FOUND IN NORFOLK. 55 



Carpiones carpes plentiful! in ponds & sometimes 

 large ones in broads [^mear] 2 the largest I euer beheld 

 were [found crossed out] taken [added above] in Norwich 

 Riuer. 



[A whole line is smeared out, and a break occurs in the 

 MS. after the observation on the Carp ; it then proceeds 

 to notice some other inhabitants of the county which 

 perhaps Browne had difficulty in classifying.] 



Though the woods and dryelands about [abound?] 

 with adders and vipers'® yet are there few snakes about 

 our riuers or meadowes more to bee found in Marsh land 

 butt ponds & plashes abound in Lizards or swifts. 



^ Both Vipers (or Adders) and Snakes, the latte in particular, are, I 

 imagine, much less abundant than formerly, but the few species of Lizards 

 and Newts (Swifts) are still probably in undiminished numbers ; the Mole 

 Cricket {Gryllotalfa vulgaris) is rare with us; Horse-leeches (^a/oj/OOTa 

 gulo) are frequent, and also " Periwinkles,'' which I take to be various 

 species of freshwater Molluscs, possibly of Limncea. The Hard-worm (or 

 Hair-worm), Gordius aquaticus, which refused to be generated from 

 " horsehayres," is still an object of wonder to the unlearned, and the Great 

 Black Water-Beetle (Hydrophilus piceus) is found ; hvX forficula and corcu- 

 lum were a puzzle, as it is evident from their association they must be 

 aquatic forms (and the Earwig certainly does not take to the water volun- 

 tarily), till my friend, Mr. C. G. Barrett, referred me to the following passage 

 in Swammerdam's " Book of Nature," p. 93 : "This is most certain that 

 the Forficula aquatica of Jonston is the true nymph of the Mordella, or 

 Dragon-fly,"* Dr. Charleton in his " Onomasticon,'' p. 57, has " Corculus, 

 the Water-beetle, resembling an heart ; " not very definite, but probably the 

 Whirligig Beetle, Gyrinus natator, is intended ; it is also an appellation 

 given by some authors to " a small species of cordiformis, or heart-shell, 

 of a rose colour," doubtless a Cyclas or a Pisidium. Squilla is the Fresh- 

 water Shrimp {Gatnmarus pulex), and Notonecta glauca, the Water- 

 boatman "which swimmeth on its back," is well known. 



Otters are still numerous in the broads and reed-margined rivers, and so 

 long as these natural fastnesses endure in their present condition they are 

 likely to continue so. 



* On reference to Jonston (Historic NaiuralU eU Insectis Lib. iv., " De Insectis 

 aquaticis" i., p. 189, Tab. xxvii.), I find that under the name of "Forficula aquat 

 \icce\ M [oufet]," he has two figures, the first of which is possibly a Dytiscus larva, 

 the second that of some form of Dragon-fly, which however is imperfect. 



F 



