[130] Mr. D. G. Elliot, in ‘Proc. Zool. Soc.’ 1869, p. 589.
[131] ‘Nitzsch’s Pterylography,’ edited by P. L. Sclater. Ray Soc. 1867, p. 14.
[132] The brown mottled summer plumage of the ptarmigan is of as much importance to it, as a protection, as the white winter plumage; for in Scandinavia, during the spring, when the snow has disappeared, this bird is known to suffer greatly from birds of prey, before it has acquired its summer dress: see Wilhelm von Wright, in Lloyd, ‘Game Birds of Sweden,’ 1867, p. 125.
[133] In regard to the previous statements on moulting, see, on snipes, &c., Macgillivray, ‘Hist. Brit. Birds,’ vol. iv. p. 371; on Glareolæ, curlews, and bustards, Jerdon, ‘Birds of India,’ vol. iii. p. 615, 630, 683; on Totanus, ibid, p. 700; on the plumes of herons, ibid, p. 738, and Macgillivray, vol. iv. p. 435 and 444, and Mr. Stafford Allen, in the ‘Ibis,’ vol. v. 1863, p. 33.
[134] On the moulting of the ptarmigan, see Gould’s ‘Birds of Great Britain.’ On the honey-suckers, Jerdon, ‘Birds of India,’ vol. i. p. 359, 365, 369. On the moulting of Anthus, see Blyth, in ‘Ibis,’ 1867, p. 32.
[135] For the foregoing statements in regard to partial moults, and on old males retaining their nuptial plumage, see Jerdon, on bustards and plovers, in ‘Birds of India,’ vol. iii. p. 617, 637, 709, 711. Also Blyth in ‘Land and Water,’ 1867, p. 84. On the Vidua, ‘Ibis,’ vol. iii. 1861, p. 133. On the Drongo shrikes, Jerdon, ibid. vol. i. p. 435. On the vernal moult of the Herodias bubulcus, Mr. S. S. Allen, in ‘Ibis,’ 1863, p. 33. On Gallus bankiva, Blyth, in ‘Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.’ vol. i. 1848, p. 455; see, also, on this subject, my ‘Variation of Animals under Domestication,’ vol. i. p. 236.
[136] See Macgillivray, ‘Hist. British Birds’ (vol. v. p. 34, 70, and 223), on the moulting of the Anatidæ, with quotations from Waterton and Montagu. Also Yarrell, ‘Hist. of British Birds,’ vol. iii. p. 243.
[137] On the pelican, see Sclater, in ‘Proc. Zool. Soc.’ 1868, p. 265. On the American finches, see Audubon, ‘Ornith. Biography,’ vol. i. p. 174, 221, and Jerdon, ‘Birds of India,’ vol. ii. p. 383. On the Fringilla cannabina of Madeira, Mr. E. Vernon Harcourt, ‘Ibis,’ vol. v., 1863, p. 230.
[138] See also ‘Ornamental Poultry,’ by Rev. E. S. Dixon, 1848, p. 8.
[139] ‘Birds of India,’ introduct. vol. i. p. xxiv.; on the peacock, vol. iii. p. 507. See Gould’s ‘Introduction to the Trochilidæ,’ 1861, p. 15 and 111.