1896.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 149 



spring molt, that they present an almost unbroken series from one 

 extreme type of spring plumage to the other. It is, therefore, quite 

 impossible to do more than separate them into two groups, with 

 brown and black remiges respectively, the former representing one 

 year old birds, the latter those of more than one year.^" 



The remiges, I think, are only shed at the annual molt, as is the 

 rule in nearly all passerine birds. The brown wing feathers of the 

 fledgling are, therefore, retained until August of the next year. 

 I think they are all replaced by jet black feathers at this annual 

 molt. One spring specimen (1,029 Coll. W. Stone), it is true, 

 has one black feather in an otherwise brown wing, but this is 

 evidently an exception, and the black feather may have been as- 

 sumed in spring ; in any case, it can hardly be considered as evi- 

 dence that the brown wings are retained for more than one year. 

 Furthermore, all the brown-winged birds I have examined which 

 show the annual molt in progress, have new black feathers coming 

 in. 



The tertials, as usual, do not accord with the primaries and sec- 

 ondaries in the time of their molt. Birds in the first winter plum- 

 age (i. e., with brown wings) almost always molt the tertials with 

 the body feathers in spring, the new ones being jet black with white 

 spots. Two specimens before me, however, retained the old brown 

 tertials throughout the breeding season. An example of the other 

 extreme is a specimen (No. 501 Coll. W. Stone), a bird of the year, 

 shot in September, which has just completed the molt from the first 

 plumage to that of the first winter, has lost the brown tertials and 

 greater wing coverts and has a new set of black ones which still 

 have the embryonic sheaths adhering to the base of the quills. 



Old birds, as a rule, do not renew the tertials in spring, though 

 some of the most highly plumaged examples seem to have done so 

 In judging of the renewal of these tertials, I have based my opinion 

 on the condition of these feathers in spring specimens. In some 

 birds they are very much abraded so that the white spots appear to 

 have been cat away, while in others they are fresh and show no 

 abrasion at all (PI. V, figs. 7 and 8). The former I regard as 

 acquired at the previous annual molt and latter at the spring molt. 



^^ As already stated, the most perfect plumage may not necessarily denote 

 an old bird, but perhaps one of exceptional vitality. Though it is undoubt- 

 edly the fact that the successive plumages of an individual become more per- 

 fect, up to a certain point, at least, it is also quite likely that some individ- 

 uals never reach the so-called perfect plumage. 



