112 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1896. 



The Icterid^e exhibit the greatest number of exceptions to the 

 general rules of molting and are more complicated in their molts 

 than any other family. In most families complicated molting is 

 the excejJtion, in the Icteridse it is the rule. 



ORDER OF MOLT. 



The molt is occasioned by the growth of new feathers from the 

 old papillse, each new feather forcing out the old one on its tip. The 

 point of attachment, however, is so brittle that the old feather is 

 almost immediately broken off, but in young birds molting from the 

 first plumage into their winter plumage, the old feathers are not 

 infrequently found still attached to the tips of the new ones. A young 

 Meadow Lark, Sturnella magna, in my collection shows this very 

 nicely, and Mr. William Palmer mentions a young Hooded Warbler, 

 Sylvania mitrata, in which the down of the nestling was to be seen 

 at the tip of the first-plumage feather while it was in turn attached 

 to the new feather of the winter plumage (PI. IV, figs, 5, 6). 



The feathers are, of course, not all shed at once, but the new 

 feathers on certain parts of the body have nearly completed their 

 growth before those on the other parts make their appearance. 



The first body-feathers to appear, in our passerine birds at least, 

 are those of the abdominal tracts, forming a conspicuous V-shaped 

 patch against the old plumage of the rest of the lower surfoce. 

 Almost coincident with these appear the feathers of the inter- 

 scapulary region and shortly afterward those of the throat and 

 crown ; there is, however, a good deal of variation in the order of 

 appearance of the other body feathers (in fact, of all, after the 

 development of the abdominal tracts) in different sj^ecies and also, 

 I think, a good deal of individual variation. This will be seen in the 

 table on page 115. 



In the molting of the wings, the feathers are shed one or two at a 

 time, and symmetrically from the two wings. The first of the quill 

 feathers to molt are the two innermost primaries which are probably 

 shed at almost the same time, as they are at nearly all stages of about 

 the same size (PI. IV, figs. 1, 2 and 3). Following these the prim- 

 aries are shed at short intervals, one at a time, finishing with the 

 outermost. The only exceptions that I have noticed to this order 

 are in the Belted Kingfisher, Ceryle alcyon, and the Snow Bunting, 

 Plectrophenax nivalis. 



2 The Auk, 1894, p. 287. 



