NOTES — ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 73 



the fish being captured in the " Keddles " on the sands of 

 Fowlness. 



MOLLUSC A. 

 Note on Crepidula fornicata in Essex. — In the October 

 part of the ] ouvn.il of Conchology (Vol. II., 227), our correspondent, 

 Mr. J. E. Cooper, makes the following remarks, which may be 

 taken as supplementary to the observations on the shell in the 

 E.N., Vol. x. " Crepidula fornicata L., the 'Crow-Oyster,' 

 originally introduced with American oysters, has been found in 

 several of the rivers of Essex for eleven years or more. It 

 would appear that the conditions in the Crouch river are 

 particularly favourable to it, as it is fast becoming a nuisance 

 to the oyster- men at Burnham-on- Crouch. In some parts 

 of this river every pebble and old shell has one or more (generally 

 more) specimens in it. Clusters of five or six, one on the back 

 of the other, are common ; one group found this year had no 

 less than nine in this position. 1 Some pebbles carry a cluster on 

 both sides ; even the neck of a broken one gave foothold to two 

 inside and three outside. The lowest shell of a group is obliged 

 to adapt its form to the pebble or shell to which it is attached ; 

 consequently some curious forms occur. Where the base is an 

 old oyster, the bottom Crepidula is remarkably flattened, but 

 whatever the shape of the lowest may be those above it are 

 usually normal in form." 



IN SEC TS. 

 Gnorimus nobilis in Hainhault Forest. — This very 

 beautiful " Rose-beetle " is decidedly rare in Essex. Mr. 

 Harwood (Victoria History) says that single specimens occurred 

 near Colchester in 1899 an d 1900, and that a Mr. West took one 

 near Blackwall (!). Mr. Braithwaite noted the capture of a 

 specimen flying in a forest glade near Lough ton in 1880 

 (E.N., xi., 54), and in the E.N., vol. x., p. 411, I recorded one 

 from Lords Bushes, Epping Forest. I then suggested that the 

 larva of the beetle had possibly been introduced with shrubs or 

 plants in a neighbouring garden or plantation, but my brother, 

 B.G.C., has recently happened on a record in Kidd's Own Journal 

 for August 14th, 1852, of a specimen or specimens occurring in 

 Hainhault Forest just at the time of the destruction of the 



1 I have placed in our Museum a set of eleven specimens so attached, taken in situm the 

 Colne estuary. — W. Cole, 



F 



