170 



NOTE on LINCOLNSHIRE MAMMALS. 



Rat's Mode of Drinking (Alford, Lines.). — One Saturday in July 

 1886 or 1887, after a spell of dry weather, being- alone at my office, then in 

 Alford, a thunderstorm came on. After the rain ceased I went into a back 

 room, where ray eve was about the same height as the lower edge of the 

 tiles over the rear of the building. There I viewed a row of Rats (A/us 

 decumanus), each with his head under the tiles lapping the fresh-fallen 

 water as it ran off the tiles and down the gutter. — Jas. Eardley Mason, 

 42. Carholme Road, Lincoln, 5th April 1902. 



NOTE on YORKSHIRE PALAEONTOLOGY. 



Ichthyosaurus thyreospondylus at Speeton, Yorkshire. — An 



interesting communication from Mr. C. G. Danford, of Reighton, was read 

 at the last, monthly meeting (20th March) of the Hull Geological Society. 



Early in Februarv, when examining a fresh exposure of the Kimmeridge 

 Clay, to the north of Speeton 'Middle cliff,' Mr. Danford detected a small 

 frag'ment of bone projecting from the cliff, some six feet above the level of 

 the beach. A little digging- soon showed some vertebrae and rib bones. 

 Deeper and lower down came the larger bones of the jaws and paddles, 

 these being succeeded by more vertebrae and long slender ribs. In all 

 53 vertebrae were found, disposed in a curve beginning about eight feet 

 above the beach and ending a couple of feet below its surface. 



The bones were carefully collected and submitted (in part only) to Dr. A. 

 Smith Woodward, F.R.S., F.G.S., of the British Museum (Natural History), 

 who pronounced the species to be Ichthyosaurus thyreospondylus, a form 

 known to occur in the Kimmeridge Clay of the South of England, but not 

 previously noted in Yorkshire. 



It is gratifying to record that the specimen has been presented by 

 Mr. Danford to the Hull Municipal Museum. — John W. Stather, Hull, 

 9th April j 902. 



BOOK NOTICE. 



It is with pleasure, an unexpected pleasure, that one looks over the 

 contents of Vol. 15 of the Proceedings of the Barrow Naturalists' 

 Field Club and Literary and Scientific Association, just issued, 

 covering- the two years ending with March 1901. Folklore finds a place in 

 ' Tree Myths and Forest Lore," but it is quite impossible to g-ain any idea of 

 what the speaker said from the condensed report. In ' A Visit to an 

 Aquarium ' we are told that sea anemones are found on Walney, but what 

 the species is we are left in ignorance, and the writer of the paper savs that 

 twenty species are known in British waters. Are there not more than 60? 

 In the '.Silurian Rocks of the Lake District,' p. 67, I. 4. a map is mentioned, 

 but it is not present; on the next page is the question if Blackcombe was 

 ever a volcano. I am told that the late Miss E. Hodgson demolished that idea 

 in the Transactions of this very society, Vol. 2, p. 90. In the ' Rose and its 

 Folklore ' I must admit that I know nothing of John Gerard's poems ; but if 

 the statement is not based on a mistaken rendering of what Folkard says in 

 his ■ Plant-lore. Legends and Lyrics,' p. 524, it at any rate looks like it. 

 A paper on ' Snails,' by Mr. Benney, of Bradford, is readable. Mr. Swainson, 

 F.L. S., of Bolton, read what must have been good to listen to about ' Coral 

 and Coral Islands." Here ag'ain the condensation is too much. The 8 Birds 

 of Shetland ' has of course nothing to do with North Lancashire, but it and 

 Mr. Gaythorpe's capital ' The Blackbird in Furness ' help to keep up the 

 scientific side of the Transactions. But there is no indication, except in 

 Mr. Gavthorpe's case, of any effort by any member to further the matter of 

 local investigation. The address by Mr. Scott on 'Crabs and Lobsters' 

 does not applv to natural history work in the list-makers' sense, but his 

 work at Piel shows that before naturalists he could give an account of many 

 things of interest. — S. L. P., 28th March 1902. 



Naturalist. 



