1896.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 137 



previous dress, but the whole abdomen and rump and lesser wing 

 coverts are bright reddish-orange, while the black is more intense. 

 All the other wing feathers are jet black bordered with white ; the 

 two middle rectrices are black, the next pair largely black, the others 

 orange with move or less black on the base. The interscapulary 

 feathers are generally slightly tipped with orange. 



In the second spring there is no molt, unless there may be a renewal 

 of some of the scattered feathers but the light tips of the interscapular 

 feathers are entirely lost from abrasion and the white on the wings 

 is greatly reduced and on the tertials entirely lost from the same 

 cause. 



Icterus spurius (Linn.). Orchard Oriole. 



Notwithstanding the large amount of material that I have exam- 

 ined, I have been unable to procure specimens which show conclu- 

 sively the history of the molts of this bird. The large series, aggre- 

 gating several hundred skins, contained in the collections of the Acad- 

 emy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, National Museum, American 

 Museum of Natural History and the private collection of Mr. Wil- 

 liam Brewster, contains all together only four specimens in the molt, 

 of which but two bear the date of capture. In view of this scarcity 

 of molting birds, we are compelled to judge of the molts mainly from 

 comparing specimens taken before and after the plumage has been 

 renewed. 



Male. — The young birds change the first plumage for that of the 

 first winter in July or August. This dress is as a rule scarcely differ- 

 ent from the first plumage. Some few individuals, however, show a 

 few black feathers on the throat. In February or March there is a 

 molt of the feathers of the head and throat, and all the males that reach 

 us from the south in the spring have a black throat, the extent and 

 purity of the black varying in different individuals. I have 

 no green males in the annual molt nor after the molt is completed. 

 One specimen (No. 91,034, U.S.Nat. Mus. Coll.), taken in Nicaragua, 

 Feb. 23, 1883, shows the throat and head to be molting. That this 

 bird is not in its first spring molt is shown by the fact that some old 

 throat feathers which have not yet been shed are black. The plum- 

 age of the second spring is similar to that of the first, but the black 

 throat is more complete and there are traces of chestnut on the breast. 

 The tail is also clouded with black, but as the specimen just referred 

 to is not molting the tail, I think that this change is effected at the 

 preceding annual molt. It is probably at the next annual molt that 

 10 



