BIRDS MOULTING IN THEIR WINTER QUARTERS 5 



SOME NOTES ON BIRDS MOULTING IN THEIR 

 WINTER QUARTERS. 



By Leonora Jeffrey Rintoul, H.M.B.O.U., and Evelyn V. 

 Baxter, H.M.B.O.U. 



We have lately had the opportunity of examining some birds 

 in the skin collection of the Royal Scottish Museum ; those 

 to which we wish to draw attention in this paper are all birds 

 on the British List, obtained in their far southern winter 

 quarters. We were much interested to find such a large 

 proportion of them in moult. Many of these birds were 

 taken in November, a period at which we expected to find 

 the autumn moult completed and the spring change not yet 

 begun. This is, however, far from being the case ; the great 

 majority of those taken during this month showed distinct 

 signs of moult, and we think it may be worth while to place 

 on record the actual state of plumage in which we found 

 them. Although the material is too small to warrant 

 conclusions being drawn, we think the facts are of sufficient 

 interest to merit attention. 



The following detailed notes will show how extensive the 

 moult is in some species : — 



Two Red-throated Pipits {Authiis ccrvinns)^ both males 

 from the South Andamans and taken in February (iSth 

 February 1873 ^.nd February 1874), were in full body moult; 

 the primaries and secondaries were in excellent condition, not 

 the least worn or faded, and the tertiaries were in moult. In 

 each case the outer and centre pairs of tail feathers were 

 partly in quill and not full grown. This last fact strikes us 

 as specially interesting in view of the statement commonly 

 accepted, that the spring moult of Pipits extends to the small 

 feathers only. It is also noteworthy that, in both birds, the 

 tail feathers which are coming in should be the outer and 

 centre pairs — a most curious combination. 



A Red-backed Shrike {Lanhis collurio collurid), an adult 

 male from Potchefstroom taken on 26th December 1876, had 

 new feathers coming in from the nape to the tail-coverts and 

 from the crop downwards. The primaries were old and worn, 



