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is, it takes, or should take, two annual moults, each one complete

in itself, to finish off the work (c). Where this does not happen,

there must be something wrong with the birds, their aviary, or

their food. I found the same to be the case with the male Naked-

throated Bell-bird f Chasmorhynclnis nudicollis). At one annual

moult it changed from the greenish plumage of the young bird

to a speckled plumage,—whilst bearing which I thought it

looked its best—and at the succeeding annual moult it became

pure white. To return to the Satin-bird, as Mr. Page infers, the

age at which the male commences to don the plumage of the

adult is not certainly known. I feel inclined to say that the

young male does not put on a single dark feather until it is at

the very least three years old.


The Satin-bird is too bulky and boisterous for the birds I

now keep, but I can most strongly recommend it to those who

have plenty of space to spare. In a large well-sheltered Wilder¬

ness, with snug winter quarters attached, it would breed. Even

in their unsuitable aviary at the Zoological Gardens, eggs have

been dropped about I am told ; and last summer they even went

so far as to build a nest in a box tree. But it is a Wilderness

they require, not a trimly kept parterre like their home at the

Zoo. To do well, this species should have a really large place,

with abundance of grass and green food growing naturally. It

is an active powerful bird and requires much exercise ; and, as it

will sample every leaf, care must be exercised in the selection of

the trees and shrubs planted within its domain.


(To be continued).



REVIEW.


Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds , by Archibald James Campbell ,

Melboztrne. (Pawson & Brailsford , Sheffield ), imp. 8 vo., 1901.


This very important work has at length appeared, and so

greatly advances the knowledge of the nidification of the Birds

of Australia that it undoubtedly ought to find a place in the

library of every scientific aviculturist. The book is a bulky one,

inasmuch as it contains (with its indices) no less than 1102 pages


(c). My ‘ way of putting it ’ was simply stating a fact: the colouring of the body

changed so gradually that, if produced by a continuous moult, only one or two small

feathers can have been dropped on the same day : at first only two or three black feathers

appeared on the whole body, but twelve months later these had increased in number to the

extent of a complete change of colour. My birds have been in absolutely perfect health

from the beginning. The only moult in the year of large feathers only, which I was aware

of (the only one in which feathers remained on the floor of the aviary) was between July and

September, 1900 : both birds have been in perfect plumage since then.—A. G. B.



