PREFACE. IX 



A cause of great variation of plumage in the same bird 

 at different times of the year is the wearing off of the 

 margins of the feathers, which in many cases are so broadly 

 margined just after the moult with a perfectly different 

 colour to the body of the feather that identification is 

 extremely difficult. The Wheatear, the Snow Bunting and 

 the Brambling may perhaps be selected as the best ex- 

 amples of this change. Another great change in plumage 

 is effected in a very different manner, the feathers them- 

 selves remaining, but perfectly changing their colour in the 

 spring, when the time arrives for the bird to assume its 

 finest dress or " habit des noces," as the French call it : 

 this change takes place gradually, but quickly, and cer- 

 tainly when complete considerably metamorphoses the ap- 

 pearance of the bird. Somewhat allied to this change is 

 the extraordinary change that takes place in the plumage of 

 the males of many of the Ducks immediately after the 

 breeding season, when they lose their usual brilliant dress 

 and assume one much more resembling that of the females : 

 there always, however, appears to be a sufficient difference 

 to enable any one to distinguish between the males and 

 females. 



On the subject of food, which perhaps is the most 

 interesting to us as tending most to our profit or loss, 

 I think I have been sufficiently particular in my notes of 

 the various species, and therefore shall say no more here, 



