NOTES
157
SILVER WASHED FRITILLARIES AND WHITE
ADMIRALS IN S.E. ESSEX WOODS
Before 1940 the woods in the vicinity of North Fambridge were
devoid of Silver Washed Fritillaries and White Admirals. My brother
reported having seen an unidentified fritillary on the Railway Bank at
Cold Norton in the summer of 1946.
When visiting Mundon Wood in 1948 we found Silver Washed Fritil-
laries there in abundance and also a fair number of White Admirals.
Hazeleigh Wood, Stow Maries Woods and even North Fambridge Hall
Wood had both insects in fair number. Single specimens were even seen
on Bramble blossoms 2 or 3 miles away from the nearest woods.
By 1955 both species began to decrease in numbers and by 1960 all
woods within a 5-mile radius of North Fambridge were barren.
I have not visited Hartley Wood or the North Essex woods yet, but
it would be interesting to hear from other entomologists whether these
magnificent butterflies still occur in the North and N. East Essex woods
following the general decline in numbers and complete extinction in my
area. Is it not strange that two totally different insects should disappear
at the same time?
Purple Hairstreaks, White Letter Hairstreaks and Ringlets in the
local woods are also almost extinct.
On the other hand we have a carefully preserved colony of White
Letter Hairstreaks on this small farm. This is spreading nicely and due
to non-interference in any way (its natural habitat is wired off from
cattle etc.) we now count over the half hundred perfect insects feeding
on the Dewberry and later Bramble blossoms in July. J. T. Friedlein
AN ALBINO ROBIN
In the summer of 1962 an almost pure albino Robin appeared around
a few neighbouring houses at Billericay. All the under feathers, most of
the back and breast feathers were white. The 'flight' and tail feathers
were brown, as were those on the top of the head. The eyes were black,
though the legs were pink. There were small patches of yellow under
the beak and eyes. During the severe weather it was attracted to the
back garden for food. When mealworms were thrown out it would
eat them rapidly, never eating more than eight at a time, then fly off
and return for more after about twenty minutes. This Robin developed
the habit of singing from a porch until it was fed. Another "trick" was
to fly on to the window-sill whenever it saw any movement inside the
house. It learned to recognise a whistle and came immediately even when
out of sight. After several hours without any mealworms some were
offered on the palm of a hand. It could not decide what to do and hopped
up and down making peculiar noises. However, when one was offered
on the back of the hand it accepted and flew down and plucked the worm
without hesitating, though it still refused them from the palm of the hand.
It was very aggressive and would attack Sparrows as well as other
Robins but it did tolerate others during the cold weather except when
they beared its feeding place. Other Robins did not attack it or even
appear to notice it, perhaps this was due to the absence of the red
breast. J. Fleming