NOTES.
39
Mr. Wire, as Librarian, also thanked the members, and took occasion to make
some suggestions as to the ways in which they might aid the growth of the Library.
The meeting terminated with the usual conversazione, at which tea and coffee
were served, and at which the following exhibits were made :—
Mr. Walter Crouch exhibited several living specimens of the carnivorous slug,
Testacella haliotidea, Drap. var. scutulum, Sow., which had lately been taken in
an old garden at Wanstead.
Mr. W. Greathead exhibited shells from the "Shraam" or inland shell-bed at'
Burnham, alluded to at the meeting in December last (Essex Naturalist,
ii, p. 26S). The following species had been identified by Mr. Walter Crouch : —
Buccinum undatum, Fusus norvegicus, Purpura lapillus, Murex erinaceus,
Nassa reticulata, Natica catena, and Cardium edule.
Mr. Greathead also exhibited shells of Tellina from a bed entirely composed of
dead shells, and measuring perhaps 100 feet long, 20 feet broad, and 6 feet deep,
off the Blythe Sand (Kent) in the estuary of the Thames. Similar shell-beds occur
on the Essex banks of the river.
Mr. H. A. Sauze exhibited some specimens of mollusca from the neighbourhood
of Woodford, the names of which had been confirmed by Mr. Crouch. The
species included :—Sphaerium ovale, Fer., with its pearl-like "fry," rare, and
new to South Essex; found in 1888 in a shaded pond at Woodford, entangled
amongst the filamentous leaves of the Water Crowfoot; Planorbis albus, Mull (?) i
P. complanatus; P. corneus, both small and full-sized specimens; Limnaea
peregra ; L. glabra and L. stagnalis, the large "winkles" of which were eagerly-
eaten by a cat.
[At the above meeting the Secretary presented the usual account of the "Tea
Fund "for 1888. The establishment of this fund was a purely voluntary arrange-
ment, whereby refreshments, and the necessary attendance, are provided at the
Ordinary Meetings for the benefit of the members and their friends, the cost of
which it was felt could not well be defrayed out of the general funds of the Club.
The receipts, including the balance in hand from 1887, had amounted to
£3 12s. 5d., and the payments to £3 14s.]
Rough-legged Buzzard at Birdbrook.—My cousin, Arthur Fitch, shot a
fine Rough-legged Buzzard (Buteo lagopus, Gmel.), measuring fifty-one inches in
expanse of wings, at Whitley, Birdbrook, about November 13th last. It was a
long shot (45—50 yards); the bird was flying quite close to the ground, and
was being mobbed by a few rooks. The specimen has been preserved.—Edward
A. Fitch, Maldon.
The reputed Nesting of the Black Redstart in Essex.—Mr W. Jesse
(Junr ), of Selwyn College, Cambridge, referring in the" Zoologist" for May (Zool.,
3rd ser. xiii, p. 182), to Mr. Miller Christy's doubts as to the nesting of this bird
[see Essex Naturalist, ii, pp. 192 and 256], says that a nest was found by his
father, William Jesse, who was the naturalist accompanying the Abyssinian
Expedition under Lord Napier, and whose account of the discovery, which was
inserted in his collecting-book at the time, was as follows:—"These specimens [i.e.
four] were taken by myself in the garden-wall of Mr. James Parder, Braddon
House. I saw both birds myself, the hen on the nest. I once saw a Black
Redstart (male) killed at the Hyde [Ingatestone, Essex] by my grandfather's
gardener. My grandfather had it stuffed." Mr. Jesse (junr.) adds :—" Of the
four eggs two are now in my possession, one was given to Mr. W. Colchester, of
Grundisburg Hall, Suffolk, and the other to Mr. Harvie Brown, of Dunipace
House, Stirlingshire." Mr. James Sutton refers to Handcock's "Catalogue of
the Birds of Northumberland and Durham," and Mr. Harting to Stirling's "Birds
of Sherwood Forest," for records of the Black-redstart nesting in Great Britain.