Colour change in the plumage of birds.



61



trim-built, active, fish-eating bird, take care of itself in a storm as

well as a Sea-gull ? An expert diver and an excellent swimmer

should be able to float. While a few live Pelicans could be found

after the storm, nobody reported seeing a live Purple Gallinule for

several days.


On one of the drifts that contained 31 dead cattle besides

the bodies of 215 birds of various kinds, there stood a solitary

Scarlet Ibis. Like a garnet in the sands, or a rosy promise of the

morning sun, it stood, gracefully poised above the terrible ruin — an

encouragement, an inspiration, an unfailing hope—not as the rain¬

bow, suggesting the possibility of another destructive force, but as

an animated symbol that life is immortal.


Houston, Texas ; December 28th, 1916.



COLOUR CHANGE IN THE PLUMAGE

OF BIRDS.


By Dr. V. G. L. Van Someren.


In a letter to the Editor, p. 108, Dr. Butler mentions the

colour changes in feathers which he noted in the case of Pyromelana,

and to strengthen his argument that colouring matter can pass up

the vanes of already fully-formed feathers, he mentions the case.of

Turacus.


Now to take the last point first. In this country and Uganda

there are several species of Plantain-Eaters, all with the wide crimson

^’ing-patch, and I have in my collection of skins good series of all of

them. These birds have been collected at all times, rainy season and

dry, and not in any single instance do any of the feathers bearing

crimson show the slightest trace of this red colour being washed out

by wet. Furthermore, I have before me as I write four bottles, each

containing one crimson feather from different species of Turacus;

they have remained in water for one week and none shows any

change! These feathers were taken from dry study skins. Another

bottle contains a feather which had been plucked from one of my

tame Plantain-Eaters, Musophaga rossce. No change has taken



