Journal of Proceedings.
clxxvii
Mr. Edward Rosling, of Writtle, near Chelmsford, sent the following
note :—
Albino Bank-Vole.
" About the end of August last a cat of mine caught in my orchard
and brought into the house, an albino specimen of the Bank-Vole
(Arvicola glarcolus). It had pink eyes and was pure white with the
exception of a slight tinge of brown upon the back. It was alive and
quite unhurt. I have sent it to the Zoological Society's Gardens, where
it may now be seen. Mr. A. D. Bartlett has identified it as the above.
I cannot learn that an Albino of this species has been before recorded."*
Mr. W. White read some extracts from the ' Entomologist's Monthly
Magazine' for September last, in which Mr. E. Saunders gave some ob-
servations bearing upon the cause of the death of Humble-bees (Bombi)
at Lime-trees [see 'Journal Proc, E. F. C,' iii., pp. lxxviii-lxxx]. Mr.
Saunders considered that he had proved the active agents in the death
of the insects to be birds.
The Rev. John Jackson, vicar of Wendens Ambo, near Saffron Walden,
sent the following notes : —
Badgers in Essex.
" About five or six years ago a fine Badger was caught in the parish of
Littlebury, close to the aviary at Audley End. And rather more than a
year ago, Mr. C. Cornwell, of Wendon Hall, had a live Badger, which was
caught on the borders of Essex and Hertfordshire, somewhere not far
from Clavering, but I do not know exactly where ; after he had had it
a few days it escaped from confinement and was not heard of again."
Mr. Worthington Smith wrote under date October 21st, that " Agari-
cus (Pleurotus) eraspedius, Fr.,—a very rare, large and handsome species
of Agaricus—was growing last week on old poplars in the railway
station yard at Colchester. Being in Essex, you may like a note of it.
As far as I know, the species has only once before been recorded in
Britain, and by myself, from a drawing by Mr. W. W. Saunders. I have
now drawn the Colchester specimen for the British Museum."
The Secretary exhibited on behalf of the Rev. J. W. Kenworthy,
M.A., vicar of Braintree, a very large collection of stone implements and
worked flints, etc., many of which had been exhibited at Black Notley on
the occasion of the recent visit of the Club there (ante p. clxx.). Some
of the implements had been collected by Mr. Kenworthy himself, and
others had been kindly lent by residents in the neighbourhood. Mr.
Kenworthy sent also some notes on the stones, with some drawings and
* We cannot find any record of the occurrence of albinos in the true Bank-Vole.
In Donovan's 'British Quadrupeds' an albino example of Avicola agrestis (the
common or short-tailed Field-Vole) is figured, and another albino of the same species
was caught alive at East Bergholt, near Colchester, in November, 1872 (' Field,'
Nov. 30th, 1872). Mr. Harting says in his monograph of the Bank-Vole (A. glarsolus)
in 'Zoologist' for 1887, that it was first discovered as a British species in Essex, and
was described by Yarrell under the name of riparia from specimens caught at Bir-
changer (see 'Proc. Zool. Soc.,'1832, p. 109, and 'Mag. Nat. Hist.,'vol. v.,p. 539).
—Ed.
m