Colouration of Feathers 89 



oryzirord), and has shown by microscopical examination 

 that the perfect feather of a bird is by no means " dead," as 

 has been supposed, but is full of life, and that the "colour 

 change in the individual feather is fact, not theory " (' Auk/ 

 xiv. p. 145). This is the evidence which ornithologists 

 have been waiting for for years, for, although to myself 

 the change of pattern in a feather was an evident fact, 

 I had never the time to follow up the subject, and find 

 out how it was possible for a feather to act in this method 

 of change of pattern, though the fact that it must do so 

 was too frequently forced upon me to admit of any doubt 

 as to the possibility of the phenomenon. 



