640 SIR ARTHUR H. CHURCH ON TURACIX. 



but ask, how is it possible for a mature feather to be ngain 

 suppUed with this localized red pigment after it has lost its 

 original charge and after the vessels in the quill have dried up, 

 their function having been fulfilled ? The opinion of Y. Fatio, 

 as to an oil making its way up the mature feather and dissolving 

 and distributing pigmentary deposits ah-eady present, does not 

 apply to turacin which is insoluble in oily media. As to the case 

 now being considered, I have not been able to obtain any con- 

 firmation of this renewal of the pigment (apart from a moult) 

 from any trustworthy naturalist. The late J. J. Monteiro, the 

 late Dr. Benjamin Hinde (of Bathurst on the Gambia), and many 

 other competent observers of these birds in their native haunts 

 and in captivity have expressed themselves sti-ongly on this 

 point. It may be admitted that in the folded pinion which has 

 had its pigment moved hy soaking, some of the red solution niny 

 travel from the feathers beneath to the surface as it dries ; thus 

 we should have a case of transference of pigment, not of its 

 renewal. 



Amongst those who, after Verreaux, have observed this want 

 of fixity in the red pigment of the Turaco I may name the late 

 Rowland Ward, the late W. B. Tegetmeier, also J. J. Monteiro 

 and Dr. B. Hinde. The last-named, in a letter dated May 1865, 

 said the laaoment soap touches the feathers the colour runs, 

 although it is difficult of extraction by pure water. But he 

 added " the birds which I sent home washed themselves nearly 

 white in the water given them to drink." In my memoir of 

 1869, I mentioned Mr. Tegetmeier as having introduced the 

 subject now being discussed to my laotice. His own attention 

 had been drawn to the matter by a correspondent of ' The Field,' 

 who sent him a washed-out feather. Mr. Tegetmeier forwarded 

 this feather to me and asked me to ascertain if there Avere any 

 possibility of its having been dyed. 



Such, in brief, was the position of the problem when in 1866 I 

 began my researches. The chief results of these were published 

 in'the Phil Trans, of 1869 and 1892, while in 1894 a Friday 

 Evening Discourse in the Royal Institution presented a digest of 

 the whole enquiry *. Although it would be unbecoming in me, 

 a. chemist, to enter into classificatory questions before a company 

 of zoologists, I may venture to remind you that, according to 

 many system atists, the Order Cuculifoi'mes inchides two suborders 

 of equal rank, the Cuculirlfe or Cuckoos and the Musophagidae or 

 Pla,ntain-eaters. The former is an extensive suborder and 

 cosmopolitan in range, while the latter contains less than 40 species 

 and is confined to the Ethiopic region of Continental Africa. Of 



* "Tuvacin, a new Animal Pigment containing Copper," 'Student,' i. (1868) 

 pp. 161-168 ; with a coloured plate. 



" Researches on Turacin, an Animal Pigment containing Copper," Piiil. Trans, 

 clix. (1869) pp. 627-636 (with 4 figs, of spectra). 



" Reseai-ches on Turacin, an Animal Pigment containing Copper," Part II., 

 Phil. Trans, clxxxii. A. (1892) pp. 511-530 (with 9 figs, ot spectra). 



Proc. Roy. Inst. xiv. (1894) pp. 44-49. 



