127



on the Regent Bird.



Turkish crescent, the tips nearly but not quite

meeting where they touched the forehead band ;

in the younger (see drawing) the horns pointed

pretty nearly straight forward respectively to¬

wards the two nostrils; and so, as a result, the

buff of the forehead ran upwards nearly to the

centre of the crown—in the elder in the shape

say of an orange connected by a stalk with the

forehead band, in the younger more in the shape

of a tongue. The ends of the dark cross band

jutting down on each side behind the eye nearly

severed the continuation of the forehead band

which ran back over each eye, and formed over each a large

spot of sandy.


On September 14 I found that a solid square patch of new

feathers was sprouting and replacing the down on the hinder

crown ; this developed into the crown patch of the brown Regent,

and came up to and touched the hind centre of the dark cross¬

bar. The neck feathers were growing; and by the end of Sep¬

tember the crown patch seemed to extend right down the back

of the neck, almost black in the front but shading in succession

into dark and light brown and gray until it merged in the mottled

white of the mantle. Then as the feathers matured the shadings

gradually dispersed, and by October 6 the lower hind-neck cross-

patch of black was observable, the black throat patch appearing

a little later.


I had great difficulty in observing the slowly changing

crown of the young bird ; on November 7 however it saw a

banshee or something and flew to me, and for about two minutes

sat absolutely rigid * on a perch almost touching me, so that as I

stooped it was directly below my eyes and scarcely a foot distant.

The sandy globe in the front had as it were expanded and pushed

back the encircling horns ; the horns were now stout and rather

rugged, the tips being over the eyes ; the base of the now ex¬

panded crescent rested on the crown patch, the colour being of a



* For some time after the young' birds had left the nest it was their custom to

remain immoveable in the thickest of the trees when I approached, and it was often

most difficult to find them. Sometimes at first they would draw themselves up slim and

rigid like the young Scops Owl, but this was unusual.—R. P.



