Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/510

440 does he bring forward as evidence of the influence of sexual selection on these birds? He gives a detailed account of the links which connect the extreme dark and the extreme pale colouring, and from this he concludes that sexual selection must have been at work. But is not this "mere supposition"? for the ascertained facts are too meagre to favour either natural or sexual selection. Does not Mr. Selous advocate the latter because at the outset he was "a believer in the reality of that power"?

It is to be hoped that Mr. Selous will write a paper on sexual selection, giving in support of that theory examples of actual choice in sexual matters as observed by himself in wild nature.

May I point out a slight slip in his choice of words? Would it not be preferable to speak of this species as polymorphic rather than multimorphous?— (St. Anselm's, Bakewell).

in preparation a catalogue of the vertebrate animals of Oxfordshire, and should be grateful for any information relating to the occurrence in the county of the following species:—Harvest Mouse, Dormouse, Black Bat, Lesser Shrew, Bank-Vole, Polecat (recent occurrences), Viper, Lizard, Sand-Lizard, Palmate Newt, Natterjack Toad, Crucian Carp, Rudd, Bream, White Bream, Grayling, Barbel.— (Bloxham, Oxon).