272 CHARADRIID^. 



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, which are obtained in the spring, are black, 

 whilst 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 that of the spring 

 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.* This latter moult begins in 

 September and is generally completed by November; the 

 partial spring change commences in February and is over 

 by the middle of May. Male birds are generally 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 of the change appears to 

 depend upon the constitutional vigour and powers of the 

 individual bird, whether male or female, and specimens of 

 the latter sex are occasionally seen in a summer dress as 

 rich and as perfect as that of the finest male. 



In the ' Fabliaux ' of the xiii th Century we read of 

 " Ploviers et corliex [Curlews] en hastis " [i.e. on spits] ; 

 and Belon, in 1555, writing of the Pluvier and the Guillemot, 

 by which he means the adult and the young of this species, 

 says, " II semble qu'il est ainsi nomme [Pluvier] pource 

 qu'on le prend mieux en temps pluvieux qu'en nulle autre 

 saison." As a delicacy it has long been esteemed for the 



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

 changes of plumage in birds in the Transactions of the Zoological Society, vol. i. 

 page 13 ; also 'The Zoologist,' 1879, pp. 81-89. 





