. Bird lore . maries, the middle pair offeathers drops out, followed rapidly by suc-cessive pairs, so that very often a bird willappear bob-tailed if the new middle pair isslow in growth. Woodpeckers lose themiddle pair last, and irregularities are foundin other species. At the end of the breeding seasonevery species of bird undergoes a completemolt. Land birds and the Gulls andWaders molt as just described, but water-fowl, that protect themselves by swimmingand diving, as well as by flight, such asthe Ducks, Grebes, Loons, Guillemots, andothers, molt the quill-feathers of the wingsall at once
. Bird lore . maries, the middle pair offeathers drops out, followed rapidly by suc-cessive pairs, so that very often a bird willappear bob-tailed if the new middle pair isslow in growth. Woodpeckers lose themiddle pair last, and irregularities are foundin other species. At the end of the breeding seasonevery species of bird undergoes a completemolt. Land birds and the Gulls andWaders molt as just described, but water-fowl, that protect themselves by swimmingand diving, as well as by flight, such asthe Ducks, Grebes, Loons, Guillemots, andothers, molt the quill-feathers of the wingsall at once, so that for a time the birds areunable to fly. The males of certain bright-plumaged species of Ducks are protected for a couple of months by a dullbody plumage that begins to appear before their young broods are out of WESTERN MEADOWLARK U. S. N. No. 127+95, ?. Aug. 14,1892, San Bernardino Ranch, Ariz , E. Showing abrasion and fading ofplumage. From the Bull. Amer. Mus. i6o Bird- Lore. the nest. The Ptarmigan also have asimilar protective plumage, but their wing-quills are molted in regular succession. Owing to the great variation in thetime at which different species molt, thereis no time in the year when molting birdsmay not be found. The postjuvenal moltof some birds will overlap the prenuptialof others, and the prenuptial of othersseems to overlap even the molts produce mixed plumages andthe feathers that, not so long ago, weresupposed to change color without in mind that each species has adefinite sequence of molts and plumages,we shall the more readily understand vari-ations and mixed plumages. In birds likethe Purple Finch which molt but once inthe year, we find no mixed Purple Finches remain a year inbrown, and then molt into the pink plu-mage. Many other species, however, likethe Rose-breasted Grosbeak or the San-derling, molt twice a year, and the partialprenuptial molt gives the confusing mix-t
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