SHORTER ARTICLES AND CORRESPONDENCE 



DEGENERATION ACCOMPANYING INBREEDING 

 It seems now generally conceded thai inbreeding per se is not 

 injurious but that when a similar defect in the germ plasm comes 

 from both sides of the family the children do not rise in respect 

 to this character above the parental level. The effect of close 

 inbreeding in small isolated communities is, at any rate, always 



on facts gleaned from a letter sent me by Rev. H. East, a mis- 

 sionary whoso headquarters are at Ilaka. Chin Hills, Burmah. 



Ran Van villa-e has been isolated for about seven generations. 

 It contains about sixty houses and possibly two hundred inhahit- 



C. B. Davenport. 



A NOTE OF THE PRAIRIE-DOG OWL \YIIICH RE- 

 SEMBLES THE RATTLESNAKE'S RATTLE 

 In looking over an earlier number of the American Nat- 

 raijst 1 I find a note under this head by F. B. Loomis in which 

 B describes a note of the adult burrowing owl which so closely 

 >sembled the rattle of a rattlesnake that not only the members 



