68 
The Natural History of British Ducks 
complete, and still undergoes feather recolouration and moult until the full 
and complete moult of the eclipse takes place at the beginning of July. 
The young drake then moults the wings for the first time in August, and, 
passing through the usual autumnal colour-change and moult, arrives at a 
plumage dull and incomplete, yet resembling that of the adult male. Thus we 
see that in gaining adult dress, this bird takes the same time as the Wigeon, 
namely, about seventeen months. His plumage, however, so far as my experi- 
ence goes, is never absolutely perfect until the third season. In that year his 
full breeding dress seems to attain perfection earlier than at any previous season. 
Amongst those that I have kept in confinement from immaturity the bill seemed 
blacker, and all the colours of the plumage more brilliant, when they reached 
this age. Male Shovelers of twenty-one months old generally have a number 
of arrow-headed brown bars on the sides of the white breast shield and upper 
scapulars. The presence of these broad-arrow marks on the white chest must, 
however, not be taken as indisputable evidence of immaturity, for many 
perfectly adult males retain year after year one or two of these markings, whilst 
others have a wholly white shield. It will nevertheless be found that these 
markings, together with a sandy-edged breast, are constant signs of difference 
between the young and the old males ; for in the first spring the immatures 
of all the surface-feeders, except the Mallard, whose appearance is largely 
due to condition and feeding, always lack the colour, size, and finish of the 
perfectly adult drake. 
When changing into the eclipse, I have found the adult males vary con- 
siderably in their degree of colour-change immediately preceding the July 
moult. In some instances the actual change of plumage is very rapid, and 
the new dress presents but little colour-change as regards the spring plumage 
feathers, while in others, splendid colour-changes take place — noticeably 
amongst the chestnut-brown feathers of the breast down to the vent — many 
becoming well marked with dark loops and bars in sympathy with the on- 
coming plumage. On the head, too, especially amongst the long feathers at 
the back and on the cheeks, the colour-sympathy is remarkable. The white 
