68 NOTES. 



an account of finding dead fish under some such circumstance but not having the 

 volume at hand I can only quote from memory. Another writer also suggests 

 polluted water as giving rise to a phenomenon which he observed similar to that 

 I have noted. 



Prof. Bonney has contributed an article in " Nature " on " Temperature in the 

 Glacial Epoch." His concluding words are : " We seem, however, fairly warranted 

 in concluding that, whatever may have been the cause, a lowering of [mean] tem- 

 perature amounting to i8°, if only the other conditions either remained constant or 

 became more favourable to the accumulation of snow and ice, would suffice to give 

 us back the Glacial Epoch." Taking two-thirds of those eighteen degrees as 

 representing a Post-Glacial condition of mean temperature we should probably 

 arrive at the stage where only one summer in a number of years was sufficient to 

 effectual 1}' break up the frost. This would bring us to a time of greatest erosion 

 of which vestiges are left as above stated. It does not seem much to ask a decrease 

 of twelve degrees only, yet on the other hand we must not forget that no amount 

 of occasional cold snaps could materially alter the mean temperature. Physical 

 changes of some permanency are required. We should rather lean on such a 

 theory as that of Dr. Croll, in which he treats primarily of astronomical changes 

 which, ^though small, are known to have actually occurred, and secondarily, 

 adducing other agencies which might reasonably be thought to have operated, 

 produces in the aggregate a result more than required by Prof. Bonney's figures. 



Wildfowl in Essex — I saw to-day, at Mr. Pettitt's, the following birds in the 

 flesh, all captured in the neighbourliood : One Whooper (^Cygnus musicus), one 

 Mute Swan (C c/w), partly in immature plumage, and possibly an escape ; one 

 Canada Goose, this also may be an escape ; one Pink-footed Goose QAnser bracliy- 

 rhynchus) ; one Bean Goose (jinser segetum), the second example Mr. Pettitt has 

 had this year ; one Common Bittern QBoiauris stellaris'), being the third specimen 

 this winter, including the two previously recorded ; and several female Smews 

 i^Mergus albellus). The almost Arctic season is doubtless the cause of the appear- 

 ance of these interesting visitors, which we rarely see in ordinary winters. (See 

 also E. N., vol. iv., p. 211). — Henry Layer, F.L.S., Colchester, January loth, 

 1891. 



Aceras anthropophora, Br (Green Man Orchis). — A specimen of this plant 

 was sent to me last June by Mr. Edwin E. Turner ; he found it near Lord Ray- 

 leigh's park, at Terling. This is an interesting " find," as the plant has been 

 recorded only three times in Essex : once at Belchamp St. Paul, by Ray ; once at 

 Ballingdon in 1715, by Dale, and lastly in 1835 at Shoebury Common, by Edward 

 Foster. We may congratulate ourselves in learning that this scarce orchis still 

 occurs in our county.— J. C. Shenstone, Colchester, February 20th, 1891. 



Pied Flycatcher near Harwich. — Mr. F. Kerry writes thus to the '■ Zoolo- 

 gist " for March : " On 12th May, 1890, two Pied Flycatchers {^Miisicapa atricapilla) 

 were seen in a garden at Dovercourt ; and the male was shot by a boy scaring 

 birds. This is the first instance that I know of its having occurred in this neigh- 

 bourhood. I have only once before seen this species in the eastern counties ; this 

 was a solitary bird, some years since, at Northrepps, near Cromer, in Norfolk." 

 In the same number of the " Zoologist " (vol. xv., 3rd sen, p. 115) Mr. Kerry has 

 some interesting ornithological notes from Harwich. 



