Different Methods of Moulting 85 



Not having time to skin the bird the same evening, the 

 hunter put it into a drawer of his dressing-table, and on 

 proceeding to take it out next morning, he was surprised 

 to find that during the night the process of change had 

 continued, and that the bird was nearly black. It is 

 many years since my old friend told me this story, and it 

 seemed so extraordinary that I never liked to put it into 

 print, but in the light of recent conclusions it seems that it 

 may as well be published, as Taczanowski himself never 

 doubted its authenticity. 



Besides the acquisition of new plumage by the process 

 of moult and by the shedding of the light edges of the 

 feathers in spring, there is yet a third method, viz. by a 

 change in the pattern of the feather, without moult. It 

 is many years since I became convinced of the truth of 

 this phenomenon, and I published my first essay on the 

 subject in 1873, ' On the Changes of Plumage in certain 

 Accipitrine Birds.' l I then endeavoured to show that 

 the change from a striped feather, such as that on the 

 chest of a young Sparrow-Hawk {Accipiter nisus), to 

 a barred one, could be, and was, effected by the break- 

 ing up of the pattern of the feather, instead of its 

 being shed and renewed. During the twenty-five years 

 that have elapsed since I first put my ideas before the 

 public, I have been more than ever convinced that this 

 phenomenon takes place in many other groups of birds 

 besides the Sparrow- Hawks, though I never could prove 

 how the change of pattern was effected. I could now 

 give numerous instances in which no one can doubt that 

 such a change takes place, however mysterious it may 

 seem that such a thing could be possible. One of the 

 best examples is that of the Australian Rifle-bird (Ptitorhis 

 paradisea), in which the male is velvety black, with a 

 beautiful triangular shield of burnished steel-green extend- 

 1 'Proceedings of the Zoological Society,' 1873, p. 414. 



