Birds in the Moult 



the corncrake, living as they do under such 

 similar conditions. 



One very remarkable phenomenon which fre- 

 quently attends the moult is the change of colour 

 which then takes place. I do not allude to the 

 regular alteration in appearance, such as the 

 whitening of the ptarmigans and the numerous 

 striking changes exhibited by such birds as 

 the golden plover, which have distinct summer 

 dresses, but to individual aberrations such as 

 are not unfrequently seen in captive birds. 

 Thus a valued albinistic, or otherwise abnor- 

 mally coloured, specimen not unfrequently re- 

 gains its normal colouring on moulting, much 

 to the disgust of its possessor, as I have seen 

 in India with white examples of the house- 

 mynah {Acridotheres tristis). Dark varieties 

 are also liable to revert in this way, there 

 being a case on record of a black bullfinch 

 which did so. 



Among our familiar fowls it is interesting to 

 note that the civilised rooster has, in most cases, 

 lost a peculiar moult to which his ancestor, the 

 red jungle-fowl of India, is subject. This bird, 

 which exactly resembles the "black-breasted 

 red " breeds of tame fowls in colour, loses the 

 long orange-red hackles of his neck after breed- 

 ing, and assumes for some time a covering of 



short black feathers on that part, which are 



8 1 f 



