338 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



and Yellow Wagtails, which I believe were also these birds, but which were 

 too wild to allow me to fully identify them by a nearer approach. — J. Steele 

 Elliott (Dixon's Green, Dudley). 



Avicultural Notes. — Canaries in my out-door aviary, at the autumn 

 moult, had their yellow feathers almost obscured by long grey hairs ; 

 these are now shed, and they are their usual bright yellow colour, so 

 that it would seem as if in the first year of turning out they revert 

 back to nature in this respect also. Dr. Butler is clear, and I think 

 evidently correct, in his article on Foreign Finches and their combative 

 qualities in aviaries, notwithstanding some of our experiences may vary a 

 little first one way or the other. In my own little experience, birds whose 

 behaviour last year left nothing to be desired are this year quite pugnacious ; 

 therefore to be in a position to dogmatise one must, as Dr. Butler says in 

 his opening statement, be an observer over a number of years. 



I am much interested in the manner in which those birds whose 

 summer and winter plumage is dissimilar assume their gaudy summer 

 attire. Iu such birds as Chaffinches and other Fringillidce, whose 

 plumage, though the same, is yet much brighter during the breeding- 

 season, the result is brought about by the abrasion or wearing away 

 of the fluffy hairs produced in the autumn moult; but this is not 

 the case with such birds as Weavers, &c. Now, in the case of two 

 Black-faced Weavers which I have successfully wintered in my garden 

 aviary, during this change I have noticed all over the head, shoulders, 

 neck, and breast — the principal parts affected — spines were produced 

 so thickly as to resemble moulting; but there certainly was no moult, 

 save with a few of the larger primaries. Can these spines be colour- 

 glands? I much regretted that my aviary was so full, and with one 

 or two pairs sitting it was not possible to catch them and make a close 

 examination ; but they are very tame, and by close observation I ascertained 

 these facts. I shall certainly alter my arrangements and increase my 

 specimens for next season, so as to ascertain fully and clearly the detail 

 of the whole process. I believe myself that these spines (as I have 

 called them) are produced in the quill of the existing feathers — visible, 

 as before recorded, just before and while the change is taking place; 

 and that these spines — or as I have called them colour-glands — bursting, 

 the transformation is brought about, or else a new feather is almost pro- 

 duced on the old stem from these spines, and the whole matter shed and 

 the change produced that way. I shall increase my specimens of Ploceida 

 and extend my observations upon this interesting point. Will other 

 fellow-aviarists do likewise, and I am sure much interesting and instructive 

 data will be the result?— W. T. Page (6, Rylett Crescent, Shepherd's 

 Bush, W.) 



