860 Scraps relating to Natural History, by C. M. Adamson. 



the primaries in each up to about the third from the end being 

 cast and renewed, those next the three outside in both being short, 

 and the three outside still remaining to be changed. The two 

 Godwits were the only birds I shot in three days, but I was amply 

 satisfied with them. It is possible the paler bird may be a female, 

 but the red feathers on the breast remaining uncast are entirely 

 red, and not like the plumage we see the females in before de- 

 parting to breed in April and May. I may add, these birds I 

 think help to prove my theory, which is that the colour of the 

 feathers acquired when the individual bird moults, or its feathers 

 other ways change colour, entirely depends on the condition of 

 the individual at the time it acquires the new feathers, or the 

 change in colour of its feathers takes place ; this condition alter- 

 ing ordinarily, first when the bird begins to acquire its winter 

 plumage from the young or first plumage it ever had, and also 

 when it acquires its summer plumage from the winter plumage, 

 and which would be the final change, except annual seasonal 

 changes in those kinds which acquire their breeding plumage the 

 spring after being hatched. In those kinds of birds which do 

 not acquire their breeding or summer plumage the spring after 

 they are hatched for want of their required age, the condition to 

 make the feathers come in summer plumage is not acquired, and 

 the consequence is some of these kinds of birds merely acquire a 

 winter plumage the following year, or it may be a similar plum- 

 age for a year or two more, till the bird, according to its genus, 

 or species, arrives at suflB.cient maturity when the condition would 

 render its assuming its breeding plumage a certainty. Why one 

 genus or species of birds requires a longer time to arrive at 

 maturity than another is a problem I leave to others more learned 

 in such matters than I am to solve. I stuffed these, to me, most 

 interesting birds. 



Spotted Eedshaitk. — The only time I have ever shot one of 

 these birds was as follows : indeed there are not more than about 

 half a dozen recorded occurrences of their appearance in the North 

 of England, and all these are, like my bird, birds of the year, 

 killed in August, and most probably migrating southwards from 

 Lapland to Africa or the south of Europe to spend the winter. 

 The reason of the rarity of this bird's appearance (and some other 

 allied species) in England no doubt is, that we are too far west, 

 and consequently out of their regular line of migration. These 

 species are common, being found probably throughout Europe 



