HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



171 



must have been a descent of nearly fifteen hundred 

 feet. 



Another hour's walk took me back to my inn. I 

 had no time to botanise on the way, but I saw on the 

 rocks, close to the road, quantities of a phyteuma 

 which I took for hemisphrericum, and numerous 

 spikes in full flower of the pretty Anthcricum ra- 

 viosum. A. capillus veneris and A. rut a murarid, 

 too, were to be seen in two or three places, besides 

 other more common species. 



R. B. P. 



Eastbourne. 



CURIOSITIES IN BIRDS' EGGS. 



THE same reason, I have no doubt, which 

 occasioned Mr. Nunn to remark that "it is 

 difficult to stop writing on so interesting a subject," 

 determined me to begin penning these few discursive 

 observations, helping, I hope, to dispel his fear, 

 that, "but few collectors will take the trouble to 

 record the curious facts and irregularities they have 

 met with." 



Last April, while poking into odd corners for 

 nature's oddities in West Berks, I found a thrush's 

 nest containing specimens of the spotless spheroid 

 e £g> mentioned by Mr. Wright, and as curiosities 

 exhibited them to a company of gossips outside the 

 village inn. To illustrate how easy a matter it is to 

 confound variably marked eggs with distinct species 

 the following will show. One knew they could not 

 be thrush's eggs, for where were the spots ? I 

 showed him the nest. Another was sure thrush's 

 eggs were always spotted ever since he was a boy. 

 I presented the nest for his inspection. The village 

 schoolmaster (evidently wise in his> day) suggested I 

 was playing a trick, by presenting a bona-fide thrush's 

 nest, while I was the bird that deposited the eggs in 

 it. I begged him to say, in that case, what they 

 might be. Starling's likely, though rather blue and 

 round. "Thee bist all very foin to come yer and 

 fool we but 't'en't so aisy I tell'e," was an old 

 codger's verdict. The policeman admitted I 

 probably was quite right, and the company 

 ventilating their opinions, the discussion became 

 heated, the language far, far from parliamentary, and 

 the policeman and my friend the "codger" daggers 

 drawn, with the result that the former threatened to 

 use his prerogative, and "shut up " the latter if he 

 did not put a bridle on his tongue himself, and 

 conduct himself in a more seemly manner. Such is 

 life. 



I determined to look out for all future variations, 

 but, unfortunately, found none last year, after the 

 above mentioned. Mr. Wright's notice only 

 aroused my hunting propensity for the abnormal 

 the more, and I am pleased to record a small 

 success already this year. 

 On April 8th, from a clutch of three thrush's eggs, 



I took one with the spots thickly congregated at the 

 smaller end. The other two were quite normal. 



On the 9th, I found one egg in a thrush's nest 

 which lacked the black spots, and instead had 

 apologies for same, of a whitish watery appearance. 

 Next day the second egg was very similarly marked 

 but spots apparently slightly more distinct. The 

 third day brought an egg with a tendency to 

 approach blackening. The fourth egg had decided 

 black spots (very small) mixed with a few yellowish 

 brown, with a fair sprinkling of the watery ones. 

 On the fifth day no egg was added. 



This progression certainly points to a constitutional 

 assertion of the bird's function in the production of the 

 normal, and may be perhaps accounted for by this 

 being the bird's first attempt. 



My opinion is that these varieties will be met with 

 more frequently in the early spring, when the varia- 

 tions of the thermometer are greatest, and less so 

 when the temperature is more equable as the weeks 

 advance. I hazard this opinion in spite of the fact 

 that I am aware that many birds, Jwith a tendency 

 to variable markings of eggs, are migrants, and 

 probably lay later, though it must be admitted 

 that even then our summer nights may be winter 

 to them, when compared with the sunny lands they 

 have just left. Again I look upon the variations in 

 some eggs as perfectly normal. Who has ever seen 

 two yellow-hammers' eggs alike in the marking ? 



I trust, like the first writer to your valuable paper, 



that many will record their interesting takes, for the 



good and help of all your readers interested in this 



subject. 



John T. Winkworth. 



Eddingtou, Hungerford. 



THE STOMATA IN ORTHOTRICHUM. 



IN Berkeley's " Handbook of British Mosses " it is 

 stated that stomata occur not uncommonly on 

 the capsules of mosses, but no importance is there 

 attached to them, and it is probable that the atten- 

 tion of the large majority of British moss students, 

 including the writer, will have been for the first time 

 directed to the subject by the publication last year of 

 part twelve of Dr. Braithwaite's valuable monograph, 

 which embraces the genus Orthotrichum. It appears 

 that, as -far back as 1866, Professor Lindberg had 

 discovered two forms of stomata on the capsules of 

 this genus, and that in that year he applied them to 

 divide it into two sections, viz. Gymnoporus : 

 "Stomata on wall of capsule superficial"; 

 Calyptoporus : " Stomata immersed in wall of 

 capsule and more or less covered by some of its 

 epidermal cells." 



As the subject is of interest, I propose to give 

 a short account. 



The stoma, which originates in a single cell in 

 the substance of the cuticle, presents, when fully 



I 2 



