298 Mr. C. H. B. Grant on the Moults and 



XIII. — The Moults and Plumages of the Common Moorhen 

 (Gallinula chloropus Linn.). By C. H. B. Gkant. 



(Text-figure 3.) 



In a collection of about 1760 skins of British Birds made 

 by myself between the years 1894 and 1901^ and which is 

 about to be acquired by the British Museum^ there is a series 

 of 33 Moorhens which show interesting and instructive 

 changes in the moults and plumages. 



Among these are three adult and one second-year bird 

 which have dropped completely the whole of the flight- and 

 tail-feathers, being exactly in that state which is commonly 

 met Avith in the Wild Duck [Anas boscas') and the South 

 American White Swan {Coscoroba Candida) ^. 



In the '^ Birds of Britain/ published in 1907, Bonhote men- 

 tions this state of plumage occurring in the Coot (p. 291), 

 where he says, ^^Although, as a rule, this bird casts its primaries 

 at once, this is not invariably the case, as it sometimes moults 

 them in pairs, like the majority of birds " ; also in regard to 

 the Land-Bail (p. 285) he writes as follows : — "During the 

 autumn moult this species, in common with the others of its 

 family, casts all its primaries at once^ and is for about ten 

 days incapable of flight." So that, though perhaps this state 

 of plumage in the Moorhen is not altogether new, it has 

 apparently been lost sight of since 1838, when Naumann 

 ( Vog. Deutschl. vol. ix. 1838, p. 595) merely says, in talking of 

 the adults, '^ The moult is very quick in the old birds, and, as 

 a rule, they cannot fly during this time, and are very retiring.^' 



Since that work w^as published, I can find no reference to 

 the moult of the Moorhen in any recent work on British 

 Birds ; in any case it appears so little known that it is well 

 worth while again bringing it before the notice of orni- 

 thologists of to-day. 



I propose to take the plumages in their sequence from 



* ' Ibis,' 1911, p. 344. 



