ASSUMPTION BY FEMALE BIRDS OF MALE PLUMAGE. 17 



assuming male plumage, but none of them had completed the 

 change. Blyth wrote that he had detected similar examples by 

 their smaller size ('Field,' June 17th, 1871), adding that the 

 feathers are overlaid with dingy tips, as in newly-moulted males 

 in autumn. But those which I examined wanted the freshness of 

 colour of a young male Redstart or a newly-moulted adult, and 

 though they laid eggs there is no evidence that the eggs were 

 fertile. 



In 1886 I exhibited a series of Redstarts to the Norwich 

 Naturalists' Society, including one of those anomalous females, 

 and described its plumage. The most noticeable feature about it 

 was the throat, which had not the pretty mottling of a young male, 

 neither had it the pure black of an old male ; its hue was grey, 

 a little darker than the back of an ordinary adult male Redstart. 

 The white forehead was slightly shown, but the breast, though 

 much redder than a female's, had not half the depth of colour of 

 an adult male's. 



In ' The Ibis,' 1888 (p. 229), a list is given of twenty-four 



species of birds, in which one or more instances of a female 



assuming male plumage are recorded. To make it complete the 



following should be added, making thirty-three species, referable 



to five families, or thirty-five if the Woodchat and Golden Oriole 



are included : of these seven have been figured, but no Passerine 



bird among them, which is to be regretted, as the transformation is 



characteristic in Ruticilla and Lanius : — Montagu's Harrier (' Ibis,' 



1875, p. 222); Bearded Titmouse ('Field,' Sept. 14, 1872); Cirl 



Bunting (Bull. Soc. Zool. France, ii. p. 23) ; Black-headed Bunting, 



E. melanocephala (ditto) ; Crossbill (' Naturalist,' 1889, p. 52) ; 



Pyranga cestiva (Audubon, Orn. Biog. v. p. 518) ; Summer Tanager 



. ('The Auk,' 1891, p. 315); Macaw ('Gentleman's Magazine,' 



A. 1785, pp. 782, 959) ; and Tufted Duck (Macpherson, Brit. Birds, 



^ pp. 71, 72). 



There is no bird which demonstrates this metamorphosis so 

 often as the Common Pheasant, as sportsmen know well. It is 

 pretty frequent in the Capercaillie, and Black Grouse also, though 

 more so in the former, according to Mr. Millais (' Game Birds,' 

 p. 40), and examples occasionally turn up in Leadenhall Market, 

 but in the Pheasant it is very common. While making these 

 notes (Dec. 13th) I shot one, and saw another the previous week; 

 a quick eye can detect them even when running about. 



ZOOLOGIST, THIRD SERIES, VOL. XVIII.— JAN. 1894. C 



