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NOTE on LAKELAND PLANTS. 



Bog-Orchis in Lake-Lancashire and Westmorland.— In his Flora, 

 appended to the new Lake Counties Guide (J. M. Dent & Co.), Mr. Petty 

 mentions that the last record for the Bog-Orchis {Malaxis paludosa) in 

 Lake Lancashire is one hundred years old. It may be well, therefore, to 

 record my acquaintance with it there. It was found between the Esthwaite 

 and the Grizedale valleys in August 1892, by Mr. Webb, a young- botanist 

 staying - in the neighbourhood. A careful description led me to the spot, 

 where it grew in a rill of rushes, fostered by water gathering from the 

 Hawkshead fells, and but just beginning to trickle down towards Grizedale. 

 I went and found it again in the two following years. An unrecorded 

 habitat for the plant in Westmorland is on Loughrigg, where I have 

 seen it for a number of years. — Sophia Armitt, Rydal, 17th June 1902. 



♦ * 



NOTE on LINCOLNSHIRE MAMMALS. 



Otters at Great Sturton, Lincolnshire. — I send a note on two Otters 

 (Lntra Intra) shot by Mr. G. Wattam, farmer, on or about 30th March 1901 

 in the parish of Great Sturton. — A. E. Jarvis, Brussels, 15th July 1902. 



He says : — I went to scare Crows off a field of newly-sown barley, and 

 just walked round a pond situated about a quarter of a mile from the river 

 Bain, as I always do when near it, as it is a favourite place for game, 

 Rabbits and Wild Duck, when in season. A lot of willows, thorns, and 

 long grass grow up in and around the pond, and make good covert. On 

 this day I saw something under the bushes, and supposing it to be a stray 

 Cat I fired my gun, and something reared itself up, which I saw was not 

 a Cat, but could not tell what it was ; so fired again, and on going to look 

 found to my great surprise not only one but two Otters. I brought them 

 away and had them stuffed — they were both females, mother and daughter, 

 one being older and bigger than the other. My brother has the mother 

 and I have the daughter. They had made a kind of bed of dead grass 

 under some of the thorns and willows, which had been cut down, and were 

 curled up asleep like two kittens. — George Wattam, Highgate House, 

 Great Sturton, Lincolnshire. 



NOTE on LAKELAND BIRDS. 



Migration of the Pied Flycatcher, etc., in Northern England. — 



Mr. Butterfield's note on the migration of the Pied Flycatcher {Ficednla 

 atticapilla) is interesting and suggestive. Is it not possible that this species 

 may reach its breeding haunts in Westmorland and Cumberland by a route 

 across Yorkshire from the East Coast? Birds migrating, that turned inland 

 at the Humber mouth, might penetrate the river valleys to their source in 

 the Pennines; then, crossing the gaps in the range, find themselves in a new 

 network of streams, up which they would pass and settle. Birds tracking- 

 up the river Ure, for instance, would find themselves upon the source of the 

 Eden (the old stronghold of the species) almost at once. Or, turning 

 the other flank of Baug'h Fell, they would be upon Morecambe Bay, with 

 the Lakeland rivers open to them. In the same year in which Mr. Oxley 

 Grabham reported the species as unusually numerous in the Yorkshire 

 dales it likewise arrived here in great numbers. This year it was very 

 early in its appearance. Late and cold as the season has proved all through, 

 there was yet one fluctuation, when, for a few days in mid-April, warm, light 

 breezes blew, which carried up objects such as dead leaves to sail high like 

 kites. These breezes appeared to bring birds, that were then travelling, on 

 with a rush ; and a number of male Pied Flycatchers had arrived at their 

 old nest-stations on the morning of 18th April, and were singing volubly. 

 This is three days earlier than I have personally met with the species 

 before. The Blackcap Warbler {Sylvia att icapilla) appeared on the same 

 day. — Mary L. Armitt, Rydal, Westmorland, 17th June 1902. 



Naturalist, 



