32 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



in the male. The cape, however, instead of becoming fuller and 

 more regular during successive moults, has become, if anything, 

 less symmetrical though the colours have brightened. The general 

 bearing of the bird has been all along characteristically hen-like, 

 and there are no spurs. The assumption, by females^, of the 

 secondary sexual characters of the male, is probably not extremely 

 rare, at any rate in a modified degree, and most poultry-keepers 

 of experience have known the "crowing hen," usually an old bird 

 whose days of usefulness in the matter of eggs are past — but the 

 great contrast in the Pheasant between the normal colouring of 

 the male and female shows in more striking fashion a change of 

 this kind. Degeneration or atrophy of the ovaries probably lies 

 at the root at all such changes. 



The Common Bittern. — One of the outstanding additions to 

 the collection in the Zoological Park during December is a Common 

 Bittern. The Bittern is, in any case, an interesting bird, but this 

 specimen is doubly so, as it was caught in Perthshire. It was taken 

 and presented to the Park by Mr T. M'Naughton, who found it 

 on a small stream near Braco, Perthshire. While walking beside 

 the stream he noticed the bird, and saw that it was in a difficulty of 

 some kind, and this, on approaching it, he found to be because it 

 had a "good half-pound trout" firmly stuck in its throat. He 

 relieved it of the encumbrance and took it home, and though it was 

 much exhausted it recovered gradually, and it is now doing very 

 well in the Park, where it shares an aviary with some South 

 American Bitterns and Night Herons. The Bittern, once a fairly 

 common British bird has, for the best part of a century, been little 

 known in this country, though stray birds come from the continent, 

 as this one probably did, and a few have recently nested in Norfolk. 

 The Bittern makes its home in reedy swamps and marshes, sur- 

 roundings in which its colouring— streaks and blotches of light and 

 dark shades of fawn and brown — is probably highly protective. 

 In the Bittern, as in many animals which exhibit an obliterative 

 colouring, a development of instinct seems to have accompanied 

 that of coloration, and prompts the bird, when alarmed, to adopt 

 a rigid, motionless pose, with neck and beak pointing upwards, 

 when its appearance becomes strongly suggestive of a clump of 

 rushes. This pose is also useful, in the event of the "camouflage" 

 failing, for an offensive defence, and if cornered, the Bittern thrusts 

 upwards at its enemy with its dagger-like beak, with very effective 

 force and accuracy. — T. H. G. 



