190 Field Notes. 



owl's eg"g"s. They were of the same size, but, unfortunately, 

 one was broken by the fall of the tree. The perfect eg'g^ 

 measures ij^ x i j'',y oi an inch. These are rather large eg-gs for 

 this species, and must have been forsaken, as they were buried 

 deeply in castings and old nesting places were above them. — 

 J. Arthur Nettham, Grantham, September 1902. 



Blackheaded Quil in Cumberland, 1705. — (Continuing 

 the notes from Bishop Nicolson's ' Diaries " for North Country^ 

 items, ' Naturalist,' 1901, September. 1902, June and July). Ow 

 5th June 1705, Bishop Nicolson writes, ' . . . In the even- 

 ing, at y'' Bishop's Moss, we took Eggs and voung ones of the 

 white (black-cap't) Larus.' Trans. Cumb. and Westm. Antiq. 

 and ArchcEol. Soc, Vol. 3, new series, pp. 11-12, 1903. The 

 localitv is near Carlisle.- S. L. Petty, Ulverston, 13th April 1903. 



FLOWERING PLANTS. 



Ononis repens in Cumberland. — Mr. Geo. Gissing, the 

 novelist, has g"iven, no doubt unconsciousl}', confirmation of 

 the fact, recorded by the late W. Hodgson, A.L.S., that Ononis 

 repens L. [inennis Lange) is the more prevalent form on the 

 coast line of Cumberland. He writes in the ' Private Papers of 

 Henry Ryecroft,' 1903, p. 99, ' A little plant of which I am very 

 fond is the rest-harrow. When the sun is hot upon it the flower 

 gives forth a strangely-aromatic scent, very delightful to me. 

 I know the cause of this peculiar pleasure. The rest-harrow 

 sometimes grows on sandy ground above the sea-shore. In my 

 childhood I have many a time lain in such a spot under the 

 glowing sky, and, though I scarce thought of it, perceived the 

 odour of the little rose-pink flower when it touched my face. Now 

 I have but to smell it and those hours come back again. I see 

 the shore of Cumberland, running north to St. Bees Head ; 

 on the sea horizon a faint shape which is the Isle of Man . . .' 

 No child, one thinks, would lav its face on Ononis spinosa L. 

 {horrida Lange). — S. L. Petty, Ulverston, 13th April 1903. 



Purple Variety of the Wood Anemone. — During a ramble 

 in Margery Wood, south of High Hoyland, on the 13th April, 

 I saw a fair-sized patch of Anemone neniorosa bearing- deep purple 

 flowers. I counted thirty-two within a space of about two vards, 

 which formed quite a distinct contrast amid the thousands ol 

 blossoms of the ordinary white colour in the immediate vicinity. 

 -W. E. L. Wattam, Newsome. 



Naturalist. 



