110 NOTES TO THE 



Starlings are also extensively used for trap-shooting. The price 

 varies from 4s. to 6s. per dozen. Directly after the breeding- 

 season Mr. Davy would take a twenty-dozen order at two day's 

 notice. 



THE TORTOISE, FISH, CROCODILE, ARMADILLO, HEDGE-HOG 

 EVIDENCE OF DESIGN IN STRUCTURE, p. 136. White's description 

 of his tortoise has prompted me to write as follows : It is very 

 interesting to observe the wonderful way in which the Creator 

 has clothed and ornamented His various creatures. Some live in 

 the water, some on land ; some pass their time partly in the 

 water or on land, some exist partly in the air, on the water, and 

 on the land. All are beautifully and wonderfully constructed. 

 I propose now to make a few remarks on the external cover- 

 ings of some of these, taking as a beginning the various modi- 

 fications of horny coverings. In the scales of the fish (the carp 

 is about the best example) we find plates of thin horn, some- 

 what resembling (when cleaned and boiled) a portion of an 

 ordinary horn lantern. These plates are set each into a soft 

 pocket of the true skin, and overlap each other so as to form 

 a complete suit of armour, giving origin, no doubt, to the idea 

 of scale-armour, as worn by our ancestors at the time when 

 arrows were used in battle. The scales in the fish are not all 

 of the same size. They are beautifully fitted, like enamel 

 plates, on to the body, so that while they afford the most effi- 

 cacious protection, they will not interfere in the least with 

 the movements of the fish, which in many instances are exceed- 

 ingly rapid. The reader should examine the mode in which 

 the scales are fastened on (each in its own little pocket) in 

 the case of the salmon ; these scales are covered with a water- 

 proof varnish ; how and whence that comes I propose to explain 

 at another time. 



Passing on from the fish to the crocodile, we again find a 

 scale-formed armour. The scales in this case are let into the 

 skin in a different manner from those of the fish, and they are 

 capable of absorbing a considerable amount of water. This I 

 found out by soaking a crocodile's skin in water. Before the 

 skin was soaked it was as hard and inflexible as a board. 

 Having been soaked a few hours, it became almost as pliable 

 and soft as a wet towel. This is evidently an arrangement to 

 enable the crocodile to pass his time with comfort, both in the 

 water and out of the water. A crocodile, also, has lungs, not 

 gills ; but we never find true scales like those of a fish unac- 

 companied by gills. When the crocodile is basking in the sun, 

 his scales are, of course, much harder than when they are in the 



