iSgi.] 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



167 



fluenced the small speck of matter, seemingly so simple, yet really so 

 complex, which is called the germinal disc, and whose potentialities 

 are so marvellous and well nigh incredible, that they surpass the 

 dreams of the wildest speculator, and reveal to him who has eyes to 

 see something of the mystery of life, and at the same time shew him 

 some of the steps by which the many beauteous and varied forms we 

 see around us have arisen from the most simple ancestral type. Think 

 for for a moment what all this means, a minute speck of matter called 

 spermatozoon is transmitted from the body of the male bird to that 

 of the female, where it comes into contact with another minute speck 

 of matter called a germ or ovum, and the mysterious process which 

 we label fertilization has been effected. Before the ovum is expelled, 

 certain glands, as previously stated, secrete protective coverings and 

 then what we call an egg is laid. Both parents may die, the egg may 

 be sent to the other side of the world ; yet it contains something which 

 because we do not understand it, we label dormant vitality. We apply 

 artificial heat and from the egg emerges a bird true to its species ; if 

 instead of one we have a number of eggs we shall have male and 

 female birds which will breed true, though of course there will be 

 those slight variations which always accompany the development of 

 living organisms. What I wish to make clear is that not merely 

 bodily peculiarities but mental activities are transmitted through the 

 eggs, and it passes our comprehension how male characteristics can be 

 transmitted in that microscopical speck tlie spermatazoon, even more 

 than that female characteristics are transmitted through the ovum. 

 Although the egg may be transferred to the other side of the world? 

 yet in its development there will be unfolded not only the form but the 

 mental activities and habits of the parents, and we realize that in that 

 small mass of protoplasm, there lay not merely the protentiality of 

 reproducing the parental type but of surpassing it, as that in its turn 

 had surpassed its predecessors. 



(To he concluded.) 



Notes on Short-eared Owl Breeding in Essex. — This Owl 

 is most numerous with us during the autumn migration, when a 

 good many are killed by the shore gunners ; but a few stay with 

 us the whole year and breed in some of the small islands in the 



