INDIGO BUNTING 91 



in this molt. There is no evidence to support the erroneous earlier 

 belief that the adult male indigo plumage is acquired by wear of 

 winter feathers without molt. Adult males undergoing this pre- 

 nuptial molt have been collected between December and May. 



The duration of the adult's postnuptial molt, though a complete 

 one, is incompletely understood because some individuals migrating 

 southward from the United States have completed the molt whereas 

 others observed in late autumn in Jamaica and Guatemala were 

 still molting. 



Dwight suggests that "the plumages and moults of the female 

 correspond to those of the male, the prenuptial moult, especially the 

 first, apparently lunited or sometimes suppressed." In both the 

 Juvenal and first winter plumages, females closely resemble males 

 but have little or no bluish tint on the lesser secondary coverts and 

 tail. "In fu-st nuptial plumage (which is in many cases apparently 

 the result of wear) a greenish tail and few greenish edged primaries 

 are assumed together with a few whitish feathers below." The 

 adult winter plumage is similar to the first winter plumage but the 

 underparts are less obviously streaked. We question Dwight's 

 assertion that "the adult nuptial [female] plumage is attained chiefly 

 by wear." 



Alexander Skutch wrote Mr. Bent as follows: "When they arrive in 

 Central America in the faU, the male indigo buntings display at most 

 scattered flecks of blue on their modest brown plumage. Gradually 

 during the winter months they acquire the indigo-colored nuptial 

 dress. As early as January 5 I have seen a male predominantly blue, 

 but still flecked with brown. During February many lose all the 

 brown contour feathers and seem to be in full breeding plumage. 

 But other individuals, probably young males, are still merely speckled 

 with blue when the northward movement begins in the latter part of 

 March; and some are still noticeably flecked with brown as late as the 

 end of April." 



Again referring to Guatemala birds, Ned Dearborn (1907) points 

 out that "By the middle of March adult males had about half of the 

 head and breast blue, the back and underparts being still in fall 

 plumage. Males taken in January had a few scattered blue feathers 

 both above and below. * * * Iris dark brown." 



G. M. Sutton (1935), studying Michigan birds, gives evidence 

 suggesting that the young start molting into the juvenal plumage when 

 about 16 days old and then undergo a postjuvenal molt in midsummer. 



Food. — This wide-ranging species has adapted itself to a diversified 

 diet. W. L. McAtee (1926) says, "Professor S. A. Forbes collected 18 

 specimens in an Illinois orchard infested by cankerworms and found 

 that all but one of the birds had fed on the worms, which formed 



