PASSERINE BIRDS FOUND MIGRATING IN MOULT 247 



Shore-larks examined, one had feathers on the back partly 

 in quill, while the only spring bird showed no sign of moult. 

 Pipits and Wagtails moult twice a year (Hartert's Die Vbgel 

 der paldarktischen Fauna, p. 264) ; of the Tree- and Meadow- 

 pipits examined, the autumn birds had all completed their 

 moult, but two spring Meadow-pipits from Pentland Skerries 

 on 21st and 25th March 1914 had many of the small feathers 

 partly in quill. The Grey, Yellow, Grey-headed, and Blue- 

 headed Wagtails examined were all in excellent plumage, 

 with the exception of one Grey-headed Wagtail, a female 

 from the Isle of May (20th May 19 14), which had feathers on 

 the rump and throat still partly in quill. White Wagtails 

 are pretty common at some of our migration stations, specially 

 in autumn, and twenty-three specimens were at our disposal ; 

 of these, three autumn and one spring bird had feathers on 

 head, nape, or crop not fully developed, while a female from 

 St Kilda (4th October 191 1) had some secondaries and a 

 feather on the back partly in quill. Tits so seldom occur on 

 migration that we have only had the chance of examining 

 two Continental Great Tits (Parus major major) and a 

 British Long- tailed Tit (sEgithalos caudatus roseus), none of 

 which showed any sign of moult. As Goldcrests are strongly 

 attracted by the lanterns, we have been able to examine a good 

 many of them, and find that a very large proportion of them 

 migrate while still in body moult. Of fifteen of the typical 

 R. r. regulus, all autumn birds, nine had feathers in quill on 

 the body ; the most pronounced example was a female from 

 the Isle of May (8th October 1910), which had one or two 

 feathers on the head, several at the edge of the gape and on 

 the throat, and almost all on the back still partly in quill. The 

 British form (R. r. anglorum) too seems prone to migrate before 

 the moult is completed : of twenty-three examples examined, 

 eleven were in this condition. This was the case in spring 

 as well as in autumn ; at the former season three were found 

 with new feathers coming on throat and crop, while the most 

 outstanding specimen procured in autumn was a male from 

 the Isle of May lantern (3rd October 191 1), which had many 

 feathers on back, throat, and crop partly in quill, and quill 

 still remaining round the bases of all the primaries. Two 



