Norfolk Natterjack

We have the image that our predecessors as amateur naturalists were all elderly gentlemen in tweeds. All gentlemen? Not a bit of it! Natterjack editor Francis Farrow demonstrates in an article in the latest issue, No. 118, that there were some distinguished and expert ladies whose studies were at least on a par with anything the men produced. Take Maria Merian, who was born in 1647. Her detailed observations of butterfly metamorphosis made her a significant contributor to entomology. The name of Eleanor Glanville, born in c.1654, lives on in the name of one of our rarest butterflies, the Glanville fritillary. Sarah Bowditch, who was born in 1791, was an illustrator, zoologist, botanist and pteridologist and is known for her remarkable achievement in publishing The Fresh Water Fishes of Great Britain. And a name that will be familiar to Norfolk naturalists is that of Margaret Fountaine, daughter of one of the county's oldest families, whose remarkable collection of butterflies is housed in the Castle Museum.

Also in this issue, a detailed study of "Amazing Samphires" by Colin Dunster who describes their adaptation and identification - the latter a tricky skill because the species are remarkably alike.

Carol Carpenter had the good fortune to return home from a short holiday to find that a spotted flycatcher had set up home in a rose trellis, and Alan Dixon describes how he has spent a lot of time lying on the ground and crawling to photograph hares.

Their pictures and others are among the usual excellent selection in the Nat's Gallery.

Natterjack is issued free to Society members four times a year, together with copies of our other publications.

Back issues

The following back issues of Natterjack are available for download: