1 64 STRA Y FEA THERS FROM MANY BIRDS. 



by the time the bird is full grown it has had three or 

 four sets of quill feathers. In its first plumage, the 

 young game bird very closely resembles its mother in 

 the colour of its plumage, but is more spotted. After 

 the first autumn moult the young males assume their 

 nearly adult dress, only showing a few traces of im- 

 maturity, which are finally lost after the first spring 

 moult is completed. In the Bustards the young are 

 covered with down, and able to run shortly after they 

 are hatched. Their first plumage very closely re- 

 sembles that of the adult female, but after the first 

 spring moult, the young males begin to assume their 

 sexual colours, though the plumage is not so finely 

 vermiculated, or the tints as pure. The males of the 

 larger Bustards do not appear to get their fully adult 

 plumage until after their third autumn moult, when 

 they are upwards of two years old. In the Grebes the 

 young are hatched covered with down and able to swim 

 and dive with great dexterity. Their first plumages 

 closely resemble that of the adult in winter, but after 

 their first spring moult, although the adult summer 

 plumage is assumed, the nuptial ornaments are not so 

 brilliant or so fully developed. The young of the 

 Divers are hatched covered with down and able to 

 swim. Their first plumage is somewhat similar to that 

 of the adults in winter dress ; but in the Black- throated 

 and Great Northern Divers the feathers of the upper 



