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menced to moult. By the last week in August the young come 

 often in large flocks by themselves. It may he the few old birds 

 which arrive so early have lost their eggs or young, and, it being 

 too late to breed again in regions where the summer is so short, 

 have come straight away. In autumn the old birds (except the 

 few which come so early) do not seem to arrive till they have 

 completed their winter plumage by moulting, and the reason of 

 this probably is that in September they would be moulting their 

 quills, and unable to take the long flights requisite to bring them 

 so great a distance. Although the. young birds arrive on our 

 coasts so early, there has nevertheless, been time for them to get 

 here. The old birds apparently arrive at their breeding stations 

 in the middle of June, and from the time they lay their eggs till 

 the young are fully able to fly would be from nine to ten weeks, 

 which gives them time to reach us by the end of August. But 

 where do the old birds linger during the moulting time, both 

 those which come away early, and those which come later ? I 

 have never met with one moulting its quills. I have an old 

 female knot which I bought in Leadenhall market in May, as 

 dark in colour as the female Grey Phalarope is in summer, and 

 darker than any male knot which I have seen. Now, as regards 

 the young which arrive in August and September, the males are 

 rich buff in colour, whilst the females are very much greyer. 

 The change in colour of the old birds between the time of their 

 leaving us and the date of their return is very apparent. The 

 red breast fades to sand colour ; the pink spots on the back become 

 nearly white, and the grey edges wear off the back feathers, 

 which become black. The young birds somewhat resemble the 

 old birds in summer, but are much paler in colour, and gradually 

 both old and young alter mm li as the season advances, and by the 

 year's end they get very nearly alike ; but the moult in the young 

 birds to winter plumage is not nearly so complete as in the old 

 birds, which cast even' leather in September, the young birds 

 always retaining the primaries and secondaries, and many other 

 wing feathers, till the general moult the following autumn. It 

 .st her singular that the young Sanderlin-, Piniy Curlew, 



