A COMMENTARY ON NOS. VII. AND VIII. OF THE NATURALIST.” 291 
from a burrow what he supposed to be a Rabbit, but which proved, to his asto¬ 
nishment, a Fitchet-Weasel; it did not attempt to bite him, though he instantly 
let it drop on discovering his mistake. The young of this species are thinly co¬ 
vered at birth, with a whitish hair, which is succeeded by woolly fur of a uniform 
dark brown colour, though exhibiting the usual pale markings upon the head. 
They frequently develop their permanent teeth previously to the shedding of the 
first set, continuing to exhibit a complete series for a few weeks. 
Respecting the occurrence of Papilio podalirius in the New Forest (p. 38), 
more stress ought surely to be laid on the circumstance, that many of our rarest 
Lepidoptera^ as Mancipium daplidice^ D'eilephila eupkorbice.^ D. palii, D. lineata, 
D. celerioy &c., have chiefly been met with along the line of our south coast; 
wherefore the question is at least fairly admissible, whether some of them should 
not rather be considered as occasional stragglers, than as truly indigenous to the 
country ? It is certain that Acherontia airopos has been frequently met with far 
out at sea, as I have myself observed with Macroglossa stellatarum^ Cynthia car- 
dui^ Colias edum^ and numerous others, some of them of very small size. With 
such facts before us, it seems at present that we have trivial arguments for the 
contended indigenousness of Papilio podalirius^ even granting that a very few 
specimens have from time to time been captured within the realm of Britain. Is 
either of Mr. Allis's specimens a female insect ? For it is needless to add that 
the males are considerably the more erratic. 
In Mr. Allis’s extremely interesting paper on the incongruity of the compo¬ 
nent groups of the Rasores (a view in which I heartily concur), it is stated that 
“ gallinaceous birds see at their birth,” also, “ (I believe without exception,) run 
from their nest as soon as hatched,” and “ always pick up their own food as 
soon ss they run from the shell.” Is Mr. A., however, prepared to assert this of 
.allied genera (composing, I consider, an extremely distinct and 
Welfei^fedafamily), which are generall^^U^d^^^s^OQ^,^ incapable of leaving 
the^hest for some time, being fed by the parent ? Another anomalous group is 
presented by Hcemapodius and its various allies, birds of peculiar form, and 
wanting the hind toe, and which are undoubtedly more distinct from the Tetrao- 
nidcB^ than this latter from the PavonidcE. The Strutkionidce should certainly 
not be admitted among the Rasores^ as such a combination merges two obvious 
and recognised divisions, to form one that is vague and comparatively indefin¬ 
able ; a junction which could only have originated in abstract theoretical views, 
based on deductions from insufficient data. I think it must be confessed, how¬ 
ever, that the difficulties of achieving a perfectly unobjectionable arrangement, 
are insurmountable; as there will always be anomalous groups, which refuse to 
conform to any comprehensive division. Witness, for example, the Larks, the 
Calamophilus^ the Paradoxornis, the Menura^ the Psophia^ the Phcenicopterus^ 
