59



on the Regent Bird.



possible sign of sex which I mention for what it may be worth.

Three squealed and two were mute; and certainly the three

squealers were the most quarrelsome. Owing to scarcity of

accommodation, these birds had to be moved about and mixed

together, and I was unable (being otherwise much occupied) to

follow closely the changes which took place in each individual,

or always to be quite sure of the identity of a particular bird.

One of the five died from the effects of the journey, a second was

the immature male (one of the squealers) just referred to, the

sexes of the other three being uncertain—we now know that at

any rate two were females. Whether because of our cold dark

climate, or of the inability of the species to readily conform to

our seasons, I cannot say, but these three sported phases of plu¬

mage from time to time, transitory it is true but well marked while

they lasted,which were very misleading. One developed the yellow

irides of the male, but the yellow was not permanent, and slowly

darkened into brown once more. Two of them, then supposed

to be males—perhaps they were the two surviving females, put on

quite a considerable amount of yellow on the face crown nape

and hind-neck, but chiefly around the brown-black crown-patch,

but this yellow phase did not last. Could all of these three have

been females? In any case, may we not here have another ex¬

planation of the alleged scarcity of fully adult males? It may be

that many of the wild Regents which are taken to be immature

males are actually females ; and it is not unlikely that there are

more females than males.


The behaviour this last summer of all of my three Regents

seemed to point to the species being polygamous, and, if the

Regent, probably also the Satin-bird (see Mrs. Johnstone’s

account, in the December, 1902, issue, of the behaviour of the

father of her young Satin-birds), and, if the Satin-bird, why not

the Bower-birds generally ? Of course these are only sugges¬

tions, thrown out in order that others may watch as they may

have opportunity, and confirm or reject as further data may

become available.


The Bower-birds, so far as I know them, are gregarious, I

might say clannish ; no bird has a good word for an individual



