NOTES AND QUERIES. 85 



Serrated Claws of the Common Heron. — In 'The Zoologist' for 

 January (p. 38), Mr. Stanley Lewis expresses disappointment at his in- 

 ability to find in my 'Manual of British Birds' any "mention of the 

 serrated claws of this species." If he turns to the Introduction, p. xxv, be 

 may read that one of the distinctions of the genus Ardea — and, indeed, of 

 the whole family Ardeidce — is : " Middle claw pectinated on the inner 

 edge." In a condensed work, in which every line and almost every word 

 had to be counted, it would have been a waste of space to repeat this in the 

 description of each of the ten species of Herons and Bitterns which find a 

 place in the British list. As for the use of this pectination, upon which 

 Mr. Lewis invites an expression of opinion, I can only say that " the bearing 

 — of the small-toothed comb — lies in its application." — Howard Saunders. 



OEGANIC EVOLUTION. 



Remarks relating to Mimicry. — In Mr. C. A. Witchell's interesting 

 " Stray Notes on Mimicry " (ante, p. 32), one or two of the facts cited in 

 illustration of his views seem hardly to meet the case, or at least to be open 

 to comment. For instance, referring to a suggested tendency with animals 

 " to resemble things that they like, be those things mates or surrounding 

 substances," the writer proceeds as follows : — " I am aware that the sexual 

 passion is not credited with this effect, but we know that breeders of prize 

 poultry are careful to keep their male birds from running with birds not of 

 the same variety, because if they do they will ' throw ' feathers like those of 

 their companions. I have seen this occur in a well-bred East Indian drake 

 that ran with a white Duck"* It is not at all unusual for black Ducks, 

 whatever their companions or surroundings may be, to become, after their 

 first or second year, more or less speckled with white. On a farm where 

 black Ducks only (a cross between Cayuga and East Indian) were kept for 

 many years in succession, this was a common occurrence. Trie process 

 is a very gradual one. After about the second or third moult a white 

 feather or two is noticed about the head, and at each succeeding moult more 

 white appears, this speckling or splashing gradually increasing and spreading 

 itself over the whole of the bird's plumage. No other Ducks were kept on 

 the farm, nor were there any white fowls. Again, with respect to the 

 Snake-like hissing noise made by certain nesting birds, the following 

 remarks occur; — " For a bird will hiss when on the nest, and at no other 

 time, and which has yet never seen a Snake, or apparently never heard it 

 hiss ; such is a town-bred fowl or duck." Sitting Ducks certainly hiss in 

 an unmistakable manner at an intruder, but, extensive as is the vocabulary 

 of the domestic fowl, I do not remember ever hearing either a town or 



* The italics are mine, 



