218 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 part i 



male Mrs. Downs saw an adult male feeding in Vermont the third 

 week in November. 



Plumages. — The natal down is white. The neossoptiles are on the 

 capital tract and on spinal, femoral, humeral, and alar tracts. Clifford 

 E. Hope (MS.) describes a nestling about 12 days old, taken in Algon- 

 quin Park, Ontario, on July 6, 1946: 



"Pin feathers of forehead, crown, occiput, and cervix 'clove brown' : 

 back 'olive': circle of whitish natal down above eye to nape: bare skin 

 side of neck and center of breast dark red : feathers side of breast shad- 

 ing from 'broccoli brown' to 'pinkish buff': scapulars 'olive': rump 

 covered with natal down. Wing: lesser coverts, sepia; middle coverts, 

 black, edged with pale gray, with some natal down protruding; great- 

 er coverts, black, edged with gray. Yellow and black feathers with 

 white shafts forming pattern on inner edge of greater coverts and 

 tertials : yellow mark on primaries and secondaries. Tail black : under- 

 tail coverts whitish. Down on tibia, over pale yellow and black 

 feathers." 



Mrs. Downs observes (MS): "the juvenals have a small yellowish 

 patch composed of the four inner secondary coverts, which I call a 

 birthmark because they lose it during their postjuvenal molts" The 

 postjuvenal molt is not complete until the juvenal is nearly a month 

 old. At 24 days a young male still had a small tuft of down above the 

 eyes on either side of the crown. 



Despite J. Dwight's (1900) statement: "The sexes are similar in 

 juvenal plumage," I have found that the fledgling male can be dis- 

 tinguished by its tail feathers; these are usually black when they break 

 from their sheaths and lack the series of white spots which characterize 

 the female rectrices. Also, the male's primaries are black, while the 

 female's are black and white, and the male has a prominent whitish 

 patch on the inner flight feathers which the female lacks. 



My notes contain the following description of a month old female. 

 Crown, occiput, nape, auriculars, and side neck, olive-gray. Upper 

 mandible, greenish gray; tip greenish. Lower mandible, pinkish, 

 dark gray at gape. Throat, pale gray, edged with dark malar stripes. 

 Back, olive-gray. Rump, olive-gray tinged with peach. Rectrices, 

 with series of white spots near tips. Undertail coverts, pinkish gi'ay. 

 Breast, hght gray washed with peach. Side and flank, gray tinged 

 with peach. Belly, gray, washed with pale peach; dark down ex- 

 posed in places. Wings: first three primaries at leading edge, black; 

 the remaining six edged with white and with yellowish patch forming 

 square on wing. Wrist with pale yeUow edge. Scapulars, olive 

 gray. Greater secondary coverts with patch of yellow on three 

 feathers, the rest black. Middle coverts, black, with light edgings. 



