418 
NOTES TO THE 
Starlings are also extensively used for trap -shooting. Tlie price 
varies from 4s. to 6s. per dozen. Directly after the breeding- 
season Mr. Davy would take a twenty-dozen order at two day's 
notice. 
The Tortoise, Fish, Crocodile, Arm.idillo, Hedge-Hog — 
Evidence of- Design in Structure, p. 136. — Wiiite's description 
of his tortoise has prompted me to write as follows : — It is very 
interesting to observe the wonderful way in which the Creator 
has clothed and ornamented His various creatures. Some live in 
the water, some on land ; some pass their time partly in the 
water or on land, some exist partly in the air, on the water, and 
on the land. All are beautifully and wonderfully constructed. 
I propose now to make a few remarks on the external cover- 
ings of some of these, taking as a beginning the various modi- 
fications of horny coverings. In the scales of the fish (Lhe carp 
is about the best example) we find plates of thin horn, some- 
what resembling (when cleaned and boiled) a portion of an 
ordinary horn lantern. These plates are set each into a soft 
pocket of the true skin, and overlap each other so as to form 
a complete suit of armour, giving origin, no doubt, to the idea 
of scale-armour, as worn by our ancestors at the time when 
arrows were used in battle. Tlie scales in the fish are not all 
of the same size. They are beautifully fitted, like enamel 
plates, on to the body, so that while they afford the most effi- 
cacious protection, they will not interfere in the least with 
the movements of the fish, which in many instances are exceed- 
ingly rapid. The reader should examine the mode in which 
the scales are fastened on (each in its own little pocket) in 
the case of the salmon ; these scales are covered with a water- 
proof varnish ; how and whence that comes I propose to explain 
at another time. 
Passing on f)*om tlie fish to the crocodile, we again find a 
scale-formed armour. The scales in this case are let into the 
skin in a different manner from those of the fish, and they are 
capable of absorbing a considerable amount of water. This I 
found out by soaking a crocodile's skin in water. Before the 
skin was soaked it was as hard and inflexible as a board. 
Having been soaked a few hours, it became almost as pliable 
and soft as a wet towel. This is evidently an arrangement to 
enable the crocodile to pass his time with comfort, both in the 
water and out of the water. A crocodile, also, has lungs, not 
gills ; but we never find true scales like those of a fish unac- 
companied by gills. When the crocodile is basking in the sun, 
his scales are, of course, much harder than when they are in the 
