_In a letter to the Editor of the Literary Gazette_.
Sir--Observing in the _Literary Gazette_ of last week, a notice of
Mr. Young's account of the change of colour in the plumage of birds from
fear, I have been induced to mention some circumstances which, among
others, fell under my own observation, and from which I am led to conclude
that such changes among the volatile tribes are not so rare as may be
imagined, and are often produced by disease, as well as by other mental
passions besides terror.
Without referring to the celebrated _Jacobite_ goldfinch of Miss Cicy
Scott, which the good old maiden of Carubber's Close affirmed became of a
deep sable hue on the day of Charles's martyrdom--though doubtless the
natural philosopher would have discovered in this some more efficient
cause than respect for the royal sufferer!--I myself recollect a partial
change in the colour of a fine green parrot, belonging to Mr. Rutherford,
of Ladfield. Like Miss Scott, the laird of Ladfield was a stanch adherent
of the house of Stuart, and to his dying day cherished the hope of
beholding their restoration to the throne of Britain.
In the meantime, Mr. Rutherford amused his declining years by teaching
Charley to whistle "The king shall hae his ain again," and to gibber "Send
the old rogue to Hanover;" for which he was always rewarded by a
sugar-plum or a dole of wassail (Scotch short-bread). Those epicurean
indulgences at length induced a state of obesity; and so depraved became
the appetite of the bird, that, rejecting his natural food, he used to
pluck out the feathers from those parts of the back within his reach, and
bruise them with his bill, to obtain the oily substance contained in the
quills.
The feathers which grew on the denuded parts were whitish, and never
resumed their natural hue. I often saw Charley long after the death of his
master, and he looked as if Nature, in one of her sportive moods, had
created him half parrot, half gosling--so strangely did his whitish back
and tail contrast with his scarlet poll and brilliant green neck.
A still more remarkable change of colour in a lark, belonging to Dr. Thos.
Scott, of Fanash, occurred under my own eye, and which, I have no doubt,
was produced by grief at being separated from a mavis. Their cages had
long hung side by side in the parlour, and often had they striven to
out-rival each other in the loudness of their song, till their minstrelsy
became so stunning, that it was found necessary to remove the laverock to
a drawing-room above stairs.
The poor bird gradually pined, moped, and ceased its song; its eyes grew
dim, and its plumage assumed a dullish tint, which, in less than a
fortnight, changed to a deep black.
The worthy physician watched with the eye of a naturalist this phenomenon;
but, after awhile, fearing for the life of his favourite, he ordered it to
be replaced alongside its companion.
In a short time it resumed its spirits and its song--recommenced its
rivalry with the mavis; but, after every moulting, the new feathers were
always of the same coal-black colour. The mavis evinced no corresponding
feeling of attachment--neither, so far as I recollect, missing its
companion, nor rejoicing at its restoration.