THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
83
Mr. Fitch exhibited a specimen of Vanessa antiopa (the "Camberwell beauty"
butterfly) caught at Burnham, in Essex, in 1872 by Mr. George Richardson, jun.
The specimen had been sold by auction at Burnham last month, and was now the
property of Miss A. M. Freeman. He also exhibited some very large and heavy
fossil oyster shells (Ostrea) and a Pleurotomaria from the Kentish Rag stone,
largely used to repair the sea-wall at Burnham. Also some very large specimens
of the shells of the Swan Mussel (Anodonta cygnea) from the lake at Birch,
Essex, seven inches long and three and three-fourths inches broad.
Dr. Laver remarked that these large fresh-water mussels were never found
except in stagnant ponds. If his memory served him he had taken specimens
from a pond at Bromley, Essex, nearly nine inches long.
Mr. W. Cole said that when the pond in the forest on the road to Epping, just
past Ambresbury Banks, was cleaned out some years ago, some very large
specimens of Anodonta were fished up. That, of course, was a stagnant pond.
Mr. Crouch referred to the fact that specimens of the curious carnivorous slug
Testacella haliotidea had been lately found at Wanstead in an old garden. He
alluded to the underground habits, and the position of the vital organs and
pulmonary orifice in the hind portion of this malluse which are protected by an
external shell of flattened spiral form. Mr. Cole said that some years ago he had
found Testacella in great abundance in an old garden at Stoke Newington. To
dig up one of these slugs with an earthworm in the process of being swallowed
alive in its mouth was an event to be remembered.
Mr. White exhibited specimens of an ant (Lasius niger) mounted in the posi-
tion they assume when emitting the formic acid which probably serves them as a
protection from enemies. The ants had the power of throwing the acid to a
considerable distance, and the attitude of defence was very curious.
The Secretary said that he had received several protests against the recent
slaughter of jays in the forest. The wholesale nature of the attack upon these
birds, and several incidents connected with the battues, had given rise to a wide-
spread feeling of uneasiness among the well-wishers of the forest. A communica-
tion from Prof. Boulger on this subject will be found in this number of the
Essex Naturalist.
A short discussion ensued, in which the opinion was most emphatically
expressed that no artificial interference with nature should be permitted in Epping
Forest.
Dr. Laver remarked that the slaughter of the jays was evidence of the re-
appearance of that great pest of England—the gamekeeper. He had hoped that
another trial of the interesting and successful experiment of the late Mr. Waterton,
at Walton Hall, would have been made in Epping Forest, namely, to allow each
bird and animal full liberty of life—the only vermin to suffer extirpation being the
gamekeepers. The slaughter of jays was one of the greatest injuries that could be
inflicted on the farmer. Owing to the persecution of hawks and owls by game-
preservers, the sparrow question was fast becoming a serious one in England, and
he firmly believed that the destruction caused by wood-pigeons and mice, which
had been suffered to increase by the slaughter of jays and owls, far exceeded the
value of all the game reared in Essex. He was of opinion that every creature in
existence was of benefit in some way or other to the well-being of every other
creature, and if man would leave nature to work unmolested, we should soon cease
to suffer from undue increase of so-called vermin. The present system of game-
preserving was inflicting incalculable injury both to the natural fauna of the