OBSERVATIONS AND QUERIES. 139 



whether they consider the fact that in some, or may-be many, cases it 

 is difficult to decide whether a form is to be treated as a species or as a 

 sub-species, sufficient to neglect and treat with contempt the undeniable 

 existence of sub-specific forms — to leave out of consideration a most im- 

 portant fact in nature? As I have said elsewhere, 1 "scientific systematic 

 treatment of living animals demands the recognition of sub-species, if sys- 

 tematic zoology is to be more than a pastime." It is, of course, "more 

 trouble " to study sM/j-species as well ; but no real zoologist will leave them 

 aside for that reason, I hope ! Their recognition is followed by bewilderment 

 to those only who do not understand, or do not want to understand 

 them." The unpretending amateur — whose services to science are so 

 important and indismissible — who cannot devote much of his time to 

 his hobby, must not necessarily go in for the differentiating of sub- 

 specific forms at once — if he discovers, for example, a curious nest, or 

 egg, or habit of a Marsh-Titmouse in England, let him call the bird 

 Marsh-Tit, or Parus palustris, Poecile palustris or dresser i, or trinominally if 

 he likes — he will always be understood by the ornithologist, and his observa- 

 tion will always be equally valuable ; but he must not scorn the sub-specific 

 forms because he does not understand them. In the British Isles there are, 

 after all, not very many sub-species of birds ; and Mr. W. Ruskin Butter- 

 field's theory that " the number of individuals belonging to what Mr. Swann 

 calls valid species must be immeasurably smaller than the number of varietal 

 forms," is, in my opinion, without foundation. Though evolution goes on, it 

 need not go on everywhere ; and, in fact, the cases in ornithology where it 

 goes on under our eyes, at present are not so very numerous in our countries. 

 AVhen a species is well-established, and the conditions and surroundings 

 remain the same always, we cannot expect it to evolve any more without 

 reason ; therefore, the majority of species in this country may, without hesita- 

 tion, be treated as "valid species"; but the opposite cases, too, require 

 most careful attention of all painstaking sy stematical specialists. — Ernst 

 Hartert. 



Albino Starling. — A white Starling was killed near Ross, about the 

 middle of July, and brought to me. I am having it preserved. — Wm. 

 Blake (Broad Street, Ross, Herefordshire). 



Spotted Eggs of Martin. — While examining a row of twenty-five 

 House Martins' nests this spring, I found a nest of eggs with a plentiful 

 sprinkling of red spots on the lot ; the spots are of rather a pale red, and 

 small. It is a case of identity certain ; I caught the Martin on the nest. 

 — W. Hy. Heathcote (Preston). 



l Iiis, 1896, p. 366. 



