1903. ] JAPANESE LONG-TAILED FOWLS. 935 
Sept. 19th. Age 3 months 1 week.—Condition of plumage :— 
Cock A. Breast, thighs, and belly all black. Neck-hackles 
very light grey, with thin dark stripe down the centre of 
each feather. Back with some steel-blue feathers behind 
the hackles, the rest red. Saddle-hackles developing, 
yellow, long and thin. Nearly all the rectrices and tail- 
coverts growing with long sheaths, colour steel-blue. 
Cock B. Nearly the same as A, but not quite so far advanced. 
Cock C. Much less advanced, white on sides of breast, speckled 
brown feathers mixed with red of back, only the outer- 
most rectrices showing sheaths. 
Cock D. Very little white on breast, hackles of neck steel-blue, 
back black with a little red at tips of feathers. Saddle 
whitish. Rectrices 7 pairs, only the central and outer- 
most pairs with sheaths, the rest apparently not yet 
moulted. 
Hens. Breasts almost white, the sides of breast buff; neck- 
hackles dark, with whitish stripes down centres of feathers. 
Back and tail greyish brown, speckled, 7. e. with white 
quills. Two hens with black heads, one with head lighter, 
grey and speckled. 
T now decided to stroke and pull the tail-feathers in Cock B and 
to leave Cock A untouched, to see if any difference would result. 
These two, as I have said, were closely similar except that A was the 
larger, finer bird and slightly more advanced in development. I 
chose, therefore, the one which was congenitally inferior, so that 
if any superiority in growth of feather appeared in it, it could 
only be due to the artificial treatment. In both there were seven 
pairs of rectrices, the central pair slender and curved, the rest 
broad and_ str aight. The outermost pan had not yet been 
moulted, I fixed up a sort of cage with a round perch at the 
bottom, and put Cock B into it w hile I stroked his feathers, but 
did not keep him in it. 
Oct. 1st.—Found that the hens had shed most of their rectrices 
and were producing new feathers, as well as new tail-coverts, but 
without change of colour. 
Oct. 7th.—The upper tail-covert in Cock A measured 25 em. or 
about 10 inches, not including the basal sheath. 
At this time I changed my residence, and the fowls were 
installed in a place divided into tworuns; into one I put Cocks B, 
©, and D, in the other Cock A with the three hens. 
On Oct. 12th Cock A crowed for the first time, another proof 
that he was a little more precocious than the others. 
Oct. 16th. Age 4 months 3 days.—Longest feather, a tail- 
covert on left side, in Cock B 27 ecm., about the same as the 
longest in Cock A. 
Oct. 27th. Age 4 months 2 weeks.—Tried tying the cocks by 
one leg on ordinary perches about 3 feet from the ground, and 
thus was able to measure the feathers better. 
