The  greater  number  of  birds  cast  their  feathers  annually,  and
appear  to  suffer  much  more  from  it  than  the  quadrupeds  do  from  a
similar  change.  The  best  fed  fowl  ceases  at  this  time  to  lay.  The
season  of  moulting  is  generally  the  end  of  summer  or  autumn,  and
their  feathers  are  not  completely  restored  till  the  spring.  The  male
sometimes  undergoes,  as  we  have  already  remarked,  an  additional
moult  towards  the  close  of  summer ;  and  among  many  of  the  waders
and  web-footed  tribes,  as  Sandpipers,  Plovers,  and  Gulls,  both  sexes
experience  a  moult  twice  in  the  year,  so  that  their  summer  and
winter  livery  appears  wholly  dilferent.
