PLUMAGE 



48{> 



Colour of the Beak. — In a very young Gannet the beak 

 is dark horn-colour, but this certainly gets paler as the bird 

 grows older, and in an adult it is whitish, or "pale bluish- 

 grey " as Macgilhvray terms it,* with dark indented lines on 



not appear to be an instance on record of any species of bird, which by 



nature is perinanently coloured white turning by freak to a brown or 



black colour. Such melan- 

 ism, or accessory coloiu-, 

 could only be brought about 

 by a superabundance of 

 pigment in the feathers, 

 and in a white bird there 

 would be no pigment, for 

 the substance of a white 

 feather is colourless. At 

 any rate ainong the many 

 accidental varieties of birds, 

 variously attributable to 

 albinism, melanism, xan- 

 thochroism, and erythrism, 

 which have been placed on 

 record, such eihisusnatur;i' as 

 this brown Gannet, if it were 

 indeed a variety, would be 

 miknown to ornithologists 

 at present. As this bird has 

 given rise to a good deal of 

 discussion, and the matter is 

 not considered settled by 

 some, it may be as well to 

 give its portrait, which is 



reproduced from the " British Birds " Magazine (IV., p. 1")3), with the 



permission of the editors. 



* " British Birds," V., p. 407. 



