Abstract
THE issue of the nineteenth annual report of the Lancashire and Cheshire Fauna Committee for the year 1932 adds Plastoscira Egertoni, from Rostherne Mere, Cheshire, as a new species to science, while a list of a hundred new species added to the faunistic records for the two counties includes 38 Mallophaga on the birds and mammals, which Mr. H. Britten is investigating, 20 Diptera, 17 sawflies, 10 Coleoptera, 9 Hymenoptera, 3 Anoplura, and one each of Lepidoptera, Arachnida and mites. The avi-fauna records for the year include the nesting of the golden-eye and of the pochard in Cheshire for the first time, and the occurrence of a flock of knots (Calidris c. canutus), estimated to number 7,000, on the Lancashire coast in July. White-fronted geese and grey lag geese are increasing in north Lancashire in winter, while tufted ducks, teal, shoveller and little owl are also reported to be increasing in parts. The main colony of Sandwich terns on Walney Island, Lancashire, was wiped out by the herring and lesser black-backed gulls, the colony of which, established five years ago, has assumed alarming proportions. The terns from Walney went to nest at Ravenglass ternery where the Sandwich terns have increased from 12 pairs in 1930 to 70 in 1931, and 370 in 1932. The ruff (Philomachus pugnax) is still a regular autumn migrant and records are made of the wood-sandpiper (Tringa glareola), green-sandpiper (T. ochropus), greenshank (T. nebularia) and grey phalarope (Phalaropus fulicariiis) on passage, while large numbers of black-tailed godwits were seen in the spring on the coast. The Fauna Committee announces that it will dedicate Part 2 of its “Check List of the Fauna of Lancashire and Cheshire” to the late T. A. Coward, for many years one of the recorders of the Committee; Part 1 having been issued in 1930. Mr. A. W. Boyd is president of the Committee and H. E. Britten, Prof. S. J. Hickson and W. Mansbridge vice-presidents.
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Lancashire and Cheshire Fauna Records. Nature 133, 718–719 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/133718e0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/133718e0