448 CIIARADRIID^E. 



THE true Plovers, at which we have now arrived, are 

 birds of great powers of flight, and have also, as might be 

 expected, extensive geographical range. They associate 

 and perform their various migrations in flocks, which are 

 more or less numerous, depending on the species, and are 

 only found in pairs during their season of reproduction. 

 Some of the species are remarkable for assuming in the 

 spring, and retaining during summer, a plumage differing 

 considerably from that which distinguishes them from the 

 time of the autumn moult through the winter till the 

 following spring. This alteration of colour, which is 

 common to both sexes, consists, in the Golden Plover, 

 of a decided change from a dull greyish white to black, 

 which pervades the whole of the under surface of the 

 bird from the chin to the belly. Some new feathers are 

 obtained in the spring, which are black, while the old 

 white feathers of winter may be seen in change to black, 

 some of them bearing almost every possible proportion of 

 well defined black and white on the same feathers, the 

 colouring secretions having equal influence over the old 

 as well as the new feathers ; such birds are said to be 

 subject to a double moult, but the spring moult is only 

 partial, not affecting the strong feathers of the wings and 

 tail ; the entire moult, including the flight and tail-feathers, 

 only occurs once in each year, and that in the autumn.* 

 Male birds are frequently observed to have acquired an 

 alteration in the colour of their feathers more rich and 

 perfect than that of the females ; but this is not always the 

 case, as the extent and perfection of the change appears 

 to depend upon the constitutional vigour and powers of the 



* See observations on the laws which appear to influence the assumption and 

 changes of plumage in birds in the Transactions of the Zoological Society, vol. i. 

 page 13. 



