9RCHIS MACULATA. I 23 



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 rot 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 

 marshmen 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 C. E. BRtTTON. 



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 ericetornm, 

 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 0. evicetovum as a Forest 

 plant is firmly established. Indeed, we have seen no Spotted 

 Orchises that seem referable to O. maculata in a restricted sense. 

 A number of our plants were sent to the Rev. E. F. Linton for 



