Capitones fluuiatilis or millers thumbs, pungitius fluuiatilis or stanticles. Aphia cobites fluuiatilis or Loches. in norwich riuers in the runnes about Heueningham heath in the north riuer & streames thereof.
Of eeles[97] the com̄on eele & the glot wch hath somewhat a different shape in the bignesse of the head & is affirmed to have yong ones often found within it. & wee haue found a vterus in the same somewhat answering the icon thereof in Senesinus.
[97] The coarse variety of the Eel, known as the "Glout," or Broad-nosed Eel, is believed to be the barren female; Browne's informants were doubtless misled by the presence of certain thread-worms (Nematoxys) in the abdomen of the eels, which they mistook for young ones.
Carpiones carpes plentifull in ponds & sometimes large ones in broads [smear] 2 the largest I euer beheld were [found crossed out] taken [added above] in Norwich Riuer.
[A whole line is smeared out, and a break occurs in the MS. after the observation on the Carp; it then proceeds to notice some other inhabitants of the county which perhaps Browne had difficulty in classifying.]
Though the woods and dryelands about [abound?] with adders and vipers[98] yet are there few snakes about our riuers or meadowes more to bee found in Marsh land butt ponds & plashes abound in Lizards or swifts.
[98] Both Vipers (or Adders) and Snakes, the latter in particular, are, I imagine, much less abundant than formerly, but the few species of Lizards and Newts (Swifts) are still probably in undiminished numbers; the Mole Cricket (Gryllotalpa vulgaris) is rare with us; Horse-leeches (Aulostoma gulo) are frequent, and also "Periwinkles," which I take to be various species of freshwater Molluscs, possibly of Limnæa. The Hard-worm (or Hair-worm), Gordius aquaticus, which refused to be generated from "horsehayres," is still an object of wonder to the unlearned, and the Great Black Water-Beetle (Hydrophilus piceus) is found; but forficula and corculum were a puzzle, as it is evident from their association they must be aquatic forms (and the Earwig certainly does not take to the water voluntarily), till my friend, Mr. C. G. Barrett, referred me to the following passage in Swammerdam's "Book of Nature," p. 93: "This is most certain that the Forficula aquatica of Jonston is the true nymph of the Mordella, or Dragon-fly,"[O] Dr. Charleton in his "Onomasticon," p. 57, has "Corculus, the Water-beetle, resembling an heart;" not very definite, but probably the Whirligig Beetle, Gyrinus natator, is intended; it is also an appellation given by some authors to "a small species of cordiformis, or heart-shell, of a rose colour," doubtless a Cyclas or a Pisidium. Squilla is the Freshwater Shrimp (Gammarus pulex), and Notonecta glauca, the Waterboatman "which swimmeth on its back," is well known.
Otters are still numerous in the broads and reed-margined rivers, and so long as these natural fastnesses endure in their present condition they are likely to continue so.
[O] On reference to Jonston (Historiæ Naturalis de Insectis Lib. iv., "De Insectis aquaticis" i., p. 189, Tab. xxvii.), I find that under the name of "Forficulæ aquat[icæ]. M [oufet]," he has two figures, the first of which is possibly a Dytiscus larva, the second that of some form of Dragon-fly, which however is imperfect.
The Gryllotalpa or fencricket com̄on in fenny places butt wee haue met with them also in dry places dung-hills & church yards of this citty.