36 THE ESSEX NATURALIST
of Mycetozoa for Norfolk; he was searching heaps of wet sawdust with Miss
N. H. Benn, a former member of the Essex Field Club, when his companion
spotted "hundreds of dark red sporangia coming up all over the place'*; they
matured as T. floriformis.
It is a pleasure to record the appearance of Badhamia populina Lister on a
Grey Poplar log at the Warren, Loughton, in July. I had hoped to find this
species in this neighbourhood and at last succeeded. The late Mr. Arthur
Lister described the species in 1904, and I believe that he and Miss Lister
recorded it from Wanstead Park. The third edition of the Monograph reports
that the species had then occurred in Essex, Yorkshire, France, Moldavia, and
Colorado. A notable development was an aethalium measuring nine inches
by six inches of Fuligo septica (Linne) Gmelin var. candida R. E. Fries. This
was first seen seeping out of very decayed hornbeam wood, and some weeks
passed before the last of it disappeared.
In October 1942 a party of the Club's members were searching some crab
apple wood on Cuckoo Pits, when Miss Dofort found a fine group of Diderma
floriforme (Bulliard) Pers. Later the species reappeared on this wood, and then
was not noticed for some years until it again developed there on wood of the
same tree in September 1950.
The plantation on the rising ground west of the road from Buckhurst Hill to
Loughton was thinned out rather severely in the spring. Before all the cut
timber was removed Badhamia panicea (Fries) Rost, appeared in quantity on
two elm trunks. The dry month of October, I think, prevented Stereum
hirsutum Pers. and similar species of fungus coming into good condition, and
Badhamia utricularis (Bull.) Berkeley was not found feeding superficially on
them, but occurred on hornbeam where there was no such woody fungus.
The summer of 1949 was adverse because of drought; the winter of 1950-1
was worse because of chilly days, frost, snow and some periods of very heavy
rain, but in the two years a total of sixty-four species was reported.
Bird Notes from North
Fambridge—1951
BY JACK T. FRIEDLEIN
Birds had an easy winter in Essex and some species made an early start
with their nests in spite of continuous rainy conditions.
On 1 April I found a nest full of fledgling Song-Thrushes—very early really.
On the same date a friend of mine saw his first two Swallows of the year at
Gosfield Lake. Our local ones started to arrive and take up lodgings in the
sheds on 12 April.
Willow-Warbler No. 1 arrived on 16 April and on the 19th my stockman
heard the Cuckoo at Mundon.
22 April. I saw six House-Martins, many Willow-Warblers and White-
throats and also heard three Nightingales in full song at Cold Norton. By
25th there were large numbers of warblers in all the local woods and thickets.
27th. First Turtle-Dove seen at Battlesbridge.
6 May. Six Spotted Flycatchers around their old nesting sites. On 19th