124 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1896. 



lugens, Dr. Stejueger, nevertheless admits it in the case of Zantho- 

 pygia narcissina,^^ on what seems to me insufficient evidence. 



This bird he believes changes without molt from an olive plumage 

 to one of brilliant orange-yellow and black, while the wings and tail 

 change from a dull brownish-gray to a deep black. I have examined 

 the series which Dr. Stejneger had in hand, and I fail to see any- 

 thing it in that cannot be found in a similar series of Icterus spur i us 

 or any other species that acquires its mature plumage by successive 

 molts, the mottled plumage being permanent for the time. So far 

 as 1 can see, an actual molt of black and yellow feathers might 

 occur in early spring, or patches of them might be acquired at the 

 annual molt at the end of summer. As there are no specimens in 

 Dr. Stejneger's series taken earlier than the 29th of April, and no 

 fall adults, it is hardly justifiable to conclude that the change in 

 color does not take place by a direct molt, either in early spring or 

 in late summer. 



Furthermore, a specimen of the closely allied Z. tricolor,^* which 

 agrees very well with Dr. Stejneger's most advanced "transition'^ 

 specimens, having a few patches of olive-brown feathers above and 

 brown remiges, but otherwise adult, shows by the presence of 

 numerous " pin feathers" that the yellow breast, and the black on 

 the head have just been assumed by direct molt. 



That this specimen is an early spring bird I assume from the fact 

 that the remiges and rectrices show no signs of recent molt, which 

 they would do if it was the annual molt that had just occurred. 



In regard to the remiges and rectrices of Zanthopygia, which Dr. 

 Stejneger thinks change suddenly from dull brown to deep black, 

 piecisely parallel cases are to be found in Piranga erythromelas and 

 Hahia ludoviciana, and a series of either collected in May or June 

 will show just the same variety of color in the quills as in the case 

 of Zanthopygia. 



In these species the dull colored quills are retained during the 

 first spring when the winter body plumage is molted for the adult 

 dress, but at the annual molt the jet black quills are assumed and 

 there is certainly no direct change in the color of the feathers. 



Giitke in his "Heligoland," gives us the most recent endorsement 

 of the theory of actual color-change, a theory of which he was always 

 a strong advocate. The instances which he treats in detail are 



" isproc. U.S.Nat. Mus., 1892, p. 334. 

 " 791, Coll. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 



