Correspondence.



169



Unfortunately, owing to the war the mail service to Australia has been very

irregular and uncertain of late, especially in the matter of papers and magazines.

Letters and posted matter have come through with much more certainty.


Although we are nearly in November it was only this week that I received the

May number of the ‘ Avicultural Magazine,’ so you will see how things are.



MELANISM IN AGED NAPOLEON WEAVER.


Dear Dr. Renshaw,— My melanistic Napoleon Weaver $> (Pyronielana afra)

was dead on the floor of its aviary this morning. It had been growing blacker with

each moult for the last three or four years ; the underparts alone now remain

unevenly white. I purchased this bird in R)00, so that it has been in my possession

for over seventeen years. I attribute melanism to a vigorous constitution and

albinism to delicacy. I have sent the specimen to the Natural History Museum at

South Kensington. A. G. Butler.


124, Beckenham Road,


Beckenham, Kent;


December 13th, 1917.



VARIATION IN STARLINGS.


Dear Sir, — 1 have a stuffed Starling which was shot during that very hot

summer a few years back. There was a nest near where I lived in this neighbour¬

hood, and the noise of the birds was supposed to disturb a child living in the house

where they had built. So both the old birds were shot, and I secured the male. I

presume his mate was purported to be spoilt for stuffing. I am coming to my

point. The bird I have appears, judging to-night by lamp-light, to be practically a

solid glossy green on the head and neck, and very little in the way of spots at all

on him. I reared, I presume, the whole of the nestlings. They had practically no

down, nor hardly a sign of feathers. There was another young bird added to them,

which was said to have been taken away from the nest — whether fallen out or not

I will not say. That bird gave me some trouble, and by the way the others acted I

think it was the one that escaped. The other four I reared to fend for themselves.

Two died before changing the nest feathers completely, one escaped from a

neighbour, the other I kept for some years until it died.


What I am leading up to is this : I have both birds — the male parent, I

presume, and the offspring I reared (which the stuffer told me was a male). I see

no reason to doubt his veracity. The younger bird is very unlike his father ; he is

profusely spotted, and has been twice to a show, and I did not hear that he was

described as unusual. He was never at any time like his presumed father. He

looks in splendid condition and very glossy. J. Weir.


Douglas Cottage,


Upper Ashley,


New Milton, Hants;


January loth, 1918.


[The common Starling in autumn becomes profusely spotted, many of these

spots disappearing with the return of spring. Mr. Weir’s younger bird is therefore

remarkable in not undergoing the seasonal change of plumage.— G. R.]



