VOL. IX. 1 MOULTS OF BRITISH PASSERES. U9 



Major A. E. Hamerton, Miss A. C. Jackson, Messrs. 

 N. H. Joy. W. H. Mullens, and J. H. Owen. 



Family Corvid^. 



Except for the Rook {Corvus f. friigilegvs), which has a 

 special moult of the face already fully described in these 

 pages (Vol. VII., pp. 126-39), all the British species comprised 

 in this family are so similar in their moults and sequence 

 of plumages that they do not require separate treatment. 



The adults of all the species have only one annual moult, 

 viz. a complete one in early autunni. In some of the species 

 such as the Rook, Jackdaw {Coloens m. spermologus), Nut- 

 crackers (Nncifraga c. caryocatactes and macwrhynchvs), and 

 Chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocomx), this moult commences 

 with the wing-feathers as early as May or June. The effect 

 of abrasion and fading, even by the middle of the summer, is 

 scarcely noticeable, except that the wings and tail become 

 brownish and lose some gloss. 



The sexes of all the species are alike in plumage. 



Juveniles are very much like the adults except for the 

 loose texture of the body-feathers : in Corvns, Colceus and 

 Pyrrhocorax, the juvenile is browner than the adult and 

 has scarcely any gloss on the body-feathers and less than the 

 adult on the wings and tail ; in the Magpie {Pica p. pica) 

 the black portions of the body-plumage are browner and 

 the white portions more creamy, while the wings and tail 

 are less brilliantly glossed ; in the Nutcrackers the body- 

 plumage is paler brown, the crown is less uniform, the 

 feathers having pale shaft-streaks, the white spots on the 

 mantle are smaller, and those on the under-parts not so 

 pear-shaped and less sharply defined, the throat is whiter, 

 the wing-coverts have more white tips, and there is less gloss 

 on the wings and tail ; in the Jaj^s the fore-head and crown 

 have smaller dark streaks. 



First winter and summer. — The wing- and tail-feathers 

 and primary-coverts of the juveniles are not moulted in the 

 first autumn in any of the species. The body-feathers are 

 moulted in all. The lesser and median wing-coverts are 

 also moulted, but in some species the moult of these feathers 

 is not complete. The greater wing-coverts are moulted 

 entirely only in the Magpie, while in the Carrion-Crow, Rook 

 and Jackdaw only the innermost greater-coverts are moulted, 

 in the other species none are moulted. After the moult the 

 first winter bird is like the adult, except that the wings and 

 tail are browner and less glossy, a distinction which, although 



