NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
1 77 
22 . Variation in Orchis maculata. — I enclose forty plants of Orchis 
maculata for your consideration which I found growing down the edge of a 
wood at Yardley Chase, Northampton. They were growing mixed, light and 
dark anyhow, not, as Mr. Ellis says of his, from light to dark. I should think 
there were some hundreds, but the enclosed is a very fair selection. I got no 
roots as I thought they would be better left to grow ; I have some in the garden, 
and cultivation does not seem to alter them at all, as what were light come up 
every year just as light ; but I will see if a richer soil does alter the colour at all. 
I do not think that has much to do with it, as sometimes the richest-coloured 
forms seem in a poor situation. I hope the observations of members may be 
discussed and printed in our journal at some future date. I add the following 
notes as I have grouped them, roughly perhaps; — 
(a) Six specimens, height 8 to 20 in. ; flowers white, faintly spotted ; mid- 
lobe in some long ; leaf-spots absent in some. ( b ) Ten specimens, height 
9 to 15 in ; flowers slightly tinged with purple and markings darker ; mid-lobe 
mostly longer; leaves spotted. (c) Fifteen specimens, height 12 to 18 in.; 
flowers more or less tinged with purple ; markings distinct ; mid-lobe variable. 
These seem nearest to sub-species ericetorum. (d) Nine specimens, height 
10 to 15 in. ; perhaps not dark enough ; flowers purple ; mid-lobe long ; bracts 
and upper stem of some, purple. G. H. Goode. 
Kingsley Park P.O., Northampton. 
23 . Thunderstorms far North. — In reply to Mr. A. H. Duvall, 
Harriet Martineau must be incorrect in stating that thunder ceases at 66 degrees 
of latitude. Von Baer and other travellers thought that no latitude had been 
reached where the atmosphere is free from thunderstorms. He witnessed one 
in Nova Zembla beyond 73 degrees north. It even thunders as far north as 
Spitzbergen, at a higher latitude than 75 degrees. Thunder is said to have 
been heard amid the ice-bound polar regions, but such experiences appear to have 
been rare. Atmospheric disturbances apparently diminish from the equator to the 
poles, and this is the result of the strong solar influences and of the velocity of 
the earth’s surface (due to rotation), near the equator. We should naturally 
expect to find a comparatively quiescent and settled state of things prevailing in 
the polar regions. An Observer of Nature. 
NATURAL HISTORY QUERY. 
2. Two Broken Eggs. — Last Saturday I found two yellow buntings’ nests 
and a song thrush’s nest, with the eggshells lying in them broken, but not 
crushed as they would be if young birds had been hatched and had sal upon 
them. The nests were in dense thickets not far above the ground, and in one 
only a small part of the egg was broken away, that part turned upwards. All 
the eggshells were quite empty. I should be much obliged if you could tell 
me the cause of the eggs being thus. 
47, Gloucester Square, Hyde Park. II. Scott. 
July 1, 1903. 
SELBORNE SOCIETY NOTICES. 
Council Meetings. — June 24 . — Prof. G. S. Boulger, F. L.S., F.G.S., was 
elected delegate from the Society to the Council of the National Trust. He was 
also re-elected delegate to the Council of the Thames Preservation League. Mr. 
Geo. A. B. Dewar, B.A., was elected to fill the vacancy on the Council. The 
Committee granted a donation of £2 2S., and Prizes to the value of ^3 3s., to 
the forthcoming Nature Study Exhibition to be held in London next autumn. 
The usual monthly meeting of the Council will be held at 20, Hanover Square, 
W., on Wednesday, August 26, at 5.30 p.m. 
