22.
One of the main values of this work will be to
encourage more recording in the County. No doubt
readers will send in records now that they have a
way of knowing which species are worth recording.
So please buy this book (£2.50 from the Essex
Naturalists Trust or bookshops) and get to work
improving the records in your area. If the price
seems steep for a 152 page paperback, then remember
that the profits (if any) help the Trust in its con-
servation work. If you buy direct from the Trust then
they get more profit (but you still pay the same).
David Corke
SLOW-WORM SURVEY
May I thank all those who have kindly sent in reports
of Slow-Worms. New records have been reported from
Maldon, Brentwood and Chelmsford areas. Please inspect
your compost heap for slow-worms as they climb up just
under the surface where it is warm and dry and if the
top is just raked off exposing the top of the firm com-
post they can be seen to glide off as they are disturbed.
Further records welcome please to: D. R. Scott,
Court Hill, Little Leighs, Chelmsford. CM3 1PG.
YELLOW-NECKED MICE - AGAIN
After Dr. David Corke's extensive work on this species,
I would like to offer another report of this large and
interesting mouse. Yellow-necked mice have visited my
loft on a number of occasions in Autumn over the last
nine years without causing any damage, never nesting or
eating anything in the loft but only making much noise
in their scamperings overhead. The exception to this
was in April this year when on hearing mice in a tea
chest I investigated more closely. The animals had
nested in old clothes chewed up in the tea chest, and
they had carried in some thirty or forty full-sized
acorns for their food. The nearest oak tree is thirty
feet from the bungalow, and up a sheer brick wall would