238 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



explained on the principles of sexual selection as enunciated by Darwin. 

 Inasmuch as the protective theory, with its offshoots of recognition- 

 marks, warning coloration, &c, seems here excluded, this question has 

 an important bearing on that of sexual selection generally. Those, 

 indeed, who believe bright colours to be but the effect of high vitality 

 may claim the blazing gullet of the Shag as due to this cause alone ; 

 but why, then, is the frequent and striking revealment of it a very 

 marked feature in the bird's nuptial philanderings ? At pp. 169, 170, 

 and 176 of my ' Bird Watching,' and more particularly at pp. 55, 56, 

 123—131, and 210, 211 of my ' The Bird Watcher in the Shetlands,' I 

 have endeavoured to direct attention to this interesting and crucial 

 point, but what I have had to say has hardly received a comment. — 

 Edmund Selous. 



[Darwin (' The Descent of Man,' ed. ii. p. 426) called attention to 

 the fact of the inside of the mouth of Buceros bicornis being black in 

 the male and flesh-coloured in the female, but did not consider it 

 explainable by his theory of sexual selection. — Ed.] 



Artificial Additions to the British Fauna. — Last summer we turned 

 out some Red-crested and Dominican Cardinals. Some of them re- 

 mained with us all the winter, coming to feed with the wild birds on 

 the food-trays in my garden. There is now a nest of young Red- 

 crested Cardinals in the garden. The nest is very high up in an old 

 cedar tree. I feel sure that one if not two other pairs have nests, but 

 have not yet been able to find them. — M. Bedford (Woburn Abbey, 



Woburn). 



REPTILIA. 



Water-Tortoises (Emys orbicularis) in England. — In the summer 

 of 1890 or 1891 we turned six full-grown Water-Tortoises into a small 

 artificial pond in the garden. Soon afterwards one was brought back 

 by a man who said he had ploughed it up in a field a quarter of a mile 

 away. A second was also brought back from some distance off. They 

 hybernate during the winter, and reappear in April. The bottom of 

 the pond is concrete, so that they cannot bury themselves in the mud. 

 They occasionally get bits of meat, but are able to live on worms, dead 

 gold-fish, and such other food as they find. Two of the original six 

 were alive last summer, having survived about sixteen English winters. 

 They may be still alive, but as last year we put in two others they 

 cannot be identified. They spend the sunny hours on the eage, and 

 slip into the water as one approaches. Their sight is exceedingly 

 keen. I should be curious to know whether any have survived so long 

 in this country in the open air. — Harold Russell (Shere, Guildford). 



