1917 - The Vasculum

THE VASCULUM
VOL. Ill No. 1. MARCH. 1917
THE VEGETATION OF SEA SAND.
HAROLD JEFFREYS, M.SC.,
Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge.
At most places along our coast the margin of the sea lies on a gently
sloping sandy strip called the beach. In most cases this bears no vegetation
of any kind; this is not surprising, for most of it is submerged at every
springtide, and the part just above the high water mark at springtides gets
washed by sea water during very slight storms, so that every vascular plant
that could grow on these places would be washed away at an early stage of
its existence. Where the beach is sufficiently broad for its higher parts to be
out of reach of seawater, vegetation becomes possible. As the sand
originally came from the bottom of the sea, it naturally contains salt; it is
believed that most of its water supply also is derived from percolating
seawater. The vegetation is thus of a characteristic type, able to withstand
without injury the peculiar physiological effects of salt. It is scanty; the
ground is never covered with herbage as it is in most inland places. Such a
scanty growth is called an "open association," as distinguished from a "close
association." The commonest species on the Northumberland coast are:—
Cakile maritima (with white form). Salsola kali.
Arenaria peploides. Elymus arenarius.
Sedum acre.
It will be noticed that all of these plants except the grass are succulent.
This property is believed to enable them to exist where the water supply is
very erratic, on account of the water stored up in the leaves. In this they
resemble the desert cacti.
The most striking feature of the seashore in most places, however, is the
Sand Dune. This affords the best example of the interdependence of the
vegetation and its habitat that occurs in the British Isles. Whereas in most
places the plant formation modifies its habitat to a greater or less extent, in
this case it actually makes its habitat. In this it receives most important
assistance from the wind. Air in motion is well known to be able to
transport solid particles, and the faster it moves the larger the grains it can
carry. Now a wind on the sea shore picks up such grains of sand and carries
them along. When it

2
reaches a spot that is covered with plants, these compel the air passing
among them to reduce its pace. It consequently loses some of its carrying
power and drops the larger grains that it is transporting. Thus a heap of sand
tends to accumulate round a plant. The shore plants just mentioned have this
property, but they rarely succeed in making a heap more than a few inches
highh round themselves. Certain grasses are much more effective. On the
Norfolk coast the Sea Couch Grass (Agropyron junceum) occurs on the
shore, often starting in the association of shore plants, and on account of its
rapidity of growth it is able to keep pace with the sand that is blown on top
of it. It thus avoids being smothered, and its roots bind the sand together and
make it very difficult to blow it away again.
Agropyron junceum is not able to form dunes of more than a few feet in
height. At this stage the sand is colonised by a much more powerful dune
forming grass, the Marram Grass (Ammophila arenaria ), This grows in
large tussocks, usually about three feet in height, and consequently has
much greater power of stopping sand. The Agropyron dune is then soon
buried under the Ammophila dune, the original dominant surviving only
along the seaward margin, if at all. There seems to be hardly any limit to the
height that the Ammophila dune, the most important of the mobile dunes,
can attain, though the largest on the coast of Northumberland and Durham
only reach about 40 feet. When a cutting is made through these dunes the
old roots of Ammophila can be traced right down to the level of the shore.
Why, if Ammophila is able to defeat Agropyron in this way, did it not
appear as the original dominant when the dune was commenced? The
answer appears to be that it is less able to withstand salt water, and never
grows where it would be ,frequently drenched. Hence it does not occur until
the Agropyron dune is sufficiently high for its summit to be free from salt
water except in very violent storms. Further inland, however, an Ammophila
dune may arise spontaneously. At Hunstanton, on the Norfolk coast, the two
kinds of dune occur together, the Agropyron dunes forming a low fringe
along the seaward side of the large Ammophila dunes. On the dunes of
Northumberland and Durham the writer has not yet found Agropyron
junceum, but its hybrid with A. repens, the common Couch, occurs, so that
the pure form must have occurred once and perhaps may exist still. Usually
the Ammophila dune comes right down to the sea shore, the seaward face
being much steeper than the landward side. The finest local developments
of this associatioare at South Shields, Seaton Sluice and Alnmouth; all are

3
in a fairly advanced state of evolution, the Alnmouth dunes being the
most mature. The typical association of these has the following
composition:*
Ranunculus repens o C. arvensis a
Viola canina r Sonchus arvensis r
Erodium cicutarium f Campanula rotundifolia f
Lotus corniculatus f Echium vulgare f
Ononis repens f Cynoglossum officinale o
Ulex Europaeus o Scrophularia nodosa r
Ornithopus perpusillus o Rumex crispus v. trigranulatus f
Potentilla anserine f Ammophila arenaria d
Valerianella olitoria o Elymus arenarius a
Carduus acanthoides r Agrostis vulgaris sd
Cnicus lanceolatus o Festuca rubra o
It must be understood that as the sand of a dune is not firmly held
together, a very violent wind may tear off a large quantity of it and deposit
it further inland. The general tendency is thus for the dune to grow on the
seaward side in moderate winds, and to diminish on the seaward side and
increase on the landward side in exceptionally violent storms. The face next
the sea is therefore continually changing,and can be inhabited by only such
plants as Ammophila and Elymus, which are specially adapted to grow on
such a mobile surface. The other constituents of the association are confined
to the inland side. In some local patches near the top a sub-association
occurs, dominated by Ononis repens.
Viola canina o Tussilago farfara a
Ononis repens d Taraxacum erythrospermum? o
Heracleum sphondylium a Hieracium pilosella f
Galium verum a
Great storms may carry the sand from the mobile dune a considerable
distance, say 100 yards, inland before re-depositing it. This forms a
secondary dune, called a "fixed dune ;” the reason for this name is that it
grows slowly on account of the rarity of storms strong enough to carry sand
to it, and is denuded but little on account of the shelter afforded by the
larger mobile dune. It is thus sufficiently near to a state of equilibrium to be
dominated by the ordinary inland xerophytic grasses, such as Festuca rubra
and Agrostis vulgaris. These form a close short turf, and afford a
serviceable pasture. In many cases the fixed dunes are enclosed for this
purpose. There is usually a well marked valley between the two types of
dune, ;in which the dune marshes lie. This is very well seen between Seaton
Sluice and Blyth.
* The following contractions are used in these lists:—a, abundant;cd,
codominant; d, dominant; f, frequent; I, local; o, occasional ;r, rare; sd,
subdominant; vr, very rare.

4
At Alnmouth* a special feature may be observed, which is very rare on
the coast, although it also occurs in Glamorgan, according to Orr. The
common Bracken (Pteris aquilina) has succeeded in colonizing the fixed
dunes. Owing to its rapid mode of spreading by rhizomes it has become
dominant over most of the fixed dunes, and has spread onwards to the
mobile dunes. These afford it just the type of loose dry sand that it spreads
in most easily, and it has extended right up to the summit of the dunes, and
even down to the shore in some places The Ammophila seems to be
completely defeated. It is unlikely that Pteris possesses the power of rapid
upward growth that is necessary to a successful dune forming plant, but it
grows very close and tall, so that the wind can only penetrate below the
canopy of its leaves with difficulty. A mobile dune once dominated by
Pteris will probably remain in a stationary condition for a longtime, for both
growth and denudation are almost stopped. It thus acquires in some degree
the properties of a fixed dune. List :—
Lychnis vespertina o Centaurea nigra o
Geranium sanguineum lsd Senecio jacobaea a
(with pale form resembling G. pyrenaicum Chrysanthemum
f
in colour)
leucanthemum
Potentilla reptans f Cynoglossum officinale o
Agrimonia eupatoria f Echium vulgare o
Rosa villosa f Veronica chamoedrys o
Pimpinella saxifraga o Thymus serpyllum
l
Galium cruciatum o Primula veris f
Leontodon hispidus f Plantago media o
Sonchus asper o Rumex crispus v. a
trigranulatus
Arctium lappa o Urtica dioica o
Arrhenatherum elatius a
In addition to the true dunes, an intermediate type of flora occurs in
certain places on the coast where there are cliffs. Much sand gets
transported to the top of these, forming a shallow layer. A mixed association
occurs in these cases, composed partly of the species of the fixed dune and
partly of those appropriate to the underlying soil. Near St. Mary's Island, for
instance, where the boulder clay is very near the surface, we have Lolium
perenne dominant, mixed with all the five common plantains, and with such
seaside plants as Carex arenaria, Armeria maritlma, Leontodon hirtus, and
Cerastium semidecandrum. A still more striking mixed association occurs
on the magnesian limestone cliffs at Marsden; the fixed dune plants are
there mixed with the typical flora of the magnesian limestone hills.
* Also at Lynmouth, where the bracken is dense enough to be mown
annually.—J.E.H.

5
d Thalictrum minus c C. scabiosa
Diplotaxis tenuifolia c Hypochaeris radicata
d Arenaria peploides cd Leontodon hispidus
c Helianthemum chamaecistus cd Hieracium pilosella
cd Lotus corniculatus cd Campanula rotundifolia
d Anthyllis vulneraria d Erythraea littoralis
cd Ononis repens c Prunella vulgaris
d Potentilla tormentilla cd Thymus serpyllum
c Poterium sanguisorba Plantago major
d Agrimonia eupatoria c P. lanceolata
cd Heracleum sphondylium cd P. media
c Pimpinella saxifraga d P. coronopus
Conium maculatum d P. maritima
cd Galium verum cd Festuca rubra
cd Cnicus lanceolatus c F. ovina
cd C. arvensis cd Agrostis vulgaris
c Centaurea nigra d Agropyrum repens
The plants marked with a c occur on Penshaw Hill, which is a typical
magnesian limestone summit. Those marked with a d are typical fixed dune
plants. It will be seen that with the exception of three ruderals they include
the whole of the plants that have been listed, although the list is probably far
from complete.
It often happens that behind the dunes, especially near the mouth of a
river, there is a long low lying area that is never covered by water except at
high springtides. This is a salt marsh. The soil of this is, however, usually
damp mud rather than sand and thus does not come within the scope of the
present article.
AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE PSEUDO
SCORPIONFAUNA OF THE BRITISH ISLES.
BY H. WALLIS KEW.
Journal of the Quekett Microscopical Club. Nov. 1916,
(Vol. xiii, pp. 117-136).
The author is careful to say that his paper is not a bibliography; which is
his polite way of intimating that all the negligible minor writings of the
present century have been omitted. But if any British paper, touching on this
subject, published between 1665 and 1890, is dropped out, I have failed

6
to detect the omission. Moreover, the author in his usual thorough
fashion, has interpolated in due order notes on the essential continental
publications. The result is a historical account which is also a select
bibliography, with all the information the serious student will need as to the
contents of each brochure.
Mr. Kew laments the reiteration of certain errors. As a flagrant offender, I
take this opportunity of donning sackcloth. In my paper on local
pseudoscorpions (Vasculum I, p. 70) two such mistakes will be found, due
to too much reliance on Simon and Pickard Cambridge. The first is
concerning the spinning organs, which are not abdominal at all but seated
on the falces. The second is that I described Chiridium museorum as having
no eyes, following the two authors named. It appears that this also is wrong,
though with the means at my disposal I am still unable to see anything that I
can call bona fide eyes.
The present paper, together with Mr. Kew's Synopsis (Proc. Royal Irish
Academy xxix 13—1911 : and Supplement, 1916) will furnish all that is
required for the study of British Pseudoscorpions, and at the same time put
the student in the way of widening his range if so inclined.
J. E. H.
NATURAL FEATURES IN LOCAL PLACENAMES
By Rev. J. E. Hull M.A.
When Man, the Namer, invades a tract of earth for the first time, before
all other thing's he finds it necessary to label his surrounding's Hence the
names we have in mind are the most ancient of all names, and being applied
to permanent thing's are also the most enduring'. Moreover the
aboriginals—the Celts so far as we are concerned—had little else to name.
Three centuries of intercourse with Romans added something to their
vocabulary, such as might be acquired from temporary explorers, not
settlers. Followed the Frisian Saxons, permanent squatters in the fertile
lowlands, ousting the Britons and their nomenclature (save for a few names
of thing's unknown to the Saxon littoral), and adding the vocabulary of
husbandmen and

7
seafarers. Hard on their heels came the Norsemen, a race of greater
vitality, absorbing their predecessors. Speaking a dialect of the same
tongue, they adapted the vocabulary of the Saxons where it was well
established; but, accustomed to pastoral and hill life, they extended their
settlements to the uplands, and set the mark of their mother tongue on fell
and dale. What we shall expect to find, therefore, is a slight sprinkling of
Cymric, with Danish dominant in the hills and a more or less Danified
Saxon prevailing elsewhere.
It seems natural to begin a review from the seaward side; and the verbal
history of the coast begins with the Saxons: the Britons have left no mark—
unless Cambois preserves the Celtic camas, a bay or creek; in which case
the letter b is not authentic but due to a supposed identity with some
Cambus or Cambhouse (perhaps in Berwickshire), or even a fancied
analogy with Cambo. There is neither hill nor hollow (camb or comb) to
justify this etymology; and the existence of the family name Cambhouse
proves nothing.
The Saxons found a coast little resembling their own sandy wastes. Sand
was here not the universal thing but sufficiently distinctive of certain
localities to justify their being called the. sandy landing places (Sunderland*
and North Sunderland). We still regard, as they did, the Fame Islands as full
of dangers, though we may have forgotten that the fact is enshrined in the
name (A. S. foer, danger). Lindisfarne is* the “less rugged" of the same
group, the root lind meaning even, or smooth. (See Skeat, Etym. Diet.,
under linden-tree).
St. Mary's Island, near Whitley, used to be known as Hartley Bait. The
spelling suggests the common local word, which is employed to mean food,
or a feeding place, or food used to entice. Accepting this, the "Bait" here
might be synonymous with the Bats (or Basses) of Teesdale and Weardale
as well as with the Icelandic beita, pasturage. Jamieson, however (Etym.
Diet.), defines bat as a holme or river island; and in the Whitby Glossary
bat is a patch of shoreland liable to be overflowed by the higher tides. It
appears probable, therefore, that the word is of common origin with bathe
(A. S. bathian) and signifies more or less waste land of limited area subject
to occasional submersion by tide or "fresh."
*Since this was written I have had the privilege of seeing a pamphlet by
the late Mr. James Patterson (" the Birthplace of the Venerable Bede ") in
which it is conclusively shown that Sunderland is a case of a “Sonderland”
or detached bit of property.
* i.e. according to my estimate of the probabilities So with similar
statements in this paper.

8
To the “Viking's" also the character of the coast was unfamiliar, offering
rarely a suitable site for the customary "vik (wick). There remain only
Berwick and Suddick (Southwick); but the name was retained, being
transferred to inland settlements.
The saltwater carrs of Teesmouth which gave Seaton Carew its distinctive
name were, perhaps, also unfamiliar, at least in a measure, to the Frisian
settlers, since they applied to the separate bodies of water the name fleet,
originally a roadstead for ships (A. S. fleet). Somewhat akin to these are the
tidal slackwaters or slakes. To slake is to soften with water; in the present
case the resultant tidal mud is locally called “sleck.” At the mouth of the
Blyth the name is transferred to a stream running into the slake (Sleek
Burn), and thence to three adjacent villages.
The characteristic form assumed by nearly all the water courses earned for
them the name of dene (A. S. denu), an application which fixed the
signification of the name, afterwards universally employed for a narrow
steep sided valley, more or less densely wooded. The middle reaches of the
more considerable streams, more spacious, less confined, exhibiting the
results of floods and shifting channels, give us a characteristic group of
words—bat, haugh, holm, stanners, eals.
Of these haugh is the most general term; it is the low land next to the
stream, whatever its character, and may thus be said to include all the rest.
The origin of the word is rather obscure, but it would seem to be from some
old Norse word represented today by Icelandic haugr, German haufe,
English heap. It is a local word, restricted to the area extending from Forth
to Tyne. In certain places (as at Newburn and Morpeth) the haugh bears the
special name of stanners. This, I presume, is where the gravel and shingle of
the old riverbed is overlaid with more or less of alluvium. Perhaps
something similar is found at Stamfordham (locally called Stannerton).
Holm is originally (and strictly) an island, but easily transferred to a strip
of alluvial land, bounded by a smaller stream or ditch parallel to the main
stream.
Eals is practically synonymous with holm. It is the A. S. ea, a stream,
with a locative suffix (seen elsewhere in Bearl, Beal, Hepple, &c.). It seems
to be much the same as island— A. S. Hand or igland; locally eland, as at
Ponteland and the Eland ferry above Ryton station. Eals and holm are
usually applied to fairly good land.

9
Before entering the hill country it may be remarked confluence of the two
streams is a twizel ( twa, two ; locative suffix); e.g Haltwhistle is the twizel
where (the castle hill) occupies the fork.*
This brings us to the region of dale and moor. Let us begin with the
former. It is a Norse word derived from the Danish dele, to part or divide,
the dales or drainage basins being regarded as the natural subdivisions of
the hill country. A branch of a dale, if broad enough, is a hope; if the lateral
slopes rise directly and steeply from the stream, it is a cleugh. The latter is
simply a cleft or cleavage ; but the former is probably a borrowed coast
term, since hop in Icelandic is an inlet of the sea.
Devil's water has been variously explained, but I imagine it simply
represents De’il's water, a false rendering of deles or dales water; whence
Dilston—a doublet, therefore, of Dalston.
Moor (Saxon) and fell (Norse) are, so far as I can make out, used
indiscriminately for the same kind of places, regarded from two different
points of view. Moor is allied to mire, morass, and moss, and thus has an
eye to the boggy nature of the place ; fell is radically the same as the
German fels, a rock or crag, and regards it as mountainous land which
cannot be cultivated. Dr. Embleton claims “heath” as an element in local
names, but I think he is mistaken. He cites Heathpool near Cheviot; but that
is derived from the neighbouring peak called Great Hertha. He adds Birk
Hat, three times repeated in Teesdale. In other parts of England no doubt
hat and het are sometimes abbreviations of heath; but Birk Hat is obviously
a variant of Birk Hot (i.e holt), which occurs several times locally. We have
Hetton a good many times, and some (e.g. that near Doddington) might very
well be Heath-ton—if one could be sure that High-ton is not the correct
reading, as it certainly is in other cases.†
There is a wonderful variety of names for the more prominent summits.
Fell is frequent, thus emphasizing the rootmeaning of the word. Hill—which
is simply high with the suffix—is common. Law (A. S hlaw, a heap, a
tumulus) is
*The main stream has changed its course, but the old bed is obvious
enough.
† So Hetchester appears to be High-Chester.

10
applied to hills which more or less resemble a sepulchral mound. Pike is
a peak, but need not be sharp pointed, any more than a pike of hay is.
Seat and side are radically identical, in application diverse They represent
the Danish scede, though the use of side has apparently been modified by
reason of its coincidence with the A. S. side, side or flank (root meaning
wide). Thus side is the slope of a hill, or even a whole rising locality; but
seat is a summit, though it must not be confounded with its homonym in
Arthur's Seat, where seat is the word still in ordinary use.
Dodd is a name of considerable frequency, but its origin is " wropt in
mystry." In all probability it is fundamentally equivalent to "dead" (Danish
aod). Its application to a hill may be merely fanciful, as the famous Mort
Homme of Verdun ; or it may be due to a likeness to a burial tumulus—a
natural notion to anyone comparing our rounded grassy hills with the
rugged fells of Scandinavia; or it may simply signify dead or barren—as our
Tommies speak of a "dud" shell. The second of these seems to me most
likely; so that Dudley would be pastureland marked by the presence of a
barrow, or a hill which resembled one.
Knowe—which sometimes takes a locative suffix /, le, or t— is of course
merely a form of knoll, is identical with the rig of ploughed land; where the
priority lies is a problem like that of the hen and the edge is practically a
synonym of rig and needs no explanation. Con or can, though radically
identical with the cope of a wall or roof is applicable to a summit as well as
a ride. Thus Ottercaps is most probably the eight ( Danish otte ) cops or
hills.
*In composition it is frequently law or lee, as in Harlow, Kyloe. The Low
(rhyming with now), a stream near Beal, is probably so called because in its
lower course it traverses Fenham Flats (Danish lav = flat, lav vande =
ebbtide), and is only visible at ebbtide. It is said to have been called Lindis
whence Lindisfarne; but the boot is probably on the other leg!
†This term is often much disguised. Thus Consett is Conside, the " canny
"or bonnyside (or seat?) Gateshead is Gateside, the side or slope occupied
by the Gatas (or Weder-Gatas, from whom we get many a Wether Hill).
Cornsay is most probably an abbreviation of Cornside. Simonsides is a
close grouping (Danish sammen, together) of " sides "; as Simonburn may
be the junction of two (or more) streams (but the proper name Sigismund
may be in both of these

11
Don (dun, den) occurs in composition only, and its original meaning is so
far obsolete that hill or some equivalent is often added. Humbledon Hill
(near Wooler ; also near Sunderland) is an instructive example, formed of
three similar elements; for humble is hummel, a humped place, and a
hummel knowe is one without a peak, as a hummel cow is one without
horns.
Howe (how, hoe)—Danish hoi, a hill or barrow—is never used for the
higher summits, and frequently for what is merely the highest part of
inconsiderable ridges. It occurs chiefly, therefore, among the foothills and
in the lower lands. In composition it usually becomes hoe or even oe or o (e.
. Coxhoe, Prudhoe, Westoe, Kelloe, Ingoe, Duddo, Cambo.) Heugh is
sometimes regarded as a doublet of howe; but this appears to me very
doubtful. Its application rather suggests that it is the Saxon equivalent
(perhaps from A. S. haiman, to hew) of the Norse scar (Danish skiver), a
crag, rock, or broken cliff. Howe is sometimes ingeniously explained as a
rounded surface, either convex or concave ; but I think when how occurs in
the latter sense it is no more than a contraction of howl or hole, i.e. hollow.
Comb (A. S. cumb, a cup) is assigned the same double meaning, but locally
so far as I can make out it always means a hollow. Thus Comb Hill is a hill
with a hollow in it.
Gill is the Norse (and alpine) equivalent of dene, but naturally of smaller
dimensions and always on a slope. Elsewhere the word survives only in
Iceland. Locally it is restricted to the South Tyne above Featherstone and to
Upper Teesdale.
Burn (A. S. burna) is the general name for a stream, but the hill streams or
torrents often take the Norse name beck, which with force, a waterfall (also
purely Norse) has pretty nearly the same local range as gi//. In
Northumberland the Celtic name for a waterfall—linn—has been retained.
Another Norse word of the fell country, common to Tynedale, Weardale,
and Teesdale, is sike or syke, a streamlet of the boggy fells. (The word is
allied to soak).
Moss (Danish mose) is a bog—usually, but not always, a sphagnum bog;
or a peatmoss, where '”peats “ may be cut. The word is in use from Cheviot
to the Tees. Carr (Dan. kjaer ) is rather a sedge bog than a sphagnum bog,
frequently in connection with pools or ditches, and belongs to the lowlands
as well as the dales. Such were Prestwick Carr and Morden Carrs.

12
SALLOWING.
BY J. W. H. HARRISON, M.Sc.
Spring is now approaching, and the butterfly and moth collector, thinking
but little of the possibilities of Spring itself will be overhauling his
apparatus and otherwise preparing for the summer campaign.
Never was a greater mistake made; whilst it is useless pretending that
anything very elaborate can be done with the perfect insects themselves,
unfortunately the opinion seems to be held generally, and nowhere more
firmly than in the North, that to go after the Spring moths is a waste of time.
In consequence, even in the best worked districts of the South, the
distribution of even the commonest of the earlier moths is quite uncertain. If
that is the case there, what must it be here where collectors are so few? As a
matter of fact, no one can guarantee, except in a few odd districts, that any
given insect, no matter how common, exists there.
To help to fill these blanks in our knowledge, and to suggest one method
of doing so is the purpose of the present paper, and the special device,
practised by a few in the North, that I wish to discuss is that known as
"sallowing. "
No one who enjoys the beauties of Spring can have failed to note the
glorious display of golden catkins with which the sallows are bedecked,
diversified by the occurrence here and there of the more sober grey green
raiment of the female bushes. If anyone has missed these delights let him go
out and search for them ; let him approach the sallow thickets and note the
merry hum of the insects hovering round. Who would have suspected that
our Spring—our Spring on the North East— could produce so many insects
? Bees, both solitary and social, flies, and the like boom on their way
gorged with nectar. And on yonder bush even a Tortoiseshell Butterfly
(Aglais urticae) is probing the flowers jostling as it does with a queen wasp
( Vespa vulgaris )·
Break off twigs from both kinds of bushes; smell the flowers and dissect
them. They are provided with an attractive scent and will develop nectaries
full of honey; what is more, they are yet more powerfully scented in the still
nights of Spring. Surely then they will be equally attractive to insects at
night! Just at dusk on some warm April day (or earlier if the catkins are
expanded), take a lantern and visit the bushes— isolated ones for preference
as then the insects are more "concentrated." No sooner do the beams of the
lantern strike the

13
shrub than the pinkish gleam of countless moth eyes flashing and
glistening as the insects move over the catkins, reaches us. If the bush is
small we can pick and choose, boxing the moths as we go.
If, on the contrary, the favoured sallows are tall and well grown, a
different plan must be adopted. One not to be despised is to hold a large
umbrella under the masses of catkins and shake. Crowds of moths and
catkins fall, and the former, particularly the Noctuids, remain quiescent long
enough for one to ''pillbox" them after careful selection.
Should the sallow have attained the dimensions of a tree, and thus be too
unwieldy to work by means of an umbrella, then the method is to spread a
large sheet on the ground around and to shake the sallow vigorously,
climbing it if necessary to do so.
Failing all these devices, and even should there be no sallows suitable for
night work in the vicinity, one need not despair. Cut a large bunch of newly
opened catkins and place them in a suitable locality. They prove just as
attractive as those left growing, and if kept in water act satisfactorily for
several days.
Now, what moths may one hope to capture? Quite a respectable list can be
made. They include such hibernators as the two Sword Grasses (Calocampa
exoleta et vetusta), the Herald (Scoliopteryx libatrix ), and the Chestnuts
(Cerastis vaccinii et C. spadicea), not to mention the crowds of
Taeniocampids—Taeniucampa gothica (Hebrew character), T. stabilis, T.
incerta, T. gracilis, T. pulverulenta, and T. opima, with not a few Red
Chestnuts (Pachnobia rubricosa ) and possibly the rarer white marked P.
lencographa. With them appear a sprinkling of other species both Noctuid
and Geometrid, like the Pine Beauty (Panolis piniperda ), the Yellow
Horned (Asphalia flavicornis ), the Early Thorn (Selenia bilunaria), the
Mottled Grey (Larentia multistrigaria ), and other small fry. Owing to their
reluctance to drop and their proneness for flight the Geometers are best
boxed direct from the, catkins as they sip the nectar
A few further remarks and my task is complete. Miss no opportunity, no
matter what the previous weather—rain, frost, or snow—be at the bushes on
every suitable evening. The same meteorological factors causing the
blossoming of the sallows forces or tempts out the moths. That this should
be the case with the hibernators causes no surprise, but in other instances it
calls for some explanation. Nature has fully provided for rapid weather
changes in the direction of minimizing the risk of failure in the early moths.
They are fully developed in the

14
pupa case in the early autumn of the preceding year and are prepared to
respond to Spring's earliest advances.
As to what sallows to visit, all pay well and none better than the species
called Salix caprea, S. aurita, S. cinerea, and their hybrids. Should you feel
tempted to neglect the sombre female bushes, cast aside the temptation, for
reflection will assure one that these must be visited by the insects if they are
to carry their work of pollination to completion.
Finally, if you have access to the low bushes of Salix repens do not fail to
take advantage of them. They flower weeks later in the season than the
others, and are visited by insects which the other species never see. All the
ordinary sallows grow in the Birtley neighbourhood, and I can speak from
experience as to their repaying close working.
THE NIGHTJAR (Caprimulgus europaeus)
J. S. T. WALTON,
Ingleholme, Stocksfield
It would be interesting to know whether the Nightjar is increasing in our
local counties or, like its near relative the Swift, can be considered on the
decrease. I am inclined to think it is a variable quantity, in some years being
less numerous than in others.
It seldom arrives in the Tyne District before the last week in May or the
first days of June, and is local in its distribution certain localities having as
many as six pairs breeding, while in many others it is not to be seen.
Though I have found it on our open moors, and in bracken covered
clearings in woods, seems partial to ground that is covered with gorse.
I have frequently noticed it hunts for its food in pairs almost like a couple
of Merlins. Generally before it begins its evening flight the male bird
regales his mate for some time wit his peculiar jarring song, then suddenly
he will dart out from his retreat soon to be followed by the female.
The note when on the wing is a short, sharp whistle, or cluck. When near
a bush they clap their wings together,

15
evidently to startle any moths that may be resting on the leaves, and I
have had them do this within a yard of my face, being attracted no doubt by
the white of my collar showing from under my coat.
In this district the eggs are generally laid on two successive days about the
15th of June. Incubation lasts eighteen days. The empty egg shells are not
carried away from the nest and often one half is enclosed within the other.
The young are peculiar looking creatures. The body is covered with
extremely fine long downy feathers, or filose plumes. The head is
practically bare of feathers. The beak has quite a knoblike termination, the
nostrils being large round openings conspicuously raised above the surface
of the maxilla and surrounded with a double row of setaceous like feathers.
They are able to crawl from the nest when a day old. Their growth is rapid,
and in a week they about double their size, the primary feathers of the
wing's and tail being most distinct. When two weeks old they are of nearly
mature size, and the head and body marking's begin to approach adult
plumage. They are very timid, and show their objection to intrusion by
moving the head up and down, opening their mouths as wide as possible
while giving vent to a faint hissing sound. They leave the nest at the
beginning of the third week.
The female bird broods very close, though sometimes she will leave the
nest before your approach. I have seen a female Nightjar rise from near her
nest during the day and dash after a Kestrel that was hovering some distance
off.
A SUGGESTION.
Might I suggest to those readers of The Vasculum who take an interest in
birds, that it would serve a useful purpose if careful and systematic enquiry
were made of the bird resources of our local counties, with a view of
finding out what species were increasing, what were decreasing, and what
changes, if any, were taking place in the distribution of our local avifauna.
Of course we have our histories and our records, but these tell us of the past.
They cannot be expected to keep account of the change that is continually
taking place. There are so many things that have their influence on birdlife.
Large tracts of land go out of cultivation, woods are cut down, certain areas
are drained, or a town or large works spring up where once there was only a
rural hamlet. Then we may have a succession of mild winters followed by a
severe one. For the last two and

16
a half years a devastating war has been raging throughout Europe, and
thousands of birds must have been killed for feeding the hungry people of
the invaded countries. Even before war conditions existed—take the
wholesale destruction of the French bird massacres in 1913, when 28 tons
of small birds were destroyed in the South of France, including 3,000,000
swallows, 80,000 robins, and into the millions of larks. Such are only a few
of the changes that exercise an untold influence upon the life of birds and
consequently upon their value in the economy of nature. As we have so very
few really resident birds— to be exact perhaps we only have two, the
sparrow and the grouse—it will be recognised how important a factor these
thing's are in the great influx of our migrants.
On the other hand great changes may take place in our agricultural
districts in consequence of the war. Already large tracts of woodland have
been cut down, and it is proposed to bring more and more land under
cultivation.
It will therefore be both useful and interesting to observe what effect the
changes alluded to may have upon our bird population.
J.S.T. WALTON
FIELD MEETINGS OF THE NATURAL HISTORY
SOCIETY
By C. E. ROBSON.
Though the mind of every one was preoccupied at the beginning of last
Season with the Great European War which showed no signs of an early
ending, it was not deemed advisable to abandon the custom of holding
Meetings for those interested in field work. It was thought to be wiser,
however, to arrange a modified programme for Spring and Summer only,
leaving out those interesting outings on the coast in the Autumn which have
a peculiar charm of their own.
Under the leadership of Mr. Richard Adamson. F.R.HS., Field President,
the first Meeting was arranged for early May, the district chosen being the
lower reaches of the Wansbeck.

17
A goodly party assembled on a day which promised to alternate “twixt
heat and rain,” and proceeded by train to North Seaton Station; thence they
were soon at work examining a pool whose surface was partly covered by
the ivy leaved crowfoot, and whose depths were dredged for the larvae of
caddis flies in their tubular casings. The scurvy grass was found growing,
whilst swallows and martins were seen hawking over the surface of the
Wansbeck, the curlew and kestrel overhead, and the harsh cry of the
corncrake, then the sweet descending song of the willow warbler were
heard. Crossing the swing bridge the Arboretum of Bothalhaugh was
visited, permission having been granted by the Rev and Hon. W. C. Ellis,
whose head gardener acted as cicerone; the chief attraction was the rich and
varied growth of conifers. Continuing the route through Bothal Woods,
most of the early Spring flowers were seen to be in bloom. In the evening a
stroll through Messrs. Matheson's Nurseries at Morpeth, and to the Station
by the Castle Banks brought a pleasant day's outing to an end.
Dipton Woods was chosen for the second Meeting at the beginning of
June—a time when the hawthorn blossom of the hedgerow gladdened the
eye, as the party proceeded from Corbridge Station to Hightown. In the
sandstone quarry was a fine specimen of the petty whin; then a mountain
ash and a bird cherry, white with blossom. A specimen of the intermediate
avens was also gathered on the route and later, in the luxuriant growth of
fern the oak and the adder's tongue were both found. Before crossing the
fields to the main wood, however, Mr Adamson exhibited a few specimens
from Winlaton district, which included flowers of the bog bean, green
winged orchis, and a plant of butterwort in the bud; also a small crimson
backed dragon fly (Pyrrhosoma minium). Entering the Woods, the
numerous nests of the wood ants claimed attention ; every member of the
community seemed busy, and a sample of the material and its contents was
taken for examination later.
Birds were fairly plentiful; in addition to the commoner varieties,
woodpecker, woodcock, treecreeper, and wood wren were observed.
The bright orange red of a small club shaped fungus growing on the half
submerged leaves in the swampy spots called for attention too. In this
swampy clearing botanical interest was renewed by sight of various sedges
(Carex flava, C. strigosa and C. vulgaris) and of the single headed cotton
grass. Wolf spiders swarmed on the ground, but only one early sand bee
was seen ; the common heath moth fluttered

18
around, and a fine specimen of the " purple barred" was taken later. After
lunch the course of the March Burn was followed, and during the walk to
Riding Mill the botanists' lists were swelled by the finding of the wood
groundsel, scorpion grass, bog violet, water avens, wood geraniurn and
globe flower. Thus ended a day full of interest to the student of almost
every section.
The third Meeting at the end of June was fixed for Warkworth. Leaving
the train at Acklington our steps led through the village, a spot whose gay
gardens and well built stone cottages tempted one to linger and admire. But
pushing on by an unfrequented road whose untrimmed hedgerows were
decked plentifully with buttercup and vetch, which eventually gave way to
well grown pine and sycamore, with here and there an oak, until the
embowered hamlet of Morwick came in sight Striking a path to the left the
winding Coquet was reached, and a halt called for lunch Near at hand were
gathered the pretty bitter lady's smock and a number of cruciferous plants,
most interesting of which perhaps was the navew (Brassica campestris ),
The woods of Brotherwick were then entered, Mr. Tate having granted the
necessary leave ; in the matted undergrowth most noticeable were the
graceful drooping heads of the great sedge (Carex pendula). Red campion
was blooming freely under the trees and the giant bellflower was equally
prolific, though not quite in bloom In one limited area only was the garlic
found; frost had evidently caught the bracken in its early growth, smirching
the apical shoots as though by fire, but the brilliant blue bugle was growing
in great perfection.
Many are the twists and the turns of the Coquet, each adding a new
charm, and not least of its interests are the Weir and salmon leap, which
arrested attention and demanded a closer examination. From this point the
path becomes perhaps less interesting to the naturalist, running as it does
along a beaten path to the well known Hermitage; fewer plants were to be
seen ; in the shadow of the leafy trees bird life was scarcely noticeable, but
now thrush and blackbird began to pour forth song.
Whilst waiting at the ferry for the laggards of the party, and watching the
trout which were “on the feed," a chat with the boatman—a philosopher in
his way—proved interesting, his knowledge of local nature, history, and
ethics was comprehensive. On the other bank the great valerian was
gathered as well as the perfoliate honeysuckle. Passing the back of the
Castle of the Percies an adjournment was made to the Sun Inn for a
refreshingcup of tea. By now the day had changed,

19
sultry clouds had broken and rain fell fast. Undeterred however, the more
hardy members of the party made for the coast and came back rewarded by
specimens of the gay blue bugloss the dull hued hound's tongue, the tangled
knawel and the quaint sea milkwort. All too unwillingly the path was taken
to the station, whence the train was to bear us back to the murky town.
Again a meeting was specially set apart for the “Young folks. " Training
to Rowland's Gill the party was met by the Field President, who during a
long and busy life spent in the district has made a careful study of the lower
Derwent Owing to the varied character of the glacial deposits which give
the banks of the stream its rugged and picturesque beauty, particularly in
this neighbourhood, the flora of the valley Is of much luxuriance and
diversity of growth. The cold and backward days of the preceding weeks
made Spring and Summer meet on this July day, as shown by the list of
plants found. The foxglove gladdened the eye with its grace of shape and
beauty of colour, many specimens of white milkwort were found also
several varieties of bedstraws.
One of the charms of the swampy haugh is the fine growth of the bold
marsh ragwort, whose golden crown contrasted with the red campion and
the blue forget-me-not. Birds were more noticeable, probably owing to the
open nature out of the ground, sheltering trees almost surrounding it
sparrowhawk kestrel, jackdaw, magpie, and waterhen being seen as well as
willow warblers, tree pipits, pied wagtails, yellow buntings swallows,
martins, and swifts.
Than Gibside it would be difficult to find a more beautiful, quiet, or
varied country spot within so short a distance of busy Newcastle, and this
was chosen for the fifth meeting place. One of its advantages is, that leaving
the train no farther afield than Swalwell as we did one can enter a country
lane at once with rustic charm on either side. and as one mounts upwards
views of surpassing beauty are unfolded, the winding upland lane shuts out
view of furnace and leads to the quiet restfulness of the countryside.
Axwell Estate, the seat of the Claverings, spreads itself below, a glad
picture of park and woodland, of smiling field and flowing stream.
Overhead is the lilt of the skylark and on either side the hedgerow bears its
floral beauties. The stately boles of the Beeches glinting in the sunshine
overhead add to the charm. Along past Old Axwell, a mere handful of
houses, to the ruins of Hollinside Castle which we were permitted to
inspect. From its high perch a sweeping view of the

20
winding of the Derwent, carving its way to join Father Tyne, is afforded
as we sit and discuss our lunch. Then scrambling down to the flat below,
many of the marsh loving flowers are seen in profusion ; a short walk by the
upland meadow brings us to Gibside Wood, where the green tracery of the
well grown trees forms a canopy overhead. Most interesting of the plants
found along the path were the great sedge (Carex pendula) and the broad
leaved helleborine (Epipactis lalifolia).
Passing along the stately avenues the Hall is reached in due time, and
thence by the walk alongside the old Racecourse to the road which leads us
to Rowland's Gill Station, where our day's outing is brought to a close.
In looking back upon the enjoyable Meetings of the Season, the chief
regret of the town dweller, perhaps, is that the continuity of his observation
was necessarily broken through lack of opportunity. How delightful to find
the cosy nest of the wren or the masterpiece of the chaffinch, but how much
more interesting to be able to watch the brooding of the mother bird, the
chipping of the egg, the arrival of the young, and the parental lesson in
flight ! The flower is gathered in bloom but one misses the springing of the
early shoot, the passing of the flower to fruit. Such joy can only come to
him whose lot it is to live the year round in the country, and who can
wander day by day noting each event that is occurring. Another regret is
that more of the "YoungFolk," who have gained much book knowledge of
nature at school, do not seek in larger numbers to apply that knowledge in
the field. Those who have carried on the work these many years past would
gladly give a welcome and help them from their own experience to direct
and extend their observation. This surely is one of the objects which Field
Meetings would serve.
THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S BOOKSHELF
By GEO. B. WALSH, B.SC.
Every entomologist has heard and laughed over the story of the youthful
enthusiast who bought, as the first volume for his entomological bookshelf,
a work entitled " The Young Mother." wherein the subject matter, though
useful and

21
doubtless even interesting, was by no means relevant to the immediate
subject of enquiry. We have, of course, among our readers none who would
perpetrate quite so glorious a “howler “ as this, but there are doubtless a
few whose information on entomological literature is not as wide as they
would wish it to be, and it is with a view of helping these younger students
that the following notes have been put together. It must he understood,
however, that the list does not profess to be the best one, and it is by no
means a complete one; omissions due to intent, inadvertence or ignorance
are bound to be numerous, and every reasonably advanced worker will be
able to add a large number of very interesting and valuable works, and will,
I know, be delighted to advise any entomologist who desires to travel
further along the lines of his own special study. I have thought it well to
confine myself to works written in English; all the bigger works contain
references to Continental literature, if this is ever required.
A.Introductory Works. There are on the market many very readable books
on popular entomology by well known writers such as the Revs. J, G. and
Theodore Wood and Mr. Percival G. Westell. A famous old classic, longout
of print, is Kirby and Spence's “Introduction to Entomology, which even
now I read with the keenest interest; a secondhand copy can usually be had
for 1/6. A good book for a boy who is fond of any branch of Natural History
is W. S. Furneaux "The Outdoor World" (Longmans, 3/6); this gives
numerous hints for collecting. My first book—and it was that of my friend,
Mr. J. W. H. Harrison, too—was the Rev. J. G. Woods's " Insects at Home"
(out of print), which forms a very good introduction to all the insect orders.
For more detailed treatment of special orders W. S. Furneaux' '' British
Butterflies and Moths" (Longmans, 3/6), and W. E. Sharp's “Common
Beetles of the Countryside” (Partridge, 2/6), can both be recommended.
There are also several useful elementary works by first class authors in “The
Young Collector Series "(1/-). A very interesting book on one aspect of
insect life is A. S. Bastian's “Insects and Man "(Grant Richards 12/-).
Finally, we can thoroughly recommend A. S. Packard's '' Entomology for
Beginners" (this is an American book, which is best purchased through
Macmillans, price 9/6), which, in addition to an introductory survey of the
orders, contains much valuable information as to collecting, breeding,
preserving, and the microscopic preparation of insects.
B.Collecting, etc. Many of the books abovementioned contain more or
less detailed instructions as to the collection of specimens. With the
exception of the Lepidoptera, none of

22
the orders has achieved the dignity of a volume to itself on this subject
In the Lepidoptera we may mention the Rev. J. G. Green's “ The Insect
Hunter's Companion “ (Swan Sonnenschein, 1/-) and D &, H. S. Knagg's'
“The Young Collector" (Gurney and jackson, 1/-). For the more advanced
worker an indispensable book is J. W. Tuft's “ Practical Hints for the Field
Lepidopterist" (3 volumes, 6/- net each ; for this and the rest of Mr. Tutt's
books write to Mr. A. M. Cochrane, 41 Wisteria Road, Lewisham, S. E. The
British Museum of Natural History Cromwell Road, South Kensinglon, S
W., publish a short volume on collecting, price 1/6. Mr. L. W. Newman,
Bexley. Kent, also publishes a useful manual for the collector, “Text Book
of British Lepidoptera" (3/10 post free).
C. Classification and Faunistic Works. An elementary book on
classification is Kirby's '' Introduction to Entomology " (out of print. 10/6),
but the best modern text book in England is Dr. Sharp's " Insects," which
forms volumes 5 and 6 of the Cambridge Natural History (Macmillan, 17/-
each); volume 5 contains a general survey of the Insecta, with special
sections on the Orthoptera, Neuroptera, and part of the Hymenoptera; and
volume 6 includes the remaining orders A book which is essential for every
entomologist is Westwood's " Modern Classification of Insects "; it has long
been out of print, but a secondhand copy can occasionally be picked up.
As regards the special orders in our British insects, the lepidopterists have
by far the best supply. For the whole of our British butterflies and moths, C.
G. Barrett's “Lepidoptera of the British Isles" (L. Reeve & Co., 11 volumes,
with coloured plates, £33 15s., without plates £4 4s ) is a very fine work. A
magnificent study, but unfortunately incomplete, is Tutt's “ British
Lepidoptera," vols. IX (£1 each). A much smaller book, but eminently
useful, is Meyrick's “ Handbook of the British Lepidoptera," which can be
had of any of the secondhand booksellers for 3/6. Warne & Co. publish
three nice. books on British Butterflies (one volume at 6/-) and Moths (two
volumes at 7/6 each), by Mr. Richard South; these are well illustrated, and
are very useful books for the field. For the beginner who seeks illustrations
as well as diagnostic tables, in addition to these books, W. J. Gordon's “Our
Country's Butterflies and Moths “ (Simpkin, Marshall, 6/-) will be useful.
As regard special groups in the Lepidoptera the specialist will be glad of
Mr. Tutt's ''Monograph of the Pteropherini" (5/-), and '' British Noctuae and
their Varieties" (4 volumes, Finally, there are two splendidly illustrated
books on

23
Lepidopterous larvae: Wilson's “Larvae of the British Lepidoptera" (L.
Reeve, ;£3 3s.), and Buckler's “ Larvae of the British Lepidoptera" (Ray
Society, 9 volumes £9)
No other order can compare with this list of textbooks, and most have to
be content with only one. The Hymenopterist, however, has some little
choice, at least among the various families of his order. For the ants, bees,
and wasps, he will refer to E. Saunders' “Hymenoptera Aculeata of the
British Islands" (L. Reeve, ;£3 8s. coloured plates, £2 2s. uncoloured plates,
16/- plain), while there are much more detailed works such as H. St. J. K.
Donisthorpe's “ British Ants “(Wm. Brendon & Sons, Plymouth, 25/-), and
F. W. L. Sladen's “Hurnble Bees" (Macmillan, 10/-) For the Ichneumons the
chief British work is Claude Morley's “The Ichneumons (James H. Keys,
Plymouth, 26/-) and for Sawflies, etc., we have P. Cameron's
“Phytophagous Hymenoptera of the British Isles” (Ray Society, 4 volumes
£4), in the same connection the student will lind a series of articles ''
Helpnotes to the Determination of the British Tenthredinidae running
through the pages of the “ Entomologist's Monthly Magazine” from 1902
to the present date. There are quite a number of works touching the instincts
of the Hymenoptera such as Sir J. Lubbock's “ Ants. Bees, and Wasps"
(International Scientific Series, Kegan Paul, 5/-), and Mr. and Mrs
Peckham's "The Instincts and Habits of the Solitary Wasp” ( Madison. U
S.A )
The standard work on caddis flies is R. McLachlan’s “Revision of the
Trichoptera of the European Fauna" (Van Voorst, £3 10s., and supplement
8/-), and for Beetles, Canon Fowler's “Coleoptera of the British Isles” (L.
Reeve, 6 volume:illustrated £16 8s., plain ;£4 4s.) In other orders and
families there are J. Edwards' “Hemiptera Heteroptera of the British
Islands” (L. Reeve, £2 3s. with coloured plates, £1 5s. with uncoloured
plates, and 12- plain), and E. Saunders' “Hemiptera Heteroptera of the
British Islands” (L. Reeve, £2 8s. with coloured plates, £1 10s. uncoloured,
and 14- plain) ; to Aphides the only “complete" work is Buckton's “British
Aphides' (Ray Society, 4 volumes £4), but it is quite out of date; an up-todate
paper on the genus Macrosiphum by Prof Theobald, will be found in
“The Journal of Economic Biology” for July and September, 1913. We now
have an excellent work on the Coccidae by Prof. Newstead, published by
the Ray Society (2 volumes, £2). There is no satisfactory book on the whole
of the British Neuroptera. An excellent work is W. J. Lucas' “British
Dragonflies” (L. Upcott Gill. 31/6): and in the
*In five volumes, price 26/- per volume-EDS.

24
Transactions of the Linnean Society, 2nd series, Zoology, iii, 1883, will
be found Eaton's “Ephemeridae” For the Orthoptera we have several works.
A ''Synopsis of the British Orthoptera” will be found in the Entomologists'
Monthly Magazine for 1889 and 1890; and in the same magazine for 1911
will be found a coloured plate showing all our British earwig's. Dr.
Malcolm Burr has published “A Manual of the British Orthoptera" (3 6).
and also “A Synopsis of the Orthoptera of Western Europe" (3/- post free
from A. H., 41 Wisteria Road, Lewisham, S.E.)
We are badly off in England for text books on Diptera. There is no
complete work on the whole order, though there are many scattered papers.
The late Mr. G. H. Verrall published a fine volume on the Platypezidae,
Pipunculidae, and Syrphidae (Gurney and Jackson, 31/6), but the whole
work on the Diptera has never been completed. In the Transactions of the
Natural History Society of Northumberland and Durham will be found
Wingate's “British Diptera,” which contains great numbers of valuable
discriminatory tables for many of the British genera. To this can be added
the Hon. N. Charles Rothschild's “ Synopsis of the British Siphonaptera,”
illustrated with eight plates (Gurney and Jackson, 1/6). The British Museum
of Zoology publish a rather expensive work on “ British Bloodsucking
Flies," by E. E. Austen (26/-). A series of papers on the Phoridae, by Dr.
Wood, will be found in the Entomologists' Monthly Magazine for 1908-10,
and a series on the Psychodidae in the same journal for 1893-4.
For the Collembola and Thysanura the student is referred to Sir John
Lubbock's (Lord Avebury) work published by the Ray Society, though this
is now very much out of date An account of the Protura will be found in the
“ Entomologist" for August, 1913, and a more popular account by Mr.
Bagnall in “Knowledge, 1912."
Finally, there are the magnificent volumes of “ Genera Insectorum,” some
of the volumes being in English. These treat of special families of all the
orders, and a copy will be found in the Reference Department of the Central
Public Library Newcastle.
D.Special Insects' etc. A number of books for the specialist have been
mentioned above, but in addition we have some fine books on certain insect
species. Miall and Denny's “ Th e Cockroach "(L. Reeve, 7/6) and Miall and
Hammond's “The Harlequin Fly” (Clarendon Press, 7/6), are books which
ever entomologist should possess, especially if he is interested, as he most
certainly ought to be, in microscopy. Another well known work is
Cheshire’s “The Honey Bee” of which only Volume I

25
contains matter of interest to the entomologist as such. Other more
advanced studies are Lownde's “The Blowfly” (out of print), and Hewitt's
“The House Fly” which appeared in the Transactions of the Royal
Microscopical Society for 1907-9, but has since been republished in book
form (Manchester University Press, 20/-) A very good work on specialised
lines is Prof. Miall's “Natural History of Aquatic Insects” (3/6), and cheaper
still will be found a number of British Museum penny illustrated handbooks
on the Flea, House Fly, Louse, Bedbug, Ticks (not Insects, of course), and
Mosquitoes.
We have now in English a number of very good works on insect genitalia
which are now extensively studied, and are of great assistance in
classification. The Coleoptera have been monographed by Messrs. D. Sharp
and Muir (Trans. Cul. Soc. 1914) and the Dermaptera by Dr. Malcolm Burr
(Trans. Roy. Micr. Soc., 1916); the Geometridae of the Lepidoptera have
been treated by Mr. F. N. Pierce (the author, The Elms, Dingle, Liverpool,
10/-), and the Noctuidae by the same author and the Rev. C. R. N. Burrows
(do., 7/6).
E.Physiology, etc. The best book in English in fact the only one that treats
the subject so fully on insect physiology, etc., is Packard's Textbook of
Entomology (Macmillan, 19/). A book on " Melanism and Melanochroism
in Insects” has been written by Mr. J. W. Tutt (5/-), and will be found
interesting.
Of special interest to the entomologist will be found Prof. E. B. Poulton's
“Colours of Animals” (Kegan, Paul & Co., 6/-) and his “ Essays on
Evolution " (Clarendon Press, 10/-), although the latter should be read in
conjunction with Dr. Punnett's “.Mimicry in Butterflies” (Cambridge
University Press, 15/-), in order to obtain a better balanced view of the
subject of mimicry.
Forel's famous work on “The Senses of Insects” can be obtained from
most secondhand booksellers at 3/6, and many other books of
entomological interest could be mentioned did space permit. We must,
however, not forget the student of Zoogeography, who will find the
following works useful though they are not definitely entomological:—
Scharffs “European Animals" (Constable, 7/6), and “ History of the
European Fauna" (Walter Scott, 6/-), F. C. Beddard's “ Zoogeography” and
Miss Marina Newbigin's “Geography of Animals”
E.Local Lists. Fairly complete local lists of only two insect orders have so
far been published, Bold's list of the Coleoptera in the Transactions of the
Natural History Society of

26
Northumberland and Durham, 1872, and Robson and Gardner's extremely
fine list of the Lepidoptera in the same Transactions for 1889, 1902,1905,
1913. Bold publishes a short list of the Hymenoptera in the volume for
1870, and of the Hemiptera-Heteroptera in 1872. Wingate's list of the flies
has already been mentioned, but it is sadly incomplete, even as compared
with his tables. More up-to-date lists, but unfortunately frequently without
localities, will be found in the Victoria County History of Durham, which
can be consulted at most libraries.
H. Journals. No entomologist can hope to be reasonably well informed on
his study who does not subscribe to one or more of the entomological
journals. First and foremost, of course, come the Transactions of the
Entomological Society, membership of which involves an entrance fee of
two guineas and an annual subscription of one guinea.
Many entomological articles will be found, too, in the Transactions and
Proceeding's of other learned societies, such as the Royal Society, Linnaean
Society, Zoological Society, and Royal Microscopical Society.
Then we have three national entomological magazines, the subscription to
each of which is 7/- per annum, post free:— Entomologists' Record (Mr. H.
E Page, “Bertrose,” Gellatly Road, New Cross, S.E.), Entomologists'
Monthly Magazine (Mr. R. W. Lloyd, 15 Albany, Piccadilly, London,
W.),and the Entomologist (Mr. Richard South, 4 Mapesbury Court, Shootup
Hill, N.W.) Many other natural history magazines, however, frequently
contain entomological articles, such as the Naturalist, Nature, The Journal
of Genetics, The Journal of Economic Biology, The Scottish Naturalist,
Knowledge, and last, but of course most important of all for every selfrespecting
Northumbrian, The Vasculum.
*The scope of this journal was recently enlarged, and it is now known as
The Journal of Zoological research.-R.S.D.

27
A FEW NOTES FROM UPPER TEESDALE.
By T ASHTON LOFTHOUSE. F.E.S.
It may be of interest to our readers to have some account of my
observations made during two short visits to this unique district at the end
of June and in early July last year. Practically the whole of the records are
the outcome of two days' work. The first, June 23rd, was quite a warm day,
but thunder was threatened. This broke out the following day almost with
tropical violence, the rainfall being exceptionally violent, making the sight
of the Tees and its mountain torrents with their falls and rapids, one ever to
be remembered for grandeur and awesomeness. Especially noticeable were
the many “impromptu” falls formed down the precipitous mountain faces.
The second visit was made on July 5th, when it was quite sunny but not
particularly warm; consequently lepidopterous insects, especially “micros,”
which are at present my chief concern, were not so much in evidence as
previously.
As is well known, the district by reason of its varied formations is
geologically a very interesting one. And to its geology, in great measure, is
due its extremely rich and interesting flora, winch I cannot pass without a
reference. The meadows in June were exceedingly beautiful with their
extensive patches of brightly coloured Cranesbill (Geranium sylvaticum)
intermingled with, and made the more pleasing in some cases by, the dainty
white flowers of the Meadow Saxifrage (Saxifraga granulatai). In the short
rich mountain meadows the beautiful Violas ( Viola lutea) abounded in all
their wonderful range of colour, relieved in the boggier areas by some very
fine forms of Marsh and other Orchids, including Habenaria albida. It was
also a delight to see such plants as Bartsia alpina and the Alpine Milkworts
and Polygonums. In the very marshy places the Butterworts were so
plentiful and well in flower that the violet masses of their infloresence were
betrayed their positions when one was a considerable distance off.
Unfortunately, the Gentians and the Bird's Eye Primrose were over, but
another noteworthy plant the Shrubby Cinquefoil (Potentilla fruticosa) on
the distribution of which Mr. J. W. H. Harrison contributed such an
interesting paper to The Vasculum recently—was just coming into flower
occurring in thicket like masses almost resembling gorse, along the
riverside.
With such a rich and varied Flora the district should prove to be rich in
Lepidoptera if it could be regularly worked, but

28
one is not able to judge of this fairly from a visit of but few working
hours. Nevertheless, some of the species taken in this short period were
quite good ones, one or two of them such as are not likely to occur
elsewhere in our area. In nearly all cases the species listed below were taken
on the Durham side of the river; a few, however, occurred on both sides;
any noticed on the Yorkshire side only will be singled out for special
mention.
As far as I can remember the only butterfly seen was the Small Heath
(Caenonympha pamphilius), although I had hoped to see the Greasy
Fritillary (Melitaea auriina), which I fancy was seen there years ago on the
occasion of a visit of the Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club. On the moors,
too, I noticed Phytometra viridaria and I picked up a female of the Light
Knot Grass (Acronycta menyanthidis). Flashing about also was the Wood
Tiger (Nemeophila plantaganis), and a female which I took laid a number
of ova. These duly hatched out, and I forced the larvae on in the hope of
securing varieties; numbers of very ordinary specimens were bred in early
autumn. In July the Ghost Swift (Nepialus humuli) and the Northern Swift
(H. velleda) were flying; some ot the latter were very brightly marked
specimens.
Amongst the Geometers Ematurga atomaria was still about as well as
Larentia viridaria and L. salicata, the latter as usual preferring the rocks.
Two “ Pug's,” Eupithecia salyrata and E. nanata were widespread on the
heaths. The Melanippes were fairly well represented, and I took Melanippe
tristata, M. fluctuata and M. montanata. An important capture was a worn
specimen of the grey green form of the Ruddy Highflier (Hypsipetes
ruberata). Coremia ferrugata was common enough about rushy places.
In other families Pyrausta purpuralis occurred fairly freely, especially on
some high barren ground on the Yorkshire side, on which they were settling
and sporting in the midday sun ; some of the specimens were very brightly
marked. With them were Herbula cespitalis and Crambus pratellus. Arnong
the Tortrices I took odd specimens of Tortrix palleana, Penthina
sororculana (amongst birch), the inevitable Sericoris lacunana,
*This is noteworthy, as the usual North Durham form is a dark chestnut
with just a suspicion of carmine.—J. W. H. H.
†This moth, usually so common, is somewhat rare in our counties,
although not nearly so rare as the late J. E. Robson thought. I have taken it
quite commonly on the seabank between Horden and Blackhall Rocks .—J.
W. H. H.

29
the beautiful Mixodia Schultziana, worn Clepsis rusticana and Bactra
Lanceana (in benty places). The genus Phoxopteryx was well represented;
P. unguicella, an uncommon species only taken previously by me at
Rannoch, occurred amongst heather in both counties; P. blarcuana, another
rare form, was taken about the dwarf sallows on the Durham side, and I also
captured P. lundana as well as its pale variety. Other captures included
Ephippiphora cirsiana, E. brunnichiana (flying in the sun), Dichrorampha
plumbana, D. herbosana, Catoptria ulicetana (about gorse), C. scopoliana,
Eupoecilia ciliella (one), and Conchyllis straminea. Worthy of special note,
too, was the beautiful Argyrolepia hartmanniana flying in the early evening
and exhibiting nice forms in the high pastures. Amongst the Tineae,
Micropteryx calthella, Gelechia ericetella, and the pretty G. longicornis
were secured, and I beat two specimens of Oecophora subaquilella out of
juniper on the South side of the river.
NEW BRITISH LICHEN FROM TEESDALE.
In the Naturalist for this month (March 1917, p. 88) the Rev. W. Johnson
records and describes a new British lichen from Teesdale, County Durham.
He says:—"This lichen grows on the limestone, and was found in an old
limestone quarry, on the opposite side of the road to the Church, near
Langdon Beck. I purpose including it in the 13th Fasciculus of ‘The North
of England Lichen Herbarium’ which I hope to issue shortly. "
Miss A. L. Smith, F.L.S., of the British Museum, Natural History
Department, has classed this lichen as a new species, under the name
BIATORELLA FLAVA, A.L.S., Syn. Leca[nora] privigna Nyl. var. flava
Johns, in the new Monograph on British Lichens'— R. S. B.

30
NOTES AND RECORDS.
N.B.—The number following the name indicates the Vicecounty to which
the record refers, as shown in the above Distribution Map.
ARACHNIDA.
ARANEAE.SPIDERS.
Pholcus phalangioides Fuessl. 70
About 25 per cent. of the Arachnidal records for the County of
Cumberland stand to the credit of Mr. J. C. Varty Smith, of
Penrith, and not the least extraordinary of them is the present. The
occasion was a Jumble Sale for War Funds, the habitat some old
pictures sent in for sale, the creature taken an adult female of the
above named species.
This spider frequents the same places as the common
housespider (Tegenaria derhamii), spinning a somewhat similar
web. I have found it abundantly in outhouses in the Isle of Wight,
and the Rev. 0. Pickard Cambridge says it is just as plentiful in his
neighbourhood (Bloxworth, Dorset) and is a great nuisance in
church, where it spins its webs among the organ pipes. Blackwall
received specimens from Barmouth and Liverpool, and so far as I

31
know these are the only records of its occurrence away from the
immediate neighbourhood of the South Coast. Its capture at
Penrith is therefore quite a notable thing, on a par with the
occurrence in Cumberland of Hyptiotes paradoxus, Tetrilus
arietinus, and one or two other spiders.
Meta menardi Latr. 70
Taken by Mr. G. Bolam in an old mine near Alston in January
__an adult male and immature female. No doubt the species is as
common in Cumberland in such situations as it is on the
Northumbrian side of the boundary line.—J.E.H.
INSECTA.
TRICHOPTERA. CADDISFLIES. 69
Limnephilus affinis (Curt.)
L. lunatus (Curt.)
L. fuscicornis (Ramb.)
Rhyacoprila obliterata M'Lach.
All taken in Ravenstonedale, Westmoreland, by Mr. H. J.
Holme, Penshaw Rectory.—J.W.H.H.
Goera pilosa (Fab.) 66
On the Tees near Dinsdale. Swept from herbage.
Leptocerus aterrimus (Stephens). 66
Countless thousands at Birtley and Billingham.
Limnephilus rhombicus (L.) 66
Plentiful at Birtley, Norton, and Billingham.—J. W. H. H.
HEMIPTERA-HOMOPTERA.
Psylla viburni (F. L5w).
Although Guelder Rose is such a common shrub in the Birtley
neighbourhood, long and tedious searches for this insect have
been productive of nothing but disappointment, until I found both
the larvae and imago on a bush exposed to the hot sunshine in
Birtley Quarry field. I believe this is only the second British
record.
Trioza velutina (Forst).
A single example picked off Galium verum near Urpeth. 66
Trioza atriplicis (Lichten.) 66
This species was described by Lichtenstein in 1881, from
samples bred from larvae taken on Atriplex, on the Riviera. As the
species had never been taken or seen since, it had been looked on
as somewhat apocryphal. However, I swept a large number from
Atriplex growing just above the Artemisia maritima zone, which
added a new species to the British list and satisfactorily reinstated
the insect in the European Fauna.—J. W. H. H.

32
FLOWERING PLANTS.
Lysimachia vulgaris (L). YELLOW LOOSESTRIFE. 66
We have had several \ ecords for this species in Northumberland
lately, but none from Durham. Although I had never seen this
species growing before except on the shores of Loch Lomond, I
had the pleasure of finding it at Birtley in August.
Lythrum salicaria (L.) PURPLE LOOSESTRIFE. 66, 6/
This is one of those species recorded by Baker and Tate as '”not
uncommon in the low country," and, as in many similar cases, I
cannot agree. I have only seen it at Spindlestone Lough and
Newham Bog, in Cheviotland (in 1915), and near Lamesley in
Durham, in August, 1916.
Lathyrus latifolius (L.) 66
I noted a fair amount of this plant near the “New” pit at Birtley,
during the past summer.
Hippuris vulgaris (L.) MARESTAIL. 66
My friend Mr. H. Jeffreys and myself seem to have had a
mutual misunderstanding about this plant. He knew a locality for
it at Birtley, whilst I knew a perfectly distinct one about four
miles away, near Lamesley, and yet we both imagined the two
localities were one. Only my accidental discovery of his station
cleared up the matter. These are the first records in North Durham
for this somewhat rare plant.
Allium vineale (L.) 66
Not common by the millrace which used to feed Norton Mill.
Ranunculus sceleratus (L.) CELERY-LEAVED CROWFOOT. 66
Again I dissent from Baker and Tate. Except in the brackish
"Stills” and “leets" at the Tees mouth, I never found this to
warrant the designation "not uncommon." I have got it by the
Wear at Chester-le-Street and in marshes near Birtley. – J.W.H.H.
FERNS.
Polypodium Vulgare (L.) COMMON POLYPODY. 66, 67, 68
I can record this form as still existing sparingly at Birtley How
far is Baker and Tate's statement that it is common true now in the
lower districts ? Will those with knowledge of its present day
station please let us have notes. – J.W.H.H.

THE VASCULUM
VOL. III. No. 2. JUNE, 1917.
SOME OF OUR REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS AND HOW TO
KNOW THEM
By HUMPHREY GEORGE BOLAM.
The most numerous and widely distributed snake in this country is the
Adder, or Viper, Vipera berus of Linnaeus. It is the only “venomous"
animal we have, and over a large part of Northumberland and Durham it is
the only indigenous snake. At no very distant date it was probably abundant
throughout these counties, and in many parts it may still be described as
fairly common; but, since from time out of mind every man's hand has been
turned against it, it has gradually been banished from large portions of the
more highly cultivated areas. Its present strongholds are those regions of
peat and heather that have never been brought under the plough: extensive
bog's and mosses in Northumberland, and the scrub-clad vales and denes of
Durham that, till the discovery of coal and the advent of the miner,
furnished some of the finest scenery in all England, and whose primal
beauty neither pit-heaps nor coke-ovens have been able utterly to destroy.
A full grown Adder seldom exceeds two feet in length, and is
commonly an inch or two shorter, though exceptional specimens of 27 and
even 281/2 inches have been recorded. It is usually dull brown on the upper
parts, and black, or almost black beneath; but the brown varies a good deal
in intensity of hue, and not infrequently the belly may be palish slaty blue.
There is also a reddish variety presently to be noticed. But in every case
there is a broad black zig-zag band running down the middle of the back,
throughout its entire length, and this alone constitutes an unfailing mark of
recognition so far as our native snakes are concerned. The head of an adder
is V-shaped, rather blunt at the snout, and always distinctly larger than the
*We are allowed to reproduce the frontispiece, which so happily
illustrates this article, by the courtesy of the Editors of the forthcoming
“Natural History of Northumberland and Durham."

36
neck, not gradually tapering into it as in the case of the Grass Snake:
across its base there is a conspicuous black /\ surmounting, though detached
from, the zigzag median line.
When handled, a live Adder is lax and soft, and very dry to the touch,
quite unlike the stiff and muscular feel of a Grass Snake, or a hard and
brittle Slowworm: there is also a flaccidity about its skin which seems to
suggest that it is a size too large for its body. The tail is short and rather
bluntly terminated, very different to the elongated and pointed tail of the
Grass Snake. If these points are borne in mind there need never be any fear
of mistaking an Adder for any other of our reptiles.
Like other snakes the Adder frequently casts its skin, and the discarded
slough may sometimes be found where the presence of the animal would
scarcely be suspected. Thus, for example, we once found one on the banks
of Tweed immediately below Berwick town walls; and another in a stick
house in constant use and attached to a dwelling. In either of these places
the appearance of an Adder would have caused considerable surprise; to the
last mentioned the reptile might possibly have been carried with firewood
when hibernating. The moult of the skin appears to take place at uncertain
and irregular periods. My father has observed that, at least occasionally, it
occurs in spring very soon after the animal emerges from hibernation; but
amongst my captive Adders I have never had one moult for at least a month
or six weeks after that event. Experiments which I have carried out in the
Vivarium seem to show that the casting of the skin is closely correlated with
the growth of the snake. One which feeds freely and is supplied with as
much food as it will take, moults much sooner and oftener than one that is
not so well fed. The shortest interval between moults that I have noticed
was seven weeks; some of my Adders on the other hand have passed a
whole summer without changing their skins at all.
The principal food of the Adders upon our moors consists of mice and
voles. We have frequently found them gorged with these, often whole nests
ot baby mice (and on one occasion their mother as well) having been taken
from their maws. In the Viviarium they are usually shy feeders, frequently
going long spells without food of any kind Amongst a considerable number
I have kept, some have occasionally eaten lizards, but none have ever
showed any inclination to .touch frogs, toads or other reptiles. A mouse
bitten by an Adder becomes quickly paralyzed and dies in about four
minutes. On the moors sheep and dog's are occasionally killed by Adders,
but a healthy human being is not as a rule greatly inconvenienced by a bite,
at least this has

37
been my personal experience. It is a popular fallacy to suppose that
Adders are averse to water. They are not generally found far from its
neighbourhood, and have often been encountered crossing a stream. In
warm weather they enjoy entering water, and frequently lie submerged for
considerable periods.
As has already been remarked, the ground colour of the Adder is subject
to considerable variation in shade, but it is always some tint of brown. In
Northumberland dark examples seem to be most prevalent, although pale
ones are not rare, and slaty blue bellies are of fairly frequent occurrence. An
Adder that has recently changed its skin is usually pale in colour, especially
on the under parts. Near Berwick I once saw one whose prevailing hue was
distinctly olive, or greenish bronze. In Lincolnshire, where Adders are
locally numerous, a rich mahogany is the prevailing hue. The nature of the
soil has probably considerable influence upon colour, and black peat may
conduce to darkness.
In several parts of England a small, brightly coloured Adder has for
some years past been recognised under the name of the " Little Red Viper."
It is met with not uncommonly in Cheviot land; and in Lincolnshire I have
taken it in numbers. By some people it is regarded as a distinct species; but,
although it has some pronounced characteristics both in habit and
colouration, I am not at present disposed to admit it as more than a well
defined race of Vipera berus. Its prevailing ground colour is brick-red, with
all the usual marking's of the typical form well developed ; but while the
latter does not seem to become mature until it reaches a length of about 18
inches and upwards, the Little Red Viper very seldom exceeds a foot in
length, and is sexually mature even before reaching that size. One in my
Vivarium gave birth to seven young ones when it was only some ten inches
long. At Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire, I have caught both forms on the same
day. The little one is always much the more active, and very much more
ready to bite than its larger relative.
Of the Grass, or Ringed Snake (Tropidonotus natrix, L. ) there are, I
believe, no Northumbrian records, and very few (if any) well authenticated
ones for Durham. Several points of distinction between it and the Adder
have already been touched upon. The ground colour of the upper parts is
generally olive brown, or greenish grey, more or less freely marked with
black spots; but, as in the case of the Adder, it is subject to some variation,
largely depending upon the kind of land on which the snake is found. On
clay soils, or where cover is scarce, there is almost invariably a tendency
towards yellowish brown, and

38
the black spotting may be very sparse or altogether wanting: while on
darker land, or where there are many trees or other cover in the form of
whins, heather and the like, the ground colour is usually darker and the
spots sometimes so large and thickly dispersed, as to give the snake quite a
black appearance. Just behind the head there is always a well defined black
collar, usually preceded by one of white or yellowish-white. The latter,
however, is occasionally absent, and may be pure white and very
conspicuous or of a dirty yellow and quite the reverse: now and then it is
bright orange. The whitest collars are usually worn by females. The
prominent labial shields are white or yellow in agreement with the colour of
the collar. The belly is black or bluish-black, more or less thickly marked
with white or pale yellow. In one male which lived in my Vivarium those
marking's were of a bright golden yellow.
The usual length of an adult Grass Snake runs from two to three feet,
but much larger ones are on record. Some years ago I had a female which
measured 43 inches, and there is one in my Vivarium as I write that
measures 50 inches. This individual added about six inches to its length last
year and is still increasing in size.
The favourite haunts of the Grass Snake are tangled hedge bottoms, the
more open places in woods, and grassy banks, always in the vicinity of
water. Like the Adder it is fond of spending an hour or two in hot weather
beneath the surface, and since captive specimens freely catch and swallow
fish introduced into their troughs, it seems probable that in nature this
species may feed regularly upon fish when obtainable. Its favourite food,
however, consists of frogs, and to watch a snake in pursuit of a frog or
engaged in swallowing it, is, if not an agreeable sight, at least one that is
likely to give rise to consider able ponderings upon the stoical ways of
nature. Toads are also freely eaten, as are newts of any kind, but I have
never been able to induce a tame Grass Snake to touch an egg, a small bird,
or a mouse; nor can they be fooled into mistaking a lizard for a newt. This
last observation reveals a subtle power of discrimination which might
scarcely have been suspected, but it seems to be possessed by many other
snakes besides T. natrix; for in several foreign species which I have kept
from time to time, none of those which prey upon lizards have ever been
tempted to eat a newt, and vice versa.
The eggs of the Grass Snake are usually laid in manure heaps, and in
most cases they seem to be deposited in autumn or late summer, and to
hatch out in the following spring. When the manure was being carted away
in late spring for use on land

39
in preparation for root crops, I have frequently found eggs ready to
hatch; but at the same time some apparently newly laid eggs may be
discovered. Their period of incubation probably varies with temperature,
and (as in the case of some fishes) is doubtless retarded by a cold or
backward season; at a temperature of about 96° Fahrenheit (in an incubator)
I have found the hatching period to run from 60 to 80 days. The period of
gestation may possibly also be influenced by temperature, and may fall into
abeyance during hibernation; in one case which was specially noted
copulation took place in my Vivarium on 19th September, and the resulting
eggs were laid on 1st December. There were fifteen of them and all were
fertile. Had the female been at large in place of being confined in an
artificially heated case, she would have hibernated, and the laying would
doubtless have been deferred till spring. The young are about seven inches
long when hatched, and feed at first upon earthworms and very small frog's.
It seems curious that there should be so few North country records for
the Edible Frog (Rana esculenta) or the Natterjack (Bufo calamita) ; for if
there be any foundation for the popular belief that the former owed its
introduction to this country to the Romans, surely it might have been
expected to have become established both in Northumberland and Durham.
It may assist in the working out of their distribution to emphasise shortly
some of the points in which they differ from the common species.
The Natterjack is a typical dry-skinned and dark-coloured Toad, about
the same size as our familiar friend Bufo vulgaris, but with a bright golden
stripe running down the centre of its back from the top of the head to the
vent. There is also a blotch of a darker yellow on each shoulder, and
generally a number of smaller spots of like hue scattered over the remainder
of the upper parts These have procured for it the common name of '' Golden
Back." It is much more active than the common Toad, and runs quite
quickly upon occasion. It is usually found in pairs, and makes burrows of
about a foot or 18 inches deep in soft soil, into which it retires backwards,
so that it may sit facing the exit. Two or three of the Toads may frequently
be found occupying the same hole, seated one on top of another.
The Edible Frog is larger than the common species and is usually of a
distinctly greener colour. It has a bright yellow stripe down the middle of
the back, and one more or less well defined upon either side. The usual dark
coloured patches reaching from just behind the eye to the shoulder in the
common

40
Frog, are absent in R. esculenta, and the feet are less fully webbed, the
membrane in the case of the Edible Frog not reaching to the end of the toes,
as it does in the common species. There are two vocal sacs, one on each
side of the head, in the male Edible Frog, which result in the much louder
croaking of that animal over the Common Frog, the latter not being
provided with any such additional aids to the serenading of its mistress.
JOTTINGS FROM THE EAST NOOK OF
CUMBERLAND.— (Continued),
BY GEORGE BOLAM
Owing chiefly to our elevation* and the absence of cultivated fields,†
our birds in winter are reduced to a minimum, and although some thirty odd
species might be enumerated, many of them are represented by little more
than chance individuals, and the majority of the remainder by mere
handfuls. There is little to attract winter visitors to remain, but so long as
open weather lasts flocks of Peewits, Golden Plovers, Field fares,
Redwing's and Starling's may be seen in the fields. Very often they may be
accompanied by Chaffinches and Magpies, our two most conspicuous birds
at all seasons. But a brief systematic survey may be the most convenient
way of reviewing our avine population generally.
*Randalholme, our lowest point, stands about 800 feet above the sea.
An ancient stone slab, or " milestone," giving the distances to neighbouring
towns, let into the retaining wall near the watering place at Alston Town
Foot, gives the height there as 921 feet: the Police Offices stand on the 1000
feet contour line.
†The only ploughed land in our area at present is a small field at
Randalhoime, where oats, turnips or potatoes are annually grown. A mile
lower down the valley, at Underbank, there is a similar cultivated patch;
but with these exceptions there is no corn now grown in the dale until
Slaggyford is reached, four miles from Alston as the crow flies. The
ridging of many fields, however, even a good deal higher up the valley
than Alston, testifies that they were once under the plough. Probably most
of them would be cultivated in the days of the Crimean War; some of oar
older inhabitants still talk of the corn they helped to harvest in their young
days.

41
Of the thrush family the Blackbird (Turdus merula) Is a constant resident,
but its summer abundance becomes reduced in winter to a few pairs
frequenting the neighbourhood of human dwelling's. The young all leave
before really hard weather sets in, and they are accompanied by most of
their elders. Nests far up some of the mountain burns are not very unusual,
but Jack Barton and I were rather surprised to encounter a well fledged
young one close to the summit of Cross Fell, on 8th August, 1916. It was
disturbed from the highest ridge of screes overlooking Tees Head, and its
limited powers of flight precluded the idea that it could have wandered
very far from its nursery. A little later than the Thrushes in getting into
song, the Blackbird's mellow whistle is not often heard here before the
beginning of March ; but even after such a severe winter as that through
which we have just passed (when the old snow has not yet gone and more
is falling—and lying as I write on 15th April), one was in full song at
Gossip Gate on the evening of 1st March. In 1914 the first was heard on
27th February. The Blackbird is commonly known about Alston as the the
“Black Thrush."
The Thrush (Tardus musicus) holds himself more aloof than the
Blackbird, and no matter how hard the weather may be comes much less
readily to feed at our windowsills. If the storm be very protracted the
Thrushes disappear altogether from about our dwelling's, and we may be
ready to believe that the last survivor has perished, or has fled the valley,
but it is not so. They only retire to the most sheltered dells, and there, some
of them at least, manage to eke out a living amongst the snails and insects
hiding beneath the fallen leaves; and there they may be met with—
generally singly or at most in pairs—in fair condition, when even the
Starlings about our doors are reduced to skeletons, and Magpies have lost
their cunning and been driven to scavenge in the streets. The large majority
of our Thrushes, however, leave us in autumn.
The Missel Thrush (Turdus viscivorus) breeds abundantly in the valley,
and its loud clear whistle is one of the first notes of returning spring; but
almost to a bird it deserts us in autumn, as soon as the rowan berries have
been exhausted, and except perhaps for a straggler amongst the roving
bands of Fieldfares and Redwing's, is seldom seen here in winter. In
September and October, prior to departure, it collects into large flocks,
sometimes numbering nearly a hundred individuals. In 1916 the first
Missel Thrush was heard whistling on 1st February; six days later, the fine
weather having given place to frost and snow, one was feeding with other
birds on our window

42
ledge. Because the Missel Thrush may often be heard whistling from a
tree top in the teeth of a boisterous March wind, it has for itself the
appropriate name of "Storm Cock."
With October, flocks of Fieldfares (Turdus pilaris) and Redwing's (T.
iliacus ) begin to appear*, and make haste to eat up such of the rowan
berries as their departing cousins, and the Starlings, may have left. Later
they congregate upon the fields with Plovers on worm hunting expeditions,
where they are of considerable benefit to the farmer in helping to rid his
pastures of wireworms and other grubs. There they linger as long as open
weather lasts, but any protracted spell of snow or hard frost drives them to
the lowlands. They return again in April and May, prior to departure for
their breeding grounds in Scandinavia and the North of Europe. During
their stay here they fly to the fells in the evenings, to roost upon the ground
amongst benty grass or heather.
Our only remaining member of the Turdinae is the Ring Ouzel (T.
torquatus) which arrives in April† and departs again with other migrants in
September. Dark of coat, but with a
*It may be of local interest to note the following dates of arrival at
Alston:—
In 1912 a small flock of Fieldfares was seen on 22nd October. Seen in
considerable flocks next day.
In 1913 the first arrived on 6th November.
In 1914 a small flock on 5th November, several larger ones on the 8th.
In 1915 large flocks arrived on 24th October.
In 1916 none were seen until 14th November, after which they were
numerous.
In 1912 a single Redwing was seen to arrive on 15th October,shooting
down from high overhead, lisp lisping as it came. No considerable numbers
appeared until the 23rd.
In 1913 a small flock arrived on 5th October.
In 1914 a large flock on 12th October, many more on 22nd and 25th.
In 1915 large mixed flock of Redwings and Fieldfares arrived on 24th
October.
In 1916 a small party were seen feasting on rowan berries at Tyne
Bridge soon after dawn on 21st September.
On 2nd October a flock of about twenty were similarly engaged near
Garrigill. By the 26th very large numbers had arrived. On 14th November a
further large arrival had taken place, the tree tops being crowded with a
warbling and chattering mob of Redwings and Fieldfares. All had
disappeared by next morning, but more arrived a few days later.
†In The Vasculum for November last (p. 70) will be found a note upon a
Ring Ouzel, probably a late arrival, whistling at dawn close to Alston on the
6 th May 1916 and the two following mornings.

43
conspicuous white gorget, it is commonly known as the " Hill
Blackbird “; but it is very sparsely distributed as a breeding species in our
dale. On some of the lower moors in other parts of the district it is much
more numerous, and is likewise more disposed to nest nearer to the haunts
of man. In the East Nook it is strictly a bird of the wilder fells, and breeding
stations are generally separated from one another by longish day's journeys.
On 23rd July, 1912, I came upon a party of fledged Ring Ouzels above
Garrigill‡ .l one of the parents of which had a fairly large patch of white
feathers on the back of its head and nape.
There is usually a nest near where the Alston-Middleton road crosses
the Crookburn Beck,§ here the division between the counties of Durham
and Cumberland. Another nesting site not far away, and also in Priorsdale,
II is near a pretty waterfall at the head of Little Gill ** I was approaching
this cliff through Ashgill Wood one day in July, 1913, when, just before the
shelter of the thick spruces was left, my attention was drawn to the loud
clamouring of a Ring Ouzel close at hand. A moment later a male Sparrow
Hawk, carrying a young Ouzel in his talons, dashed under the boughs and
alighted on the bank below me, not more than five yards away. The young
bird was crying piteously in his grasp, and he was closely pursued by the
enraged father, but as soon as he had gained the shelter of the
‡Hodgson says this is a corruption of Gerard’s Gill, in 1315 it appears
as Gerrardsgill: Mr. Wallace says both are of Saxon origin.
§ A repetition of names with a like meaning not uncommon in the
district; an earlier spelling is Crookit-, or Crockit-burne: Angio Saxon
byrna, or burna; German bach, a brook. In Ashgill Burn and similar names,
the same kind of repetition occurs, gill being of norse, perhaps Pictish
origin, signifying a ravine. Gilderdale Burn supplies another instance: in
Wans-beck-water the same meaning is three times expressed.
||Anciently written Presdale, which may have been the “Narrow
Common." Gifted by lvo de Vetriponte of Gerrardsgill to the Prior of
Hexham soon after 1209.
** When in flood the burn still tumbles over a considerable crag here,
but, as in so many similar places in the neighbourhood, it has gradually
eaten its way into the soft blue limestone until, when at summer level, it
trickles almost hidden from view through numerous little potholes. The
polishing influence of the fluorine in the water is beautifully demonstrated
on the rock here, some of its faces being almost as smooth and shiny as
glass. Where masses of coraline occur in the rock, the harder fossil has
withstood the wear, and stands out in thick clusters on the smoothed stone
almost like the spines on a hedgehog's back, and nearly as sharp too, as the
bleeding hand that has carelessly grasped at a ledge of rock will often
testify!

44
trees the hawk apparently regarded the hostile demonstration with much
indifference. He shook out his pinions over his prey but gave it no further
heed, and the old Ouzel made no further attempt at rescue, but sat chattering
with bunched out and ruffled feathers at two or three yards distance.
Evidently it feared a nearer approach, and so the two birds remained facing
one another for some seconds. I then moved, and the hawk catching sight of
me, darted off, but carried his still tittering prey with him. The ouzel
followed with much increased out cry, and approached the hawk nearer
upon the wing than it had dared to do upon the ground, but the chase now
passed instantly from my view amongst the trees, and as the ouzel soon
after wards returned alone, still feebly protesting, I concluded that the hawk
had easily thrown off the pursuit through the wood, and was probably by
that time feeding his young ones at the nest. When I reached the rocks
shortly afterwards I found both ouzels attending to the wants of the
remainder of their recently fledged family, and was greeted with almost as
much chattering as the hawk had been.
Everybody ought to be familiar enough with the common Song Thrush
and its unrivalled song so far as our northern spring's are concerned ; but it
may be of service to young ornithologists to draw attention to the fact that
the spots on its breast are more or less pear-shaped, while those on the
Missel Thrush are much rounder. The latter is nearly half as large again as
the common Thrush, and indulges in much more conspicuous flights from
tree top to tree top, or from field to field it also shows some white on the
outer tail feathers. The Thrush sings a long and varied song, the Missel
Thrush whistles and confines himself to the repetition of a few clear and
ringing notes, sometimes confused (though with small excuse) with the
much softer and mellower vocal efforts of the Blackbird. A Scotsman has
likened the Missel Thrush's whistle to the skirling of a pibroch ; and it has
been said that the famous violinist Neil Gow, borrowed from it the opening
bars of his once popular composition, “A Farewell to Whisky."
(To be continued)
LIBRARY NOTE.
Bird lovers will be pleased to learn that the Public Library of
Newcastle-on-Tyne has recently acquired Dresser's “Eggs of the Birds of
Europe. '' The work can be consulted in the Reference Library at any time.

45
NATURAL FEATURES IN LOCAL PLACE.NAMES
By NORMAN HILLS PATTERSON.
The writer was much interested in the article written for the last number
of The Vasculum by Mr. Hull: while, however, he would not presume to
differ from that author on the bulk of his derivations and deductions, many
of which are of exceptional interest and well backed up, there are some
which do not in the writer's opinion bear full examination, and are doubtful.
Mr. Hull will, I feel sure, not object to some criticism, and in fact he added
a footnote to his article gracefully acknowledging• a correction on the word
" Sunderland."
I know of no authority which suggests the derivation from " a sandy
landing place" for the word Sunderland, as Mr. Hull does, but at the same
time authorities were at one time divided. Surtees says, “very many
conjectures have been made, the simplest of which seems to be that it
marked the original situation of the place, on a point of land almost
insulated by the Wear and the sea;" he also takes this derivation for
Sunderland-by-the-Bridge at Croxdale. Boyle, Cox, and Garbutt agree:
Lingard says, "probably," Hutchinson, "most probably,"and Burnett at a
later date (1830) says, " possibly."
But in spite of these formidable authorities, this idea is not borne out by
examination of old maps ; the land survey shows no trace at any time of
such insulation, and Dr. Woolacott says that there is no evidence at all of
Sunderland being in any way surrounded or partially surrounded by the sea.
This derivation does not therefore bear examination.
The Venerable Bede writes of himself, " Qui natus in territorio ejusdem
monasterii," and King Alfred in his translation of Bede rather freely
translates this as, "I was born in the Sonderland of the monastery." We thus
get the first idea that Sunderland might mean land sundered (from the main
monastery at Monkwearmouth on the North side of the river). This
derivation is borne out in other instances of the place-name of Sunderland.
At Croxdale, Sunderland Bridge is separated from the rest of its parish, St.
Oswald's at Croxdale, by the deep valley of the Croxdale Beck (Surtees) : at
North Sunderland the land is separated from Lindisfarne by an arm of the
sea: Sunderlandwick, near Malton, was, in 686, a portion of monastic land
separated or sundered from the priory of Wetadun by a morass (Bede and
Doomsday Book).

46
Now we know that King Alfrid of Northumbria gave Benedict Biscop
three hides of land on the south side of the Wear (Bede's " Lives of the
Abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow”): does not therefore the probability that
the word Sunderland means "sundered land" thus become almost a
certainty? Caedmon uses the word “sundran" in exactly this sense, and we
know that previous to this grant of land there was no settlement on the
South side of the river.
The matter was exhaustively gone into by my father, the late James
Patterson, author of a number of pamphlets and one-time President of the
Sunderland Antiquarian Society, and his summing up of authorities for this
derivation seems to be now generally accepted.
The derivation of "Southwick” is equally interesting, though by no
means so clear. Mr. Hull takes it from the Danish vik, as seems quite
natural. But it does not seem to me to be at all likely, as the Danes when in
the Wear did not careen their boats or have their settlement at Southwick,
but immediately opposite on the South side of the river, where there was an
excellent place, now the Gill Bridge Cemetery (a viking ship was, in fact,
found there years ago, and parts of it are in the local Museum). Settling
there, it seems most improbable that they would call any village opposite
and to the North of their settlement a "South wick."
Again, in all old maps and references the place is spelt Suddick, or
earlier still Sudik. This seems to indicate South dike, though I do not know
of any dike having been there. Nor can I find any authority or reference for
anything at all in regard to the derivation of this place-name.
I am in fact inclined to doubt that the terminal “wick” to any of our
local place-names is anything more than cognate with the Danish vik, which
always has the sense of a small township with a harbourage or careening
place for ships .beside it. Such places as Alnwick, Hawick, Lowick,
Hunwick, and Sunderlandwick are all quite impossible places for such a
meaning. Wick in various forms (German wig, Dutch wyk, etc.,) is quite a
common place-name terminal in Northern Europe irrespective of the town’s
situation.
I am not inclined to agree with Mr. Hull in his opinion that Devil's
Water is a corruption of Dales Water: the devil has always been a most
popular person for natural objects of all kinds to be named after, there must
be hundreds all over the country, and I think he might as well be left his
godparentage.

47
In fact the number of places named after him in the Yorkshire Dales
alone seem to indicate that he resided there for a lengthy period.
I do not quite know what Mr. Hull means by "Gateshead is Gateside,
the side or slope occupied by the Gatas," but surmise he means the slope on
which there are goats. The Venerable Bede translated Gateshead into Latin
as " Ad Caprae Caput," thus backing up Mr. Hull's theory as to goats. But
Brand considers Bede in error in this, and points out that the ancient
spelling of the town was Gatesheved, A. S. for the head of the gate or road,
the long gate or road leading to the ancient Tyne Bridge, built by Hadrian
during the Roman occupation. The word gate is used continuously on the
whole road from London to Edinburgh, and is still used colloquially in the
term " What gate are you ganging?”
It is true that the spelling has occasionally been Goatshead, but only
rarely, while it has much more often been spelt Gate side, Gateshede, and
Gaiteshead (the last two spelling's occur in the same document, a grant of 6
Edw. VI.) But previous to 1340 it seems to have been always Gatesheved,
thus confirming the theory of the Gate and entirely upsetting the theory of
the side or slope. Bede too, while perhaps, indeed almost certainly, being in
error over the first part of the name translates the “head " as caput.
I agree with Mr. Hull that the word dodd for a hill is mysterious, and it
may perhaps mean '”dead or barren" as he suggests. But his reference to the
“Tommies'" use of the word dud as meaning dead, " a dud shell," cannot be
borne out. The word “dud" is quite a common one, especially in this district,
for anything which is useless or will not work or answer the purpose for
which it was intended. A kettle with a hole in it, a shell which will not
explode, a bad coin, a broken electric lamp, a petered out coal seam—all
these have the word “dud" commonly applied to them. I cannot see any
connection between this local dialect word and the Danish dod or A. S.
dodd.
Mr. Hull states that Gill is locally restricted to Upper Teesdale and the
South Tyne above Featherstone: what about Gaisgill near Tebay ? the Gill
Bridge in Sunderland ? Rowlands Gill between Newcastle and Shotley
Bridge? Mr. Hull says this word survives elsewhere only in Iceland. But
surely there are other instances in this country? I seem to remember a
number: Ramsgill near Pateley Bridge occurs to me at once, also the very
numerous "ghylls" in the Lake District

48
“Burn” also has a much wider range than Mr. Hull thinks. He says the
word "has much the same local range as gill. I mention Saltburn, Leyburn,
and Hayburn in North Yorkshire, Beechburn, Hebburn, Hurworth Burn,
Burnhill, and Burnfoot in our own two counties.
Mr. Hull's interesting article is on a subject on which no men or
authorities agree in full, and few in detail, and is there fore one obviously
"for daws to peck at." I hope he will not object to this little peck, and will
not think it presumption on the part of the printer of The Vasculum.
EEL WORMS
BY H. S. WALLACE F.E.S.
Everybody knows what a spring onion, otherwise the succulent little
Scallion, is like. What we are hardly so familiar with are the abnormal
swellings to be found at the base of the stems of many grasses and other
plants, which resemble that particular onion.
Though the phenomena is probably as old as grass itself, we do not all
pull the plants up on the chance of finding tiny Vertigoes or Pupidae
(should the terms be unfamiliar let me dismiss the subject by saying that
they are the names of two genera of Land snails) clinging to the slender
rootlets or sheltering in the accompanying soil.
Whilst searching for these small Molluscans I was introduced to
Tylenchus devastatrix, a common Eelworm. Accompanying Mr. R. S.
Bagnail on many of his gall-maker-hunts I have enjoyed many opportunities
of becoming acquainted with the work of the Tenthredinidae (Sawflies),
Cynipidae (Gall wasps), Eriophyidae (Gall-mites), Cecidomyidae (Gallmidges),
and other arthropodan subjects, but I was taken aback to learn that
the swollen stems and subsidiary lobes on grass and such like were caused
by a worm. That earthworms line their burrows with neatly cut patches of
vegetation I learned long ago in the delightful pages of Charles Darwin's
great work on the matter, but the fact that a much smaller relation bores its
way into a silica framed stem and sets up the necessary chemical irritation
which produces the abnormal growth on the plant, was news indeed to me.
But so it is.

49
Tylenchus devastatrix, and some of its cousins, attacking certain grasses
and other plants, lives in large colonies within the bases of their stems. "
But who is Tylenchus devastatrix, and what is it like ? “ you ask ; just as
though it were some new neighbour of your own, and really, after all, it is a
sensible question. As a history of worms would demand more space than I
am entitled to, mention of the section to which it belongs can only be made,
and that in brief terms.
Tylenchus devastatrix, an eelworm that often causes a bulb gall at the
roots of grass. 1. Embryo in egg; 2. Head end of female showing the mouth
spear. 3. The adult worm. All greatly enlarged. (After Dr. Ritzema Bos).
Amongst the numerous divisions into which worms are classified is one
named the Nemathelminthes, which embraces three SubOrders:—
I. The NEMATODA.
II. The NEMATOMORPHA (Gordiidae).
III. The ACANTHOCEPHALA.
In brief, the whole of the creatures included in the three Sub-Orders
named are worm-like, though great diversity of size exists. They are mostly
parasitic either on Vertebrate, Invertebrate or Vegetable life. Unlike other
worms they are not segmented: that is, built up of a number of identical
units, and with the occasional exceptions of a few bristles, hooks or suckers,
they are elongated creatures with tapering ends. With an odd individual or
two they are unhermaphrodite, that is to say “Male and female, created He
them."
Tylenchus devastatrix belongs to the first suborder of the
Nemathelminthes, i.e., the Nematodes or Thread Worms, and is further
subdivided into seven Families, thus :—
I. ASCARIDAE—All parasitic on the vertebrates. One of this brood is
particularly fond of intestinal man,

50
where the female worm reaches the awkward length of more than ten
inches. There is great human interest attached to this fact !
II. STRONGYLIDAE—Some of them are nearly four feet in length.
They live in similar environment, and the same remark applies.
III. TRICHOTRACHELIDAE—Includes the worm which causes the
odious human disease, Trichinosis.
IV. FILARIDAE — Of special interest because, the three foregoing
families flourishing in the intestines of man, this one lives in the tissues of
the body, causing painful tumours. They vary in length from two inches to
twelve feet.
V. MERMITHIDAE— It is a matter of relief to find that this pleasant
little family confines its ravages to the insides of the entomological world,
crickets appearing to be the favourite hosts. They are all small in size, some
being only half an inch long.
VI. ANGUILLULIDAE—This is the family to which Tylenchus
belongs. Here is the list of genera:—Diplogaster, Mononchus, Rhabditis,
Tylenchus, Anguillula, and many others.
It will be seen that all the terrifying and odious forms attacking man
belong to the five preceding families. The Anguillulidae, as a rule, live the
free portion of their lives in damp earth and decaying vegetation. Leaving
man, animals, insects, plants, and damp earth, the last family, the—
VII. ENOPLIDAE, delights in the sea, and lives amongst algae and
similar marine life.
Having allotted Tylenchus devastatrix to its proper zoological place, a
few words about its history and habits may not come amiss. This tiny
Eelworm is only about one millimetre long (about the twenty-sixth part of
an inch), slight variations of length occurring. After a free life it makes its
home for breeding purposes, in oats, rye, onions, potatoes, and in several
other plants which it distorts, and by destroying the chlorophyl kills its host.
It does not appear to attack the roots, but confines its attentions to the base
of the stem.
It is here that the rotation of plants in agriculture proves its utility, for
Eelworms that have spent numerous generations in one species of plant do
not flourish so well in a new host

51
After completing their destructive work they return to the soil, thus
infecting the soil for future crops. In cases where they remain in the host
plant they are carried away and thus enlarge their pestiferous campaign.
Fortunately for the farmer T. devastatrix only produces one brood in the
year, but as the females lay anything up to one thousand eggs the economic
importance of a study of these creatures becomes apparent.
The question arises, how does this microscopically proportioned worm
with its feeble mouth lacking jaws, without body limbs, manage to penetrate
the silica strengthened stems of grass and cereals, and crawling within lay
the foundations of a future destructive brood ? When you think of it you
will remember that nature always has her own special plans for the
circumvention of such difficulties. This Eelworm, tender and fragile as it is,
is armed with a projectable needle, and with this wonderful spine it bores its
way into the toughest material, abiding within the pithy centre of the plant
stem until her life's work is done. (See figure).
The following is a list of the known British plant affecting species:—
Aphelenchus fragariae and A. ormerodis on cultivated Strawberries.
*Heterodera radicicola on Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Beet and Clover.
Penshaw district on clover (R.S.B.).
H. schachtii on Beet, Hops and various crucifers.
Tylenchus davainii on Mosses.
* T. devastatrix, only too common on a variety of plants.
T. fucicola on Algae.
*T.graminis on Grasses. On Sheep's Fescue grass, Penshaw (H.S.W and
R.S.B.).
T. millefolii on Yarrow and
*T. tritici on Grasses and Wheat. On Bent grass (R.S.B.).
* Tylenchus sp. Recorded by Prof. Trail in 1883, galling the stems and
flowers on the Mouse-Ear Hawkweed (Hieracium pilosella). R. S. B. has
observed this species at Fatfield, Winlaton, and other Durham localities
affecting whole patches of the plant.
* Known to occur locally

52
PRIMITIVE-TAILS, BRISTLE-TAILS, AND SPRING-TAILS-I
By RICHARD S. BAGNALL F.L.S.
It was only the other day I noticed a reference to "slug's and other
insects " in a comparatively recent. Natural History publication, this
bringing' to my mind the words that Dickens put into the mouth of one of
his inimitable characters, Mr. Pecksniff. "Look up there with me," repeated
Mr. Pecksniff, stretching out his hand, "with me, an humble individual who
is also an insect like yourselves !"
The true definition of an insect is, to many, somewhat nebulous, and, at
the risk of repeating much that has so often been said, it is desirable to
clearly define what is meant when we use the word "insect" (or Hexapod,
meaning six-legged). Insects belong to the phylum Arthropoda or ringed
animals with jointed limbs, and we cannot do better than turn to the
Cambridge Natural History, Volume V, p. 86, which thus diagnoses the
class "Insecta or Insecta-Hexapoda."
"Insects are small animals having the body divided into three regions
placed in longitudinal succession—head, thorax, and abdomen. . . . They
have six legs and a pair of antennae; these latter are placed on the head,
while the legs are attached to the thorax or second of the three great body
divisions. The abdomen has no true leg's, but not infrequently has terminal
appendages, and on the under surface, protuberances which serve as feet.
Very frequently there are two pairs of wing's, some times only one pair, in
other cases none; the wing's are always placed on the thorax. Insects are
transversely segmented that is to say, the body has the form of a succession
of ring's, but this condition is in many cases obscure; the number of these
ring's rarely if ever exceeds thirteen in addition to the head and to a terminal
piece that sometimes exists. Insects usually change much in the course of
their growth, the annulose or ringed condition being most evident in the
early part of the individual's life. The leg's are usually elongate and
apparently jointed, but in the immature condition may be altogether absent
or very short; in the latter case the jointing is obscure. The number of legs is
always six.”
The italics are my own, and it will thus be seen that myriapods, spiders,
mites, crabs and the like cannot be retarded as

53
true insects, in short, only creatures, generally winged, possessing in
their mature stage but three pairs of legs may be regarded as such. The
purpose of this series of short talks is to draw attention to three groups of
wingless insects, by some regarded as primitive, and classed by most
entomologists in one group, the APTERA or APTERYGOTA. I must say
here and now that such an arrangement is, in my opinion, purely one of
convenience, bringing together three Orders, Primitive-Tails (Protura),
Bristle-Tails (Thysanura), and Spring-Tails (Collembola), agreeing in one
feature, the absence of wing's, though very different in their main structure,
and bearing no real close inter relationship.
The reader will naturally exclaim to himself, "but there are other kinds
of wingloss insects, fleas, for instance, or lice." It is true that fleas
(Siphonaptera), bird-lice (Mallophaga), and bloodsucking lice (Anopleura)
are wingless, but in each case close relationship to existing Orders of ringed
insects is shown, the winglessness proving to be a common or parallel
modification in the evolution of the insects. Therefore, we take it, that the
true wingless insect is one which, so far as may be judged, has no close
relationship to any existing order of winged insects, and presumably traces
its ancestry from stock similarly wingless.*
Most of us have heard of the doctrine that (as the late Geoffrey Smith
puts it in "Primitive Animals,"?. 58) animals in the course of their
development pass through or recapitulate the stages of their ancestral
history, in other words that animals in their development climb up their own
genealogical tree. However far this may be supported, it is very true that
often the study of embryonic and larval development throws much other
wise unattainable light upon the relationship of adult animals.
The larvae of beetles ( Coleoptera), for instance, possess a minute pair
of structures attached (either jointed or partly fused)
*Some decades ago when Mr. Andrew Murray published his book,
"Economic Entomology—Aptera" (no date, probably about 1878), he
included Myriapods, Spiders, Mites and Lice under the Class Aptera, or
Wingless insects, and referred to the Crustacea (Shrimps, Woodlice, etc.) as
animals allied to or likely to be mistaken for insects.
Apart from this passing comment Murray's “Aptera " is perhaps too
little known; it consists of over 400 pages, is profusely illustrated with
excellent cuts, and is, indeed, about the only general guide to Myriapods,
Mites, Lice, Springtails, etc., in the English language. It can be obtained at
most secondhand booksellers for a few shillings, and is quite an excellent
investment—though out-of-date—to the beginner wishing to familiarise
himself with these neglected groups.

54
to the tongue ( hypopharynx ) known as the maxillulae, not found in the
perfect beetles, but known in more primitive winded insects, and easily
recognised in the Apterygota. The foot, too, of larval beetles closely
approximates the foot of our wingless insects, and the comparative study of
these structures in beetles and springtails, etc., should well repay the
entomologist. Some years ago I found several larvae of a skinbeetle
(Dermestes ), which in its tout ensemble so resembled a bristletail that I kept
them alive for some time under a half-formed belief that I had discovered 'A
new type. Such errors are likely to be made by
Fig. 1. Campodea Lubbocki Silv., a blind
Bristletail. This and allied species are to be found
in a variety of situations, under stones, log's, etc.,
in moss, dead leaves and other debris. (Block
kindly loaned by the Editors of "The
Entomologist's Monthly Magazine.
the most experienced Naturalists, and I have before cited the case of a
well known Continental Zoologist, Tomosvary, who described a minute
creature as a new type of Thysanura (Bristle tail) under the name of
Anisosphaera problematica. The greatest authority on Bristletails, Prof.
Silvestri of Portici, Italy, rediscovered this creature and described it
minutely, but later it was shown by Bergroth to be the larva of a small
Scydmaenid beetle (Cephenium) ! I had myself been almost deceived by the
larva of a closely related beetle, and in working it out I stumbled upon
Tomosvary's* and Silvestri’s† papers above referred to.
I must now bring myself to discuss what I set out to talk about, the three
Orders, Protura or Primitive-tails, Thysanura or Bristle-tails, and
Collembola, commonly known as Spring-tails.
*See Math. Term. Kozlem. Magyar. Ak., 1882. xviii, pp. 128-130, pl.
†Ann. Mus. Civies. Stor. Nat. Genova, 1899, n.s., xix, pp. 613-619, figs

55
Members of the Order Protura are minute, well-chitinized creatures, the
head of which is without antennae, the first pair of leg's being used in their
place. The abdomen has twelve segments in the adult, the first three
segments hearing paired appendages on the under surface, whilst there are
no anal cerci, the end of the abdomen being truncate and shaped rather like
the telson of a crustacean, this suggesting the name Protura or "primitive
tail" Insects of this group are of only recent discovery, and there is much of
exceptional interest both in their structure and development affecting our
knowledge of insects and their classification.
My next talk will be upon the Protura followed in subsequent numbers
of The Vasculum by simple accounts of the Bristle-tails and Spring-tails.
Therefore I must close this rambling introduction by briefly sketching the
distinguishing characteristics of these latter.
BRISTLE-TAILS are, comparatively speaking, largish insects having
long multi-articulate threadlike antennae, and, excepting in one family, two
or three long segmented cerci at the end of the abdomen with paired style
like appendages on the underside of several of the body segments.
Campodea (Fig. 1), a white, blind insect with two long cerci, having the
body furnished with hairs, some of them featherlike, and the Silverfish (
Lepisma), or the Rock Jumpers (Machilidae) of our shores, scale covered
creatures with well developed eyes and three cerci are typical
representatives of the Thysanura, or Bristletails.
Fig. II. A globular Springlail, Sphyrotheca lubbocki Tullb
(Sminthuridae). Size 1.3 mm.
SPRINGTAILS are small soft bodied insects with only six abdominal
segments, usually bearing a more or less long fork- like “spring “ on the
underside. Some are globular (such as

56
Sminthurus) (Fig. II), others cylindrical with long antennae and spring,
others shorter, set with scales, and yet others more or less squat, coarse, and
sluggish. Some, like Lipura, are without a spring. But more about them
later.
A RARE POND.SNAIL (Limnaea auricularia L.)
BY GEORGE BOLAM.
This is one of the rarer of the Freshwater Snails of our district, which,
so far as I am aware, has previously been recorded only from ponds near
Darlington and Prestwick Car (" Catalogue of the Mollusca of
Northumberland and Durham," by Joshua Alder, in the "Transactions of the
Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club, 1848"). It was Albany Hancock who
obtained it, "a small variety"—at Prestwick Car, and since his time I do not
think it has been noticed there. It was with peculiar pleasure, therefore, that
on 15th June, 1916, I discovered it in large numbers in Haydon Fell Lough,
and by a happy accident was able to show the specimens I had brought back
with me to Mr. R. S. Bagnall and Mr. H. S. Wallace on the following
afternoon when they happened to call upon me.
Haydon Fell Lough is an artificial sheet of water, but of old standing,
lying some three miles North-West of Haydon Bridge. It has been formed
by a considerable dam thrown across a small stream which drains from the
mosses near Grindon Lough, and this circumstance, in conjunction with the
proximity of Grindon Lough itself, and other pools and ponds which must at
one time have existed in several of the neighbouring depressions, would
seem to strengthen the view that the snail is probably native to the district.
Be that as it may, how ever, there is no record of any introduction having
taken place. The Lough is on Mr. J. E. Rogerson's property, and the sporting
rights over it were for many years held by Mr. Abel Chapman and his late
uncle, George Crawhall. Mr. Chapman was with me when the discovery
was made, and was able to state that to his knowledge no introduction of
snails, as fish food or other wise, had been made, and that would carry us
beyond the period of the probability of anything of the kind taking place.
When we visited it on 15th June the Lough had been almost half drained
off, and on the exposed mudbanks Limnaea auricularia and its near relative
L. peregra were found in almost

57
equal profusion. Hundreds of each lay dried and dead in various stages
of dissolution, and, save for the empty nest of a Little Grebe, stranded on
the mud, and the tracks of at least two otters imprinted all over it, they were
the only finds worth recalling. The specimens of L. auricularia gathered
were smaller than others in my possession from Lincolnshire stations, but
they were otherwise quite typical. L. peregra, as usual, varied a good deal. I
was anxious to have made an examination of Grindon and some of the other
Loughs, on the same day, but they were all bank full and flooded, gulls and
other birds having been driven to seek dryer nesting sites elsewhere, and
since then no favourable opportunity has occurred of investigating them. It
remains still to be proved, therefore, whether L. auricularia is to be found in
any of the other loughs besides that on Haydon Fell. If it were 'so, its claim
to rank as indigenous would be placed beyond dispute.
ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM MIDDLESBROUGH,
CHIEFLY RELATING TO 1916.
BY C. E. MILBURN.
The Stonechat (Pratincola rubicola) is a scarce visitor to this district,
generally appearing only during the autumn migrations, and I have never
met with it breeding in S.E. Durham. On the Yorkshire side of the Tees I
have twice seen a nest on the Eston Hills, the last occasion being in 1900,
when the late Mr. T. H. Nelson helped me to find one containing young on
June 16th. We have plenty of furze commons, but seldom a stonechat to
enliven them.
The Longtailed Tit (Acredula rosea) we formerly looked upon as quite
an unusual bird about here, even in winter; now it is increasing, and I
frequently come across family parties in the woods after the young are
fledged. Last May and June I saw at least four pairs attending to their young
ones which had recently left the nest
The Goldfinch (Carduells elegans) is another species which is
increasing in this neighbourhood. Two pairs nested in some sycamore trees
near Deaf Hill in 1915; and in November last a party of about twenty
regularly visited a disused garden well within the boundary of
Middlesbrough. They continued their

58
visits until the middle of December, by which time the supply of thistles
had become exhausted. Small flocks of Redcaps likewise appear
occasionally about Normanby.
Hawfinches (Coccothraustes vulgaris) have also increased in this
neighbourhood a good deal during recent years, and are now commoner
than most people suppose. I saw two nests here in 1916, and considerable
parties sometimes raid gardens for peas. At Old Ormesby, in Cleveland,
where nests regularly occur in the market gardens, at least fifty Hawfinches
were shot to protect the peas in 1916. Nests are frequent, too, about Yarm,
and I have seen one or two in the neighbourhood of Middleton-in-Teesdale.
The birds are notoriously shy at all times, which favours their increase.
Round about Middlesborough a favourite nesting site is in the high trees
surrounding a garden, or in the fruit trees in the garden itself, and its very
unexpectedness often proves its salvation. The nest is frequently passed by
boys and others as an unfinished nest of the Green finch, and I have
sometimes been amused to see the surprise of older people when the sitting
bird has been flushed, by a kick on the tree, from the loosely put together
nest overhead, which they had examined and pronounced to be an old or
untenanted one.
A pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers (Dendrocopus major) reared their
young in Gunnergate Woods near Middlesbroug'h, in 1916. Pied
Flycatchers (Muscicapa atrlcapilla ) were rather scarcer in their Cleveland
stronghold than usual, and two holes from which birds got safely off in
1915 were untenanted. Another breeding hole, in the roots of an oak tree in
the ground, was occupied by a Great Tit which I ejected. I fancy the Tit had
killed the hen Flycatcher, as we found her feathers round about the hole,
and the disconsolate cock kept flying about the place, but we could find no
trace of her body. This pair of Flycatchers used to have eight eggs regularly
for their clutch.
At Teesmouth about a dozen pairs of Redshanks (Totanus calidris) bred
last year; but I am afraid the Ruff (Machetes pugnax) has been driven away
by the commercializing of the place, and is now only a visitor during
migration. Two pairs of Ringed Plovers (Aegialitis hiaticola) are about all
that are left on the Durham side, and a like number of Shelducks (Tadorna
cornuta) nested as usual in the old slag wall. There were eight pairs of
Shovelers (Spatula clypeata) and a goodly number of Coots (Fulica atra)
breeding on the marshes; but no Garganeys (Querquedula circia) were seen
last year. The colony of Lesser Terns (Sterna minuta), as I was told by one
of the garrison occupying the ground, had a good season, about

59
twenty-five pairs nesting. In 1905 a pair attempted to establish
themselves on the Durham coast, but deserted before laying up.
I was able to visit the mouth of the river very little during the autumn
migrations and have not much to note, except that a party of about a dozen
Shore Larks (Otocorys alpestris) appeared at the foot of the sandhills late in
November. On 19th December, at the outbreak of the snowy weather, we
had a great rush of Larks {Alauda arvensis), Fieldfares (Turdus pilaris) and
Redwings (T. iliacus), thousands of them landing about the Tees mouth,
mixed with them being a few Pipits (Anthuss pratensis), Bramblings
(Fringilla montifringilla) and other Finches. The rush lasted from about 9
a.m. till one o'clock, during which time the fields and gardens seemed alive
with birds dropping down from the clouds. A couple of Whoopers (Cygnus
musicus) arrived about the same time, one of which was shot just after
Christmas.
NORTHUMBRIAN PISIDIA (Fresh Water Mollusca).
A. M. OLIVER.
In Alder's “Catalogue of the Mollusca of Northumberland and
Durham,” published in 1848, three species of Pisidium are recorded from
localities in Northumberland, all in Tyneland. They are P. nitidum, Jenyns,
from Prestwick Car, P, cinereum, Alder, [==P. casertanum (Poli)] from
Brandling Place, Newcastle, and P. amnicum (Mull), from Jesmond Dene
Mill-race.
In Mr. B. B. Woodward's able monograph, published in 1913 by the
Trustees of the British Museum, which is modestly entitled “A Catalogue of
the British Species of Pisidium”. P. casertanum is the only species recorded
for Cheviotland, and the records for Tyneland are P. amnicum, P.
casertanum, and P. pusillum (Gmel.).
The following list makes several additions to the above records. The
identifications (with the exception of P. henslowanum) are authenticated by
Mr. Woodward, who has been good enough to examine the shells.
CHEVIOTLAND. (Vice-county 68).
P. amnicum (Mull.) Stream, Lucker, August 1912.
P.subtruncatum, Malm. Pond, Howick, July 1910; Stream,
Bamburgh, August 1912.
P. casertanum (Poli). Stream, Bamburgh, September 1912.
P. nitidum, Jenyns. Stream, Howick cricket field, March 1910.

60
P. pusillum (GmeL). Pond, Howick, July 1910; Stream,
Bamburgh,September 1912.
P.personatum, Malm. Pond, Spindleston, Bamburgh, August 1912.
TYNELAND. (Vice-county 67).
P. subtruncatum Malm. Stream, north of Kirkley Hall, April 1912.
P. casertanum (Poli). Stream, Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, October 1910.
P. obtusale Jenyns. Pond, Heatherleazes, Warkworth, July 1910.
P.personatum Malm. Stream, Druridge Bay, July 1910.
To these must be added P henslowanum (Shepp.), a single specimen of
which occurred in a batch of young P. amincum taken in the Coquet near
Warkworth in June 1910, and is now in the collection of the Conchological
Society at Manchester. There is no doubt that further investigation will
result in the addition of several more species to the Northumbrian list of
Pisidia.
A NEW SPECIES AND GENUS OF ALEYRODIDAE FROM
DURHAM.
J. W. H. HARRISON. M.Sc.
Last July, whilst; hunting for galls with my friends Bagnall and
Wallace, by a sort of inspiration rather than with any hope of success, I
stooped to examine the somewhat luxuriant tufts of heath (Erica tetralix)
which still ornament Waldridge Fell. Directly I did so I perceived crowds of
larvae and pupae of the very rare Coccid Eriococcus devomensis, but, what
was still more important, accompanying them were multitudes of a small
snowy fly wholly unknown to me and, judging from the food plant, quite
new even to Science. Directly I got home I looked up my books and was
delighted to find that not only had I got a new species, but also a new genus,
which I propose to describe in the present paper.
Genus TETRALICIA, g. nov.
Forewings provided with radial sector only displaying a single flexure
in the middle; whole vein subparallel to the inner margin of the wing.
Cubitus, especially in certain females, suggested sometimes by a fold or by
a cessation of the wing granulations.
Male slightly less than the female. Both sexes with antennas seven
jointed. Male antennae rugged and fairly long; those of the female less
rugged and relatively shorter. In the male the third joint is the longest and is
subequal to the total length of the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh; the same
joint in the female is likewise the longest, but is longer than the total of the
4th, 5th, 6th and 7th. In the male the fourth joint is the shortest and in the
female the sixth.

61
Tetralicia ericae Harrison.
A.Forewing of male. B. Pupa case. C. Male genitalia a. laferi
D Margin of wing's. E. Male antenna. F. Female antenna.
Male claspers fairly long and broad; penis slight. Pupa case with
practically no waxy secretion. Both larva and pupa are extremely elongated.
Type—ericae (Harrison).
Tetralicia ericae sp. nov.
Characters as for genus with the following additional features:—
Adult male. Length 9 mm.
General colouration bright yellow. Head, legs and genital claspers
smoky black, that of the claspers often very intense. Thorax, a mixture of
yellow and black passing imperceptibly into each other. Below and laterally
the abdomen is bright yellow; above slightly smoky.
Forewings rather long, rounded terminally; in colour grey white—not
the pure white of Aleyrodes proletella— unspotted, granulated. Lower
wings more triangular, termen rounded. Radial sector central. Margin of all
wings thickened, toothed and slightly bristly. Antennae ochreous. Eyes dark
reddish purple, very slightly reniform.

62
Adult female. Length 1.2 mm.
Like the male but wings broader. Genitalia, except basally, yellow.
Antennae slighter.
Larva. Necessarily elongate in order to enable it to feed between the inrolled
margin and midrib of a leaf of a member of the genus Erica. In colour
transparent whitish.
Pupa. Likewise elongated and for the same reason.
The insect is probably continuously brooded, as a brood was flying in
the last week in July 1916, a further one in the last week in August, and half
grown larvae were obtainable in September.
Habitat. Waldridge Fell, Co. Durham. Frequenting and hiding amongst
sheltered bushes of Erica tetralix on which the larvae were feeding. Very
averse from flying but doing so and leaping if compelled.
NOTES AND RECORDS
ARACHNIDA.
ACARI—of the Family Oribatidae. 70
The list given below is a first contribution to the Mite-fauna of Cumberland. Practically the
whole of the records now presented I owe to the diligent enthusiasm of Mr. J. C. Varty-Smith, of
Nandana, Penrith, in whose honour I have had great pleasure in naming a new species of
Chamobates taken by him at Newton Moss. Two regions are represented by the collections he has
made for me—certain localities in the neighbourhood of the coast from Maryport northward, and
a few spots in the drainage basin of the Eden within easy reach of Mr. Varty-Smith's home at
Penrith. Personally I have not been able to contribute more than a few species found by the
wayside near Alston not far from the Northumberland boundary.
Moist conditions being essential to most of the beetle mites, it is not surprising that the best
results were obtained at Saltah Marsh near Allonby, and at the well known "moss" of Newton
Reigny near Penrith. The latter place, already known as the home of some of the rarer species of
the larger Arachnids, did not produce so many species as I expected, but maintained its reputation
by supplying a considerable proportion of rarities. One of these was the new Chamobates
mentioned above. Another species was still undescribed when I received it from Mr. Varty-Smith,
but I had only a few days before found it in material sent to me by Dr. A. Randell Jackson of
Chester. I have since described and figured it under the name of Minunthozetes (Oribates)
humectus.
The proximity of Saltah Marsh to the sea was indicated only by the presence of a few species
(Hermannia scabra, H. quadriseriata) which, while not by any means maritime or even submaritime,
are nevertheless always most plentiful near the sea.
Zetomimus furcatus, Heminothrus crinitus, and Minunthozetes humectus have not occurred
east of the Pennines. and Pelops farinosus is there much

63
less frequent. On the other hand Angelia silvestris, quite general on the east side, does not
appear in this list at all.
The localities and habitats are indicated by the following numbers :— 1. Alston moss and
lichen from a roadside wall. 2. Saltah marsh, sphagnum and ditch moss. 3. Saltah marsh, mixed
detritus. 4. Hayton, tree moss.5. Allonby, tree moss. 6. Bank End, Maryport. 7. Allonby, N.
Lodge.8. Saltah, moss. 9 Hayton, moss from a gill. 10 Edenhall, moss from a damp wood. 11.
Newton Moss, general marsh herbage. 12. Penrith Beacon, moss. 13. Newton Moss, general. 14.
Newton Arlosh, salt grass.15. Kirkbride, general. 16. Saltah, as No. 2. 17, 18, 19. Allonby,
various herbage. 20. Newton Moss, wet place N.W. side. 21. Newton Moss, bottom of a haycock.
22. Newton Moss, under trees.
Tegeocraninae.
Liacarus ovatus K. 2, 10, 12, 14, 16.
Liacarus bicornis P & W. 19. The species is perhaps western and local.
Cepheus tegeocranus Herm. 8, 15.
Tritegeus bifidatus Nic. l, 10.
Tegeocranus latus K. 5, 10.
Tegeocranus dentatus Mich. 5.
Hermaniella granulata Nic. 2, 8.
Scutovertex sculptus Mich. 13.
Odontocepheus elongatus Mich.
Carabodes marginatus Mich. 5, 6.
Carabodes femoralis Mich. 5.
Carabodes nepos Hull. 9,10.
Carabodes scymnus Hull. Castle Hill, Keswick.
Oribatinae.
Pelops fuliginous K. l, 10, 12, 14, 21.
Pelops farinosus Nic. 12, abundant.
Pelops major Hull. 13, 15, 20.
Peloptulus montanus Hull. 20.
Limnozetes sphagni Mich. II.
Ceratozetes gracilis Mich. 8.
Euzetes lapidarius Luc. 15, 21, 22.
Euzetes globulus Nic. 2, 4, 8. 10, 16.
Melanozetes mollicomus K. 7, 8, 10, 16.
Melanozetes stagnatilis Hull. 2, 8, 16.
Melanozetes edwardsii Nic. 1,8, II.
Sphaerozetes piriformis Nic. 22.
Sphaerozetes montivagus Hull. Castle Hill, Keswick.
Sphaerozetes picipes K. 10, 14, 15.
Sphaerozetes oblongus L. K. l, 22.
Sphaerozetes setosus K. 2; 22.
Sphaerozetes fuscipes K. 2, 8, 13, 16, 19.
Achipteria ovalis K. l, 2, 3, 4, 8. 9. 10. 11, 13
„ „ var. nitens Nic. 18.
Achipteria redux Hull. 16, 20, 22.
Achipteria hasticeps Hull. 20.
Achipteria quadricornuta Mich. 6, 8, 14, 15, 21.
Oribates elimatus K. II, 13.
Chamobates cuspidatus Mich. 2, 8, 9, II, 12, 16.
Chamobates vartismithii Hull. 13.
Chamobates dominae Hull. 6.
Mycobates parmeliae Mich. Castle Hill, Keswick.
Minunthozetes fusiger Mich. 6, 13, 18, 21.

64
Minunthozetes humectus Hull. 13, 19 Second occurrence : type taken in Cheshire.
Zetomimus furcatus P & W. 13. Second occurrence : type taken in Yorkshire. Mr. Varty-
Smith has since taken it in Westmoreland.
Oribatula exilis Nic. 1, 8, 12, 14, 15. 19
Onbatula tibialis Nic. 8, 10, 15, 20, 21.
Oribatula michaelii Hull. 2, 8. 16.
Oribatula lucasii Nic. 13.
Oribatula similis Mich. 8, 16, 20.
Oribatula anomala Hull. 22.
Notaspidinae.
Ceratoppia bipilis Herm. 1, 3,4, 6, 8, 9, 10,12, 17.
Hydrozetes lacustris Mich. 2, 8. 13, 16.
Notaspis oblonga K. I.
Notaspis lucorum D. 7.
Notaspis serrata Mich. Keswick (Michael).
Damaeosoma denticulatum Cann. Penrith.
Dissorhina tricarinata Paoli. 18.
AutognetafallaxPaoli. 18.
Autogneta pectinata Mich. 20.
Caleremaeus monilipes Mich. Castle Hill, Keswick.
Amolops clavipectinatus Mich. Penrith.
Damaeinae.
Damaeus geniculatus L. 3, 4, 10
Damaeus clavipes Herm. 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 16.
Damaeus alienus Hull. 5, 20, 21.
Damaeus sufflexus Mich. 20.
Damaeus tecticola Mich. Penrith.
Nothrinae.
Hermannia quadriseriata Banks. 6.
Hermannia convexa K. 6,9,20,21.
Hermannia scabra L. K. 5, 6. 14, 15
Hermannia nana Nic. 2, 8, 16.
Heminothrus bistriatus K. 2, 7, 8, 10, 13, 16, 18, 19.
Heminothrus crinitus P. & W. 13. Second occurrence: type taken in Perthshire.
Angelia palustris K. 1,8,9.
Nothrus spinifer K. 16.
Nothrus segnis Herm. 8.
Nothrus biverrucatus K. 5.
Nothrus horridus Herm. Castle Hill, Keswick.
Hypochthoniinae.
Hypochthonius rufulus K. 8,10,18.
Brachychthonius brevis Mich. Penrith, in debris among wall ivy.
Malaconothrinae.
Malaconothrus glaber Mich. 19, 20.
Phthiracarinae.
Hoploderma magnum Nic. 10, 11, 12.
Hoploderma dasypus Duges. 1,2,8,10,13,16,18,19.
Hoploderma affine Hull. 4.
J.E.H.

THE VASCULUM
Vol. III No. 3 September, 1917
PRIMITIVE-TAILS, BRISTLE-TAILS, AND
SPRING-TAILS.
II-THE ORDER PROTURA.*
RICHARD S. BAGNALL. F.L.S.
I have already briefly sketched the chief distinguishing characteristics of
members of the Protura, or Primitive-tails, as we might quite properly call
them, and before discussing the relationship with other insects, and how the
discovery has affected our conceptions of the classification, I can do no
better than quote from the paper in which the discovery was originally
brought forward ('Knowledge” 1912, pp. 215-216, figs.239-241).
DISCOVERY OF THE ORDER PROTURA.
"An insect without antennae !
“It was on the occasion of a field meeting of the Northumberland,
Durham and Newcastle-upon-Tyne Natural History Society, at Mitford,
Northumberland, in the May of 1909, I first met with this curious form of
insect life. I remember I was searching for those tiny, bustling centipedes,
the Pauropods, at the time. Under a log lying by the roadside was a colony
of Pauropus—of a species then unrecorded as British—and with it were two
small creatures, yellowish and to all appearances larval. But under a lens
they presented an altogether strange appearance, chiefly on account of their
conical beak-shaped heads, and of the great development of the forelegs, the
peculiar position thereof reminding one of the Praying Mantis. I therefore
bottled them, and placing them under the microscope at home I discovered
other peculiarities no less striking.
“The mouth parts were quite unlike those of any other insect known to
me ; eyes, antennae and wings were absent, the claws
* The blocks of Figs. 2 and 3 which illustrated the Author's original
paper, are kindly loaned by the Editor of " Knowledge." Figs. I and 4 to II
are from the Author's drawings, partly original and partly adapted from
Berlese.

66
were similar to those of the Bristletails (Thysanura), the last abdominal
segments reminded one curiously of a crustacean, and there were no
spiracles. Several structural features, including the genitalia, proved that the
insect was not larval.
" I felt that I had thus stumbled upon an entirely new type of insect, and
as such labelled my preparation, but lack of knowledge and literature
together with the pressure of other interests and important work, forced me
to put it to one side. "
It is curious how strange occurrences such as this revolve in one's mind.
Without antennae, eyes and wing's! We can bring to mind whole orders of
wingless insects, such as Springtails (Collembola), Bristletails ( Thysanura),
bloodsucking and biting lice (Anoplura and Mallophaga) and numerous
sightless arthropods. But without antennae, or in other words, with out
either of the organs of sense, the eyes and antennae! This curious creature
was brought before me more forcibly by the discovery of a second species
in 1910, a third in August, and yet another in December, 1911, the latter in
profusion, and whilst recently corresponding with Prof. Filipo Silvestri on
other matters I sent him a rough sketch, and asked his opinion. He informed
me that these insects were, as I had thought, true insects, and that they
belonged to the order Protura, an order diagnosed by him as recently as
December 1907. Thus ended my dream of the first discovery of an entirely
new type of insect!
“Its history is, however, a short one; the insect is known to very few
naturalists, and yet about a dozen species have been described, mostly by
Berlese, from Italy, who, in 1909, monographed the order in his usual most
thorough and comprehensive manner.

67
" Acerentomon—' an insect without antennae’ that is the literal
translation of the name proposed by Silvestri. . . . Could a more appropriate
name be chosen ?
STRUCTURE AND GROWTH.
To have aroused so much
interest amongst zoologists it may
well be imagined that the special
features of its anatomy are of a
striking nature.
Let me briefly sketch these, with
remarks where necessary:—
Twelve abdominal segments in the
adult, arrived at from a larval form
with 9 segments by the interpolation of
the remaining, one at a time, between
the hind most and penultimate
segments. Known insects possess 10
body segments as a rule, though 12
have been shown in the embryo.
"The position of the front
pair of leg's suggested to me
that they, in a measure,
protected the head. I recently
had the opportunity of
watching the living insects,
and it was especially
interesting to note that the
long front legs were not used
to any extent for walking, but
as feelers, held tremulously
on each side of the head, and
this observation is confirmed
on examination of the foretibia
under a high power,
when sense organs similar to
those found on the antennae
of many insects can be clearly
be seen”- See Fig. 1. s.o.

68
Myriapods increase the number of their body segments by the
interpolation of defined groups.
Position of genital opening far back, which may be compared with the
position in Lithobiids (a family of centipedes). The number of body
segments, counting the thorax (3+12), is the same as in the Lithobiids (15).
Abdominal appendages on the first 3 segments. Probably an aid to
compensate the loss of the front pair of leg's, these being used as antennae
and rarely for walking. Paired appendages and vesicles are found on the
underside of the abdomen in the Bristle-tails (Thysanura).
Absence of tracheal system in one family.
The telson and specialised arrangement of the last four abdominal
segments (marked s 9-12 in Fig. 1), reminding one of the crustacean
abdomen and telson. Bearing these points in mind we may briefly discuss
THE CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS
as modified by this discovery.
As Williams* has already said, the various views put forward as to the
systematic position of the Protura largely depend upon the relative
importance assigned to the different structural characters, and, lacking
knowledge of their embryology, it is difficult to decide whether any
particular feature is primitive or the result of specialization. Silvestri first
described the Protura as an order of the insect subclass Apterygota. Burner
and Schepotieff supported this view, the former (on account of the
entotrophic mouthparts and the lack of anal cerci) placing the order near the
Collembola, whilst the latter regarded it as having affinities with Campodea
(Thysanura). Here I must again say that I can only regard the term
APTERYGOTA as one of convenience, as I cannot see that there is any real
affinity between the members of the three orders THYSANURA,
COLLEMBOLA, and PROTURA.
Berlese removed the order from the INSECTA and placed it in the
MYRIAPODA as an order which he named Myrientomata, chiefly on
account of the large number of body segments and their increase by
interpolation. In discussing this at the British Association I protested against
the use of the term Myriapoda,
* See references to literature at the end of this paper.

69
which is used to embrace several orders possessing a common feature in
being “many-legged” but not really of close affinities. In fact most of these
orders come low down in the Arthropod scale; but one, the Chilopoda
(Centipedes) contains highly organised creatures coming next to the Insecta.
Therefore we
Fig's. 4 and 5. Dorsal view of head of (4) Acerentomon doderol Silv.
and (5) A. affinis Bagn. (excluding the palpi), x 120.
Fig. 6. Eosentomon transitorium Berl. (after Berlese). A contracted
specimen, x 60, showing s, stigmata.
Fig. 7. One of the three pairs of “abdominal feet" found in Eosentomon.
x 270. 7a showing contraction of the second joint.
Fig. 8. Head of Acerentulus mediocris Berl. x 240. Note that there is no
beak-like prolongation as in the genus Acerentomon.
Fig. 9. Posterior angle of 8th abdominal segment in Acerentomon,
showing the characteristic “comb" of the family.
Fig. 10. One of the first pair of “abdominal feet" Acerenfomon. x270. In
this family the 2nd and 3rd pairs are much smaller than the 1st, as in Fig.
10a.
Fig. 11. Side of metathorax in Eosentomon, showing the tracheal
opening. x 270.
must regard the term Myriapoda as representing a convenient
assemblage of “many-legged " Artropods, and when used in the present
discussion it should be restricted to mean the one so called Myriapod Order
Chilopoda (centipedes).
Rimsky-Korsakow compares certain features with a similar combination
found in the larvae of many insects, regarding the

70
abdominal characters and the anamorphosis (a term used to explain the
adding thereto by interpolation) as primitive, and places them as a class
coming between the Myriapoda and Insecta.
Prell, recognizing the undoubted affinities of Protura with the Insecta,
and at the same time realizing that they differ from other orders of insects
more greatly than the latter do among themselves, divides the Insecta into
two great subclasses as follows:—
Subclass ANAMERENTOMA (with anamorphosis) for the order
Protura alone.
Subclass HOLOMERENTOMA (with no anamorphosis) for all other
Insect Orders.
And this is, I think, the classification that should be followed.
Whilst speaking on this subject I should add that I have long felt the
difficulties created by the retention of the term Apterygota (or Aptera) for
the Spring-tails and Bristle-tails— thus suggesting affinities that do not
really exist, and I consider that this term should be rendered obsolete and
that the sub class HOLOMERENTOMA should be split into two main
divisions, the one containing the Collembola (separated from all known
insects by the small number—never more than 6—of the body segments),
and the other containing .all other insects of the subclass. This would enable
entomologists to study the Thysanurn in relation to other insects without
prejudice or embarrassment.
Names, alluding to the small and to the normal number or body
segments respectively, could be given to these two main divisions.
KEYS TO THE FAMILIES AND GENERA.
The two families may be separated as follows :—
Tracheal system absent. Second and third pairs of abdominal
appendages single jointed (Fig, 10a),the first pair being two jointed
(Fig. 10). Dorsal pleurites of the eighth abdominal segment with comblike
posterior margin (Fig. 9). . . . Fam. ACERENTOMIDAE.
Tracheal system present. Two pairs of lateral stigmata, one pair
each on the mesothorax and meta thorax respectively (Figs. 6 and 11). The
three pairs of abdominal appendages larger than in the

71
ACERENTOMIDAE, and all 2-jointed (Fig's. 7 and 7a). Dorsal
pleurites of the eighth abdominal segment simple.
Fam. EOSENTOMIDAE.
And the genera may be recognized as follows :—
Fam. ACERENTOMIDAE.
Head (labrum) produced anteriorly into a more or less long beaklike
process (Fig's. 4 and 5). Maxillary and labial palpi 4 and 3jointed
respectively. Mandible terminating" in a very long pointed style.
ACERENTOMON Silv.
Labrum not produced (Fig. 8.) Maxillary and labial palpi 3 and 2jointed
respectively. Mandible without long style. ........ ACERENTULUS
Berl.
Fam. EOSENTOMIDAE
With the characters of the family; palpi as in ACERENTULUS. ........
EOSENTOMON Berl.*
THE BRITISH SPECIES AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION.
Members of the order are known from Italy, Russia, Finland, Norway,
Sweden, Germany, Austria and Britain in Europe, whilst a species has been
found in India and another in North America. We may take it for granted
the order is one that will prove to be of wide distribution.
Although I have collected a lot of material I regret that I cannot yet say
much about the British species. Eight or nine species at least exist in this
country, including members of the three genera Acerentomon, Acerentulus,
and Eosentomon. Of these the genus Eosentomon seems to be the most
widely distributed, a view supported by the fact that the species known from
both India and North America belong to this genus, and further, that in this
country I have taken members of this genus on the West Coast of England,
on the East Coast, in the Oxford neighbourhood, and as far North as
Dundee, whilst C. B. Williams has found it in the South, where he has not
seen representatives of the other two genera.
I append records of five species which I have at different times
identified with reasonable certainty.
Fam. ACERENTOMIDAE.
Acerentomon affinis sp.n. Bagiiall.
*The genus Protapteron Schepotieff is synonymous.

72
A. affinis Bagnall, 1912, " Knowledge," n.s. ix„ p. 215; and 1913, "Ent.
Mo. Mag” 2nd ser., xxiv., p. 173, pt. II., Fig. 6.
In above references the name is mentioned without description. The
species is 1.6 mm. long and comes very near to A. doderoi of Silvestri,
differing chiefly in its more slender head and the relative shorter
prolongation of the labrum. (See Fig's. 4 and 5). Prof. Silvestri has
examined examples, and reports they are not the same species as his A.
doderoi. Other differences may be found in the relative lengths of setae.
HABITAT Co. DURHAM. Gibside, in great profusion amongst
the moist frass under the bark of an old elm log, and also in a beech log
near by, and in a similar situation in a dene at Fencehouses.
Acereniulus gracilis Berlese.
A. Berlese, 1908, "Redia," V., p. 122; and 1909, "Monografia dei
Myrientomata," p. 47'
Through an oversight this species is named "mediocris" in the
descriptions of plates in Berlese's Monograph.
HABITAT Co. DURHAM. Penshaw, May 1917, one example under a
stone.
Acerentulus confinis Berlese.
Acerentomon confine Berlese. 1908, " Redia," V., p. 16, and 1909
"Monografia dei Myrientomata," p. 43.
The largest species of the genus.
HABITAT NORTHUMBERLAND. Mitford, near Morpeth and Co.
DURHAM. Gibside, rare. Under log's and stones.
Fam. EOSENTOiMIDAE..
Eosenfomon silvestrii Rimsky-Korsakow.
Eosentomon silvestrii Rimsky-Korsakow. 1911, "Trav. Soc. Imp. Nat.
St. Petersburg," xlii, pp. 1-24.
Mr. Williams considers that his species from turf in the South of
England may be referable to this species, and a form I have taken more or
less generally in the North of England and Scotland would seem to be the
same.
HABITAT SCOTLAND. Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh, and on the South
bank of the Dee, near Dundee. DURHAM. Gibside, Penshaw and Hart,
under deeply imbedded stones.
Eosentomon transitorium Berlese.
A. Berlese, 1908, "Redia," p. 18, and 1909, "Monografia dei
Myrientomata," P. 58.
HABITAT LANCS. GrangeoverSands, one example only.

73
LITERATURE.
Since Silvestri's and Berlese's original papers in 1907 and 1908, and the
latter's monograph of the Order Myrientomata in 1909 (the only
comprehensive work on the group up to the present), several Continental
zoologists have added to the literature of the subject, such as Borner,
Schepotieff, Rimsky-Korsakow, Prell and Tragardh, but in England little
has been published. In 1912 the present author drew attention to the order in
a somewhat popular paper entitled “Some Primitive British Insects. 1.—The
Protura." (“Knowledge," 1912, pp. 215-216), and later published a note in
the " Entomologist's Monthly Magazine," whilst Mr. C. B. Williams
published a very useful summary of our knowledge of the Protura—
reviewing the Continental literature—in “The Entomologist” for 1913,
adding a bibliography of twenty references.
At the Birmingham meeting of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science, 1913, the writer reviewed the views of various
authors after discussing the curious morphological features of the order, and
spoke at length on its position in Arthropod classification, but only a brief
resume of this paper was published in the Report.
THE EROSION OF ROCKS.
J. A. SMYTHE, D.SC.
There are few subjects of greater interest to one fond of outdoor studies
than the observation of the effects of wind, water and weather on rocks.
These effects are frequently striking, and force themselves on the attention
even of the casual passerby; more often, they are hidden to all save those
who are naturally gifted in scientific observation, and have trained
themselves in that field by long practice and study. By the description of a
few local examples the author hopes to direct the attention of the amateur
naturalist to these studies, and to encourage him to make observations for
himself.
Without seeking too precise a definition of terms we may define erosion
as the wearing down of rocks by the action of grit, pebbles, etc., borne along
by wind or water, or by chemical changes brought about by the solvent
action of natural waters; and our examples will refer to the extremely
localised effects of these agencies.

74
One might think, perhaps, that wind erosion could only be studied in
deserts or on arid plateaux, but examples can be found in plenty quite near
home. The quaint shapes of the oft photographed Brimham Rocks in
Yorkshire may be cited as arresting examples. Still closer at hand, the same
undercutting of rocks can be studied in the Shafthoe Crags and in many of
the craggy sandstones in the neighbourhood of the Northumberland lakes,
north of the Roman Wall. The erosive action of the driving sand grains
leads here, not to the isolation of unstable looking rock-masses, as at
Brimham, but rather to the formation of caves at the foot of the bluffs.
These caves are frequently capacious and serve as shelters for sheep, and
are not to be despised by the rambler in the event of sudden storms. The
surfaces, too, of the rocks become worn, by the differential cutting and the
swirling of the sand grains, into roundish basins, like the potholes in a
streambed, and at Shafthoe the perfecting of one of the basins by hand
results in the “Devil's Punchbowl" an object of pilgrimage to many a tourist
from Newcastle.
Along the sandy, dune fringed stretches of the Northumberland coast,
ample opportunity exists for the observation of sand erosion, especially
where a hard, uniform rock, like the basalt of the Whin Sill, occurs close to
the sands. This happens at many points between Dunstanburgh Castle and
Budle Bay, and in this region surfaces of the basalt smoothed and worn by
the natural sand blast can be frequently observed.
In places the uniformity of the basalt or whinstone is broken by the
occurrence in the rock of vesicles — originally steam-cavities in the molten
rock filled in by infiltrated

75
minerals like quartz or calcite—and then the lack of homogeneity is
immediately disclosed by the appearance of the wind-worn surface. When
the vesicles contain the hard mineral, quartz, at Budle, they stand out like
beads, capping little cones of the more easily worn basalt.
A more striking case was observed by the author, some years ago, at the
foot of the Embleton Burn, near Dunstanburgh. There, the whin sill, which
contains, vesicles filled with calcite, has a bedded, steplike aspect, and
forms little scarps about a foot high facing southwest. These scarp-faces,
especially in places where the rock abounds in vesicles, are most curiously
carved by the sandblast, as may be seen by the outline sketch of a handspecimen
shown in Fig. 1. The vesicles, as already stated, contain calcite, a
mineral much softer than the whinstone, but they are surrounded by a
coating of very hard, ferruginous material, more resistant than the
whinstone. Once this exterior coating is uncovered, it shields the rock
beneath, which is cut into by the sand and left in the form of a cone, capped
by the vesicle. (The second largest cone in the sketch illustrates this stage).
Erosion of the ferruginous coating produces a pitted surface (three examples
of which are shown). In time the coating is worn through and the soft calcite
exposed, which is then very quickly eroded (the patch on the upper surface
of the largest cone illustrates this) ; this action on further development
yields a craterlike depression (as shown on the smallest cone in the sketch),
and, finally, the vesicle is completely removed and rapid erosion of the
basalt cone follows (see the lowest flat-topped cone in the sketch).
In the sketch (Fig. 1) the long arrow shows the direction of wind
blowing against the scarpface. The parallelism of the upper and under
surfaces of the cones may be noted, as also the marked convexity of the
latter, which enables one to visualise the upward swirl of the wind and sand
brought about by the obstacle. The small curved arrow emphasises this
point.
This case thus affords a good example of erosion by wind borne sand,
particularly interesting by reason of the fact that successive stages can be
traced even on a single hand-specimen. Those interested in coincidence may
further note the likeness of the sculptured surfaces to the models of some
regions of recent volcanic activity. If the sketch be turned through a right
angle this likeness becomes noticeable; it is naturally more arresting on the
actual specimens. One specimen in the author's possession, in fact, bears the
closest resemblance to the group of “puys," or volcanic hills, which cluster
round the Puy de Dome in the Auvergne district of Central France.

76
Erosion by the agency of water, whether in rivers or by the seaside, is a
fruitful subject of observation, and the difficulty in citing examples is rather
one of selection from the wealth of materials than lack of suitable cases.
Two examples will be described as representative of very different effects.
The outlier of silurian rocks which occurs high up the Tees, a little
above the spot where the Harwood Beck joins the river, is cut by several
broad dykes (mica-trap) of compact rock which, when broken, shows
multitudes of small, glistening plates of white mica. When the water is low
these dykes can be seen in the bed of the river, and they arrest immediate
attention by the curious way in which they have been worn. They form an
assemblage of outstanding, roundish knobs, a foot or two high, leaning
slightly downstream. Many are narrowed towards the middle, showing, as it
were, a waist. Isolated specimens remind one somewhat of a clumsily made
hourglass in the act of toppling over. The general effect is somewhat
grotesque and is certainly uncommon; it is in marked contrast with the
dykes by the side of the water where, under the action of atmospheric
agencies, the dykes weather into large blocks with sharp angles and edges.
The outline sketch (fig. 2) illustrates the shapes assumed by these
waterworn dykes of mica-trap, the arrow showing the direction of the
current.
lgneous dykes exhibit very often the differential effects of erosion.
Being usually narrow and upright and consisting of more durable material
than the rocks they intersect, they are frequently weathered out as
upstanding features — wall-like masses of hard rock, from which they
derive their name. Not unfrequently, however, they are less durable than the
rocks they intersect, at any rate locally, for the country-rock may be
hardened at the contact with the dyke by the action of the heated (molten)
material from which the dyke is derived. In such cases the dyke may
become eroded, leaving a trench-like depression to mark its site.
It is but seldom that both results of erosion can be seen so close together
that that can be exhibited in a single photograph. An excellent example of
this occurs on the wild coast near Craster, just south of Cullernose Point. A
basalt dyke about three feet wide, there runs out seaward from the cliff,
cutting through sandstone on the foreshore near the cliff and an outlying
sandstone further out, near the low-water mark. Where the dyke cuts the
sandstone it stands out in typical, wall-like fashion. On approaching the
limestone, however, it disappears, and its place is taken by a trench about
three times the width of the dyke, with vertical sides, and this passes right
through the thick limestone to the open sea.

77
The accompanying photograph (Fig. 3) shows these features; the walllike
mass of the dyke in the sandstone
area being marked A, and the little cove which marks the position of the
dyke in the outside limestone barrier being marked B. It may be remarked
that mere difference in the hardness of the rocks concerned can hardly
afford an explanation of the observed effects of erosion ; it is probable that
the jointing of the various rocks affects their durability, and plays an
important part especially in the removal of the dyke where it is embedded in
limestone.
These examples may serve to show what a large field for outdoor study
there is in the erosion of rocks. A complete explanation of one's
observations may not always be possible (is, in fact, seldom so), and in
many cases will involve considerable knowledge of other branches of
science. Oftentimes an observation will only be truly comprehended many
years after it has been made. One may thus be permitted to conclude these
notes with the recommendation to the young naturalist (to whom they are
chiefly addressed), to begin his observations at once, to spare no pains to
make them as accurate as possible, and to record them on the spot. Among
the "instrumenta et auxilia” deemed by Bacon so necessary "ad invetendam
veritatem' the notebook must be given rank at least as high as the geological
hammer.
DURHAM UNIVERSITY.
We are pleased to note the names of four Naturalists, well known to
many of our readers, who have recently qualified to the Doctorate in
Science. Our congratulations to Miss Mari V. Lebour, D.SC., and Messrs. J.
W. H. Harrison, D.SC. Harold Teffreys, D.SC., and C. T. Trechmann,
D.S.C.

78
NOTES ON THE WINTER OF 1916-17 IN THE ALSTON
DISTRICT
,MORE PARTICULARLY AS IT AFFECTED WILD LIFE
GEORGE BOLAM
It is, fortunately, only at long and irregular intervals that we are visited
in this country by climatic conditions comparable to those experienced last
winter ; and, though it may yet be too early to appreciate fully its effect on
either plant or animal life, it is as well that some record of its severity
should be preserved while the facts are still fresh in the mind, and day-today
jotting's are before us. To find anything approaching the winter of
1916-17 in duration, it would be necessary to go back a good many years.
Within living memory 1890-91, 1878-79 and the two following years, and
1860-61, were outstanding "hard winters " ; while the records left of 1837-
38 show it also to have been one of exceptional severity, more especially as
it affected forest trees and birds. But my present object is rather to preserve
records than to attempt comparisons, and with this limitation in view the
following remarks will be almost entirely confined to the neighbourhood of
Alston, and to our common vertebrate animals.
Our first fall of snow occurred during the night of 17th November,
following a couple of days of bitterly cold south west gale. On the 18th we
woke to find the ground covered to a depth of about two inches, which
heavy intermittent showers had increased to quite three inches by 2 p.m.
The wind then backed eastwards, and though snow still continued falling,
we were before dark shoe deep in soft slush. It snowed and rained
alternately all night, and most of the following day, very disagreeable,
turning colder towards evening. November 20th milder and wet, rivers in
considerable flood, snow gone in valley but hills still very white. Much
local movement going on amongst birds, flocks of Redwings, Fieldfares,
Starling's, and Plovers continually shifting their ground during next few
days ; also to a lesser extent Tits, Goldcrests, and Finches, all evidently very
uneasy. November 22nd large numbers of Woodcock noticed flighting over
Whitfield Fell, as though they might have been recent arrivals* On 21st Mr.
Edward CliffMcCulloch
*Many Woodcock seen about Alston during next few days, and frequent
allusions made to their abundance in other places in the newspapers.
Writing on 1st December, Mr. Abel Chapman said :—" Shooting at
Nunwick on 28th November, and never saw more Woodcock anywhere in
one day

79
had seen two Swans flying over near the top of Hartside. The remainder
of November was alternately wet and warm, or only slightly frosty. On
night of 24th there was a rapid thaw upon the hills, accompanied by heavy
rain, bringing down the river in very high flood. On 30th, between 9 and 10
a.m., I saw two small flocks of Woodpigeons passing up the valley by the
route usually followed by these birds when they visit us in winter; viz.,
following the course of the river up to Alston, and then climbing the hill,
very nearly coincident with the Penrith road, to gain the vale of Eden over
Hartside top, a route I have observed on several occasions to be followed by
other migrants. On the morning of December 1st another couple of
woodpigeons were seen pursuing precisely the same course.
December 9th and 10th bitterly cold, with driving showers of rain
alternating with snow, and by night of 10th we were again under a covering
of three inches. This lay, with some slight intervening thaws followed by
fresh on-comings of snow, and fairly severe frost, until the night of 28th,
when it began to be fresh in earnest, accompanied by heavy rains, resulting
in another big flood in river. A few days of fine weather then followed, and
on Sunday, January 7th, the first of our really serious storms began. That
day opened with heavy rain, turning to snow and beginning to lie towards
night, and next morning we were again under a three inch covering of
softish slush in the valley, all the surrounding hills being very white. The
snow had come on a South wind, and many old weather wise people began
to remind their neighbours that such conditions had often been observed to
be the prelude to a “lying storm." How well founded their fears were was to
be amply proved, as the next forty days were to be practically without a
thaw. The week following January 7th alternated between slight softenings
and fresh falls of snow, until by the 16th every thing was covered to the
depth of a level foot, which, augmented by occasional further falls, lay
without sign of thaw until the night of February 16th. For a full month the
thermometer hanging against the wall of our house scarcely rose above
freezing point. On several days the frost was severe, 20 degrees and
upwards: but the lowest reading of our thermometer (on 4th February, and
again a few days later) was only 5 Fahr., which is a good deal higher than
the records reached in several of the years mentioned at the beginning of
this paper; the steadier temperature on the present occasion, though low and
so long continued, probably having a good deal to do with the relatively
small amount of damage done both to plant and animal life.

80
Milder weather, with occasional rain and the snow slowly melting,
continued from 17th February till 4th March, but we had no great flood, and
a good deal of snow remained upon the higher ground. On March 4th it
again set in very cold, with wind East to South East, and drifting storms of
fine powdery snow; two inches deep on 5th, with six degrees of frost; a
South East gale and snowing at intervals all day, probably three inches deep
by night on the level, but difficult to estimate owing to so much drifting.
The 6th and 7th very much the same, heavy showers of snow, a bitter East
wind, and much drifting— thoroughly bad days for sheep. On 7th wind
backed North wards, thermometer standing at about 20 Fahr. Next day finer
overhead, but some slight snow showers, thermometer at 7 Fahr. about
bedtime. March 9th not quite so frosty : 10th fresh falls of snow, but softer
towards evening and houses dripping : 11th a fresh covering of two or three
inches of snow, but softish and melting under influence of a South Westerly
wind, hardening again at night. March 12th, a bright sun but keen frost,
calm and fine overhead, and so continued till night of 16th, when a thaw set
in with a West to South West wind. March 17th almost an “ April day,"
river in flood, birds singing : 18th the same, Wagtails arriving; a wild
blustery night. March 19th a strong West wind with showers of rain and
hail, mild but colder towards dark and more rain, which turned to snow as
night advanced. All white again on 20th and hard frost, wind North and
frequent showers of snow, partly melting as it fell. Continued very much the
same for next ten days, a perfect blizzard on afternoon of 26th, alternating
showers of rain, snow, and hail, usually hard frosts at night : heavy rains on
28th ; 10 degrees of frost on night of 30th, and my fly turned to a ball of ice
when I went out to try for a sea trout about 10 o'clock next morning!
April 1st, got up to find ourselves snowed up again this morning, about
four inches deep on the level, thermometer at 10 Fahr. at 10.30 p.m. ; fell
four degrees lower in night. Very hard next morning, milk and everything
else frozen solid in the house, heavy snow again about midday, and by 5
o'clock, when it ceased, ground covered quite nine inches deep,
thermometer at 19 Fahr. about midnight; 26 degrees of frost registered
during the night. April 3rd two inches more snow this morning,
thermometer at 25 Fahr. at 8 a.m., rising to 40 by midday, then falling
rapidly to freezing point by 1.30, when it began to snow again, slushy about
5 p.m., then once more hardening to frost.
Similar weather prevailed throughout the greater part of April, fresh
falls of snow, and hard frosts alternating with heavy rains and bright
sunshine. We had 21 degrees of frost on 6 th

81
16 degrees on 12th, 13 degrees on 15th, 7 degrees on 16th. Became
fresh on 18th, and snow began really to disappear on the hills; no hard frosts
after this date: a single loud clap of thunder on afternoon of 16th, and a
heavy thunderstorm on night of May 13th. A fine dry June allowed, though
with a good many frosty nights; three degrees of frost on 13th July, doing
much harm to potatoes.
Our birds seemed to suffer comparatively little from the snows of
January and February; but the recurrence of the storms in Spring were
attended with disastrous results to many of them ; to some of the
immigrants perhaps even more than to our resident stock. Grouse
congregated in huge packs on some of the lower moors,† particularly on
such as from bared roads or mine-heaps afforded a supply of .grit, the lack
of which they often seem to feel more than a want of food, heather-tops
being rarely inaccessible to them. The death-rate amongst those which
elected to remain on the higher ground was relatively great, and even up to
June, when I picked up a dead and emaciated hen Grouse on the riverside
close to Alston, some birds were still dying. Whether the unusually severe
weather has, as some of the keepers feared would be the case, resulted in an
attack of “disease” there is yet not much evidence to show. Blackgame
probably largely left the district, and many of them do not seem to have
returned, but those which did so, or which remained here, seem to have bred
well, the dry May and June no doubt favouring them‡. The like cause
favoured such as remained of our Partridges; but these were badly thinned
out by the winter, few surviving. On 26th January I disturbed four (the
remnant of a large covey which had been reared there in 1916) near Park
House which were so weak that they could scarcely manage the short flight
to the next field: after the start they kept falling nearer and nearer to the
snow
†Some Grouse may perhaps have temporarily left the Tyne valley
altogether. On 23rd February, after the breakup of the first storm, Mr. Willie
Core drew my attention to a single Grouse flying strongly, high overhead,
shaping a course straight across the valley from the Clargill or Ouston Fells
in the direction of Horse Edge or Hartside Top. We were standing near the
top of Mount Hooly wood at the time, and the bird was passing probably
more than 300 feet above us.
‡It is worth while noting that on Hartside a Blackcock was still "
bubbling " on 18th June. Near Newbrough, on 27th July, I saw the most
forward brood of young grey I think I ever remember to have seen in my
life, the cocks then beginning to shew the black patches on their plumage,
which we are not accustomed to see for a full month later. On the same day,
near Whitfield, some young Pheasants on the roadside were as large as their
mother.

82
till one of their number was unable to clear the low wall when readied.
With little trouble they could probably all have been caught by hand. Early
in February a Partridge walked into a butcher's shop in the middle of the
town and was easily secured : I enquired next morning what had become of
it and was informed that it had been made into a pie, but that it was little
else than skin and bones !
Our resident stock of Blackbirds and Thrushes has not been greatly
affected, but there was no noticeable influx of the usual migrants in the
Spring. This is particularly noteworthy, since it would seem to indicate one
of two things: either those individuals which remain with us (chiefly old
birds) are better able to withstand hardships than those which come and go,
or else the latter fared worse than the stay-at-homes in their winter quarters,
wherever these may happen to be. Throughout the January-February storm
we were never without the usual representatives of either species round our
premises, and individuals of each started singing during the few fine days
experienced at the end of February. During the March-April storms both
species, but more particularly the Thrushes, deserted the neighbourhood of
human habitation and took refuge in the deepest gills and fir woods,§ and
did not resume singing and begin nesting operations until the beginning of
May. Young Black birds and Thrushes are now (in mid-August) almost as
much in evidence as in normal years.
The case with Missel Thrushes, which do not winter here, is in marked
contrast to that of their sedentary relations. In ordinary years the Missel
Thrush is abundant here, but this Spring very few appeared, and their
scarcity is still further emphasised by the paucity of the flocks which, under
ordinary circumstances, would now, in Autumn, be gathering together to the
feast of rowan and other berries. The reduction in their numbers, due to the
Winter, must be about 70 or 80 per cent., but again, let it be noted, that
reduction did not occur here.
§ This may have been correlated with the Food Controller's orders about
the waste of scraps and the scattering of breadcrumbs to birds, but its cause
is as probably to be looked for in the reawakening of insect and snail life
which the sun's rays had brought about in sheltered localities. Slugs and
Snails were observed to be particularly active at the end of February, and as
the snow cleared away it discovered in-numberable tracks where worms and
other lowly creatures had been at work beneath its protective covering.
(To be continued)

83
NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF NORTHUMBERLAND,
DURHAM, AND NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE
REPORT OF THE FIRST THREE FIELD MEETINGS IN 1917
Carrying out the policy imposed by war-conditions, we have limited the
Field Meeting's to half days and to places near towns.
Chopwell Woods, May 19fh.—These woods of about 900 acres are
Crown property, and have had a checkered career. In the days of wooden
ships oak was grown here, and was used to build “the wooden walls of Old
England." When iron took the place of timber in the construction of ships,
Chopwell Woods were ill-used and neglected for years, and fell into a bad
state. Since the revival of interest in forestry as a national necessity, the
Armstrong College has been entrusted with their care, to be used as a
demonstration area and for the training of students. A working system has
been arranged and the whole area divided into sections, so that a portion is
to be dealt with and replanted yearly. Hence there will be, when the timber
arrives at maturity, a regular supply for the local market year by year. Each
section is being planted with young trees, either pure of one species, or with
a mixture of two or more species. The choice is based on the soil, moisture,
and exposure of each plot. Various exotic species of trees are being tested as
to their adaptability for local climatic and other conditions. In a sheltered
clearing in the wood are situated the forest nursery, residences for the chief
officials, class rooms, museum and laboratory for the students. In the
museum are specimens of timber, pieces of trees showing the ravages of
insects and fungi. etc., as well as cones and other seeds. The whole has been
and is under the skilful control of Mr. J. F. Annand, M.Sc. As soon as he
began operations a few years ago he had all the rabbits exterminated. They
are fatal to forestry. He cut out the worthless trees and let light in. At once
the effect was seen in the springing up of self-sown young trees, chiefly
sycamore and ash. That is, “natural regeneration" was established; much
cheaper than having to raise in the nursery or buy and plant out young trees.
Among the conifers in the nursery are the Scotch and Corsican pine,
Douglas fir, spruce, larch, of both European and Japanese species, and
thuja. Deciduous

84
seedling's include elm, chestnut, willows of various species, and beech.
On a former visit twelve months ago, we had seen a plot of young spruce
attacked by the Chermes abietis, which produces a gall like a small
pineapple, or pseudo cone, that arrests the growth of the young twig's.
These young trees had been so vigorous, that they had been able to throw
off the evil effects of this attack, and looked little the worse. In contrast to
this, elsewhere, serious damage had been caused by this Chermes.
The establishment is provided with a modern apparatus for the
distillation of wood, yielding charcoal, tar, acetic acid and potash. This is an
economic disposal of wood of almost any kind and size, including branches
that are otherwise un-saleable. These products have a good market.
Unfortunately the war has caused here, as elsewhere, a lack of labour and a
lack of students, so all forestry operations are at a standstill—distillation,
nursery work, planting-out, etc. The only activity in the woodlands of Great
Britain at present is the rapid felling of timber for the needs of the War
Office and of collieries.
The effect of the late cold spring was observed in the small number of
plants in bloom. These included lesser celandine, wood anemone, lady's
smock, vernal whitlow grass, shepherd's purse, dog violet, wood violet,
mountain violet, greater stitchwort, wood sorrel, gorse, bitter vetch, golden
saxifrage, bilberry, the red and the white deadnettle, dog's mercury, the
field, the hairy, and the great woodrush, and primrose.
Few birds were observed. The absence of thrushes was attributed to the
large number that perished in the severe winter just past. Those seen
included: willow warbler, great tit, blue cap, chaffinch, jay, jackdaw,
greenfinch.
The only insects noted were red wood ants.
It will be interesting for local naturalists to observe what changes in
flora and fauna take place in Chopwell, as year by year the woods are
reduced from rank disorder to well regulated and trim silvicultural
conditions affecting large areas closely covered with flourishing young trees
of new species.
Plessy Woods, June 9th. —This typical Northumbrian Dene, through
which runs the river Blyth, looked its best in the bright summer sunshine.
The foliage was very fine; it had developed late, and was in perfect
condition. The floor of the woods was gay with the flowers usually found in
such a place. Here, and by the waysides were in flower hawthorn, beaked
parsley, broom, bedstraw, stitchwort, rose campion, etc. At Hartford Bridge,
pink hawthorn, lilac, and the Chili pine were seen. In a clearing in the wood
an uncommonly fine display of

85
wild hyacinths, some acres in extent, was quite brilliant. In some parts
wild garlic was in possession of the woods with its strong and unpleasant
odour.
The number of persons visiting these woods may account for the few
birds seen. Those noted were: corncrake, common wren, wood wren, willow
wren and nest, pied wagtail and young, grey wagtail, dipper, chaffinch,
swallow, martin, yellow hammer.
The only butterflies reported were whites. The entomologists captured
several species of ground beetles, spiders, gall-mites, gall-midges,
centipedes, millipedes, some of them quite rare, which will be fully
recorded and described by the experts elsewhere.
Waldridge Fell, June 23rd This piece of original unreclaimed moorland,
about a mile across, has great variety or surface. In its area are streams,
pools, bog's and marshes that are rich in botanical specimens; besides
which, there are those which are peculiar to the higher and drier parts of the
ground. There are also insects to be found that live only on such vegetation.
On the steep sides of the denes are woodlands, some of spontaneous natural
growth, others planted by the hand of man. The natural species include:—
alder, birch, sallows, junipers, hawthorn, rowan, crab.
In some of the bog's the smooth water horsetail grows profusely, and
among it are patches of the white tassels of the broad leaved cottongrass.
Several species of carex were abundant, including paniculata, slelluluta,
pulicaris, panicea, leporina, and remota. Portions of bog were dominated
by Carex goodenowii others by Scirpus palustris. In our brief exploration
we observed Juncus squarrosus, articulatus, and effusus. Other bog plants
were the butterwort, which was abundant, marsh arrow grass, purple orchis,
marsh thistle, marsh lousewort, marsh ragwort, marsh pennywort, valerian,
marsh valerian, bog stitchwort, hemp agrimony. Elsewhere there were in
flower : guelder rose, wild rasp, figwort, foxglove, bladder campion; and
the spear thistle was identified. We were just too late for the bloom of the
bog-bean and the cuckoo flower, but we saw the earliest of the wild rose.
On some of the drier parts of the moor bracken dominated everything,
and little or nothing could grow beneath it. In other places were seen
patches of furze, of common heather, of bilberry and of crowberry, and odd
plants of the fine-leaved and the cross-leaved heath. The interesting
problems of such areas are the observation and consideration of plant
associations, as regulated by the varying conditions of subsoil,

86
moisture, exposure, etc. This aspect of Waldridge Fell has been treated
amply by Mr. Harold Jeffreys, D.Sc., in the ''Journal of Ecology" for
January 1917. Among the grasses that have possession of different parts of
the ground are the waved hair grass, crested dog’s-tail, mat-grass, brown
bent-grass. On fired and other bare spots sheep's sorrel early finds a rooting:
place.
Among the insects captured were the small heath (Coenonymphia
pamphilus), silver ground carpet ( Melanippe montannia). The cocoon of
the drinker moth (Odonestis potatoria) was also found ; this moth, once so
widespread with us, is now confined to boggy ground (not necessarily
heathland) and to coast sandhills.
The following flower midge-galls were observed : Contarinia anfhobia
in hawthorn flowers; C. viburni and C lonicerarum in guelder rose flowers.
There were also seen caterpillars of two kinds of moths on cotton grass.
Among birds observed were the swift, starling, blackbird, thrush, missel
thrush, green plover, meadow pipit, willow warbler, snipe.
Seyeral members expressed a desire for further explorations of this
interesting bit of moorland so near to town. The species here named are
only a few of the many to be found on the fell.
THE GENERA ORCHIS & GYMNADENIA IN DURHAM
J. W. HESLOP HARRISON, D.SC.
Perhaps the above title is somewhat pretentious for these few notes,
which have resulted chiefly from work done in the necessarily '”intensive
culture" of limited areas studied from an ecological standpoint ;
nevertheless it will suffice.
Orchis ustulata L A single plant found in Urpeth Bottoms in 1903—a
new locality.
Orchis morio L. Not very frequent but in most of the older pastures near
Birtley. Practically no variation exists in our area.
Orchis latifolia L.. Not uncommon in damp meadows at Birtley. I
should say that all of the known habitats in the Team Valley are due to the
acute eye of my friend Mr. C.

87
Robson, save one discovered by me. The form is common also in damp
grassy hollows on the coast. In our area the colour of the flowers shows but
little variation, and is nearly always dark purple.
Orchis hybrid. Braunii Halacsy = Orchis latifolia x Orchis maculata.
Odd specimens on the coast, wherever the parents grow side by side.
Orchis incarnata L. Whether through neglect or because I have actually
failed to meet this species, it has eluded my eyes until the present year,
when I discovered it in some abundance in a delightful spot (from a
botanist's standpoint) near Billingham. There it flourishes in all its various
forms. Unless, as is possible, Baker and Tate include this in their Orchis
latifolia, or have inverted the names of the present and the previous species,
it is not on record for Durham. However, these suppositions are not likely
as, even in Watson's " Topographical Botany," no reference is made to vicecounty
66 in connection with this species.
Orchis hybrid, ambigua Kerner = Orchis incarnata x Orchis maculata.
Very sparingly at Billingham.
Orchis praetermissa Druce. Forms referable to this (and almost
certainly northern forms of it), but needing considerable study to elucidate
their various relationships when once more one may botanise freely on the
coast, are to be found there freely enough.
Orchis maculata L. Abundant practically everywhere in Durham and
very variable, both in form and in the colour of the flowers. I have seen the
latter of all colours, passing from a deep rich purple through all shades of
rose and lilac to white —in all cases richly and more or less regularly lined
and streaked with dark purple. Extreme white forms devoid of the faintest
traces of these darker mottlings, occur in some numbers at Billingham, and
this colouration is accompanied by immaculate leaves.
Very peculiar flesh coloured forms are to be met with there also, but I
strongly suspect these to be caused by some fungoid disease, as plants
developing such flowers never fruit but turn yellow and collapse, presenting
an analogous appearance to that of sweet peas succumbing to '' streak."
Most likely an allied fungus is at work here.
Orchis maculata var. sudetica Poch. Collected near Billingham. This
plant, characterised by a shortish stem provided with a few short more or
less bent and twisted leaves, accompanies the type.

88
Orchis ericetorum Linton. A microgene of 0. maculafa, generally
distributed but growing in drier situations than the typical form.
Orchis hybrid. Heitizliana Reich. == Orchis maculata x Gymnadenia
conopsea. I deliberately looked for this when I found that 0. maculata and
G. conopsea grew together at Billingham, and had no difficulty in finding it.
From this I deem it likely that the hybrid will occur elsewhere where the
two parents grow together.
Orchis hybrid, mixta rnihi = (Orchis maculata x Gymnadenia conopsea)
x Orchis maculata. An interesting form which can only have the parentage
assigned to it above was gathered with Orchis Heitizliana.
As with practically all species hybrids, owing to the numbers of
opposing genes, and to the fact that dominancy of any one factor derived
from one parent does not imply dominancy of all the factors from that
parent, a fictitious semblance of blending inheritance is displayed here as
with the other Orchis hybrids enumerated above. In the present case most of
the leanings were toward Orchis maculata in colour, etc., but the form of
the flowers, the scent thereof, and the splashes of colour give no uncertain
indications of the other parent.
Orchis mascula L. Common enough, chiefly in old pastures; likewise
plentiful on grassy sea banks. I have often enough collected it with pure
white flowers. Growing alongside these at Norton my little girl found some
lovely salmon coloured forms.
On the slopes between the Blackhall Rocks and Horden crowds of very
puzzling plants, which seem to represent hybrids of varying degrees of
complexity between this form and Orchis latifolia, 0. Rraetervlissa and 0.
maculata, exist.
Forms of trivial importance like varieties obtusiflora Koch and
acutiflora Koch, are pretty general.
Orchis pyramidalis L. On the seabanks north of Deneholme not
uncommon. White flowered examples are to be enountered.
Gymnadenia(Orchis ) conopsea R. Br. I have only collected this species
(in Durham) on the limestone, but wherever that formation occurs the plant
is very plentiful and fairly variable. The colour of the flower ranges from a
pale pinkish to a dark reddish purple.
One flower spike collected at Billingham bore a four-cleft bract, the
upper segment of which had in its axil a perfectly normal flower. The other
three segments, not so deeply divided, carried two abnormal flowers. The
middle one had every part

89
except the two wing sepals perfectly and regularly duplicated, and,
unlike what obtains usually in such monstrosities, the spurs were quite
separate. The lower flower, except that it lacked the upper sepal, was of the
ordinary form.
Gymnadenia conopsea var. densiflora Dietrich. A very tall robust form
with very broad leaves and thick flowering spike. Its flowers are a little
darker than the type. I obtained this at Billingham in considerable quantities
in one particular spot, but careful examination failed to reveal any
connection between its environment and its peculiarities.
Gymnadenia conopsea var. nova spiralis. The present is a very distinct
form, and had Orchis pyramidalis been near I should have suspected
hybridity with that species. The following is a description :—Spike
pyramidal, fairly dense. Flowers fragile looking, lilac in colour. Upper sepal
revolute ; lateral, or wing sepals, spirally twisted. Lip narrow, more
definitely cleft than the type, bent backward instead of forward. Leaves
narrow and lanceolate, edges not subparallel. Gathered at Billingham.
Gymnadenia conopsea var. nova bicolor, I am provisionally
considering this plant to be a form of G. conopsea, but as a matter of fact I
think it is a variety of Gymnadenia odoratissima (up to the present only
recorded from Britain by myself). The flowers are purplish except for the
lip, which is pure white— hence the name bicolor. Except that the leaves
are narrower, and somewhat contradictorily, the bracts less lanceolate than
the type, its further peculiarities can be gleaned from the following tabular
comparison of the type, var. spiralis and var. (?) bicolor.

90
SWALLOWS AT THE FRONT IN FRANCE.
REV. CYRIL LOMAX
The destruction of trees and houses, whether by shell fire or deliberately
before retirement, has put many of the birds in a very awkward
predicament.
If they build in the ruins, the rats climb the broken walls up to the nests.
In consequence, in villages where every house and tree is destroyed and
only the wayside crucifix left standing, you find as many nests as possible
packed in between the figure of the Christ and the Cross.
But if the Swallows try to build there, the sparrows steal their nests, so
the former are forced to change their habits.
It is no use trusting sparrows or rats, so they trust men, and become
wonderfully tame.
Numberless dugouts with an entrance just about five or six feet high
have nests plastered to the beams overhead. The Swallows fly in and out
quite fearlessly.
Any man could put his hand into the nest, but I have never come across
a single instance of the abuse of the Swallows' trust; in fact, in one case a
big marquee was left standing in order that a Swallow whose nest was on
the pole inside might finish rearing her brood.
Obituary
C. O. TRECHMANN, Ph.D., J.P.
We regret to note the death of Dr. C. O. Trechmann of Castle Eden, on
June 29th, at the age of 66. He was widely known as both a mineralogist
and crystallographer, in which studies he made a collection of considerable
scientific value, and many of the best examples have been bequeathed to the
British Museum. A mineral, Trechmannite, was named in his honour.

91
Despite the calls of business and his close crystallographical research,
upon which he published many papers, Dr. Trechmann in recent years
turned to the study of insects as a recreation and, pursuing it with his
customary thoroughness, he formed a valuable collection of exotic
butterflies, and also paid considerable attention both to foreign and British
Diptera.
His collection of local Diptera is of particular interest to us, and we
understand that it will be donated to the Hancock Museum, and so, with the
Wingate collection, be available to the growing number of students of this
order.
Our sympathies go out to his family in their irreparable loss.
NOTES AND RECORDS.
INSECTA.
DIPTERA.—TWO-WINGED FLIES.
MYCETOPHLIDAE—Fungus Midges All from 66
* Allodia caudata Winn. Fatfield, July 1916.
* Platyura flava Mcq. Gibside, July 1916, 1 male.
* Delopsis sp. Gibside, July 1916, I male.
Mr. Edwards of the British Museum kindly named the above three
additions to Wingate’s list, and in respect to the last-named, Mr. Edwards
says, " Seems to be a new species, though it is probably the same as that
recorded by Jenkinson as Epicyptra scatophora. It is the first British male
Delopsis I have seen."
The Fungus Midges deserve local attention; a very able account of the
British species was published by Edwards in the transactions of the
Entomological Society for 1913.—R.S.B.
BIBIONIDAE
Scatopse brevicornis Mq. 66
Wingate. 375? records I from Hesleden. Penshaw.—R.S.B.
CHIRONOMIDAE:Midges. All from 66
The following have been kindly named for me (excepting the Clunio) by Mr.
Edwards :—
Clunio marinus Hal. 66, 67, 68
Wingate, 532, records the males from rock pools at Beadnell, Roker,
Cresswell and Bamburgh (R.S.B.) Entomologists who are favourably
situated should collect these marine midges. Clunio is recognised by the
vestigial form of its mouthparts, and a second species C. bicolor Kieffer,
was brought forward as British by Dr. A. D. Imms in 1903
In the Annales de la Societe Entomologique de Belgique for 1913 No. xii
(Jan. 1914), MM. Bequaert and Goetghebuer describe a new Marine
Midge, Camptocladius thalassophilus, from the Belgian coast. Other
species of similar habits have been described from the coasts of
Normandy and Norway, and from the Mediterranean.

92
* Chironomus nubilus Mg. Fatfield and Penshaw.
* C. dorsalis Mq. (Wingate 412). Gibside, Penshaw, Fatfield.
*C. dispar Mg. (Wingate 421). Gibside.
C. pedellus Deg. Bishop Auckland, Wingate 422. Fatfield.
Tanytarsus flavipes Mg. Wingate 495) records this from Gibside
and Harperley. Penshaw.
* T. viridulus L. (of Verrall coll.) ? Wingate 428. Fatfield.
* T.(?) pusio Mg (Wingate 491). 66,67
* T. (?) flavellus Zett. 66, 67
Taken in a train between Newcastle and Penshaw.
Tanypus nebulosus Mg. Recorded by Wingate 508 from Bishop Auckland.
Penshaw.
* Culicoides varius Winn. (Wingate 554).
* C. pulicaris L. (Wingate 558). Both from Penshaw, Gibside and Fatfield.
* C. (?) obsoletus Mg. Penshaw.
* Serromyia femorata Mg. (Wingate 583). Fatfield.
* Palpomyia distincta Hal. (Wingate 574).
* P.flavipes Mg. (Wingate 571). Both from Gibside.
Camptocladius stercorarius Deg. Wingate 486, very common. Gibside, Fatfield.
* C. minimus Mg. (Wingate 487). Fatfield.
* Orthocladius nitidicollis Wlk. Fatfield.
Cricotopus bicinctus Mg, Wingate 464.
C. annulipes Mg. Wingate 465. Very common (Wingate). Fat
field.
R.S.B.
* * * * *
CULICIDAE-·Gnats or Mosquitoes.
* Taeniorhynchus richiardii Fic. 66
Gibside, July 1916. A species not previously known from so far North.—R.S.B.
* * * * *
TIPULIDAE~.Daddy Long Legs or Crane Flies.
* Adelphomyia similis Mg. 66
Gibside.—R.S.B.
* * * * *
EMPIDAE.
* Hybos culiciformis F. 66
Gibside. Several, July 1916.—R.S.B.
* * * * *
CECIDOMYIDAE.-Gall-Midges.
Although we only record a few species here it must be recognized that
this is a large group, our local list now numbering well over 250 species.
Commonly called Gall-midges, many species are not gall causers at all,
but of very diverse habits. Some are found in the larval form under bark of
trees, in sap, fungi, etc.,

93
others are inquilines or commensals in the galls of gall-wasps, gallflies,
gall-midges and gall-mites; several are found in the leaf-sheaths of
grasses, rushes and sedges, some being aquatic; others are predatory upon
mites or aphids, whilst a few (very few so far as are known) are internal
feeders in insects, including an Aphid and a Psyllid; not a few feed on
micro-fungi, and some are to be found in the spikelets of grasses, cones of
coniferous trees, etc. Several species (Oligarces paradoxus Mein., Miastor
americanus, etc.) have been proved to be paedogenetic.
Perrisia holostea Kieff. 66, 67
In seedcases of stitchwort, Stocksfield (H. S. Wallace). This is the
first record from Stellaria holostea, our original specimen occurring on S.
graminea, and I have taken it in three or four localities in the district
(Gibside, Winlaton Mill, etc.) since Mr. Wallace's original discovery.
Perrisia silvicola Kieff. 66
Also originally recorded on S. graminea. The European examples
occurring on S. holostea. Gibside on S. holostea.—R.S.B.
* Perrisia axillaris Kieff., P.populeti Rubs., P. trailii Kieff., P. praticola Kieff.
and Contarinia anthobia F. Loew (as well as certain parenchymous species) which
we brought forward as British last year on the strength of old, tenantless galls, have
now been satisfactorily confirmed.—R.S.B. and J.W.H.H.
Oligotrophus lemei Kieff. 67, 68
Stocksfield and Ovingham (H. S. Wallace). North bank of the river at Warkworth
(R.S.B.) First records for these Vice counties.
Oligotrophus annulipes Hartig. 68
Mikiola fagi Hartig. 68
Both species taken by my young friend Terence Oliver on beech leaves, near
Warkworth.—R.S.B.
STRATIOMYIDAE
* Stratiomys potamida Meig. (Wingate 869). 66
A fine fly new to our counties which I found at rest at Billingham
whilst studying the various marsh orchids.—J.W.H.H.
HYMENOPTERA.—ANTS, BEES, WASPS, ETC.
Bombus latreillellus var. distinguendus. Mor. 66, 67
After an apparent absence of several years this fine northern bee has
reappeared in its old localities. I have taken it at Nine banks and
Billingham, and my friend Mr. C. Robson has renewed his acquaintance
with it at Birtley.—J.W.H.H.
LEPIDOPTERA.—BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS.
Vanessa antiopa L. The Camberwell Beauty. 62 or 66
A somewhat worn specimen was taken at sea just off the Tees mouth, and
brought to me alive on Aug. 15th.

94
Strenia clathrata L. The Latticed Heath. 66
I saw a considerable number of these insects on the railway embankment near
Norton.—HUGH SPOTTISWOODE.
Selenia tetralunaria. The Purple Thorn. 67
I had the pleasure of adding this fine moth to the Durham list a year or two ago,
on the strength of a single larva beaten from birch near Birtley. I now record a single
larva beaten from alder at Ninebanks, on Aug. 13th, thereby providing the first
Northumberland record.
Selenia bilunaria. The Early Thorn. 67
Several larvae beaten by my cousin. Miss W. D. M. Hull, and myself from ash,
hazel and alder at Ninebanks. Also several found by my cousin, Miss M. M. Hull, on
apple in the garden of Ninebanks Vicarage.
Selenia lunaria. The Lunar Thorn. 67
Beaten by Miss M. M. Hull from birch in 1916 and insects bred this year. These
latter two insects are remarkable as being about the palest forms I have ever seen,
thereby contrasting greatly with the darker Yorkshire and mahogany coloured Tyrone
forms I have been breeding.
Coremia munitata Hb. 66
Rare enough in our counties to warrant a record of its occurrence at Billingham.
More of an upland insect than this record would suggest.
Thecla quercus. Purple Hairstreak. 66
Seen both in 1916 and 1917 flying round oaks in the Birtley and Ravensworth
neighbourhoods.—J.W.H.H.
MOLLUSCA.
GASTEROPODA.—SLUGS, SNAILS, ETC.
Arion ater L.
In the West end of Whittonstall Wood, near Stocksfield, on 20th May, 1917,
Mr. J. S. T. Walton and I found two large and fully grown perfectly white
individuals. They were entirely pure white, not merely “ whitish “ as this species
has frequently been recorded, tentacles and all being absolutely without colour:?
Albinos. Yellowish specimens are not infrequent about Alston.
Helix arbustorum L. 67
This is the most abundant snail in the Alston district, quite taking the place
of H. nemoralis, which is rare. It varies a good deal in size and colouration here
as elsewhere, the dark central bands on the large whorls of the shell being
sometimes absent, and some of the shells being much darker than the type. On
23 rd June, 1917, I found quite a number of specimens at Ashgill Bridge, on the
Alston-Middleton road, with bright golden yellow shells. Some of them were
entirely unicolorous, without trace of any branding; others showed the median
band more or less clearly, with sometimes some indication of a brownish freckle;
in some the yellow was less or more clouded with a whitish dappling.

95
The outer lip in all cases remained white, or practically so, though in some of the
yellowest examples a good deal tinged with that hue. Many of the snails were alive
and crawling about the road, damp after a recent shower; but a considerable number
of empty shells were also fished up from beneath stones. In some of the latter the
yellow appeared to be fading to whitish, but a living example brought home still
(18th August) retains its golden hue untarnished.—G.B.
FLOWERING PLANTS.
Senecio jacobaea L. Common Ragwort. 66
My mother found a fine plant of this common species on Birtley Black
Fell, which was remarkable owing to the fact that it bore dense masses of very
pale lemon yellow flowers with rays distinctly longer than the normal.
Angelica sylvestris L. Angelica. 66
I discovered a plant referable to this species on the railway embankment
at Birtley, with deeply incised or tripinnate leaves.
Galeopsis ochroleuca Lam. Hempnettle 66
Two or three examples growing on the edge of a cornfield at Birtley.
Epipactis palustris Sw. Marsh Helleborine. 66
Very abundant indeed at Billingham and almost escaping notice because,
like the specimens observed in Newham Bog two years ago, most of the plants
aborted their flowers.
Epipactis latifolia Sw. Common Helleborine. 66
To round off Mr. Robson's note on this species (Vasculum. Vol. II, page
31) it may be recorded as being in every old wood in the Birtley vicinity; in
some, as at Vigo, it is extremely abundant and luxuriant this year.
Thalictrum flavum var. rufinerve (Lej. and Court.) 66
Growing with the type at Billingham. Different patches show varying
percentages of type and variety.
Saponaria officinalis L. Soapwort. 66
Throughout the Wear district; on the Rowletch at Birtley; in the woods and
on the Tees banks at Middleton-one-Row.
Symphytum tuberosum L. 66
On Billingham Beck. An occurrence which confirms old and rejected
reports.
Stachys officinalis Frevis (Betony). 66
In case my friend Bagnall omits to put this on record as not being in his
line, I have to note that I received from him a fine peloric form of this plant, in
which the terminal floret instead of being of the normal labiate form, was
perfectly regular and campanulate. It was taken in Gibside Woods and
resembled very closely similar forms of the common Toadflax which I got at
Birtley last year.
Origanum vulgare L. 66
Sparingly near Middleton-one-Row.

96
Carex Goodenowii var. melaena Wimm. 66
Plentiful near Norton.—J.W.H.H.
Linum perenne L. Perennial Flax. 66
A nice tuft growing on Penshaw Hill.—R.S.B.
FUNGI.
Puccinia trailii Plowr. 66
Plentiful in the aecidia stage on the leaves of Rumex acetosa, which
grows amongst the Common Reed (Phragmitis communis). Upon the latter
plant the uredospores and teleutospores occur.
Uromyces junci 66
Aecidia on the Fleabane (Pulicaria dysenterica). Uredospores and
teleutospores on various species of Juncus. Both at Billingham—J.W.H.H.
The first three species of the following Epiphytic fungi are apparently
new to our local fauna. Our friend Harrison kindly named most of them.
* Triphagmium ulmariae Link. 67, 68
On Meadow Sweet near Stocksfield (H. S. Wallace); on the North bank
of the river near Warkworth.—R.S.B.
* Puccinia major Diet. On Crepis paludosa. 66
Waldridge Fell, not uncommon, galling the host-plant.—R.S.B.
* Urocystis sorosporioides Korn. 68
Galling Thalictrum dunense, coast near Warkworth.—R.S.B.
Entyloma chrysospleni B. and Br. 67
Galling Golden Saxifrage (C. oppositifolium)y near Staward.—R.S.B.
Ustilago violacea Fuckel. On Ragged Robin. 66, 67
Gibside and Ovingham.—R.S.B.
Puccinia betonica D.C. On Betony. 66, 67
Waldridge, Gibside and Ovingham.—R.S.B.
Puccinia caricis Reb. Aecidia on Nettles. 66, 67, 68
Gibside R.S.B., Ovingham and Bamburgh.—H. S. WALLACE.

THE VASCULUM
Vol III. No. 4 DECEMBER 1917
OUR LOCAL SEAWEEDS.
W. H. YOUNG, F.L.S.
The interest which may be aroused in the subject of this little paper
depends very largely on the point of view of the observer. The angler for
codling or whiting who operates from the edge of the rocks, votes them at
once his greatest nuisance in respect of entangling his line and harbouring
the little crabs which steal his bait. The bather knows they are a positive
source of danger when they occur in dense masses which might entangle his
limbs when diving. The fashionable seaside visitor who may try to scramble
over rocks to some special point of vantage, considers them, one and all, as
nasty slippery thing's, which do their best (or worst) to bring about a broken
ankle or a sprained wrist. Except an occasional farmer who strews them on
his potato land to rot, much to the disgust of the olfactory sensibilities of his
neighbours; and some people in a very few outlandish places in Scotland or
Wales, who either eat them raw—certain kinds, that is—or boil them down
into a jelly, hardly anybody has a good word to say for them. Nevertheless,
as providing a source of food and shelter to countless small marine animals
(which in their turn form the food of the larger Crustacea and fishes), and
producing oxygen in the same way as land plants do, they possess a distinct
scientific interest of their own.
It is many years now since Professor G. S. Brady, F.R.S., published his
detailed list of the local marine algae and, with the exception of a general
catalogue of the marine algae of Great Britain, issued by Messrs. Batters &
Holmes in 1892, in which the East coast of England is included, no special
attention has been devoted to our local species. The writer contributed a
short list, extending over only one year's collection, to the “ Report of the
Northumberland Sea Fisheries' Committee” as far back as 1903, and except
for a few additions to this list' by students of Armstrong College, who have
done special work in successive Easter vacations at the Dove Marine
Laboratory, Cullercoats, no fuller catalogue has yet appeared. Any new

98
contributions to this list will be welcomed by Professor Meek, the
Director of the Laboratory, to whom the writer's thanks are especially due
for permission to quote from various articles which have appeared in these
Reports, and for the use of the block illustrating the present paper.
It is possible to divide the marine algae of our coasts into three main
divisions, according to their colour, and these divisions also roughly
correspond to their distribution in depth of water. The green weeds
(Chlorophyceae) are found mainly near high-water mark. Their green
colouring matter produces oxygen by the same process as in all other green
plants, although in many cases oil rather than starch accompanies the
chemical changes involved. The commonest forms met with are the Green
Laver, also called sea-lettuce, or sloke (Ulva latissima), Sea Grass
(Enteromorpha intestinalis and E. cornpressa), often swollen by gas, and
hence the name of the first species; Cladophora, Rhizoclonium and
Ulothrix.
The olive-brown weeds (Phaeophyceae) occur not only be between
tidemarks, but also, in the forms of the brown tangles (Laminaria) down to
low-water mark and even beyond, where they form an effective shelter for
the delicate red weeds They do not comprise as many species as the red
weeds, but far exceed them in quantity, as any seaside visitor can see after a
heavy storm at sea, when the beach may be covered with tons of the brown
wrack and tangle. At high tide mark, where they are exposed to light and air
for long periods, they show a tendency to turn green. This can be easily
proved by dipping them into boiling water, when the brown colour at once
passes into the water and leaves them of a bright green tint, so that they are
clearly to be reckoned as green plants like any grass, and carry on to a large
extent the same functions of decomposing the deleterious carbon dioxide
given out by the animals, restoring in its place the life-supporting oxygen.
Amongst the common forms are the Pod-weed (Halidrys silequosa); the
various species of wrack (Fucus nodosus, F. vesiculosus, F. serratus); the
Sea-thong (Himanithalia), at first a round button, later developing into a
long whip-like thong two or three feet in length, and apparently much more
plentiful on the Northumberland coast than the Durham; Badderlocks
(Ascophyllum); the very common Ectocarpus littoralis, forming dirty
yellow hair like tufts in rock pools, and the Tangles (Laminaria) which
mainly grow at deep low-water mark. . Upon Fucus there often grow the
little brush-like tufts of Elachista, an epiphyte. About 18 to 20 genera are
usually to be found of brown weeds, but they are not rich in species.

99
Chantransia sanctae-mariae, Darbish.

100
The Red Weeds (Floridea) include by far the greatest number of genera
and species (excluding purely microscopic organisms to be referred to later)
The red colour itself is again only a mask for the essential green, because it
can be dissolved out by fresh or boiling water exactly as in the case of the
brown colour, and the green is revealed below it. The precise influence
which this red colour exerts on the blue and green rays of light (the only
ones that can filter through the water to the depths of from 15 to 20 fathoms,
where many of the red weeds grow), is one of the many interesting
scientific problems still awaiting complete solution. Those likely to arrest
the attention of the ordinary observer are the Braided Hair (Plo camium
coccineum), the favourite object of those collectors who like to have
something pretty and easy to press. Its delicate comb-like fronds show such
variety of colour under different conditions of vitality, that I have had
several mounted specimens of this plant shown to me at one time for
identification, the collector being under the firm impression that they were
quite different species of seaweed. In common with other red weeds it often
grows epiphytically on the stems and fronds of the Laminaria or Fucus.
Another very common sort is the Dulse (Rhodymenia palmata\ About 25
years ago it was collected in quantities in the North of Northumberland,
dried in the sun, and sent to market in some parts of England as an edible.
Delesseria sanguinea (to keep the older name) is the most coveted by
collectors because of its resemblance to a land plant, with red leaves and
veins, and its variation in form. As it grows at the lowest springtide level it
is rarely collected in an uninjured condition, although it is frequently cast up
on the beach during storms. Carrageen Moss (Chondrus crispus) is of fairly
common occurrence, while in the rock pools Ceramium rubrum with its
beautifully branched and jointed hair-like fronds, Ptilota plumosa·, often
found on the Laminaria stems, and Corallina officinalis, with its covering of
lime, are fairly certain of discovery. One form which appears to be
peculiarly northern in its habitat is Odonthalia dentata, the colour of which
varies from almost black to a dingy red. It is not uncommon in Cullercoats
Bay and north of it, but rare on the Durham coast. The purple laver
(Porphyra laciniata) covers the stones with a slippery coating like Ulva;
and some which are large enough to be seen in the pools, but require the aid
of a microscope to reveal their full beauty of form and colour are
Polysiphonia fasfigiata (common on stems of Fucus nodosus)
Callithamnion griffithsii and Melobesia, which last covers the rocks with a
red stony incrustation, as it has a large admixture of lime in its construction,
like Corallina, and many others too numerous to specify, about 30 genera in
all.

101
Amongst these larger types there are none which have been added to the
local lists of late years. In fact the sediment carried out to sea by the
numerous industrial rivers of our comparatively short coast line tends to
reduce rather than to multiply species. Amongst the microscopic green
forms not dealt with in this article, some additional species are occasionally
discovered. The last to obtain specific mention was a filamentous green alga
first noted by Dr. 0. V. Darbishire, at St. Mary's Island in 1910. It was found
growing as an endophyte on the Thongweed (Himanthalia), and the
illustration shows how its filaments ramify in the tissue of its host-plant,
with some projecting beyond the surface like hairs. Its spore formation
occurs as in most marine algae, but details are omitted here for lack of
space. It has been named Chantransia sanctae-mariae by its discoverer.
It has been stated that the masses of larger seaweeds afford food and
shelter to a great population of small sea-creatures— crustaceans and fish.
In addition the fronds and stems of the deeper growing weeds are often
encrusted with Membranipora (like a delicate lacework pattern), Sertularia,
etc., which make them thus their fixed home. Moreover, what the fishermen
call “whiteweed” ,, is often mounted by the inexperienced collector from its
successful simulation of a plant-like form. It is one of the species of Flustra,
and is an animal colony, each little pore on the surface being the home of a
small hydroid polyp.
As regards the food supply of small animals, and the embryonic stages
of larger ones, notice must be taken of the vast and incalculable bulk of the
floating or pelagic microscopic vegetation of the sea. This is composed of
the Diatumaceae— plant cells with brown contents and a double flinty cell
wall with curious jerky modes of progression, the reason of which is still a
mystery; and the Peridineae which have been a bone of contention between
the botanists and the zoologists for years, but are now definitely recognised
as plants. Much has been added to our knowledge of them during recent
years, as their importance has been more fully recognized. They have a limy
cell wall, sometimes sending out very long projections, as in the three-rayed
Ceratium tripos, to which most of the phosphorescence in our northern seas
is due. They possess one long rapidly moving flagellum (sometimes more),
and some are very active creatures indeed. An interesting species—
Amphidinium operculutam—appears at intervals and then vanishes from
sight. It colours the sand a deep yellow, and was first noted in Cullercoats
Bay in 1912, after some inquiries from Port Erin, I.O. M., where it had also
been noted. It did not attract any further

102
attention until September of this year, when again it tinged the sands all
over by its presence, only to disappear at the end of a fortnight. What
becomes of it during these intervals, or what conditions of existence it
requires, are all still to be discovered.
Some interesting investigations on the chemical constitution and
agricultural value of seaweed, were made in 1912 at the Dove Marine
Laboratory, Cullercoats, by Mr. (now Captain) H. W. R. Haselhurst, B.Sc.
He examined the brown weeds. Laminaria digitata and Fucus serratus in
particular. They were shown to contain from 5 to 7 per cent. of potash, one
of those many chemical bases that the shortage due to the present War has
shown us to be very inadequately supplied with from our own resources.
Mr. Haselhurst states that it contains about the same amount of nitrogen,
much less phosphate, and more potash than well-rotted farmyard manure.
The nitrogen is not available until decay is well advanced, but the potash is
operative immediately, as simple washing in rain water leaches out a large
proportion of the potassium salts at once. Professor Hendrick, of Aberdeen
University, says that “Weight for weight seaweed gives just as great a crop
of potatoes as farm yard manure, but to get the best results it should be
supplemented with phosphate." The former burning of kelp to extract the
iodine is well-known, and it is whispered that seaweed extract forms the
basis of some anti-fat preparations, on which last subject I cannot pretend to
judge from experience.
EYELESS MIGRANTS.
A LIFE EPISODE OF SOME GAMASIDS.
J. E. HULL.
An ancient story tells how a hapless traveller, impotent in the leg's, rode
pick-a-back on a stalwart comrade in misfortune, hale and capable but for
the lack of eyesight, to the satisfaction of both. True or otherwise it points a
moral of kindly combination which is recalled by somewhat similar
expedients found in nature. In the particular case which I have in mind, only
one of the parties enters into the arrangement of his own free will (the
pronoun is rhetorical ; as will be understood presently the individual in
question is of unknown gender). It is, of course, the passenger who selects
his means of conveyance,

103
and the chosen steed gives his services involuntarily, probably also in
most cases unwillingly.
To introduce one of the beasts used for transport, I quote from Rye's
popular book on British Beetles :— "Geotrupes stercorarius, the wellknown
'shard-borne beetle, 'Clock’ or ' Dumbledor ' . . . is common all over
the country; flying strongly, though in a blundering sort of way, towards
evening.* . . . This insect is sometimes called the 'Lousy Watchman' among
the vulgar; the qualifying epithet being deserved from its being frequently
infested on the lower surface by several of a species of Gamasus; though it
is not easy to comprehend how so delicately constructed a parasite can
extract a meal through the stout armour of the beetle in question."
From what I have already said, it will be gathered that these Gamasids
are not parasites but merely passengers, and the difficulty about the meal
does not arise. Nevertheless, as will be seen, the food problem is the chief
reason for the connection between the beetle and the mite. The explanation
requires that we should know something of the habits of both.
I give a drawing of the mite (it is called Gamasus coleoptratorum) as it
appears when found on the beetle. It is not the adult creature, but a nymph
which has still a moult to undergo before reaching maturity. Observe the
characteristic Gamasid body, without any trace of a division of head or
thorax or abdomen ; also the equally characteristic hardened plates or
"shields." In life these two shields are conspicuously yellow brown against
the milk-white ground colour of the nude body skin. The projection in front
is called the rostrum or beak, which bears the palpi, one on either side. It is
a kind of tube, or rather half-tube, closed below by a trifid under-lip, and
enclosing the mouth opening and a pair of mandibles, each ending in a
toothed chela (i.e. a nipper like that of the crab).
As often happens when there is no specially developed head or headthorax,
the creature is without eyes, like all the rest of the Gamasid family.
Now where vision is lacking there must
*So in Gray's picture of twilight tranquillity:—
" Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight;”
and in the familiar song:—
" The clock hath ceased to sound;
The long day closes."
From their thus marking a definite time of day these beetles were called
"clocks," a name naturally and easily transferred to all flying beetles (e.g.
the "bracken clock"), then to similar beetles, and finally to the kitchen
cockroach, which looks like a beetle and is locally known as a "black
clock."

104
be some substitute more or less efficient; or as the popular books say,
nature compensates the animal for the want of eyes by providing something
to take their place. What really happens is just what you may see in the case
of a blind man— other organs have to do their best to supply the
information normally conveyed through the eyes, and by constant practice
sometimes acquire remarkable proficiency. With the Gamasids it is the long
slender foreleg's rather than the insignificantly small palpi which take up the
task by acting as feelers. So constantly are they employed for this purpose,
that it is questionable if they are ever used for walking at all.
Gamasus coleoptratorum, nymph.
I have said enough perhaps for the reader to understand how far the
Gamasid is equipped for an expedition in search of fresh hunting
ground when for any reason such a thing becomes necessary or
desirable. It remains to be added that the species we are now
discussing feeds habitually on the minute creatures which swarm in
manure. It is at home therefore in manure heaps and in the droppings
of horses and cattle. But the most prolific manure heap cannot support
an unlimited population of Gamasids, and as they increase and
multiply some must go under or find new quarters. Beetles, flies, and
earwig's being the happy possessors of eyes and wing's find no
difficulty; but what a problem to set before a tiny creature possessing
neither one nor the other! Instinct, however, provides the simple
solution. When the big dor beetle, who draws his food

105
supplies from the manure itself, makes his appearance, all the nymphs
in his neighbourhood with the adventurous instinct stirring in them, swarm
upon his great hulk and find most convenient parts to cling to in the under
parts between the leg's.
Here then is another instance where instinct so thoroughly simulates
reason that it is really difficult to avoid the impression that these little
creatures must know what they are doing and why they are doing it. It is
probable that the instinct takes the form of an irresistible impulse to attach
themselves to the first bulky living creature they encounter at the proper
period of their life; for they are to be found on all kinds of dung beetles big
enough to accommodate them, as well as upon dung-flies. Once attached, I
think it is highly probable that they do not leave their host at his next calling
place however suitable it may be as a hunting ground, but remain where
they are in fasting condition till inner prompting's, originated by the
approach of the change to adult state, impel them to resume their
independent life: but this is only conjecture, though a guess which agrees
with the facts.
It was suggested to me by the fact that certain Gamasids of a very
different stock, not necessarily haunters of manure, habitually attach
themselves to beetles at a certain period of their immature life; and this they
do in a peculiar and very effective way. Unlike our first acquaintance
coleoptratorum, they prefer the back of their host, and to make them secure
on that giddy eminence, a sticky fluid is exuded from the anus and solidifies
on exposure to the air so as to form a kind of short stalk, so firm and strong
that it takes considerable force to remove the creature. Once secure, they
fold up their legs under their body and become absolutely quiescent. Being
oval or circular in shape and gregarious in their habits, they may be found
quite frequently on beetles — chiefly ordinary ground beetles, Pterostichus
spp. —studded all over the wing-cases like limpets on a rock. How they
detach themselves when at last they awake to face their transformation I do
not yet know.
I ought to add that Gamasus coleoptratorum is not the only manure
frequenting Gamasid that makes use of Geotrupes and other beetles. In
nearly all cases there will be found mingled with that species two others,
one a Gamasus (G. fimeforum) much more slender in all its parts than
coleoptratorum and its nude skin instead of being milky white is dappled
with suffused purplish spots; the other, a Macrocheles, darker in colour than
the other two, and its dorsal armour is all in one piece, not divided into two
shields. This last is to me a mysterious little beast. It apparently breaks the
general rule by going a-travelling

106
in the adult state. I say ''apparently” because it has all the adult organs
and can and does lay eggs; but—though I have seen thousands of such
females, I have never seen a single male, or a nymph. As my observations
are obviously incomplete, I say no more at present.
Sexton beetles are not so much in the public eye as the " Lousy
Watchman” but coleopterists have known long enough that they also carry
Gamasids. One of the passengers is again the nymph of Gamasus
coleoptratorum, which indicates that either the mite or the beetle frequents
both carrion and manure. At first I suspected the beetle, but more systematic
observation soon showed that it was really the Gamasus, which seems to be
as much at home on a dead rabbit as in the most succulent manure heap.
This opened up to me a new field of investigation, but obviously not so
accessible as the manure heap. How ever, as dead beasts and birds came to
me to be searched for parasites, I laid them out as traps, and found that the
carcases are visited by a good many Gamasids of various genera, some of
which I have never been able to obtain in any other way. So far, however,
there are only two species, Gamasus coleoptratorum and G. kraepelinn, of
which I can say definitely that they habitually make use of the species of
Necrophorus (sexton beetles) as a means of transport from one carcase to
another; and here, as before, it is always the nymph that indulges in the
aerial flights.
Dr. Oudemans, the Dutch acarologist, who is specially interested in
parasites, has given a good deal of attention to these beetle carried
Gamasids ; but as he looked no further than the beetles his specimens were
all immature. He records four from the sexton beetles—coleoptratorum,
fucorurn, subterraneus, and vespillonum. The first is, of course, right
enough ; and the last is easily identified as the nymph of kraepellnii. The so
called subteraneus is, according to Dr. Berlese, the same as Gammasoides
herridus Beri., which carries us no further; because, as Berlese is now
aware, the genus Gamasoides is no genus at all, but simply an assemblage
of Gamasus nymphs which have not been identified with the adult form. It
happens that in this particular group of species the male nymphs can be
distinguished from the females through the partial development of certain
secondary sexual characters ; and to this they owe their elevation to the
dignity of a separate genus, seeing that nymphs as a rule give no outward
indication of sex.
In 1906 Berlese endorsed the fucorum of Oudemans; but more recent;ly
he has discovered that it is one and the same with

107
Gammasoides carabi— another nymph posing as a distinct species.
Moreover, he has been able to announce that "Gamasoides" spinipes is the
nymph of his Gamasus hortivagus, leaving horidus {subterraneus Oud. )
and carabi ( fucorurn of Oudemans and others) to be accounted for.
Let us proceed to do it. The name fucorum, given by De Geer, is over a
century old, and though certain writers have connected it with seaweed
(fucus), it is pretty clear that De Geer got his specimens from bees.
Oudemans records it from Bombus ferrestris, B hortorum, and Psithyrus
vestalis (parasite of B. terrestris). I have seen it on the same Bombi, as well
as on B. lapadarius, B. pratorum, and B smithianus. Dr. A. Randell Jackson
sent me for identification a score or more taken from B sylvarum. As a
matter of fact, there are times when it would be difficult to take a Bombus
ferrestris (or its variety lucorum, which is much more frequent with me),
which was free from mites. From this I concluded that its occurrence with
bees was regular, or at least more frequent than with the sexton beetles.
Where then did the Bombi pick up their passengers ? One does not find the
mites on plants ; and the only other point of contact of the bees with terra
forma is the nest.
Gamasus nidicolens. female. Gamasus bombianus. Female
With the assistance of Dr Harrison I have been able to examine nests of
Bombus smithianus and B. pratorum, and, as the reader will have
anticipated, the adult forms so long missing were found in abundance. As a
result I am able to present for the first time drawings of both

108
For the sake of simplicity I have above named the nymphs according to
the opinion of Dr. Berlese, with which as a matter of fact I do not altogether
agree. It is indeed quite possible that there may be three species of Gamasus
which are guests of the Bombi: there must be, unless the fucorum of
Oudemans is one and the same with his subterraneus. Personally I believe it
is ; but Berlese thinks otherwise.
Now, however, the fully developed forms are known and the right
nymph can be assigned to each; the errors and disagreements of the past
with respect to the naming of the nymphs may be laid aside and forgotten:
the names disappear along with Berlese's genus Gamasoides. And yet I am
perhaps a little hasty in thus shelving Gamasoides; for Halbert in his list of
Irish Gamasids has described a new species of this otherwise exploded
group. No doubt it will be found presently to be a nymph of some species of
Gamasus; in fact I have already both sexes of a new species which would fit
it very well; but though I have several adult examples (sent to me from
Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Durham), I have no nymphs. The one thing I can
say with certainty is that the new species is very closely related to the
species which have nymphs of the Gamasoides type.
Mr. Nicholson, secretary of the Essex Naturalists' Field Club, informs
me that Gamasus bomborum Oudemans (so identified at the British
Museum: I suppose by Mr. Hirst), has been found in Essex in the nest of
Vespa vulgaris. Whatever doubt there may be about other names, it is quite
certain that the bomborum of Oudemans is the “coleoptrate” nymph of my
Gamasus nidicolens. Nine times out of ten this will be the nymph found as a
passenger on Bombus of any species.
Since receiving this information from Mr. Nicholson I have had no
opportunity of dealing with Vespa vulgaris, but I have examined most
carefully four large and well established nests of V. norvegica two of which
were in the ground and two suspended—one in a rhododendron the other in
a beech tree. All were quite free from guests of any kind, except one which
contained several very vigorous Volucella grubs (of what species I do not
know). Whatever beneficial services are rendered by Gamasids in a Bombus
nest, I am satisfied that one wasp at least is able to go on and prosper
without them ; and this leads me to wonder if the Essex Vespa vulgaris
could possibly have taken possession of a partially established Bombus nest
where the Gamasids were already in residence. For nobody, so far as I

109
know, has ever seen a Gamasus nymph travelling on a wasp; and I
cannot help thinking that residence with such an ormivorous host as Vespa
would be a precarious existence for a defenceless Gamasid. Still, an ounce
of fact is worth a ton of conjecture ; more wasps' nests must be examined.
Lest the matter should become unnecessarily involved I have so far kept
the genus Gamasus in mind ; but it may not be amiss to mention some
similar instances. They may differ in some particulars, but nevertheless may
eventually contribute to the solution of the general problem. First of all I
ought to say that in the Bombus nests along with the Gamasi there is always
to be found Hypoaspis bombicolens, a Gamasid of another (but closely
related) subfamily. This species has been well established for many years
because, unlike the Gamasi, it travels on the bees in the adult form. I cannot
suggest a reason, for I need hardly say that as yet its life history is quite
unknown.
A very near relative of this Hypoaspis, at present known as Laelaps
stabularis, often resorts to the kind of migration we have been considering,
but so far as my observations go, the habit is not constant. It is at home
among hay refuse and stable litter, where it preys on the myriads of mites
which live there. But it is frequently found on rodents of different species,
more particularly the ordinary mouse. This has led to some misconception,
for the rest of the genus, with one exception, are certainly true bloodsucking
parasites, living on rats, mice, and voles. Stabularis, however, with its sister
species echidninus, is usually found living at large, in all stages of its
existence. That it is by no means particular as to its means of migration may
be gathered from the fact that I have found it " travelling" on the common
hay moth, Caradrina cubicu!aris (this was of course a very young nymph).
This same moth was conveying also several other passengers, Thrombidiid
mites of the species Cheyletus venustissimus—a beautiful pink creature,
which lives among hay refuse and is, like the Gamasids, quite blind.
As the two species of Gamasus living in Bombus nests are as yet
undescribed I here append formal descriptions of the female so as to give
them names, leaving fuller description and characters of the males for
another time and place :—
Gamasus bombianus sp. nov. Female. Anterior dorsal shield
pentagonal, with rounded angles (especially in front), widest at the
shoulders and narrowed behind so as to leave a broad margin. Posterior
shield of uniform breadth (as wide as hinder margin of the anterior) rounded
behind. Eight (10?) long setas on the anterior shield, those of the posterior
shorter, finer, and nearly all of equal length. Three parallel series of fine
setas on the nude margin

110
Abundant in nests of Bombi. West Allendale.
Gamasus nidicolens sp. nov. Female. Anterior dorsal shield triangular
(the body being piriform), and leaving no nude margin. Posterior a little
narrower, divided from the anterior by a mere line (convex behind in the
middle); thickly clothed except in the centre with stout spines, which are
distally flat and slightly lanceolate. Nude margin very narrow with a row of
spines similar to those on the posterior shield.
Abundant in nests of Bombi. West Allendale.
NOTES ON THE WINTER OF 1916.17 IN THE ALSTON
DISTRICT,
MORE PARTICULARLY AS IT AFFECTED WILDLIFE
GEORGE BOLAM
(Continued from Page 82).
Starling's and Sparrows were about in normal numbers up to the end of
February, and many of them began to clean up and resume possession of
their old nesting quarters during the fine days that then prevailed ; but the
next week or two put an end to many of them. Personally, I picked up very
few dead birds of any kind during the winter, but amongst these Starling's,
in March, numbered a good deal more than 50 per cent. of the total, and
those found were starved and emaciated to skeletons. It was pathetic to see a
Starling doing his best to sing and look happy on a chimneypot in the
delusive rays of an evening sun, and to find his poor body dead beneath it,
hard frozen, in the mornings ! What became of our Sparrows we can
scarcely even conjecture. There is no corn grown in the dale, and, as is
invariably the case in like circumstances, Sparrows do not multiply and
become much of a nuisance here ; but they have always been fairly well
represented about the town, and at least over half-a-dozen pairs annually
nested about our premises. Up to the end of February no diminution had
been remarked in their numbers, and prospective nesting operations were
begun as usual, but during the following month every single individual
vanished from our immediate neighbourhood, and it is only

111
within the last few weeks || that a few have returned to resume
their usual chirping about the house. Not a single brood has been
reared here, although a few pairs have nested about the town. One
incident in this connection is worth recording A creeper (Polygonum
baldshuanicum)) put in as a cutting in 1913, had last year sufficiently
covered the wall of the house to provide about a dozen Sparrows with
roosting places close to the window at which I write. Earlv in March I
was none too well pleased to notice that a pair of them had begun to
build a nest in it. The foundation was well laid before the Sparrows
disappeared with their kindred; at the end of May a pair of Spotted Fly
catchers came and built their nest upon it, and have successfully taken
off their young, an end that would certainly never have been attained
had the Sparrows remained.*
During the thaw at the end of January large flocks of Peewits and
Golden Plovers, accompanied as usual by a good many Jackdaws,
Starlings, Redwings, and Fieldfares, assembled about the fields to feed
upon the worms exposed by the melted snow. With them were rather
more than our usual number of Larks, and the latter began singing ; but
the boisterous days of March dispersed the flocks, and few Plovers of
either species returned to occupy their accustomed breeding quarters.
Larks, I think, have bred with us quite as numerously as usual.** Nor
has any very marked difference been noticed in the number of
Chaffinches, Robins, or Hedge Sparrows nesting here. Redpolls and
Bullfinches have, if anything, been commoner than usual.
In a different category must be reckoned some of the most
attractive of our resident small birds. Tits (Great, Blue and
|| A single Sparrow here on 16th June, but did not stay. A brood of fledged
young ones (no doubt from the Town-Foot) occasionally about our bushes
during July, but none roosting here up to time of writing, mid-August. The
disappearance of our Starlings was not so complete, a few pairs nested with us
late in the year, but no second broods were attempted.
*This remarkable disappearance of Sparrows has not been confined to the
Alston district. At the end of May I found that there were none at Houxty,
where Mr. Abel Chapman is usually sufficiently troubled by their persistent
occupation of the nesting sites of Pied Flycatchers and other more agreeable
birds about his house. In the village of Wark we could only find a pair or two,
and in several other places it was the same, either none where they had formerly
been too numerous, or only odd pairs.
** On 5th April I noticed a Lark, all alone, feeding on some horse
droppings in the street at the Town Foot. It flew quite strongly when disturbed.

112
Cole), Creepers, Goldcrests, and Dippers are conspicuously absent
from many of their usual haunts, and with the exception of the lastnamed,
seem almost to have disappeared. The excessive woodcutting
which has been going on all the year in nearly all our plantations (even
those of quite young firs—beloved of Goldcrests), may to some extent
account for the scarcity, but as, like the Sparrows, all these small birds
seemed to disappear suddenly in March, we are looking rather
anxiously forward to see how Far they may come back to their
accustomed Winter feeding places.
Wrens, too, in the valley are decidedly scarcer, though on such few
occasions as I have been further afield I have found them as numerous
as usual in our upland glens.
Of birds of prey, other than Owls, we never see much here in
Winter, but our occasional Kestrels have maintained their usual
roosting perches, and I was curious enough to examine a number of
casting's beneath one of these one day in March. They represented
probably the roosting of two or three months, and contained nothing
but the usual remains of small Mammals and beetle wing's. Where the
supply of the latter had been obtained during the snowstorm it would
be interesting to know ! A good many pellets of the Brown Owl also
examined likewise bore testimony to the fact that there is no difficulty
in coming by a supply of “mice”, even when the ground is covered
with snow ; but the Owl had not kept his reputation as a mouser so
unsullied as the Kestrel ; about two out of every three of her exuviae
containing remains of small birds, chiefly; Passeres.
That neither mice, voles, nor shrews hibernate is very well known,
and their tracks left upon the snow constantly demonstrated that it is
their habitual custom to run over its surface. To nightbirds, like Owls,
they no doubt then fall an easy prey. I have elsewhere (page 256 Birds
of Northumberland and Eastern Borders) remarked upon the apparent
stupidity, or fearlessness of Owls in the dark, but I had another rather
good illustration of it last winter. Owls had been so silent during the
snow that one was almost tempted to believe that they might have left
us, but as I was walking home on a bright moonlight night in February
one suddenly appeared over the wall and stooped at some prey
(doubtless a mouse) at the side of the road, within a few yards of me.
Squirrels and Hedgehogs too, as evinced by their tracks, were often
abroad during the storm : one of the latter I encountered, by the
guidance of a dog, burrowing its way manfully through deep show, on
a frosty day, too soft to bear its weight on the surface, yet apparently
unconscious

113
of any inconvenience. It seemed almost to be enjoying it, and to
retain an undiminished sense of direction, for, though several times
lifted out of its course, it persisted in maintaining a beeline for the
wood from which it had been carried, and when we left was pushing its
way thither, leaving a furrow behind it as though a small snow-plough
had passed that way! The tracks of Stoats and Weasels are always
visible in snow, and by following them a good idea may be obtained of
their methods of hunting and the distances they travel.
No Kingfishers nested here this Summer, but it is only an uncertain
visitor at the best of times, and its absence might have no connection
with the severe Winter. Further down the Tyne, however, I heard of
several being “frozen out," or picked up dead. Snipe and Curlews have
both bred as plentifully as usual on the moors this summer, also
Dunlins, but Redshanks have been absent from some of their haunts.
No large number of Woodcocks ever nest here ; this year, despite the
woodcutting, no decrease in their number has been noticeable. During
the height of our first storm I sprung one (on 25th January and several
times later) from a runner of water which did not freeze, and each time
it went off quite strong upon the wing, and with that dexterity in
getting out of sight in which a Woodcock is excelled by few birds.
There remains a sorry tale to tell of our early Spring migrants,
some of which arrived in very wintry weather. A good many of them
probably perished ; at least they disappeared, and their places were not
filled as the year advanced. Amongst these the Merlin ought perhaps to
be included. It could hardly have starved from lack of food, but
nevertheless I am sorry to say that several nesting stations visited were
found untenanted, and similar reports reached me from more than one
keeper. One was seen flying high overhead near Alston on 7th April,
which is about the usual time of appearance here. The first Pied
Wagtail arrived on 17th March, followed by several others within a
few days; about a dozen fresh arrivals seemed to come on 10th April,
and one or two more on most days of the following week The first
Meadow Pipit was seen on 29th March, followed by a small flock on
April 10th, and another on 17th. Wheatears arrived on April 10th.
During this time the digging of allotments was a burning question at
Alston, a grass field having been taken, and there being no time to lose
in getting the sod turned over, all Autumn or Winter work having been
out of the question owing to the weather. Consequently, when ever it
was possible to .dig (often attempted when the ground was more or
less covered with snow and hard frozen ! ) someone

114
was busy digging, and these Wagtails and Pipits were in close
attendance, along with Robins and other more familiar friends. All took
small worms and grubs greedily, often running very close to the diggers to
obtain them, but how many of them managed to pull through the bad
weather in this way it is impossible to say. In any case both Pied Wagtails
and Meadow Pipits have been comparatively scarce this summer as nesting
species, and Wheatears, Blackcaps, Tree Pipits, and some of the Warblers
have all been below their normal strength.
Another interesting result of the hard Winter was that with little water,
and so much of it frozen, our Sea Trout were unable to complete their
spawning, and when at length floods and milder temperatures came,
towards the end of April, we had the unusual experience of finding a good
many “Salmon” still with us. Some of them, I believe, did not complete
their spawning till after this date; as a rule they have all left us by
Christmas. As a result of the “Salmon” remaining with us, as well perhaps
by reason of their being frozen out of their homes at the Northumberland
Lakes, Otters remained with us also till at least the middle of May, about
four months beyond their usual time of departure. In ordinary years an
Otter, or its tracks, is seldom seen here before the "Salmon" arrive, and they
depart as regularly with the downgoing Kelts.
NOTE.—Since the above was written the summer has passed and it can
now be added that the effect of last winter upon birds has in no way been
overstated. Goldcrests, Creepers and Tits are all singularly scarce in the
valley, in many places almost totally absent. Sparrows have not increased;
and, although a few good broods of Missel Thrushes have been reared, the
usual flocks of these birds and Starlings have not appeared to eat up our
profuse crops of rowan berries. The fear that Grouse might be attacked by
disease has, fortunately, proved to have been ill-founded, most moors
having done well (with the limited number of guns that have shot them),
some of them having been considerably above the average. Two new facts
may be noted, although one of them has no apparent connection with the
hard winter. With two or three small patches of oats sown (in response to
the national call) Woodpigeons have been decidedly more in evidence than
in normal years; of Stock Doves, on the other hand, I have not seen a single
representative during the summer. It is a species which does not winter here,
but in normal years we have three or four nests within a mile or two of
Alston.
27 th October 1917

115
BIRTLEY FELL.
J. W. H. HARRISON, D,Sc.
Birtley Fell was so ably described a few months ago by my friend Dr.
Jeffreys, that at first sight it almost seems futile to discuss it again.
However, as he only approached it from the limited stand point of an
ecologist, and further, as his paper* in the ''Journal of Ecology " is
inaccessible to many of our readers, I propose to consider shortly what the
Fell has to offer to the naturalist who has scanty opportunity of wandering
far from the town.
Birtley Fell is at present an irregular stretch of ground lying roughly
about 285 feet above sea-level, cut up and intersected here and there by old
drainage ditches, waggon ways, cart roads, and the like, so that it is very
dubious whether any thing more than a very minute portion approaches in
the remotest degree its original condition. Indeed, when one reviews the
history of the Fell it appears certain that no part does. From the earliest coal
mining times the site of numberless small coal pits, traversed constantly by
the necessary traffic, for long periods the scene of huge miners' meeting's,
the playground of generations of local children, constantly fired, either
accidentally or otherwise, always pastured by horses, and in its latter days
utilised as a golf course, the Fell has undergone such vicissitudes that to a
naturalist it is a source of constant wonder that aught of interest remains.
Yet, in spite of it all, it still retains to no little extent the Flora and Fauna of
a sub alpine region, and the more one works it the more the blanks of such
are filled up. To tell the truth, when I compare it floristically with similar
and comparatively untouched stretches of the Cleveland Moors, which I
have worked so closely during the last twelve years, I must confess that the
Durham area is the richer. It is only when one considers the animal life in
certain of its aspects, and the cryptogamic botany, that deficiencies are
revealed.
In the Mosses and Lichens we have the same phenomenon perceptible
as in all industrial districts—many of the rarer and more delicate forms have
vanished owing to their tenderness in earlier stages, and the consequent
susceptibility to smoke. One would look in vain for many of the desirable
mosses and lichens recorded for the Fell in the early Floras of Winch,
Leighton, and others.
*"Journal of Ecology," vol. IV., Nos. 3 and 4 (December 1916).

116
To Dr. Jeffreys' list of flowering plants I can add but little; how
thorough his work has been will be gleaned when I state that one of the
omissions, the Hard Fern (Blechuum spicant), is possibly now extinct, for
when it seemed to be on the down grade a year or two ago, a deliberate
search revealed it as occupying one single nook in place of the considerable
colonies of 25 years ago. One of the others, the Marsh Speedwell ( Veronica
scutellata), was always sporadic, but still occurs in the main central ditch
with another commoner missing form, Water Blinks (Montia fontana),
while other two, the Lousewort (Pedicularis sylvatica) and the Violet (Viola
sylvestris), are not uncommon in the Uliceta, the former in the damper
portions of the eastern Ulicetum, and the latter in the smaller but drier
Ulicetum skirting the waggonway. Although the plant is recorded for the
Fell as occurring in the Nardetum the Heath Bedstraw (Galium saxatile), is
indicated as absent from the UUcetum; such is not the case. It is a typical
and essential constituent of both of the Uliceta on the Main Fell and also in
that on the Little Fell
Of the remaining plants, all carefully listed and discussed by Dr.
Jeffreys, the Petty Whin (Genista anglica), discovered no great time ago by
Mr. J. Baxter, the Dwarf Sallow (Salix repens), the three Pearlworts (Sagina
nodosa, S. procumbens, et S. apetala) the Cudweed (Gnaphalium
uliginosum) the Ivy leaved Crowfoot (Ranunculus hederaceus), the Marsh
Wort (Heloscadium inundatum) , and the Golden Rod (Solidago virgaurea)
would appear to be the most interesting. However, if it will assist the town
botanist to spend a profitable day, I can assure him that none of the usual
moorland plants are lacking, and to the casual admirer of such plants I can
add that the white variety of the common Heather* (Calluna vulgaris)
occurs occasionally. My brother found two beautiful clumps, one of which
graces the garden at Birtley whilst the other still beautifies the Fell.
Turning now to the insects, we encounter the first blanks. Of the
conspicuous day flying moths of the Clevelands still to be found so close to
Middlesbro' as Eston Moor, all are lacking; the Oak Eggar (Lasiocampa
quercus), the Emperor Moth (Saturnia pavonia), the Fox Moth (Bombyx
rubi) and the like, all fail. In certain of these cases no reason can be
assigned for their absence, for the same holds good of the whole of East
Durham, but human agency may have played its part. But the heath
Noctuids and Geometrids, in particular those with
*It is regrettableto see Northerners, who ought to know better, adopt the
Southern practice of calling this plant "Ling"!

117
nocturnal larvae, continue to hold their own; it is still possible to take a
lantern in the season and capture such desirable specimens as the Autumnal
(Oporabia filigrammaria), the Purple Barred Carpet (Melanthia ocellata),
the Mottled Gray Carpet (Larentia multistrigaria), the Chevron (Cidaria
lestata), the Autumnal Rustic (Noctua glareosa), and so on. If one be
interested in the variation of common species, crowds of weird forms of the
July Highflyer (Ypsipetes sordidata), the Square spot Rustic (Noctua
xanthographa), and the Grey Chi (Polia chl), are to be captured in August
as they sip the nectar at night from the heather bloom.
As with most other localities in North-East Durham, butterflies are but
few, although I have seen or taken on the Fell the three Whites, the Red
Admiral, the Painted Lady, the small Tortoiseshell, the Meadow Brown, the
Common Blue and the Small Copper—most of them in plenty.
But lepidoptera do not exhaust our possibilities; in other insect groups
the outlook is very encouraging. For instance, all of the Northern humble
bees save Bombus lapponicus have been secured, either by Mr. Robson or
myself, and two of these, Bombus smithianus and B. latreillellus var.
distingueridus, are distinctly local and rare forms. Again, when my friend
Walsh prospected the neighbourhood for coleoptera, his views concerning
its “beetle" population were decidedly optimistic. As for the Diptera I have
only tackled the Cecidomyidae, and in the case of these several species were
added to the British list on the strength of species taken here, the most
noteworthy of which were species of Rhabdophaga from Salix repens and
Perrisia polygali from milkwort.
The rest of the insect orders are almost unworked, but when Mr.
Bagnall and myself were at work on the Psyllidae, and Rhinocola ericae
seemed a desirable acquisition, my steps naturally turned to the Fell, and
practically the first tenant of the beater's tray was the desired form.
Now I must leave the Insecta and refer to other groups. Of these I have
only worked the Arachnida and the spiders in particular. Over a hundred
species of spiders have been captured by me, and these included such
rarities as Diplocephalus protuberans and Lophomma subaequale.
Of the resident birds and mammalia but little can be said; the district
would be barren to the oologist, but to the ornithologist desirous of
observing the winter migrants, a field of profitable study is still open here,
as the discovery of a dead

118
Jack.Snipe by Mr. Baxter reminds me. Incidentally, I may mention that
the common Lizard still occurs, although rarely
If I continue further to urge the claims of an area which has always had
a curious although natural attraction for me, I shall be exceeding my allotted
space, but before closing I must point out that if such species as I have
indicated occur in the groups more or less closely studied by me, then much
remains to be done in insect and other neglected groups I have left
untouched.
GRANT ALLEN ON FLORAL COLOUR.
J. E. H
Imagination is the last and greatest faculty of every super eminent
maker or builder, whatsoever the material may be with which he works or
builds. This was so patently true to the Greeks of one kind of workmanship
that they called the crafts man the maker, or poet. It was a mistake—of the
sort that sticks like a limpet: for the versifier, with whom the more
enlightened associate the novelist and dramatist, and the most enlightened
the musician and the picture or image maker, is still supposed to be the
greatest expert in the use of the imaginative faculty. Yet I should not feel
guilty of exaggeration in saying that there is more imagination in Newton's
" Principia" than in all the literary works of its author's generation. Only it
does not deal with the same class of facts (whether actual or hypothetical
matters not at all : imagination works with either indifferently), and it gives
pleasure by satisfying and stimulating the reason, not by a titillation of the
emotions and sensations
As theory and theorem play so large a part in the advance of science, the
theorist is a mighty pioneer. And a theorist is literally and truly one who
sees—sees thing's beyond the range of the physical eye, and can
communicate the vision or record it in permanent form. Without a trained
and well exercised imagination the thing is impossible, though like so many
other thing's,—the Roman freedom, let us say; or a musical ear,— some
men acquire it so readily as to seem born with it, while others attain it at
great price.
This being so, it is perhaps natural to think that a veteran poet or
novelist, if adequately informed, would be ideally

119
equipped for scientific work. One might reasonably conclude that the
inventor of Mr. Britling, being at the same time author of a widely used
Textbook of Zoology could be, if he would, a distinguished leader of
scientific imagination. But Mr. Wells has not yet illumined the scientific
world, and gives no indication that he is likely to do so. As men have been
known to compile textbooks which covered the whole, or nearly the whole,
of their knowledge of their subject, and to write ' “successful” novels which
were not remarkable as products of imagination, it is possible that Mr.
Wells is disabled by one or other of these defects.
As a matter of fact the novelist does not achieve popularity by feats of
imagination; for Mr. Grant Allan was a popular novelist in his day, and
though he may have constructed plots with Germanic ingenuity, and may
have been capable of in numerable entertaining conceits, I have reason to
think that the imaginative faculty was very feebly developed in him. For the
foregoing' reflections were induced by rereading his treatise on the “Colour
of Flowers," a volume in the Nature Series, to which series such men as Sir
William Thomson and Lord Avebury contributed. Moreover our author
claims for his work, or at least its fundamental proposition, the approval of
the great Darwin himself
The book found an appreciative public, for it was reprinted in 1891,
nine years after its first publication. This was not surprising, because the
window dressing was good; all the popular scientific goods of the period
were well displayed. The book is dead, dead as Julius Caesar: I come to
bury, not to praise
It was really moribund from the first, being grievously afflicted with
lack of imagination; the theories are never definitely conceived, the
hypothetical facts and operations are not in the writer's mind. It is a mortal
disease in a book of theory, however voluminous the facts adduced,
however strict the logic.
But let me illustrate my contention, and justify it if I can. The
fundamental proposition is that petals are transformed stamens and
therefore originally of the same colour, i.e., yellow. “The earliest flowering
plants had true leaves on the one hand, and specialised pollen bearing or
ovule bearing leaves on the other hand, which latter are what in their
developed forms we call stamens and carpels; but they certainly had no
petals at all, and the petals of modern flowers have been produced at some

120
later period. It is, probable, too, that they have been produced by a
modification of certain external stamens, not by a modification of true
leaves. “
Observe that this makes the transition from stamen to petal a forward
development, and therefore the transformation from petal to stamen is
retrogression, which on page 31 (in discussing the succession of colour) he
declares it to be the easier and more frequent form of spontaneous variation;
while in this first chapter after many instances of the "advance" from
stamen to petal, he continues: " In a few rare instances, petals even now
show a slight tendency to revert to the condition of fertile stamens. This is
not the steady vision of the theorist, but the opportune wriggle of the
debater. It is a crucial point, for the sequence of development is the very
substance of his theory, which a theorist of the right sort would have
"imaged" so clearly and solidly in his mind that any incongruity or
appearance of incongruity would be intolerable.
But lest I should be supposed to be making much of a side issue, let us
return to the main proposition, quoted above. We are invited to imagine a
primitive flower with stamens and pistil on the one hand and true leaves on
the other, but no petals. Then we are to contemplate the common white
water lily. “Here in this very ancient though largely modified flower we
have stereotyped for us, as it were, the mode in which stamens first
developed into petals, under stress of insect selection." What we see is a
continuous spiral succession from petal to stamen (or vice versa!) with all
grades of transitional forms between. Unfortunately this convenient
substitute for the mental vision flatly denies an essential element of our
author's theory; for these newly produced petals ought to have been yellow,
but are most undeniably white.
The precise significance of this nonconformity is not my concern at
present; the serious thing is that it is passed by without remark. Darwin
could not have let it go in silence; nor could any competent “artist." An
unresolved discord is anathema to the musician, but a discord skilfully
introduced and duly resolved is the delight of his heart. So a masterly
politician when his audience is hopelessly unresponsive, snatches with joy
at an apparently unanswerable interruption from the gallery, and with the
skill of an expert captures his audience by promptly demonstrating in a
decisive phrase or two, that the seeming black is the brightest and purest of
white. Every convert counts two on a division

121
I do not say that this discord of the lily petal cannot be resolved. But
what is to be done when the pet soloist performs in C sharp to an
accompaniment in C natural and the conductor goes on smiling? Surely it is
time to open the emergency exits!
After the water lily comes the double rose, with a neat pictorial row of
floral elements. This time there is no denying that it is the stamens that
undergo transformation, whatever the significance of that may be; for we
see the thing happening under our eyes. There is no need now for the
conjurer's patter: “It is quite easy to understand how the filament of an
active stamen may become gradually flattened, and the anthers (or pollen
sacs) progressively void and functionless: but it is very difficult to
understand how or why a petal should first begin to develop an abortive
anther, and then a partially effective anther, and at last a perfect stamen."
With the double rose before us all this is waste of breath, for there is
positively “no deception": where normally you have stamens, in the double
rose you have petals, and possibly beyond the petals (tell it not in Gath!)
something very like sepals; and (publish it not in the streets of Ascalon!)
these sepals, with most stupid perversity, persist in being green.
Not a word is said about these incipient sepals; one is figured in the
illustration and duly named in the title thereof, and that is all. The writer has
never realized the necessity of explaining these sepals which (according to
hypothesis) follow duly upon the petals, I suppose, in response to the same
impulse —the stress of Insect selection. He might possibly say that he was
not concerned with sepals, only with the origin of petals. But that will not
do; his business is to establish the very high probability that petals
originated by a certain process of trans formation, which process, in one
instance at least and presumably in all, included the sepals also. It is the
process which he should demonstrate whatever its scope happened to be.
I repeat my complaint—that he sets out to portray some thing which
was never definitely and completely present to his own mind. Whether you
call this loose thinking, or faulty assimilation, it is in reality a failure of
imagination; an example of the vulgar, unimaginative method of heaping
together all the favourable material available, without any attempt to
combine them into a coherent mental image. It betrays itself by an
insensibility to other things, small and great, which are either actually or
apparently incongruous.

122
I have had in mind all the while the extremely important part which
imagination must play in all such matters, and the power it confers when
intelligently employed of detecting flaws in a specious argument. The lack
of it is manifested, as I have said, in a certain insensibility or blindness to
material facts; but often enough it becomes visible in the very nuage used. I
take a single example from page 113, where, speaking of the large outer
florets of certain compound heads he says : " These are obviously intended
to increase the total attractive effect." lntended! It is not necessary to say
more of this, because unfortunately it is a manner of speech much too
frequently met with.
In discussing what he calls the "law of progressive colouration" Mr.
Grant Allen is on ground which for him is less precarious, since it does not
make quite so strong a demand on the imagination. Moreover, most students
of the matter will assent to his general proposition. It may be found in any
elementary textbook, and rests solidly on the fact that wherever a succession
of colours actually occurs in the same tissue, the order of sequence is
(roughly) yellow, white, red, blue. Yet even here the inveterate defect blurs
the outlines of his conceptions. Thus, he knows there are two kinds of
yellow and red; but having stated the fact, he straightway proceeds as if the
difference did not exist; and if he is aware that the above gamut of colours
applies only to sap colours, and that the position of white (which is merely
the absence of colour) is not absolutely fixed, he nowhere betrays his
knowledge. Nor does he seem to realize with anything like clearness and
certainty that no individual species is capable of more than two colours
(there is no scale, or even language, of hues to define this range more
exactly) out of the whole gamut of three—white being added in each case.
Then crops up his “King Charles's head"—the stress of insect selection;
and this is how he expresses it. ''hee fact is, blue flowers are, as a rule,
specialized for fertilization by bees, and bees therefore prefer this colour;
while conversely, the flowers have at the same time become blue because
that was the colour which the bees prefer." There is not a gleam of humour
in the book, or I should take this to be an attempt to " pull the reader's leg."
Evidently it is meant to be a serious assertion of fact, though I, for my part,
cannot make sense of it at all.
And, to tell the truth, I am exceedingly sceptical about Lord Avebury's
colour preference experiments. That bees prefer blue for itself blue glass,
blue paper, blue anything—is more

123
than I can swallow. The most brilliant blue in my garden this summer
was Anchusa italica, but it stood in all its blueness a fortnight or more
before ever a bee so much as looked at it. Then Bombus pratorum made its
appearance and visited the Anchusa assiduously. But it was at the same time
just as busy with flowers which had not a symptom of blue about them.
Again, when the gooseberry is in full bloom, all the blue in the garden
would pot draw a bee. Beds of Canterbury bells, pink and white and blue,
are frequently planted near to beehives; but I could never detect the slightest
shadow of a preference on the part of the bees for the blue. The same
remark applies to my beds of columbines, which display all the hues of the
rainbow ; the blues and blue purples are no more favoured than the reds and
whiter and yellows.
This is how he connects the known gamut of colours with the re stress
of insect selection “If the more specialised and modified flowers, which
gradually fitted their forms and the position of their honey glands to the
forms of the bees or butter flies, showed a natural tendency to pass from
yellow through pink and red to purple and blue, it would follow that the
insects which were being evolved side by side with them, and which were
aiding at the same time in their evolution, would grow to recognise these
developed colours as the visible symbols of those flowers from which they
could obtain the largest amount of honey with the least possible trouble."
Passing over the airy assumption that the bees could and did calculate,
approximately or otherwise, the number of units of honey acquired per unit
of '' trouble,"" and compare the results obtained from each species visited;
and also the further assumption that this Amalgamated Society of Honeyseekers
would of necessity unanimously pursue the Trade Union ideal of
highest wages and shortest hours as the only possible aim in life for
enlightened workers, let us turn to certain assumptions which I, for my part,
can more readily comprehend.
Three may be specified—(1) that honey is the only quest of bees ;(2)
that it is the quantity obtained, not the quality, that matters; and (3) that the
ripe experience of working bees is transmitted, by some unnamed species of
heredity, to the progeny of their sisters and cousins! The first is false as
every body knows; for bees require pollen from flowers as well as honey.
The second is at least improbable ; in my judgement as untrue as the other,
and very probably Mr. Grant Allen himself would have hesitated to
propound it separately. The third, as applied to the social bees (to which the
writer always refers) is

124
a culpable absurdity, unless we are to apply all this reasoning to some
previous age when absolute socialism prevailed in the bee communities and
there were no classes and masses as at present.
So throughout the book: every conception—not of theories only, but
also of the material of which they are built—is in curably sketchy , and I
suppose that is what may be expected when the undisciplined imagination
of the popular storymaker takes up a scientific theme; for the excursions of
Mr. Wells into the domain of theological science have precisely the same
characteristic features. Nothing can compensate for lack of imagination—
neither brilliance nor ingenuity; nor prodigious accomplishments of
observation; not even the illumination of diligent and careful experiment
But imagination is the summit level of true education, as distinguished from
the prevailing ideal of technical instruction, which taboos the classics and
looks coldly on all mathematics except the '' applied. " The latter makes
skilled artisans, clever enough in the manipulation and improvement of
existing things, whose ideal is efficiency and profit (of the material sort !).
But the former seeks to produce among other things a vivid memory,
concentration of thought, and coherence of thought—the active constituents
of a live imagination, the equipment of the seer and originator.
Well, Mr. Grant Alien's book has served my turn, about the only use I
can put it to. But lest anyone should still think that it could hardly be
included in the Nature Series without containing something worth reading, I
may point out another fundamental defect which alone would have made it
untrustworthy. The author professes to conduct the reader along the long
road which flowering plants have travelled through the ages and point out
certain developments as they took place. But he himself had no knowledge
of that road! I do not say this to his discredit, for when he wrote nobody had
ever charted it, though many had guessed and speculated. These guesses
and speculations he has often accepted as facts, which is the sum of his
transgression under this head. As some of these guesses, though quite dead,
have not yet been finally buried, it may not be amiss to name two typical
examples here.
1. That polypetalous plants are an early type, and
gamopetalous plants modern. It is true that if you have both in the
same line of succession the former is the earlier; but there is one
line of descent which has been gamopetalous almost from the
beginning, while another has not reached that state at all.

125
2. That the more closely we examine green flowers, the
more do we see that they form the opposite pole to such simple
and truly primitive forms as the buttercups, the potentillas, the
Alismacece, and the simpler lilies of the Gagea type." This,
written with particular reference to grasses, is not without truth; as
you may truly say that horse and cart are at opposite poles of the
working combination of the two. Our author has got the cart
before the horse. (See Dr. Rendle's "Classification of Flowering
Plants," Vol. 1. page 385).
These, for the present, must suffice. They will at least show the value of
his chapter on retrogression.
THE CONVOLVULUS HAWKMOTH.
The autumn of 1917 witnessed quite a remarkable invasion of the
country by Sphinx convolvuli, of which a good many local captures have
been noticed in the newspapers. A list of these has not yet been made out,
but the following may mean while be recorded, and it would add greatly to
the value of the list if readers would send in additional records.
One was caught at Norham Vicarage on 17th August by Master R. O.
N. Mangin. A second Tweedside example was taken in the Hirsel Gardens,
Coldstream, on 22nd August; while about the same time two were found in
Berwick, and others at Scremerston, Brow-of-the-Hill, and Tweedmouth.
On 30th August Mr. Abel Chapman got one on Holy Island, and a couple of
days later another at Houxty, on North Tyne. During the last week of
August Mr. Peter Chariton had one brought to him at Chopwell which had
been found at Blackhill Mill. One was taken in Sunderland by Mr. W.
Richardson on 26th August; another near the same town by Mr. J. Dowsey
on the 28th ; and a third at Barnard Castle by Mr. J P. Robson on the
following day (these last three records being from the Entomologist for
October). During the first few days of September one was taken near
Penrith ; one at Brampton on 6th September ; two in Carlisle on 28th
August, and three more a few days later. One was caught at Widdrington,
Northumberland, about 7th Sept ember, while within the next few days Mr.
H. S. Wallace had examples sent to him for identification from Boldon
Colliery, North Blyth, and Newcastle. It is interesting to note that several
specimens have been captured in Ireland, while Dr. Eayh Clarke tells me
that he had one sent to him from Shetland.
GEORGE BOLAM.

126
NOTES AND RECORDS
.
N.B.—The number following the name indicates the Vice-county to which the
record refers, as shown in the above Distribution Map.
Starred Records are new to the Tyne province (66,67,68).
FLOWERING PLANTS.
Spergularia
Spurrey.
salina Prest. Sea
66, 68
Very common in Greatham Saltmarsh. (Also
Warkworth.— R.S.B.)
Spergularia marginata DC. Sea
Spurrey.
Occurs in the saltmarsh and also in soil almost free from
salt on the edge of Todler's Fleet.
Myriophyllum verticillatum L.
Water Milfoil.
Sparingly, mingled with enormous masses of the common
M. spicatum in the ditches inside the earthwall at the Tees'
Mouth.
*Statice humile Hill. Sea Lavender 66
66
66

127
Statice limonium is one of the few species indicated as
occur ring sparingly by Baker and Tate, which are actually
common. I therefore got my little girl to collect a bunch of the
flowers from as wide an area as possible with a view to
ascertaining whether S. humile were present likewise. This
experiment was successful, for not only did the desired species
turn up, but also a third which awaits critical study.
Erythraea pulchella Fr. Small
66
Centaury.
This is an addition to the local lists which occurs in
September and October, in the typical littoral meadows round
the Tees Mouth in some plenty. Two forms occur, one short
and stunted, and the other taller and with more scattered
flowers.
Plantago maritima var. latifolia
66
Syme. Sea Plantain.
Somewhat rare. Greatham.
*Salicornia radicans Sm. Shrubby
Glasswort.
New to our lists; extremely rare at the Tees Mouth.
Salicornia europaea L. Glasswort. 66, 68
An aggregate species of which the segregates S.
dolichostachys (Moss), S. disarticulata, S. ramosissima have
been seen near the Tees Mouth. (Also Warkworth.—R.S.B.) "
*Potomogeton compressus. 66
I found a fair quantity of this species, not on record for
Durham or Northumberland, in the Holm Fleet just where it
strikes the earthwall and widens out.
Potamogeton pectinatus var. ? 66
A form of this species which is probably referable to var.
salinus Voch. occurs in the salter portions of the ditches
bordering the earthwall round Greatham Marsh. The same
form occurs in the pure salt pools on Greenabella Marsh.
Ruppia maritima L. 66
This name, as used by Baker and Tate, is an aggregate of
two species, Ruppia spiralis and R. rostellata, the former of
which they mistakenly record under the then accepted name of
R. maritima as rare in salty pools at the Tees Mouth. The form,
there, is R. rostellata, and it is common on all of the more salty
pools. Copious gatherings to determine once and for all the
presence or absence of R. spiralis showed that whilst the
second species was present it was exceedingly rare.
Zannichellia palustris L. 66
I have seen this both in fresh water at Birtley and in more
or less brackish ditches around Greatham Marsh.
Zannichellia maritima Nolle. 69
Pretty common, pure and mixed with Potanogeton
pectinatus var. salinus around Greatham. Copious collections
have to be made to determine its range owing to the latter fact.
66

128
Zostera nana Roth. Grasswrack. 66
Sparingly in all the Ruppia gatherings.
Scirpus maritimus L. 66
(a) Type form. A big clump in fresh water
at Birtley, and rarer in the Fleets at the Tees Mouth.
(b) var. monostachys Sond. With other
allied forms in huge masses in brackish water at the
mouth of the Tees.
Scirpus tabernaemontani Gmel. 66
Sparingly in the brackish Fleets.—J.W.H.H.
CRYPTOGAMIA.
LIVERWORTS.
* Pattavicinia flotowiana Schiff. 66
A rather curious livermoss growing somewhat freely
amongst the practically pure Salicornia clumps near Greatham
Creek. Recorded previously for the British Isles only from
Ireland and from Coatham Marshes on the opposite banks of
the Tees.— J.W.H.H.
FUNGI
Uromyces chenopodii Schroet. 66
Rare on Suaeda maritima in Greatham Marsh.
Puccinia absinthii D.C. 66
On Artemisia maritima at Greatham.—J.W.H.H.
Puccinia centaureae Mart. 66
On Centaurea nisra. Rvhope Dene.—R.S.B.
NOTE.
A Full Index to the present volume of the Vasculum as well as to
the issues for 1918 will be published in the last number of Vol. IV.
(December 1918), as subscribers find two vols. in one the most
convenient way of binding