is known, 
but comes 
from (so 
ee ae I 
remember) 
Austria. As 
a matter 
of fact, the 
peculiarity 
has no 
Photo by C. P. Davi doubt  ap- 
BARE-NECKED FOWL. peared in- 
dependently in several instances and countries. 
In Calcutta I saw some cocks which were 
even more bare than the hens above 
alluded to, as there were no feathers even 
on the head. The skin of the neck in these 
was brilliant scarlet and granular-looking, 
while in the two hens I saw at the Crystal 
Palace Show it was fleshy in colour and 
merely wrinkled, much like that of an aged . 
human being. The birds I saw in Calcutta 
were quite different from the Huropean 
specimens in general type, being of the tall 
big-boned type of the Malay; they were 
called “Saigon Game,” and were imyorted. 
In their case the baldness was confined 
to the cocks, as the hens had feathers 
on their necks; I was told that durihg 
part of the year the cocks possessed 
some neck-feathering also, which makes 
their extreme nudity at other times more 
remarkable,” 
Wa" 
INCREDIBLE as it may seem, there exist, we 
are informed, persons who do 
not believe in the protective 
purpose of the colouring of 
Woodcocks 
skulking. 
animals, or, at all events, of such animals as . 
deer and antelopes. It would be interesting 
to ask such persons, we may remark 
incidentally, how they explain the marked 
general uniformity of type, prevalent in the 
colouring of such animals; that is to say, 
why they do not meet with antelopes having 
white backs and black bellies. Putting such 
questions aside, we are curious to learn 
their views with regard to the object of the 
colouring of such birds as woodcock and 
snipe, which presents such a perfect harmony 
with their inanimate surroundings that it is 
Animal Life 
hard indeed to believe there can be anyone 
who will not admit its protective nature. 
And yet, if this pomt be conceded, the whole 
case of the objectors is practically given 
away, for there is an almost complete 
eradation ‘from such obvious instances of 
protective adaptation as are afforded by the 
coloration of the woodcock and the snipe to 
the less apparent types displayed by ante- 
lopes and zebras. The harmony prevailing 
between the warm orange-brown flecked 
with black of the woodcock’s plumage and 
the russet-red of fallen leaves, broken by 
patches of deepest shade in the interspaces, 
has been too often described to stand in 
need of recapitulation on this occasion. A 
similar harmonious blending of colour and 
pattern is presented by the resemblance of 
the elegant livery of the snipe to the broken 
erass and rush stems (in this case divided 
by long lines of black shade) of its favourite 
haunts. In the swamps, or “‘jhils,” around 
Calcutta the present writer has put up 
hundreds, if not thousands, of snipe within 
a yard or two of his feet, and yet he never 
succeeded in detecting one on the ground 
before it rose—so perfect is the resemblance 
between the bird and its surroundings. 
we 
A REMARKABLE habit on the part of a Malay 
___ estuarine fish is recorded in the 
A Burrowing second part of the Zoological 
section of ‘“Fasciculi Malay- 
enses.” Throughout the Indo-Malay region 
fishes commonly known as “mud-skippers” 
are abundant on the mud of estuaries and 
creeks, where they are noticeable not only 
on account of their hopping movements, but 
from their large goggle eyes. The species 
in question (Periopthalmus phya) is, however, 
specially noteworthy from the circumstance 
that it constructs a more or less permanent 
burrow, in which it takes refuge when 
alarmed, and where it remains in permanent 
seclusion during bad weather. This burrow 
is frequented, apparently, by both sexes, and 
may be employed as a nursery, although this 
latter point is not definitely ascertained. The 
larger burrows, which have funnel-shaped 
entrances, are always situated in a pool of 
