226 Mr. J. H. Gurney, Jim. — Male Plumage 



several Lesser Kestrels {Falco cenchris) , but the skin of ;i 

 female whicli I procured was destroyed by ants. 



Jiili/ 7th. At Koliala ; obtained a female Metojjonia 

 pusilla, of which I only saw a pair, and this was the only 

 time I came across these birds; also Mama unclulata. 



Juhj 8th. Diwal. Saw to-day several Bay-backed Shrikes 

 {Lanius hardivicki) ; this species is very common round 

 XJmballah. The night I came down from Rawal-Pindi by 

 rail was one of the hottest known for many years. My 

 companion, an old Indian colonel, and I sat at the carriage- 

 windows in our night-clothing, not breathing, but gasping 

 for air. The ironwork in the carriage was hot at midnight, 

 and the water in the lavatory quite warm. The wind swept 

 down from the desert hills like the blast from a furnace, the 

 country for miles around looking as if covered with snow 

 from the salt efflorescence on the surface. 



XVIII. — On the occasional Assumption of the Male Plumage 

 by Female Birds. By J. H. Gurney, Jun. 



John Hunter, the eminent surgeon and anatomist, seems to 

 have been the first to bring the subject of female birds occa- 

 sionally assuming male plumage before scientific men in this 

 country (Phil. Trans. Ixx. p. 527*), though something was 

 known about it from the time of Aristotle f. To such birds 

 Hunter applied the epithet " monstrous," and this, inasmuch 

 as it awakened the indignation of Mr. John Butter, was the 

 means of giving us the researches of the latter in the form of 

 a " Supplement,''"' or reply, to Hunter's paper (' Memoirs of 

 the Wernerian Soc' iii. p. 188). But each of them, while 

 clearing up much that was obscure, fell into an error ; and 

 their errors were what might be expected, when so much yet 

 remained to be learnt. Hunter, who liad but two species to 

 guide him, supposed that the change of plumage only took 

 place at an advanced age ; and Butter thought that a Domestic 



* Repiiuted, with additions, in the ' Animal Economy,' p. 63. 

 t Cf. Hist. Anim. lib. ix. c. 36. 



