. The aquatic birds of Great Britain and Ireland . han thenuptial plumage, and in all cases does not indicate the dressassumed in our winter months. Many Petrels, for instance,which breed in the Southern Hemisphere are in winter-plumage in our summer months, though, as a matter of fact,in this particular group, it would appear that the plumagein the two seasons is, as a rule, identical. It may also beadded that, while the winter and nuptial plumages arealways described under separate headings in the text, thereare some birds which undergo only one moult in the year,and so the expression simila
. The aquatic birds of Great Britain and Ireland . han thenuptial plumage, and in all cases does not indicate the dressassumed in our winter months. Many Petrels, for instance,which breed in the Southern Hemisphere are in winter-plumage in our summer months, though, as a matter of fact,in this particular group, it would appear that the plumagein the two seasons is, as a rule, identical. It may also beadded that, while the winter and nuptial plumages arealways described under separate headings in the text, thereare some birds which undergo only one moult in the year,and so the expression similar to the nuptial ■plumage,does not necessarily imply a comparison, but rather thatthe winter and nuptial plumages are one and the samedress. The feathers of the different regions of the body havebeen for the most part described in ordinary rather than intechnical terms, though such words as scapulars, secondaries,primaries, and axillaries, could not well be dispensed positions of these groups of feathers are seen in Plate II. PLATE SNOW-BUNTING (Male). The chief feathers of the wiug are lettered. S—Scapulars. iS—Inner secondaries. ,S—Outer secondaries. P—Primaries. From a specimen collected and mounted bj the author. INTKODUCTION xi. Ill most species it seems hardly necessary to refer tothe axillaries, seeing that they are usually whitish in colour,hut where these feathers form a distinguishing feature {,the black axillaries of the Grey Plover, or the black andwhite barring on the same feathers of the Green Sand-piper, Plate XXXV.), they are described. In like mannerthe down of the nestling, which is usually variegatedwith different shades of yellow, brown, and black, is notdescribed ; the readers attention is directed only to curiousforms, such as the stripes of the nestling Grebe and thesooty-black shade of the young Corn-Crake. Generally speaking, the irides of birds undergo a gradual %c,colour-change until maturity is reached ; it therefore \q^^
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectwaterbi, bookyear1906
