DICKCISSEL 175 



the roosts feeding young in the most advanced stages of winter plum- 

 age. In this way the family groups retain their identity even after 

 the birds gather in large flocks before they migrate. 



The first and the adult nuptial plumages are acquired by a partial 

 prenuptial molt which involves the head, throat, and breast, but not 

 the rest of the body nor the remiges and rectrices. 



The adult male nuptial plumage has the top of the head, back and 

 sides of the neck, the lores and auriculars pale neutral gray; crown and 

 forehead tinged with olive ocher; an amber yellow line over the eye 

 becomes white posteriorly; back mouse gray tinged with cinnamon- 

 drab and streaked with black ; rump and tail coverts smoke gray with- 

 out streaks ; lesser and middle wing coverts cinnamon rufous ; edge of 

 wing empire yellow; secondaries, primaries, and rectrices fuscous and 

 narrowly edged with pale mouse gray ; malar stripe amber yellow an- 

 teriorly, broadening posteriorly into a white area on either side of a 

 black throat patch; chin white; breast wax yellow fading to pure white 

 on the belly and under tail coverts; mandibles dusky slate blue; 

 the legs and feet Front's brown; u'is dark brown. Males in nuptial 

 plumage collected June-July show a small black patch of variable size 

 near the middle of the yellow breast, and in all except one this spot is 

 completely separated from the black area of the throat. 



In the nuptial plumage of the adult female the upper parts are 

 similar to those of the male, but the gray is replaced by shades of 

 brown ; crown with fine black streaks and with very little yellow ; the 

 general coloration very much duller, especially the rufous of the wings 

 and the yellow of the breast, which are much reduced in amount as 

 compared with the male; in three specimens the rufous of the Avings is 

 practically absent, being instead gray and fuscous, the coverts being 

 fuscous with only a few of the feathers margined with cinnamon- 

 rufous; chin and throat white; pronounced black lateral chin stripes 

 bordering the maize-yellow malar stripes. In six females the black 

 throat patch, so conspicuous in the male, is entirely lacking, but one 

 adult female taken August 2 has a reduced patch of chaetura black 

 on the throat which connects on either side with the lateral throat 

 stripes. In all specimens the straw-yellow breast is finely streaked 

 with dark brown; flanks white, washed with avellaneous and finely 

 streaked with fuscous or brown; the primaries, secondaries, tail, bill, 

 and legs similar to those of the male. Females collected during the 

 late summer toward the close of the nesting season have very soiled 

 and worn plumage ; the barbs of the outer tail feathers of some August 

 females are completely worn off, leaving nothing but the naked shafts. 

 The plumage of the males is then only slightly worn, reflecting their 

 smaU part in the rearing of the brood. 



