SOME COMMON BRITISH BIRDS 



89 



means of this moulting process, the upper-parts come to assume a 

 golden-brown colour, mottled with black, while the throat and 

 breast become jet-black. In the autumn these feathers are shed, 

 and replaced by the grey and white dress of winter. 



While some birds attain the plumage of the fully mature 

 bird at the end of the first year, or earlier, many are several 

 years acquiring the adult dress. In the black-backed and herring- 





FIG. 27. Dunlin showing summer and winter plumages. 



gulls, for example, the adult dress is not attained until the third 

 year, or eVen later. The immature birds wear a mottled dress of 

 grey and brown, which almost imperceptibly changes into the 

 pure hues of black and white, or pearl-grey and white, as the case 

 may be, of the full-grown bird. 



How striking the change may be between the summer and 

 winter plumages is shown in the coloured plates representing the 

 ruffs and reeves. This wondrous " ruff " which encircles the 

 neck is never alike in two individuals, and is worn only during 

 the spring and summer months ; and when this is assumed, the 

 feathers round the beak are shed, and replaced by warty out- 

 growths of skin of an orange colour. Only the males wear this 

 "ruff' hence their name; the females are known as the 

 " reeves." At one time common in our fen-lands, they are now 

 met with only on rare occasions. Drainage and egg-" collectors " 

 are responsible for their extermination. 



