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Before the moult, Bob had been netted and his wings cut,

and he was cowed and allowed me to examine him pretty freely;

but by May 3 he had ceased to fear me, and he seemed to think

that I was going to cut his wings again, and when handled on

that day fought like a demon ; and it was impossible, without

incurring a great risk of injuring him, to look at the feathers

under my two hands, or to make any but the most hurried

examination of the concealed markings.


As to the tail, on the first three examinations it consisted

of but eleven feathers. These feathers were short and absurdly

narrow. At first incessantly, and still occasionally when nervous,

he springs open and shuts his tail-feathers like a fan ; as my

bird-woman said one day, “ He’s uncommon busy with his tail.”

With the narrow feathers, the effect was that, when open, they

all were separated like the extended and parted fingers of the

human hand, and the tail looked contemptible. I examined the

feathers, and failed to detect any sign of fracture or exceptional

abrasion, each feather being well rounded at the tip. After a

while, a twelfth feather grew, an outside feather, much broader

and about one quarter of an inch longer than every other feather.

Then the eleven feathers were cast in moult, and, after a few

days’ delay, also the new No. 12. An entirely new tail now made

its appearance, one inch or more longer than the former tail,

each feather being about double the width of the first eleven.

On May 3, the outer feather on each side was fully one inch

shorter than the others. O11 June 28, I noticed that one

(I cannot speak of the other) of these two feathers was still

abnormally short ; but doubtless this was nothing more than

the result of some little mischief set up in connection with the

irregular growth of the No. 12 feather of the first tail.


An interesting feature in the new tail was that, when the

bird was handled on May 3, it was found that the shaft of

every one of the twelve feathers extended distinctly and clearly

beyond the webbing. The new tail, too, seems less square and

rather inclined to be indented in the centre.


Keeping a bird in a cage by itself, as Bob was during the

winter, has one advantage—the feathers cast in the moult can be

collected and preserved. The bulk of Bob’s old plumage has been

preserved ; and recently I have been looking over the feathers.

None of the twelve tail feathers shews a distinct shaft spike ;

but it is possible that these may have been worn away, though

hardly on the new No. 12. I found what I was not looking for,

and had never noticed before, a few small feathers wholly brown



