2 5 o THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



the two centre tail feathers only partly grown ; in both cases 

 the rest of the tail looked fresh, while one had an old centre 

 tail feather still remaining. One male from Fair Isle (8th 

 May 1906) had one centre tail feather extremely worn, rest 

 of tail new and about three parts grown ; a male from Little 

 Ross lantern had the small feathers fresh and the four outer 

 tail feathers on the left side only half grown (4th May 191 3) ; 

 a female from the Isle of May lantern (i7/i8th May 1914) 

 had the 5th and 6th primaries in the right wing only half 

 grown, tail feathers old and rather worn, body feathers fresh ; 

 and one male from Fair Isle had a fresh feather in the tail 

 not fully grown, rump and tail feathers much worn, small 

 feathers fresh : all the above had the primaries slightly worn. 

 The other two had the body feathers fresh, and the rectrices 

 and remiges worn, which is what one would expect in view 

 of the statement that only the small feathers are affected by 

 the spring moult (Pycraft, A History of Birds ', p. 282). 



Bearing this statement in mind, it would seem curious that 

 such a large proportion of the spring Whitethroats examined 

 should have partly grown feathers in the tail. Though some 

 are possibly due to accident, it is hardly likely that all are 

 referable to this cause, and one cannot help wondering 

 whether the tail feathers are not also moulted in spring, 

 at any rate in some cases. The same remarks apply to the 

 Lesser Whitethroats : of fifteen spring specimens examined, 

 seven had the small feathers newly moulted, but the wings 

 and tail-quills and tail-coverts old and worn ; three showed 

 no sign of recent moult, the whole plumage being much 

 abraded, specially the centre pair of tail feathers, of which 

 little was left but the shaft ; four were birds in perfect 

 plumage, small feathers and quills alike these certainly looked 

 as though they had recently undergone a complete moult ; 

 the other bird was in an intermediate state, some of the 

 small feathers being old, others new. Can this diversity 

 be caused by pathological conditions, or is it possible that 

 birds of the previous year undergo a complete moult in spring, 

 while the older ones change only the small feathers ? 



Fieldfares, Redwings, Missel-thrushes, Ring-ouzels, and 

 Blackbirds yielded nothing of interest. Of seven 



