192 RUSSET-NECKED NIGHTJAR. 



as a fence for the large mouth, out of which otherwise 

 many an insect would slip away. But the bristles get 

 clogged up, and the God who made this bird has 

 provided it with as perfect a comb to clean them Avith, 

 as is to be found on the table of any lady in Europe! 

 I should like to know how such a provision could have 

 been given by "natural selection," or "variation," or 

 by any other "aid to theory," which Mr. Darwin or 

 Dr. Asa Gray would assign as the means by which 

 this beautiful adaptation was produced? To imagine 

 that this comb on the claw of the long middle toe is 

 an accidental variation, is to surrender common sense. 

 Still more absurd Avould be the inference that such a 

 variation could have been produced by successive steps 

 through a long series of years. The bristles and the 

 comb have a distinct relation to each other. They are 

 parts of the organic structure of the being. Did they 

 vary separately or simultaneously? Were they produced 

 independently or in distinct relation to each other? 

 How much more good would the Reviewers of Darwin 

 do by going into questions like these, rather than giving 

 us long and very often unintelligible and dull disser- 

 tations, in which fine writing is more aimed at than 

 sound science. The physiological part of the question, 

 evidently the most important, they seldom or ever 

 touch. 



The prevailing tint of the upper plumage is grey, 

 more or less tinged with rufous, which is the prevailing 

 colour of the wings and all the inferior parts. The 

 head has the sides grey, with a broad band of rufous, 

 and dark brown longitudinal spots between. The nape 

 is composed of the rufous collar which gives the bird 

 its name. Back and upper tail coverts and feathers 

 grey, barred and striated irregularly with rufous and 



