Cambridgeshire is eminently a county of anglers. This fisherman instinct comes from bygone generations, for fishing was once an industry of the county and adjoining districts. It was one of the objections raised against the first drainage of the Fens that many thousands engaged in fishing and fowlling would be thrown out of employment. As late as 1749 there was a fish market in Cambridge itself, which was supplied with fresh-water fish from the neighbouring Fens. It was held twice a week, and salmon and sturgeon could be purchased.

In early days the Cambridgeshire fisheries were numerous and important, a considerable portion of the endowments of the old monastery of Ely being derived from them. From accounts in Dugdale and Camden the amount of fish was enormous. According to Bede the very name of Ely itself is derived from the vast number of eels caught in the vicinity. The importance of these fisheries in ancient days was so great that lawsuits were waged over them. On one occasion the Abbot of St Edmondsbury successfully obtained an injunction against the diverting of the Nene requisite to protect Wisbech and the adjoining country from inundation. The Abbot pleaded that should the course of the Nene be altered, a certain fishery in that district belonging to his Abbey would be ruined. With reference to later times a quotation from an old fragmentary History of Cambridgeshire may be instructive.

INTRODUCTORY

Cambridge and the districts in the vicinity have always been of the greatest interest to ornithologists, owing to the proximity of the Fen country, of old the haunt of many species of Birds which were to be found breeding in few other parts of Britain. The Marsh-Harrier, the Bittern, the Great Bustard, the Ruff and his consort the Reeve, the Black-tailed Godwit, and the Black Tern will doubtless first present themselves to the mind of the reader, as having either entirely or almost entirely ceased to rear their young in the kingdom; but even more remarkable is the case of Savi's Warbler, which was only recognized as a regular summer visitor to the Eastern Counties early in the last century, and disappeared finally from the country in 1856. Bones of Pelican, Swan and Wild Goose have been found in the peat in company with those of commoner species, but with nothing to indicate the exact period to which they belong.

Owing, however, to the gradual drainage of the Fens and the consequent extension of cultivation to large areas formerly occupied chiefly by sallow-bushes, reed-beds and sedges, the state of affairs has entirely changed since the beginning of the nineteenth century, and Cambridgeshire can now lay claim to but little of her ancient glory as a paradise for birds of the moor and morass.

Of the thirteen different species of Amphibia and Reptiles of England eleven are known to occur, and to breed, in Cambridgeshire. In the following pages no notice is taken of specimens which have obviously escaped from captivity. For instance, Prof. Henslow in 1824 met with a Natterjack in the Old Botanic Garden, the present Museum-grounds. In the present Botanic Garden now and then a continental frog has been found, and at the Leys School opposite boys occasionally bring such a frog from London and keep it for a while. A spotted or Fire Salamander has crawled across Chesterton Road after a thunderstorm, and inquiry into its ownership was of no avail. I mention this case because a gentleman, who knows this species from continental experience, has assured me that he has met several of them at a certain place on the East Coast.

REPTILIA

Of the three British species the only snake of Cambridge and its neighbourhood for many miles around is the Common or Grass-snake, Tropidonotus natrix. It is easily recognisable by the pair of light-coloured, yellow or white, patches on the neck, immediately behind the head; this light collar is always present in the snakes of this county. The Grass-snake prefers moist, grassy localities, with the neighbourhood of water, chiefly on account of the food, which consists entirely of fishes and amphibians, notably of frogs; toads are occasionally eaten, but mice are never taken, although a Radiograph was once exhibited at a learned Society's Meeting showing a Grass-snake in the act of swallowing a mouse, but horribile dictu, the mouse had been shoved by force into the unwilling snake's mouth! The Grass-snake never bites, although hissing and striking out furiously with its head.

The following account of the Orthoptera of Cambridgeshire is based upon the collection made by the late Rev. L. Jenyns, and most of the specimens referred to are to be found in the collection, left by him to the Cambridgeshire Philosophical Society. A few other localities have been added, based upon recent captures recorded in the magazines.

DERMATOPTERA

Family Forficulidae

Labia minor, L. Common in the summer, often seen on the wing in company with Staphylinidae, over flower beds and dungheaps.

Forficula auricularia, L. Abundant everywhere (Jenyns). Var. forcipata, Steph. “Not uncommon at Bottisham in harvest time, in sheaves of wheat” (Jenyns).

Apterygida media, Hagenb. “Cambridge, Prof. C. C. Babington.” This is an exceedingly rare species; it has, in fact, been only recorded on two other occasions in Great Britain; Westwood took it at Ashford, and Mr James Edwards has taken it near Norwich.

DICTYOPTERA

Family Blattidae

Stylopyga orientalis, L. Swarms in houses.

(Periplaneta Australasiae, Fabr., another introduced species, is plentiful in the Palm-houses and warm pottingsheds in the Cambridge Botanic Gardens; it is also very probable that some at least of the three British Ectobiidae occur, but records of captured Orthoptera in the county are few and far between.)

The four British orders of land Arachnida, (1) Chernitidea or false-scorpions, (2) Araneae or spiders, (3) Phalangidea or harvestmen, and (4) Acari or mites, are all well represented in the neighbourhood of Cambridge. But while the Cambridge list of spiders is a respectable one, comprising more than 180 out of about 500 British species, and a certain number of the comparatively few British species of harvestmen and falsescorpions have been locally recorded, hardly any attempt has been made to grapple with the large and important group of the mites, which probably, in the number of species, and most certainly in the number of individuals, would far out-number all the other local Arachnida put together.

A few words will suffice with regard to the local falsescorpions or harvestmen, but there are points of interest in connection with the spiders which call for a somewhat larger notice.

(1) The Chernitidea or false-scorpions are creatures so small in size, and so retiring in habit, that it is quite possible for an observant person to pass years without ever seeing a specimen, unless he is specially searching for these animals or for other small creatures which affect similar haunts. It is just possible he may have noticed examples clinging to the legs of house-flies, or come across a “book-scorpion” between the leaves of some disused volume.

The geology of Cambridgeshire, so far as the underlying strata are concerned, is not complicated; the superficial deposits, however, exhibit considerable variety, and their origin is still in many cases a subject for discussion.

The stratified rocks of Cambridgeshire form part of the great mass of secondary strata which extends in an unbroken line from the Yorkshire coast to that of Dorsetshire. In the tract of which Cambridgeshire forms a part, their general strike is nearly north-east and south-west, and as the beds dip gently towards the south-east (at angles which approach horizontality) the older strata lie to the north and west of the county and the newer ones to the south and east. To the north-west of a line drawn from near Littleport to Gamlingay the rocks mainly belong to the Jurassic system; to the southeast of that line to the Cretaceous System.

Complications are introduced by folding, unconformabilities, and the existence of outliers. An anticlinal fold brings up a considerable mass of Jurassic rocks in the neighbourhood of the hamlet of Upware. An important unconformity occurs at the base of the Cretaceous rocks, causing the lower Cretaceous rocks to rest upon different members of the Jurassic System, while a smaller unconformity occurs at the base of the Chalk.

The Mollusca are fairly well represented in the county of Cambridge, since 101 of the 143 or so British species have been recorded. This is, however, a larger total than those of all the bordering counties except Essex, yet it seems probable that further search may add to the present list. Exploration has no doubt been restricted by the facts that the large towns are at the north and south ends of the county and that the intermediate region is one of small villages and scattered farmsteads. At the same time the comparatively recent alteration in the physical features of much of the county demands attention in considering its fauna. The draining of the Fenland has during the last 300 years converted vast areas of brackish tidal waters into dry land, and so the absence of at least some of the xerophilous species common enough in other parts of England is not difficult to understand.

Beyond this it would be hazardous to say much, for our knowledge of the molluscan fauna of the central districts is at present very inadequate, and much remains to be done in the exploration of the region through which the Bedford Levels run, the tidal waters of those artificial streams, and of the region forming the Isle of Ely, before we can consider that the mollusca of the county have been fully recorded.