156 STRA Y FEA THERS FROM MANY BIRDS. 



spring and autumn moult, are the Warblers, as for 

 instance, the Blackcap, the Willow Wren, and the White- 

 throat ; and even in this well defined group, the double 

 moult does not extend to the young birds, which only 

 undergo a partial change of dress in their first autumn. 

 The Goatsuckers, Hoopoes, and Cuckoos are birds which 

 moult twice in the season, so also are Pigeons and Cranes, 

 in all of which however there is not any very striking 

 difference between spring and autumn plumage. The 

 information hitherto obtained respecting the family of 

 Rails, shows that these birds are curiously divided in the 

 manner of their moult. For instance the Crakes moult 

 twice in the year, in spring and autumn ; but the Rails, 

 the Moorhen and the Coot have but one change of 

 plumage, in autumn. The two great and well defined 

 natural groups, the Waders and the Gulls, contain birds 

 which moult regularly in spring and autumn, and in most 

 species of the former group the winter plumage assumed 

 after the autumnal moult is very different from the 

 plumage acquired after the vernal one, being much less 

 brilliant in colour. For instance, every one knows the 

 remarkable handsome Golden Plover in his summer 

 livery with jet black underparts, but after the moult in 

 autumn, the black is replaced by white. The Knot is 

 another good instance. This bird becomes chestnut on 

 the underparts in spring, and the upper parts are marked 

 with chestnut brown and black, on the head mantle, 



