88
NOTES.
workers ; they disappeared one by one. With the exception of a nest, also from
Woodford, exhited by Mr. W. Cole at a meeting of the Club on December 20th,
1884, this is the only example of a colony of V. norvegica that I have seen in the
forest district. In August, 1884, I dug up a nest of V. germanica from a hedge-
bank at Chigwell, and placed it in a band-box, through which I ran wires to
suspend the nest. The weight of the grubs was however too great, and the nest
broke away, and got inverted on the journey home. The box was fastened to a
tree in the garden, a waterproof cover being placed over it, and a hole made
in the bottom. All the summer the wasps worked diligently, and upon their
death and desertion in the autumn I found that they had built a dome over their
inverted combs to keep out the rain, although of course none could reach them."
Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) at Tollesbury.—I have seen lately a specimen
of this hawk captured during May at Tollesbury. From its rarity as an Essex
bird, the occurrence may be worth recording in the Essex Naturalist. Henry
Laver, Colchester, July, 1889.
Supposed Slight Earthquake Shocks at Stebbing and Felstead.—
Several communications from our member, the Rev. A. R. Bingham Wright, M. A.,
concerning a supposed earthquake shock (or shocks) in Essex on the morning of
April 19th, have appeared in the "Times" and the local newspapers. At our
request, Mr. Wright has summarised these observations as follows:—"At—as
nearly as I can tell—8 or 10 minutes before 5 a.m. on Good Friday last, I was
woke by a sound which I continued to hear when awake. It somewhat resembled
thunder, but more, I think, the crash of falling buildings. At the same time
the rattle of fragments of mortar (as we afterwards ascertained) falling down
the chimney was continuous. Another loud report was heard, and I ran down
stairs and out of doors. The morning was very; still—the clouds light and filmy,
of the cirrus class, and there was no motion in the leaves of plants, &c. The
sound could not possibly have been thunder, for there were no indications of a
storm, or of a coming storm. While I was down stairs, my wife felt the room
shake, and there was another report. My wife said that the sound of these reports
seemed to her to come not from above, but from underground. The inmates of
two neighbouring cottages stated that they felt a shock and heard a sound ; one
woman being at once reminded of the earthquake five years since ; but they
maintained that this was at about 2 a.m. The landlord and landlady of the
'King's Head' public-house, about 60 yards distant, heard the reports, and felt
the house shake, every door banging, and windows rattling, including the barn
door, 10 yards from their bedroom window. The landlady guessed at once it
was an earthquake, remembering the former one at Halstead, where she then
lived. They agreed with me as to time, a few minutes before 5 a.m. Mr. Taylor,
'Brook Farm,' Felstead, informed me that he was awoke a little before 5 a.m.
by a loud sound, and felt his room shake. He thought at first that his cattle, in
a shed hard by, were making a disturbance and kicking the wall of their shed, but
he found they were quite quiet. This farm is on the road between Stebbing and
Felstead. It is on a lower level than the school, from which it is distant about a
mile. It seems reasonable to conclude that there was more than one shock, as
the cottagers above referred to stick to their having been disturbed at 2 a.m.
It has been suggested that this earthquake may have been caused by a displace-
ment of beds of sand or gravel by the action of water, and not by the agencies
which ordinarily cause earthquakes. Else it is difficult to account for its not
having been felt—so far as is known—beyond the limits of Stebbing and Felstead.
Other people in Stebbing heard and felt the earthquake a little.—A. R. Bingham
Wright, Stebbing Vicarage, Chelmsford, May 30th, 1889." In letters to the
newspapers. Mr. Wright adds, "This place is from Braintree six miles W. N.W.,
Dunmow three miles E.N.E., Chelmsford twelve miles a little W. of N. At
Dunmow the Upper Chalk dips E., and we are on unconformable beds of sand,
gravel, and Boulder-clay."