82 
BIRD-LIFE. 
The bird is vividly affected by it, sickening and even 
losing some of its powers for a time, the result being 
listlessness and low spirits, even to sadness. Its whole 
being becomes altogether changed, and if a songster it 
loses its song; at first its appetite decreases, at the next 
stage it increases at the same ratio, but without giving 
a proportionate amount of strength: it sleeps little, 
owing to the unpleasant irritation of the skin produced 
by the casting of the old and the sprouting of the new 
feathers : the bird hides, or rather isolates, itself from its 
companions, and seems, in fact, quite a changed creature. 
Occasionally one leaves its habitat, either previously to or 
during the moult, seeking a district where better nourish¬ 
ment can be obtained with the least amount of exertion; 
or perhaps in order to remain undisturbed during the 
period of its unavoidable indisposition. 
However unpleasant the process of moulting may be 
to the bird, it is of the greatest importance during its 
whole existence. The plumage, so worn by constant use, 
becomes at last utterly inefficient for the purposes for 
which it was originally intended: each separate feather 
loses its pristine form, and through the action of the 
sun, dust, wet and want of adequate nourishment, its 
colour also: this loss of colour takes place much sooner 
in the South than in the North. I have shot birds of 
prey in Africa whose feathers were but the remnants 
of what they had been; the original colours were not 
discernible, and the entire appearance of the bird was 
miserable in the extreme. Thus, under the circum¬ 
stances, the renewal of the means of movement and 
decoration become a decided necessity. 
It appears as though the feathers, greatly debilitated 
during the action of incubation, entirely lose all the 
