42 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 past i 



much for the other male, 30 feet distant. He came and fed the 

 hungry birds, one at a time, then departed hastily. He repeated 

 this performance a number of times. 



Plumages. — H. Roy Ivor writes Taber of a nestling that hatched 

 in semicaptivity on July 5. Quills appeared on the wings on July 10. 

 On the 12th the breast quills were just showing and the tail quills 

 were quite perceptible. The primaries started brealdng into feathers 

 on the 13th. The inside of the mouth, red on that date, showed a 

 peculiar iridescent shade. The egg tooth had not yet dropped off. 

 On the 14th some down still remained. On the 17th the bird was 

 nearly fully feathered, but the forehead was still bare. Very fine 

 feathers appeared on the cheeks the following day. Feather growth 

 seemed to slow up on July 23. 



Dwight (1900) calls the natal down white and describes the juvenal 

 plumage as follows: 



Above, including sides of the head, olive-brown with cinnamon and whitish 

 edgings. Wings and tail darker, a white area at the base of the primaries, the 

 rectrices faintly buff tipped, the coverts edged with buff forming two nearly- 

 white wing bands. Below, pure white usually a few olive-brown streaks on 

 the sides of the chin and throat. Broad superciliary lines and central crown 

 stripe white, buffy tinged. The edge of the wing is of a pale rose-pink; under 

 wing coverts duller, salmon tinged. 



The first winter plumage is acquired by a partial molt, beginning 

 the middle of August and involving the contour plumage and the 

 wing coverts, but not the rest of the wings or the tail. He describes 

 the male as follows: 



Above, raw umber streaked with clove-brown darkest on the pileum which 

 has a central buff stripe, the feathers white at their bases. Below, ochraceous 

 buff, white on chin and abdomen, streaked on throat, breast and sides with 

 clove-brown; a geranium-pink area on the jugulum veiled with ochraceous buff. 

 Auriculars sepia bordered with clove-brown. Superciliary stripe and suborbital 

 region white, tinged with buff, the lores grayish buff. The under wing coverts 

 bright geranium-pink, those of the edge of the wing black spotted, the lesser 

 coverts or "shoulders" with a carmine tinge. Two wing bands buff. 



He says that the first nuptial plumage is acquired by a partial pre- 

 nuptial molt late in the winter, "which involves the body plumage, the 

 tertiaries, most of the wing coverts and the tail, leaving only the brown 

 and worn primaries, their coverts and the secondaries." Charlotte E. 

 Smith writes Austin that "Roberts (1955) mentions the great indi- 

 vidual variation in this plumage. Most males become much like full 

 adults, but in addition to the brown wings and tail there is often a 

 trace of the white line over the eye, and the feathers of the back, 

 crown, and rump show some brown or white. Some individuals have 

 a bright and well-defined rose breast patch, in others it is pale pink 



