60



Correspondence



change colour to .satisfy me that not only is it possible but frequently

occurs. To revert to the Golden Plover ; the bird was covered with

new brilliant black and gold feathers on the back and scapulars, and

I believe that all waders get their breeding plumage partly by moult

aud partly by colour changes. I know that a Snipe I once kejit for

21 years did so.



CORRESPONDENCE

SUGGESTIONS FOR THE MAGAZINE

Sirs,—A s you hope members will freely express their views, those

of a recently elected member are as follows.


Firstly, a two-monthly magazine of the present size is preferable to

a monthly one in the present shortage of copy referred to on p. 27.

At the same time, I cannot agree (even though having been primarily a

mammal worker) with Dr. Philip Gosse’s remarks on p. 30 about the

very subject of birds being in grave danger of being over-written,

except so far as books on British birds are written with the view of

encouraging nature study. A “ fresh crop ” of such handbooks—

more or less copies from previous writers — appears to be on the way to

“ grow ” each spring almost as regularly as grass grow r s to hay crop !

Such books are overdone, and too many. But as to foreign birds,

it seems to me more information would at times be useful in the

Magazine, and this leads me to the next section.


Secondly, when a writer is referring to a bird which is not a very

common one, it would be as well if they introduced something about

its geographical range when wild. Some people would say : “ Oh,

you can find that in a book of reference on Birds of Asia ” (or other

continent, as the case may be). I agree that you can. But such

necessitates additional books and additional “ hunting up ”, with the

possibility of books referred to giving scanty information after a lengthy

search ; and many people, with their daily business to attend to, have no

spare time for such. The more complete an article, the better it is in

my humble opinion. Many people are naturalists primarily and in later

years aviculturists or keep mammals ; and such are more likely to be

interested in a journal if something of the range of the species or genus



