VOL. vn.] NOTES. 269 



only the wing-feathers clipped and with no ring or other 

 mark upon them, makes it impossible to accept such records 

 as Mr. Whitaker's as those of genuine wild-birds. The 

 Duchess of Bedford informs us that specimens of Baer's 

 Pochard with clipped wings have been put down recently 

 at Woburn without Her Grace's knowledge., and although 

 it seems very improbable that Mr. Whitaker's bird could 

 have originated from Woburn, it is quite possible that other 

 examples, perhaps unidentified, have been imported and 

 put down elsewhere. For these reasons we think it in- 

 advisable to admit this species to the British List. — Eds.] 



HAS THE COMMON SANDPIPER A WINTER-MOULT ? 



It may be of interest to record the fact that two Common 

 Sandpipers [Tringa hypoleuca) in my aviaries have recently 

 completely moulted their rectrices. They are young birds, 

 bred in Yorkshire last summer. The female began to cast 

 the outer rectrices at the commencement of December, 

 and at intervals during the following fortnight cast aU but 

 three. By January 1st she again had a full tail. The male 

 commenced to moult a fortnight later, and has now 

 (January 15) a full tail, though the rectrices are still not 

 quite all of equal length. 



I should be interested to hear if there is any record of a 

 winter moult of this species. Many migratory species moult 

 in February, in their winter-quarters, but a December moult 

 seems unusual. Of course many ornithologists regard the 

 moulting of birds in captivity as abnormal, but I should like 

 to point out that, apart from the easily recognized forms 

 of " soft moult," birds in captivity may sometimes have less 

 than- a normal moult, but rarely, if ever, more. A distinct 

 moult, therefore, occurring in several individuals in a state 

 of captivity, has presumably some counterpart in the history 

 of the species in a state of freedom. 



W. E. Teschemaker. 



[It seems to me impossible to say whether a moult in 

 captivity is normal or not unless we know what happens 

 in the wild bird. I do not know to what extent the Common 

 Sandpiper moults in sprmg, nor whether the juvenile moults 

 its tail in the autumn, but some waders moult their tails and 

 wings in spring and some juvenile waders moult their tails 

 as well as their body-plumage in their first autumn. It 

 seems therefore that in Mr. Teschemaker's birds the moult 

 of the tail may have been either delayed or accelerated 

 by artificial conditions. — H.F.W.] 



