10 



the old featiiers are tIirown off, and nc\v ones produccd in tlieir 

 places. The first two of tliese modos of cliange are observed gene- 

 rally in the spring, indicating the approach of the breeding season ; 

 the third is usually partial in the spring, and entire in the autumn. 



The Keeper's notes furnish some remarkable instances of change 

 of plumage, observed by him on birds in the Society's Menagerie: 

 — on the Ritįf, Tringa pugnax , Linn., in vvhich the spring moult is 

 partial, and in vvhich the rutf produced round the neck of the malė 

 preparatory to the breeding season is found to difFer in colour in 

 successive years ; that of an individual \vhich had it black in 18S2 

 having been ash-coloured in 1831 :— on the Mandarin Duck, Jnas 

 galericulatn, Linn., which moults entirely in the spring, and under- 

 goes a partial moult in the autumn, to assume his breeding plumage: 

 — onthe SummerDuck, Doidroriesia sponsa, Swains.,which resembles 

 the preceding in its moult:— on the Cormoraut, Cnrbo Cormoranus, 

 Meyer, which acquires in the spring \vhite feathers on the head and 

 neck, and on the thighs, \vithout parting with any of its old feathers : 

 — on the immature Herring Guli and lesser black-bac/ced Gull,Lari 

 argentatus and fuscus, Brunn., \vhich during two )'ears have been 

 undergoing a continued change of colour in their feathers, inde- 

 pendent of moulting, which does not appear to influence the change 

 of colour: — and onthe laughingGuU, Larus r7dibundus,Lwn.,\n vvhich 

 the feathers of the head change in the spring from vvhite to black, 

 the colour alone being changed without a feather being shed, and 

 the change being effected in four or five days ; in the autumn the 

 black feathers are moulted, and are replaced by vvhite ones. 



Mr. Yarrell stated his intention of entering more fuUy into the 

 explanation of the lavvs vvhich regulate the changes of plumage in 

 Birds, in a paper vvhich he is preparing to lay before an early raeet- 

 ing of the Šociety. 



A Note by James Hunt, one of the Society's Keepers, was read. 

 It related to the breeding of the Passenger Pigeon, Ectopistes migru- 

 torius, Svvains., in the Society's Menagerie. 



" A pair of these birds began to build their nešt on the '25th of 

 April, 183'2, having been three or four days in selecting a proper 

 place in a fir-tree in the inclosure appropriated at the Gardens to 

 the Pigeons. The female vvas the nest-builder. The malė bird 

 perfornied the most laborious part of the work : he collected and 

 conveyed to the spot all the materials, principally sticks and stravv, 

 of vvhich the nešt vvas composed. He alighted on the back of the 

 female vviih each fresh supply, so as not to disarrange any part of 

 the nešt vvhich she had formed. They began their task in the 

 morning, and completed it the šame evening. One egg vvas laid on 

 the morning of the'26lh, and the female commenced sitting imnie- 

 diately. A young bird vvas hatched in .sixteen davs. The malė re- 

 lieved the female during the period of incubation." 



Another instance of the breeding in this countryofthc Pas. 

 scnger Pigeon occurred nearly at the šame time in the Menagerie 

 of the President. 



