372 BULLETIN 2 03, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



casional moth or caterpillar that is crushed and mixed with digestive 

 juices is fed directly. At first smaller and softer insects are doled 

 out; later, larger and tougher moths, caterpillars', crane-flies, and the 

 like are fed to them." Her notes show that the young were fed at 

 frequent intervals, often only one minute apart; sometimes the in- 

 tervals between feedings were from 5 to 8 minutes, and occasionally as 

 njuch as 12 minutes. 



The parent birds become quite excited when a nest with young is 

 approached, and are sometimes quite bold in their defense of their 

 young; A. D. Du Bois tells me of one that flew at his' face, coming 

 within two feet of it as he followed the escaping young; and both 

 parents kept near him, chirping and fluttering. 



Plumages. — ^Dr. Dwight (1900) describes the juvenal plumage, in 

 which the sexes are alike, as "above, dark raw umber-brown, ob- 

 scurely streaked on the back with dull black. Wings and tail dull 

 black, chiefly edged with ashy or plumbeous gray; the secondaries, 

 and tertiaries with olive-yellow, the coverts with buff forming two 

 wing bands yellow-tinged. Below, pale umber-brown, grayer on the 

 throat and sides of head, the abdomen and crissum dull white." 



The first winter plumage, in which the sexes begin to differentiate, is 

 acquired by a partial postnuptial molt, beginning late in June and 

 involving the contour plumage and the wing coverts, but not the rest 

 of the wings or the tail. Dr. Dwight (1900) describes the young 

 male in this plumage as "above, bright olive-yellow concealing black 

 spots on the back and rump, the upper tail coverts black, tipped with 

 cinereous gray and olive-yellow. The wing coverts black, edged with 

 olive-yellow, two broad wing bands canary-yellow mixed with white. 

 Below, grayish white, pearl-gray on sides of head, throat, breast and 

 flanks, a trace of chestnut striping the flanks terminating in a lemon- 

 j^ellow spot. Conspicuous white orbital ring." The young female is 

 similar, but the white below is duller, the sides are grayer, and the 

 chestnut stripes are lacking. 



The first nuptial plumage is acquired by a partial prenuptial molt 

 in late winter or early spring, that involves most of the contour plum- 

 age and the wing coverts, but not the rest of the wings or the tail. 

 Young and old birds are now indistinguishable, except for the browner 

 wings and tail of the young bird. The colors of the female are duller 

 and less intense than those of the male in this and in subsequent 

 plumages. 



Subsequent molts consist of a complete postnuptial molt in July and 

 August, and a partial prenuptial molt as in the young bird. Adult 

 females in the fall have some chestnut on the sides, but not so much 

 as the males. 



