124 Proceedmgs of the Royal Physical Society. 



8th June, states that in a female dissected by him he found 

 " three well-developed but as yet shell-less eggs, the largest 

 being what we would suppose nearly the full size ; while in 

 the ovary there were from twelve to twenty very minute 

 eggs, some of which were slightly developed." 



With regard to plumage, I noted that, in the case of birds 

 obtained at the beginning of the immigration, it was par- 

 ticularly clean and bright. Many of the feathers, however, 

 presented a more or less worn appearance at their margins, 

 clearly indicating that some considerable time had elapsed 

 since they were acquired ; but even where this was scarcely 

 visible, as in the case of a most beautiful male with the two 

 central rectrices still so short that they were hidden by the 

 upper tail coverts, the absence of the delicate bloom after- 

 wards so noticeable in newly moulted specimens, and still 

 present on the male shot near Drem on 11th ult., also pointed 

 to the conclusion, that if a spring moult takes place, it can 

 be only a partial one. The brilliancy and general condition 

 of the plumage rapidly deteriorated. A female, for instance, 

 shot early in June, had the first primaries worn down to the 

 length of the second, and soiled specimens now became the 

 rule. By the end of the month signs of moulting had 

 made their appearance, and steadily progressed throughout 

 the autumn, so that by October or November all the birds 

 were clad in completely new plumage. Three females, 

 examined early in September, had the new primaries and 

 tail-feathers well grown, though not quite fully developed. 

 (3ne of them had the legs almost bare, the old feathers having 

 dropped off while the new ones were just bursting their 

 sheaths. The newly acquired plumage was not in any essential 

 point different from that worn by the birds on their arrival. 

 The orange about the head and throat, the chestnut bar on 

 the wing, and the lavender grey on the chest, were a shade 

 darker on the new feathers, and the whole plumage was 

 sulfused with a most delicate bloom. The colour of the iris 

 in all I examined was very dark hazel, the bare skin round 

 the eye pale-blue or lavender, and the beak bluish-grey 

 tipped with dark-brown. Only one female showed any signs 

 of the pectoral band so characteristic of the other sex. In 



