Further Notes on the Blue Wreu.



231



until the following June or July, one mentioned by his corres¬

pondent not being in full colour until September 13.


Mr. A. G. Campbell refers to two annual moults. His

actual words at page 154 are :—“ Male Wren moulting, Mar., ’04 - r

remoulting, first week July. Moulting Mar., ’05; remoulting,

first week in June.” Does he mean that the bird passes through

two actual moults every year, or does he speak a little loosely


(a) as referring to the going out of and coming into colour, or


(b) because he is not quite sure of his ground ? I think the latter

is not unlikely for, in connection with the bird going out of

colour in March, he adds :—“ This moult is a complete changing

of feathers, and is not a mere alteration of pigment”; but as

regards the coming into colour he is silent, making no statement

beyond what I have quoted above, although rather lingering over

the pigment process in certain other species before returning to

the Blue Wreu. With wild birds, a full moult is usually betrayed

by the state of the tail; but when the tails tell no tales (pardon

me) the observer often cannot be certain how a change of colour is

produced. Probably such was the case with Mr. A. G. Campbell:

he could not detect a moult, he was cognizant only of the access

of colour.


It is in a case like this that aviculture is so valuable ; a

bird in captivity can be watched in a way that is impossible with

the wild bird.


So far as the autumnal moult is concerned, the going

out of colour, there seems to be no question. My birds, young

and old, males and females, like Mr. A. G. Campbell’s, have

undergone a complete change of feathers in September and

October, the British autumn, commencing early in September

and completing in October, which about corresponds with March

in Australia—the Australian autumn.


My young male, bred July, 1902, for the fourth year came

into colour this March, the British spring, the process occupying

about a fortnight; and each year the change has taken place in

a six-foot cage in my dining-room. One point is certain—there

is no general moult at this season. I11 the autumn, while the blue

feathers are being shed, minute though these feathers are, they

can be found and identified owing to their bright colour (N.S., I.,



