The vulnerability of ducks during wing molt has inspired the dictum that it is “unsporting to shoot a sitting duck.” While I don’t have evidence that Senator Hale’s derogatory metaphor for retired politicians was inspired by a knowledge of the natural history of waterfowl, it seems likely that his upbringing in rural New Hampshire and coastal Maine in the early 19th century would have acquainted him with duck hunting lore.

This annual oddity in the life cycle of ducks has spawned multiple pop culture expressions. Oz Is Right That It’s OK to “Smash” Your Cousin!Ī Guide to All the (Technically) Legal Cannabinoids You Can Buy Right Now Why You Should Think Twice Before Invoking Ockham’s Razor in an ArgumentĪctually, Dr. NYC Pet Shelters Are Overrun With Guinea Pigs For example, the largest albatrosses do not molt in breeding years, and must take an entire year off between nesting seasons just to molt their wing feathers. Birds with very large wings and extreme aerodynamic demands may take an entire year to molt their flight feathers. To maintain their flight capacity, most birds molt their flight feathers one at a time along each wing. bald patches or nakedness), birds must molt their feathers gradually, like a traveling wave of replacement across the body.

To prevent compromising the function of their entire plumages (i.e.

For example the feathers of an adult Bald Eagle constitute approximately 15 percent of its body mass– more than twice the weight of its skeleton.īecause molting can be so energetically costly, birds schedule their molts between other demanding tasks, like breeding and migration. The material investment in a new plumage can be quite significant. Most birds molt at least once a year, for practical reasons, though many species, like American Goldfinches and Scarlet Tanagers, molt twice a year so that they can display distinct plumages during their breeding and non-breeding seasons. Constitution was ratified, moving the convening of the next congress and the presidential inauguration from March to January to reduce the length of the lame duck session, though not eliminate lame ducks altogether.įeathers gradually degrade from physical wear, lice, and mites, so birds must periodically molt and regrow them. In 1932, the Lame Duck (or 20th) Amendment to the U. Senator Lazarus Powell of Kentucky rejected the accusation of Senator John Hale of New Hampshire that the court was designed “to provide for retired and broken down politicians– ‘lame ducks,’ as the Senator from New Hampshire very elegantly and very classically calls them.” By the early 20th century, “lame duck” came to refer to the entire Congress between the election and the swearing in of the next session. The context was a debate over a proposal for a new court to resolve financial claims against the federal government. Its first political use was published in 1863 in the Congressional Globe, an official record of U.S. The phrase “lame duck” was first used to refer to a helpless ship floundering at sea, or a failing business requiring financial support, according to the Oxford English Dictionary .

Lame duck meaning