Mr. Baird on British Entomostraca. 245 service for themselves. The heads of plaice (Platessa vulgaris) several times offered them were refused, and being forced down their throats were instantly ejected. Castings of the indigestible portions of their food are regularly thrown up. Although the female is very partial to washing, the male has never been known to wash himself. Their usual cry is a long-drawn scream, but frequently they keep a low purring noise like a cat, and the male bird, when chased to his annoyance, utters a sound like coo-coo-coo (described by Dr. Neill as a cuckoo."). The third individual, a female, is very different from the others, in being somewhat playful and quite familiar even with strangers. Live rats turned out to her have been inva-riably captured within a very short time. In the few instances where I have seen dead prey seized, the four claws were used*. Standing about a pace distant from this bird on one occasion when she was at liberty, and during bright sunshine, it was interesting to observe the contraction of the pupil of the eye, which was particularly conspicuous from contrast with the immense golden irides. When attracted by larks which were singing at a great elevation and distance, the pupil, from the ordinary size, adapted to near objects, instantly dimi-nished to its minimum or half the ordinary diameter ; and again when the sight was directed to birds at less distance, its diminution varied accordingly. The other two owls are not in the least affected by bright sunshine ; and from their observing birds passing at a great height in the air, or as ex-pressed to me * almost in the clouds," they are considered to see as far as a golden eagle, their companion in captivity. XXVI. — The Natural History of the British Entomostraca, No. V. By William Baird, Surgeon, H.C.S., &c. [With a Plate.] (Continued from Mag. Zool. and Bot. vol. ii. p. 412.) Daphnia. Anatomy. — The body of the insect is composed of two parts very distinct from each other ; the one much smaller than the * Sec observation to the contrary in the last-cited work, p. 310,
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