LETM5 



NOTES OX THE MOULTS AXD SEQUENCE OF ITA.MAGES 

 IN SOME BRITISH DUCKS. 



To the Editor fs oi Buitisii Btrds. 



Sirs, — Mr. Sinalley's important contribution to the above subject 

 ill the November number of British Birds (antca, p. 137-41) has 

 deeply interested me. I am glad that on the whole Mr. Smalley agrees 

 with my statements on the moults of the ducks, and I hope in the 

 following remarks to dispose of our apparent differences o\-er certain 

 details, which I will discuss in th(^ order mentioned by Mr. Smallej 

 in his paper. 



In the first place, the author points out my omission of any mention 

 of an " intermediate " plumage in the adult male Shoveler and of the 

 assumption of an eclipse plumage by the females of certain species of 

 ducks. Firstly, with regard to the Shoveler, I have not liad the 

 opportunity of examining any males in full eclipse and am therefore 

 not in a position to make any statement as to the " intermediate " 

 plumage in the adult, but T am of opinion that in most cases an " inter- 

 mediate " plumage is assumed by the juvenile male before a plumage 

 resembling that of the adult is acquired, but this point I'equires further 

 investigation. Absence of material must again be my plea in failing 

 to recognise the assumption of an eclipse plumage bj" the females of 

 certain species ; in the collections at my disposal, females in full wing 

 and body moult in late summer and autumn were practically absent. 

 I am much interested to learn that an ecUpse is assumed and only 

 wish Mr. Smalley had given some details about this important 

 discovery. 



My remarks on the nestlings of the surface-feeding ducks have, I 

 think, been interpreted too literally by Mr. Smalley. They were only 

 intended in a general sense, nor did I mean to imply that the nestlings 

 of the different species were indistingui-shable. I only wished to point 

 out that, in my opinion, the iniderlying tj'pe of coloiu' pattern scheme 

 was the same throughout the group, the pattern being modified in the 

 various species by tlie addition or omission of some spot or line or the 

 replacing of one colour by another. 



As to the colour of the central pair of tail-feathers in tlie eclipse 

 plumage of the male Pintail described by me as mou.se-grey, my 

 description was taken from a specimen obtained in autumn, the tail- 

 feathers of which did not appear to be abraded. Sir. Smalley, liowever, 

 has had tne opportunity of examining these tail-feathers when lirst 

 grown in, and his description is therefore the correct one. 



In conclusion I should like to point out that my paper was only 

 intended as a preliminary account of the moults of the particular species 



