8 HUTTON, The Cormorants of New Zealand. \ ? n ? u , 



' List July 



long and slender in Sticticarbo (P. punctatus, &c), and com- 

 paratively short and stout in Microcarbo (P. melanoleucus , &c), 

 while the birds do not show any difference in habits. On the 

 contrary, in P. campbelli we find a difference in habit without 

 any corresponding modification. In the sea round Campbell 

 Island there are hardly any fish, and, according to Dr. Filhol, 

 who spent four months on the island examining the fauna during 

 the French expedition to observe the transit of Venus in 1874, 

 the Campbell Island Cormorant lives on mollusca, which it 

 scrapes off the immense patches of brown kelp which border 

 the coasts. But no modification has taken place in' the bill, 

 which cannot be well adapted for its new use. 



So also in the tail. It is long and stiff, and well adapted for 

 its uses, which are — rising from the water, sitting on rocks, and 

 probably as a rudder when diving. But in the sub-genus 

 Graculus (P. carbo, &c), there are fourteen tail feathers, while 

 all the others have only twelve. This difference cannot be con- 

 sidered as adaptive, and could not have been accumulated by 

 natural selection. 



I am afraid that the conclusions here arrived at will not be 

 acceptable either to Neo-Darwinians or to Neo-Lamarckians. 

 For they show us that the study of even a single group, like the 

 Cormorants, reveals several characters which cannot be explained 

 by natural selection, or by organic selection, or by use-inheritance ; 

 for all these agencies preserve useful characters only ; and con- 

 siderable 'doubt has been thrown on sexual selection. It is too 

 often the custom nowadays to think that we have discovered 

 all the processes working in organic nature ; that the doctrine 

 of utilitarianism will, in some way or other, explain everything ; 

 and when any difficulty arises it is attributed to our ignorance, 

 not of principles, but of details. These difficulties, however, 

 must be faced, and I think that a close and impartial study of 

 specific characters will destroy our complacency, and show us 

 that there is some principle of definite variation at work which 

 preserves non-adaptive characters. 



Rochester, Friday. — Eagles are numerous at Pine Grove, and 

 are proving very destructive to poultry. Mr. Jos. Chappie has 

 lost 80 full-grown turkeys this season through the depredations 

 of these birds. — Argus, 24/4/03. 



At Narromine, N.S.W., Mr. W. N. Warren found, when he 

 received the locust-fungus for trial, that all the grasshoppers 

 had been destroyed by Wood-Swallows, which came on the 

 scene in thousands, and cleaned them out in a few days. — Lender, 

 28/3/03. 



