Ornithological and Other Oddities 



prising that a quick moult is desirable, as bird- 

 fanciers have long ago found out ; and hence 

 there is a widespread tendency in birds to moult 

 as fast as possible, whenever their safety allows 

 of it. It is obvious, however, that birds which 

 are much on the wing cannot moult in too 

 wholesale a manner ; such usually, therefore, 

 shed their quills in pairs only, which means a 

 rather protracted moulting season. In other 

 cases, as where much ornamental plumage is 

 worn, this may all be thrown off at once, as in 

 the case of the golden pheasant and mandarin 

 duck already mentioned, and equally conspicu- 

 ously in the peacock. I have even heard of a 

 case in which one of the last-mentioned birds 

 was seen to help on his moult by plucking out 

 his own train -feathers. 



Even the wing-quills may all be discarded 

 together, and flight dispensed with for a time ; 

 but this is obviously only possible in certain 

 exceptional cases, usually among water- and 

 marsh-birds, which are under less apprehension 

 of danger from quadruped foes than inhabitants 

 of the dry land. Thus we find a complete moult 

 of all the quills in rails, grebes, and cranes, in 

 some species at all events ; while the state of 

 flightlessness to which the duck and goose family 

 are reduced by this means has long been com- 

 mon knowledge, owing to the pernicious custom, 



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