GOLDEN PLOVER. 477 



THE true Plovers, at which we have now arrived, are 

 birds of great powers of flight, and have also, as might be 

 expected, extensive geographical range. They associate 

 and perform their various migrations in flocks, which are 

 more or less numerous, depending on the species, and are 

 only found in pairs during their season of reproduction. 

 Some of the species are remarkable for assuming in the 

 spring, and retaining during summer, a plumage differing 

 considerably from that which distinguishes them from the 

 time of the autumn moult through the winter till the 

 following spring. This alteration of colour, which is 

 common to both sexes, consists, in the Golden Plover, 

 of a decided change from a dull greyish white to black, 

 which pervades the whole of the under surface of the 

 bird from the chin to the belly. Some new feathers are 

 obtained in the spring, which are black, while the old 

 white feathers of winter may be seen in change to black, 

 some of them bearing almost every possible proportion of 

 well-defined black and white on the same feathers, the 

 colouring secretions having equal influence over the old 

 as well as the new feathers; such birds are said to be 

 subject to a double moult, but the spring moult is only 

 partial, not affecting the strong feathers of the wings and 

 tail ; the entire moult, including the flight and tail feathers, 

 only occurs in these birds once in each year, and that in 

 the autumn.* Male birds are frequently observed to have 

 acquired an alteration in the colour of their feathers more 

 rich and perfect than that of the females ; but this is not 

 always the case, as the extent and perfection of the change 

 appears to depend upon the constitutional vigour and powers 

 of the individual bird, whether male or female, and I have 



* See observations on the laws which appear to influence the assumption 

 and changes of plumage in birds in the Transactions of the Zoological So- 

 ciety, vol. i. page 13. 



