on Female Regent Bird assuming Male's Plumage. 57


which proves an insurmountable obstacle (but why?) to the flow

of the golden stream. At this point, the latter surges up, pre¬

vails over and overflows the upper part of the sable barrier, then,

beaten back, runs off to right and left, forming a half-collar.

From time immemorial, the glorious light has been waging fierce

war here against the pitchy blackness of the mantle, but has not

advanced bv the breadth of a line. The gold impinges upon the

black which everywhere hedges it in, and comes just down to

such and such a point, but not one jot or one tittle beyond. A

spike or prong of yellow projects into the black behind the eye,

and seems to be just on the point of making an inroad,—but when

has it been otherwise, and when is it going to make any progress ?

Just so far shalt thou go and no farther is the decree, and we can

only accept it and wonder. This irregular “shape” of yellow

grows absolutely true to type about the head and neck of every

adult male Regent, year after year and generation after generation.

One res 7 ilt of this beneficial decree I referred to in December,

1905 (PP- 55‘6), and it makes us marvel the more. The golden

glory appears onjv on the upper parts ; and the courting male

knows full well how to shew it off to the best advantage. But

the same bird, when hiding from an enemy, has only to squat on

a high perch and expose the sombre underparts to the foe, and

he remains invisible, for not the tinest streak of tell-tale yellow

has been permitted to grow where its brightness might endanger

the safety of the wearer.


And now comes in the curious little episode in connection

with my suffragette.


Up to and including August 18, the entire head and neck

all round was that of the female Regent—not an old feather had

been lost, not a new one had been gained. But, on the following

morning, a startling change was apparent, and most conspicuously

so. My first impression was that the bird had met with an acci¬

dent during the night and had scalped itself, but closer inspection

shewed that nothing of that kind had occurred. The broad track

of feathers referred to above, from bill to mantle, was bare of

feathers, not so much as the ghost of a feather remained. The

entire patch, but that only, which in the adult male is yellow, had

lost every feather, and was there all ready for the yellow feathers-



