132 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol.xv. 



the male has become almost suppressed. As early as Septem- 

 ber some young males have acquired a great deal of the nuptial 

 plumage, while others, as late as November, show hardly a 

 trace. The black and white scapulars seem to be the last 

 feathers of the nuptial plumage to appear. The only change 

 which this first nuptial plumage undergoes in spring is an 

 abrasion of the tips of the feathers of the tore-neck and breast, 

 whereby the roundish black spots of these parts become more 

 visible than in autumn, when they are to some extent obscured 

 by overlying feather -tips. In July the change into the 

 post-nuptial plumage takes place, the flight-feathers being 

 as a rule shed earlier in the male than in the female. After 

 this the adult male, like the female, midergoes one incomplete 

 and one complete annual moult. In many cases the tail- 

 feathers of the post-nuptial (eclipse) plumage are changed, the 

 central pair always. The post-nuptial or eclipse plumage 

 of the Teal shows a great deal of variation, some specimens 

 being greyish, others brownish of a lighter or deeper shade, 

 some barred and others showing the common duck-like pattern 

 on their feathers. 



(Number of specimens examined : Coll. E.L.S. 430. Univ. 

 Zool. Mus., Copenhagen, 71.) 



The Pintail {Anas acuta). 



Female. — Down. First juvenile plumage. Second juvenile 

 plumage, acquired during the autumn and first winter. In 

 spring a partial moult, including the inner secondaries, gives 

 the female (now about ten months old) an incomplete first 

 nuptial phmiage consisting, as in the Teal, of a mixture of 

 second juvenile and adult breeding plumage. The same 

 remarks about northern and southern specimens of the Teal 

 apply also to the Pintail. This plumage being worn and 

 abraded during summer, is in early autumn or late summer 

 replaced by a first post-nuptial plumage, which is of a more 

 greyish shade than the buffy-brown breeding plumage of 

 the adult bird acquired in the following spring when the 

 female is about twenty-two months old. After this the 

 female has an annual complete and an annual incomplete 

 moult, the latter not including the wings. 



Male. — Down. First juvenile plumage. From this the 

 bird in the course of the autumn and the early winter months 

 goes into first nuptial plumage, showing, however, during 

 this moult a growth of feathers that belong neither to the 

 juvenile nor to the nuptial plumage ; they are soon shed 

 again, and no doubt represent a lost second juvenile plumage. 



