268 THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
Mr. W. Cole exhibited several species of Lepidoptera taken during his recent
visit to Maldon. Their party (including Mr. Fitch, Messrs. B. G. and H. A.
Cole, Mr. H. C. Snell, and himself) had three nights "sugaring" in Mr. Fitch's
delightful wood at Hazeleigh, but moths were very scarce. They, however,
found Asphalia (Cymatophora) diluta in abundance at the sugared trees—this
moth is not recorded in the Rev. G. H. Raynor's paper on "The Macro-
Lepidoptera of the District around Maldon" in the "Trans. Essex Field Club,"
vol. iii.,pp. 30-47. They likewise took Anchocelis litura in Hazeleigh Wood,
previously recorded by Mr. Raynor only from Danbury and Woodham Mortimer.
He also exhibited the specimen of Acherontia atropos taken by Mr. Furbank on
the occasion of the Club's excursion on the Blackwater (ante page 188).
Mr. Walter Crouch, F.Z.S., then read a paper "On the Land and Fresh-
water Mollusca collected in Wanstead and the Neighbouring Districts (Becontree
Hundred)," in which he recorded seventy species, prefacing his remarks by a
brief notice of the papers and lists which had already been published in connec-
tion with Essex forms. By a few sketches on the blackboard, he showed the chief
features of the various forms of mollusca, and how the differences in these pro-
duced a modification in the structure and shape of the shell, which thus becomes an
important part of the animal, being the outward expression of the internal and
vital parts. He also referred to the formation and coloration of these shells by
glands and pigment cells—to the horny jaw and the wonderful structure of the
lingual membrane or "odontophore" in the Gastropoda, studded with thousands
of minute siliceous incurved teeth of varying shapes and in symmetrical rows,
numbering in Limax maximus, one of our common slugs, as many as 28,960.
A complete series of the shells was exhibited by Mr. Crouch, the smaller
species being accompanied by his enlarged drawings from the living forms, and
minute shells and teeth, etc., were shown under microscopes brought by Mr.
Gillham and the author.
The President thanked Mr. Crouch for his interesting paper which, when pub-
lished in full in the Essex Naturalist, would be one of permanent value. He
alluded to the papers on the Mollusca of Essex previously published by the Club
(Dr. Laver's paper on the Mollusca of Colchester, Trans. ii, 88 ; Mr. Harting's
on the Methods of Collecting, E.N. i, 169, and Mr. French's paper on the
Mollusca of Felstead, E.N. ii, 1), and said he thought that when lists from
various localities had been collated, Essex would be found to possess a very large
proportion of the known British species of Land and Fresh-water Mollusca.
A discussion was carried on by the President, Mr. Elliott, Mr. Wire, Mr.
Greatheed, Mr. W. Cole, and the author. Mr. Wire gave some recollections of
the late Mr. J. Brown, of Stanway, who had forty or fifty years ago investigated
the fossil deposits of shells at Copford and other places in Essex. Mr. Wire,
when a boy, knew him personally, and used to collect for him. His collections
went to the British Museum, and his books to Prof. Owen. Mr. Wire hoped
before long to present to the Club a short memoir of Mr. Brown.
Mr. Greatheed called attention to the enormous marine shell-bank near Burnham,
of very considerable length, and now a mile or two inshore, owing, doubtless,
partly to natural and partly to artificial causes. The President hoped that the
Club would be able to visit this shell-bank, which was well worthy of attention,
being 6 or 7 miles long, extending from opposite Foulness Island to Bradwell; so
far as he knew the shells of which it was composed were cockles. But Mr.
Greatheed said that he had found other shells in the bank.
Mr. Crouch read the following :—