304 NOTES : MAMMALIA AND BOTANY. 



A specimen of the Coral Oolite from Peasy Hill quarry at Malton 

 is a very pure limestone [1026]. The most abundant fossil is 

 Chemnitzia heddingtonensis, which appears to have consisted, like 

 most gasteropoda, entirely of aragonite, and is now seen to be 

 replaced by calcite-mosaic, preserving only the external boundaries 

 of the original shell. Even this would scarcely be shown, were it 

 not for the brown staining which defines it, for the matrix is also in 

 great part re-crystallised. A few foraminifera and crinoidal fragments 

 are present, and numerous well-marked oolitic grains. These are 

 built up by very many concentric coats of yellowish calcareous 

 matter, either with or without an organic nucleus ; and the minute 

 fragments sometimes have a sufficiently definite orientation to give 

 a rather vague black cross between crossed Nicols. Some of the 

 grains contain more than one nucleus, as already noted \\\ some 

 other limestones. 



NOTES— MAMMALIA. 



Field Voles in North-East Yorkshire. — In July last the gardens attached 

 to a gentleman's country residence near Northallerton were invaded from the 

 surrounding grass lands by a swarm of Field Voles {Ai'vicola agrestis), which did 

 much mischief generally. Their treatment of the strawberries, the whole crop of 

 which they destroyed, was peculiar. They ripped the berries off the plants, most 

 of them in an unripe state, and then left them piled up into heaps, as if for future 

 consumption. Here, however, the instinct of the marauders must have failed 

 them, as the fruit so treated rotted forthwith. — Edward H. Smart, M.A., 

 Kirkby-in-Cleveland. 



Seal at Flamborough. — The other evening a fine Seal {Phoca vitulina) was 

 observed near to the South Landing. — Matthew Bailey, Flamborough, Sep. 20th, 

 1890. 



NOTE—BOTANY. 



Ruppia rostellata in Cumberland. — During the last week in August, while 

 paying a brief visit to some botanical friends at Black Dyke, about midway 

 between Abbey Town and Silloth, I was informed that they had noticed Ruppia 

 maritima growing in great plenty about a week previously in a tidal creek about 

 a mile inland from Skinburness. This seaside village stands at the northern 

 extremity of a headland at the mouth of the estuary of the rivers Waver and 

 Wampool. It was proposed that in driving to Skinburness we should pass along 

 the creek and examine the place referred to. Not far from Seadyke End we 

 stopped, and there in a series of pools along the course of the creek we found the 

 plant in great abundance, the pools being literally choke-full of the floating 

 vegetation. We secured quite a large supply of specimens. On my return home 

 a closer scrutiny satisfied me that the plants we had collected were really referable 

 to Ruppia rostellata, and this opinion has since been corrobated by the authorities 

 at Kew Gardens. This is the first recorded instance of its occurrence in Cumber- 

 land, so far as my information extends. By the same stream, but a little higher 

 up, we gathered specimens of CEnanthe Jistulosa and Carex muricata, both 

 remarkably fine ; while close to the village (Skinburness) we noticed Geiitiana 

 ainarella and Convolvulus soldanella, the former very abundant. — William 



Hodgson, A.L.S., Workington, Sep. 22nd, 1S90. 



Naturalist, 



