On Mon, 20 Mar 1995, Jon Anderson wrote:

> "Fright Molt"
>
> Stuart noted fright molt as common in his British Blackbirds. The
> species that I notice this in is our own Rufous-sided (Spotted) Towhee.

My nominee for the greatest fright-molters: mourning doves. As a kid, I
used to shoot a bow, and occasionally one of my arrows was launched in
the direction of a mourning dove ;) I was no great threat to the local
dove population, collectively or individually, but I did notice that
very often, I would miss by a good six inches and the dove would still
fly up leaving what seemed like half its body feathers behind. Sort of
like the squid that leaves an inky squid-shaped cloud behind it as it
bolts, the doves seemed to be leaving a decoy...

Chris Hill
Seattle, WA
cehill at u.washington.edu