178 F. Finn — General Notes on Variation in Birds. [No. 3, 



ducks are the same as in pied drakes, -which is remarkable when the 

 great natural difference between the sexes is considered. For instance, 

 the type with -white neck, wings, and belly, and coloured head, breast 

 and stern, corresponds closely with the drake so marked, and is correct 

 for the female of Indian Runners. 



The colour of the bill varies much ; the iris, however, is not 

 noticeably variable, being always dark as in the wild form. The legs 

 and feet are always orange except in black and dark black-pied birds, 

 -where they are black or black -with orange toes respectively ; I have 

 also seen some light brown types -with dark olive feet, in females. The 

 female's beak is extremely variable, usually a mixture of orange and 

 black in varying proportions ; but it may be black-and-slate in the 

 darker and some of the lighter types. In white birds it is generally 

 orange, but should be fleshy white in the Aylesbury, a colour not seen 

 in Indian mongrels. 



The drake's bill varies much as the duck's, being most commonly 

 yellow or orange, often pied with black at the ridge and base. I never 

 saw dark olive legs in a drake ; except in black or black-pied birds they 

 are always orange. The legs and general form are always coarse. 



The Ostrich (Struthio camelus) has been domesticated for thirty 

 years in Cape Colony (Mr. C. Schreiner, Zoologist, 4th series, Vol. I., 

 1897,^.99, 100). 



An abrupt variation occurs in the colour of the naked skin, which 

 is fleshy in some individuals, and grey of a dark or light shade 

 in others. This difference of skin colouration is the main point relied 

 upon to distinguish the various wild races now ranked as species. 

 The plumage of the cocks varies from jet-black to rusty brown, the 

 latter hue predominating in the moister coast districts. They may 

 be more or less spotted with white, and in some the body feathers are 

 curled. The hens vary from dark rich brown to light brown, grey, 

 or ash ; they may have wing and tail-plumes white, or be barred 

 with white; and a male-plumaged specimen was in Mr. Schreiner's 

 pos3eBsion. 



I. Moral Variability. 



Variation in disposition is very familiar to bird fanciers, and as 

 examples I may perhaps be allowed to detail some observations I made 

 recently on two members of the Babbler group (Timeliidae or Cratero- 

 podidve) the Red-billed Liothrix (Liothrix fateus) and the striated Reed- 

 Babbler (Argya earlii). 



I had a couple of dozen of the former and one of the latter in a large 

 cage together. Before the Babbler had been many days in the cage I 

 began to notice the Liothrix often tickling and scratching its head, as 



