MOULTING OR MOLTING. 16 



MOULTING OR MOLTING.* 



Moult or Molting is defined in the dictionaries, especially in the Century, 

 as the act or process of shedding or casting any tegumentary structures, es- 

 pecially feathers. Moult is the old and still accepted form used by English 

 authors, but by American lexicographers, preference is given to the form utoH^ 

 The word is derived from the Latin mufare, to change, and the use of the term 

 among ornithologists is more in consonance with the etymon than the definitions 

 in the dictionaries. As generally used and understood by ornithologists now, 

 it is extended to the change or renewal of plumage. Moulting, then includes 

 not only the shedding of feathers [ecdysis) but the subsequent development of 

 new feathers. To shed a feather is the act of a moment; it is but the loosen- 

 ing of a dead growth and its sudden loss. It is generally unnoticed, causes 

 little or no trouble, may occur anywhere at any time, and its loss may be 

 hastened by its owner. On the contrary the new growth requires time, is 

 somewhat exhausting to the subject, and may greatly affect the appearance 

 and health of the bird, which always, in some species, retires into seclusion 

 while the important vital function is developing a new and often different or 

 better growth. In its broad meaning, for which there is no other equivalent 

 word in the language, we have (a) a cessation of feather growth, [h) the 

 gradual loosening and loss, unequal on the body, and (c) a renewal of growth, 

 partial or complete, and often as complex in its manifestations as the parts of 

 the plumage are varied. Considering the many functional characteristics of 

 the parts of a bird's plumage, the varied tastes and habits of the class, and the 

 great necessity for as little interruption as possible to the food habits, (for 

 owing to the blood heat, the active life and the rapid assimilation of food, a 

 long dormancy is not possible,) we find a complexity of change which is very 

 difficult to correlate with the causes which have brought about their diversifi- 

 cation. 



As a papilla may produce a theoretically continuous feather growth 

 during the life of the bird, so the molt is an interruption of what would other- 

 wise be a continuous feather without a shaft. But for the molt, feathers 

 might grow continuously during life and greatly interfere with the movement 

 of the bird by their length and abundance. By careful management, the 

 Japanese have produced this result with fowls of a special breed, where the 

 tail feathers grow to the inordinate length of over eight feet by skipping the 

 molting periods. 



The connection of the old and new feather growth from the same papilla 

 is in two ways, (a) the tip of the new growth is continuous or practically so 



*The paragraphs on moulting have been contributed by Mr. William Palmer of the 

 Smithsonian Institution. 



