{Authors are responsible for nomenclature use4^ . i r p A R Y'S 



The Scottish Naturalist 



No. 46.] 1915 [October 



EDITORIAL. 



The plumage changes in birds and the means by which 

 they are brought about still offer a promising field for 

 investigation. Step by step the facts necessary for the 

 solution of the problems involved are being established. 

 Already the " colour change " theory, which for a time was 

 believed in by many ornithologists, seems no longer tenable. 

 One of the latest contributions to the subject is a paper 

 with the title " Notes on the Moults and Sequence of 

 Plumage in some British Ducks," by Miss Annie C. Jackson, 

 Swordale, Ross-shire, which appeared in British Birds 

 (magazine) for July last.^ Besides her own material, Miss 

 Jackson had at her disposal the specimens in several other 

 collections, including that of the British Museum. Referring 

 to The Natural History of British Surface-feeding Ducks, by 

 J. G. Millais, she states, at the outset, that she is " unable to 

 corroborate his views on the part played by 'colour change.' " 

 The chief results of her examination of a large number of 

 specimens are : (i) that the females of surface-feeding ducks, 

 and likewise certain diving ducks, undergo a complete body- 

 moult (the tail and inner secondaries also being involved) in 

 the spring, which is practically absent in the case of the 

 males ; and (2) that in addition to the ordinary down, the 

 females acquire just before the breeding season a luxuriant 



Vol. ix., No. 2, pp. 34-42. 

 46 2 H 



