society
of London, 56 ; Note on Britain’s

Naturalist,

Classified Index .

423

MISCELLANA — continued.

Mineral Resources, 81 ; Whitby
Jet, 82 ; Origin of Flint, 86 ;
Ammonite or Mammoth ? with
illustrations, 116-118 ; Notes on
Underground Geology, 1 19-120 ;
Notes on Mr. Sydney Brook’s
paper on ' Some Problems of Coal,’
I53-I54 > Notes on Ice Transport,
Yorkshire Shelly Drift, and Anchor
Ice, 222-224 ; Notes on Fossil
Skulls, 283-284 ; Note on British
Oil-pools, 284 ; Notes on Dr. J. W.
Evan’s Address to the Geological
Section of .the British Association,
349-352

Homoptera. — Galls of species noted
in upper part of Ceiriog Valley,
South Denbighshire, A. A. Dallman,

165

Hymenoptera . — Note on Dr. H.
Wager’s paper on ‘ The colour-
sense of Wasps,’ 156 ; Myrmeco-
philous Notes, 157 ; Galls of species
noted in the upper part of Ceiriog
Valley, South Denbighshire, A. A.
Dallman, 164

Xepidoptera . — The Causes of
Varieties in Butterflies, F. D.
Welch, with footnote by G. T.
Porritt, 47-48 ; Notes on the
distribution of the Marsh Ringlet,
221 ; Melanism in Phigalia pilos-
aria, E. P. Butterfield, G. T.
Porritt, 279, 339-340, 373-375

.Magazine Notes. — 45, 48, 62, 74,
80, 112, 152, 173, 183, 184, 216,
245, 273, 312, 332, 337, 344, 352,
362, 375, 406

Mammalia . — N ote on lumbar
vertebra of Sibbald’s Rorqual
(Balaenoptera sibbaldii) found at
Barmouth, H. E. Forrest, 104 ;
Undocked Dogs the quicker, E. A.
Woodruff e-Peacock, 246 ; Note
on presentation of Selous collection
of big game trophies to Natural
History Museum, London, 281 ;
Undocked Dogs, J. H. Payne, 31 1

Mollusca (Land and Freshwater). —
Note on Linnean Species of Mollusca
1-2 ; The Common Banded Snail :
a study in variation, A. E. Trueman,
5-9, 67-69 ; Notes on Arctic-Alpine
Mollusca, with illustrations,
Hans Schlesch, 29-32,; Helix
(Macularia) vermiculata Muller,
found in Northamptonshire, J. W.
Taylor, 122

Mollusca. — Copy of autograph letter
of Thomas Martyn in his book of
‘ Figures of Non-descript Shells,’
published, 1764, A. E. Hall, 279

Mosses and Hepatics. — List of
species found at Colwyn, Denbigh-
shire, W. H. Pearson, 136

Museums. — Museums Associations,
Notes on Annual Conference held
at Oxford, 249-252

Northern News. — 25, 48, 59, 74,
80, 112, 140, 205, 213, 238, 247-248,
262, 266, 270, 276, 280, 286, 312,
328, 338, 341, 343, 344, 360-368, 376,
385, 395, 408

Personal Notices . — In Memoriam
Notice of William Ernest Sharp,
F.E.S., W. J. Fordham, 274-275 ;
In Memoriam Notice of Henry
Augustus Paynter, with portrait,
H. B. Booth, 275-276

Poetry. — Chaffinch, The Song of the,
Prof. W. Garstang, 195 : Cheiranths
II., 1919, F. A. Lees, 188 ; Field-
fares, Prof. F. W. Moorman, 192 ;
Garden-Warbler, The Jewel song of.
Prof. W. Garstang, 233 ; Green-
finch, The Song of the, Prof. W.
Garstang, 196 ; Hedge Sparrow,
The Song of the, Prof. W. Garstang,
197 ; Redstart, The ode of the,
Prof. W. Garstang, 231 ; Sunset
and Soul-Shine, Prof. W. Garstang,
281 ; Tree-Pipit, The Wing-Song
of the, Prof. W. Garstang, 198 ;
The Gardener and the Robin, Prof.
F. W. Moorman, 191 ; White-throat,
The dancing song of, Prof. W. Gar-
stang, 232 ; Willow-Warblers, The
Chorus of the, Prof. W. Garstang,
197 ; Wren, The Song of the, Prof.
W. Garstang, 196

Scientific History. — Further notes
on Old Scientific Magazines,
additions to ‘ Yorkshire’s Con-
tribution to Science,’ T. Sheppard,
161-163 ; The Witchery of Gilbert
White, E. A. Woodruffe-Pecaock,
199-205

Societies . — Notes on Bournemouth
Meeting of the British Association,
338

Zoocecidia. — List of and Notes upon
species taken in the upper part of
Ceiriog Valley, South Denbighshire,
A. A. Dallman, 164-166

1919 Dec. 1

424

Classified Index .

CORRIGENDA.

Page 6 1, line 3, for ‘ explerimentum,’ read ‘ experimentum/

PLATE.

Plate. To face page

I. — Juvenile Snow Bunting
Sky-Lark
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Richard’s Pipit (First Winter)

Juvenile Rock Pipit . . . . . . . . . . . - . . 120

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