on a moot question.



79



that plucked from a living bird would probably not change whilst in

a quiescent condition, though it might do so if the bottle were

shaken ; the steady heat of heavy rain upon feathers or the flapping

of the wings in water would he far more likely to wash out pigment

than if the feathers were merely standing still in a bottle.


I have frequently noticed, when quill-feathers have been

plucked or knocked out of the wing of a living bird, that their

proximal extremities were moist and slightly sticky ; moreover the

quill itself contained a certain quantity of serous lymph (in some

cases the tip of a torn-out quill is smeared with blood like the fang

of a freshly-extracted canine tooth), and I have seen parrots which

have acquired a depraved taste through being fed upon meat pull

out and chew the quill of a flight feather to gratify their unnatural

appetite.


On the other hand, if a moulted quill is examined it is found

to he quite dry, which seems to indicate that moult is a natural

result of the withdrawal of serum from the feathers, and that what

is known as “ French moult " is the result of a feeble constitution

which fails to supply the feathers with needful nutrition, for I utterly

fail to see why it should he supposed that feathers, any more than

hair or teeth, could retain their attachment to the body when

deprived of vitality.


Now, when a feather becomes dry, it seems to me reasonable

to expect it to absorb a certain quantity of grease from under the

skin ; if so, this might explain, not only the slightly duller colouring

of the plumage in dead birds, hut also a more greasy condition of

pigment in moulted feathers ; so that soap, soda or ammonia might

be needed as a solvent to release the colouring in water; whereas in

a living bird whose plumage (according to Heuglin) is abnormally

free from grease, the pigment might readily he released in pure water.


Entomologists will, 1 think, admit that the wings of a living

butterfly do not speedily absorb moisture ; although it is quite pos¬

sible to dye them, as 1 proved about the year 1873, by dipping the

tips of the front wings of a number of white butterflies into magenta


* l dare say some of our older members will call to mind, as an example of tliis, a

miserable oddity which used to trot around on the door of a large cage in the

Crystal Palace with literally not a rag on.



