10 



It is certain that the heavy feather loss of 

 my bird but indirectly helped the change j 

 Ist, we have seen that many feathers, 

 changed which were not renewed by moult ; 

 2d, we saw that those feathers which were 

 renewed by direct gain and loss were col- 

 ored similarly to those which preceded 

 them, but that later on they changed Apto- 

 sochromatically, and 3d, no purely blue, i. e., 

 changed feathers, were found in an embry- 

 onic condition at any time, although fre- 

 quent careful examinations of the bird were 

 made. 



Although it is of no positive certainty 

 whether, in the new feathers, the vascular 

 connection with the body was severed, it 

 was found that their complete form was at- 

 tained in most cases a week or more before 

 a change set in ; and in those unshed 

 feathers carried over from the fall, it is 

 quite reasonable to suppose that all con- 

 nections with the body of the bird were as 

 normal as in other feathers of a similar age. 

 Before the change of color had begun, in 

 December or January, in specimens ex- 

 amined carefully under the microscope, I 

 could detect no presence of carrier pigment 

 cells and found the calamus of each feather 



observed by him, two changed color ptosochromatic- 

 ally and the third ' without any feather loss to speak 

 of,' i. e., aptosochromatically ; and still later on, I 

 was delighted to learn during a conversation with 

 Mr. C. J. Maynard that he too had followed a male 

 Passerina through its entire spring change of color. 

 The bird involved, belonged to a friend of Mr. May- 

 nard, who informed him that the bird had changed 

 its colors during the season just passed without moult- 

 ing its feathers. Determined to follow out the change 

 exactly, Mr. Maynard examined the bird frequently 

 the next season, throughout the entire time occupied 

 by the change, and perfectly satisfied himself that it 

 was totally unassisted by a moult or any considerable 

 loss of feathers. 



