UNCOMMON AND MEMOKABLE 139 



trail of some unfortunate rabbit only about ten yards in 

 front of me. 



MILDRED A. BOYNTON. 



NOTE. I have only once seen a pied blackbird near 

 Bridport in Dorset. At Maiden Newton, a few miles 

 away, I saw a pied rook. These varieties probably occur 

 more often in the " katabolic," go-ahead males than in 

 the conservative, " anabolic " females, just as true varia- 

 tions do. The weasel was no doubt an albino variety, 

 as it is only in its more northerly habitat that it changes 

 colour with the seasons. Going white, that is to say, is 

 a constitutional tendency to albinism perfected by its 

 usefulness to the species. A white weasel would gain 

 nothing by being a turncoat in our mild winter climate. 

 The white winter coat is of advantage to the species from 

 the point of view of protective resemblance rather than 

 warmth, though white hairs and feathers retain the heat 

 in warm-blooded animals better than a dress of any other 

 colour. 



THE MIGRATION OF WOODCOCKS 



Allow me to take exception to the following passage in 

 the Spectator of January 30 (p. 179) : " When the wood- 

 cocks cross the North Sea . . . the first flights move on 

 across England, and often do not stop permanently until 

 they reach the western shore of Ireland and are brought 

 up by the Atlantic." As I have shown in the last volume 

 of the '' Fur and Feather Series," there is strong reason 

 I might say proof that our first flights of woodcocks 

 arrive from the North on the coast of Donegal, and 

 passing down the western side of Ireland, reach Western 

 Kerry and Western Cork before they spread inland. Mr. 

 E. M. Barrington, in his work on " Bird Migration," as 

 observed at Irish light stations, has adduced copious 

 statistics which corroborate this opinion, and it is borne 

 out by the observations of many, the West Coast of 



