RED-FACED WARBLER 607 



Plumages. — I have seen no small nestlings, but the fully grown 

 young bird in the juvenal plumage is very dull-looking, with no trace 

 of the red face. The upper parts, including the top and sides of the 

 head and the back are uniform sooty brown, sometimes browner on the 

 crown or more buffy on the nape ; the rump is white ; the wings and 

 tail are as in the adult, except that the middle and greater wing coverts 

 are tipped with buff, forming two narrow wing-bars ; the throat and 

 breast are brownish gray, becoming whitish on the abdomen. 



The postjuvenal molt begins in June; a specimen taken June 13 

 shows a few black feathers coming in the crown and a few red feathers 

 on the forehead, chin and sides of the neck. I have seen this molt in 

 progress on birds taken June 21 and July 6 and 9 ; and I have a bird in 

 my collection, taken July 13, that has completed the molt into the 

 first winter plumage. This molt apparently involves all the contour 

 plumage and the wing coverts, but not the rest of the wings or the 

 tail. The sexes are alike in the juvenal plumage. 



The first winter plumage is much like the winter plumage of the 

 adult of the same sex, but the plumages of the young birds are always 

 duller than those of the corresponding adults, the red being much 

 paler or inclining to flesh color, the nuchal patch tinged with buff 

 and the gray of the upper parts browner. We have no specimens 

 showing a prenuptial molt ; what specimens we have indicate that the 

 dull, first winter plumage is worn until the following July ; at least, 

 I have seen what were apparently one-year-old birds molting out of a 

 first winter plumage on June 27 and on July 9. If there is a partial 

 prenuptial molt, it must occur while the birds are in winter quarters, 

 and specimens from there are scarce. 



Adults have a complete postnuptial molt in June, July, and August ; 

 I have seen the beginning of it as early as June 10; Swarth (1904) 

 says it takes place in August. The June birds I have seen are all in 

 worn plumage, and the August birds I have examined are in fresh 

 plumage. In the fresh fall plumage the white of the nape, rump, and 

 under parts are often tinged with pink, which gradually fades or wears 

 away during the spring. 



Food. — Nothing seems to have been published on the food of the 

 red-faced warbler, which is probably largely, if not wholly, insec- 

 tivorous. Its method of feeding, as described under "Behavior," 

 indicates a diet similar to that of other wood warblers. 



Behavior. — H. W. Henshaw (1875) wrote in his notebook: 



While collecting in the early evening in the pine woods, a few angry chirps 

 coming from the thicli foliage of a spruce attracted my attention, and in a 

 moment a robin flew out in hot haste closely followed by a small bird, which 

 after a short chase returned, and with a few satisfied chirps called together 

 several young, whose presence I for the first time was thus made aware of. The 

 old bird immediately began to search for food, moving like a Chickadee over the 



