400 THE ZOOLOGIST 



early evening or in moonlight ; and the moon herself, we may remind 

 ourselves, is light-reflecting and not phosphorescent. So far I have 

 not read of " luminosity " in any other species of Owl, and my theory 

 would break down should one of the brown-plumaged birds prove to 

 be "phosphorescent." — F. J. Stubbs. 



Notes on Nest-Boxes. — Referring to my note (ante, p. 276), I had 

 a look at some of the boxes to-day (October 6th), and found one 

 occupied by three flourishing young Stock-Doves, perhaps two-thirds 

 grown. Whether the eggs were all laid by one bird, of course one 

 cannot say. Another box contained four Bats ; I think they were 

 all Pipistrelles, but did not take them out. — Julian G. Tuck (Tostock 

 Rectory, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk). 



Evolution at the recent Meeting of the British Association 

 (Australia, 1914). — Of course, natural selection plays its part, as it 

 must in all cases, even in the inorganic world, and I believe that in 

 many cases — as, for example, in protective resemblance and mimicry — 

 that part has been an extremely important one. But much more 

 important than natural selection appears to me what Baldwin" has 

 termed " Functional Selection,"' selection by the organism itself, out 

 of a number of possible reactions, of just those that are required to 

 meet any emergency. As Baldwin puts it, " It is the organism which 

 secures from all its overproduced movements those which are adaptive 

 and beneficial." Natural selection is here replaced by intelligent 

 selection, for I think we must agree with Jennings I that we cannot 

 make a distinction between the higher and the lower organisms in this 

 respect, and that all purposive reactions, or adjustments, are essen- 

 tially intelligent. 



Surely that much- abused philosopher, Lamarck, was not far from 

 the truth when he said, " The production of a new organ in an 

 animal body results from a new requirement which continues to 

 make itself felt, and from a new movement which this requirement 

 begets and maintains." J Is not this merely another way of saying 

 that the individual makes adaptive responses to environmental 

 stimuli ? Where so many people fall foul of Lamarck is with regard 

 to his belief in the inheritance of acquired characters. But in 

 speaking of acquired characters Lamarck did not refer to such 

 modifications as mutilations; he was obviously talking of the gradual 

 self-adjustment of the organism to its environment. — Prof. Arthur 

 Dexdy, D.Sc, &c. 



' Development and Evolution ' (New York, 1902), p. 87. 

 f ' Behaviour of the Lower Organisms ' (New York, 1906), pp. 334, 335. 

 I ' Histoire naturelle des Animaux sans Vertebres,' torn, i., 1815, p. 185. 



