Correspo7idence. 155


1. Most feather pigments are too resistant to chemical reagents to

warrant belief in their solution and redistribution.


2. Pigmentation of the feather has been observed to take place

only in the younger stages of the feather germ.


3. At the end of cornification melanin granules have a definite

arrangement, which is permanent.


4. When cornification has ensued, the various elements of th e

feather are hard, more or less solid, structures and their pigment

contents are effectually isolated from one another.


5. There is no satisfactory evidence of the occurrence of repig-

mentation, and all the histological conditions render such an event highly

improbable."


And again in Summary, page 178 :


" 16. Changes in color of plumage may take place either (1) by a

moult, during which the new feathers may have the same pigmentation

as their predecessors or a different one ; (2) by a loss of certain portions

of the feather; or (3) by a physicial disintegration in the cortex of the

feathers as the result of exposure."


The time is past for generalizations and assertions based on superficial

observation of the feathers in either skin or living birds.


My apology is due for the unintended length of this communication,

C. Wirj^iAM BEEBE,


Curator of Ornithology,


New York Zoological Park.



ORNAMENTAL WATERFOWL.


Sir, — It is now eighteen years since the publication of my little

manual on the swimming birds entitled " Ornamental Waterfowl," in the

preparation of which I received such kind assistance from Dr. P. S. Sclater,

Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, Mr. Henry Seebohm, and other Ornithologists.


I have been advised to bring out a new edition of the book, and I

would take this opportunity of inviting corrections and criticisms from

those into whose hands the work may have fallen.


My collection of ornamental waterfowl has been broken up for many

years and I have not therefore the opportunity of studying the living speci-

mens, but during this interval many fresh importations must have been

brought to this country and been studied in captivity by your readers. To

these I would appeal for particulars of the rarer species and those imported

since 1888. I would particularize the newly discovered species of Bernicla

hutchinsii (which I believe found their way to the Tring Park collection);

the Black Brent Goose, {Bernicla nigricans) ; Blue-winged Goose, (Bernicla

cyanoptera) ; Red-necked or Red -breasted Goose, (Bernicla ruficollis) ;

Middeudorf's Goose, (Anser middendorft) ; Caffin's Snow Goose, (Anser~

albalus); the Emperor Goose, (Anser ca?iagitus) ; the Lesser White-fronted



