653 Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 



when fully adult^ this point cannot unfortunately be ascer- 

 tained. 



I am, Sir, 



Yours, &c., 



Tavistock. 



Woburn Abbey, Woburn. 

 July 1st, 1914. 



Sir, — Mr. Bonhote's and Dr. Ticehurst's letters in regard 

 to my paper on the Moorhen have greatly interested me, and 

 perhaps I may be allowed to make a short reply to some of the 

 points raised. As regards Mr. Bonhote^s letter, I freely 

 admit I had not read his article in the ' Field ' of March 

 24,, 1906, though I have since looked it up, and I think 

 Mr. Bonhote will agree with me that unlimited time would 

 be required to look up every journal and newspaper to see 

 if anything had been written on any particular subject. 

 Mr. Bonhote's notes about the colour of the bill in winter 

 and summer are of outstanding interest,, and I should much 

 like to see the specimens on which he came to these con- 

 clusions, as all the full adults I have examined or seen taken 

 throughout the twelve months have all had red bills and red 

 eyes, and until I have conclusive evidence to the contrary I 

 must maintain that all Moorhens with olive bills and brown 

 eyes are immature, and I have yet to see a wild specimen in 

 full adult dress (no white on throat or chin, full slaty dress, 

 and pure white flank stripes) with an olive bill. 



Speaking without seeing the specimen, I should say that 

 Mr. Bonhote's hen (March 26) was a young bird of the year 

 before {cf. my notes re second plumage, December, January 

 to April). His July and November notes are of the utmost 

 interest, and I can only suppose that captivity tends to dull 

 the colours of the soft parts in the July birds and that the 

 November ones were possibly the young birds " bred during 

 the season." Mr. Bonhote's wild-killed hen in November 

 is doubtless a second plumage bird, with white throat, which 

 had assumed the adult colouring of the bill rather earlier 



