276 Fleming on the Changes Colour m the 
dies with regard to heat be inversely as their reflective power, 
a conclusion very generally admitted, then the white winter 
dress of these animals must be better calculated for retaining 
the heat generated in their bodies by the vital principle, than 
any other coloured dress which would possess greater radiating 
power, and, consequently, woiild more readily contribute to the 
reduction of their temperature. Is it not in consequence of the 
same arrangement, in reference to temperature, that many old 
and young animals are pale coloured, and that the hair which 
grows from a part that has been wounded, is always whiter tl^an 
the covering of the sounder parts 
Manse of Flisk, ) 
December tf. 1819- J 
JVote by Professor Jameson. 
In reference to the preceding paper, we have to remark, that 
Mr Whitear does not appear to have known that the fact in re- 
gard to the change of the colour of the feathers of birds is not new, 
having been published in the year 179^, by Captain Cartwright, 
a gentleman long resident in Labrador; and my friend Dr 
Fleming also being unacquainted with Cartwright’s statement, 
has fallen into the same mistake. For the information of our 
readers, we subjoin the following extract from Cartwright’s 
Journal, (3 vols 4to, Newark, 1792), which contains his obser- 
vations on this subject, and which proves not only the change of 
colour in the feathers, but also that an additional quantity of 
feathers is formed on approach of winter : 28th September 
1773.— -This morning I took a walk upon the hills to the 
•westward, and killed seven brace of grouse, These birds 
are exactly the same with those of the same name in Eu- 
rope, save only in the colour of their feathers, which are 
speckled with white in summer, and perfectly white in winter, 
(fourteen black ones in the tail excepted) which always remain 
the same. When I was in England, Mr Banks (now Sir Jo- 
seph Banks), Doctor Solander, and several other naturalists, hav- 
ing inquired of me, respecting the manner of these birds changing 
polour,! took particular notice of those I killed, and can aver, for a 
fact, that they get at this time of the year a very large additiou 
