THE ASSUMPTION AND CHANGES OF PLUMAGE IN BIRDS. 17 
In the paper in the Linnean Transactions before referred to, Mr. Whitear, after de- 
tailing various instances of the change of colour in the feathers of birds during the early 
part of the year, (a change which has also been observed in the black and barred-tailed 
Godwits, the Knot, Dunlin, grey and golden Plovers, Mallard, black-headed Gull, and 
others,) adds the following paragraph. ‘‘ If the feathers of a live bird, apparently be- 
ginning to change, were marked by fastening a piece of silk to them, notching them, 
or otherwise, and it was observed that the first colour of the feather gradually dis- 
appeared, while the new colour extended itself more and more, till the feather had 
assumed that exhibited by the perfect bird, the fact would be established beyond 
contradiction.” This experiment I have performed, with the exact result which had 
been anticipated. 
A Herring Gull (at the Society’s Gardens), in its third year, was examined at Christ- 
mas last. Several tertial feathers were found to have their basal halves blue-grey, the 
other parts mottled with brown. Two notches were made with scissors on the webs of 
these feathers, intended to refer to the two colours then present. Some other feathers 
were wholly mottled with brown, and were marked with one notch. This bird was re- 
examined in April. The tertial feathers, which, when marked, were of two colours, 
were now entirely blue-grey ; one was tipped with white. The other feathers, which, 
when marked, were wholly mottled, were now for two thirds pure white, the terminal 
third alone retaining the mottled brown. 
The particulars which now follow are from the notes of James Hunt, one of the 
Keepers, made at the Gardens of the Zoological Society in the Regent’s Park during 
the seasons of 1831, 1832 and 1833, but principally in 1832, and will be found to 
confirm, as far as they go, the views here taken. 
Buack-Ta1LeD Gopwit.—Limosa melanura, Leisl. 
Black markings began to appear on the feathers of the lower part of the breast and 
belly of this bird on the 24th of February 1833. Three days afterwards the feathers 
on the upper part of the head, neck and breast, began to change colour from dusky 
brown to red. On the 29th the scapulars, wing-coverts and tertials, began also to 
change their colour. By the 29th of April the bird had arrived at the full colour of 
the breeding plumage. ‘The change that has been going on in this bird since the 24th 
of February, is absolutely an alteration of colour, and not produced by moulting, as I 
examined the bird day by day. The change commences at the base of each feather, 
and the tip is the last part that alters in colour. 
Rurr.—Tringa pugnaz, Linn. 
The moulting of the Ruff commenced on the head and neck about the 29th of March 
1832; the feathers on the body were not thrown off; the head and neck were left 
destitute of plumage, but the feathers of the body remained in a perfect state. The new 
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