Avicultural Notes for 1907.



61



two after assuming the adult plumage, but at the same time

revealing a very curious fact in relation to this species :—


Briefly to review the history of my two Bower-birds, I

may note that the supposed pair (palpably^ in nestling plumage,

both small and with indications of pale spots on the green

plumage), came into my possession in September, 1899, an d at the

end of a year one had assumed the adult plumage of the male,

the other the adult plumage of the female. Naturally I concluded

that I had secured an undoubted pair, although both sang and

danced ; and though they certainly quarrelled, that fact in 110

way disturbed my faith, because from my boyhood I had been

taught that “ the quarrels of lovers are the beginning of love.”


When in July, 1904, the supposed hen began to assume

male plumage and became so spiteful that I had to remove the

undoubted cock, I concluded, as a matter of course, that disease

of the ovary was affecting her plumage (see my short paper in

the “Annals and Magazine of Natural History,” ser. 7,Vol. XVI.,

pp. 350-351). Later the perfect male plumage was acquired and

retained permanently, and exactly three years later the bird died

and proved to be a cock.


Why some cock birds should assume male plumage at the

■end of the second year, and others should disport themselves in

female attire for six years or longer, is a problem which requires

a good deal of explanation. My birds were only two out of

half-a-dozen or more, all palpably young birds, imported in one

batch.


On the 15th, I lost a Yellowish-finch, which, from its

bright plumage, not I only but other aviculturists had decided

to be acock bird ; it had built a nest in conjunction with a duller

bird in the same aviary, but no eggs had been laid ; examination

after death proved it to be a hen with well-developed ovary; so

that bright colouring in this case probably indicated advanced

age and not sex ; it is a rather large bird.


O11 the same day, the first young Diamond Dove having

left the nest, the mother laid an egg on the ground ; and the

second egg laid on the 16th fell out of the nest and was smashed.

The cock fed the young bird until he could look after himself.

On the 25th one young Cockatiel flew; it insisted upon its



