THH; VICTORIAN NATUHALIST. 195 



-different members of a rookery watch each other's proceedings, 

 and the respect which is paid to a female as soon as her eggs 

 •are laid. He says : — " From the instant the female begins to 

 lay all hostilities are at an end. Not one of the whole group, 

 that a little before treated her so rudely, will now venture to 

 molest her." 



That their intelligence, powers of observation, and memory 

 •are quite equal to the task of noticing and remembering each 

 -other's individual habits will clearly appear by a glance at the 

 ■chapter, by the same [author, on birds generally, in the same 

 work. 



In conclusion, I may point out that it is those birds whose 

 •habits are, to a certain extent, social, though not gregarious, 

 -and which exhibit, in other respects, the most refined love of 

 the beautiful, whose eggs are most highly coloured. Instances 

 of this will be found in the starlings, zosterops, Australian miners 

 ( Myzantha or JMaiiorhina), and spotted bower-birds, whilst 

 others less marked might be brought forward. On the other 

 hand, it is those birds which, in their general habits, exhibit no 

 such love in any marked degree whose eggs remain still of the 

 original white, or else have been varied to resemble surrounding 

 objects by natural selection. The principal instances of this, 

 besides the ducks and geese, are enumerated under the fore- 

 going rule of protective colouring, and I need not repeat them 

 here ; but, turning to that list, we will observe that they are 

 ■seemingly, as a whole, wanting in any marked idea of beauty, 

 for their notes, from the wail of the stone plover to the quack 

 of the wild duck, cannot be regarded as expressing any such 

 ■sesthetic emotions, whilst the ungainly movements and slovenly 

 habits of some of the species prove them to be greatly in want 

 of any such qualities. 



The difference is more readily observed when we compare 

 •the above traits of character with the song of the blackbird, the 

 playful and aesthetic instincts of the bower-bird, and the grace- 

 ful movements of the honey-eater, which are so marked as in 

 one case to supply the specific appellation graceful Ptilotis 

 •crnata ; but it is quite a general characteristic of the family. 



For the above reasons I conceive that love of beauty forms 

 by far the largest factor amongst the causes of colouration in 

 birds' eggs. 



WOLFFIA AND LEMNA. 



In a communication from Baron von Mueller it appears that 

 Wolffia had not been contributed from the metiopolitan area to 

 the National Herbarium until collected last year by C. French, 

 jun. As it was exhibited at the Microscopical Society some 



