NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 285
having "23 dorso-lumbar vertebrae" ; whereas I made out 19 
dorsal and 5 lumbar vertebrae, when I counted them last year
in the specimen of that horse which is to be found articulated
in the North Gallery of the British Museum (Nat. Hist.) at
S. Kensington.
How far Mr. Newton's statement that "the Bishop's
Stortford horse-bones present no characters which would
indicate their being of prehistoric age" can be justified, will
appear when the paper which I read at Sheffield to Section H
comes to be published in extenso.
NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
BIRDS.
Black Redstart at Bradfield, Essex.—As the Black
Redstart (Rubicilla titys) is an unfrequent visitor to Essex, it
is, I think, worth recording that one, a male bird, was about
my garden and the neighbourhood for several hours of the
afternoon of Wednesday, 22nd March last.—Walter B. Nichols,
M.B.O.U., Stour Lodge, Bradfield, Manningtree.
Mr. Christy (Birds of Essex) gives two references to the
occurrence of the Black Redstart in Essex. Some interesting
notes on the reputed nesting of the bird will be found in the
Essex Naturalist, ii., pp. 192 and 256, and vol. iii. p. 39.—Ed.
PLANTS.
Albinism in Essex Wild Flowers.—The Rev. Gilbert
H. Raynor, Rector of Hazeleigh, near Maldon, writes as follows
in the Essex County Chronicle :—"Now that Nature-Study has
become so fashionable, there must be many among your readers
who collect or study the wild flowers of their neighbourhood ;
and, with your permission, I should like to call their attention to
the very charming white varieties of certain pink and blue flowers
that may occasionally be found.
" Some of these, such as the White Bluebell (Scilla nutans) and
the White Centaury (Erythraea centaurium), are so comparatively
common as to call for little comment. They may be found in
almost every locality where the typical plant abounds.
" Far more surprising are the pure white forms of the Great
Hoary Willow Herb (Epilobium hirsutum), the Common Calamint