June 28, 1883] 



NA TURE 



195 



insects from two distinct points of view — for food, and as 

 fertilisers. While it lays itself out to catch and eat 

 miscellaneous small flies with its gummy leaves, it also 

 lays itself out to allure bees with its comparatively large 

 and handsome mask-shaped flowers. . . . Why should 

 these totally distinct plants [butterwort and sundew], 

 living in precisely similar circumstances, have acquired 

 this curious and uncanny habit of catching and devouring 

 live flies ? Clearly, there must be some good reason for 

 the practice : the more so as all other insect-eating plants 

 — Venus's fly-traps, side-saddle flowers, pitcher-plants, 

 bladderworts, and so forth — are invariably denizens of 

 damp watery places, rooting as a rule in moist moss or 

 decaying loose vegetation. Now, in such situations it is 

 difficult or impossible for them to obtain those materials 

 from the soil which are usually supplied by constant 

 relays of animal manure; and under such circumstances, 

 where the roots have no access to decaying animal 

 matter, those plants would flourish best which most 

 utilised every scrap of such matter that happened to fall 

 upon their open leaves." 



" The bird which came northward at the close of the 

 glacial period, to inhabit the now thawed plains of 

 northern Europe, much as the American partridge might 

 take possession of Greenland if all its glaciers were to 

 clear away in a more genial era, was doubtless a more 

 or less southern and temperate type of grouse-kind. 

 Coming into Britain, it would soon be entirely isolated 

 from all its allies elsewhere ; for it is of course a poor 

 flyer for distance, and it inhabits only the northerly or 

 westerly parts of our island which lie furthest from the 

 Continent, separated from Holland and Scandinavia by 

 a wide sea. Here it could not fail to be subjected to 

 special conditions, differing greatly from those of the 

 European mainland, partly in the equable insular climate, 

 partly in the nature of the vegetation, and partly in the 

 absence of many mammalian foes or competitors. These 

 conditions would be likely first to affect the colouring and 

 marking of the feathers, the spots on the bill, the naked 

 scarlet patch about the eye, and so forth : for we know 

 that even freer-fl>ing birds in the south, which cross often 

 with Continental varieties, tend slightly to vary in such 

 ornamental points ; and a very isolated group like the red 

 grouse would be far more likely to vary in similar direc- 

 tions. Meanwhile, the main branch of the family, sepa- 

 rated on the great continents from this slightly divergent 

 group, would probably acquire the habit of changing its 

 plumage in winter among the snows of the north, by stress 

 of natural selection, just as the Arctic fox and so many 

 other northern animals have done ; for in a uniform white 

 surface any variation of colour is far more certain to be 

 spotted and cut off than in a many-coloured and diversified 

 environment. Thus it would seem probable that the 

 Scotch grouse has slowly become accommodated to the 

 heather, among which it is so hard to discover ; while 

 the willow-grouse has grown to resemble the snow in 

 winter, and the barer grounds of its northern feeding- 

 places in the short Scandinavian and Icelandic summer. 



" If this be so, we must regard both birds as slightly 

 divergent descendants of a common ancestor, from which, 

 however, our grouse has varied less than its Continental 

 congener. Of course, it is just possible that the common 

 ancestor had already acquired the habit of changing its 

 coat in winter before the divergence took place ; and if 

 so, then it is the Scotch grouse which has altered most : 

 but this is less probable, because the usefulness of the 

 change would certainly be felt even in a Scotch winter, 

 and the white suit is not, therefore, likely ever to have 

 been lo=t when once acquired. Though the winter is not 

 severe enough in Scotland to make such a change of coat 

 inevitable where it does not already exist, it is yet quite 

 severe enough to preserve the habit in animals which 

 have once acquired it, as we see in the case of the varying 

 hare, a creature which in colder ages spread over the 



whole of northern Europe, and which still holds its own 

 among the chillier portions of the Scotch Highlands. 

 Hence we may reasonably infer that if our grouse had 

 ever possessed a winter coat it would have always retained 

 it for an alternative dress, as the ptarmigan still does in 

 the selfsame latitudes. Accordingly, analogy seems to 

 point to the conclusion that the Scotch grouse is a truly 

 native breed, slightly altered by the conditions of its 

 insular habitat from a closely allied Continental species, 

 whose representatives elsewhere have now all assumed 

 the guise of Scandinavian willow-grouse. In other words, 

 the two isolated groups into which the species has split 

 up have altered each in its own way, but the Continental 

 variety has moved faster away from the primitive type 

 than its British congener." 



But in thus recommending Mr. Allen' s latest work, we 

 do not wish to appear unduly tolerant of inaccuracy. All 

 we should wish to say is that, assuming Mr. Allen or any 

 other expositor of science to be an amateur not thoroughly 

 versed in technical matters, and therefore liable to fall 

 into technical errors, we do not feel on this account that 

 he need be precluded from publishing his observations 

 and his theories for whatever they may be worth. Sooner 

 or later these are sure to be duly winnowed, and even 

 though they may contain more chaff than Mr. Allen has 

 been in the habit of presenting, they may also contain 

 some seeds of germinative value. 



George J. Romanes 



AGRICULTURE IN INDIA 

 Field and Garden Crops of the North- Western Provinces 

 and Oudh. Part I. With illustrations. By J. F. 

 Duthie, B.A., Superintendent of the Saharanpur 

 Botanical Gardens, and J. B. Fuller, Assistant Director 

 of Agriculture and Commerce, North- West Provinces 

 and Oudh. (Printed at the Thomason Civil Engi- 

 neering College Press, 1882.) 

 THIS brochure is the first of a short series in which it 

 is proposed to describe the cultivated products of 

 the North- West Provinces of India. With the exception 

 of an introduction of considerable length, treating gene- 

 rally of the physical, social, and agricultural peculiarities 

 of the North- Western Provinces, the volume is chiefly 

 devoted to a description of farm crops. Many of these, 

 such as wheat, barley, oats, maize, hemp, tobacco, millet, 

 and poppy, are as familiar to European cultivators as to 

 Asiatics. Others, such as opium, rice, sugar-cane, and 

 cotton, betoken the tropical nature of at least a portion 

 of the season. The botanical descriptions of the various 

 crops are contributed by Mr. Duthie in the usual language 

 of the text-books, affording little room for original remark 

 of any kind. By far the greater portion of the work has 

 been compiled from the reports of Settlement Officers 

 and other Government records, or contributed by Mr. 

 Fuller. The agricultural information is of a highly 

 interesting character, and the illustrations are particularly 

 excellent. The work is, however, in a manner disfigured 

 and rendered obscure by the peculiar views of the authors 

 as to the first rule of arithmetic. Sixty-seven millions, 

 &c, are expressed as 6,79,06,496, and six millions, &c., as 

 64,96,567. Ten millions, &c, are written in figures as 

 1,09,57,837. This principle of notation renders the sta- 

 tistical portion of the work difficult to follow, and it is not 

 easy to see why it has been adopted. 



