48 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



On September 1st. one gun obtained one bird, and another 

 three birds. 



September 8th. Birds were still scarce, and Mr. Chappie 

 secured three couple of Pin -tails. All birds were in a heavy state 

 of moult, mostly with the tirst three primaries old, the fourth and 

 fifth were new stumps, the next two about half -grown and the 

 remainder full new feathers. The primary and greater wing - 

 coverts were in a very ragged state through moult, most of them 

 beino- missing. Two tails were also in moult, and in some cases 

 the " pins " were in moult too. 



September 14-th. 24 couple, all Pin - tails. The first quarter 

 of the moon was on the 2nd and full moon on the 10th, so those 

 who base their calculations on the first large influx of birds coining 

 down by the light of the moon can do so from this date, as this was 

 the first good bag of the season. The state of the moult showed 

 very little change from last week ; though some birds were more 

 advanced and one had complete new primaries. 



September 21st. All Pin - tails, and not much change in the 

 state of moult. 



September 28th. All Pin-tails, but the birds appeared to be 

 in rather heavier moult than those shot the two previous weeks, 

 which would seem to show that they were fresh arrivals and that 

 the others had continued their journey south. 



October Ipth. Three couple of Fan-tails were secured by 

 three guns, and the rest were all Pin-tails. The Fan-tails were 

 in almost complete new plumage, but some of the Pin-tai's had 

 three and others five old primaries, showing that they were in the 

 same state of moult as the first arrivals a month earlier. 



October 8th. 6 couple of Fan-tails and 8 couple of Pin- 

 tails. There was no change in the moult of either since last week. 

 October 15th. Two Pin-tails sent in to show the state of 

 their moult. One was an old bird and the other a young one. The 

 old bird had one old primary, two new stumps for the second and 

 third, and the moult of the wings was nearing completion. As 

 regards the tail the upper and lower coverts were in full moult, the 

 four centre feathers of the tail had been changed but the side 

 feathers and the " Pins " were in moult. The young bird had lost 

 the two centre feathers of the tail, otherwise there was practically 

 no sign of moult. There was also a distinct difference in colour as 

 the younger bird lacked the depth of colouring of the old bird. 



From the difference in the state of moult and the depth of 

 colouring it seemed that old and young birds could be identified at 

 a glance, but an inspection of more young birds, a few days later, 

 showed that in the majority of cases there was no difference 



JOURN. NAT. HIST. S0C. SIAM. 



