MOULT 595 
tails,” Kingfishers of the genus Tunysiptera, and PARRots of the 
group Prioniturus. Waterton (Wanderings, Journey 2, chap. iii.), 
mentioning the species MW. brasiliensis by its native name “ Houtou,” 
long ago asserted that this peculiarity was produced by the Motmot 
itself nibbling off the barbs, and this extraordinary statement, 
though for a while doubted, has since been shewn by Mr. Salvin 
(Proc. Zool. Soc. 1873, pp. 429-433), on Mr. Bartlett’s authority, to 
be perfectly true. The object with which the operation is per- 
formed is wholly unknown. _ It is sometimes incompletely executed, 
and the tail has then an asymmetrical form. This must have been the 
case with the example that Hernandez described (/.c.), and brought on 
himself the criticism of Willughby (Ornithologia, p. 298) for so doing. 
Much of the bibliography of the family is given in Dr. Murie’s 
paper already quoted ; and it may be remarked that in 1734 Seba, 
probably misled by wrong information, figured (Rerum Nat. Thesaur. 
tab. 67, fig. 2) under the name of “ Motmot” a bird which has been 
identified with a species of GUAN, and is the Ortalis motmot of 
modern ornithology. 
MOULT;,! the change of plumage, or shedding of its old and 
often weather-beaten feathers to be replaced by an entirely new 
suit, to which almost every individual bird is subject at least once 
a year, and a process of the most vital consequence, being possibly 
the severest strain to which the life of each is exposed, for to judge 
by its effects on those we domesticate, it produces a greater mortality 
than temporary want of food may do. Important then as is all 
that relates to the subject, it is yet one that has been sadly neglected 
by ornithologists, among whom that careful observer the late Herr 
W. Meves seems alone to have published any extensive series of ob- 
servations,” and it is certainly not to the credit of ornithologists 
in general, and especially of those who are afforded facilities by 
Zoological Gardens, that so much ignorance of the process should 
prevail as undoubtedly is the case, for since his time little advance 
has been made in our knowledge, so that questions arising out of 
investigations made by him more than forty years ago remain un- 
answered and disregarded ; and, apart from general works, in which 
the subject is usually but lightly touched, the literature relating to 
this branch of ornithology is very small. The structure and mode 
‘of growth of FEATHERS has already been sufficiently treated, and 
* In Middle English the word (originally a verb) is mowt, the modern Z being 
redundant, and it is derived from the Latin mutare, to change. 
* His valuable paper is in the @fversigt of the Academy of Sciences of Stock- 
holm for 1854 (No. 8), and an English translation of it has been published by 
Mr. Dresser (Zoologist, 1879, pp. 81-89), while a German version containing some 
modifications and additional matter appears in the Journal fiir Ornithologie for 
1855 (pp. 230-238). But the essay treats also of change of colour in feathers 
apart from moult. 
