1896.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 141 



of April to the middle of May, but none of the "wing feathers, not 

 even the tertials, are renewed at this time. Throughout the winter 

 and spring the white edgings to the tail and wing feathers are being 

 lost by abrasion, so that in the summer breeding dress the wings are 

 almost entirely black. The Goldfinch continues to have these two 

 molts every year throughout its life, and the molting specimens pre- 

 sent a very peculiar appearance in their mottled dress of brown and 

 yellow. 



Female. — The female has exactly the same number of molts and 

 plumages as the male. 



Spinus pinus (Wils.). Pine Siskin. 



Plumages, first, winter and breeding. 



So far as my material goes, there is indication of but one molt a 

 year in this species, i. e., the annual molt at the end of summer. 

 Some abrasion takes place during the winter and spring, by 

 which the buflf edgings to the feathers are lost and the mark- 

 ings are thus intensified in the breeding plumage and more 

 strongly coustrasted with the white of breast. The white edgings to 

 the wings are also lost by abrasion. A male taken Jan. 28th, 

 (Cape May, N. J.), has the feathers of the throat and breast very 

 much suffused with brown, so that the dark stripes are almost 

 obliterated. "Whether this is a peculiarity due to age or purely 

 individual I am unable to say. 



Plectrophenax nivalis (Linn.). Snow Bunting. 



3fale. — Plumages, first, winter and nuptial. 



In the series which I have examined I have not detected any con- 

 stant differences between the young of the year, and the adults. There 

 seems to be no spring molt in the Snow Bunting, but the remarkable 

 change from the winter to the nuptial dress is effected entirely by 

 abrasion, which probably is more marked in this species than in any 

 other. Furthermore, the abrasion is scarcely apparent until after 

 the middle of February .^^ 



Female. — Molts as in the male. 

 Poocsetes gramineus (Gmel.). Vesper Sparrow. 



Plumages, first, winter and nuptial. 



Molting exactly as in Melospiza fasciata which it so closely resem- 

 bles in plumage. Young of the year seem rather buffer than old 

 birds. 



^®See Stone, Science, 1893, p. 52; Chapman, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 

 1896, p. 9. 



