ORCHIS MACULATA.
123
no kindly guardian like Mr. Cross, who presides with such
efficient care over the destinies of the one near Brightlingsea.
POSTSCRIPT—
Since writing the above, I have been in correspondence
with Mr. Charles Dawkins, who has kindly given me informa-
tion of a large colony of Black-Headed Gulls on the Wick
Marshes near Tollesbury.
These are not far from the Hall Marshes which I drew
blank this summer, but Mr. Dawkins informs me, he has known
the Wick Gulleries for 13 years, and though the birds and nests
have annually fluctuated considerably in numbers, they have at
no time been completely absent.
It appears that in this locality the gulls still build their
large clumsy nests among the reeds of the bigger fleets, and Mr.
Hawkins writes that he might have put the numbers of them
this year considerably above the figure he quotes in the last
number of the Essex Naturalist (ante p. 69). He says the
marshrnen take very good care of the nests, and his account
generally is most satisfactory, so I must now add another pros-
perous gull colony in Essex to my list.
Perhaps bye-and-bye we may even hear of more among the
islands at the mouth of the Crouch.
ORCHIS MACULATA, SUB-SPECIES ERICE-
TORUM, LINTON, IN EPPING FOREST.
By O. E. BRITTON.
Three or four years ago my friend, Mr. James Holloway,
expressed to me his opinion, that the Spotted Orchis of Epping
Forest was somewhat different from the usual form of Orchis
maculata found growing elsewhere. Last year (1900) the Epping
Forest form of Orchis maculata was again mentioned by Mr.
Holloway, and it then occurred to me, that, in all probability,
this plant was the recently described sub-species, Orchis ericetorum,
Linton. During the present season, we have both paid a certain
amount of attention to the Spotted Orchis in Epping Forest,
with the result that the occurrence of O. ericetorum as a Forest
plant is firmly established. Indeed, we have seen no Spotted
Orchises that seem referable to 0. maculata in a restricted sense.
A number of our plants were sent to the Rev. E. F. Linton for