THE COLOURS OF BIRDS 253 



f Green featheis contain zoofulvin and melanin . 

 Red „ „ "araroth." 



It would appear from this that the melanin 

 pigments are more abundant in the male, and the 

 lipochrome in the female and the young. The case 

 is a very interesting one, but it is doubtful how far 

 it is safe to build conclusion upon it. 



Besides the lipochrome and melanin pigments in 

 birds, there are a few other isolated colouring-matters 

 of some importance. ^ Of these the best known is 

 turacin, with which the name of Professor A. H. 

 Church is so closely associated. Turacin is a 

 reddish -purple pigment occurring in patches on 

 some of the primary and secondary wing-quills of 

 various of the Musophagidae, or plantain-eaters, such 

 as the type genus and Corythaix. The pigment is 

 soluble in water, is said to be in part washed out of 

 the feathers by heavy rain, and also to colour the 

 water in which specimens kept in confinement are in 

 the habit of bathing. It is present in exceedingly 

 small quantities in the species in which it occurs, 

 and is absent from some of the genera of the family. 

 According to Church, it is absent in the species of 

 Schizorrhis, in which the parts of the feathers which 

 are in other genera coloured by turacin are here 

 marked by whitfe patches destitute of pigment. The 

 great interest of the pigment is that it contains 

 copper and not iron, but presents many interesting 

 analogies to haemoglobin. There is, however, no 

 evidence that it can exist in both the oxidised and 



