A YEAR WITH THE BIRDS 
551 
the feathers of the parents become worn and broken, and not 
fit for winter covering, nor are the wing quills strong enough 
for the fall flight. 
At this time, when the young birds are able to care for 
themselves, the pairs no longer keep alone together, but, leav- 
ing their nesting haunts, travel about either in a family party or 
in larger friendly flocks, and, although some birds like the 
Song Sparrow and Meadowlark sing throughout the season, 
the general morning chorus and the nesting season end to- 
gether, in early or middle July. 
It is quite difficult to name the birds when young and old 
travel in flocks, for when a male is bright colored and the 
female dull, the first coat of the young is often such a mixture 
of both that it is easily mistaken for a wholly different and 
strange bird. 
In August or September almost all of our birds change their 
spring feathers. This is called moulting. And the brightly 
colored birds often drop their wedding finery for dull-colored 
traveling cloaks, so that they may not be seen when they fly 
southward through the falling leaves. . 
After this season father Tanager, of the scarlet wedding 
coat with black sleeves, appears in yellowish-green, like his 
wife, and the little Tanagers sometimes have mixed green, 
yellow, and red garments, for all the world like patchwork 
bedquilts pieced without regard to pattern. 
The jolly Bobolink also, who in May was the prize singer 
of the meadows, and disported in a coat of black, white, and 
buff, now wears dull brown stripes, and, having forgotten his 
song, he mixes with the young of the year and becomes merely 
the Reed Bird of the gunners. But in early spring they will 
moult again, and, before the nesting time, reappear among us 
with every black feather polished free from rusty edges and 
glistening as of old. 
When father Tanager comes back he is brave in red again, 
though it takes little Tommy Tanager several moultings to 
grow an equally red coat. 
Even with the more quietly marked birds their markings 
are less distinct after the summer moult, so that what is known 
as the bird’s perfect or typical plumage is in many species that 
of the nesting season alone. 
