On Change to Spring Plumage without a Moult. 451 



-i^I!arina moschata (Linn.). 



This Duck, unlike Dendrocygna autumyialis, is difficult to 

 rear in captivity, always escaping at the first opportunity. 

 The former, however, is very easily domesticated, going off 

 repeatedly on visits to the lagoons ; but it does not appear 

 at all anxious to remain there, as it returns generally the 

 day after. 



XL. — On the Change of Birds to Spring Plumage without a 

 Moidt. By John Guille Millais. 



(Plate X.) 



In the ^Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural 

 Science' (vol. viii.), Mr. J. A. Allen has recently pub- 

 lished a series of articles on "the alleged Changes of Colour 

 in the Feathers of Birds without Molting" \_sic], in which 

 he seriously impugns the accuracy of statements made by 

 many naturalists of repute. In so doing he is rather 

 dogmatic ; for instance, when he sums up Yarrell's researches 

 respecting the spring change of the Golden Plover as, " of 

 course, pure inference, based on lack of knowledge on the 

 condition of the plumage on the Plover's breast in normal 

 breeding condition.'' 



Seeing that Mr. Allen brings no proof to back up his 

 statement that the feather, after being once complete, becomes 

 exhausted and falls like a leaf from a tree, it seems hardly 

 necessary to argue upon a question which microscopic re- 

 search, on a thoroughly scientiific basis, will alone be capable 

 of solving, I shall therefore simply give a short review of 

 my own studies on the subject of spring feather-change. 



It has always seemed to me a curious fact that more 

 British ornithologists have not turned their attention to the 

 change of plumage in birds, since the field is so wide and 

 the subject so unhackneyed. All the adult stages are now 

 well shown in their full plumages by the excellent illustrations 

 we have in modern publications; but the transition from 

 youth to maturity, and the phases of plumage which even 

 the old bird goes through during the several seasons, and 



