A BRIEF HISTORY OF DAUNTSEY'S SCHOOL NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY 



263 



emanated from the dew pond survey (increased in 

 number by this time to 30), and particularly from 

 pond 24. The order followed the 1939 Report, ie. 

 the 24 Phyla of the animal kingdom starting with 

 the most primitive: Protozoa, Platyhelminthes, 

 Nematoda, Rotifera, Gastrotricha, Annelida, etc. 

 through all the different groups of the Arthropoda, 

 and finally to the Chordata embracing reptiles and 

 mammals. An appendix added a worm, a springtail, 

 and 33 beetles recorded in 1938 by D. Philpot. It 

 also explained that birds were not included because 

 they were covered separately in the Bird Trust's 

 Report. 



In some groups these appear to have been the 

 first Wiltshire lists to be made and, in many others, 

 they were second only to those published in the 

 Marlborough College Reports. In the case of spiders 

 (in which Marlborough appears to have taken 

 almost no interest) the list is second only to the 

 Rev. Pickard-Cambridge's Wiltshire list of 1912. 

 Given the age of many of the Society's members 



."> 



BTEEP \ 

 SAUK - 



> 



Hedgerow.;^ 



pa^ 



/ 



ii 



'Q) -Electric 



Y lamp 



/ 





% 

 \ 



)r&ln\ 



v I : 

 \ 



/ 



\ 



\ 



■f ; Toad with 



3 1/2 i°e 



® 



STEEP 

 BANK 



jHntlna pr.i 



(f>) I direction 

 w ] unknown 



BKSUreM und. 



\*v) water 



I Tiroes given, (p-Jn.) 

 are B. S. T. 



date 

 Into 

 Clyffo 

 Hull 



grounds 



y 



/ Other ob 



qtlons 



8.45. 



lane to back of 

 yffo Hall:- 



lnglo male toads 

 ln,:lP feraalo toad 



8.50 On path around bott 



r< Olyffe Hall Pond:- 



4 Blngle nalc toado 



6.55 In water at Clyffo 

 Hall !- 



300-500 toadu 

 1 frog 



Fig. 6. Diagram by Desmond Morris, 1945, showing the 

 movement of toads on the Market Lavington Road. 



Fig. 7. Lino cut by David Le Cren, 1 939, used to announce 

 meetings of the Dauntsey's Natural History Society. 



and the lack of text books, the attributions need to 

 be treated with caution. The compilers, however, 

 were well aware of their deficiencies in this respect, 

 and either did not attempt putting names to species 

 about which they were in doubt, or determined to 

 genus or family only. In the case of plants they were 

 fortunate, for Coulson, a Fellow of the Linnean 

 Society, was both a good ecologist and taxonomist. 

 Although a list is provided of 37 boys and masters 

 involved in the list's production these are not the 

 collectors but those responsible for making the 

 determinations. Four sets of initials are prominent, 

 those of I.T.Hamilton and B.W.H. Coulson, and of 

 the two boys, E.D.Le Cren and A.Macfadyen 

 responsible, as already noted, for the dew pond 

 survey and founding the Meterological Society 

 respectively. Fired, presumably by Hamilton's 

 enthusiasm, it was Le Cren and Macfadyen who 

 not only 'inspired the production' of the list and 

 compiled it, but also took on the brunt of analysing 

 the records and managing the layout of the stencils 

 for copying. Le Cren also acted as the Society's 

 Secretary and in this capacity was responsible for 

 much of the 1939 and 1940 annual Reports too. 



B.W.H. Coulson arrived at Dauntsey's in 

 September 1934. Because of his interest in plants 

 (and birds to a lesser extent) he immediately joined 

 the Natural History Society (the nickname given 

 to him by the members was 'Beetle', because he 

 had rather protruding eyes). The third publication 

 to appear in 1939, the Botanical Bulletin, was 

 almost entirely due to him. According to the 

 introduction, the Bulletin aimed 'to draw attention 

 to botanical observations of interest', and 'to report 

 on the progress of any investigations being carried 



