302 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD POWL 



autumn moult ; in the Swans in first plumage the colour is greyish-brown, a 

 plumage which they appear to lose in their first autumn, when the adult attire is 

 almost completely assumed. So far as concerns the white species a few brown 

 markings occur on the scapulars. Males appear to assume the white dress sooner 

 than females ; whilst the young of both sexes, even when a year old, are very 

 perceptibly smaller. 



The birds in the present order number upwards of two hundred species and 

 subspecies. Of these but nine are included amongst the Flamingoes and 

 Screamers ; the remainder (the Ducks) forming one large family, which is 

 practically cosmopolitan in its distribution and well represented in the British 

 Islands. 



