Birds. 



6675 



tricks of animals which run in families, not to descent, but to imita- 

 tion : we know how clever many animals are in imitating many 

 things, and we should be disposed to attribute these tricks to that 

 head : perhaps in some cases we should be right in so doing, but in 

 the matter of the mare and foal the thing is impossible, since the foal 

 never had the opportunity (even if we would grant him the inclination) 

 of imitating his mother in this point, for he never saw her with a bit 

 in her mouth. 



Many similar hereditary peculiarities will doubtless have presented 

 themselves to the experience of others ; and, presenting as they do 

 fresh subjects of interest, and fresh sources of admiration at the won- 

 drous lessons which Nature contrives to instil into individual mem- 

 bers of the animal kingdom, I would express a hope that they may be 

 communicated through the pages of the 1 Zoologist,' and thus form 

 additional links of evidence on a subject with which we are as yet 

 but imperfectly acquainted. 



Alfred Charles Smith. 



Yatesbury Rectory, Calne, 

 July 21, 1859. 



The doubtful Eggs. — I have read Mr. Smurthwaite's "suggestion" (Zool. 6638) as 

 to the eggs mentioned by me (Zool. 6563). It is not satisfactory to me. T certainly do not 

 lay claim to a power of discrimination like Mr. Smurthwaite's, which enables him not 

 only to determine that certain eggs, unseen by him, are blackbird's eggs, but also that 

 a person, of whom he knows as much as he has seen of the eggs, is unable, from lack 

 of experience or knowledge, to tell one " small bird's" egg from another, even when 

 he has them before him. Still, while admitting this, and expressing my extreme 

 admiration of Mr. Smurthwaite's remarkable gift of clairvoyance, I cannot quite put 

 on one side the fact that the man who gave me the eggs declares that the bird he saw 

 go off the nest that contained the eggs was neither a ring ouzel nor a blackbird, but 

 that his impression at the time was that it was a "May thrush." With the eggs 

 before me, in their nest, I ventured the opinion — a very decided one, too, it is, and I 

 repeat it — that they were not the missel thrush's. However, I will forward those 

 which T have loose to the Editor, if he will permit me, that others may judge by sight 

 as well as myself. As to the sites selected for nidification by the redwing, I find that 

 Yarrell and Selby both mention trees, of different sorts, as the usual ones. Perhaps 

 Mr. Smurthwaite's " gift v enables him to decide that it is fir trees only which are 

 "never selected" for that purpose by the bird in question. — J. C. Atkinson ; Danby, 

 August 8, 1859. [Please to send them. — Ed."] 



Showers of Feathers. — On arriving in this country a few days since, my attention 

 was drawn by a friend to a note on " showers of feathers," by Mr. P. W. Greene 

 (Zool. 6442). As that gentleman has intimated that he wishes a further communi- 

 cation from me in regard to some feathers of waterfowl I had mentioned in a letter 

 which found its way into the 1 Zoologist' (Zool. 6324), 1 must say that such a simple fact 



