22



Arthur G. Butler — Colour-change in Birds



tails and flights, 200 Green Budgerigars, 25 Zebra Finches,

21 Saffron Finches, 16 Green Singing Finches, 21 White-throated

Finches, 100 Java Sparrows, Avadavats, Spice Birds, and

Mannikins, 30 Scaly-fronted Finches, 25 Red-headed Finches,

20 St. Helena Waxbills, 15 Piping Bullfinches.


The above all concerns Aviculture, but to demonstrate the point

more fully I may add that I have been instrumental in providing one of

the Allied zoological societies with a magnificent male Lion, and have

further orders which I feel confident of being able to execute. During

the same period I have delivered to other zoological societies animals

as follows : 3 Chimpanzees, 5 Woolly Lagothrix, 6 Douroucoulis,


18 Capuchins, 8 Naked-eared Squirrel Monkeys, 30 Marmosets,

8 Tamarins, 3 Red Titi Monkeys, 3 Spider Monkeys, 1 Red-bellied

Cercopithecus, 1 Black Mangabey, 8 Sooty Mangabeys, 10 Baboons,


19 Rhesus Monkeys, 1 Lapunda Ape, 5 Mandrills, 7 Caratrix Monkeys,

2 Grivet Monkeys, 3 Mona Monkeys, 3 Patas Monkeys, 1 Slow

Loris, 8 American Pocket Mice, 3 Ocelots, 1 Tigrine Cat, 7 various

Agoutis, 3 Pacas, 1 Spotted-necked Otter, 6 Coati-mundis, 40

Tabulated and Carbonaria Tortoises, 60 Scorpion Mud Terrapins,

16 Greek Tortoises, 1 Cayman, 4 Giant Beetles, 2 Bird-eating

Spiders or Tarantulas, 3 Congo Millipedes, and various Lizards, Slow-

worms, Snakes, Salamanders, Pythons, Chameleons, and Axolotls.


From the above it would appear to me that our Magazine, at any

rate, is in for interesting and busy times. I have just received

important letters from one of our noted Australian contributors,

also from Dar-es-Salaam (late German East Africa), and from the

Amazons, which all foreshadow new business.



COLOUR-CHANGE IN BIRDS


By Arthur G. Butler, Ph.D.


In the December number for last year an Australian bird-lover

remarks that “ Every aviculturist, of course, knows that most

birds with scarlet feathers or a colour of which scarlet would be

a component part, like orange, will lose it altogether during the

first moult, or at least change the red to shades ranging down from



