272
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
Mr. Avery seconded, and the vote was agreed to with applause.
The Chairman, replying, said he did not think anyone should hold office as
President more than three years at a "time, unless he had a special policy to carry
out. He would continue to do all he could to promote the interests of the club.
They would find Mr. Dymond in every way a worthy successor of the various
Presidents who had preceded him.
Mr. R. Paulson, F.R.M.S., proposed that the best thanks of the club
be given to the Officers for their service; during the past year. He more parti-
cularly mentioned the important work of their excellent Treasurer, Mr. David
Howard, which merited their warmest acknowledgments.
Mr. Dalton, F.G.S., seconded the resolution, which was carried unanimously.
Mr. Howard briefly replied on behalf of himself and his colleagues.
At the end of the annual meeting, the 264th Ordinary Meeting took
place, Mr. Miller Christy, F.L.S., Vice-President, in the chair.
Reputed Neolithic Implements from Wanstead.—Mr. Avery
exhibited some supposed Neolithic Implements, reputed to have been found
during excavations in Wanstead Park. The specimens included Arrow-heads
and "celts." Remarks on the exhibit were made by Mr. French, Mr.
Christy, Mr. Cole, and, Mr. Howard, and, doubt having been thrown on the
genuineness of the stones, the matter remained over for further investigation and
evidence.
Melanic pupa of Vanessa urticae.—Prof. R. Meldola, F.R.S., F.E.S.,
exhibited a dark pupa of V. urticae, which he had taken from a dark coloured fence
at Chelmsford on July 7th, 1906. He pointed out that cases of colour adaptation
of this kind were among the first observations that attracted his attention to the
philosophy of biology and had long ago convinced him of the power of individual
adaptability, which had been acquired, as he believed through natural selection,
by many Lepidopterous larvae and pupae. Since his early observations, systematic
experiments had been carried out by Prof. Poulton and others proving most
conclusively that such power of individual adaptability was very widely present
among insects and especially among the larvae and pupae of Lepidoptera, which
furnished many of the most striking cases of what he had long ago termed
"variable protective colouring."
Tapes aureus in Essex Waters.—Dr. Henry Laver sent for exhibition
some fine shells of a species of Tapes dredged in the estuary of the Colne. These
have been identified by Mr. Walter Crouch, F.Z.S., as Tapes aureus. (Gmelin),
so called because it is generally more or less yellow within. The species occurs,
according to Mr. Crouch, off the coasts of Sussex and Kent, but he could not
remember to have seen it previously from the Essex coast. Dr. Laver wrote that
the fishermen called the mollusc the "Butterfish." [The shell is not really new
to Essex, as we have it in the Museum from the Colne (Dalton Collection), and
Mr. Crouch recorded it from the Blackwater (Essex Nat. II , 248), and from
the Crouch (Ibid., vi., 81-92). Dr. Henry Sorby thus refers to it (Victoria Hist. of
Essex, vol. i., p. 82) : "This may be obtained alive from the mud off Mersea
when left dry at low water, being fairly abundant."—Ed.]
Spotted Eagle at Downham.—Mr. Miller Christy exhibited, on behalf of
the owner, Mr. T. Watts, of the "De-Beauvoir Arms," at Downham, a
specimen of the Spotted Eagle (Aquila maculata ?), which had been picked up