NOTES AND QUERIES. 275 



Martin, two seen on April 4th. — Bernard Riviere (Flaxley, 8*2, Finchley 

 Road, N.W.). 



Inherited Instinct in Birds.— It has been asserted, without a shadow 

 of real evidence to support the statement, that birds build their nests by 

 imitation, and that the reason why many of them at the commencement of 

 the season trifle with building material for some time before they produce 

 a satisfactory structure is that they are unable at once to remember exactly 

 what the character of the nest was in which they first saw the light of day. 

 In ' British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs,' now in course of publication, 

 I pointed out that young birds never really see the more complex part of 

 the nest, inasmuch as their vision is mainly confined to the lining (which 

 is moulded into form in the most primitive fashion) ; and in direct proof of 

 the fact that birds do not build by imitation, I recorded the fact that in 

 1895 and 1896 different hen Canaries, reared in the usual square box of a 

 London breeding-cage, were turned loose in aviaries in which no typical 

 finch-like nest existed, and, after the lapse of about three hundred years, 

 reproduced nests nearly resembling those of their wild ancestors. This 

 year a still more convincing proof of the instinctive building habit in birds 

 has been given. I turned loose a Canary, also cage-bred, in one of my 

 aviaries, late in April. The bird, without my knowledge, took possession 

 of a square box hung high up on the wirework, and had almost completed 

 a nest therein, when I lifted the box down to see whether any bird had 

 made use of it. Although I hung up the box again, the Canary deserted 

 it, and commenced at once to build an elaborate cup-shaped nest in a dead 

 bush. In three days this nest was completed ; the following day she began 

 to lay, and deposited five eggs, upon which (as I write) she is sitting 

 steadily. On the other hand, Goldfinches and other birds reared out-of- 

 doors take possession of cages and boxes in which to nest when in cap- 

 tivity. — Arthur G. Butler (124, Beckenham Road, Beckenham, Kent). 



PISCES. 



Bull-dog Variety of the Sapphirine Gurnard at Great Yarmouth. — 

 During the middle of May an unusual number of Gurnards were brought 

 to the fish- wharf by local trawlers. The Sapphirine Gurnard, or Tub-fish, 

 Trigla hirundo (local, Latchet), was exceptionally plentiful, and ran to a very 

 large size. In one instance I saw a specimen very prettily mottled with a 

 fine bluish network of markings. The pectoral fins were barred very like 

 those oiTrigla llneata. On May 1 8th a sixteen-inch example was brought to 

 me, exhibiting the peculiar characteristics which have been noticed in several 

 species, and which have gained for that abnormality the title of " bull-dog 

 variety." The "latchet" had a head-piece that had the appearance of 



