Field Notes. 347 
I discovered them to be hymenoptera, and found the descrip- 
tion in Professor Miall’s ‘ Acquatic Insects,’ which fitted. The 
identity has since been confirmed by Mr. Waterhouse. The 
insects left the water at intervals (they can remain immersed 
for at least twelve hours) and invariably come to rest about 
half an inch to an inch from the surface, head downwards. 
In no case did I find them far above the surface when resting. 
When immersed they were usually active, and I never saw 
them take any food, though seeing they are only one twentieth 
part of an inch long, it is quite possible to miss that interesting 
operation. It was most interesting to see one re-enter the 
water, and make desperate efforts by means of the legs to 
free itself from the air film, especially on the wings, which are 
clothed with fine hairs. Frantic efforts were often necessary 
to free the wings from air bubbles, so as to allow the creature 
to sink well below the surface. They moved about in the water 
with a jerky motion, using the wings only for propulsion. 
A second lot of mateiial containing, besides Hypnum flintans, 
an acquatic hepatic, was sent to me from the same district, 
and on careful examination I found five Dragon Fly eggs on 
this hepatic, which later provided me with two larve of Dragon 
Flies and three Polynema, one of which lived for twenty days 
in the tank, (not of course immersed all the time). 
Altogether about a dozen ot the insects appeared over a 
period of about nine weeks, and seeing that che creature can 
fly quite well for short distances, the distribution among 
neighbouring pools should not occasion much difficulty .* 


10h 
AMPHIBIANS. 
The Natterjack in Cumberland. — 1 am pleased to 
confirm Mr. W. W. Mason’s note of this species in the north- 
west. A small colony of them may be found at Beck Heads, 
Woodland Fell, on the Lancashire side of the Duddon Valley. 
My first experience was six under loose stones, June 14th, 1913. 
—J. F. Musuam, Selby. 
The Natterjack in Cumberland.—With reference to 
the Rev. W. W. Mason’s note in the October number, it may 
be of interest to record that in July 1913, I saw an immense 
number of young Natterjacks, barely one inch long, in damp 
spots among the sandhills near Drigg. In June 1915, adult 
specimens were noticed in marshes at the mouth of the Calder, 
north of Seascale, and this year, in June, in the same locality, 
in a brackish pool close to the railway, I found this species 
breeding.—ANTHONY WALLIS, Penrith. 

* The specimen figured herewith has been presented by Mr. C. A. 
Cheetham to the Hull Museum, where it can be referred to. 


1916 Nov. 1. 
