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Dr. Arthub G. Butler,



pastures and fields in Australia, and unless their bird enemies are

protected they must periodically assume plague numbers.


The cotton crops of the Southern States of America have

recently been threatened with serious damage (in fact, damage to

the extent of £30,000,000 was done in one year) from the cotton

boll weevil. It was proved that the absence of bird life was causing

the weevil plague, and now from bird protective measures the plague

is being eliminated.


The Quail, strange to say, has been found in the Southern

American States to be one of the checks upon cotton boll weevil.


In Jamaica, bird life was being, and, I am afraid, still is

being, ruthlessly diminished. Whether it be from the mongoose

or from the gun the result is the same. One consequence has been

that ticks increased to such an extent that the keeping of most

breeds of cattle has become impossible. In 1909 a deputation of

residents brought this fact before the notice of the Secretary of State

for the Colonies.


(To be concluded.)



ANCESTRAL CHARACTERS IN NESTLINGS.


By Arthur G. Butler, Ph.D.


(Concluded from p. 213.)


It is, of course, well known to all of us that many young birds

much more nearly resemble their mothers than their fathers, and

that this is necessary in order to render them inconspicuous when

in the nest or when skulking among undergrowth or on the ground :

as they become adult and vigorous the males cast off this protective

camouflage and appear in full dress, but the young females change

considerably less. On the other hand, when the parents are nearly

alike and the young alone are protectively coloured, as in some of

the Pigeons, the change is necessarily similar in all the young.


Now, if we accept the view that the colouring of the nestling

is of an early ancestral character I think w T e must also admit that,

where the female nearly resembles her young, or where both parents

approximate in general colour and pattern to that of their young,



