NOTES AND QUERIES. 107 



presented to it. I tried the experiment of putting butterflies into its cage, 

 but these it never touched. At the beginning of August last I discovered 

 a colony of the species V. noctula in a hollow branch of a sycamore tree. 

 In order to ascertain their species I resorted to the method of smoking 

 them out with brown paper; upon the smoke reaching them they came 

 scrambling out of their aperture gnashing their little white teeth like so 

 many furies, and making a great squeaking. More than a dozen succeeded 

 in making good their escape before I captured one, owing to the awkward 

 position of their abode. There were numbers of others in the hole, but 

 directly they appeared at the aperture and saw me, they beat a hasty 

 retreat, and nothing would induce them to venture forth again. The one 

 I caught I placed on the lawn to test the accuracy of the common assertion 

 that "Bats rise with much difficulty fom the ground,'" and was much 

 surprised with what ease it took wing. It scrambled about a foot along 

 the turf, then rose in the air, and was soon lost to sight, being in no wise 

 confused by the sun, which was then shining brilliantly. This species is 

 very common about the Vale of Aylesbury. — F. Haywakd Paruott (Walton 

 House, Aylesbury). 



BIRDS. 



On the Wing-spur of the Coot, Moorhen, and Water Rail.— On 

 examining a nestling Moorhen a year or two ago I was surprised to find 

 a perfect hook or claw at the exiremity of each of the bastard wings. With 

 the exception of the new edition of ' Yarrell,' and ' The Naturahsts' Librarv,' 

 no ornithological work in my posssesion makes mention of this fact. The 

 allusion in Yarrell's ' British Birds ' is as follows : — " Moorhen. Wings . . . 

 armed with a small sharp recumbent spine." Jardine states : — " Gallinula. 

 Generic characters ; wings . . . carpal joint armed with a spine." Neither 

 of these authors even hint at the idea of Coots and Water Rails possessing 

 the spine in either a greater or less degree. In tiie Moorhen it is white, 

 reflexed (or claw-shaped) and sharp. In the Water Kail it is horn-coloured, 

 straight, and blunt. What is its true use or raison d'etre? The Horned 

 Screamer, Palamedea cornuta, is similarly armed, as is also the Spur-winged 

 Goose, although 1 am not certain as to the exact position of tlie spurs in 

 the last two cases. The spine must be intended to serve as a weapon of 

 offence or defence, or may be intended for pacific purposes only, — as a boat- 

 hook ; or, as the Moorhen is known to use its wings in diving, these hooks 

 may then be brought into play, or they may be of assistance in keeping the 

 rest of tlie body submerged when the beak and nostrils only are i^rotruded 

 above the surface of the water to obtain a breath of fresh air " in rebus 

 adversis." Or is this a case of evolution? The "claw" is certainly most 

 rudimentary in the Water Rail, which is the most averse to flying of either 

 of the three birds mentioned. Is it that these birds are now evolving a 

 second pair of leg:> ! or, vice versa, a pel feet (t. e. a toeiess and toe-nailless) 



