57



on the Rege?it Bird.



of my present females has led me astray, but it is not a permanent

colour.


As regards my old male (my third) I may repeat what I

said in our Magazine in May, 1901 (VII., p. 139) :—“ My present

bird, when received 011 the 4th August, 1899, had just a little

yellow on the wings. During the moult of that autumn, he put

on a trifle more yellow but no black. In July, 1900, he com¬

menced growing a few yellow and black flights; and during the

autumn his bill became yellower, and the head assumed a faint

wash of the same colour. Judging by my earlier specimens and

this bird, and others I have seen, I think that the Regent either

takes a longer period to come into full colour than Mr. Campbell

supposes, or else that the due development of the colour is

greatly retarded by the coldness of our climate, or the adverse

influences of a life in captivity.” This bird completed the adult

plumage in October, 1901. But what was his age when he

reached my hands ? Judging by other examples, he could hardly

have been less than rising two, otherwise he must have been

hatched say in January, 1899, and have commenced to put on

colour when some seven months old. So far as I have been able

to observe, this could not have been the case, for males in

“ female ” plumage (unless I am greatly mistaken) have reached

this country which vmst have been hatched a full twelve-month

previously.


Let us trace up another specimen. I11 January, 1903, I re¬

ceived an immature but well advanced male, so advanced in

plumage that at the least he must have been a year older than

the old male was at the time he came into my hands. He could

not have been less than two years old. In the autumn of that

year he became more yellow but not much more. He w r as in

perfect health all through the moult, the fit previously referred to

not occurring until October 23. A year later he became more

black and a little more yellow, but was far from being in the full

plumage of the adult when he died on November 5, 1904. I then

found, according to my notes made at the time, that the tail

“ seemed new and perfect but was not black.” The flights had

all been more or less renewed ; and it is most improbable that

the old 1903 tail, which had borne the brunt of the fit, could have



