176 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
Miss Milroy, seconded by Mr. Ross, nominated Mr. W. H. Ryde to
act as second auditor of the Club's accounts.
To fill vacancies upon the Council, due to the retirement in rotation
of Miss E. Prince, Dr. F. M. Turner, Mr. Frank Lambert, and Mr. J. M.
Wood, and other vacancies caused by death, the following nominations
were made :—
Miss E. Prince, proposed by Mr. Paulson, seconded by Miss Wyness.
Dr. F. M. Turner, ,, Mr. Thorrington, ,, Mr. Glegg.
Mr. J. M. Wood, „ Mr. Avery, ,, Mr. Barns.
Mr. C. Hall Crouch, ,, Miss G. Lister. ,, Mrs. Thompson.
Mr. W. Gurney ,, Mrs. Boyd Watt, ,, Mr. Nicholson.
Benham,
Mr. A. F. Hogg, ,, Mr. Nicholson, ,, Mr. Main.
Mr. L. S. Harley, ,, Miss I. Lister, ,, Mrs. Scourfield.
Mr. Avery exhibited a fine set of 70 photographs illustrating Essex
topography.
The Hon. Secretary again exhibited the restored Pottery Bowl which
he had before shown (on October 29th) and said that he had submitted
the bowl itself, and photographs of it, to various experts, including the
British Museum authorities: the latter had definitely pronounced it to
be of 1st century A.D. Romano-British date, "altogether an exceptional
piece." Detailed particulars furnished recently by the donor of the piece
showed that it had been excavated in fragments, in 1910, in a field where
now is St. Luke's Avenue, Ilford Lane, Ilford, quite close to Uphall Camp,
The Curator also exhibited a specimen of the Marten Cat or Pine-
Marten (Mustela martes) which had recently been presented to the Strat-
ford Museum by our member, Mr. J. Mackworth Wood, and his brother,
Mr. P. W. Wood, of Terling.
This specimen was shot at Terling, Essex, about, or before, the year 1820,
and has been in the possession of the Wood family ever since : its authen-
ticity as an Essex Marten is therefore beyond question. A note, referring
to this specimen, was written by Mr. J. M, Wood in the Essex Naturalist
for 1890 (vol. iv. p. 185). In it, Mr. Wood states that the animal was
shot about seventy years before, which would be about 1820, but the taxi-
dermist's label on the case in which the specimen was set up bears the date,
written in faded ink, "Jan 9, 1810," and this is conjecturally the date
when the creature was shot. The specimen is much faded by age and
exposure to light.
The President exhibited some lengths of papyrus stem and a specimen
of the modern paper made from its pith, also a photograph showing the
papyrus plant growing near Syracuse in Sicily. He also read some extracts
from The Times bearing upon the disputed question of the status of the
Beech as a native British plant.
Mr. J. H. Owen gave a lecture, illustrated by a large number of lantern
photographs, on "The Red-backed Shrike and other local birds," which
was warmly applauded.
FIELD MEETING AT LOUGHTON (638th MEETING).
SATURDAY, 24TH MARCH, 1928.
A party of some twenty members met at Loughton railway station
at just before 11 o'clock, and, in spite of most threatening weather, set