60 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



plumage, but I doubt if it happens with any great degree of regular- 

 ity. With the exception of this one bird, all other ju venal specimens 

 examined are in the unfaded condition and are molting into the 

 subadult plumage. 



In the Juvenal plumage the tail is said to be unhanded (according 

 to Hartert), but one bird (U.S.N.M. 243613) has faint bands on the 

 central rectrices. However, as the rectrices become worn the finer 

 structures of the vanes (radii and cilia) are worn away, and distinct 

 dark crossbars appear on the feathers, these varying in pattern from 

 modified V and U shapes to nearly straight transverse bars. 



The postjuvenal molt is more or less irregular, but seems to begin 

 on the head and nape as early as anywhere and involves the upper 

 parts to a large degree before spreading to the under parts. ^ 



The next plumage may, for want of a better term, be called the 

 immature stage. This apparently exists in two phases which are 

 independent of sex or locality. Some birds molt into a plumage 

 similar to the juvenal type but with blacker remiges and somewhat 

 darker tails. Others become much darker all over, more or less uni- 

 form dark, dull earth-brown, except for the wings and tail. The 

 primaries are blackish or fuscous black narrowly tipped with whitish 

 and basally barred with whitish ; the secondaries dark grayish brown 

 irregularly banded with blackish and broadly tipped with whitish, 

 and the greater upper coverts also broadly tipped with white. The 

 rectrices are dark grayish with a browish tinge, irregularly barred 

 with blackish and tipped with white. Hartert * gives only this latter 

 plumage. This immature plumage seems to be worn for at least two 

 years and then is replaced by the subadult plumage. 



The subadult plumage is first indicated by the sporadic, irregular 

 replacement of the immature feathering by darker feathers. The 

 upper parts become very dark brown, but never uniformly so, as 

 by the time the last of the immature feathers are replaced, the first 

 of the adult ones are already grown, so that this plumage is appar- 

 ently worn only a short time. The lower throat and breast in this 

 plumage are quite different from the abdomen (which remains as it 

 was in the immature stage). The throat and breast are clothed 

 with dark brown feathers, each of which has a long rusty-brown or 

 pale earth-brown median stripe. As Hartert has pointed out, all 

 individuals do not seem to go through this plumage, but some molt 

 directly from the immature into the adult feathering. However, 

 of those individuals that go through this subadult stage there are 

 two tjrpes, depending on which immature phase is involved. If the 

 light phase is involved, the abdomen remains light tawny in this 



* Vogel. pal. Fauna, pp. 1095-1096. 



