45 



tained that the wonderful arrangement of the colouring of its 

 plumage is designed by nature to protect it from observation. 

 How different the birds look when first killed to what they do 

 when skinned or set up, under the most favourable circumstances. 

 One might also inquire why the Phalaropes do not return from 

 their breeding grounds to us in the same way as the other nor- 

 thern birds mentioned. Where do they stay on the road ? and 

 why do the few come which pay us a passing visit in early winter 

 (that is, up to January only) ? If going southward, why do not 

 more pass ? The red-necked species seem to leave their breeding- 

 grounds (if we may judge from the few which breed in the Scot- 

 tish isles) very early ; but whence do they go to spend the winter, 

 and how do they arrive at their breeding places without being 

 more often observed when leaving and returning to them. 



C. M. ADAMSON. 

 Xowcastle-upon-Tyne, December, 1876. 



SIK, I am glad to see that, on the whole, Mr. Booth agrees with 

 me. He remarks that the old and young Knot appear to be alike 

 when once they assume the winter dress. This I admit ; but the 

 young do not acquire a complete winter dress the first year by 

 moulting ; the old birds do, completely, and suddenly, by the 

 autumnal moult. The young acquire their winter dress gradually 

 and only partially by moulting. Up to the year's end you gen- 

 erally find some of the tertials still edged, and the primaries and 

 secondaries are not cast till the general autumnal moult the 

 following year ; and the wing coverts are those of the young bird's 

 first plumage, which fade and wear into a winter plumage, but 

 which can be distinguished from those of the mature bird on close 

 examination. Indeed, it is often quite possible to trace the young 

 birds by the wing coverts up to the time of their acquiring their 

 summer dress in the spring, these feathers often getting by that 

 time worn nearly threadbare they being at first the more slender 

 feathers of the young bird ; and, besides this, they have been used 



