282 A HISTORY OF BIRDS 



the second category. The Larks moult but once, the Pipits 

 and Wagtails twice annually, the quills, in all cases, as we have 

 remarked, alone excepted. 



Little indeed appears to be known as to the order of the 

 moulting of the body feathers in any group. But in the 

 Ducks, for example, the feathers of the wings are the first to 

 be renewed, next flanks and under parts, then those of the 

 lower part of the neck and back, and finally of the head and 

 neck, and this applies not only to the renewal of the adult dress 

 but to the appearance of the feathers in the young birds, as may 

 be seen by studying the changes which mark the assumption 

 of the nuptial dress. These begin to be apparent during the 

 middle of August and are completed by the end of September, 

 or early in October. The new feathers, by the way, appear one 

 or two at a time among those of the plumage which is being 

 replaced, not in uniformly affected patches. 



The appearance of the feathers of the first teleoptyle 

 plumage of young birds appears to follow the same order 

 successively in the same areas as the later plumages. In the 

 Game-birds, for instance, the head is the last part to assume 

 feathers, being still down-clad while the rest of the body is 

 fully feathered. Whereas the adults undergo an autumn moult 

 the young would appear to effect a similar change, often then 

 assuming the adult livery. And in the case of males of brightly 

 coloured species, as in the Pheasant, for instance, the striking 

 differences in the two plumages — first and second teleoptyle 

 plumage — well shows the order in which the feathers of the 

 new dress appear. 



Here again, as in the assumption of the first dress, the 

 head and neck are the last to acquire the new feathers ; the 

 flanks, wings and tail the first. But, as we have already re- 

 marked, the facts recorded from observation on this head are 

 of the most meagre description. 



Among the Passerine birds it would seem the first plumage 

 is shed within from thirty to forty days after its development, 

 at about the time of the annual moult of the parents. The 

 Accipitrine birds keep their first plumage, according to Mr. 

 Headley, till the next summer. But anything like a general 

 knowledge of what obtains in this matter among the different 

 groups is wanting. 



