8 Zoologia: N. Y. Zoological Society. [Vol. 1 



changing considerably in color, especially in the ears and tail; 

 these being reddish-brown instead of blackish. But when one of 

 these feral rabbits, which had been confined for some time in 

 the London Zoo, died and was examined, it was found that "under 

 the English climate this individual rabbit had recovered the 

 proper color of its fur in rather less than four years !" 



In this instance, although the details are meagre enough, 

 we have conclusive evidence of a radical — and to all intents, 

 specific — change of color in the life-time of one individual, and a 

 most surprising change in size and weight of the entire organ- 

 ism during a period of about 400 years. 



In regard to the effect of humidity on insects, Marshall and 

 Poulton, writing of the dimorphic seasonal forms of certain but- 

 terflies in South Africa, regard this as due to the alternation of 

 dry and rainy seasons which there take the place of summer and 

 winter. 



Changes in the imago of moths and butterflies have been 

 experimentally induced by subjecting both caterpillars and 

 chrysalides to intense humidity. The artificial melanism induced 

 in beetles of the genus Leptinotarsa by Tower has already been 

 mentioned. 



Dr. Allen in his article on Heredity and Subspecies, from 

 which I have quoted, does not mention the instance of the bob- 

 white in Jamaica. This bird, according to Gosse, was introduced 

 upon the island from North America about 1747. As a whole, 

 the race has been almost exterminated by the naturalized mon- 

 goose. I have recently received an interesting living specimen 

 of the bob-white from this island, thus representative of an iso- 

 lated island colony established 160 years ago. Difficult as com- 

 parisons are when the subject is alive and energetic, and when 

 its rarity renders even a cursory handling very dangerous, I have 

 made as careful an examination as possible, and compared it as 

 regards color and measurements with typical specimens from the 

 north and from Florida. 



In the Jamaica bob-white, a male bird, the white forehead 

 and superciliary stripe are variegated with black, and the red 

 on the head, while very intense, is confined to the extreme tips 

 of the feathers. In a typical northern bird in unworn plumage 

 the red on these crown feathers comprises some 5 mm. of the 

 distal portion, while in the Jamaica bird this color is reduced to 

 2 mm. 



The ear-coverts and sides of the head are almost uniformly 

 black, while the throat is variegated, being about half white and 

 half black. No intermediate grays are present here, the two ex- 



