140 MOULTING. 



Dal-Ripa, not only by its inferior size, but by the black 

 angular mark spoken of above the eye. The difference 

 between the females of the two species is less evident, 

 but the female Fjall-Ripa may be known from the 

 female Dal-Ripa by being smaller and having a different 

 shaped bill and more crooked claws. 



M. Earth, when speaking of the moulting of the 

 Fjall-Ripa, says: "To judge from appearances, the male 

 begins to put on his spring dress about the middle of April, 

 or nearly a month later than the Dal-Ripa, but with the 

 greater part of the males it is not fully developed until 

 after the middle of June. The female commences moult- 

 ing some days later than the male, and has mostly com- 

 pleted it by the end of May, or in tin lii-st days of June. 

 The Fjall-Ripa, therefore, requires a much shorter time 

 in which to moult in the spring than the Dal-Hipa ; inas- 

 much as the process is over with the male Fjiill-Kipa in 

 about two months, and with the female in about live 

 weeks, whilst the male and female Dal-Ripa require about 

 three and two months respectively to effect the change. 



As regards the Fjall-Ripa's autumnal moulting, 

 M. Earth gives us less precise' information. After 

 telling us that in the last days of June lie lias seen 

 " packs " of old males in their full spring dress, he proceeds 

 to say : " But subsequent to that time I never shot 

 any Fjall-Ripa until the commencement of September, 

 when the whole family (the males, as will presently be 

 shown, separating for a time from the females and the 

 poults) were collected together. They had then already 

 a -sumed the greater part of their autumnal dress, which 

 about the middle of that month begins to be supplanted by 

 the \\ inter dress, but in such manner that the autumnal 

 moulting is simultaneously continued." 



Indisposition the Fjall-Ripa is but little shy; some 

 even describe it as a silly and stupid bird. During 



