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THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB—REPORTS OF
MEETINGS.
ORDINARY MEETING (781ST MEETING).
SATURDAY, 30TH OCTOBER, 1937.
The first meeting of the Winter Session was held at 3 o'clock on the
above date in the Physics Lecture Theatre of the Municipal College, Rom-
ford Road, Stratford, with the President, Mr. John Ramsbottom, O.B.E.,
etc., in the chair. 37 members attended.
This meeting was specially allocated to exhibits by members.
Miss G. Lister exhibited, and presented to the Museum, a stone knife
found by her in an Indian kitchen-midden of broken shells on the shore of
Vancouver in 1897, used by the Indians to open bivalve shells.
Mrs. Scourfield showed twenty of her water-colour sketches of Epping
Forest ponds, executed at various dates.
Mr. Main exhibited various living Spiders from the Western United
States. They included trap-door spiders and their tubes, and living
" Black Widow" spiders (Latrodectus mactans), whose bite is always
dangerous, and frequently fatal, to human beings : the exhibitor showed
adults, young, cocoon and web of this venomous creature. He said that
an attempt was being made to destroy it by breeding its enemy, a dipterous
insect which lays its eggs on the exterior of the spider's cocoon, and whose
larvae, on hatching, penetrate into the cocoon and feed upon the ova of the
" Black Widow." In contrast with these American forms, Mr.
Main showed a tube of Atypus affinis, our English representative of the
trap-door spiders, and a house-spider, Tegenaria, with its silken web and
cocoon.
Mr. Scourfield exhibited a water-flea, Simocephalus vetulus, under a
microscope with polarized light, to bring into prominence the animal's
muscles and a limy deposit within the shell. He also showed some oak
spangle-galls under another microscope.
Mr. Ward showed some coloured lantern-slides to illustrate the dif-
ferences between the Tree Sparrow and the House Sparrow, and gave
some notes on the distribution of the Tree Sparrow in the Epping Forest
district.
Mr. Glegg exhibited a bird-pellet composed entirely of pieces of rubber,
more or less conjoined to form a single casting : he thought the pellet
might be that of a carrion-crow.
Mr. Heeley showed a living Chameleon from the Museum, and described
its habits.
The Curator exhibited a Cinerary Urn of late Iron Age date, having
Belgic decoration, and containing human bones and a single piece of
bronze, which had been found in a sandpit near Hornchurch by Mr. Mercer
and presented to the Museum by the owners of the pit.
He also showed the manuscript " Essex Index," in four volumes, com-
piled, hectographed and bound by our member, Mr. Fred J. Brand, and
presented by him to the Club's Library. Much interest was shown by those