~ others. 
[Publications for review should be sent to DR. R. W. SHUF- 
ELDT, Associate in Zoology, Smithsonian Institution, Wash- 
ington, D. C.] 
PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. 
CHAPMAN, FRANK M. Zhe Changes of Plumage in 
the Dunlin and Sanderling. Extracted from Bul- 
letin of the American Museum of Natural History. 
Vol. VIII, Art. I, pp. t—8. New York, March 
4, 1896. [From the author. | 
CHAPMAN, FRANK M. On the Changes of Plumage in 
the Snow Flake (Plectrophenax nivalis). Extracted 
from the Bulletin of the American Museum of Nat- 
ural History. Vol. VIII, Art. II, pp. 9—12. New 
York, March §,1896. [From the author.) 
ALLEN, J. A. Alleged Changes of Color in the 
Feathers of Birds without Molting. Extracted 
from Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural 
History. Vol. VIII, Art. III, pp. 13—44. New 
York, March 18, 1896. [From the author. ] 
At different times, and by different writers, for the 
last eighty years and more, the phenomenon of molting 
in birds has been discussed. Its describers, during the 
early years of the present century, for the most part, 
maintained that, in addition to the casting of the feath- 
ers by birds in the ordinary molt, there where cases 
wherein fully matured feathers themselves changed 
color without being molted. Both these changes could 
be going on in the same individual at the same time, 
and were usually due to the changes in the season. 
Various birds were pointed out to sustain these early 
views, as the Ptarmigan, certain Gulls, Finches and 
A consideration of the change of plumage in 
the Bobolink, has proved a fruitful source for discussion 
and these species in particular has been held up by 
those only too eager to advance their opinions upon this 
subject. Yarrell of England published upon this in 
1835, and what he said had great weight, and convinced 
many that the theory of the change of color in feathers 
could be and was effected without the bird molting 
them. Now although Yarrell was a scientific man, he 
unfortunately by no means applied the strict and true 
scientific methods in dealing with the matter of molting. 
So potent was his influence and his word, however,that 
as late as 1884,British ornithologists continued to repeat 
his statements; even so competent a naturalist as Mr. 
Howard Saunders having done so. Between 1830 and 
1860 several remarkable papers appeared upon his now 
famous vexata guaest?s, and those of Blyth, Bachman, 
and others are notable ones. Audubon, not possessing 
the requisite scientific knowledge to deal with matters 
of this kind, and, as it appears he got nothing out of 
Macgillivray about it,wisely kept silent in the premises; 
although it may be said that if he had any ideas on the 
subject at all he too, believed that ‘tin some species of 
land birds,’’ a molt took place ‘‘without the actual 
renewal of the feathers themselves.” (Ornith. Biog. 
IV. p. 213.) In1852 this controversy was vigorously 
revived through the publications of Schlegel, and of Ho- 
meyer, and verily the ‘‘feathers were made to fly” 
without any special ‘‘new influx of nourishing secretion 
and pigmint” into their intimate substance, to change 
their colors! Thus the issue was kept up, first by one 
THE NIDOLOGIST 
107 
and then by another—elaborate hypotheses, supported 
by a few facts, and much theorizing, were advanced by 
Severtzof (1863) and by Fatio (1866), while the 
revelations of the microscope, and the laws of pliysio- 
logy, were apparently both applied and misapplied 
without landing the true facts in the case in the smooth 
waters of unaminity of opinion. In so brief a notice as 
the present one must of necessity be, the exhaustive 
discussions of Gloger, Gatke, Keeler, Headley, Sharpe, 
Ogilvie Grant and several other eminent writers in 
this field, unfortunately can not be compared and 
reviewed. In 1Sgo Mr, Frank M. Chapman published 
an excellent paper ‘‘On the Changes of Plumage in the 
Bobolink”? in 7%e Auk, showing how that in this bird 
certain changes in the colors of its feathers are effected 
by their edges wearing away. Later he returned to the 
subject again, and in two brief papers on the changes of 
plumage in the Snowflake, Dunlin and Sanderling, 
controverts the views held by Herr Gatke in his recent 
famous work on. ‘‘The Birds of Heligoland,”’ 
During the same month Dr. J. A. Allen put forth a 
more extended effort (see title above) in which he 
reviews, with more or less thoroughness, the previous 
literature of the entire subject of the molt in birds; 
points out the absurdities of theories of Schlegel, Fatio 
and Gatke, and sets forth in a manner, most vigorous, 
that the color change in the plumage of birds is due 
primarily to a molting of the feathers; that in some 
species these changes of color are due ‘‘to a gradual 
wearing off of the light colored edges of the feathers of 
the winter dress, leaving as the breeding season 
approaches, the already existent colors of the breeding 
dress exposed. Combined with this is more or less 
blanching of the color of certain parts,’’ finally, “‘due 
in part to abrasion, and also chemical action consequent 
on exposure, the colors of certain feathers are subject to 
slight changes in tone.”’ It is a well known fact that, 
during the molt, pin feathers are evident throughout the 
changing plumage of the Bobolink, and recently the 
present writer has seen numbers of living individuals 
of these species in this condition. 
Dr. Allen’s paper is a very useful and timely contri- 
bution to the subject-yet the phenomena of the molt in 
birds is by no means exhausted. The nature of the 
change in the color of feathers due to certain foods, as 
the production of ‘‘red canaries’? by feeding the birds 
upon cayenne pepper, is an interesting fact; the cawses 
for albinism and melanism equally so; why the gradual 
wearing away of feathers due to ‘‘abrasion,” should 
stop, exactly on certain stages and leave certain sets of 
feathers a// of a certain form, is a phenomenon worthy 
of more extended research; while it would seem the 
exact nature of the chemical action (due to exposure) of 
the elements upon feathers, that produces changes in 
their colors, still stands in need of further investigation 
and elucidation. 
Fuller explanations, than have heretofore been 
advanced, for the ‘‘why” and the ‘‘how” for certain so- 
called ‘‘freaks of nature” in the plumages of certain 
individuals, will by no means come altogether amiss. 
A ‘freak of nature” is a very convenient term sometimes 
to cloak a mountain of ignorance ofthe nature of certain 
phenomena; hence its constant employment by laymen 
the world over. Darwin attributed the occasional ap- 
pearance of scarlet feathers in the wing-coverts of the 
male Scarlet Tanager (Pivanga erythromelas) in 
breeding plumage, to a variation that probably had 
something to due with selection, and his remarks upon 
the plumage of birds is filled with food for thought, and 
many of the problems that confronted him in these 
fields still stand unsolved. 
Re Wiens 
