AVICULTUBAL EXPERIENCES. 251 



this species, and who lose the young before their change into 

 the adult plumage, will send thern promptly to the National 

 Collection.* 



As regards the acquirement of the adult plumage, some 

 tropical birds are very precocious, but others extremely dilatory. 

 Some of the little Ploceid Finches (such as Amadina fas data and 

 Tceniopygia castanotis) are in full adult plumage and ready to 

 breed when about six to eight weeks old ; thus examples of the 

 former, which left the nest in September, were breeding in 

 October; and it is not uncommon for Zebra Finches (T. casta- 

 notis) to build and lay when eight weeks old. Mr. Meade-Waldo, 

 speaking of the Chinese Quail (Excalphatoria sinensis), says : 

 " They were hatched on July 23rd, and were in adult plumage by 

 August 27th." 



On the other hand, the Satin Bower-bird is known to be very 

 slow in acquiring its adult plumage ; the late Mr. Abrahams used 

 to put the date of change at three years of age, but the Director 

 of the Zoological Gardens, Melbourne, Mr. A. A. C. Le Souef, 

 says that he " caged a number (at least a dozen), . . . and it was 

 only after the expiration of nearly eight years they began to 

 change colour. I think four or five birds put on the beautiful 

 blue-black plumage, and in a year or two died off. It is there- 

 fore evident that the birds only come to their full plumage in old 

 age, and that accounts for the fact that in a flock of, say, one 

 hundred birds, which we often used to see at Gembrook some 

 years ago, there would be only a very few, not half a dozen, black 

 ones among them."t 



It is well known that in many species the flocks which 

 assemble for migratory or other purposes consist wholly of birds 

 of one sex. Two or three years ago (and again this year) the 

 bird-market was flooded with Pekin Nightingales (Liothrix lutea), 

 of which I bought three dozen examples in various conditions of 

 plumage, hoping to secure plenty of males of that charming 

 songster ; but all proved to be hens. It is also well known that 

 old hen birds often assume male plumage towards the end of 



* When I last saw the Museum series, the young plumage was un- 

 represented, but possibly examples may have been since received. 



f A. J. Campbell, ' Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds,' p. 192, foot- 

 note. 



