471 
and Colour-change in Birds. 
Limicohe and Game-birds, have been left untouched. With 
regard, however, to some of the writer’s remarks I must 
take exception. For instance, he regards birds in captivity as 
entirely untrustworthy subjects from which to draw con¬ 
clusions respecting colour-change. But in what other way, 
may I ask, are we to observe one individual feather through 
successive days ? Mr. Stone argues that birds’ habits in con¬ 
finement are so different, and their constitutions so weakened, 
that their moult probably takes place irregularly. That 
may be so, but if a bird be observed to undergo a colour- 
change in captivity, it is obvious that colour-change in a 
wild state is also possible. If we find a bird in captivity 
assuming during the course of several weeks the plumage 
represented by a series of wild-shot individuals, surely it is 
not unreasonable to deduce therefrom that each of those 
wild individuals is assuming its plumage by methods similar 
to those adopted by the specimen in captivity. To argue 
facts from birds in captivity alone is obviously encroaching 
on the realms of assumption ; but, taking in correlation 
a series of wild birds, we get a key to the solution of the 
question. 
Again, I must deny that belief in colour-change necessi¬ 
tates a belief in the rebuilding of the worn edges of the 
feathers. Such is by no means the case, nor is it a fact that, 
because feathers have evenly-rounded edges, they are there¬ 
fore freshly grown. A belief in colour-change necessitates 
a belief in an even abrasion, and nothing more. A third 
argument of Air. Stone’s is the want of connection between 
the feather and the body of the bird; but, as I have already 
touched on that subject, I will say nothing further here. 
Mr. Stone tries to explain the apparently colour-changing 
feathers by the following paragraph : — 
iC As a matter of fact, these mottled plumages are per¬ 
manent for the time being, aud at each regular moult a 
greater proportion of the adult plumage is assumed. 
Scarcely any two individuals, however, correspond exactly 
in the amount of change that is effected at a given moult; 
hence a series of breeding-birds taken during the late spring 
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