Concha anatifera or Ansifera or Barnicleshell whereof about 4 yeares past were found upon the shoare no small number by yarmouth hanging by slender strings of a kind of Alga vnto seuerall splinters or [clefts crossed out] cleauings of firre boards vnto wch they were seuerally fastned & hanged like ropes of onyons: their shell flat & of a peculiar forme differing from other shelles, this being of four diuisions. containing a small imperfect animal at the lower part diuided into many shootes or streames wch prepossed [imag crossed out] spectators fancy to bee the rudiment of the tayle of some goose or duck to bee [expute crossed out] produced from it. some whereof in ye shell & some taken out & spred upon paper wee shall [still?] keepe by us.
[Fol. 34.] Stellæ marinæ[87] or sea starres in great plentie especially about yarmouth. whether they bee bred out of the [vrticas crossed out] vrticæ squalders or sea gellies as many report wee cannot confirme butt the squalderes in the middle seeme to haue some lines or first draughts not unlike. our starres exceed not 5 poynts though I haue heard that some with more haue been found about Hunstanton and Burnham. where are also found stellæ marinæ testacæ or handsome crusted & brittle sea [stars crossed out] starres much lesse.
[87] The Five-finger (Asterias rubens, L.) is a very numerous species on our coast and very destructive. Brittle Stars (Ophiocoma sp?) are as Browne states most frequent about Hunstanton, Burnham, and Cromer. Solaster papposa is also found in the same localities.
The pediculus[88] and culex marin us the sea lowse & flie are [are crossed out] also no strangeres.
[88] The Pediculus, or Sea Louse, is probably Talitrus locusta, the Sand-hopper; what may be intended by Culex marinus it is difficult to say. A species of gnat is at times very numerous on the wet sand just above the water-line. See also [Notes 110] and [115], on a kindred subject.
Physsalus Rondeletij[89] or eruca marina physsaloides according to the icon of Rondeletius of very orient green & purple bristles.
[89] The Sea Mouse, Aphrodite aculeata. This is referred to again in the Letters to Merrett.
Urtica marina[90] of diuers kinds some whereof called squalderes. of a burning and stinging qualitie if rubbed in the hand. the water thereof may afford a good cosmetick.
[90] Mr. E. T. Browne, of the Zoological Laboratory of University College, London, has kindly furnished me with the following notes on this subject: "Jonston (1657) gives figures of Anemones and large Medusae under the name of Urtica. On Tab. xviii. he figures Anemones and other beasts, but not medusae. The medusae are on the next Tab. (xix.). Urtica marina includes both Anemones and certain Scyphomedusae (not Pulmo). Under 'some … called Squalders of a burning and stinging quality,' I think Browne must refer to our common stinging Scyphomedusae belonging to the genus Chrysaora or Cyanaea, of which there are three species.
"The vague description of what he calls 'sea buttons' [see below, also [second letter to Merrett]] would suit either a Medusa or a Ctenophore. The additional note, 'two small holes in the ends,' rather upsets matters, but I think he must refer to some sort of jelly-fish, probably damaged, which is usually the case when cast up on the shore. If the buttons worn in those days were like filbert-nuts or eggs, I am inclined to think that the reference must be to a Ctenophore, genus Pleurobrachia, but if flat, then to one of the Hydromedusae. It would be safe to say, 'probably a kind of jelly-fish,' which is about as vague as the reference." See also Dr. Reuben Robinson's description of "Squalders" in a letter to Browne (Wilkin i., pp. 422-424). It seems probable that the gelatinous masses referred to in the early part of this letter, which Dr. Robinson says were ascribed by Dr. Charleton to "the nocturnall pollution of some plethorick or wanton starr: or rather excrement blowne from the nosthrills of a rheumatick planett," were the remains of the undeveloped spawn of frogs, the bodies of which had been eaten by rats, crows, or herons, and which had become swollen by exposure to moisture.