60 MR. D. SETH-SMITH ON THE 



the animal, the dark summer coat could be seen beneath. This 

 condition lasted until about the middle of June. The change 

 thereafter proceeded more rapidly. The coat was moulted all 

 along the middle line of the back from the root of the tail to the 

 nape of the neck. It then came off on the sides of the neck, the 

 shoulders, and the belly, leaving a white mat on the throat, the 

 sides of the body, and tail. By the end of the first week of July 

 the patches on the throat and on the sides were much reduced, 

 but the tail was still white. By the middle of July the animal 

 was in full summer coat. The summer coat lasted without cleaidy 

 marked change foi- about two months only, but, owing to the 

 gradual nature of its transition to the winter coat, it was not 

 possible to state exactly when the change began. Like the 

 winter coat, the summer coat was moulted. It did not, however, 

 come off in tufts, but was gradually replaced uniformly all over 

 the body, the first indication of the replacement being an apparent 

 increase in the thickness and paling in the colour of the summer 

 coat. To ascertain that the summer coat was really being shed, 

 it was found necessary to catch the animal, when by pulling the 

 coat it was found that the dark hairs were coming away. 



The changes in the colour and coat of this animal were watched 

 for several years after 1906, when the photographs were taken, 

 and practically no variation in the details of the process or in the 

 time of their occurrence was observed. 



In a blue variety of the Arctic Fox which lived for several 

 years with the one above described, the coat was shed in the same 

 way and at the same time as in the other, but there was no 

 change of colour except such as accompanied the replacement of 

 the faded winter coat by the darker-tinted new summer coat. 

 For neither of these specimens was the locality known ; but 

 several specimens of the species from Hudson's Bay that the 

 Society possessed in 1910-1911 turned white in the winter. 



I am indebted to Mr. P. W. Farmborough, F.Z.S., for permission 

 to reproduce the unique series of photographs illustrating the 

 facts recorded in this account, with the exception of text-fig. 13. 



5. On the Monlting o£ the King Penguin (A^ytenodi/tes 

 pennaiiti) in the Society's Gardens, By David Seth- 

 Smith, F.Z.S,, M,B.0.U., Curator of Birds. 



[Received October 21, 1911 : Read November 7, 1911.] 



(Plate I,*) 



Under the above title Mr. W. E. de Winton published a paper 

 in 1898 1 in which he described the movilt of a specimen of Apteno- 

 dytes penncmti, which the Society at that time possessed, the oidy 

 previous paper on the moult of Penguins being one on the change 



* For explanation of the Plate see p. 62, 

 t P. Z. S. 1898, p. 900. 



