She Lay of the Band 
go out of fashion, and the change, the moult, is a 
mere matter of style. 
But the annual moult, first of all, is Nature’s wise 
provision for the safety and warmth of the bird. 
Feathers are not only covering, as our clothes, but 
also means of locomotion, and, hence, the bird's very 
means of life. A year of use leaves many of the feath- 
ers worn and broken, some of them through accident 
entirely lost (as with my crow), and while they might 
last for two years, or even longer, Nature has found 
it necessary to provide a new plumage as often as 
once a year, in order to keep the race of birds at 
its best. 
But there are other reasons, at least there are ad- 
vantages taken of the moult for other ends: such as 
the adaptation of the feathers to the varying tem- 
peratures of the seasons, — heavier in winter and 
lighter in summer; also the adaptation of the color 
of the plumage to the changing colors of the en- 
vironment, —as the change from the dark summer 
color of the ptarmigan to its snow-white winter 
plumage to match the snows of its far northern 
home; then, and perhaps most interesting of all, is 
the advantage taken of the moult, for the adorning 
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