

ORNITHOLOGIST 



OOLOGIST. 



$1.50 per 

 Aiiuum. 



FRANK B. WEBSTER, Publishek. 

 Established, March, 1S75. 



Single Copy 

 15 Cents. 



VOL. X. 



PAWTUCKET, R. I., JULY, 1885. 



No. 7 



On the Seasonable Changes of Plum- 

 age in Birds. 



liY ALFliED CHAWHALL ClIAI'MAK. 



No iliHibt naturalists have frtqiiuuDy observed 

 llie great dissimilarity in the seasonal plumages 

 (j| many species of birds. Tliis is strikingly no- 

 lieeable in the case of the Golden Plover. On 

 the Northumberland moors the Golden Plover 

 may be said to breed commonly. Small parties 

 of them may be seen frequenting the lower 

 grounds all through the Winter. About the be- 

 ginning of February the change from the white 

 lireasl of Winter to the black of Summer com- 

 mences, and gradually increases until the bird 

 has attained its full Summer dress. When on 

 the wing these dark-breasted birds ajijjcar to ba 

 much blacker than they really are. Having shot 

 what appears to be a very black-breasted bird, 

 one finds that many of the white feathers of 

 Winter are still visible, giving the bird a check- 

 ered appearance. 



What appe;irs most strange is that these birds 

 never reach what is considered the typically adult 

 Summer plumage of the Golden Plover. It mat- 

 ters not at what period of the breeding season, 

 this undeveloped plumage is always conspicuous. 

 Now, I would ask, what is the natural cause of 

 this? 



Even in Shetland the Summer dress of the 

 Golden Plover is much darker, i.e., more devel- 

 oped than in Northumberland ; but if we visit 

 Lapland or Siberia, we find there the Golden 

 Plover in what we consider their typically adult 

 Sunmier dress. If they had to endure greater 

 cold or stress of weather at their northern breed- 

 ing-stations, one could perhaps account for the 

 more adult form of plumage by a greater thick- 

 ness of feathers ; but such is not the case. In- 

 deed, I venture to say that the Northumberland 

 birds have, if anything, the greater cold to en- 

 dure. Perhaps it is that the birds which frequent 

 our moors in Winter are not the birds which re- 

 main to breed with us; possibly all these birds 



migrate northwards to Lapland and Siberia, their 

 places being taken by another and difierent set of 

 birds, which have spent their Winter in more 

 southerly latitudes, and which make our counties 

 the northern limit for their Spring migration. 

 This is a theory difticult to solve. It may be that 

 the reverse is the case, and that the birds which 

 Winter also remain to breed with us, and that 

 there is a great migration from the Mediterranean 

 direct to the morasses and tundras of Siberia. 



I think, perhaps, this is most likely to be the 

 case, as many specimens of birds which seldom 

 breed south of the Arctic circle are regularly ob- 

 tained in their adult Summer idumage in the veiy 

 south of Europe, about the middle of May. 



My brother, Mr. Abel Chapman, shot Curlew 

 Sandpipers, (Tnnga subarqvata), in their rich ru- 

 fous plumage, as well as Grey Plovers, (C/itmidiiun 

 helvetica), in adult Summer dress, on the Guade- 

 lete, near Jerez, in Southern Spain, on May 8lh, 

 and these birds would have about aOOO miles to 

 travel northwards bef(n-e they could find a suita- 

 ble breeding-ground ; although perhaps it is not 

 necessary to mention here that the Curlew Sand- 

 piper is, I believe, the only British bird whose 

 nest has never yet been discovered The rai)idity 

 with which birds execute their Spring and Au- 

 tumn migrations must be something marvellous, 

 for I have shot Barlailed Godwits on the coast of 

 Northumberland returning from breeding as ear- 

 ly as August 11th, while by the 25th most of the 

 northern breeding species, such as Greenshanks, 

 Reeves, Sanderlings, Knots, Turnstones, &c., can 

 be obtained. 



On comparing skins of the Brambling, (Friii- 

 fjilla montifringilUi), shot in the Dovre Fjeld in 

 Norway, with those obtained at a similar season 

 in East Finmark, I notice the same relative ditfer- 

 ence in their stages ol mature plumage as I have 

 remarked in the case of the Golden Plover. The 

 Finmark birds have the head, neck, and upper 

 part of the back, of a rich glossy black, like our 

 common Hook, whilst the Dovre Fjcld birds have 

 the ends of the feathers edged with butt', show- 



Copyright, 1S85, by FRiNK B. Webster and Eaton Cliff. 



