288 



NO TE — COLEOPTERA. 



Coleoptera taken at Bottesford, Lincolnshire. — The following 



species have been taken by me on or about 21st May 1900, and named 

 by the Rev. A. Thornley : — 



Hydrobius fuscipes. Bembidium guadrimaculatum. 



Geotrupes stercorarius. Bembidium littorale. 



Necrophorus humator. Ilybius obscurtis. 



Carabus monilis. Gyrinus natator. 



Pterostichus vulgaris. Hyphydrus ovatus. 



Pterostichus cupreus. Pyrochroa serraiicornis. 



Harpalus tardus. Telephorus lividus. 



Calathus cisteloides. Helophorus aquaticus. 



Ancho??ienus albipes. Laccobius minutus (Linn.). 



Amara livida (bifrons). Phyllobius oblongus. 



Amara familiaris. Hydroporus lit a rat us. 



— Max Peacock, Bottesford, 12th July 1900. 



NOTE— GEOLOGY. 



The Marlstone at Lincoln. — J was pleased to find from the report of 

 the excursion of the Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union to Lincoln, published 

 in ' The Naturalist ' for August, that the geologists present at that excursion 

 paid particular attention to the evidence in favour of the presence of the 

 Marlstone at Lincoln. 



The Marlstone proper should occur in the zone of Amaltheus spinatus 

 at the top of the Middle Lias ; and the fact that Mr. W. D. Carr, the officers 

 of the Geological Survey, and others have failed to detect it, would seem 

 sufficient reason for the belief that this particular bed does not occur at 

 Lincoln. Mr. J. H. Cooke, F.G.S., in a paper in the 'Geological Magazine,' 

 1897, pp. 253-259, ' On a New Section in the Middle Lias of Lincoln,' pointed 

 out that he had obtained from a bed in the Lias at Lincoln ' Rhynchonella 

 tetrahedra* which would seem at once to determine its equivalence with the 

 Marlstone, that has hitherto been supposed to have been missing in this 

 neighbourhood.' Were this statement substantiated, Mr. Cooke has 

 certainly added an item to our knowledge of the Lincoln Lias. From the 

 report of the Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union referred to, it would appear 

 that Mr. Cooke's determination rests 'upon the fragment of one shell which 

 appeared to him as Rhynchonella tetrahedra.' This certainly seems slender 

 evidence upon which to base such a new and important conclusion. If the 

 fragment be still in existence it would be satisfactory to have it examined 

 by an expert ; the result might just possibly be that it was not P. tetrahedra 

 at all ; but provided that Mr. Cooke's determination be correct, the occur- 

 rence of R. tetrahedra — as Mr. Cooke will be aware — does not of itself 

 prove the presence of the Marlstone or zone of Amaltheus spinatus, as that 

 Brachiopod occurs also in several other zones of the Middle Lias. From 

 several days' collecting amongst the fossils of the Lias at Lincoln in 1898, 

 I have arrived at the conclusion that the species hitherto referred to as 

 Am. spinatus is more probably Harpoceras algovianum Oppel, and which is 

 characteristic of the zone of Am. margaritatus. I am therefore inclined to 

 think that the Marlstone of the Am. spinatus zone does not occur at Lincoln 

 at all, but that the whole of the beds in question belong to the zone of 

 Am. margaritatus. 



In conclusion it would appear that Mr. Cooke's evidence is very dubious. 

 The presence of P. tetrahedra, if verified, does not prove the presence of 

 the Marlstone ; and as the previous identification of Am. spinatus seems to 

 me doubtful, the whole case in favour of the presence of the Marlstone at 

 Lincoln falls to the ground. — F. F. Walton, 19, Charlotte Street, Hull. 

 25th August 1900. 



Naturalist 



