Birds (always excepting, for some unknown reason, the partridge) learnt
to avoid the telegraph wires within a few years. I cannot find any evidence, though I have sought it in many counties, that the new electric wires have done any damage. We may then hope that the live rail may also be learnt. Yet how this is done defeats all conjecture. We talk of " inherited memory " ; but does the phrase do more than just label a mystery that remains as impenetrable as before the explanation, so to call it, was suggested ? This inherited memory, whatever its inner cause, is long as well as quick. It whispers "'ware wire " to the inexperienced youngster and it teaches the migrant to take long flights over shallow seas (where once land was, as the North Sea) and forbids them to cross deep though narrow seas as the Straits of Madagascar. May this mysterious gift be bestowed on that queer, nocturnal, much harassed creature the English badger ! • • • •
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