118 Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 



" lu answer to your questions about the breeding of Pavo 

 nigripennis, I can state that I have bred these birds for the 

 last six years, having had between 10 and 20 young birds 

 every year. These birds have never shown any signs of 

 variation. 



" The chicks when they leave the egg are always of a silky 

 yellowish-white colour all over. The flight-feathers, when 

 they begin to appear, are always yellowish white at the end 

 and brownish at the base, especially so on the inner web. 

 The tail-feathers also are dark at the base, with whitish tips. 

 The birds then gradually get the well-known light plumage 

 of the Pavo nigripennis hen. If the young bird is a male, 

 the plumage soon becomes mottled with dark feathers, and 

 in autumn many greenish and bluish feathers are visible. 

 In the second autumn the male comes into full colour, except 

 the long train, which comes a year later. 



'' As 1 four times lost my old breeding-cock, I had to 

 replace it as many times and got birds from different places, 

 and the offspring from these cocks never showed any variation 

 either as chicks or as adult birds. If Pavo nigripennis is not 

 a species it certainly is a wonderfully constant variety. 



" I may add that the bill and legs of chicks are of a 

 pale flesh-colour.^^ 



Mr. ScLATER called attention to the *' Act to amend the 

 Wild Birds' Protection Act, 1896,^^ passed during the last 

 Session of Parliament, whereby the Secretary of State was 

 enabled, on application, for special reasons, to make an order 

 prohibiting the taking or killing of particular kinds of wild 

 birds during the whole year. Mr. Sclater suggested that 

 advantage should be taken of this power to render penal 

 throughout the year the destruction of such birds as the 

 Hoopoe and the Golden Oriole, which might be reasonably 

 expected to breed in some of the southern counties of England 

 if they were not molested. 



Mr. Sclater gave a short account of his 48-hours' visit to 

 Spitsbergen in the Orient s.s. ' Garonne ' in August last. 



