250



Correspondence.



abstainer, but as long as his brother refused to do so, he would not either ! If

he gave up the drink, perhaps his brother might too. If England set the

example, France, etc., might follow it. At any rate England would have

removed the stigma, and would have done her best. The plumage trade in

London is a disgrace to the civilized world ! EDITOR.]



THE MOULT OF THE BLACK REDSTART.


SIR,- — Mr. Teschemaker in his last letter has now made clear a point

which before was not obvious, at any rate to me, that what he meant by what

he called the eclipse plumage was merely the first winter plumage. Of course,

whether this plumage is analogous to the usually accepted idea of an eclipse

plumage in other birds opens up too large a field to discuss here.


The possibility of some individuals of a species having a spring moult and

others not has occurred to many ornithologists who have studied the question.

But the longer one studies it the more one is struck by the fact that in the wild

state every individual is not a law unto itself but follows the rule of ‘ ‘ moult or

no moult ” to a remarkably constant degree. (I do not say that individuals do

not vary slightly amongst themselves as to the exact amount).


Many birds in captivity moult peculiarly and irregularly, and because an

odd Black Redstart or two change a few feathers in spring in captivity I should

hesitate a good deal before saying that this species has a spring moult. It is

interesting to hear that Bechstein long ago had already determined how long the

male of this species takes to attain fully adult plumage, (subsequent authorities

seem either not to have accepted this or have overlooked it) but Mr. Teschemaker

does not tell us whether this was worked out on captivity birds or not; but

seeing that Mr. Teschemaker and Mr. Galloway from the study of captivity birds

do not seem to have come to the same conclusion, I am afraid that this “ par¬

ticular brick ” in the “ stately edifice of Ornithology,” which I hoped might be

added by aviculturists, is an insecure one.


In answer to Mr. Galloway’s letter, I do not think that the rusty edgings

on the secondaries are a certain sexual characteristic, as I have some females

with broader edgings than some males have. As I have pointed out in British

Birds (Vol. III., p. 397), and as Mr. Galloway partly indicates in his letter,

the Common Redstart does not attain fully adult plumage until the second

autumn moult.


Finally I should like to again protest against the use of such ugly and

lazy abbreviations as “ Blackstart,” 11 Start ” and “ Gale ”—their use seems to

be confined to some aviculturists — we shall hear of “ Lesser ’throat ” and

“ Pied’tail ” next! CLAUD B. TlCEHURST.



ABBREVIATIONS AND MISNOMERS.


Because many people nowadays murder the English language by snipping

off the beginnings or the ends of words, that is no reason why we aviculturists



