138 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



[1896. 



the chestnut and black plumage is acquired. It is impossible to tell 

 from an examination of spring males in the green plumage, how 

 many years they remain in this dress, as the individual variation in 

 the amount of change effected at a given molt is so great, that there 

 is a complete series of intergrades from one extreme to the other. 

 Between the most advanced specimen and the adult chestnut plum- 

 age, however, there is quite a gap, and I have never seen any spec- 

 imens like those figured by Wilson and Audubon. 



The variation in the marking of spring birds is shown by the 

 following table : 



The spring molt is generally confined to the head and throat but 

 in some second year birds it is more extensive and in one, (122,073, 

 U. S. Nat. Mus. Washington, D. C, May 2, 1887), the body molt 

 must have been nearly complete, while the tertials and indeed the 

 wing feathers show scarcely a trace of abrasion. Old chestnut 

 colored birds have the plumage, especially above, edged with buff, 

 which is lost by abrasion before the breeding season. 



Female. — Remains as the male in first winter. Spring specimens 

 differ in showing much abrasion but there is little if any spring 

 molt. 



Scolecophagus carolinus (Miill.). Rusty Blackbird. 



Male. — Plumages, first, winter and nuptial. 



Only one molt a year, the change from winter to nuptial dress is 

 effected entirely through abrasion. 



Female. — Molts as in the male. Adult plumage always gray 

 instead of black. I have seen no molting birds of either sex, but Dr. 

 J, A. Allen writes me that the young renew the flight feathers at 

 their first molt, as in the allied genera. 



