Wheldon and Wilson: New West Lancashire Mosses. 35 



close by. I have heard old men speak of ' the wonderful sight' 

 to see ' a flooding-' before warping; become common. The Fox, 

 Hare, Rabbit, Stoat, and Weasel, as well as the marsh and 

 sand-common birds, all attempted to escape to the banks at 

 once, and became an easy prey to the watchers with guns and 

 sticks. The rabbit has been known to climb to the top ot 

 a furze bush to escape a swim and certain death on the bank.) 

 When they took in the middle part of the said land (i.e., Nathan- 

 land) in making- an inlet up to the hill Mr. Lan(gton's) house is 

 (now) built on, the men found a raft of trees. (The tree rafts, 

 which were very roughly constructed, were not ancient British, 

 as many people suppose. They were used during the winter 

 floods, up to almost the time of the enclosure, «to fetch home 

 the ' reeds and starthack ' which had been cut during the 

 previous summer or early autumn and stacked on the sand hills 

 above flood mark to be fetched home when ' the waters were 

 out ' for bedding or thatching outhouses. No cart, even in the 

 summer, could be drawn over such treacherous, boggy ground.) 



BOOK NOTICE. 



The 1 Index-Catalogue | of the | Birds | in the | Hancock Collec- 

 tion. I By Richard Howse, M.A. | . . . | . . | . . j — j Sept., 1899,' which 

 runs to 137 pag"es, is a worthy record of an unrivalled and unique collection, 

 and gives the fullest possible account of every specimen in the series. 



NOTE— MOSSES. 



New West Lancashire Mosses. — Since the publication of our list of 

 West Lancashire Mosses in the 'Journal of Botany' last year, we have 

 made one or two excursions which have resulted in the discovery of the 

 following species new to the vice-county: — 



Sphagnum medium Limpr. 



. i ndre<Ba Rotliii W. & M. 



■Andrecea crassinervia Bruch. 



Brachyodus triehodes Fiirnv, 



Dicranella rufescens Schpr. 



C'umpylopus atrovirens DeXot. 



Grimmia Doniaua Sm. 



Discelium nudum Brid. 



Ueterocladium heteropterum B.&S. 



Hypnum ochraceum vars. fLaccidum Milde and complanatum Milde. 



HyP)ium fluitans var. gracile Boulay (teste Renauld). New to Britain. 



Hypnum fluitans var. paludosum Sanio. 



Hypuum giganteum Schp. 



Hypnum scorpioides L. 

 There can be little doubt that the extensive fells of the eastern portion of 

 the county and the limestone crags of the northern district will well repay 

 further investigation on the part of bryologists. — J. A. Whki.pox and 

 ALBERT Wilson, Liverpool, 9th January K)oo. 



1900 February i. 



