154 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1896. 



think there was at least a partial molt in spring. 



Family AMPELID^. 



Ampelis cedrorum (Vieill.). Cedar Waxwing. 



Plumages : first, winter, nuptial. 



Only one molt a year occurs in this species and but little effect is 

 produced by abrasion, except that the plumage becomes lighter, es- 

 pecially above. The molt is very late ; in a specimen taken Sept. 

 27, it has just begun while young birds molt the first plumage (?) 

 of the body in November as shown in specimens taken Nov. 2-22. 



Family HIRUNDINID^. 



The swallows exhibit certain peculiarities in their molt which 

 have already been described (p. 111). In addition to this they differ 

 from most Passerine species in having the first plumage better devel- 

 oped and more nearly like that of the adult. This plumage is generally 

 retained much longer than in most birds and the young of most of 

 our swallows seem to start on their migration with little or no molt 

 having taken place. Sharpe and Wyatt think that swallows molt 

 in their winter quarters, but in the case of Tachydneta and Chelidon 

 this is certainly an error and Dr. J. A. Allen^^ has shown that it is 

 equally erroneous in the case of Stelgidopteryx. Some individuals 

 probably start on their migration before the molt has begun. Cer- 

 tainly great quantities of swallows, mainly Tachydneta smd Chelidon, 

 congregate along the southern New Jersey coast in August, the 

 majority of which are surely migrants, and many of them are 

 molting. In the same way, molting Tachydneta occur in abundance 

 in the lower Delaware Valley in October, where there are none in 

 the summer. An adult Chelidon erythrog aster, taken at Philadel- 

 phia, Sept. 1, with the one described beyond, had just begun to molt 

 on the head, but showed no trace of shedding any flight feathers. 

 This bird would hardly have staid to molt, as this species is rarely 

 seen here after that date. 



Progne subis (Linn.). Purple Martin. 



The Martin apparently has no regular spring molt, but some 

 young males acquire scattered black feathers on the under parts at 

 this time. The complete steel-blue plumage is not acquired till the 

 end of the second summer (or perhaps the third ?). 



•" Auk, 1895, p. 37-1. 



