404 Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 



tive evidence that the change is one effected with the design 

 of concealment. Moreover, in the Orkneys the birds are 

 observed to have paired by April, whilst they are yet in 

 winter plumage. 



" The down wliich the female uses for lining her nest appears 

 as a distinctly new growth on the breast and belly ; it is very 

 thick, and darker in colour than eider-down. The male 

 supplies no down, 



" This Duck certainly feeds on fish as well as on molluscs ; 

 for the stomachs of all those examined, Avithout exception, 

 contained fish-scales. 



" The eyes pass from straw-colour in the winter dress 

 to dark hazel in summer. I have not noticed any with 

 a red iris/' 



The discussion on Dr. J. A. Allen's recent paper on the 

 changes of plumage in birds was resumed, and Mr. J. G. 

 MiLLAis exhibited a series of Harelda glacialis showing the 

 whole of the changes of the male from its winter plumage to 

 the full breeding-dress. He also exhibited specimens of the 

 Sanderling, the Sclavonian Grebe, and the Ptarmigan, 

 showing that in the two last-named species the change in 

 plumage was effected by an absolute alteration in the pattern 

 of the feather, and not by a moult, 



Mr. W. R, Ogilvie Grant supplemented the remarks of 

 Mr. Millais by exhibiting a series of flank-feathers taken 

 from female Red Grouse between the months of October and 

 May, showing the alteration of the patterns month by month. 



Mr, Ernst Hartert also exhibited a series of Birds of 

 Paradise, Lophorhina, Diphyllodes, Sec, which showed a 

 gradual change of pattern in the feather, without a moult, 



A paper on the subject will be published later on, 

 in wliich Dr, Bowdler Sharpe (who was unfortunately 

 absent from the meeting through illness) will oppose 

 Dr, Allen's views on the subject of moulting. The verdict 

 of the majority of the Members present at the meeting was 

 that a change of pattern in the feathers of certain birds was 

 absolutely certain. 



