o8 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



predisposition to be modified, until, in the course of 

 time, the modification takes phice, when the cause is no 

 longer operative, as in the case of the after effects just 

 considered. 



Mr. D. G. Elliot, in a recent address on the inheritance 

 of acquired characters delivered before the American 

 Ornithologists' Union, "^^ relates an instance of the ob- 

 served inheritance of an acquired habit in birds as fol- 

 lows: " Currituck Sound, in North Carolina, where wild 

 fowl are accustomed to pass the greater portion of the 

 winter, is a great resort of sportsmen, who pursue the 

 birds in every way to accomplish their destruction. 

 This, at length, was carried to such a degree that the 

 fowl had no place left for them to rest during the day. 

 Some years ago the gunners were surprised to find that 

 whenever the weather permitted, as soon as a gun was 

 fired in the early morning the birds would rise and be- 

 take themselves to the ocean, and remain congregated 

 on the water just beyond the line of the breakers, and 

 would not return until night closed in. This custom 

 was acquired by birds of succeeding years, until the 

 habit has become apparently established. Now it may 

 be said that this is not an acquired habit, but the result 

 of example, the old birds leadina" the young to the sea. 

 But this would be to assume that the majority of the 

 birds which commenced this habit had survived to re- 

 turn to this locality every winter. And even if the 

 young, without at first comprehending the reason for so 

 strange a proceeding, merely followed the old birds, is it 

 reasonable to suppose they would remain in such an 

 unusual locality throughout the day, deprived of their 

 food, which could be obtained in profusion on the other 

 side of the narrow beach? It must have been something 



* Ai;k, ix, Jan. 1892, pp. 77-104. 



