128 Mr. R. Hall on Birds 



difficult. The species under review is, I believe, new to 

 Western Australia. 



7. Lalage TRICOLOR. Whitc-shouldered Caterpillar-cater. 

 (Hall's Key, p. 12.) 



A, B. S ad. sks. 27.10.99. Geraldton. 



C. ^ semi-ad. sk. 6.10.99. Katanning. 



These three skins are intensely black or metallic green- 

 black, according to the light. I^hey are much more black 

 and lustrous than eastern skins in my cabinet, one of which 

 is dated (in the breeding-season) 5.10.98, and another 5.3.99. 

 The plumage is most likely a matter of age, and the first- 

 named bird had probably moulted early or had only ex- 

 perienced the autumn moult. 



Specimen C. — This clearly indicates a transitional stage ; 

 because the right lialf of the rectrices (except one, which is 

 new) are brown, the innermost secondaries (two on the left 

 and three on the right wing) being also brown, and the wing- 

 coverts having their edges marked with light brown. Tiie 

 basal portion of the under mandible has the brown indicative 

 of youth. 



Change of plumage. — Points of interest are presented to 

 us not only by specimen C itself, which is just concluding a 

 heavy moult of quills and contour-feathers, but by the fact of 

 finding in the same specimen the white of the secondaries 

 rapidly commencing the moult by *' tuck pointing.^' This 

 specimen, I should say, is not proceeding normally. In A 

 and B the white of the secondaries is fast disappearing by the 

 same process, for whereas a broad band of white (0'7 inch) 

 exhibits itself along a part of the outer web, a ragged and 

 short band shews along another part of it. This applies to 

 many secondaries, and probably commences while the birds 

 are nesting, because I saw no young birds fledged, but found 

 nests of young and collected male birds on the same ground. 



I presume that, having served their purpose of adornment 

 in A and B, if not C, such feathers are the first, by this 

 special form of moult, to change. 



Specimen C is moulting its quills in early October instead 



