THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 257 



General!}-, I found the absence of habitations went with the scarcity of snails. 

 One can only think that the snails M'ere protected from bird-life just in proportion 

 as the birds dared not approach their habitat. Invariably, likely banks or edges 

 of woods away from habitations were drawn blank. 



The association oi Helix iieinotalis and H. hortensis is common, but there has 

 never yet been recorded an observed marital alliance between them ; though such 

 pairing has again and again been surmised. Rimmer spent the spiing and 

 summer of 1878 in Normandy where Helix hortensis and nemoralis were in 

 endless profusion, giving him an unusually favourable opportunity for obser- 

 vation, and the result was that not once did he see a marital alliance among the 

 many hundreds of cases which he observed, a blackmouth (iie/nonilis) invariably 

 pairing with a blackmouth and a whitemouth {hortensis) witlia whitemouth, 



A long and interesting discussion ensued, in which Mr. Whitaker, Mr, jNIiller 

 Christy, Mr. Barnard, Mr. W. Cole, and Mr. Wiukworth took part, and on the 

 proposal of the President, a cordial vote of thanks was passed to Mr. Winkworth. 



Mr. WinkM'orth said that he should have pleasure in presenting a series of 

 variations of the shell to the Club's Museum. 



Papers read. — Mr. T. V. Holmes, F.G.S., read a paper entitled •' On some 

 Greywethers at Grays Thurrock, Essex " (printed in Essex Naturalist, ante 

 pp. 197 — 202). 



A discussion took place, promoted by Mr. Whitaker, Mr. Rudler, Mr. Thos. 

 Reader, and the author, and Mr. Holmes was thanked for his paper. 



Mr. Holmes having taken the chair, Mr. F. W. Rudler read his report as the 

 Club's Delegate at the Southport Meeting of the British Association (printed in 

 full in the Essex Natqrallst, ante, pp. 174 — 183). 



A discussion took place, concerning the various matters brought forward 

 at the Conference, carried on by Mr. W. Cole, Mr. John Spiller, F.C.S., Mr. T. V. 

 Holmes, and the author, and the President was cordially thanked for his semces 

 as Delegate, and for his report. 



THE 226th ORDINARY MEETING. 

 Saturday, December iqth, 1903. 



This meeting was held as usual at the Technical Institute, West Ham, at 

 6.30 p.m., the President, Mr. F. W. Rudler, F.G.S., in the chair. 



New Member. — Mr. W. A. J. Loveday was elected a member. 



Photographs of Wooden Water-pipes in Situ. — Mr. F. W. Reader 

 exhibited photographs of drawings in the Soane Museum, showing wooden water- 

 pipes crossing the Fleet River in the fields at Clerkenwell, about the year 1800. 

 (These drawings are reproduced and described by Mr. Reader in a paper in 

 the present part of the Essex Naturalist, pp. 272 — 4), 



Mole's " Fortress." — Mr. Cole exhibited a model of the Mole's " Fortress,'* 

 prepared from designs by Mr. Lionel E. Adams, which he had purchased for the 

 Museum. 



Lecture. — Mr. R. B, Lodge (author of Pictures of Bird Life, etc.) gave a 

 lecture entitled " Some Pictures of Bird-life at Home and Abroad." 



The syllabus was as follows : — At the Fame Islands — Sea Birds ; The 

 Spanish INIarismas — Wading Birds; In a Danish Fyord — Wading 

 Birds ; In a Danish Forest — Black Storks, Buzzards, etc. 



