PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. 67 
ately Schlegel’s opinions have been fully confirmed 
by Herr Gatke; and the reader interested in the 
subject is referred to that great naturalist’s remarks 
thereon in his book on the birds of Heligoland.* 
This seasonal change of colour may be produced 
both by a moult and by actual transition, without 
cast of feather, even in the same bird: the restora- 
tion of ragged feathers and development of colour 
upon them may also be progressing at the same 
time. Thus the black markings on the head and 
neck of the Golden Plover are the result of colour 
alteration, but the black on the breast is attained by 
moult. The colour changes in the Sanderling, the 
Knot, the Dunlin, the Redshank, and numerous 
other allied birds, are perfectly astonishing: in the 
Redshank especially so, the profusely barred upper 
plumage being developed without change of feather, 
and the feathers reacquiring a pristine freshness 
and perfectness which seem almost incredible with- 
out a complete moult! 
Comparatively speaking, the haunts frequented 
by Limicoline birds during summer, or the season 
of reproduction, are not, in the strict sense of the 
term, littoral ones. But few species breed on the 
actual coast—in our islands they are represented by 
such birds as the Oyster-catcher and the Ringed 
Plover; the vast majority rear their young in 
inland localities, on moors and downs, by the side 
of rivers, streams, and lakes, in swamps, and so on. 
* Heligoland as an Ornithological Observatory, p. 151, et seq. 
