56



Mr. Reginald Phillipps,



appearing in the centre of the tail ; and the eyes were yellowish.

By September 2, the two breast patches had joined just below the

chin (which was black), but all down the centre of the under side

there remained a dividing line of buff; and more black feathers

were to be seen in the tail. O11 September 9, only a tiny touch

of the buff, in the centre of the chest, remained 011 the actual

body, and every brown feather had disappeared from the tail,

which now, however, although wholly black, was far from being

fully grown ; the cheeks, &c., were still buff. On September 14,

the bod} 7 was entirely black ; a little buff remained on the sides

of the face and neck; the former had disappeared by the 17th.

The last of the old feathers (excluding flights) clung in a little

patch on to each side of the neck ; and it was not until September

25 that the plumage of body, head, and neck could be pronounced

to be complete. The tail was full-grown by October 7, but the

flights were not so until some considerable time later.


There was one curious phase in the course of this change

of feather, one of more than passing interest to those who think.


By the way, but in this connection, why should the feathers

of a bird be often of one colour on one part and of a totally

different colour on another bordering upon it, no actual dividing

line existing between the two colours, although the nominal line

of demarcation between them is clearly and sharply drawn ? and

why should this distinction be continued and maintained through

countless generations without deviating by a hair’s breadth, and

such a patch in the male (of species that have the sexes nominally

alike), sometimes, be a trifle longer or larger or something than

the corresponding patch in the female? We need not go farther

afield for an illustration than a good living example of the com¬

mon Java Sparrow. What can be more definitely and precisely

defined than that white patch on each side of the head ! Why

should this patch remain the same, without encroaching or being

encroached upon, moult after moult, generation after generation,

in countless thousands of specimens ! Of course I am referring

to healthy natural birds, not those that have been tampered with

by man. And so the Regent. The adult male has a broad irregular

band of orange-yellow running from the base of the upper man¬

dible over forehead, crown, nape, and hind-neck to the mantle.



