192 ROSS: MYCETOZOA IN THE CHINGFORD DISTRICT.
Few birds, I imagine, suffer more from the perils of migration
than do the Rails. In my experience of "telegraphed" birds,
the Corncrake and the Water Rail are very frequent victims.
Yet, for four years at least, an individual identifiable
by a peculiar voice is able to return each summer to its
favourite field. Normally, the Corncrake is a summer migrant,
wintering in Atrica and even, exceptionally, reaching so far
south as Australia. Winter Corncrakes are sometimes re-
corded in this country, and Essex has provided several such
records. There is, of course, no proof of any sort, but one may
be excused for making the speculation that these Theydon Bois
individuals do not risk the perils of migration, but pass the
winter in England—not in the fields, but perhaps in marshland.
We sometimes flushed Corncrakes from marshy ponds on the
Pennines in September while we were in search of Snipe.
[The Corncrake is common in Essex as a passing migrant in September,
when it is frequently shot from crops of clover by sportsmen after partridges.
Last autumn, I sent to the Zoological Society's Gardens a live example,
caught by hand by a boy in a harvest field immediately adjoining my house
at Chignal St. James.—M.C.].
MYCETOZOA IN THE CHINGFORD DISTRICT
OF EPPING FOREST IN AUGUST AND
SEPTEMBER 1915 AND 1916.
By JOSEPH ROSS.
THE thunderstorms and heavy showers of July 1915 made conditions
very favourable for the germination of mycetozoa. The previous
winter and a dry spring had been unfavourable, and the outburst of
sporangia in August and September was welcome testimony that in-
creasing numbers of visitors to the Forest had not diminished the chances
of finding these organisms when conditions are suitable. In August
and the earlier part of September, it was possible to find twenty species
on any day without crossing Fairmead Bottom. Conditions also, favoured
gnats and midges. When one had been bitten once for every species
found, one was not inclined to prolong the search beyond six or seven
hours.
Another feature was the almost-complete absence of the genus
Trichia. A few immature specimens of Trichia decipiens and weathered
groups of Trichia affinis and X. botrytis were found, and are included in
the appended list, but the genus did not appear in any quantity until
October, shortly before the Field Club fungus foray. Physarum nutans,
Didymium nigripes, Didymium squamulosum, and Arcyria nutans were
plentiful, D. nigripes being most abundant.