IVIOLOKANI, m(71h-kii'ne (Russ., p1. of mo/o /coati, from mo/oko. milk). A Russian sect. It is said the mune was given them in derision by the orthodox because, unlike the latter, they do not observe fasts. They call themselves Spiritual Christians. They are rationalists, basing doc trine and practice on the Scriptures interpreted by the individual judgment. As a consequence much diversity of opinion prevails among them, a condition which they do not consider repre hensible. They take the early Apostolic Church as depicted in the New Testament for the model of their ecclesiastical and have no hierarchy or paid clergy. A presbyter and as sistants are chosen from their own number to care for the spiritual and moral interests of the community. At their religious services. held on Sunday in private houses, as they are not allowed to build churches, they sing psalms, read the Scriptures, and engage in religious conversation. Doctrinal dillienIties and questions of interpreta tion are freely discummsed. They reverence Jesus, but do not believe in His divinity, and consider the miraculous portions of the New Testament narrative as fabulous. They have a system of strict supervision of the conduct of individuals. Offenders against morality are admonished in private or public, sometimes excluded from the religious meetings, or even expelled. They are described as intelligent, well versed in the Scrip tures, and in moral conduct and material pros perity decidedly superior to their orthodox neigh bors. Ikenuse of their principle of private judg ment and readiness to change their views. they are easily influenced by adventurers or fanatics; in several instances communities of them have been led astray by such individuals. They have also developed a tendency to break up into dif ferent sects, one of which has adopted many of the canons of the Jewish another has made the common ownership of property one of its prineiples. Their origin is uncertain. A vague tradition says the sect was founded in the sixteenth century by foreign Protestants. Their original seat was in the south. They have been persecuted by the flovernment. and many have been transported to remote parts of the Empire. Their number is estimated at several hundred thousand.
MOLTING (.11Eng. mouten. morrten. from T.at. atutarr, to change. freqnentalive of morrre, to move, Skt. stir, to push). or Ecoysts. The process of periodically shedding the skin, or in tegument, or its appendages, as hair or feathers: exuviation.
Mourm: or l'Lt'M.tel IN Bums. The change.
of plumage. or shedding of the old feathers, and their replaeement by a new set. The whole plu mage, says Dwight, may be renewed or only a part of it. In the ease of most of the passerine birds there are inn seasons of molts peculiar to the adults, a complete one, in all species. follow ing the breeding season, and :In incomplete molt which in certain species precedes the nuptial sea son. "The first, the post-nuptial, restores the worn-out plumage. the second (when it is not suppressed), the pre-nuptial. adorns birds for the nuptial season." In a few species the pre molt is complete. though usually the wing and tail are not involved, and often the renewal is confined to "a sprinkling of new feathers here and there." Young birds may also molt several times before they even acquire the feathers of adult structure, and many species need to pass through at least two molts besides those of the first summer before the plumage be comes wholly of the pattern and color of the adult. The loss of feathers during the molting process is so compensated for by the renewal of feathers that few birds (the Anatiche and some other groups excepted) lose either the ability to fly or the protection afforded by their plumage. The feather areas are systematically replaced, the remiges falling out one after another in definite sequence and almost synchronously from each wing. The greater coverts are regularly re placed before the fall of the secondaries beneath them. the lesser coverts before the median. while even in the rows of the lesser coverts all alterna tion appears to be attempted. On the body the protective sequence is less obvious, but the molt regularly begins at fairly definite points.
The month of August marks the maximum of the molting season, though there is more or less shedding of feathers in nearly every month of the year. A complete molt is accomplished in from four to six weeks, while partial molts require much less time. A resemblance to the shedding of the skin of reptiles is seen in the ecdysis of the scaly feathers of the penguin, which peel off in flakes.
In certain species of European grouse the which grow to an inordinate length in winter, may he partly shed or worn off as spring advances; the white pelican, both sexes of which during the breeding season bear on the ridge of the bill a horny projection, sheds it. so that these excrescences may be 'gathered by the bushel.' The puffin (q.v.) and some of its allies molt even the horny sheath of the bill, together with the outgrowths over the eyes.