Letters, Announcements, ^c. 459 



ness arising therefrom, has caused the change of colour. Some 

 time ago I saw a pair of similar birds in the possession of a 

 gentleman in this town : on asking after them lately, I was 

 told that they had died, of no particular disease. 



In the same aviary with ray bird is an example of the Aus- 

 tralian Poephila cincta, Gould, which I brought with me from 

 Melbourne in 1862. This shows unmistakable signs of having 

 arrived at a good old age : the whole of its plumage is turning to 

 a dull sooty colour, especially the light grey of the head, which 

 is becoming a darkish blue-black. 



A neighbour had an English Blackbird, Turdus merula, for a 

 number of years. He came one day to tell me that the bird, 

 which had been moulting, was putting on a pied coat instead of 

 a black one. Feeling convinced that age was the cause, I asked 

 to have the specimen as soon as it was dead. Within a month 

 I had it mounted in the Museum. 



I remember seeing a very curious Parrot in Ceylon, the pro- 

 perty of the late Sir J. E. Tennent. It was an example of 

 Palaornis torquata, of a bright yellow, except the red ring round 

 the neck and the black chin ; these were also changed, but I 

 forget to what colours. 



In my * Notes on the Ornithology of Ceylon,' you will find 

 mentioned (Ann. Mag. N. H. 2nd ser. xiii. p. 450) a curious 

 variety of Centropus 7'ufipennis, Illig. (C. philippensis, Cuv.), 

 which I shot at Port Pedro, and should still be in the British 

 Museum. This, I suppose, would be termed an "erythris- 

 mus.^^ 



In this Museum we have some singular examples, which I 

 will enumerate : — a Fulica cristata, pure white ; a Franculinus 

 afer, having large white patches throughout ; and another speci- 

 men of the same, in which all the characteristic markings are 

 retained, but changed in colour, and of which I can give the 

 best idea by saying that it is like an English Partridge seen 

 through spectacles of a neutral tint ; a Coturnix communis, also- 

 very similar to the last ; a Columba arquatrix, mottled with 

 pure white ; a Cockatoo, a species of Licmeiis, from King- 

 George's Sound, not figured in Gould's 'Birds of Australia,' 

 which was for a great number of years in the possession of an 



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