ng the cool
winter months. With most birds the new feathers grow as fast as the
old ones fall out. In a few, however, the process of renewal does not
keep pace with that of shedding; the result is that the moulting bird
presents a mangy appearance. The mynas afford conspicuous examples of
this; when moulting their necks often become almost nude, so that the
birds bear some resemblance to miniature vultures.

Great changes in the avifauna take place in September.

The yellow-throated sparrows, the koels, the sunbirds, the bee-eaters,
the red turtle-doves and the majority of the king-crows leave the
Punjab. From the United Provinces there is a large exodus of
brain-fever birds, koels, pied crested-cuckoos, paradise flycatchers
and Indian orioles. These last are replaced by black-headed orioles in
the United Provinces, but not in the Punjab.

On the other hand, the great autumnal immigration takes place
throughout the month. Before September is half over the migratory
wagtails begin to appear. Like most birds they travel by night when
migrating. They arrive in silence, but on the morning of their coming
the observer cannot fail to notice their cheerful little notes, which,
like the hanging of the village smoke, are to be numbered among the
signs of the approach of winter. The three species that visit India in
the largest numbers are the white (_Motacilla alba_), the masked (_M.
personata_) and the grey wagtail (_M. melanope_). In Bengal the first
two are largely replaced by the white-faced wagtail (_M. leucopsis_).
The names "white" and "grey" are not very happy ones. The white
species is a grey bird with a white face and some black on the head
and breast; the masked wagtail is very difficult to distinguish from
the white species, differing in having less white and more black on
the head and face, the white constituting the "mask"; the grey wagtail
has the upper plumage greenish-grey and the lower parts
sulphur-yellow. The three species arrive almost simultaneously, but
the experience of the writer is that the grey bird usually comes a day
or two before his cousins.

On one of the last ten days of September the first batch of Indian
redstarts (_Ruticilla frontalis_) reaches India. Within twenty days of
the coming of these welcome little birds it is possible to dispense
with punkas.

Like the redstarts the rose-finches and minivets begin to pour into
India towards the end of September. The snipe arrive daily throughou