192 ROSS : MYCETOZOA IN THE CHINGFORD DISTRICT. 
Few birds, I imagine, suffer more from the perils of migration 
than do the Rails. In my experience ol “ telegraphed ” birds, 
the Corncrake and the Water Rail are very frequent victims. 
Yet, for four years at least, an individual identifiable 
by a peculiar voice is able to return each summer to its 
favourite held. Normally, the Corncrake is a summer migrant, 
wintering in Airica and even, exceptionally, reaching so far 
south as Australia. Winter Corncrakes are sometimes re¬ 
corded in this country, and Essex has provided several such 
records. There is, cf course, no proof of any sort, but one may 
be excused for making the speculation that these Theydon Bois 
individuals do not risk the perils of migration, but pass the 
winter in England—not in the fields, but perhaps in marshland. 
We sometimes flushed Corncrakes from marshy ponds on the 
Pennines in September while we were in search of Snipe. 
[The Corncrake is common in Essex as a passing migrant in September, 
when it is fm quently shot from crops of clover by sportsmen after partridges. 
Last autumn, I sent to the Zoological Society’s Gardens a live example, 
caught by hand by a boy in a harvest field immediately adjoining my house 
at Chignal St. James.—M.C.]. 
MYCETOZOA IN THE CHINGFORD DISTRICT 
OF EPPING FOREST IN AUGUST AND 
SEPTEMBER 1915 AND 1916. 
By JOSEPH ROSS. 
HE thunderstorms and heavy showers of July 1915 made conditions 
J. very favourable for the germination of mycetozoa. The previous 
winter and a dry spring had been unfavourable, and the outburst of 
sporangia in August and September was welcome testimony that in¬ 
creasing numbers of visitors to the Forest had not diminished the chances 
of finding these organisms when conditions are suitable. In August 
and the earlier part of September, it was possible to find twenty species 
on any day without crossing Fairmead Bottom. Conditions also favoured 
gnats and midges. When one had been bitten once for every species 
found, one was not inclined to prolong the search beyond six or seven 
hours. 
Another feature was the almost-complete absence of the genus 
Trichia. A few immature specimens of Trichia decipiens and weathered 
groups of Trichia afpnis and T. botrytis were found, and are included in 
the appended list, but the genus did not appear in any quantity until 
October, shortly before the Field Club fungus foray. Pliysarum nutans, 
Didymium nigripes, Didymium squamulosum, and Arcyria nutans were 
plentiful, D. nigripes being most abundant. 
