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Show 1899.] ON WILD GOATS OE THE JEGEAN ISLANDS. 599- which an animal that had turned white in southern regions Was during the spring a very conspicuous object), and the occasional turning white of individuals in southern regions where the white-turning habit had long since been dropped by the majority of the species, was, especially among Stoats, in Mr. Barrett-Hamilton's opinion, the cause of the numerous reported instances " of the assumption of white in mild winters in England. Both these phenomena, i. e. the late moult and the tendency of solitary individuals of non-white-turning races to revert to the white-turning habit, were, at first sight, of apparently little use, or perhaps eveu dangerous to the species in question. On further consideration, however, it appeared that their utility was probably to be found in the opportunity afforded by their means of adaptation to changed climatic conditions; it being obvious that, in countries where an animal, if it turned white in winter, would have to go about in that conspicuous garb for some time after the disappearance of all snow and frost, those individuals which turned less white than their companions would have a better chance of surviving, and so would become (as is the case in southern countries) the dominant feature of the race ; whereas the occasional individual reappearance of the white-turning habit gave an opportunity to the species for its general reassumption, should climatic conditions become more severe. Mr. Allen had pointed out that in Lepus americanus the spring moult " occurs quite as early and proceeds just as rapidly (if not a little more so) in the females as in the males, and that the moult is practically completed before the young are born" (op. cit. p. 122); but Mr. Barrett-Hamilton stated that the latter part of this statement was not true for the south of Ireland, where the Variable Hare was still in winter-coat in early May, whereas its young were usually born at a very much earlier date, the exact date of their birth depending almost entirely on the weather. Mr. E. M . Corner read a note on the variations of the patella in the Divers, Grebes, and Cormorants, by which, as he believed, the functions of the bones in these birds might be explained. A communication was read from Marquis Ivrea on the Wild Goats of the iEgean Islands. A series of heads and some photographs of the Goats of the islands of Antimilo and Joura were exhibited, with the object of showing; that the effect of a cross between Capra cegagrus and C. hircus (such as had been proved to have occurred on the former island) was not to produce an animal corresponding to C. dorms (Reichenow), and that consequently the Goat of Joura had not, as was generally assumed, been so produced, but was, as a matter of fact, a local variety of the Wild Goat, for which the name C. cegagrus, var. jourensis, was suggested. See various commuuicatious to the ' Field.' 39* |