401 
GOLDEN EYES, OR GARROTS—GILPIN. 
tion it is only within a few years that they have been found in 
some numbers wintering inDigby Basin. Mr. Boardman records 
them as occurring at St. Stephen’s, New Brunswick. Coues, (Birds 
of the North-west, 1874), acknowledging it a true species, notes 
its occurring at New York, and Merriman (Birds of Connecticut, 
1877), at Long Island Sound and Cape Cod, 1867 and 1871. Thus 
a bird first described one hundred years ago, then lost sight of till 
Richardson described and figured it as a new species, ignored by 
Audubon and subsequent writers, is at last restored to its original 
name and discoverer, Gmelin. It must be that for some reason 
unacountable to us, it is extending its migrations, and appearing 
where it never was before, into regions from which the Labrador 
duck (C. Labradorius) is disappearing in our own times, for like 
unaccountable reasons. 
Amongst writers of the present day, the term “ mimicry” is 
often used, that is, that in some cases certain bright colours, are 
given in nature to attract the different sexes or repel them, or neu¬ 
tral ones to avoid the notice of enemies, and by the word used it is 
insinuated that the possessors of these colours have an instinctive 
knowledge of them, even though the principle is pushed so far as 
insects and plants. Now in studying these two species we find 
two co-ordinate species, each carrying out its individual life and 
condition, without any assistance of colour. Though naturalists 
have scarce yet acknowledged the differences in the males, the 
females are still without a distinguishing mark in science, and 
which can only be discovered by a still further, long and exact 
study; yet we find both species living together, and under ex¬ 
actly the same circumstances, and yet preserving their separate 
conditions. To enumerate opposite facts is perhaps the best 
argument to oppose the laying down of such general principles, 
which owe their existence to the brilliancy of their authors 
rather than objective reasons. Similar cases can be brought 
from our small plover and stints and sand-peeps, where the smal¬ 
lest web perhaps J inch wide, is all that distinguishes species. 
It has boldly been said that there is no man of science at the 
present, but believes in evolution or development. A theory 
whose practical proofs, when you ask for them, its authors tell 
