vi FORM ANT) FUNCTION 157 



of Bean Gccsc that he saw in the north of Russia, 

 making for the water when their moult was imminent. 1 

 By the time the young can fly, the old birds have 

 renewed their quills, and they start for the south 

 together. Any land bird with such a system of 

 moulting would be reduced to a sad plight. He would 

 be worse off than the Crayfish, who has cast his shell 

 and, cowering in a hole, waits for the new one to form 

 and harden. As far as is known, all birds who are 

 not at home upon the water, shed their large feathers 

 at intervals, a pair at a time, one feather from each 

 side. In Hawks and other birds of prey, the intervals 

 are very long, and the process continues nearly the 

 whole year. In Homing Pigeons — the breed now in 

 use for " carrying " — and, I believe, in other pigeons 

 also, the moult lasts nearly half the year. About 

 May the tenth of the eleven primaries counting from 

 the outermost is lost. A month later the ninth eoes. 

 By that time the tenth has grown nearly to its full size ; 

 when the ninth is about half its proper length, the 

 eighth falls ; the others follow at intervals of from 

 eight to fifteen days. In the tail, which has twelve 

 feathers, the two which are fifth from the sides fall 

 first. When the new ones are grown to three quarters 

 of their full length, the two central ones are shed ; the 

 remainder fall in this order : the fourth, the third, the 

 outermost, the second. The Pigeon suffers much as 

 the moult approaches its conclusion. He flics with 

 difficulty, and is liable to arthritis, commonly known 

 among Belgian fanciers as La Maladic des ailes. 

 Badly fed birds have a defective moult. If Pigeons 

 1 See his Siberia in Europe, p. 287. 



