1903. ] JAPANESE LONG-TAILED FOWLS. 231 
colour varieties, but the excessive length of the tail which occwrs 
in all the varieties. Mr. Chamberlain states that a specimen 
fourteen months old had a tail 4 feet long. At the rate of 
4 inches a month, this would mean a period of growth of twelve 
months, and therefore the chickens must have begun to acquire 
their permanent feathers at two months of age, and the feathers 
must have grown without intermission afterwards. This is 
perhaps not impossible, but according to my observations, recorded 
below, it is very improbable. It may further be pointed out that 
the statement “ there is absolutely no artificial method of making 
the feathers grow,” is difficult to reconcile with that which follows 
it, “also one must know how to treat the birds,” unless proof is 
offered that the artificial treatment has no effect on the growth of 
the feathers. 
The birds in my possession, which have formed the subject of 
my own observations and experiments, were descended from a 
pair which were imported direct from Japan by Mr. John Sparks, 
of London, and purchased by Mrs. J. C. Williams, of Caerhayes 
Castle, Cornwall. Before proceeding to my own observations, I 
wish to discuss the question whether the moult occurs in the 
specimens kept in this country, and also some evidence I have 
obtained as to specifie treatment of the feathers. We have seen 
in Mr. Wright’s account that the feathers of birds in this country 
had not been known to exceed 5 or 6 feet in length. This 
does not throw much light on the question of the moulting, 
because it may be that, the birds not being kept on perches as in 
Japan, the feathers get broken when they have reached a con- 
siderable length. I enquired of Mr. Rice what his experience 
was, and he replied that his birds usually moulted their tail- 
feathers each year, but he had had some cocks omit this operation 
in theix second year. He said that his cockerels at eight months 
of age had tails from 2 ft. 6 in. to 3 ft. 6 in, in length, and that 
he had one cock, three years old, that had a tail 53 feet long. 
Mrs. J. C. Williams was also kind enough to answer my 
enquiries. She informed me that the original male bird which 
she obtained from Mr. Sparks had a tail just 5 feet long. At first 
its plumage suffered from the change of climate, but in 1901 its 
tail was considerably better than it had been. (The length at 
this time was not stated.) She had a young bird whose tail had 
measured 42 feet, but he broke it in getting about. The young 
birds usually moulted about a year after hatching. This must have 
been the first moult of the adult plumage, which begins to appear 
in the autumn after hatching. In reply to a request for further 
particulars about the moult, Mrs. Williams stated the birds do 
certainly cast their long tail-feathers. The bird that had some 
feathers 43 feet long was then (March 1902) nearly three years 
old, and she thought it was at the second moult that a feather of 
that length was measured. 
There is evidence here that, when left to themselves, the long 
tail-feathers are moulted in the ordinary way, at any rate for two 
