Welsh Journals

FIELD NOTES PLANTS There is now no B.S.B.I. Recorder for v. c. 46 Cardigan. Records may be sent to T. A. W. Davis, South Mullock, Dale, Haverfordwest, Dyfed. MAMMALS Notes and records on mammals, amphibians and reptiles should be sent to L. S. V. Venables, Ty'n Lon, Bodorgan, Anglesey (for North Wales) and to D. R. Saunders, Sunnyhill, Rosemarket, Haverfordwest (for South Wales). ANGLESEY RED SQUIRRELS It is pleasant to find that there is no evidence of a reduction in distribution of this species. We continue to see them in the various woods in the south of the island where we have known them since we came to live in Anglesey in 1958. In April 1976 Mrs. M. R. Davies was delighted to see one near her house at Llandegfan, her first record for that locality, and in the following month one was noted running across the road at Gallow's Point, Beaumaris, presumably from the mixed woodland on Barron Hill. On a sterner note we saw one being attacked, routed and put to flight by a Mistle Thrush in the Plas Newydd woods on 14 April this year. L.S.V.V. ANGLESEY FOXES The recent infestation of Foxes in Anglesey has been noted several times in this journal. In brief, one was recorded in 1961 and since then over 1,000 have been destroyed. It is not so well known, however, that this was by no means the first Fox record for the island. My neighbour Tomos Roberts of Trefdraeth is working through parish vestry books as part of his research in Anglesey place-names. In the churchwarden accounts of some parishes he is finding references to the destruction of Foxes during the latter part of the eighteenth century. Churchwardens usually paid one shilling for each Fox destroyed within their parish. The accounts for the parish of Amlwch record the destruction of 41 Foxes between 1768 and 1787. (He has kindly presented me with a complete list which I have filed). Unfortunately a gap exists in the accounts between 1788 and 1820. The accounts for the years immediately following 1821 contain no references to Foxes. A survey of other Anglesey vestry books of the same period should reveal more facts about the Fox population and it may be possible to suggest a date of extinction. It is worth pointing out that Amlwch is just under Parys Mountain where the first of the present infestation began. During his investigation of vestry books Tomos Roberts will continue to abstract all references to Foxes, and we hope to publish a detailed account of this when the work is completed.