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



This crow certainly does learn new habits ; those at the Museum 

 are afraid to fish things out of the tank, but down by the Hooghly they 

 take objects off water readily. At the Grand Hotel in Calcutta they 

 have learnt to catch food on the wing, owing to being fed by residents 

 in this way. 



Mr. A. L. Butler observed in the Andamans one individual of the 

 Chestnut-headed Bee-eater (MeliUqphagus swinhoii) capturing small 

 beetles while clinging to a bank, while others of the species were 

 hawking insects on the wing in the ordinary way. (Journ. B.N.H.S., 

 Vol. XII., p. 561). 



I had a common domestic drake which learned to fly up and perch 

 on a seat in company with two Muscovy ducks kept with him. His 

 general power of flight also improved much by his association with 

 these birds, which, as usual with the species, were much more powerful 

 and ready with their wings than common ducks. 



Rai R. B. Sanyal Bahadur records that some Wigeons (Mareca 

 penelope) and White-eyed Pochards (Nyroca africana) kept in an aviary 

 with many other birds learned in this way to fly up to the perches and 

 sit there. (Hand-booh to the Management of Animals in Captivity in 

 Lower Bengal, p. 309, Calcutta, 1892).* 



I observed that some common Teal (Nettium crecca) confined in an- 

 other aviary at the same garden (Calcutta) used to perch on the narrow 

 ridges of nest-boxes. This was also in all probability an acquired habit, 

 as this Teal seems never to perch when wild. No other non-perching 

 ducks in the same aviary acquired the habit, not even the Garganeys 

 (Querquedida circia), nor the Wigeons or White-eyed Pochards, though 

 perching ducks were confined with them. 



Conclusions. 



In most of this paper I have merely tried to record some facts 

 which may be useful to students of variation, but with regard to the 

 facts concerning the range of variation in domesticated birds given in 

 Section H. (p. 164), the following conclusions seem justifiable : — 



Domestication seems not to induce variation directly ; it merely 

 gives varietal individuals a better chance of surviving and multiplying, 

 and of producing secondary varieties by crossing with each other or 

 with the type. The frequent occurrence of varieties in the wild state 

 shows that the tendency to produce them is there just as strongly. 



Were domestication to act in inducing variability by the change of 

 conditions, we should expect to find our protected species varying more 



* The writer includes the Mandarin Duck (A. galericulata) as one of the species 

 that acquired the perching habit ; but this bird is naturally a percher. 



