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About the plumage there are some interesting facts. The young bird moults twice before the first winter. The second moult brings out the mark on the throat, but it is rusty now, not black in colour; his cravat is grayish and the wing bar ashy. In the spring, however, a noticeable change takes place, but neither by the moulting nor the coming in of plumage.
With defenceless species, in which both sexes, or the males alone, become extremely conspicuous during the breeding-season, or when the males acquire at this season such long wing or tail-feathers as to impede their flight, as with Cosmetornis and Vidua, it certainly at first appears highly probable that the second moult has been gained for the special purpose of throwing off these ornaments.
Perkins was going to Milliken's Mills, Rebecca might go too, and buy a serviceable hat. "You mustn't pay over two dollars and a half, and you mustn't get the pink bird without Mrs. Perkins says, and the milliner says, that it won't fade nor moult. Don't buy a light-colored felt because you'll get sick of it in two or three years same as you did the brown one.
The larva still continues like a Nauplius, as the three anterior pairs of limbs represent rowing feet; at the next moult it is converted into the youngest Cyclops-like state, when it resembles the adult animal in the structure of the antennae and buccal organs, although the number of limbs and body segments is still much less, for only the rudiments of the third and fourth pairs of natatory feet have made their appearance in the form of cushions fringed with setae, and the body consists of the oval cephalothorax, the second, third, and fourth thoracic segments, and an elongated terminal joint.
The shedding of the deciduary margins may be compared with the shedding of their down by very young birds; for the down in most cases arises from the summits of the first true feathers. I do not know whether the winter plumage is thicker and warmer than the summer plumage, but warmth seems the most probable end attained of a double moult, where there is no change of colour.
The venom contains digestive enzymes that start digesting the prey from the inside. Snakes grow rapidly till they mature and then continue to grow very slowly till their death. As they grow, they outgrow their skin so they moult the old one after a new skin has formed under it. The snake splits the old skin at the nose and literally crawls out of the old skin.
But with the domesticated descendant of this species, the neck-hackles of the male are immediately replaced by new ones; so that we here see, as to part of the plumage, a double moult changed under domestication into a single moult.
He recognizes in Count Baudouin his liege lord, leaves his ship and decides to remain with the crusaders. "Moult estait riche de ce mauvais gaeng." The whilom pirate contributes his ill-gotten gains to the crusade.
In this state it hangs suspended to a twig or other object; while the silk worm, and others of its kind, previous to moulting, or casting their skins, spin a silken cocoon, which envelops and protects the chrysalis. At the given time, and after the body of the adult has fully formed beneath the chrysalis skin, there is another moult, and the butterfly, with baggy, wet wings, creeps out.
A day or two in the sulks, frowns and mournful looks for gossip Pepys to jot down in his diary, and the next day the sun would be shining again, and the King would be at supper with "the lady." Perhaps Lady Castlemaine knew that her empire was secure; but she took these transient fancies moult serieusement. Her jealous soul could tolerate no rival or it may be that she really loved the King.
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