90 
NATURE NOTES 
So the most torpid of beings has an old wooden chocolate 
box with half a lid and one side out, and a bit of flannel at the 
bottom, in a corner of the library. If the half lid is shut he is 
often still till evening, when lamp-light and the snug warmth o 
a shuttered room awake him, and he pops up from beneath 
it, like a Jack-in-the-box, the scrape of his scrabbling claws (of 
which some are missing) startling the unprepared visitor. He 
goes forth to explore, choosing chiefly for his walks the hearth- 
rug, and the neighbourhood of the window. He often rises up 
and peers over the side of his sleeping apartment, propped on 
his hind toes and waving his fore legs dramatically. Surely 
he preaches, and at “lastly” he overbalances with a thud, and 
lies, a humiliated upside-down until he is re-adjusted. He has 
not tasted food during the winter, and only walks straight 
through his blue dish if it is filled and placed before him. It is 
not easy to see if he is thin, his complexion is healthily bronzed 
and his bead eye is bright : he is friendly, too, liking his owner 
to rub his head gently, and allowing an enthusiastic youthful 
admirer to kiss his nose and call him “ darling,” without 
troubling to withdraw that noble feature under his shell. He 
is not naturally timid, and only tucks himself away if some 
moving object dawns suddenly on his apparently limited horizon, 
or if the cats are too presuming. Outwardly cold and unrespon- 
sive, he has a certain blandness, and toleration for liberties taken, 
which make one fancy a little warmth somewhere within, and a 
special acknowledgment of his owner’s attentions. And then 
he does not excite too much notice or covetousness among 
visitors : he does not display such cleverness as to make one 
anxious for his brain : he does not bite or scratch : he is a very 
negative sort of pet. He is not, I must own, very useful or 
altogether ornamental, and he gives some sensitive souls “ the 
creeps.” Silent, amiable, inexpensive, untaxed and easy of 
control, he has points of his own ; and one hopes, in spite of his 
pre-historic appearance, that he has many peaceful winters and 
good strawberry summers yet before him. 
K. J. 
VARIATION IN ORCHIS MACULATA. 
iT is well known that the colour of the spotted orchid 
varies widely from white to reddish-brown purple. My 
attention has lately been directed to this point because 
it seemed to be analogous to certain biological aspects 
of pigmentation which I have been studying more especially in 
man. The spotted orchid is very common in this neighbourhood, 
but I have chiefly examined it along a patch of cliff, some 200 
or 300 yards long, in Carbis Bay, and facing in a northerly 
direction. Where the cliff bends round to the east the orchid is 
