Field Notes. 
123 
In this connection also it is of interest to note that the 
Windermere plankton has been changing consistently and 
rapidly during the last twenty years. The changes are, on 
the whole, in the direction of a greater abundance of blue-green 
algae, and they indicate a greater amount of organic matter 
dissolved in the water. Professor Tracey E. Hazen, of 
Columbia University, informs me that Uroglenopsis in the 
United States is characteristic of highly organic waters. 
Its appearance in Windermere would thus be quite consistent 
with the changes which have been observed in that lake, 
and from these various facts I think it probable that it 
represents a recent development in Windermere. 
FRUITING OF MNIUM UNDULATUM. 
JOHN E. NOWERS. 
I have read Chris. A. Cheetham’s note in March Naturalist 
entitled ‘ Uncommon Moss Fruits,’ with much interest. 
Another Yorkshire locality where Mnium undulatum fruits 
is Howden Hill Wood, on the Yorkshire bank of the Tees, 
between Manfield Scar and Piercebridge. There were large 
numbers of capsules on 14/4/28, also on 16/5/32. I have not 
been to the spot this year, but it looks to be a place where 
this moss frequently produces capsules. 
FIELD NOTES. 
Badgers and Lambs. — Badgers are now more numerous 
in parts of Cumberland County than they have ever been 
within living memory. Some of the sheep farmers have 
always looked upon Brock as a menace to young lambs. In 
one area of the County where very many badgers have been 
killed, there have been, isolated and very rare cases where a 
badger was found to have dined off young lamb. But even 
these very rare cases do not prove that Brock actually killed 
the lamb. His meat diet is carrion, and he may have found 
the young lamb dead. Be that as it may, Brock’s friends 
stoutly deny that he will kill young lambs. The whole question 
has come up again over a happening at a hunt. The Cumber- 
land Farmers’ Foxhounds ran a fox to earth. Terriers were 
put in and they encountered unexpected opposition in the way 
of a badger, receiving a bad mauling before Brock was drawn 
out and killed. Then a second badger appeared to meet a 
like fate, and finally Reynard was got. It was a most unusual 
though not altogether an unknown thing, to find fox and 
badger in the same earth. Inside of one of the badgers was 
found the foot and head of a newly-born lamb, which, although 
proof of the eating, was again no proof of the killing. — 
T. F. Marriner, Carlisle. 
1933 June I 
