142 BULLETIN 2 03, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



green ; middle and greater wing-coverts narrowly tipped with white ; 

 chin and upper throat pale yellowish ; lower throat, chest, sides, and 

 flanks plain light gray (intermediate between mouse gray and gray 

 no. 6) ; abdomen, anal region, and under tail-coverts white; remiges 

 and rectrices as in adults." 



A postjuvenal molt, involving all the contour plumage and the wing 

 coverts but not the rest of the wings or the tail, begins about the middle 

 of July. This produces a first winter plumage in which old and 

 young birds are very much alike and the sexes are recognizable. The 

 young male differs little from the adult male, but the bluish gray of 

 the upper parts is more heavily tinged with olive-green, the yellow 

 of tlie under parts is duller, and the dark throat band is more or less 

 obscured by yellowish tips on the feathers. The young female differs 

 from the adult female in a similar way and is without any brown 

 throat band. 



Dr. Dwight (1900) says that the first nuptial plumage is "acquired 

 by a partial prenuptial moult which involves chiefly the head, chin 

 and throat, but not the rest of the body plumage, the wings nor the 

 tail. The ashy blue crown feathers faintly dusky centrally, the black- 

 ish ones of the sides of the head with a white spot above and below 

 the eye and the yellow or chestnut-tinged chin feathers as far as the 

 pectoral band or farther are assumed by moult. Wear brings the 

 back into contrast with the nape and whitens the lower parts. The 

 wings and tail are browner and more worn than in the adult, especially 

 the primary coverts." 



A first postnuptial molt in July and early August, which is com- 

 plete, produces the fully adult plumage. Fall males are similar to 

 spring males, but the blue areas are more or less tipped with greenish 

 and the throat bands with yellowish. Fall females differ in the same 

 way from the spring birds, and there is little, if any, chestnut and 

 no blackish in the throat band. 



Subsequent molts and plumages are the same as described above for 

 the young birds. 



Charles C. Ay res, Jr., writes to me of a bird he observed near Ot- 

 tumwa, Iowa: "It was a typical parula warbler with the exception 

 that the blue-gray color extended over the throat and terminated 

 abruptly on the upper breast. Immediately below the termination 

 of the blue-gray color was the well-defined orange-brown breast band, 

 below which the rest of the breast was yellow." 



Food. — The parula warbler is almost wholly insectivorous. Its 

 food is mainly obtained in the deciduous trees, where it is often seen 

 among the branches and twigs or hanging downward under a cluster 

 of leaves or blossoms like a chickadee searching for small insects, 

 beetles, flies, moths, larvae, and egg clusters. Some flying insects are 



