386 CHARADRIID.E. 



The true Plovers, at wliicli we have now arrived, are 

 birds of great powers of fliglit, and have also, as might be 

 expected, extensive geographical range. They associate and 

 perform their various migrations in flocks, which are more or 

 less numerous, depending on the species, and are only found 

 in pairs during their season of reproduction. Some of the 

 species are remarkable for assuming in the spring, and retain- 

 ing during summer, a plumage differing considerably from 

 that which distinguishes them from the time of the autumn 

 moult through the winter till the following spring. This 

 alteration of colour, which is common to both sexes, consists, 

 in the Golden Plover, of a decided change from a dull grey- 

 ish white to black, which pervades the whole of the under 

 surface of the bird from the chin to the belly. Some new 

 feathers are obtained in the spring, which are black, while 

 the old white feathers of winter may be seen in change to 

 black, some of them bearing almost every possible propor- 

 tion of well-defined black and white on the same feathers, 

 the colouring secretions having equal influence over the old 

 as well as the new feathers ; such birds are said to be subject 

 to a double moult, but the spring moult is only partial, not 

 affecting the strong feathers of the wings and tail ; the entire 

 moult, including the flight and tail-feathers, only occurs once 

 in each year, and that in the autumn.* Male birds are 

 frequently observed to have acquired an alteration in the 

 colour of their feathers more rich and perfect than that of 

 the females ; but this is not always the case, as the extent 

 and perfection of the change appears to depend upon the 

 constitutional vigour and powers of the individual bird, whe- 

 ther male or female, and I have occasionally seen female 

 specimens in a summer dress as rich and as perfect as that of 



* See observations on the laws which appear to influence the assumption 

 and changes of plumage in birds in the Transactions of the Zoological Society, 

 vol. i. page 13. 



