318 Natural Eistory Notes. 



American discoveries of Prof. Marsh had not then reached us. Prof. 

 Owen considered that these large spines, which must have been four 

 feet long, were claspers, fixed to the front feet. 



Little Bustard. The Eev. a. p. Morres reported in Salisbury Journal, 

 Oct. 16, 1897, that one of these birds was put up on Sept. 29, by Mr. 

 W. P. Cole between Roche Court and Over Wallop ; whilst a notice in 

 the Field, Nov., 1897, copied into the Devizes Gazette, s^ys, over the 

 signature of " F. Reynolds (Devizes), "A Bustard was moved about a 

 fortnight since on Salisbury Plain near Market Lavington. One of the 

 party, who has seen many of the birds in India, had a good view and is 

 quite certain that it was a Bustard." 



Ouail Mr Edward Cook, of Devizes, writes that a Quail's nest with ten 

 eggs was mown out at Aldbourne in June, 1907. Two Quails were seen 

 aTciyffe Pypard in the autumn of 1907. 



The Lizard Orchis (O. Jnrdna). Mr. G. Chivers, of Devizes, on 

 Julv 3rd 1907, procured from a boy who had picked it in the neighbour- 

 hood (it is, perhaps, not advisable to say precisely where) a flower of 

 tZ curiou and extremely rare plant. The spike, which had some fifty 

 b ooms on it, was photographed, and blooms from it by the kindness of 

 Mr Chivers, were shown to several competent botamsts, so that there ,. 

 no doubt whatever as to the identity of the plant. Its clneH ab^^^a^ in 

 England is in Kent, and even there it is very rai^. Tins is the fir t 

 occasion on which a plant has been known to occur in ^\ iltshire or its 

 :: ghbourhood, and it is earnestly to be hoped that, if it Aowers again 

 next year, anyone who finds it will not only not pick it himself bu wd 

 keep ts locality strictly secret from other collectors, ^-jf^^''}-'^^ 

 most interesting plant may at least have a chance of establishing itself in 

 the county. I^must have found its way here by natural means as it 

 could not have been an escape from a garden. E- H. Uoddard. 



