86 BULLETIN" 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



having grown in as yet. Judging by the relative development of 

 the Juvenal feathers, it seems that the wings, tail, and interscapulars 

 are the first to grow in, in approximately the order named. The 

 upper parts are darker in immature males than in females of corre- 

 sponding age. In juvenal birds the rectrices vary considerably. 

 Usually they are all banded, the light areas of the outer ones be- 

 coming darker and browner centripetally, but even the middle pair 

 are distinctly banded. One bird, however, (M.C.Z. 133210, Ndala, 

 near Tabora, Tanganyika Territory, A. Loveridge coll.) has the 

 middle pair fuscous black, entirely unhanded. 



The order in which the juvenal feathers are shed and replaced by 

 those of the adult plumage is quite different from that in which 

 they were first acquired. The post-juvenal molt begins in a rather 

 indefinite way, a few new, black-banded feathers on the thighs, and 

 upper tail coverts being the first indication of ecdysis. The molt 

 then spreads irregularly over the thighs, flanks, sides, abdomen, and 

 breast, involving only a few feathers in any one place. About this 

 time a few new feathers appear on the occiput and nape, then the 

 innermost primaries are shed. The molt then proceeds rapidly on 

 the top of the head, leaving a median stripe of juvenal feathers 

 unaffected. Upper wing coverts, scapulars, and a few rump feathers 

 begin to molt sporadically, and then all the body feathers begin to 

 molt rapidly and then the secondaries and the rectrices. When the 

 bird has practically assumed adult appearance the outer juvenal 

 primaries are replaced, thereby completing the molt. The adult 

 primaries are usually uniform fuscous, but not infrequently one 

 finds birds with these feathers more or less freckled or mottled with 

 grayish or grayish white. Birds in the southern Saharan region have 

 this freckling carried to the extreme, where the light spots are more 

 or less concentrated, giving the appearance of indefinite bars, suggest- 

 ing in some ways the primaries of the juvenal plumage. This is 

 the race newnanni. The secondaries, when fresh, are terminally 

 margined with white, but the white edges wear off, and their pres- 

 ence or absence seems to be a fairly reliable guide as to the age of 

 the plumage. 



Birds in first atlult plumage usually have quite a number of 

 brownish juvenal feathers on the back and interscapulars, mixed 

 among the slaty .blue-gray adult ones, and may be told in this way 

 from older individuals. 



Zedlitz ^ writes that he finds two very different types of immature 

 brown plumages in this bird, one much darker than the other, and 

 concludes that the darker is the real juvenal plumage and the lighter 

 an immature plumage acquired at the post-juvenal molt, and re- 



iJourii. f. Ornith., 1910, pp. 367-3G9. 



