I04 BIRD WORLD. 



the feathers drop out others grow out to take their 

 places, and in a month or so the bird has a new suit 

 of fine strong feathers, all ready to carry him to his 

 distant winter home. 



With many of the birds of the Duck and Goose 

 family, the moulting goes on so quickly that the bird 

 has scarcely enough feathers to enable him to fly. 

 He hides during these unhappy weeks in distant 

 swamps, hoping that no enemy will attack him till he 

 is ready to fly again. He must feel like a cripple 

 and try his wings impatiently, longing for the day 

 when he can be off again through the air. 



In the case of many gay-colored male birds, this 

 summer moult leaves them very shabby-looking. The 

 Bobolink loses all his gay black and white, and comes 

 out in August in brown and yellowish, like his wife 

 and children. He probably does not feel so proud of 

 his good looks as before, but I think he is safer. The 

 black and white was so bright that his enemies could 

 easily see him, but now he can slip away among the 

 brown grasses and hardly be noticed. 



Many male birds are not content with one suit of 

 feathers a year. They have to have another new suit, 

 or part of one; in the spring, and of the gayest colors 

 and feathers. Red and blue and yellow appear on 

 the shoulders, in the tail, on the head, neck, and 

 breast, in patches, bars, bands, streaks, in fact in every 



