THE ZOOLOGIST. 
THIRD SERIES. 
Vou. III.) MARCH, 1879. [No. 27. 
ON TH CHANGE--OF: COLOUR, .IN. BIHDS, 
THROUGH AND IRRESPECTIVE OF MOULTING. 
From the Swedish of W. Meves.* 
TRANSLATED BY.H. EK. Dresser, F.Z.S. 
In a communication to the naturalists assembled at Altenburg 
on the 6th July, 1862,+ Professor H. Schlegel originated a lively 
discussion on this subject amongst the ornithologists of Germany, 
during which many different opinions were expressed, and the 
essays thereon which have since appeared} have already attained 
considerable magnitude. It is, however, really on the theories 
started by Schlegel respecting “‘ Das Entstchen des voll kommenen 
Kleides der Vogel durch Verfarben und Wachsen der Federn 
-unabhiingig von der Mauser,” that opinions are divided. I may 
therefore be permitted to show the result of some researches 
with which I have been employed for several years, but which 
must only be looked on as a commencement ina rich field of 
labour, and which I should scarcely have dared to make known 
had not another Swede, M. T. Hammargren, lately contributed a 
paper to the ‘ Kongl. Acadamien’ in which the results arrived at 
do not agree with my own. 
Before proceeding to the subject in question, it may be well 
to give a short review of the chief circumstances attending the 
moulting of some of our birds. 
* Ofy. K. Vet. Ak. Forh., 1854, No. 8. 
+ ‘Naumannia,’ i., Heft ii., pp. 19—40. 
t In the ‘Journal fiir Ornithologie.’ 
M 
